Turks and Caicos Creole

Turks and Caicos Creole
Native to	Turks and Caicos Islands
Native speakers	34,000 (2019)[1]
Language family	English Creole Atlantic Eastern Northern Turks and Caicos Creole
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tch
Glottolog	turk1310
Linguasphere	52-ABB-ao

Turks and Caicos Creole is an English-based creole spoken in the Turks and Caicos Islands, a West Indian British overseas territory in the Lucayan Archipelago.

The Turks and Caicos Island Creole variety has not been thoroughly studied but may be directly related to Jamaican Patois as the Turks and Caicos Islands were formally a part of Jamaica for over 114 years (1848 - 1962), and also to Bahamian Creole as the two are reportedly highly mutually intelligible. As of 1995, the number of speakers of Turks and Caicos Islands Creole is around 10,700,^[2] although decreasing and endangered. It seems to be shifting to a variety form of Caribbean English. Turks and Caicos Islands Creole does not have an official status.

Phrases

Word/phrase	Meaning
switcha/switcher	Lemonade/limeade (combination of soft drink and lime/lemon juice)
gal/gyal	Girl
chile/chilen	child/children
chile	Used to represent emphasis on a sentence (well chile he een tell me nuttin bout that)
een	aren't (They een goin today) or isn't (That een right) or don't (I een no nuttin bout that)
vel	well (usually the 'W' and 'V' are exchanged with each other, e.g. vednesday: Wednesday, weil: veil)
axe	ask
musse	must be
scorch	scratch
jumbee	spirit or ghost. Compare zombie

References

1. Turks and Caicos Creole at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Ethnologue report for Turks and Caicos Creole English

• Cutler, Cecilia (2003). "English in the Turks and Caicos Islands: A look at Grand Turk". Contact Englishes of the Eastern Caribbean (Varieties of English Around the World) G30, Edited by Michael Aceto, Jeffrey Payne Williams. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 9789027248909.