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For the most part, English speaking Caribbean accents sound extremely similar. You can hear more of a difference between the Spanish speaking Caribbean countries than the English speaking Caribbean accents.
For the most part, English speaking Caribbean accents sound extremely similar. You can hear more of a difference between Spanish speaking Caribbean countries than the English speaking ones.
That's probably because you're not used to hearing all three on a daily basis.
The Bajan accent, if anything, is defined by a glottal stop. For example, the word "butter" is pronounced buh-uh. It's almost two separate words like saying "Uh oh!" And there's a sharp inflection at the end of most words. Whereas an American would simply say "supermarket," a Bajan would say "soooopare(slight pause)mar-KETTE." The word gets very broken up and ends with a high intonation. You really don't hear any other West Indians pronounce the word this way. It's like speaking with a chronic case of the hiccups.
Trinis basically sing when they speak. Some people describe it as speaking in binary code. Russell Peters had a hilarious standup skit about this.
I can recognize Trini and Jamaican accents distinctly, and I particularly like the Trini accent. The Bajan accent I can tell is not Trini nor Jamaican, but I would not recognize it as Bajan if I heard it spoken to me.
I thought this piece on the Bajan accent was interesting.
Quote:
For English people, they sound a bit like people from the west of England. Combined with other features, this makes Bajan speech reminiscent of the popular stereotype of pirate talk.
I've never really made the connection between Bajans and Captain Jack Sparrow before. But when I think about it, Bajans do sound a bit like pirates. Funny.
And he's right about the pronunciation of Flight AA 88. Only it would sound like, "Fliiiigh eh, eh, eh, eh is direct from GrantLEIGH Adams to JFKAAY Airport in New York City."
The young lady who did the Bajan piece has been living in the states or a foreign for quite a while. Her accent is watered down. She does not sound like she was born and bred in Barbados but was raised in the states surrounded by speakers with a strong Bajan accent.
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