Turks and Caicos Creole

Turks and Caicos Creole, or Turks and Caicos Patwah, 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 is a dialect of Jamaican Patwah which shares many of the same words such as Aks (Ask), Dis (This), Gyal (Girl), and Mosi (Must be);^[2] which is due to the fact that the Turks and Caicos Islands were formally a part of Jamaica for over 114 years (1848 - 1962), and shares a common history and culture with Jamaica.^[3][4][5] Turks and Caicos Patwah has also been significantly influenced by Bermudian Creole English, as the islands were initially settled by Bermudian salt-rakers following the Taíno genocide and British colonization, and were a de facto part of Bermuda for over 126 years (1673 - 1799).^[6][7] The language is also reportedly mutually intelligible with Bahamian Creole and as of (2023) the number of speakers of Turks and Caicos Patwah is approximately 49,309.^[8][9]

^{[12][13][14][15]}

(Shared: Turks & Caicos / Jamaican Patwah) *

(Shared: Turks & Caicos / Bermudian Patwah) **

• Jamaican Patois
• Bermudian Creole English
• Cayman Islands Creole English
• San Andrés–Providencia Creole

• Cassidy, Frederic G. (2007). Jamaica Talk: Three Hundred Years of the English Language in Jamaica. Kingston: University Press of the West Indies. ISBN 978-9-7664017-0-2.
• Cassidy, F. G., Le Page, R. B. (2009). Dictionary of Jamaican English (Second ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-5211184-0-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Chang, Larry (2014). Biesik Jumiekan: Introduction to Jamaican Language. Washington DC: Gnosophia Publishers (Chuu Wod imprint). ISBN 978-0-9773391-8-1.
• Cutler, Cecilia (2003). English in the Turks and Caicos Islands: A look at Grand Turk. In Contact Englishes of the Eastern Caribbean: G30 (Varieties of English Around the World). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 97-8-90272489-0-9.

Turks and Caicos Creole test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator