Saint Kitts Creole

Saint Kitts Creole is a variety of Antiguan and Barbudan Creole spoken in Saint Kitts and Nevis by around 40,000 people but is not its country’s official language.

The history of Saint Kitts Creole is similar to that of other English Caribbean creoles. In the 17th century, enslaved West Africans in Saint Kitts had to learn British English quickly because their labour on sugar plantations required it. Their English was mixed with West African words and, in some cases, West African language structure. The French, who occupied the island 1625-1713, had only a small impact on the language, unlike in the formerly French islands of Dominica and Saint Lucia, which speak a French-based rather than English-based creole.

Saint Kitts Creole today is spoken on the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis (although Nevisians refer to the language as "Nevisian" or "Nevis creole"), especially in Capesterre (Christ Church Nichola Town, Cayon) and Nevis. Today’s creole uses more Standard English than before, possibly due to access to foreign media. Rural residents are generally the strongest creole users, although the majority of the population uses mesolectal forms of the language. To the uninitiated, creole speakers may sound Jamaican, but Jamaican patois has no influence on Saint Kitts and Nevis creole. Saint Kitts pronunciation is similar to the pronunciation on the neighbouring Antigua and Montserrat but with slight differences that are mostly noticeable only to residents of the Leeward Islands.