The phonology of Bahamian English

We will describe some of the phonological features of Bahamian English. Although most Bahamians share some characteristic features, a number of structures are sensitive to ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic factors. In addition, there is a basilectal-acrolectal continuum with respect to creole features that applies primarily to the Afro-Bahamian population; however, this dimension tends to be more relevant to the grammatical description of Bahamian English than to phonology. Our description is presented in terms of the major categories of vowels, consonants, and prosodic elements.