Twentieth century developments

One further fact that distinguished Trinidad from Tobago linguistically, apart from ethno-historical difference, was the faster spread of education through urbanization in the former. Both islands witnessed the spread of primary education through Canadian missionaries from 1868 since they focussed on rural areas in both territories initially. In the long term, rural areas in Tobago remained more resistant to education because of the need for children to be employed in estate work, such that there was an earlier trend towards Standard English in the urban rather than rural environments. More schools were built in Trinidad than in Tobago as part of a government policy which underdeveloped the smaller island in relation to the larger. It is true, however, that, from the 1960s, parents in Tobago insisted that their children go to school at all cost. Prime Minister Eric Williams, who came to power in 1956, decreed that “the future of the children” lay “in their schoolbags” and this focus determined a shift from the land by the new generation. Unfortunately there was not the level of infrastructural and economic development to provide employment for these newly educated youngsters in Tobago, however.

Today the two islands share a mesolectal English-lexicon creole, which is alike in most particulars. Since the Creole was officially recognized as a language variety in its own right from 1975, it has been more used by teachers in schools, and contexts for monolingual Standard production are declining. The mesolect has become increasingly shared because of continuous movement between Tobago and Trinidad, the upsurge in education across the board, and especially because of Tobagonian migration to Trinidad as the territory offering greater opportunities for training, employment and other benefits.

A common factor in both territories are both North American and Jamaican influences, which manifest particularly among radio announcers and teenagers. Solomon (1993: 167-8) comments that, like most imitations, the changes towards American English in phonology are not consistently maintained, and this is also true for Jamaican.

Increased status for the creole and an identification with it as the language of the territory have made for greater use of it in public contexts, such as parliament; motivation towards a pure Standard is disappearing since most people balance out their use of standard and creole in relation to the demands of each situation. If StE is the language of power, TrnC is the language of solidarity, and appropriate language use necessarily entails balancing the two varieties.

In a study focussed on the village of Bethel in Tobago, Youssef (2001) found that the oldest and least educated informants still spoke largely the basilect, with shifts to the lower mesolect in public contexts. Retired professionals spoke both the acrolect and the basilect and had negative views of the mesolect as a mixed unstable variety. Young people, in contrast, spoke more mesolect, although they commanded the basilect; some disdained the acrolect, and all showed a measure of identification with the mesolect and specific features within it particularly characterized that group. These kinds of complex interaction demand further investigation.