Barbadian English idioms: Challenging linguistic norms in a diasporic context

Abstract

As a typical phenomenon affecting virtually all diaspora Englishes, also throughout the Anglophone Caribbean the centripetal forces leading to the recognition of a unified norm cohabit with the outward thrust of linguistic fragmentation – the latter encouraging the determination of territory-specific varieties of English, such as Barbadian. Bearing in mind the profound significance of phraseology for Caribbean and Barbadian English alike, this contribution aims to foreground the idiomatic features pertaining to the variety of English spoken in Barbados by means of a pilot study based on the New Register of Caribbean English Usage, from which seven culturally marked idioms are singled out and commented on. The conclusions reached by means of this metalexicographic investigation reveal that the phraseological specificities generated by Barbadians – mostly through the interplay of British English, Irish English and various West African languages from the seventeenth century onwards – evidence lexical metamorphoses which contribute to the forging of Barbadian identity, hence challenging the superimposed linguistic norms of the colonial era.