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Creoles at the intersection of variable processes: -t,d deletion and past-marking in the Jamaican mesolect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Peter L. Patrick
Peter L. Patrick
Affiliation:
Georgetown University
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Abstract

-t,d deletion is a well-known variable phonological process subject to the influence of both external social factors and internal structural constraints, including phonetic environmental and morphosyntactic effects. Its profile of variation has been widely investigated in American English dialects. However, it interacts with another grammatical process – the regular affixation of final /-t, -d/ as a past-tense marker – that strongly distinguishes these dialects from English-related creoles, where past-marking by this mechanism is infrequent or non-occurrent. Investigation of -t,d deletion in mesolectal Jamaican Creole (JC) thus raises important questions about the intersection of variable processes, the generality of phonetic environmental constraints, and the degree of difference between English-related creoles and metropolitan standard and non-standard Englishes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , July 1991 , pp. 171 - 189
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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