Antillan Patois


 * Not to be confused with Antillean Creole, a French-based creole language spoken on neighbouring islands.

Antillan Patois, locally known simply as patois (patwa), is the national spoken vernacular of Antilla, used as the everyday language of most of the population. An English-based creole language with significant lexical influences as well as phonological and grammatical influences from West African (particularly Bantu) languages, Antillan Patois is also influenced to a lesser degree by French and Spanish. While functioning as the national spoken language, it is not taught formally, with all public schools and colleges exclusively using the national variety of standardised formal English in instruction, with the fewest patois features. Mass media and entertainment use different approaches depending on context, with printed media, television and radio news broadcasts, documentaries and plays generally using more formal language (closer to English), and TV shows, films and live entertainment generally using more colloquial language (closer to patois).

While Antillans learn "standard" English in school, they learn patois informally via social interaction. As most children develop speaking skills before the first year of school, Antillans speak and, by extension, think on a more "native" level in patois; in spite of their developing a generally equal proficiency in "standard" English, registers closer to patois remain for most Antillans the more familiar mode of communication, with the majority of adults displaying a clear preference for patois in leisure-centric, stress-free and objectively informal contexts and for "standard" English in more disciplined, demanding, high-pressure and objectively "professional" contexts.

Antillans are thus able to smoothly code switch between the most colloquial vernacular registers, the most formal registers and the multiple varieties in between, typically doing so on a subconscious level in response to social context. While a phonetic writing system using Latin letters was informally developed over a century ago by Antillan poets, writers and academics, most Antillans write using the English spelling rules they were taught as children, regardless of register, the advent of highly informal and colloquial written communication (as in SMS, email and social media) has resulted in an unprecedented growth in popularity of phonetic spelling. It is also increasingly common for certain public commutations to feature phonetic patois spellings alongside English.