Bahamian Creole

Bahamian Creole (Bahamian Dialect, sometimes "Bahamianese") is the English-based creole vernacular of the Bahamas, spoken by ~400,000 people including the entire L1 native population. It descends from the same 17th-18th century Atlantic English-based creole as Jamaican Patois (jam), Belize Kriol (bzj), and Gullah (gcl), but with distinctive features reflecting Bahamian colonial history: extensive Loyalist/Tory English settler influence (post-American Revolution), African substrate from enslaved populations of various West African origins, and lighter Spanish and French maritime contact (less than other Caribbean creoles). Distinguished from Standard English by phonological features (rhotic shift, [θ]→[t]/[f], [ð]→[d]/[v]), grammatical features (zero copula, habitual aspect "does", unmarked plural), and vocabulary unique to Bahamian island life.