Barbadian English and Bajan Proverbs: A Selection of Entries from Forde’s De Mortar-Pestle

The focus of this dissertation is the use of proverbs in Barbadian English and Bajan. By looking at less-studied varieties of English and English-based contact languages, I came across Barbadian English and Bajan: after researching the studies conducted on this subject, I decided to analyse G. Addinton Forde’s (1987) glossary De Mortar-Pestle: A Collection of Barbadian Proverbs. Moreover, another reason that led me to deal with this theme was the interest in phraseological phenomena and their expected diversity in different varieties and languages. The main purpose of this investigation is the extraction of proverbs typical only of Barbadian English and Bajan from Forde’s glossary. As its glossary includes proverbs used in Barbados but not necessarily exclusive to Barbadian English or Bajan. Indeed, there are several proverbs that are also used in other Caribbean territories such as Tobago, Jamaica and Belize. This dissertation is divided into three chapters. The first chapter provides a description of Barbadian English and Bajan through a historical and social overview. This chapter also discusses the differences between Barbadian English and Bajan, the former being the variety of English employed in formal setting in Barbados, the latter being the English-based creole used in informal contexts throughout the island. The second chapter deals with the notion of proverb, that is a saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. This chapter also elaborates on the meanings, the uses and the applications of proverbs by means of examples. The third and final chapter examines Forde’s glossary: after a brief summary of the author’s life, this chapter focuses on the procedures adopted for the extraction of proverbs from the glossary itself. The findings, namely the selection of proverbs which exclusively belong to Barbadian English and Bajan, are summarised and listed in Table 1.