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Trinidad & Tobago

English is the official language on Trinidad & Tobago. Besides Hindustani (spoken by the East Indian population), Spanish and Creole French, the majority of the inhabitants of Trinidad and Tobago speak a mesolectal Creole English. The dialects on the Islands are separated into Trinidadian and Tobagonian Creole English, the latter of which displays more basilectal features. Recently, there has been an increasing influence of North American and Jamaican English on these varieties.

Among the general features of Caribbean Creoles, there are the following: Caribbean Creoles have a syllable-timed rhythm, i.e. there is no schwa in unstressed syllables. This leads to the prominent “rapping rhythm” of these languages. Often, vowel distinctions are lost. The dental fricative (“th”) becomes an alveolar stop (/t/ or /d/). Furthermore, consonant clusters are simplified, and metathesis can take place (ask becomes aks).

Trinidad and Tobago

Official government site of Trinidad & Tobago

Gayelle TV (TV)

Newsday (Newspaper)

List of radio stations

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