Bajan Accent (Barbados)

When we discussed this character, we may have been less specific about the Caribbean nation, but I found this Wiltshire police officer from Barbados who seems like a useful model. His name is Corie Mapp, and he’s got an interesting story.

MOUTH ɔ̽ʊ̯

The start of this diphthong is quite back and somewhat rounded. This could be perceived as a merger of MOUTH and GOAT vowels…but that would depend on your realization of GOAT ☺

In two thousand and nine… I found it very hard at first to figure out how to move forward stuff like my first shower, which I talk about in the book.

PRICE a̽ɪ̯

The centralized beginning of this diphthong distinguished Barbados accents from other Caribbean accents. It’s also quite close to the Swindon accent!

Threatening his life at the time. That kind of stuff, and I told him at that time to kind of try and get onto the high ground and try and kinda draw fire.

FACE e̝ɪ̯̽

This vowel can realized as a (nearly) monophthongal /e/ but when stressed it tends to begin in a more close position – nearly /i/ and then relaxing open.

So she became very emotional on a daily basis. We were very, very safe. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

GOAT oːə̯̆

This vowel is realized as a (nearly) monophthongal /o/ with a very brief relaxation at the end.

And they were so positive that I had no choice. And the coaches said “You know what, you’re a natural at this” and the story goes from there.

Rhoticity

We spent the entire lock down having never met each other or anything, recording everything. It was a weird experience.

Bajan English is, for the most part, rhotic. That is, with /r/ pronounced after vowels. This makes it similar to an older West Country accent.