Dominicans with a Caribbean accent in English

Those guys not Dominican, they're haitian .

The two greatest influences on accent for Dominicans are firstly the television and secondly the teacher . I have never heard any Dominican speak english with a West Indian accent , they nearly all have a ghastly american accent with many errors . Haitians speak english normally much softer

Dominicanese said:

i'v noticed that some Dominicans (not all) speak English with a West Indian Accent and not like cubans and puerto ricans who (all of them) sound hispanic when speaking English, but some pure Dominicans speak English with an Hispanized-Caribbean English accent

samples (Dominican tour guide)
[video=youtube;z4cYIML3H1c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4cYIML3H1c[/video]

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i have heard just about every caribbean accent, on a prolonged basis. Dominicans who speak English sound nothing like any of the accents i have heard. maybe you could point out a specific accent which you think Dominican english resembles.

I am with the crowd here- Kipling333 and the gorgon.

In my experience, Dominicans that speak English don't sound West Indian. The ones that have somewhat of a command of English sound quite Americanized and that influence can be from where they learned English in general. Examples include television, family, friends and the influence from tourists. Those that have learned English formally either speak well and sound quite neutral or speak passable English but with a strong accent.

The second video is a reflection of the English that Dominican tour guides speak- most times incomprehensible, bad grammar (no concept of English grammar at all) and American sounding English. An example of a Dominican who is fluent in English but has noticeable hints of American sounding English is David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox. Whenever I listen to him, I find it interesting how he clearly is a Spanish speaker but has a decent command of English and sounds Americanized. Must be all those years in Boston.

I also noticed that Haitians and Dominicans (from Dominica) that speak English sound distinct. Notably from the Caribbean but do not sound like speakers from the English Caribbean (creole may have something to do with it)


My .02

-MP.

Marianopolita said:

I am with the crowd here- Kipling333 and the gorgon.

In my experience, Dominicans that speak English don't sound West Indian. The ones that have somewhat of a command of English sound quite Americanized and that influence can be from where they learned English in general. Examples include television, family, friends and the influence from tourists. Those that have learned English formally either speak well and sound quite neutral or speak passable English but with a strong accent.

The second video is a reflection of the English that Dominican tour guides speak- most times incomprehensible, bad grammar (no concept of English grammar at all) and American sounding English. An example of a Dominican who is fluent in English but has noticeable hints of American sounding English is David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox. Whenever I listen to him, I find it interesting how he clearly is a Spanish speaker but has a decent command of English and sounds Americanized. Must be all those years in Boston.

I also noticed that Haitians and Dominicans (from Dominica) that speak English sound distinct. Notably from the Caribbean but do not sound like speakers from the English Caribbean (creole may have something to do with it)


My .02

-MP.

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Dominicans who are formally trained in English have no specific way of speaking. the ones who learned informally, like those who picked it up in the tourist areas sound like a bunch of folks trying to be African American wannabes. as Marianoploita says, tv has a major part to play.

Been to a few Caribbean countries recently where the first language is Spanish but the older generations and still their families speak English / Patois among themselves. Parts of Nicaragua and parts of Panama spring to mind.
I talked to these guys about how it was they were talking in English and they said that their grandparents were brought there to work on various projects run by Americans and the English persists - not sure how this caused the strong West Indian accent - neither were they. Some of the older ones spoke less Spanish than I did and some none at all... sounded more Trinidadian than Jamaican but clear as a bell. Interesting stuff and a bit of a surprise....

Beenaway said:

Been to a few Caribbean countries recently where the first language is Spanish but the older generations and still their families speak English / Patois among themselves. Parts of Nicaragua and parts of Panama spring to mind.
I talked to these guys about how it was they were talking in English and they said that their grandparents were brought there to work on various projects run by Americans and the English persists - not sure how this caused the strong West Indian accent - neither were they. Some of the older ones spoke less Spanish than I did and some none at all... sounded more Trinidadian than Jamaican but clear as a bell. Interesting stuff and a bit of a surprise....

Click to expand...

Panama is crawling with the descendants of english speaking caribbean people, who went there to help build the canal. many ended up in Costa Rica by virtue of its proximity. if you watch territorial football tournaments, and look at the teams from Costa Rica and Panama, you will see that many of the players have spanish first names, and english surnames.

Panama still has several areas where they speak Patois such as Rio Abajo in Panama City as well as parts of Colon and off course Isla Colon and Isla Bastimentos in Bocas del Toro.

the gorgon said:

Panama is crawling with the descendants of english speaking caribbean people, who went there to help build the canal. many ended up in Costa Rica by virtue of its proximity. if you watch territorial football tournaments, and look at the teams from Costa Rica and Panama, you will see that many of the players have spanish first names, and english surnames.

Click to expand...

Right on point gorgon and I have Panamanian friends of West Indian descent and the topic always comes up when I go to Panama. Why it comes up is because we are all bilingual English/ Spanish and also love language. We are noticing how the second generation of Panamanians (meaning their grandparents are from either Barbados, Trinidad or Jamaica) has little to no knowledge of English. They are very English resistant. On the contrary, the first generation learned English from their parents who were new to Panama during the time of the building of the canal but their kids are Spanish speakers and the first generation does not speak much English to the second generation. This is a clear example of language gets lost from one generation to another and that did not take long.

Many years ago at work our company was being audited by Price Waterhouse and the auditor assigned to my department was a Black Costa Rican. I did not know that he was Costa Rican until after a few days. He said to me 'I am enjoying listening to you speak Spanish with your colleagues. I am Costa Rican' and I said why didn't you tell me and then he started speaking to me in Spanish as well. He said it is just so good being around me and my department of all Spanish speakers. If he did not tell me, I am not sure I would have realized that he spoke Spanish because his English was so good as well. He told me he was born and raised in Costa Rica and his parents are Jamaican.

-MP.

During the conquests of the Dominican republic by the Haitian, there was a movement by the Haitian government to Blacken the Dominican population by moving free black American slaves to Samana I don’t know if this are the decedents that you are posting about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saman%C3%A1_Americans

The pure Dominican population has already problems speaking Spanish

Jamaicans years ago were brought in to cut cane. Mostly in the area of SPM.