ABSTRACT
The language spoken by almost everyone in the West Indies is generally called 'Creole' by linguists, and 'patois' or 'dialect' by West Indians themselves. The linguistic situation in the West Indies can best be described in terms of a continuum with broad Creole at one end and standard English at the other. Each speaker will command a span of the continuum rather than simply occupying a point on it. Rural, working-class speakers will be nearer the Creole end of the continuum than urban, middle class speakers. Speech is also affected by situation so that more Creole features would be heard in conversations with family and friends than, for instance, in encounters with authority figures like teachers.
