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Variation in a secret creole language of Panama

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2009

Michael Aceto
Michael Aceto
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712
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Abstract

This article describes a secret language called “Gypsy” spoken in an English-derived creole speech community on the Caribbean island of Bastimentos in Panama. Data from this cryptolect are used as a means to examine language variation on the island. This article highlights the fact that a range of English-derived creole varieties exists in Bastimentos, lacking the effects of a lexically related metropolitan variety in the same geographical area. (Creole, cryptolect, Panama, secret language, speech play, variation)

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , September 1995 , pp. 537 - 560
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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