Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online

In Bahamian Creole, variation appears to be less influenced by a speaker's social class than by his or her age and geographical background (cf. Features "Geographic variation: phonology", "Geographic variation: morphosyntax", "Geographic variation: lexicon", "Urban/rural variation: phonology", "Urban/rural variation: morphosyntax", "Urban/rural variation: lexicon"). It is true that competence in Standard English is more widespread among the higher social classes (education, of course, being the crucial parameter here), but the reverse is not true. According to Glinton-Meicholas (1995: 7-8), Bahamian Creole "is the variety of English the majority of Bahamians use daily as their main tongue, and which all of us understand. BD [i.e. Bahamian Dialect, which is what Bahamians themselves call the creole] at its most basic is the language of the marketplaces and the streets, but is used by the 'upper crust' when they want to 'identify' with their roots."

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