BLACK ENGLISH

During the early years of American settlement, a highly distinctive form of English was beginning to develop in the islands of the West Indies and the southern part of the mainland, spoken by the incoming black population. The beginning of the seventeenth century saw the emergence of the slave trade. Ships from Europe travelled to the West African coast, where they exchanged cheap goods for black slaves. The slaves were shipped in barbarous conditions to the Caribbean islands and the American coast, where they were in turn exchanged for such commodities as sugar, rum, and molasses. The ships then returned to England, completing an 'Atlantic triangle' of journeys, and the process began again. Britain and the United States had outlawed the stave trade by 1865, but by that time, nearly 200 years of trading had taken place. By the middle of the nineteenth century, there were over four million black slaves in America.

The policy of the slave-traders was to bring people of different language backgrounds together in the ships, to make it difficult for groups to plot rebellion. The result was the growth of several pidgin forms of communication, and in particular a pidgin between the slaves and the sailors, many of whom spoke English. Once arrived in the Caribbean, this pidgin English continued to act as a major means of communication between the black population and the new landowners, and among the blacks themselves. Then, when children came to be born, the pidgin became their mother tongue, thus producing the first black Creole speech in the region. This Creole English rapidly came to be used throughout the cotton plantations, and in the coastal towns and islands. Similarly, creolized forms of French, Spanish and Portuguese emerged in and around the Caribbean.

QUESTIONS

1. Match the following words with the suitable definition or synonym.

emergence

trade

rum

molasses

outlaw

growth

landowner

	Proprietor, farmer.
	Declare somebody to be punished or considered a criminal.
	Development.
	Exchange tools or services for money or other goods
	Strong alcoholic drink.

2. Answer the following questions according to the text.

a. When did the slave trade begin?

b. When was the slave trade forbidden in the USA?

c. Why did the pidgins emerge?

d. What kind of job did the slaves have?

3. Put the verbs in brackets into the Simple Past or Past Continuous.

a. Zoë (come) _______________________ round in her car and they (drive) _______________________ to the tennis courts.

b. Two other people (use) _______________________ their court when they (arrive) _______________________.

c. They (buy) _______________________ ice-creams while they (wait) _______________________ to play.

4. Complete the text using the Present Continuous or the Present Simple.

I (go) _______________________ London next Thursday. “Burning Spear”, my favourite reggae band, (give) _______________________ a concert at Wembley. I (go) _______________________ with Beth. We (not go) _______________________ by train; it is much cheaper by coach. The coach (leave) _______________________ Plymouth at 12.30 p.m.

5. Composition. Write 80 words about the following subject: What kind of job would you like to have in the future?