Bequia Talk

Information about the language spoken on Bequia
(St Vincent and the Grenadines)

Like many places in the Caribbean, the island of Bequia has a rich social and linguistic history. The ways that people there talk today reflect differences in how different parts of the island were settled and developed over the past 250 years, and how much they interact with other speakers English.     Since 2003, we have been studying the way people on Bequia talk by working with local residents to record the speech of some of the older members of the community. We have a set of recordings from over 60 people, aged 40-100 years at the time of their recording, which form the basis of our ongoing work. As linguists, we look at details of grammar and pronunciation, but the recordings also provide a lot of interesting information about traditions, customs, local history and how life on the island is changing.     On this page, you can start to find out a little bit about the diversity of the way Bequians talk on the island. The map below highlights the main villages where our research assistants recorded members of their families and their friends. Clicking on each village takes you to a separate page where you can hear short samples of speakers from that village and find out more about its history and ways of talking.

Hamilton | Mount Pleasant | La Pompe | Paget Farm | Lower Bay

Popular links to Bequia: Bequia (Wikipedia) Bequia Tourism Board Bequia: The perfect Caribbean island?

Links to Bequia language research: Miriam Meyerhoff James A. Walker Agata Daleszynska

Thanks to ...

This project began in 2001, when Jack Sidnell first proposed to James Walker that they work together in investigating an interesting sociolinguistic situation in a small Caribbean island called Bequia. Jack then invited Miriam Meyerhoff to take part. Jack’s research interests have taken him in other directions, but we are very grateful to him for the original idea for the project and his academic and organizational contributions.

Various funding agencies have made this research possible:

• The United States National Science Foundation provided the initial funding for fieldwork and analysis.
• The Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada provided funding for transcription and analysis, as well as conference presentations and consultative trips.
• The British Academy provided funding for an extended stay in Bequia that allowed Miriam to continue the fieldwork.

Many people in Bequia and elsewhere helped us in countless ways:

• Vernette Olivierre, one of our first contacts and the key to recruiting local research assistants
• Sandra and Curtis Olivierre, who helped with recruiting local research assistants
• Mrs Taylor, who provided us with accommodation and gave Miriam the opportunity to engage in participant observation in her restaurant kitchen
• Brother King, who allowed Miriam to meet people by working part-time at the Old Hegg Sanctuary
• Charles (Dootzie) Lesley was encouraging and helpful with arcane queries about the island.
• Our sterling fieldworkers on Bequia: Ann Adams, Carlita Adams, Gaela Gooding, Janelle Lewis, Carlos Brinsley Ollivierre, Makella Ollivierre, Emmanuel Quashie, Ava Simmons, Kimlyn Spring, and Brad Snagg.
• The transcription and correction team in Toronto: Rhoda Dinardo, Maggie Heeney, Heather Ann Kaldeway, Aaron Kamugisha, Walter Lotje-Murr, Anitra Persad and Currel Thompson.

Most of all, we thank the people of Bequia for their time and for sharing with us their memories, opinions and stories!