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Despite unethical circumstances faced by LP speakers such as slavery and
segregation laws, the maltreatment and exclusion of the African people offered a unique
linguistic environment where the language of mekatelyu flourished and thrived for years.
To some speakers, mekatelyu is considered the language of migratory Africans before
integrating into Costa Rican society and learning Spanish. As previously noted,
Mekatelyu (let me tell you) is a daughter language of Jamaican Patwa. Both languages
feature significant influences from nonstandard varieties of British English, for example
through adopting the British vowel system and other unique pronunciations common to
British English speakers. In addition, as a result of many
Jamaican migrants’ family roots stemming mainly from the Western African country of
Ghana, a linguistic influence from the languages of Akan (from the Ashanti tribe
particularly) are still present in modern LP such as reduplication and certain lexical items
and phrases (Kouwenberg, 2003).
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewc...ntext=ltt_etds
segregation laws, the maltreatment and exclusion of the African people offered a unique
linguistic environment where the language of mekatelyu flourished and thrived for years.
To some speakers, mekatelyu is considered the language of migratory Africans before
integrating into Costa Rican society and learning Spanish. As previously noted,
Mekatelyu (let me tell you) is a daughter language of Jamaican Patwa. Both languages
feature significant influences from nonstandard varieties of British English, for example
through adopting the British vowel system and other unique pronunciations common to
British English speakers. In addition, as a result of many
Jamaican migrants’ family roots stemming mainly from the Western African country of
Ghana, a linguistic influence from the languages of Akan (from the Ashanti tribe
particularly) are still present in modern LP such as reduplication and certain lexical items
and phrases (Kouwenberg, 2003).
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewc...ntext=ltt_etds