What Spanish dialects in Trinidad is this article about?

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Obviously this article isn't about the speech of recent Venezuelan immigrants, but there are/were three different Spanish-speaking groups in Trinidad: (some?) Caribs, Panyols (descendants of Venezuelan peon immigrants), and descendants of Spanish-speaking African slaves. @Benito97: do you know if there's been a lot of contact between the different groups? Also, do you plan on adding info on the Spanish of groups besides the Panyols? Erinius (talk) 16:53, 7 January 2023 (UTC)Reply

Hi @Erinius,
Thank you for reading the article, and this comment.
From what I can gather from the research, each have influenced the spoken language but since no standard Spanish existed in the country, its hard to tell if there was an assimalation to what my grandfather calls simply 'panyol' or there are/were pockets of distinct speakers. Also, often, the informal label of Panyol is often fluid enough to include all of these groups, which in itself can cause confusion.
The linked paper on Afro-hispanic Language by John Lipski is the best place for more information there.
I would like to add two related sections in the future:
- Trilingualism among Spanish Speakers - based on a chapter Sylvia Moodie-Kublalsingh's book Cocoa Panyols, which discusses Patwa, English and Spanish's use in rural communities (which included L2 trinidadian spanish speakers).
- Perception of Spanish as a foreign language - although I will need to see if more research has been completed in this area.
I will first need to do more reading however.
Thanks again and any input is more than welcome.
Benito Benito97 (talk) 12:31, 8 January 2023 (UTC)Reply
Thanks for the response. Seems like there may have been dialect contact and levelling between the three groups, but it's not clear. Erinius (talk) 19:09, 8 January 2023 (UTC)Reply