11 1. Introduction 2,000 slaves per annum, a figure which would rise to over 8,000 per annum by the last thirty years of the British slave trade” (ibidem). As Amy Johnson states: [s]lave ships arrived in Jamaica having collected captives from many regions of Africa resulting in a diverse African population on the island. On a single voyage, slaving vessels often touched at multiple ports along the West African coast from present day Senegal to the Western Central region of Congo. (2012: 4) It is highly probable that this period (1660–1700) constituted the time of formation and ultimate stabilization of Jamaican Creole, although there are no written records, as Lalla and D’Costa state: “[n]o seventeenth-century texts have been found to confirm or disprove this hypothesis, however, and regrettably, no descriptions of seventeenth-century Jamaican speech behavior have been uncovered” (1990: 16). What is certain, however, is the fact that among the immigrants, speakers of West African languages and speakers of different dialects from across England prevailed. There were also many other newcomers speaking various dialects and languages, however, none had such an immense impact as these two. Throughout the many years of contact between West African slaves and the British overseers, a new language that would be intelligible to both parties came into being.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE5NDY5MQ==