The Caribbean Multilingual Lexicography Project

Abstract

This article will give an overview of the compilation process of a Caribbean Multilingual Dictionary by describing the work of the Caribbean Multilingual Lexicography Project at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill. The work involved, namely, the compilation of the first volume of the Caribbean Multilingual Dictionary (CMD) of Flora, Fauna and Foods (in English, French, French Creole and Spanish) is deemed to be pertinent to the development of research skills in the field of dictionary-making and provides insights into some of the problems faced by the Caribbean multilingual dictionary-maker in the chronicling of the Caribbean environment. In addition, the article also lists the wide range of users at which the CMD is aimed and illustrates its value to Caribbean systems, such as the regional education system, sectors such as the private enterprise, trade and tourism sectors and individual researchers as well as the general Caribbean public, the Caribbean diaspora in North America and Britain, and the French- and Spanish-speaking countries of the European Union.

Lexical variation in Caribbean English

“…Being specific for a certain area of the Caribbean Anglophone, allonyms are of interest to contact-induced language variation studies because they reflect the character of language ecology, the manifoldness of language and cognition dynamics. The phenomenon of allonymy in Caribbean English has already been studied in lexicographic Allsopp & Allsopp (2003); Allsopp (2004) and cultural perspectives (Tomei, 2008;Masiola & Tomei, 2016). In our previous works Bespala (2010); Bespala & Kozlova (2018), allonyms were discussed in the general framework of Caribbean English language worldview.…”

“…This relatively small and geographically isolated region is marked with a unique political, social, cultural and linguistic history that led to specific language ecology. The Caribbean was "divided by language differences brought about both by its colonial past and the rivalry between the European powers who colonized and settled the region over three centuries" (Allsopp, 2004). The development of English in the Caribbean has been significantly influenced by contacts with indigenous Amerindian languages and the West African languages brought by displaced African communities due to slavery.…”