Rama Cay Creole
Encyclopedia
Rama Cay Creole is a Creole language
spoken by some 8-900 people on the island of Rama Cay
in eastern Nicaragua
. It is based on Miskito Coast Creole with additional elements of the Chibchan language Rama
and purportedly some elements of English spoken with a German
accent. The creolization of the language is supposed to have happened when Moravian missionaries who were native Germans but preached in English encouraged the Rama-speaking population of the island to shift to English.
Creole language
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
spoken by some 8-900 people on the island of Rama Cay
Rama Cay
Rama Cay is an island in the Bluefields Lagoon on the eastern coast of Nicaragua. During the 17th or 18th century, the more powerful Miskito awarded the island to the Rama people in recognition of their assistance in fighting off the Terraba Indians....
in eastern Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
. It is based on Miskito Coast Creole with additional elements of the Chibchan language Rama
Rama language
Rama is one of the indigenous languages of the Chibchan family spoken by the Rama people on the island of Rama Cay and south of lake Bluefields on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. Other indigenous languages of this region include Miskito and Sumu . Rama is one of the northernmost languages of the...
and purportedly some elements of English spoken with a German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
accent. The creolization of the language is supposed to have happened when Moravian missionaries who were native Germans but preached in English encouraged the Rama-speaking population of the island to shift to English.