Nicaraguan Creole/ Miskito Coastal Creole/Miskito Coast Creole English knowledge?

Morwen Edhelwen

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 7, 2011
Messages
733
Reaction score
17
Location
Sydney, Australia
(Why do I do this to myself? Ask very hard questions?) Basically, this question's for something I'm working on in fragments (by that I mean I'm typing one sentence whenever I feel like it and am not really working it on fully the way I am with the other one.) Namely, the dieselpunk thriller I was talking about, the one set in a banana republic (an alternate Nicaragua.) Anyway I need some resources listing words, sentence structures etc or even just plain knowledge, of Nicaraguan Creole English, as that's the language my male MC (the 13-year-old servant boy-turned-revolutionary) speaks. And it's a diary format (again, why do I do this to myself?) Can anyone help?

BTW, I already Googled "Miskito Creole English dictionary" and other similar search terms, but came up with nothing much. (And for some reason I really like to write 13-year-old protagonists.)BTW, according to Wikipedia on "Nicaraguan Creole English', "the language is almost identical to Belizean Kriol". But I don't know how identical. And that's where I need help.Don't want someone from Nicaragua sounding like they're from Jamaica or Belize.
 
Last edited:

backslashbaby

~~~~*~~~~
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
12,635
Reaction score
1,603
Location
NC
The closest thing I can think of that may help -- and it's a stretch -- is that the English-speaking culture around Limon in Costa Rica may be related. Costa Rica may have more English language sources than Nicaragua as well. Check their universities, maybe. Good luck :)
 

Morwen Edhelwen

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 7, 2011
Messages
733
Reaction score
17
Location
Sydney, Australia
What does this mean translated? Al unir dos frases nominales sí debe marcarse la cópula. I know it's talking about the copula- from Wikipedia - a word used to link the subject and predicate.
 

backslashbaby

~~~~*~~~~
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
12,635
Reaction score
1,603
Location
NC
I bet the dictionary would come in handy for vocabulary words you might want to include. It would depend on the word, I think.

For that sentence: Al unir dos frases nominales sí debe marcarse la cópula,
it is 'To unite two nominal phrases if marking (indicating) a copula.'

Except I'm not clear on what a copula is :ROFL: I think it's talking about how the yaad example uses both the de and the a.

c) de ante frases locativas.
Ej.:
nuora de a yaad (El de puede omitirse).
“Nora is at home”
Nora está en casa.
Al unir dos frases nominales sí debe marcarse la cópula.

You picked the most confusing sentence in there, lol :D Copula? I'm just not sure at all!

I'll try to parse all of #5 better when I have more time. Any help on the copula thing would be great, too.
 

Morwen Edhelwen

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 7, 2011
Messages
733
Reaction score
17
Location
Sydney, Australia
looked around on Google Books and found a book called Central American English. Seems like Nicaraguan Creole speakers use "me" instead of I, like some Jamaicans. The challenge would be how to write like that without sounding condescending.