Bemé

Bemé
Poccasin Creole, Poccasin Pidgin, Poccasinese
bemeh, bemetak, kriyal
Pronunciation	[bemɛ]
Created by	Jukethatbox
Date	2025
Native to	Poccasin Archipelago
Ethnicity	Various
Native speakers	15 million (2025)
Language family	Poccasin English Bemé
Standard form	Tak Bemeh
Dialects	Kasimbo Bemeh Kriyal Bemeh Agrow Bemeh
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Official language in	Poccasin Federation
Regulated by	Tak eh Bemeh!

Bemé (/bəˈmeɪ̯/ buh-MAY; bemeh, pronounced [bemɛ]), also called Poccasin Creole, Poccasin Pidgin and Poccasinese, is an English creole and pidgin language spoken in the Poccasin Archipelago. It is widely spoken as a first language in Cassim Po and is by far the predominantly spoken language in many other urban areas in the Poccasins, but elsewhere in the archipelago it only holds pidgin language status, exclusively used to communicate between people of separate ethnicites; as such, it is not used at home in most of these areas.

Despite this varying status, Bemé is by far the most spoken language of the Poccasin Archipelago with around 15 million speakers as of 2025; native speakers with Bemé as their mother tongue, primarily inhabiting Cassim Po, number around 14,565. This high amount of speakers can be mostly attributed to two factors: extensive British and later American colonisation, as well as widespread teaching of the language. Bemé is an official language and designated lingua franca of the Poccasin Federation, ensuring its continuous widespread usage after independence.

Etymology

The name Bemé is derived from the Kabao phrase beme po kasin [ˈbeme pɔ ˈkɑsin], literally meaning "nation of the red mountain", it is also the origin of the English exonym Poccasin and Poccasinese.

Beme vs Bemé

The words Beme and Bemé, both derived from Kabao beme, mean two distinct things in English. Beme, (/ˈbɛmeɪ̯/ or /ˈbɛmiː/, BEH-may or BEH-mee) without the accent, is the widely used endonym of citizens of the Poccasin Federation; in the Poccasins specifically, bemeh in this context is mostly used to refer to the Poccasin federative government, akin to referring to the British government as simply "Westminster".

In contrast, Bemé, (/bəˈmeɪ̯/ buh-MAY) with an accent, is exclusively used in English to refer to the Bemé language. However, in Bemé itself, both bemeh "nation" and bemeh "Bemé" are homophones and homonyms, and their differing meanings is only discerned by context, such as:

Yu bemeh wan, yu deh bi dan, ena grown bela sky.

"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven." (Matthew 6:10)

versus

Spik bemeh gudgud la?

"Do you speak Bemé very well?"

However, in recent years, some internet users have, through hypercorrection, started orthographically distinguishing the two meanings by capitalising bemeh "Bemé" as Bemeh or in some cases BEMEH, as is common in many indigenous languages of the Poccasins. However, this is generally considered non-standard.

Kriyal

Kriyal ([kɹijal], [tɹijal] or [t͡ʃɹijal]) is a less commonly used term, and is derived from its status as an English-based creole language. Although originally referring to the entire language in the same manner as Bemé/Bemeh, nowadays it is mostly used to refer to basilectal varieties of the language, though older speakers may still refer to the language as kriyal.

Creole continuum

Bemé incorporates a creole continuum, consisting of an acrolect, often called tak(from "talk") or bemetak to distinguish it from the language as a whole, while basilectal levels of the continuum are called kriyal(from "Creole").

Tak vs kriyal

Unlike other creole continua such as that of Jamaican Patois, Bemé speakers do not consider the continuum to have mesolectal levels, instead distinguishing between acrolectal tak and basilectal kriyal. Tak is often described as the official government Bemé, used on street signs, government buildings and in most Bemé literature, while kriyal is often described as the vernacular forms of Bemé spoken outside of the contexts of Tak. For example, the vernacular Bemé of young people can be considered kriyal; but the use of Bemé by older, illiterate speakers may also be considered kriyal.

However, a key difference between older and younger speakers is the presence of code-switching; younger speakers are much more likely to be adept at code-switching between tak and kriyal depending on context, as opposed to older, traditionally less educated speakers who can't code-switch and as such whose speech may be permanently considered kriyal. This factor has been considered one of many causes of ageism in the Poccasin workforce, where older job applicants who exclusively speak in what is considered kriyal may be discriminated against compared to younger job applicants who are capable of speaking in more formal tak.

Orthography

Consonants Bemé orthography IPA Examples English approximation b b bemeh bow ch t͡ʃ chena China d d dan done g g gud good gr gɹ~d͡ʒɹ agrow grill or drink h h (initial) hampo ham ʔ (medial) jihad uh-oh j d͡ʒ jamis jeans k k kaneh king kr kɹ~tɹ~t͡ʃɹ kriyal krill or tree l l kolo lid m m madeh mother n n dan pini nice ng ŋ kring swimming ny ɲ snyek canyon p p dan pini spin r ɹ ridem rhythm s s sebis service sh ʃ shik shine t t titrink tea w w wan want y j yu you z z mazik zoo

Vowels Bemé orthography IPA Examples English approximation a a jamis trap e e bemeh may eh ɛ bemeh bed i i bi eat o o kolo yawn u u yu hook Diphthongs Bemé orthography IPA Examples English approximation y ei̯ sky may oi oi̯ woiwoi joy ow ou̯ grown bow

The distinction between /kr tr t͡ʃr/, as well as between /gr d͡ʒr/, has been historically neutralised, leading to a varying pronunciation:

• ⟨kr⟩ may be heard as /tɹ kɹ t͡ʃɹ/;
• The approximant may be devoiced, leaving /tɹ̥ kɹ̥ t͡ʃɹ̥/;
• In the most basilectal(Kriyal) varieties, the stop may be simply strongly aspirated, leaving /tʰː kʰː t͡ʃʰː/;
• The realisation may be aspirated retroflex /ʈʰ/, and similarly affricated to /ʈ͡ʂ ʈ͡ʂʰ/.

The pronunciation of ⟨gr⟩ is less variable; there still exists a distinction between /gr~d͡ʒr/ and /dr/, though /dr/ is extremely rare and only exists in certain words, such as grag "stop (v.)" and drag "drag queen".

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Alveolo-palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	t͡ʃ	k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ	g
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Fricative			s	ʃ		h
Approximant	semivowel	w	ɹ	j
	lateral		l

Unlike in English, /ŋ/ can appear in onset positions, such as in ngos "nose". Onset /ŋ/ can also appear in free variation with onset /n/ in kriyal/basilectal varieties, so words like nani "old lady, nanny" may become ngani. The palatal nasal /ɲ/ usually occurs when differentiating between words that would be homophones in standard English, e.g. nap vs knap, which in Bemé became nap "rest (v.)" and nyap "punch (v.)".

Vowels

		Front	Back
Close		i	u
Mid	Close-mid	e	o
	Open-mid	(ɛ)
Open		a

There are only three possible diphthongs in Bemé: /ei̯ oi̯ ou̯/, written ⟨y, oi, ow⟩ respectively. However, although these diphthongs may roughly match with similar English diphthongs /eɪ̯ oɪ̯ oʊ̯/, these diphthongs rarely match; diphthongs in general are rare in Bemé, but even with words derived from English words with diphthongs, the diphthongs are often replaced with monophthongs, e.g. shek [ʃek], compared to English shake /ˈʃeɪ̯k/. In kriyal varieties diphthongs may be entirely replaced by monophthongs, so words like sky [skei̯] become skeh [skɛ].

/ɛ/ only appears in word-final open syllables; elsewhere, /ɛ/ is neutralised with /e/. However, there is a tendency of native speakers in Cassim Po to shift initial /e/ to /ɛ/, leading to alternative spellings such as ehnga(standard enga / nga "or") which break Bemé orthographic rules. In other dialects, /ɛ/ may be neutralised with /e/ in all positions, leading to pronunciations such as /beme/ or /bɛmɛ/ for bemeh "Bemé".