Yokohama Creole
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| Yokohama Creole | |
|---|---|
| Yokohama Pidgin | |
| Hama toak / Hama tawk / Hamm' tawk / Hama talk | |
.jpg) Yokohama, where Yokohama Creole is native | |
| Created by | Jukethatbox |
| Date | 2026 |
| Native speakers | 3.7 million (2026) |
English creole
| |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Yokohama International Territory (vernacular) |
Yokohama Creole or Yokohama Pidgin is an English-based creole language heavily mixed with Japanese, as well as some Korean and Okinawan, spoken by the Yokohama Creoles of the Yokohama International Territory. It is the most spoken language in Yokohama, and the first language of most Yokohamans. It is one of two major creole languages spoken in the Japanese archipelago, alongside Cheenah spoken on the island of Okinawa.
Despite its name, Yokohama Creole does not have its origins in Yokohama Pidgin English (YPE), a pidgin or pre-pidgin language of the 19th century, but instead developed independently in the 20th century during the American occupation of Japan. During this occupation, many American soldiers of different races were stationed in Yokohama and Okinawa, two important bases to the Americans, and many eventually settled there and started families with the local Japanese; by 1960, this influx of Americans into Yokohama had so drastically changed the demographics of the city that a new culture and ethnicity reflecting this ethnic mixture, the Yokohama Creoles, emerged, with their own English-based creole language along with it. Although this initial creole language was said to be similar to Bamboo English, a further influx of low-income Japanese workers especially in the suburban areas of the city eventually led the language to become much more distinct from English or Japanese. The 1970 Treaty of San Francisco, which formally delineated the borders of the Yokohama International Territory, also further cemented the Yokohama Creole identity by making it harder for mainland Japanese to replace this new group through migration.
Phonology
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a | ||
All vowels in Yokohama Creole are distinguished by length.
/u/ is variable between central and back realisations depending on speaker, though it tends to be back in the vowel sequence /uu/ as in /buut/ "boot".
/i/ also appears in the sequence /ii/ and /ai/, though /ei/ merges with /ee/, so "bait" is /beet/ instead of /beit/.
/e/ and /o/ are typically mid or close-mid, though noticeably become more open before nasals, so /dem/ "they/them" becomes [dɛm] and /omrais/ "omurice" becoming [ɔmɹais].
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | (ŋ) | |
| Stop | p b | t d | c ɟ | k g | |
| Affricate | ts (dz) | tʃ dʒ | |||
| Fricative | f v | s z | ʃ (ʒ) | h | |
| Approximant | w | l~r | j |
/r/ is usually alveolar approximant /ɹ/, though, similarly to Puerto Rican Spanish, coda /r/ becomes lateral /l/ before a consonant, so "port" becomes /polt/, from which /polti/, an endonym, derives.
/v/ is also very variable, often merging with /b/ in many speakers (especially older speakers with Japanese as their first language) but also being pronounced as a steady bilabilal fricative /β/. True labiodental /v/ is only common among the most monolingual Creole communities.
Yokohama Creole incorporates th-stopping, where dental fricatives /θ ð/ become stops /t d/, so words like "day" and "they" both become /dei/ > /dee/. This is unlike most other Japanese variations of English, which usually incorporate th-alveolarisation where /θ ð/ instead become alveolar /s z/. The reason for this disparity is debated, though some have noted that th-stopping is common among other English-based creole languages such as Nigerian Pidgin or Jamaican Patois.
Grammar
Yokohama Creole does not have any articles, nor generally any indication for grammatical number, as in Japanese. Instead, much of Yokohama Creole is analytical, with particles derived from Japanese indicating relationships between things in a sentence.
Personal pronouns
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | /mi/ | /wi/, /mi dem/ |
| 2 | /ju/ | /ju dem/ |
| 3 | /im/, /iman/, /ʃi/, /ʃiman/, /tin/ | /im dem/, /ʃi dem/, /man dem/ |
/dem/ (from English them) is only used as a pluralizer in regards to personal pronouns; this is probably calqued from the use of the suffix -ら ra or -たち tachi in Japanese, which are typically only used for personal pronouns.
Coincidentally, /man dem/ also occurs in Multicultural London English (MLE), though in Yokohama Creole this is exclusively used in the plural third-person, as in /man dem no go skuul e/ "They do not go to school" instead of its broader meaning in MLE where it can also refer to the first person plural.
Third-person pronouns in Yokohama Creole tend to have a specific use depending on social familiarity with the person mentioned. For example, inanimate objects are referred to with /tin/ from English *thing*, but may also be combined with another personal pronoun to make it derogatory, as in the second-person /ju tin/. /man/ and its feminine counterpart /ʃiman/ are used as a polite form of /im/ and /ʃi/ respectively, but also act as pro-forms like in Japanese: /domdom man tink dat man blok im kjan/ lit. "Stupid he thinks that he can beat him", means "The stupid man thinks that he can beat \[the other man]". In contrast, /im/ or /ʃi/ tend to connotate a familiarity with the person in question; i.e., a family member or a good friend may be referred to as /im/ or /ʃi/, though family members are usually referred to by role, e.g. /onkel/ "uncle" or /mama/ "mother."
Particles
Much of Yokohama Creole grammar is built around the use of particles; these are generally thought to be derived from Japanese verb conjugations. For example, to show potentiality, whereas English would use the auxiliary verb "can" as in "I can do this", Yokohama Creole speakers would place the "can" after the main verb, yielding /mi du dis kjan/ lit. "I do this can".
- /kjan/ spelt kyan, cyan, can or kan, placed after main verb to indicate potentiality, as in /mi du dis kjan/ "I can do this."
- /jo/ spelt yo, yoa, ’o or ’oa, is placed at the end of a sentence to indicate the sentence is jussive; the pronoun is usually omitted alongside. Derived from Japanese よ. For example, /op ni brin dis jo!/ "Bring this up!" as opposed to */ju op ni brin dis jo!/
- /ni/ spelt nee, ni, ’nee or knee, placed after a noun to indicate something is towards or into something, used like に in Japanese. For example, /im muʃ dis kafiteri ni/ "He ate this in the cafeteria."
- /e/ spelt eh, e, é, ’e, he, similar to /ni/ but usually to indicate something is towards a place; derived from Japanese へ, as in /im fam go menlan e fo wee slip de/ "His family went to Japan for the holidays"
- /no/, usually spelt no but may be contracted to just n.
Possession
In colloquial speech possession is generally done in simple possessor-possessum constructions, as in /dʒon oos/ "John's house". However, if need be, the article /fo/ may be used in more formal settings to simulate the function of の in Japanese, though even then it is not used when the possessor is a personal pronoun, so */mi fo pok/ "My pig" would never occur.