"Your Speech Betrays You?"Local speech patterns is one of the more fascinating features of Tobago. It is not as if you are listening to a foreign tongue that leaves you absolutely clueless. Let's qualify that, because there are some situations where you would think you are listening to a foreign tongue. In terms of speech, Trinidad and Tobago have almost melted into one. There is a perceptible difference in accent. The Trinidadian talks with a pronounced sing-song lilt, that might remind you of a wave. The Tobagonian comes at you with a more staccato-like presentation, like a low-pitched machine-gun, if you can imagine that. To the unaccustomed ear, a lively discussion can sound like a quarrel, and is often so mistaken until laughter breaks out on all sides. But it is all sliding in the direction of one melt-down called Trini. Anyway, if you listen to some of the radio stations, the local FM 92.7 Radio Tambrin or one of the many Trinidad stations heard in Tobago, you will soon discover that people can talk perfect English, (and sometimes "Amurrcan"). You could hear very good English spoken in the Tobago House of Asembly, in the schools, and in many other places in Tobago. But people can switch into local parlance and back quite naturally and swiftly.
Trinidad and Tobago used to have a high literacy rate. This remains true among the older generation. Those who speak broken English do so by choice rather than through ignorance. But there is growing concern about some of the youth. The influence of visual media has done nothing to help, and a disinclination to read soon becomes an inability to read. Some of Our More Curious Expressions Get to the Root of Some of our Expressions
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