This work is a very important contribution to the understanding of the language and linguistic heritage of Afro-Americans, this last term being used by Alleyne to refer to all people of African descent in the Western Hemisphere. In relation to those Afro-American language varieties spoken in the Caribbean, on which this book has tended to focus, this is one of only a very small number of book-length works produced so far. The bulk of the work on Afro-Caribbean language varieties is dispersed all over the place, usually in the form of articles in academic journals.

Well? When is a bluggo not a bluggo? When it's a buffer or a moko. The unselfconscious use of Caribbean terms without quotation marks in written English may be significant for the presuppositions a writer holds regarding normal language use. In this analysis, which is intended to be suggestive only, examples are taken from short essays written by final-year trainee teachers from Barbados and Grenada.