Naturally as painful as it was, the French could not carry with them their prized possessions of slaves and plantations. These fell into the hands of the new colonizers, the British. Of course all of the slaves were French and Kweyol speaking, thus the British came face to face with a new challenge, a language barrier- a block in the communication. The slaves could not understand them and vice versa.
The solution was to import slaves from the other British Colonies, namely, Antigua,Montserrat and St. Kitts.They were placed on the Hatton Garden, Londonderry,Eden and Woodford Hill Estates. These new occupants brought along with them their cultures such as their religion, their language and social practices.
The French occupiers were predominantly catholic, while the British and the new slaves were predominantly Methodist.
The new British plantation owners and their new slaves were located within the areas of Marigot, Wesley, Woodfordhill and Clifton which resulted in these villages being highly influenced by the indoctrination of the Methodist religion, the cultures, and the language brought by the new settlers from the neighbouring colonies.
Many of the Overseers were english speaking and were able to communicate with the french speaking slaves by developing their own form of creole language known as KOKOY. Today Kokoy is widely spoken among the natives of the North East region of Dominica, It is considered an English creole language similar to that spoken in Jamaica or Antigua.
In the past Kokoy was viewed as a language spoken by the unlearnt, the illiterate and the lower class people of the villages.
Nowadays, Kokoy enjoys a greater acceptance in the wider society and Kokoy speakers want official recognition as a valid language for their native tongue.
When did the language get its name, is unclear, however as a child when excursions were planned to visits other villages such as Sans Sauveur, Toucarie and Pointe Michele, when they would hear natives of Marigot, Wesley, Woodfordhill or Clifton speak, they would refer to the language as wanting to choke, similarly to when someone was choking on a piece of Kokoy.
Kokoy – English Dictionary
This webpage provides a simple and efficient way to search for words in Kokoy or English. Use the toggle button to switch between translation modes, type your word, and the dictionary will automatically filter and display any matching results from the Kokoy language dataset.
This tool supports quick lookup, mobile-friendly searching, and the ability to copy translations to your clipboard. The dictionary is continuously updated from a live Google Sheet source.