# Samaná English

Part of a series on :
African Americans :
History
Periods
Timeline
Atlantic slave trade
Abolitionism in the United States
Slavery in the colonial history of the US
Revolutionary War
Antebellum period
Slavery and military history during the Civil War
Reconstruction era
Politicians
Juneteenth
Civil rights movement (1865–1896)
Jim Crow era (1896–1954)
Civil rights movement (1954–1968)
Black power movement
Post–civil rights era
Aspects
Agriculture history
Black Belt in the American South
Business history
Military history
Treatment of the enslaved
Migrations
Great Migration
Second Great Migration
New Great Migration :
Culture
Lifeways
Dance
Family structure
Film
Folktales
Music
Musical theater
Names
Neighborhoods
Newspapers
Soul food
Schools
Education during the slave period in the US
Education of freed people during the Civil War
History of African-American education, after the Civil War
Historically black colleges and universities
Fraternities
Academic study
Studies
Art
Literature
Celebrations
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Black History Month
Juneteenth
Kwanzaa
Economic class
African-American businesses
Middle class
Upper class
Billionaires
Symbols and ideas
African-American beauty
Black is beautiful
Black pride
African-American hair
Good hair
Stepping
"Lift Every Voice and Sing"
Self-determination :
Religion
Institutions
Black church
Theologies
Black theology
Womanist theology
Non-Christian groups
Hoodoo
Black Hebrew Israelites
African-American Jews
African-American Muslims
Nation of Islam
Louisiana Voodoo
African Diaspora Religions :
Politics
Organizations
Congressional Black Caucus
Joint Center
National Black Caucus of State Legislators
National Conference of Black Mayors
Ideologies
Afrocentrism
Anarchism
Back-to-Africa movement
Black power
Capitalism
Conservatism
Garveyism
Leftism
Liberalism
Nationalism
Pan-Africanism
Patriotism
Populism
Radicalism
Socialism :
Civic/economic groups
Organizations
Association for the Study of African American Life and History
Black conductors
NAACP
National Black Chamber of Commerce
National Council of Negro Women
National Pan-Hellenic Council
National Urban League
TransAfrica
UNCF :
Sports
Negro league baseball
Athletic associations and conferences
Central (CIAA)
HBCU (HBCUAC)
Mid-Eastern (MEAC)
Southern (SIAC)
Southwestern (SWAC) :
Sub-communities
Multiethnic
African-American Jews
Afro-Puerto Ricans
Alabama Creole people
Black Indians
Black Seminoles
Mascogos
Blaxicans
Brass Ankles
Creoles of color
Dominickers
Freedmen
Great Dismal Swamp maroons
Melungeon
Carmel Indians
Redbone
Specific ancestries
Americo-Liberians
Creek Freedmen
Gullah
Merikins
Nova Scotians
Samaná Americans
Sierra Leone Creole
Sexual orientation
LGBT community :
Dialects and languages
English dialects
African-American English
African-American Vernacular English
Liberian English
Samaná English
Tutnese
Languages and other dialects
Gullah
Afro-Seminole Creole
Negro Dutch
Black American Sign Language :
Population
US states
Alabama
Arkansas
California
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Louisiana
Maryland
Mississippi
Nebraska
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Virginia
US cities
Black mecca
List of neighborhoods
Atlanta
Baltimore
Boston
Chicago
Dallas-Fort Worth
Davenport
Detroit
Houston
Jacksonville
Kentucky
Lexington
Los Angeles
New York City
Omaha
Philadelphia
San Antonio
San Francisco
Historic places
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Mississippi
Missouri
Omaha, Nebraska
North Carolina
South Carolina
Texas
West Virginia
Population count
US states and territories
US metropolitan areas
US cities
US communities
Places by plurality of population
Diaspora
Africa
Canada
France
Ghana
Israel
Liberia
Nova Scotia
Sierra Leone :
Prejudice
Racism
Black genocide
Race and ethnicity in the US census
Racism against Black Americans
Reparations for slavery
School segregation in the US
Unarmed African Americans killed by police officers
Stereotypes and media depictions
Blackface
Criminal stereotypes
Hollywood
Magical Negro
Minstrel show :
United States portal
Category
Index :
vte :
Samaná English (SE and SAX) is a variety of the English language spoken by descendants of Black immigrants from the United States who have lived in the Samaná Peninsula, now in the Dominican Republic. Members of the enclave are known as the Samaná Americans.
The language is a relative of African Nova Scotian English, or also as a derivative of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), with variations unique to the enclave's history in the area. In the 1950 Dominican Republic census, 0.57% of the population (about 12,200 speakers) said that their mother tongue was English.

## Immigration

Most speakers trace their lineage to immigrants who arrived at the peninsula in 1824 and 1825. At the time all of Hispaniola was administered by Haiti, and its president was Jean-Pierre Boyer. The immigrants responded to an invitation for settlement that Jonathas Granville had delivered in person to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, and New York City. Abolitionists like Richard Allen, Samuel Cornish, Benjamin Lundy, and Loring D. Dewey joined the campaign, which was coined the Haitian emigration.
The response was unprecedented, as thousands of African Americans boarded ships in eastern cities and migrated to Haiti. Most of the immigrants arrived during the fall of 1824 and the spring of 1825. More continued moving back and forth in later years but at a slower rate.
Between 1859 and 1863, another immigration campaign brought new settlers to the island but at a fraction of the number in 1824 and 1825. Those who originally settled in Samaná were fewer than 600 but formed the only surviving immigration enclave.

## Survival

While more than 6,000 immigrants came in 1824 and 1835, by the end of the 19th century, only a handful of enclaves on the island spoke any variety of the antebellum Black Vernacular. They were communities in Puerto Plata, Samaná and Santo Domingo. The largest was the one in Samaná that maintained church schools, where it was preserved.
Enclaves across the island soon lost an important element of their identity, which led to their disintegration. Samaná English withstood the assaults in part because the location of Samaná was favorable to a more independent cultural life. However, government policies have still influenced the language's gradual decline, and it may well now be an endangered language.

## Similarities with other languages

Samana English is similar to that of Caribbean English creole spoken by the English speaking Caribbean. Samana English is related to that of Bahamian and Turks and Caicos Islands Creole due to same origins.