New Book: Bajanyms: Toponymic Idioms in Barbadian English and Bajan by Cristiano Furiassi

 A new contribution to onomastics, phraseology, and Caribbean linguistics has appeared in Peter Lang’s International Folkloristics series: Cristiano Furiassi’s Bajanyms: Toponymic Idioms in Barbadian English and Bajan.

The book explores the idiomatic use of toponyms - place names - in Barbadian English and Bajan. Furiassi introduces the term Bajanyms for Barbadian toponymic idioms: expressions in which geographical names go beyond their literal meaning and acquire figurative, cultural, historical, or folkloric significance. Such idioms are not merely linguistic curiosities. They preserve traces of collective memory, colonial history, local identity, and the lived experience of the Barbadian speech community.

Drawing on both amateur glossaries and scholarly dictionaries, the volume also documents the lexicographic tradition surrounding Barbadian English and Bajan. It shows how place names connected with Barbados, as well as names linked to the island’s colonial legacy, have entered everyday speech and developed idiomatic meanings. In doing so, the book demonstrates how toponyms may become cultural signs: they can encode local humour, social values, historical memory, and a shared sense of Barbadianness.

The volume is especially valuable because it combines toponymy, lexicography, phraseology, and folklore studies. At a time when many local speech forms are threatened by modernization and globalization, the cataloguing of Barbadian toponymic idioms becomes an act of cultural preservation. The book is therefore not only a linguistic study, but also a homage to Barbados and its linguistic heritage.

John Simpson, OBE, former editor of The Oxford English Dictionary and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, warmly recommends the book as “a fascinating insight into the history of Barbados through its toponyms,” emphasizing its importance for linguistic, cultural, and historical researchers, as well as for students.

Cristiano Furiassi is Associate Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Turin. He is known for his work on false Anglicisms, pseudo-English, and European lexis, and now extends his research into the rich field of Caribbean toponymic phraseology.

Bibliographic details:
Cristiano Furiassi, Bajanyms: Toponymic Idioms in Barbadian English and Bajan. New York, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, Oxford: Peter Lang, 2026. XXVI + 158 pp. ISBN Hardcover: 9783034360104. ISBN PDF: 9783034360111. ISBN ePUB: 9783034360128. DOI: 10.3726/b23000.