The major languages in most of the Caribbean are creole languages with a lexicon from a European language. In English-governing territories, English-based creole is interspersed with Standard English to form the everyday Jamaican vocabulary. These two languages form a continuum on which sit different variations of the two languages. Often these will be intelligible to English speaker but with unusual grammar or tense structures and some new basic words which must be deciphered through context.

The first generation of post-war Caribbean immigrants came to the UK with the hopes of being integrated into British society. They came from economic hardship and felt that migrating to Britain would be a way to improve their situation. Jobs were abundant and they had achieved their goal, so they felt comfortable conforming to British customs and identifying as British. They felt like they were coming home.

The second generation however found themselves retreating from this path. Instead of conforming to the established British culture, they segregated themselves and developed a new Black British culture, heavily influenced by Jamaican heritage and Rastafarianism. There are a variety of factors contributing to this outcome, but the biggest was for social solidarity. When the second generation were still teenagers, there was increased hostility from the white population and race riots were taking place. In the face of these threats, as well as anti-immigrant rhetoric by the government, it is likely they felt the need to protect their ethnic identity and not give it up to those who hated them for it. Though never visiting the West Indies, they became closer to their heritage than their parents who were born there. These young black Britons often grew up in similar neighbourhoods and in largely black schools, leading to the fast development of a different dialect and vocabulary based on the language their parents used at home.

One interesting point is that the language that developed was heavily based upon Jamaican Creole, rather than a 

mixture of Caribbean creole languages, and so it was used by people whose parents didn't speak the same dialect. This new dialect created a new identity of Black British which was distinct from the former Caribbean identities. Similarly, as this dialect became more ingrained and was passed on to other generations, it started to gain popularity amongst young people of different ethnic backgrounds who grew up in urban neighbourhoods. This spread was also encouraged by the widespread visibility in the media of popular urban music artists using this vocabulary in both their music and media appearances.

A defining characteristic of the dialect is the regularity with which speakers switch between it and Standard English when conversing with one another. Its primary use is as a symbol of identity and unity between speakers. Whilst they can communicate in Standard English, and would do so to people not familiar with the dialect, when both speakers are familiar it serves as a mark of commonality. Mark Sebba describes it as a 'performance', rather than a language. When there a variety of choices of phrase in Creole, the one furthest from English is often chosen to emphasise the use of Creole.

Generally, the speakers of British Black English are not fluent in Creole in comparison to Jamaican speakers of the language. This is understandable as many speakers are not from Jamaican families and so would learn all the features they use from their peers. There is also a widespread distortion and misuse of Creole by non-fluent speakers attempting to alter sentences to sounds Creole.