The Consequences of Language Chapter 13. What Happens When Languages Come Into Contact?”
Samples of English-Based Creoles and Pidgin
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Samples of English-Based Creoles and Pidgin
The Genesis of Pidgins. Polygenesis. Linguists are divided about the origins of pidgin-creoles. One view, called polygenesis holds pidgin/creole languages arise and stabilize frequently in contact situations. The common features found in the wide distribution of PC languages variety is due to three factors. First, if there are the similarities due to the contributions of the donor language (in this case English). Certainly, this explains the large amount of common vocabulary. Second, are the similarities due to the speaker’s first language. It is argued that because of the common features of African languages, the grammars of the newly developed pidgin languages will also have similar properties. This explanation is sometimes called the substrate theory. It is true that native speakers often carry their first language habits into their second language, in this case the pidgin. This is after all, why we can identify accents as German, French or Arabic. The third explanation of similarities is based on the influence of the faculty of language and linguistic universals. Derick Bickerton, in his Roots of Language, argues that when newly formed pidgins acquire first language speakers and become creoles, they fall back on the linguistic universals, because they lack the modifications that natural languages often impose on them over the years, and thus the pidgin-creole acquires an innate pattern. (This theory is contested and many solid papers written against this position. Cf. Singler. Problems with Polygenesis. Monogenesis holds that pidgin-creoles rarely stabilize and survive. Consequently, the few that do can often be traced back to a common ancestor, very much like the protolanguage reconstruction described in chapter xx. When applied to Black Atlantic-English, a monogenetic view would hold that the remarkable similarity in structure between Cameroonian Pidgin and Sierra Leonean Creole exists because there is a historical link between these two languages and not because they have a common donor language or substratum language as the polygenesis theory would claim and not because of linguistic universals at work. The historical connections between Krio and other varieties along the coast of West Africa are well documented. People from Sierra Leone were often recruited by Europeans for commercial ventures, such as the banana plantations of Cameroon set up by the Germans or the missionary work by the British during the 18th but particularly the 19th century. It is quite likely that these Krio speakers carried their language with them and encouraged its use as a lingua franca. Scholars believe that the present form of Krio took shape during the 19th century with the arrival of the Jamaicans in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1800. The Jamaican population was substantially augmented by recaptives mainly from southern Nigeria. The term recaptives, refers to people who had been kidnapped by slavers and were destined for forced servitude in the New World, but were rescued by the British navy and put ashore in Freetown. It is estimated that these recaptives represented nearly 40% of the Freetown population during this period and helps to explain why Yoruba, a language of Nigeria has made significant contributions to Krio. For example, the standard greeting in Krio is Kushe-o, which is a greeting, still used by Yoruba speakers. In addition, a large number of Krio personal names, like Adi, can be traced to Yoruba. It is important to note that Krio is not the same as the West African Pidgin lingua francas spoken in Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon. For example, as a first language, Krio has developed a far richer vocabulary and literature, reflecting its development during the 19th and 20th century. Outside the Freetown area, where Krio is spoken as a first language, I found that the language resembles the other West African somewhat more closely. Scholars (Eldred Jones) have also found evidence of a pre-18th century Sierra Leonean pidgin much different from the Krio and the WAPEs spoken today. It is presumed that this variety served as a lingua franca during the 16th and 17th century. In addition, it is also assumed that a parallel French pidgin was also used. As mentioned above, the Creole spoken in Jamaica is gradually being absorbed by the English of the island, but remnants are found in the literature and music of the island and there are people living in rural parts of the island who still use the language on a daily basis. Although Jamaican Creole shares enough structural features with Krio and WAPE to make it clear that they are related, it is nevertheless very different structurally, and probably not mutually intelligible with Krio. During the 17th century, Jamaica, like most of the islands in the Caribbean, was a plantation society, growing agricultural products like sugar cane for export using captive labor working in intolerable conditions. Through out the century, revolts were commonplace and despite almost insurmountable odds, some were successful. One such revolt was in Jamaica, were the self-liberated plantation workers were able to negotiate their return to Africa. These are the people who eventually arrived in Freetown in 1800, and it was the Jamaican Creole, which served as the basis upon which Krio was built.16 Most of the Jamaicans came from Surinam, South America in 1667 because of the British ceding their occupation of the area (1625-1675) to the Dutch who had acquired it in exchange for New York. As a result, the British plantation owners had to leave and this took them with their captives to Jamaica. In Surinam, three distinct varieties of Black Atlantic-English were and are still spoken (Sranan Tongo, Saramakan, and Jukan).17 Jamaican Creole shares a good number of linguistic features with the Surinam varieties and it is presumed that Sranan Tongo was taken to Jamaica. An important new world port for the sale of African captives was the island of Barbados. Here, slave boats from a number of European nations sold their property and returned to Africa for more, while other entrepreneurs resold these people to other islands and to the United States. What is not clear is what language was spoken here. One guess is that the lingua franca used was like the pre-18th century pidgin reported in Sierra Leone. If so, this lingua franca may have been the basis for the development and unity of the Black-Atlantic-Englishes in the new world and Africa. Furthermore, this can also explain the similarities of the English-based varieties in Southeast Asia (Northern Australia, Southern China, the Solomon Islands and elsewhere).
French Black Atlantic. Varieties of French Black Atlantic, as mentioned are spoken in the islands of the Caribbean, West Africa and the Indian Ocean. Morris Goodman (19xx), of Northwestern University, demonstrated that they most likely were derived from a common proto-language. 4.4. Sabir Hypothesis. The structural similarities of the Black Atlantic languages began to give rise to speculation about the possibility that these too languages may have been related as well. The argument goes like this: During the middle ages, a lingua franca known as Sabir was spoken by sailors in the Mediterranean Sea. From what little we know of it, Sabir had a very flexible vocabulary in that one could use it with French, Portuguese, or other vocabulary while maintaining the same syntax. This practice of relexification, may be far more common than supposed. For example, Gumperz reported a situation not all that different reported in South Asia. The Sabir hypothesis argues that it was this language that the Portuguese took with them as they went down the coast of West Africa in the 15th century. This explains the Portuguese Black Atlantic varieties in islands of Cape Verde and Sao Thome. Gradually, other European nations joined in the lucrative trade with West Africa, and the hypothesis argues that relexification of Sabir into French and English took place. As all these varieties settled on land under the control of a single European power, the need to relexify was lost and the three major strands of Black Atlantic arose, and the rest, as they say, is history. The argument for this development is intriguing for it proposes to bring together and explain a wide range of language developments. However, the evidence in support of the Sabir Hypothesis is scant. The lexical similarities between the three strands of Black Atlantic are few, though two already mentioned, pikin and sabi, are of Portuguese origin. Other arguments include the use of emphatics and the tense aspects.18 As a result, most linguists tend to suspend judgment on this hypothesis or reject it all together.
The debate between polygenesis and monogenesis is really one of how often do pidgins arise and stabilize as creoles?. At one end of this spectrum is the (polygenesis) position that they arise and stabilize whenever people of different language backgrounds have a need to communicate. At the other end is the Sabir hypothesis that claims that all of the Black Atlantic languages, as well as those of southeastern Asia have a common ancestor known as Sabir. In between these extremes are a number of views, such as one that accepts the unity of English (and French and Portuguese) Black Atlantic, but does not accept the Sabir Hypothesis. Each of these views relies on different theoretical assumptions to explain their conclusions. Bickerton, for example relies on the role of Universal Grammar to account for the unity of these languages. Consequently, the debate is not simply one of polygenesis versus monogenesis, but one about the nature of language and language development. Debates, if we can call them such, are a very healthy part of academic activity for they often lead to greater questioning of basic assumptions and to the quest for additional data, such as the nature of Sabir, or the type of pidgin English spoken in Sierra Leone before the arrival of the Krios. 5. Ebonics: a language or a dialect. We take up the question of Ebonics in chapter 14. 5. Whole language. 6. The Globalization of English Although English is not the most widely spoken language, it is truly a global language. This is so because it is associated with a number of global institutions. It is, for example, the lingua franca of airline pilots around the world. Academics, whose first language is other than English often choose to publish in English because of the vast readership it will reach. This is true not only of subnational or regional languages like Catalan, Mende and Marathi, but national languages as well like Dutch, German, Japanese and Hindi. This strategy allows access to academics in other countries as well as their own. The popularity of English, originally spoken only on parts of an island in the North Sea can be attributed to the institution of colonialism that spread English imperialism around the planet. The same can be said for the other European language of French, Spanish and to some extent German. However, to facilitate this discussion, I will stick to English. In many colonies where English was imposed, it took hold for a variety of reasons. It served as a lingua franca in countries that were linguistically diverse (cf. the description of Sierra Leone). And it served as the language of the newly created elite who used the colonial language to maintain their power. First, their command of English enabled them to staff the civil service. Second, it enabled this class to serve as intermediaries between the British and the colonized people. This not only permitted the elites to interpret the British point of view to their advantage, but to control access of others to the British administrators. As English ensconced itself, colonial writers, novelists (Achebe, Peters), political critics (Kenyatta, Ezikewe, Mandela), scholars (Crowther, xx and yy, preferred to writing in English, even though this practice excluded the vast majority of their countrymen. One notable exception to this is Ngugi wa Thiango, a Kikuyu-speaking Kenyan who initially wrote in English but finally declared that this was wrong. Asmara declaration.
1. Native American Languages 2. African Languages 9. Summary Questions for Study and ReviewSuggested Readings1 The nature of language itself also contributes to this problem. Once a concept is assigned to a signifier and enters into the structural system and becomes a signified, it opposes and differentiates itself from other signs (with their signifieds)in the system. This leads to the characterization of the phenomena around us as discrete and non overlapping entities, regardless of the situation in the natural world. This makes it difficult for us to deal with phenomena that are non discrete for we are forced to place bounds on what we experience if we are to talk about it. The color spectrum provides such an example. While this is a limiting factor in semiological systems, it is also what enables us to talk about anything at all. 2 Furthermore, the presumption that the basis for the language-dialect distinction was to be found in an empirical investigation using mutual intelligibility reflects the process of naturalization, that is a culturally constructed phenomenon is made to appear as something independent of human definition. 3 These differences included: the choice in letters to mark sounds; spelling conventions; word division; and word choices. 4 The fact that all of the committee members were non Shona, and that no Shona speakers were part of this process speaks to the power held by foreign groups during the period of colonialization. 5 However, this new language posed a challenge for other Swiss missionaries working in the neighboring area because Gwamba appeared more foreign than the language used by the encroaching Wesleyan missionaries. In order to compete, Henri Junod, another Swiss missionary, constructed another literary variant of the same lingua franca used by Berthoud which he called Ronga, which established itself as an independent entity in the eastern areas. 6 McGloghlin, F. Haalpulaar Identity as a response to Wolofization.Ms. 19xx 7 The forms pul and ful are variants of the same root, reflecting a very rich morphological process known as consonant mutation. While the phonological relationships are complicated they are very regular. The words gorko ‘man’ and debbo ‘woman’ have the regular plurals of wore and rewe. 8 Mandingo or Bamana ( as it is more broadly known) is associated with the tie-dying industry, Hausa with trading and Fulfulde with commerce (small kiosks, taxi driving). 9 The term lingua franca is Latin, meaning language of the Francs, a European tribe living in what is now France. The Latin plural is linguae franca, but many writers use the English plural. 10 A creolist is the name given to those who study pidgin/creole languages. 11 Thus these ways of speaking can be associated with specific institutions. 12 An affix is the general name given to prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes precede the root (pre-fix, un-likely, omni-present) suffixes follow the root (walk-ed, dog-s, think-ing). 13 Examples of this process found in English are -ton, as in Kingston, Boston (from town) and -ly as in likely and mostly (from like). 14 The term creole was originally used to describe an individual of European background, but born overseas. Later the meaning shifted to refer to people of African descent, and from there to the language many of them spoke. The creole of New Orleans refers to the earlier usage. 15 Cameroon draughts is a game like checkers, but played on a ten by ten square board, and much, much faster. 16 Due the British bureaucracy or indifference (or both) these Jamaicans spent many years in Nova Scotia where many of them, unfamiliar with the climate suffered and died. 17 I would not be surprised if the -kan suffix on Sramakkan and Jukan is the same suffix found in Bamana, as a good number of captives who arrived in the new world came from this area. 18 Need a reference for Sabir. i In section 6, many apparently monolingual countries are shown to be multilingual. Directory: course course -> Algorithms for Register Allocation Andrew Pardoe course -> Ieor 4600 Mixed-Integer Rounding Inequalities course -> Exam 1 of Computer Networks (ice 1230) 2008 7 course -> San José State University Social Science/Psychology Psych 175, Management Psychology, Section 1, Spring 2014 course -> Kennan's Telegram (Excerpt) course -> Introduction course -> The university of british columbia course -> The philosophy of composition Download 184.52 Kb. Share with your friends:
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