The Angolar Creole Portuguese of São Tomé

Its Grammar and Sociolinguistic History

Gerardo A. Lorenzino
Yale University

The primary goal of this study is to explore the question of the genesis and development of the Angolar Creole Portuguese of São Tomé and Príncipe (Gulf of Guinea), off the coast of West Africa. Angolar is the language spoken by descendants of maroon slaves who escaped from Portuguese plantations on São Tomé beginning in the mid-sixteenth century (1535-1550).

Due to the isolation of these maroon communities, their language kept the general structure of Santomense Creole Portuguese, the majority creole spoken on the plantations. Communication between the Portuguese and slaves, and among the slaves themselves, must have been constrained by factors such as first languages (Portuguese as well as Kwa and Bantu languages), exposure to some form of contact Portuguese prior to their arrival of São Tomé (e.g. West African Pidgin Portuguese), their length of stay on the island and their social status (free Afro-Portuguese, houseslaves). Modern divergences between Angolar and Santomense are the outcome of the lexical expansion and further restructuring which Santomense underwent as the result of its closer contact with Portuguese spoken on the plantations as opposed to differences in grammar and pronunciation which Angolar retained from early Santomense.

On the other hand, Angolar is the result of the partial relexification that Santomense underwent due to the later influence of Kimbundu-speaking Maroons. In this respect, the Angolares' existence away from the plantations was more likely to have favored the maintenance of African languages than remaining on the plantations, where exposure to Portuguese and the increasing role of Santomense as the medium of communication among slaves forced Africans to give up their native languages faster. Furthermore, the rise of the mulatto society fostered the establishment of Santomense as the common vernacular for both slaves and non-slaves. Against this setting, one may understand Angolar as the linguistic result of the Maroons' need to develop a communicative behavior which would act as an in-group boundary maintenance mechanism, providing a symbolic value for the Angular community and, at the same time, making their language incomprehensible to outsiders, i.e. a secret language.

The second chapter of the book gives an overview on the phonology, morphology and syntax of the Angolar Creole Portuguese.

ISBN 9783895865459. LINCOM Studies in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics 01. 290pp. 1998.

The Morphosyntax of Spanish-lexified creoles

A Comparative Overview

Gerardo A. Lorenzino
Yale University

Earlier studies have compared the verb phrase and the noun phrase of Palenquero (Colombia) and Papiamentu (Netherlands Antilles), resulting in a better understanding of the interrelationship of these Caribbean creoles. This assessment of their structural similarities and differences has again raised the issue of their origins. Palenquero and Papiamentu have certain features which are difficult to explain without referring to their African component. It is even more difficult to account for their diverging in their non-European linguistic features, e.g. pluralization.

This monograph presents the first morphosyntactic comparison of all the Spanish-lexified creoles., including Chabacano (Philippines). Aside from the shared features from Spanish, Chabacano can be expected to have distinct features due to its distinct Austronesian substrate, e.g. the Tagalog and Visayan languges. If we can assume that Chabacano underwent creolization in a way parallel to Palenquero and Papiamentu, certain features in the Philippine creole must be seen in the light of Austronesian linguistics.

However, this interpretation does not rule out other influences in the creole's genesis and development, e.g. that of the superstrate and universal tendencies.

After a short chapter on the social history of the three Spanish-lexified creoles, this work provides a comparative account of the noun phrase and verb phrase of Chabacano, Palenquero and Papiamentu, including discussions of various classes of determiners, the copula and the tense-aspect-modality system.

ISBN 9783895867811. LINCOM Studies in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics 01. 140pp. 2001.

Un créole arabe : le kinubi de Mombasa, Kenya

Xavier Luffin
Université Libre de Bruxelles

Le kinubi est un créole de base arabe, parlé en Afrique de l’Est (Kenya, Ouganda, République Démocratique du Congo, Tanzanie) et apparenté à l’arabe de Juba (Soudan). Il est parlé par une communauté musulmane – les Nubi – dont les ancêtres sont venus du sud du Soudan à la fin du 19ème siècle.

La présente recherche se propose de décrire le kinubi tel qu’il est parlé actuellement à Mombasa, sur la côte kenyane, en mettant l’accent d’une part sur l’originalité de ce parler par rapport à ceux de Kibera (Kenya) et de Bombo (Ouganda), et en analysant d’autre part quel a été le rôle du superstrat (arabe dialectal), du substrat (langues sud-soudanaises) et surtout de l’adstrat (kiswahili et anglais) dans sa formation.

En ce qui concerne l’originalité, le kinubi de Mombasa présente une série de traits phonologiques et morphologiques qui, même s’ils sont limités à certains locuteurs, n’apparaissent pas dans les autres parlers étudiés : épenthèse et apocope moins fréquentes, survivance du duel, utilisation du pronom affixe après un nom… Par ailleurs, le kinubi de Mombasa est influencé par divers parlers, en raison des origines variées de ses locuteurs.

En ce qui concerne la formation du kinubi, nous constatons que l’influence du substrat est peu visible, tandis que le superstrat a joué un rôle-clé dans le processus. Enfin, l’adstrat exerce actuellement une forte influence sur la langue. Toutefois, l’anglais et le kiswahili n’agissent pas de la même manière sur le kinubi en général, tandis que les autres langues adstratales ont un impact très limité. Cette étude tente donc de déterminer quels sont les facteurs linguistiques, sociaux et historiques permettant de comprendre cette différence de traitement.

The Kinubi is an Arabic-based Creole, spoken in East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania) and closely related to Juba Arabic (Southern Sudan). It is the language of a muslim community – the Nubis. Their ancestors came from Southern Sudan in the late 19th century.

This research describes the Kinubi as it is spoken today in Mombasa, on the Kenyan coast. It emphasizes the originality of this dialect, compared to the one of Kibera (Kenya) and the one of Bombo (Uganda). It analyzes what was the role of the supestratum (Dialectal Arabic), the substratum (various languages of Southern Sudan) and the adstratum (Swahili and English) in its evolution.

Concerning the originality, the Kinubi of Mombasa has various phonological and morphological characteristics which, though they are not used by all our informants, do not appear in the other Kinubi dialects which have been already described : the apocope and the epenthesis are less common, the dual form is still in use, as well as the affixed pronoun… Moreover, the Kinubi of Mombasa is influenced by the various origins of its speakers.

Regarding the formation process, we notice that the influence of the substratum is scarcely observable, and that the superstratum has played an important role. The adstratum has a major influence on the language today. However, English and Swahili do not influence Kinubi in the same manner, and the role of the other languages which are spoken in East Africa is almost irrelevant. In this study, we try to determine the various factors – linguistically, socially, historically – which may explain those differences.

ISBN 9783895868047. LINCOM Studies in Pidgin & Creole Languages 07. 480pp. 2005.

Estudo comparativo da morfossintaxe do crioulo guineense, do balanta e do português

Incanha Intumbo
Universidade de Coimbra

Este trabalho estuda a morfossintaxe do crioulo guineense, variedade do afroromance de base lexical portuguesa falado na Guiné-Bissau e na região senegalesa de Ziguinchor, na África Ocidental. O propósito não é um estudo exaustivo deste crioulo, mas uma comparação sistemática da sua sintaxe e morfologia com a do balanta (língua africana da grupo Oeste Atlântico da família de línguas Níger-Congo, tido aqui como exemplo das línguas do substrato e adstrato do crioulo) e com a do português, o seu superestrato.

O capítulo um é uma introdução ao conteúdo desta tese. Explica também a convenção ortográfica adoptada para o crioulo e analisa a situação sociolinguística do país e dos povos que compõem a população guineense. O capítulo dois analisa a história dos estudos das línguas crioulas em geral e deste crioulo em particular, desde as primeiras anotações sobre o crioulo guineense até aos estudos mais recentes. Os capítulos três, quatro e cinco apresentam a comparação morfo-sintáctica das três línguas. As categorias gramaticais analisadas foram escolhidas, no geral, tendo em conta a sua relevância na distinção entre os crioulos atlânticos e as suas línguas de superestrato. A maioria corresponde àquelas discutidas em Holm (1988-89) no capítulo sobre a sintaxe. O capítulo três compara o sintagma nominal nas três línguas, analisando os nomes, os seus modificadores e as suas propriedades, a morfologia, a sintaxe e as concordâncias. O capítulo quatro estuda o sintagma verbal: os marcadores de tempo, modo e aspecto, as suas propriedades e as suas possíveis combinações, e os possíveis complementos verbais. O capítulo cinco discute outras estruturas típicas do crioulo guineense, a ordem sintáctica, as orações relativas. O capítulo seis analisa quantitativamente os traços morfo-sintácticos analisados nos três capítulos precedentes, análise esta que sugere uma maior influência das estruturas do superestrato a nível do sintagma nominal e uma maior influência do substrato a nível do sintagma verbal.

A comparative study of the morphosyntax of Guiné-Bissau Creole, Balanta and Portuguese

This work studies the morphosyntax of the Portuguese-based Creole spoken in Guiné-Bissau and in the Senegalese region of Ziguinchor in West Africa. Its aim is not an exhaustive study of this language’s grammar but rather a systematic comparison of its morphosyntax with that of Balanta (an African language of the West Atlantic group of the Niger-Congo family, relevant as an example of the creole’s substrate and adstrate languages) and with that of Portuguese, its superstrate. Chapter one is an introduction to the contents of this work. It also explains the orthographic conventions adopted for the creole and it analyses the sociolinguistic situation of the country and the people of Guiné-Bissau. Chapter two analyses the history of the study of creole languages in general and of this creole in particular, from the first remarks about this language up to the most recent studies. Chapters three, four and five present the morphosyntactic comparison of the three languages examined here.

The grammatical categories chosen are generally those that distinguish the Atlantic creoles from their European superstrates; most of them are discussed in Holm (1988-89) in the chapter on syntax. Chapter three compares the noun phrase: nouns, their modifiers and their properties, analyzing the morphology, syntax and agreement. Chapter four studies the verb phrase: verbal markers of tense, mode and aspect, their properties and possible combinations, and verbal complements. Chapter five discusses other structures typical of Guine-Bissau Creole, word order and dependent clauses. Chapter six is a summary of the grammatical features surveyed in the previous three chapters. A quantified study of the features which the creole shares with Balanta and Portuguese allows the conclusion that the creole’s noun phrase is closer to that of its superstrate whereas its verb phrase is closer to that of its substrate.

ISBN 9783895861123. LINCOM Studies in Pidgin & Creole Linguistics 08. 144pp. 2008.

A Dictionary of Cameroon Pidgin English Usage

Pronunciation, Grammar and Vocabulary

Jean-Paul Kouega
Université de Yaoundé 1

The book describes Cameroon Pidgin English, focusing on its pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.

Pidgin English has been in active use in Cameroon for over 500 years; it started in the Slave Trade years, resisted a German ban during the German annexation period (1884-1914) and survived post-independence neglect. It took flight when it became a makeshift language used in plantations and, today, it has left the plantations for the homes and other domains of public life.

The first attempt to codify this language was made by the Catholic Church, which used it to produce a number of religious materials including the catechism. The second attempt was made by textbook writers for American Peace Corps, who have to learn the language when they arrive Cameroon as they need it to communicate with people in rural areas. The present work sets out to bring together, in a single document, the characteristic features of this language.

The work is divided into two parts. Part One comprises two chapters. The first gives background information on Cameroon, focusing on its geographic and economic situation. Then it examines the evolution of Pidgin, the place of this language in the linguistic landscape of the country, the users of this language, the domains of its use and finally the status and future prospects of this language in Cameroon. The second chapter, which describes the linguistic features of the language, outlines the research design that underlies the subsequent study of the pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary of this language.

Part Two is a dictionary which provides a lexical inventory of common present-day Pidgin English items used by spoken media practitioners to inform and entertain listeners and viewers on a daily basis. In the Appendix, sample spoken media texts are reproduced.

ISBN 9783895862045. LINCOM Studies in Pidgin & Creole Linguistics 09. 154 pp. 2008.

A grammatical description of the Noun Phrase in the English-lexicon Creole of St Vincent and the Grenadines

Paula Prescod

This study proposes a grammatical description of the noun phrase (NP) of the English-lexified creole of St Vincent and the Grenadines (VinC). VinC coexists with its superstrate and is at present linguistically unaccounted for. As a result, prior to the syntactic analysis, Chapter 1 of the study discusses the processes of creolisation that could account for the origin of VinC, based on historical documents. The second chapter offers a phonological analysis which gives a succinct presentation of the phonemic and accentual features of VinC. The alphabet recommended in this chapter, is intended to render the transcription of the examples provided in the study conform to the phonological nature of the creole.

The grammatical description itself, covered in chapters 3 to 5, hinges on the functionalist and structuralist frameworks, and sets out to describe the syntactic relations existing between the constituents of the NP. First, the features of the NP heads are analysed, then the left expansions of nouns, i.e. determiners and modifiers. Chapter 5 offers a unified analysis of the NP post-modifiers, i.e. relative clauses, complementizer clauses, prepositional clauses and noun complements.

The penultimate chapter focuses on the concept of reference and how it influences the choice of definite and indefinite determiners. Here, the study advocates an analysis based on the theory of familiarity and degree of identification from the hearer’s point of view that could account for definiteness and specificity: grammatical-semantic notions that often fall short in their analysis of the null determiner. Chapter 7 provides a concise summary of the findings.

Key words: creole, creolisation, definiteness, null determiner, genericity, grammatical description, plurality, post-modifier, proforms, relative clauses, reference, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, specificity, noun phrase.

ISBN 9783895864353. LINCOM Studies in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics 10. 308pp. 2010.

Quantification in Jamaican Creole

The syntax and semantics of evri (‘every’) in interaction with indefinites

Michele Marie Kennedy
University of the West Indies, Mona

In this work, it is shown that existing scopal accounts of the interpretative possibilities associated with quantificational interaction do not explain the empirical facts in Jamaican Creole (JC), as revealed by original fieldwork conducted by the author. Moreover, it is shown that the JC universal evri and the indefinites wan and som, the forms on which the study focuses, do not display the same behaviour as their English counterparts ‘every’, ‘a(n)’ and ‘some’.

It is proposed that the key to a unified solution for these phenomena lies in the expression of number in JC with the possibilities which event structure makes available. It is argued that an articulated functional structure above the NP houses the functions associated with the individuation of nouns and with number specification. These functions which derive the different interpretations of JC evri in interaction with indefinites, are not specific or restricted to this purpose, but are shown to be necessary for any plural individual interpretation, and to apply also to the analysis of numeral NPs.

The proposed analysis means that there is no need to call on movement operations to account for the JC data. Instead, the interpretations are derived from the phrase structure and from event structure.

KEYWORDS: Quantificational interaction; scope; individuation; number specification; event structure

Michele Kennedy lectures in Syntax and Language Acquisition at the University of the West Indies, Mona.

ISBN 9783862883356. 168pp. LINCOM Studies in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics 11. 2012.

The Verbal System of the Cape Verdean Creole of Tarrafal,  Santiago

A Semantic Analysis of the Tense, Mood and Aspect Markers

Bernardino Cardoso Tavares
Universidade de Coimbra

This study deals with the verbal markers of tense, mood and aspect (TMA) in Cape Verdean Creole (CVC), focussing on the influence of context and time adverbials in determining the markers’ meaning. It is based on a corpus recorded in Fazenda, a small fishing community in the Tarrafal district of Santiago Island (cf. Appendix).

CVC verbal markers have often been described in the literature but the present work shows that context, adverbials of time and intonation must also be considered to determine the verbal marker’s semantics. Chapter One outlines the role of Santiago Island in the genesis of CVC and presents the structure and methodology of this study. Chapter Two offers a review of the literature on TMA markers in CVC. These previous studies are discussed in chronological order and some new insights are offered. Chapter Three presents an analysis of the meaning of CVC verbs when they are unmarked, showing that stativity is crucially relevant and that many verbs can be stative in one context and non-stative in others. Thus, CVC verbs fall into three groups according to whether their unmarked form indicates present, past or both.

Chapter Four presents the range of the functions of the marker ta with particular focus on its role in indicating habitual aspect. Chapter Five examines the following CVC progressive markers: (i) the markers sta ta and sta na focussing on the importance of the particles ta and na; (ii) the inland markers sata and ata; and (iii) the occurrence of ta in certain contexts with perception verbs indicating progressivity. Chapter Six offers a semantic and syntactic analysis of –ba (a suffixed anterior marker), dja (which can also be an adverb) and the least described verbal marker, al. Chapter Seven presents an exhaustive inventory of combination patterns involving all the markers referred to above, showing that there are strict rules concerning the markers’ position within verb phrase. Finally, Chapter Eight presents the main accomplishments of this study and suggests further research needed to help us better understand the CVC verb system, one of the most complex aspects of the language.

Keywords: Cape Verdean Creole (CVC), Santiago Island, Tarrafal, verb phrase, tense, mood and aspect (TMA), anterior, habitual, progressive, past, present and future.

ISBN 9783862889068. LINCOM Studies in Pidgin and Creole Languages 12 . 118pp. 2012.

Camfranglais: A glossary of common words, phrases and usages

Jean-Paul Kouega
University of Yaounde I

Camfranglais is a composite language variant, a type of pidgin that blends in the same speech act linguistic elements drawn first from French and secondly from English, Pidgin English, widespread Cameroonian languages, and other European languages like Latin and Spanish. It is used by secondary school pupils to discuss, among themselves to the exclusion of non-members, such issues as food, drinks, money, sex, physical look and the like. This speech form has been in use in Cameroon for barely three decades.

Though a very young language variant, it is as widespread as Fulfulde that has been used in the northern area of the country since the 15th century, as Pidgin English that has developed in the south-western areas since the 16th century and as Beti, a language group whose dialects have been natively spoken in the south-eastern areas. The present work is divided into two parts. Part One focuses first on the sociolinguistic contexts in which Camfranglais evolved and then on the linguistic features of this speech form. Part Two is a glossary which provides a lexical inventory of the most frequent Camfranglais terms used within the last decade.

ISBN 9783862884513. LINCOM Studies in Pidgin and Creole Languages 13. 323pp. 2013.