Typological Studies in Language
Creoles, their Substrates, and Language Typology
edited by Claire Lefebure
95
Creoles, their Substrates, and Language Typology
Typological Studies in Language (TSL) A companion series to the journal Studies in Language. Volumes in this series are functionally and typologically oriented, covering specific topics in language by collecting together data from a wide variety of languages and language typologies.
Editor Spike Gildea University of Oregon
Editorial Board Balthasar Bickel Leip1ig
John Haiman St Paul
Marianne Mithun Santa Barbara
Bernard Comrie Leip1ig I Santa Barbara
Martin Haspelmath Leipzig
Doris L. Payne Eugene, OR
Denis Creissels Lyon
Bernd Heine Koln
Franz Plank Konstanz
William Croft Albuquerque
Paul J. Hopper Pittsburgh
Anna Siewierska Lancaster
Nicholas Evans Canberra
Andrej A. Kibrik Moscow
Dan I. Slobin Berkeley
Carol Genetti Santa Barbara
Franti.Sek Lichtenberk Auckland
Sandra A. Thompson Santa Barbara
Volume95
Creoles, their Substrates, and Language Typology Edited by Claire Lefebvre
Creoles, their Substrates, and Language Typology Edited by
Claire Lefebvre University of Quebec at Montreal
John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam I Philadelphia
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences - Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Creoles, their substrates, and language typology I edited by Claire Lefebvre. p. em. (Typological Studies in Language, ISSN 0167-7373 ; v. 95) Includes bibliographical references and index. Creole dialects. 2. Typology (Linguistics) I. Lefebvre, Claire.
1.
PM7831.C737 417:22--dC22
2011 2010042474
ISBN 978 90 272 o676 3 (Hb ; alk. paper) ISBN 978 90 2;72 8743 4 (Eb) © 2011 -John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co.· P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 ME Amsterdam· The Netherlands John Benjamins North America· P.O. Box 27519 ·Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 ·usA
Table of contents
Preface
IX
Part I. Introduction The problem of the typological classification of creoles
3
Claire Lefebvre Part II. Creoles spoken in Africa and in the Caribbean :hd6 influence on Santome: Evidence from verb serialisation
37
Tjerk Hagemeijer and Ota Ogie A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Portuguese Creole of Santiago Island (Cape Verde)
61
!Urgen Lang Substrate influences in Kriyol: Guinea-Bissau and Casamance Portuguese-related Creole
81
AlainKihm One substrate. two creoles: The development of segmental inventories in St. Lucian and Haitian
105
Anne-Marie Brousseau. Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles: Haitian Creole, Saramaccan and Papiamentu
127
Claire Lefebvre Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the formation and development of the creoles of Suriname
Bettina Migge
155
VI
Creoles, their Substrates, and Language Typology
African substrata! influence on the countertactual in Belizean Creole
181
Genevieve Escure Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andres Creole Englishes: A comparison with Twi
201
Angela Bartens Palenque(ro ): The search for its African substrate
225
Armin Schwegler Part III. Creoles spoken in Asia Convergence-to-substratum and the passives in Singapore English
253
BaoZhiming Tone in Singlish: Substrate features from Sinitic and Malay
271
Lisa Lim The Cantonese substrate in China Coast Pidgin
Umberto Ansaldo, Stephen Matthews and Geoff Smith Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano
303
Anthony P. Gra.nt Negation in Ternate Chabacano
325
Eeva Sippola Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions: Calquing on the grammars of substrate languages
June Jacob a.nd Cha.rles R Gtimes Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates
Umberto Ansaldo Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb
Peter Slomanson
337
Table of contents
Part IV. Creoles spoken in the Pacific Papuan Malay of New Guinea: Melanesian influence on verb and clause structure
413
Mark Donohue The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English
437
Harold Koch Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol: Considering semantic categories
Jennifer Munro Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin: The origin of -im and -fela
Ha.rold Koch Limits of the substrate: Substrate grammatical influence in Solomon Islands Pijin
513
Angela Terrill Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacific Pidgin features in modern contact varieties
531
Jeff Siegel The copula in Hawai'i Creole English and substrate reinforcement
557
Sarah ]. Roberts KOn traduit Ia langue en fran~ais": Substrate influence in the TMA system ofTayo
575
Ba.rbara. Sandeman Part V. Conclusion Creoles and language typology
599
Bernard Comrie Index of authors
613
Index of languages and language families
619
Index of subjects
623
vn
Preface
This book is about creoles, their contributing languages, and language typology. At the tum of the millennium, the issue of the typological classification of creoles gave rise to a relatively large body of literature. It soon became evident to me that discussions on the topic would benefit a great deal from detailed case studies of creoles and their contributing languages, with special attention to their substrate languages. I therefore organised a one-day workshop on creoles and their substrates within the context of the 2007 International Conference on Historical Linguistics. In view of the success of the workshop, and given the interest in the theme, I decided to enlarge the scope of the originally planned book to a much wider sample of creole languages. This initiative resulted in the project that eventually led to this book. The bulk of the content of this book consists of 25 chapters comparing some 30 creoles and their respective substrate languages. As the substrate languages of these creoles are typologically different. the detailed investigation of substrate features in the creoles leads to a particular answer to the question of the typological classification ofcreoles. Thus, the first chapter, by myselt~ introduces the material analysed in the various chapters of this book from the point of view of language typology. The last chapter, by Bernard Comrie, which echoes the first, provides the typologist's point of view on the problem of the typological classification of creole languages and on the theoretical questions at stake in the discussion of this issue. I would like to thank all the authors who contributed to this book for bearing with the comparative approach set forth as a methodological tool at the beginning of this project and for their collaboration in reducing the length of their chapters and in addressing comments and questions by several reviewers. This brings me naturally to the review process adopted tor the production of this book. Each chapter was commented on by at least three readers. I would like to thank the following scholars for their thorough reviews of a subset of chapters: Umberto Ansaldo, Angela Bartens, Anne-Marie Brousseau, Hugo Cardoso, Clancy Clements, Marta Dijkhoff, Genevieve Escure, Antony Grant, Tjerk Hagemeijer, Christine Jourdan. Alain Kihm, Harold Koch, Lisa Lim, Angelika Lutz, Stephen Matthews, Bettina Migge, Robert Papen, Kevin Rottet, Jeff Siegel, Anand Syea, and Bao Zhiming. Naturally, I also commented on all the chapters. Lucie Kearns and Zofia Laubitz copy-edited the manuscript. I would like to thank them for the wonderful job they have accomplished considering the number oflanguages involved in the book, as well as the large number of non-native speakers of English who authored chapters of this book. Thanks to Annie Trudel for her assistance in the preparation of the indexes and in the submission of the final manuscript to the publishers. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for its financial contribution to the production of the final manuscript. Claire Lefebvre Universite du Quebec aMontreal, Montreal, December 1, 2009
Introduction
The problem of the typological classification of creoles* Claire Lefebvre Universite du Quebec aMontreal
This book contains 25 chapters bearing on detailed comparisons of some 30 creoles and their substrate languages. AB the substrate languages of these creoles are typologically different, the detailed investigation of substrate features in the creoles leads to a particular answer to the question of how creoles should be classified typologically. The present chapter therefore introduces the material analysed in the chapters of this book from the point of view oflanguage typology. I begin with a discussion of the problem of the typological classification of creole languages, and of the aims and limitations of this chapter. The bulk of the chapter provides an overview of the results of the research contained in the various chapters. First, I outline the ways in which the typological features ofthe substrate languages are manifested in the creoles. Second, I lay out a global picture of the variation found among creoles for various subsystems of the grammar. To a great extent, this variation reflects that displayed by the substrate languages of the creoles. Third, based on each author's proposals, I review the processes that led to such a situation and the constraints that are acting upon them. The chapter ends with my overall evaluation of the problem of the typological classification of creoles.
1.
The problem
Since creole languages draw their properties from both their substrate and superstrate sources, the typological classification of creoles has long been a major issue for creolists, typologists, and linguists in general Several proposals have been put forward in the literature. Because the labels of the lexical entries of creoles are derived from their superstrate languages, creoles have often been genealogically classified with their superstrate language. For example, Hall ( 19 50: 20 3) classifies Haitian Creole as a French dialect: "Haitian Creole is to be classified
The research underlying this chapter was partially financed by SSHRCC. I would like to thank Renee LambertBretiere for her assistance in documenting various aspects of the content ofthis chapter, and Annie Trudelfor contributing to producing the map showing the distribution of the creoles under investigation in this book. I am also grateful to the following colleagues for their insightful comments on an earlier version of this chapter: Umberto Ansaldo, Chuck Grimes, Harold Koch, Jiirgen Lang, Usa Urn, Stephen Matthews, Jeff Siegel, Armin Schwegler, Peter Slomanson and Bao Zhiming. Thanks to Andree Belanger for formatting the manuscript
4
Claire Lefebvre
among the Romance languages, and especially among the northern group of the Gallo- Romance branch, on the basis of its systematic phonological, morphologicaL syntactical and lexical correspondences:' Goodman (1964: 136) makes a similar statement: "I do feel impelled to restate, however, that on the basis of no purely linguistic criteria for genetic relationship which have thus far been advanced, including that of'parente syntaxique' advanced by Sylvain (1936: 121-122), can Creole French be classified with any specific language other than French:' Some authors have further claimed that, even from a typological point of view, creoles pair with their superstrate languages. Chaudenson (2003: 38), for example, writes: "[Les creoles sont] des idiomes issus des langues europeennes et qui se sont formes dans les societes coloniales entre le XVIe et XVIIIe siecles" ["[Creoles are] idioms that emerged from European languages and were formed in colonial societies between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries"] [our translation from French] . He further writes: "Si fon se place un point de vue typologique, la distance entre le fran~ais et les cn~oles fran~ais est assez restreinte" (p. 177) ["From a typological point of view, the distance between French and the French creoles is quite small"] [our translation from French]. Because the properties of a creole's lexical entries are derived from those of its substrate languages, some scholars have classified creoles as hybrid languages. Adam (1883:47) makes the following statement: "I go so far as to claim ... that the so-called patois of Guyana and Trinidad constitute Negro-Aryan dialects. By that I mean that the Guinean Negroes who were transported to the colonies adopted the words of French but. as much as possible, kept the phonetics and grammar of their mother tongues ... Such a formation is clearly hybrid ... The grammar is no different from the general grammar of the languages of Guinea" [our translation from French]. Speaking of Haitian Creole, Sylvain ( 19 36: 178) observes that: "We are in the presence of a French that has been cast in the mould of African syntax or ... of an Ewe language with a French vocabulary" [our translation from French]. Lefebvre (1998) shows at some length that. even though the phonological representations of Haitian Creole lexical entries are drawn from French phonetic strings, Haitian Creole shares its lexical properties, morphosyntax, concatenation prindples and the salient features of its parametric values with its West African substrate languages. In this approach, creole languages would pair typologically with their substrate languages rather than with their superstrate. A third approach is Bickerton's (1984) proposal that children, who are exposed to the impoverished pidgin grammar and lexicon spoken by their parents, fill in the gaps by drawing on language universal principles, thus creating a creole. The resulting creole languages are claimed to manifest only the unmarked values oflanguage. Further, due to the way they emerge, all creole languages are claimed to be alike. This may suggest that, from a typological point of view, creole languages constitute an identifiable group of languages that can be set apart from other natural languages. To my knowledge, Bickerton never went as far as to making this claim. McWhorter (2001), however, did, very specifically, as he wrote that: "Creole grammars constitute a synchronically identifiable class." This claim builds on an earlier one (McWhorter 1998:790) that creole languages constitute a "synchronically definable typological class." As can be seen from this brief summary of the major positions on the typological classification of creole languages, the topic is a controversial one. It has been the subject of hot debates as witnessed by the papers in, for example, the following volumes: Muysken and Smith (1986), Substrata 1'ersus Universals in Creole Genesis; the special issue of Linguistic Typology: "Creoles: A
a
The problem of the typologic:al classification of creoles
Structura-l Typer (2001); Michaelis (2008), Roots of Creole Structures: Weighing the Contribution ofSubstrates and Superstrates; Neumann-Holzschuh and Schneider (2001), Degrees ofRestru.cturing in Creole Languages; and Ansaldo et al (2007), Deconstructing Creole. 1
2.
Aims and limitations of this chapter
This chapter explores the problem of the typological classification of creole languages on the basis of a representative sample of some 30 creoles that have emerged from typologically different substrate languages. Creoles that have African languages as their substrates are Belizean Creole, Haitian Creole, Kriyol, Ndyuka, Nicaraguan, Palenque(ro), Pamaka, Papiamentu, Portuguese Creole of Santiago Island, Providence Island Creole, Saramaccan/Saamaka, San Andres Islands Creole, Santome, Sranan Tango and St. Lucian; those that have Asian languages as their substrates are China Coast Pidgin, Kupang Malay, Mindanao Chabacano, Singapore English or Singlish, Sri Lanka(n) Malay and Ternate Chabacano; those that have Pacific languages as their substrates are Central Australian Aboriginal English (CAAE), Hawai'i Creole, Kriol, New South Wales Pidgin (NSWP), Papuan Malay, Solomon Islands Pijin and Tayo. The location of these languages is indicated on the world map below. As can be seen above, for ease of presentation, the creoles have been grouped by geographical area. In the case of creoles spoken in Africa or in the Caribbean, the substrate languages are all from the same language family: Niger-Congo. However, in the case of creoles spoken in Asia and in the Pacific, the situation is not as simple. For example, several Malay-based creoles are described in this volume. While Malay itself is an Austronesian language (western branch), the substrate languages that are involved in the Malay-based creoles are varied. Kupang Malay has other Austronesian languages (central branch) as its substrate languages. Papuan Malay has various (non-Austronesian) Papuan languages as its substrate languages. Sri Lanka(n) Malay has substrate languages that belong in different language families, with Tamil, a Dravidian language, and Sinhala, an Indo-European language, as two major substrate languages (in Slomanson's view) or adstrate languages (in Ansaldo's view). CAAE, Kriol and NSWP have Australian languages as their substrate languages. Tok Pisin, Bislama, Solomon Islands Pijin and Tayo, spoken in the Pacific, have mainly Austronesian languages as their substrate, as does Chabacano spoken in the Philippines. In the list of creole languages enumerated above, all except four are commonly referred to as creoles. China Coast Pidgin and New South Wales Pidgin are commonly referred to as pidgins on the basis of the fact that they do not have native speakers (as opposed to creoles, which do have native speakers). In the literature on the "New Englishes" of the world, Singapore English and Central Australian Aboriginal English are generally considered to be varieties of English. In this chapter, I will use the term Kcreole" as an overall term for the languages referred to as such, as well as for these two pidgins and these two varieties of"New Englishes': In doing this, I do not want to open a debate on the status of these four contact languages. The reason for using the term "creole" is merely practical. But it is also in line with the fact that scholars have started referring to 1.
See also Lim and Gisborne (2009), The 7ypology of Asian Englishes.
Q\
()
j[
-
~
~,,;=~
·•
."'• ..•
.
-~· "'"'
41&
~ ~
-
~
r
~
-~
'\loo
~
8'
• .,•
•
Cl
"''
~
otj~~"1~ •. ...... - ,•,-
i
•
•
'e
.., @!I /;. -.... 1. Hawai'i Creole 2. Belizean Creole 3. Nicaraguan Creole 4. San Andres Creole
5. Palenque(ro) 6. Hatitian Creole 7. Providence Creole
8. St. lucian Creole 9. Papiarnentu 10. Sararnaccan!Saamaka Pam aka Ndyuka Sranan Tongo 11. Santiago Island Creole
Map 1. Creole languages discussed in this book
12. Casamance Creole 13. Kriyol 14. Santome 15. Sri Lanka(n) Malay
19. Mindanao Chabacano 20. Ternate Chabacano 21. Melanesian Pidgin 22. Kupang Malay
16. China Coast Pidgin 17. Chinese Pidgin English 18. Singapore English
23. Papuan Malay 24. Tok Pisin 25. Solomon Island's Pijin
26. 27. 28. 29.
Bislarna Kriol New South Wales Pidgin Tayo
The problem of the typologic:al classification of creoles
pidgins and creoles as PCs, suggesting that they fall within a single category (e. g., Hancock 1980; Mufwene 1990; Mi.ihlhausler 1980, 1986). The rationale behind this grouping is that the creation of pidgins and of creoles involves the same processes (e.g., Lefebvre 1998). As for the two varieties of English referred to above, the context in which they emerged differs from that in which the plantation creoles were created. These two contexts, however, share an important feature. They both involve multilingual communities in need of a lingua franca. Hence, Singapore English was created in a multilingual community- involving Malay and several Sinitic languages- in need of a lingua franca. Likewise, Central Australian Aboriginal Pidgin was also created in a multilingual community- involving several Australian languages - that needed a lingua franca. Furthermore, the creation of these New Englishes makes use of the same processes that are at work in the formation of pidgins and creoles (see the chapters by Baa, Koch and Siegel). Finally, this grouping is in line with Koch (a), who considers the variety of CAAE he is reporting on in this volume as a post-pidgin variety that is quite distinct from other varieties also referred to as CAAE (such as those discussed in Eades 1991, 1996), which in fact constitute dialects of English. The book contains 25 chapters that set out detailed comparisons of subsystems of the above sample of creoles with their respective major substrate languages. The major subsystems of ereales' grammars and lexicons discussed in this book include segmental inventories, pronouns, case systems, the syntactic properties of verbs, copulas, Tense-Mood-Aspect (TMA), negation, serial verbs and discourse structures. The results of these comparisons constitute test cases for the various positions summarised above on the typological classification of creoles. As will be seen below, the bulk of the data argue that creoles are best typologically classified with their substrate languages. As will be further discussed in Section 4.2, this may reflect the fact that, except for two chapters, all the chapters in this book discuss data that belong in the lexical or in the syntactic components of the grammar. These are two components in which we expect substrate features to manifest themselves in the creoles, due to the processes that create creoles' lexicons and syntax (see Section 3.3). As for the phonological component of the grammar, it is discussed in only two chapters. Brousseau addresses the source of the segmental inventories of Haitian and St. Lucian creoles, and Lim discusses the source of tones in Singlish. More detailed comparisons of segmental inventories, prosodic and syllabic structures of creoles and their contributing languages are needed for a thorough discussion of the typological features of creoles in this component of the grammar. The same remark applies to word order. The fact that there are so few chapters on the phonological component of the grammar and none on word order is not intentional. It simply reflects the fact that few authors volunteered chapters on the phonology and none on word order. I now turn to a discussion of the results from a global perspective.
3·
Overview of the results
First, I will summarise the various ways in which the typological features of the substrates are manifested in creoles. Next I will consider data from various subsystems of the grammar across creoles from different substrate languages, showing that the typological differences between these data reflect the typological differences between the substrate languages. Then I will review the various processes proposed to account for the presence of substrate features in the creoles.
7
8
Claire Lefebvre
Finally, I will provide an overview of the various constraints invoked by authors to explain why some substrate features did or did not make their way into the creoles.
3.1
Ways in which the typological features of the substrate are manifested in creoles
3.1.1
Creoles spoken in Africa and in the Caribbean
Hagemeijerand Ogie study the inventory of serial verb constructions (SVC) in Santome and Edo. They conclude that "pretty much the full range of types ofSVCs in Edo can also be found in Santome." They note, however, that "the languages often differ with respect to the more fine-grained properties of SVCs, which is expected from many centuries of independent development and, foremost, due to the creolisation process itself.' Lang compares the manifestation of Aspect in Santiago Creole and in Wolof. He shows that "... the Santiago Creole progressive has retained only the progressive meaning of the imperfective variety of the Wolof'situative~ abandoning its 'situative' meaning:' He suggests that levelling accounts for the difference between the two: "This simplification would have occurred to ease the joining of other groups whose language may have had a progressive, but not a 'situative' with a progressive meaning in the imperfective." In the same vein, Migge compares the Tense, Mood and Aspect systems of the Surinamese creoles with those of the Gbe languages. While the com paris on between the two sets manifests many similarities, Migge notes that substrate influence is not a "unified process" since "its operation and outcomes appear to take different forms, most likely due to its interaction with other processes and sources:' Escure studies the influence of the substrate languages ofBelize Creole on its tense and mood system: "... maintenance of African elements, including the intact preservation of some essential verbal morphology such as ANT me and its counterfactual structure. Direct African antecedents have been found for this structure (Ibibio/Efik, Kituba, Swahili and generally Bantoid languages). Its anteriority morpheme, the specific shape of its futurity/irrealis marker and its related counterfactual combinations appear to closely mirror aspects of Bantu morphology, as well as the semantics of hypothetical events." In her chapter on the phonology of Haitian and St Lucian, Brousseau compares the segmental inventories of the two creoles with those of French and of Fongbe in order to evaluate the impact of the substrate languages on the development of these systems. She concludes that "The influence of the substrate is pervasive in the inventories of the two creoles, even for cases where we could convincingly argue for the role of Universal Grammar:' Lefebvre compares the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles - Haitian, Saramaccan and Papiamentu - with those of their contributing languages: Fongbe, an important substrate language, and French, English and Spanish, the respective lexifier languages of the three creoles. The verbal properties that are compared are the following: BODY-state expressions, WEATHER verbs, raising verbs, control verbs, double-object verbs and serial verbs. The three-way comparison shows that first, the properties of verbs in the three creoles often contrast with those of the corresponding verbs in their respective superstrate languages; second, these properties systematically parallel those of the corresponding verbs in their substrate languages; and third, the properties of the substrate verbs manifest themselves in all three creoles, in spite of the fact that they have different superstrate languages.
The problem of the typologic:al classification of creoles
Bartens compares some 30 phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical features in Twi and in the English-based creoles spoken on San Andres and Old Providence (Colombia) and on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. Her conclusion is the following: "In a number of cases, it was impossible to make a case for exclusive substrate influence and it seems preferable to speak of convergence. However, there are also many language structures for which substrate influence offers the most likely explanation:' As for Schwegler, he compares Palenquero and Kikongo. His assessment of the situation is as follows: "... We have noted that substrata! influence can be detected in multiple domains: in the creole's lexicon, where dozens of words are traceable to Kikongo etyma; in its phonology, where several features (including prenasalisation, the free [d], [r] and [1] alternations, and peculiar intonational patterns) point to Kikongo roots; and in its morphosyntax, where nominal pluralisations with ma and reiterative PIN marking in the singular (e.g., yo i kele-lo 'I want it'), and a host of other traits are similarly suggestive of Kikongo input." However, Palenquero has not preserved the class-concord agreement system that characterises many Bantu languages. To sum up, the creoles with a Niger-Congo substrate discussed in the first part of the book all appear to manifest features of their substrate languages. As some authors note, however, certain substrate features may not appear in the creole due to interaction between various processes (e.g., transfer and levelling in Lang's chapter, several processes in Migge's chapter) (see also Section 3.3). Kriyol. spoken in Guinea-Bissau, departs from this general tendency. Kihm's explanation of why this is so will be discussed in Section 3.4. 3.1.2
Creoles spoken in Asia
Two chapters concern Singapore English!Singlish (two appellations for the same language variety), one about syntax, the other about phonology. Bao compares the patterns of the passive constructions in the Singaporean component of the International Corpus of English with the substrate passive constructions. He shows that the substrate passives are adversative and that the Singapore English passives exhibit a clear adversative bias. Furthermore, he shows that the quantitative analysis supports two distinct mechanisms of substratum influence: "the abrupt substratum transfer (the locally derived passives) and the gradual convergence-to-substratum (the English-derived passives):' Lim's chapter focuses on the origin of tones in Singlish, the mesolectal!basilectal variety of English spoken in Singapore. Singlish has two major substrate languages: the Sinitic substrate languages, which have tones, and Malay, which does not A first hypothesis would posit that the tone observed in Singlish originates in the Sinitic substrate languages. As Lim points out, however, the situation is more complex. As she puts it, "even when the foa.ture of tone may be ascribed to the tone language substrates, the actual realisation in terms of prosodic patterns - for instance, in the case of Singlish, the location of the H tone at word or phrase level- can be influenced by the prosody of a non-tone language; in the case of Singlish, this is Malay. What is also significant is that this is the language of a population - the Peranakans - that is recognised as having been an earlier or founder population in the ecology, which therefore exerts a significant influence on the structure of the emergent contact language." In their comparative study of serial verbs, classifiers, properties of verbs, copulas, negation, TMA, pronouns, Wh-interrogatives, topic-comment structures and compounds, Ansaldo, Matthews and Smith argue that Cantonese typological features are reproduced in China Coast Pidgin.
9
10
Claire Lefebvre
Grant and Sippola study two creole varieties spoken in the Philippines: Mindanao Chabacano (MC) and Ternate Chabacano (TC), respectively. Grant concludes that "between Spanish, Central Philippine languages and some sort of Manila Bay Creole, almost all the grammar of MC could be included as 'substrate features:' As for Sippola, she concludes her study of negation as follows: "... It can be affirmed that the main pattern of Ternate Chabacano negation follows its adstrate language Tagalog when distinguishing the standard clausal negation and the negation of existentials and possession." The chapter by Jacob and Grimes describes the serial verb constructions of Kupang Malay and those ofits substrate languages. The parallel between the structures, functions, and semantics of SVCs in Kupang and those in the substrate languages is quite striking, whereas there are simply no parallels found with standard Malay grammar. There are two chapters on Sri Lanka(n) Malay (SLM). Ansaldo shows that the Lankan case system has been reproduced in SLM: "SLM has developed agglutinative morphology with incipient fusional tendencies in the nominal system, which indicates a typological shift away from the isolating type." As for Tense and Aspect, the results are split between the two contributing languages. While tense reflects the Lankan tense system, the as pectual system retains some of the aspectual categories of Malay. Slomanson's study of the morphosyntax of SLM leads him to the following conclusion: "... The morphosyntax of SLM substantially reflects influence from the Sri Lanka(n) sprachbund [... ] While a small number of features and processes from vehicular Malay persist in SLM, such as the fixed pre-verbal position of those functional contrasts directly marked on lexical verbs and the categorial flexibility of adjectives, the language's morphosyntax has incorporated more features from its Shonam model language than it has retained from vehicular
Mala}( To sum up, the creoles spoken in Asia all appear to manifest features of their substrate languages. 3.1.3
Creoles spoken in the Pacific
Donohue investigates the serial verb constructions of Papuan Malay and its substrate languages. His conclusion is that Papuan Malay SVCs manifest the properties of its New Guinea Papuan substrate languages. The first chapter by Koch (hereafter Koch a) discusses data from three areas of the grammar of CAAE, and compares it with Kaytetye, one of the Arandic substrate languages. It shows how two relatively exotic grammatical categories found in Kaytetye (and other Arandic languages) -"dyadic" in kinship nouns and "associated motion" in verbs- are replicated in CAAE using formal material derived from English. Koch (a) further compares the use of CAAE prepositions, whose forms are from English, with Kaytetye case functions. He concludes that "the organisation of the semantic 'functions' of the cases is replicated in considerable detail in the use of the CAAE prepositions" (see Section 3.2.5). Munro considers pronouns, TMA markers and case in Kriol and its substrate Australian languages. She reaches a conclusion similar to that ofthe aforementioned authors: The properties of the lexical items involved in the Kriol subsystems of the grammar reproduce those of its substrate languages. She emphasises the fact that Aboriginal languages are agglutinating languages and how the properties of the affixes are reproduced in free morphemes in the creole (see Section 4.3).
The problem of the typologic:al classification of creoles
In his study of N SWP and its contributing languages, Koch (hereafter Koch b) shows that the grammatical features of zero expression third-person singular objects and Noun Phrase head nouns are indirectly reflected in -im and -fela, respectively. Siegel considers pan-Pacific Pidgin features in modern contact varieties. Many grammatical features of Pacific Pidgin English, NSWP and Chinese Pidgin English were attested in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), Solomon Islands, New Guinea Islands, Hawai'i and the Northern Territory of Australia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the creole that later developed in each of these locations, a different subset of these "Pan-Pacific" features was retained. Siegel examines nine of these features to see whether their presence or absence in each of the five modern contact varieties can be accounted for by the presence or absence of the same features in the substrate languages. The results show that "for at least seven of the nine Pan- Pacific features, when the feature is present in the contact variety, a corresponding feature is also present in the substrate languages, and when it is absent in the contact variety, it is absent in the substrate languages." The chapter by Roberts "presents comparative and diachronic evidence indicating that substrate patterns played a significant role in the development of the copula in Hawai'i Creole English (HCE). The predominantly Cantonese, Portuguese, Hawaiian, and Japanese substrate did not contribute much to the innovation oflexical forms since HCE drew on a pre-existing pidgin, but the transference and reinforcement of semantic and syntactic properties from these languages with the exception of Japanese - is detectible in the copula system that arose in H CE:' About Tayo, Sandeman writes: "Research carried out to date on Tayo indicates that many of its structures depart radically from what has been considered a 'typical' creole pattern; instead, they appear to more closely resemble structures in the substrate languages:' Her specific study of the TMA subsystem illustrates this more general claim. To sum up, here again the creoles appear to manifest the properties of their substrate languages. Since the last chapter of this section, by Terrill on Solomon Islands Pijin, is dedicated to constraints on transference, it will be discussed in Section 3.4. 3.1.4
Summary
The data reported on in this section show that, to a great extent, creoles reproduce the features of their substrate languages. This conclusion becomes even more evident when we compare subsystems of the grammar across creoles.
3.2
Subsystems of the grammar across creoles
This section considers subsystems of the grammar across creoles from typologically different substrates. The following subsystems will be discussed in tum: pronominal forms, classifiers, TMA systems, negation, semantic case systems, transitivity markers, the properties of verbs, serial verbs, verb-doubling phenomena and discourse structures. In the paragraphs that follow, it is shown that typological differences between subsystems of the grammar across creoles reveal typological differences between their respective substrate languages.
11
12
Claire Lefebvre
3.2.1
Pronomina.l fm·ms
Creole languages differ with respect to their pronominal inventories. For example, Kriol has a pronominal system that distinguishes between singular, dual and plural pronouns, and also between first-person plural inclusive and exclusive. These forms are all constructed on the basis of English pronominal forms (e.g., mi < me, yu
Table 1. The pronomlnal system ofKriol (adapted from Munro 2004: 123) Singular
Dual
Plural
yunduhala dubala
yumop
yunmi
wi
mindubalalminbala
melabat/mela
ailmi
yu
2 3
im inclusive exclusive
olabat
Table 2. The pronominal system of Haitian Creole (from Valdman et al. 1981; Fattier 1998, vol. 2: 850)
mwen ou/[wu]
li nou
yo
'I, me' 'you (sG)'
HAITIAN
'he/she/it/him/her' 'we/UB/you (PL)' 'they/them'
2. Note that, as is reported in Lefebvre (1998: 142), traditional Fongbe grammars (e.g., Anonymous 1983) sometimes represent the form meaning 'we' as ml (bearing a complex1ow-high tone) and the form meaning 'you (PL)' as mi (bearing a mid-tone). Mid and low-high tones are phonetic variants (see Capo 1991); the distinction between the two is thus phonemically irrelevant Furthermore, extensive fieldwork by Brousseau (1995) on the tonological specification of the form m{ reveals that this form always bears a phonological high tone.
The problem of the typologic:al classification of creoles
Table 3. The pronominal system of Alawa (Munro 2004: 122) Singular
Dual
Plural
wurru yirrurla
wulu yilurla
nyanu ngarru
nyalu ngalu
ngina
nyagana nurla (M) nga durla (F)
2 3
inclusive exclusive
Table 4. The pronominal system ofKriol substrate languages (adapted from Munro 2004: 121)
2 3
Singular
Dual
Plural
"
""" "
"" ""
"
inclusive exclusive
Table 5. The pronominal system ofFongbe (= (18) in Brousseau 1995) ny£ hwe
e(ye) m{
>-e
i,me' 'you (so)' 'he/she/it/him/her' 'we/us/you (PL)' 'they/them'
for second-person singular and plural, and it has a first-person plural inclusive/exclusive distinction, like the Philippine languages. 3.2.2
Classifiers
Not all creole languages have classifiers. As expected, classifiers are found only in those creoles whose substrate languages have them. For example, noun phrases in China Coast Pidgin (Ansaldo, Matthews and Smith) have the patterns [NUM-CL-N] and [DEM-CL-N), reproducing the classifiers of its Sinitic substrate languages. 3.2.3
TMA systems
The TMA systems of creole languages exhibit variation. This is supported by the comparison of the Kriol TMA system reproduced in Table 6 from Munro, with that of Haitian Creole in Table 7 from Lefebvre (1996). In this book, TMA systems are documented for the following creoles: Surinamese (Migge), Tayo (Sandeman), Sri Lanka(n) Malay (Ansaldo, Slomanson), Kriyol (Kihm), China Coast Pidgin (Ansaldo, Matthews and Smith), Santiago Creole (Lang) and Kriol (Munro). Again, all authors agree that the features of the TMA systems of these creoles most resemble those of their
13
14
Claire Lefebvre
Table 6. The TMA system ofKriol (=Table 6 in Munro) Realis tense
bin 0
Irrealis mood
Aspect
oldei stil stat onli jes -bat
Past Present
Continuative Durative Incipient Limitational Proximal Pro12:essive Habitual
yusdu
garra -l mait gin
gan lafda
Obligatory (Future) Definite lsG Potential Abilitive Inabilitive Necessary
Table 7. The TMA system ofHaitianCreole (from Lefebvre 1996:239) ANTERIOR
IRREALIS
NON-COMPLETE
Past or Past perfect
Definite future
Imperfective
te
ap
ap
Indefinite future
a-va Subjunctive pou
Table 8. Irwentories of'IMA markers in Haitian Creole and Fongbe (= (115) in Lefebvre 1996:263) NON-COMPLETE
ANTERIOR
IRREALIS
Past or Past perfect
Definite future
H
F
H
F
te
kO
ap
n4
Habitual H
Imperfective F
H
F
n3
ap
c(O••• we
Indefinite future H
F
a-va
na-wd
Subjunctive H
F
pou
n{
respective substrates, such that, the typological differences between them manifest typological differences between their substrate languages. Munro shows that the semantics associated with the categories of tense, mood and aspect reflects substrate features, such as the distinction between past punctual and past continuous aspect, and the expression of future and potential mood. She remarks that "evitative" mood, tound in TMA systems of the substrate languages, is not manifested in Kriol She explains this absence by the unavailability of an appropriate form in the superstrate language to transfer evitative mood to (see Section 3.4). The TMA systems of Atlantic creoles reproduce the particularities of their West African substrate languages. This is illustrated in Table 8 for Haitian Creole and Fongbe from Lefebvre (1996 and the references therein).
The problem of the typologic:al classification of creoles
Except for the fact that it does not distinguish between definite and indefinite future, the TMA system of Saramaccan is very similar to those of Haitian and Fongbe. It encodes tense, mood and aspect by means of an inventory of TMA markers made up of the marker of anteriority bi (< English been), the future marker 6 (< English go), the subjunctive marker fu (< English for), and the imperfective marker ta (
3- The TMA system of Papiamentu used to be seen as departing from that of the other Caribbean creoles (e.g., Muysken 1981b). The analysis in Kouwenberg and Lefebvre (2007), however, shows that the TMA system of this language is in fact quite similar to those of the other Caribbean creoles and thus to those of its Gbe substrate languages.
15
16
Claire Lefebvre
In his comparison of SLM with its superstrate and adstrate (Sinhala) languages, Ansaldo concludes that the TMA system of SLM draws from both its sources. Slomanson argues in his comparison of SLM with its superstrate and Shonam substrate language, that, in SLM, TMA categories are pre-verbal bound markers modelled on Shonam: "There are clear parallels in the functional contrasts that are explicitly morphologised in SLM, using processes comparable or identical to those that we find in Shonam, such as inflection and agglutination (... )." Furthermore, he shows that SLM manifests contrastive tense marking, just as Shonam does. The fact that Ansaldo and Slomanson do not reach exactly the same conclusion appears to be linked to the fact that they do not evaluate the role of the various contributing languages in the same way. While Ansaldo emphasises the role of Sinhala and Tamil, Slomanson focuses on Shonam. 3.2.4 Negation Negation, which is discussed for several creoles - Ternate Chabacano (Sippola), China Coast Pidgin (Ansaldo, Matthews and Smith), Belizean Creole (Escure), Mindanao Chabacano (Grant) and Sri Lanka(n) Malay (Slomanson) - is another subsystem of the grammar in which creoles manifest the typological differences of their substrates. For example, Sippola shows that the properties of the negation system in Ternate Chabacano, namely standard clausal negation and negation of existentials and possession, are analogous to what is observed in Tagalog. Another example comes from Belizean Creole which encodes past negation by a morpheme (neva) that is different from that used to encode general negation. Past negation markers are also found in the Mrican substrate languages of Belizean Creole such as lbibio, Mandinka and Swahili. In Sri Lanka(n) Malay, there is an interaction between the expression of negation and finiteness. Slomanson shows that SLM has two etymologically unrelated negation markers, the choice of which is solely determined by the finiteness of an associated verb. He further shows that overt tense morphology is suppressed when a lexical verb is negated. Both these features of negation are attributed to Shonam. As Slomanson mentions, the second feature is not found in other substrate languages of Sri Lanka(n) Malay such as Sinhala. 3.2.5 Semantic case systems Some creoles manitest overt semantic cases and some do not Creoles that do manifest overt semantic cases are those whose substrate languages do so as well. In this book. the case systems of three creoles are documented: Sri Lanka(n) Malay and its Sinhala adstrate (Ansaldo), Kriol and its Australian substrate languages such as Alawa (Munro), and CAAE and its Australian substrate languages such as Kaytetye (Koch a). As will be seen below, all three reproduce the case inventories of their respective substrate languages. Ansaldo shows that the case system of SLM reproduces the Sinhala case system almost to perfection. This is shown in Table 9. Ansaldo sees one difference between the creole and the Sinhala case systems: "In SLM, Genitive and Locative receive different marking; SLM therefore has a specialised Possessive marker, an innovation in relation to the adstrates." Munro and Koch (a) both show that the Australian creoles they study reproduce the case inventories of their respective substrate languages. In this case, however, the inventories are realised as prepositions instead of as suffixes. Table 10, from Munro, shows the similarity in the case systems of Kriol and Alawa. There is one difference: In Alawa, "Accompaniment is [... ] not marked
The problem of the typologic:al classification of creoles
Table 9. The semantic case systems ofSLM and ofSinhala (adapted from Table 2 inAnsaldo) Functions expressed Agent Experiencer Goal Beneficiary Possessor Patient Possession Location Instrwnent Source Assodation
SINH ALA
SRI LANKA(N) MALAY
Case suflrus (forms not given)
Case suffixes
Nominative Dative Dative Dative Dative Accusative Genitivenocative Genitivenocative Instrwnental/ablative Instrwnental/ablative Comitative
Nominative Dative Dative Dative Dative Definite object marking Genitive Locative Instrwnental/ablative Instrwnental/ablative Comitative
-"
_,umg -1Jang _,Jang -1Jang -yang
-pe -ka
-ring -ring
-le
Table 10. The semantic case systems of Kriol and Alawa (from Munro) Functions expressed
ALAWA
KR.JOL
Case suffixes
Prepositions
Location
-rru 'allative'
langa, la
Goal
-rru 'allati ve'
langa, la
Source
-yunu 'ablative'
burrum, brom
Possession
-ja 'genitive'
blang, bla
Purpose
-ja 'genitive'
blonJY bla
Instrwnent
-rri 'instrwnental'
garra
Accompaniment
(no case; nominal suffix -wanjt)
garra
through a case suffix as such. The fact that Accompaniment is expressed with the same form as Instrument in Kriol is therefore unexpected:'4 Table 11 from Koch (a) shows the similarity in the case systems of CAAE and Kaytetye. As Table 11 shows, however, some CAAE prepositions may correspond to more than one form in the substrate language. As Koch (a) comments: "The syncretism in the expression of the Locative and Allative by longa and the use offrom to express a number of semantic functions that are distinguished in Kaytetye does not seem to indicate a simplification of the system of semantic functions so much as the lack of available lexical items in English that could be recruited for their expression" (see Section 3.4).
4· Harold Koch (p.c.) comments: i believe the Location function should be -rri 'locative' (Sharpe 1972: 62)- the same form as Instrwnent. If this is correct, a second difference between Alawa and Kriol is the fact that Location and Instrwnent are expressed differently in the latter. (This may reflect the grammar of other substrate languages rather than Alawa: Australian languages differ as to whether they express Instrwnent by a form identical to Locative or something else (usually Ergative or the 'having' case); it seems that Kriol garra (from gotfem) reflects the latter strategy, which was probably present in some of the Kriol substratwn languages.")
17
18
Claire Lefebvre
Table 11. The case systelll8 ofCAAE and Kaytetye (adapted from Table 3 in Koch a) Functions expressed Location Instrumental Goal Purpose Specific location/goal Terminative Perlative Source Cause Comparison Material source Prior condition Aversive Possessive Purpose Purpose Recipient Proprietive Proprietive Privative
Case suffixes
CAAE Prepositions
-le, -nge 'locative' -le, -nge 'locative' -warle 'allative' -warle 'allative' x N -let-nge/-warle -wartetye 'terminative' -a,Jgkwerre 'perlative' -theye 'ablative' -theye 'ablative' -theye 'ablative' -penhe 'sequentive' -penhe 'sequentive' -ketye 'aversive' -arenge 'possessive' -warle 'allative' -we 'dative' -we 'dative' -akake 'proprietive' -akake 'proprietive' -wanenye 'privative'
longa longa longa longa x longa right up longa through lo,Jga from from from from from from blong(int)a blong(int)a for for with gottem,got (got) no
KAYTJ!TYJ!
To sum up, the data on semantic case discussed above show that SLM, Kriol and CAAE feature different subsets of cases. Each subset in the creoles corresponds to the respective subset of the creoles' substrate languages, within the limits imposed by the constraints that act on the processes responsible for this state of affairs (for further discussion, see Section 3.4).
Transitivity markers Creole languages vary with respect to the availability of transitivity markers, which attach to transitive verbs, thus allowing for a grammatical distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs. By hypothesis, transitivity markers should manifest themselves in creoles whose substrate languages make a grammatical distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs. Thus, this feature is expected not to appear in creole languages with a West African substrate since the latter do not feature this distinction. This expectation is borne out by the data, as no Caribbean or West Mrican creole has been reported to have transitivity markers. However, transitivity markers are expected to appear in creole languages with Austronesian substrate languages such as Tangoan, Kwaio or Tolai, since the latter do feature this distinction. Siegel identifies the availability of transitivity markers as a Pan-Pacific Pidgin feature. For example, they are found in the three dialects of Melanesian Pidgin reported on in (1) to ( 3) (= (82) to (84) in Siegel). 3.2.6
The problem of the typologic:al classification of creoles
(1)
(2)
(3)
stll 'commit theft' kuk'cook.' bon 'be burning'
stll-im 'steal [something]' kuk-um 'cook [something]' bon-em 'burn [something]'
luk1ook' stil 'commit theft' dig 'dig'
luk-im 'see' stil-im 'steal [something]' dig-im siton 'dig up a stone'
bruk 'break, be broken' kuk'cook.' wok 'work, be busy>
bruk-im 'break. tear' kuk-im 'cook [something]' wok-im 'to make [something], build'
BISLAMA (Crowley 2004: 77) PIJIN (Keesl..ng n.d.) ToKPISIN (Mosel1980:41)
The presence of a transitivity marker in these dialects of Melanesian Pidgin reproduces the pattern of their substrate languages, as is shown in (4) to (6) ( = (86) to (88) in Siegel). (4)
(5)
For Btslam.a:
sua-i 'paddle [something]' inu-mi 'drink, swallow [something]'
keco 'be hanging'
keco-ci 'hang [something]'
For Pijin:
aga 1ook' beri 'commit theft' takwe 'dig' (6)
TANGOAN
sua 'to paddle' inu 'drink'
KWAIO
aga-si-a 'see (it)' beri-a 'steal it' takwe-a fou 'dig up a stone'
For Tok Pisin:
gumu 'dive, bath' tang! 'cry, weep' ngarau 'be afraid'
(Camden 1979:90)
(Keesing n.d.) To LAI
gumu-e 'dive for [something]' tani-e 'mourn for [someone or something]' ngarau-ane 'be afraid of [someone or something]' (Mosel1980: 42-43)
This would appear to be just like the other cases discussed so far were it not for the fact that some creoles spoken in the Pacific region do manifest transitivity markers while their substrate languages do not This is the case, for example, of creoles that have Australian languages as their substrate languages. For example, Kriol manifests a transitivity marker, as shown in (7) (= (85) in Siegel). (7)
rid 'read'
kuk'cook.'
barn 'be burning'
rid-im 'read [something]' KRioL kuk-um 'cook [something]' barn-im 'burn [something or someone]' (Sandefur & Sandefur 1979)
CAAE and NSWP also manifest transitivity markers (Koch a and b). These three creoles all have Australian languages as their substrates that do not manifest transitivity markers. A possible conelusion would be that, in these cases, the presence of transitivity markers on the verb cannot be claimed to reproduce a feature of the substrate languages. Nevertheless, Koch (b) argues that the development of transitivity markers on verbs in these creoles was motivated by the properties of their substrate languages. His argument can be summarised as follows: Australian languages have a syntactic ergative case system whereby the subject of a transitive verb bears Ergative case
19
20
Claire Lefebvre
and that of an intransitive verb bears Nominative case (Blake 1987; Koch 2007). This case system reflects a deeper typological characteristic of Australian languages: Every verb "is either strictly transitive ... or strictly intransitive" (Dixon 1980: 378). Koch (b) thus suggests that Kergative casemarking of NPs is a surface manifestation of a deep lexico-grammatical principle of language organisation, namely the rigid distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs (and hence clause types). And it is this grammatical principle, ingrained in the consciousness of AL speakers, that was influential in promoting, in the developing pidgin, the polarisation in form between transitive verbs (VERBim) and intransitive verbs (VERB). The existence of a recognisable termination -im (and perhaps its minor variant -it) was exploited by native speakers of 'ergative' languages to keep separate the two categories of verbs which their internalised grammars led them to expect in the pidgin they were learning, and whose distinctiveness could not otherwise be signalled." Siegel further comments: "lt seems clear that having a marked distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs may have reinforced the use of the feature." At the end of this discussion, there remains the question of whether the syntactic ergative case system of these Australian languages has been reproduced in the relevant creoles. The answer to this question is no. This topic will be addressed in Section 3.4. 3.2.7 The properties of1'erbs In the same vein, verbs and verb classes do not have the same properties in all creoles. Again, the properties of creole verbs manifest those of their substrate languages. This is evidenced by data presented by Lefebvre and by Bartens for Caribbean creoles, by Koch (a) for CAAE, and by Ansaldo, Matthews and Smith for China Coast Pidgin. For example, CAAE has associated motion verbs modelled on its substrate Australian languages (Koch a). Creoles without such substrate languages do not manifest this feature. Caribbean creoles have double-object verbs, like their substrate languages (Lefebvre). As Michaelis and Haspelmath (2003) note, double-object verbs are found only in those creoles whose substrates manifest the construction. 3.2.8 Serial verbs Serial verb constructions are available in some creoles but not in others. They exist in creoles whose substrate has the construction (e.g., creoles with a West African or a Sinitic substrate). They are not available in creoles whose substrate does not have the construction (e.g., creoles with an Australian substrate). Furthermore, although there might be some overlap between the concatenation of verbs in languages that teature this construction, by hypothesis, the concatenation of verbs might not necessarily be the same for all the languages that manifest the construction. In this book, serial verbs are documented for Santome (Hagemeijer and Ogie), Kupuang Malay (Jacob and Grimes), Papuan Malay (Donohue), and China Coast English (Ansaldo, Matthews and Smith). According to all these authors, the concatenations of verbs in the above-mentioned creoles replicate those found in their respective substrates. While the authors do provide the possible concatenations of verbs in the languages they study, they do not list the impossible ones (a task which would have been far beyond what was expected of them). The fuller identification of differential concatenations of verbs among the creoles under investigation will therefore have to await future research.
The problem of the typologic:al classification of creoles
3.2.9 Verb -doubling phenomena Creole languages also vary with respect to the availability of verb-doubling phenomena. These are partially discussed in Hagemeijer and Ogie, and in Bartens. They involve four constructions: temporal adverbial, causal adverbial and factive clauses, as well as the predicate cleft construction. The full range of these constructions is shown in (8) for Haitian Creole and Fongbe. (8)
a
TEMPORAL ADVERBIAL
Wd Jan wa Rive Jan rive
(tr616)
bj epi
Mar£ yl. Mari patL
FoNGBE HAITIAN
arrive John arrive as-soon-as and-then Mary leave ~ soon as John arrived, Mary left' b.
(= (1) in Lefebvre 1994)
CAUSAL ADVERBIAL
Wii Jan wa utU Mar£ yl. Rive Jan rive Marl paN. arrive John arrive cause Mary leave 'Because John arrived, Mary left: C.
FONGBE HAITIAN
(= (2) in Lefebvre 1994)
FACTIVE
Wii q_e,eJan wa 6 Vivf nU nj tjn. FONGBE Rive rJ Jan rive fo manman li kontan. HAITIAN arrive oP John arrive DEF make(-happy) for mother his happy 'The fact that John arrived made his mother happy.' (= (3) in Lefebvre 1994) d.
PREDICATE CLEFT
Wd Se rive
we
Jan Jan
wa.
FONGBE
rh•e.
HAITIAN
it-is arrive it-is John arrive 'It is arrive that John did (not e.g. leave):
(= (4) in Lefebvre 1994)
Saramaccan also exhibits these four constructions, as is illustrated in (9). (9)
a.
TEMPORAL ADVERBIAL
Ko Rohit ko a wosu pala, hen Rowe go. arrive Rohit arrive Loc house as-soon-as and.then Rowe leave 1\s soon as Rohit arrived at the house, Rowe left: b.
(Lefebvre's field notes)
CAUSAL ADVERBIAL
Waka a
waka, a
ko wei.
SARAMACCAN
walk 3rd walk 3rd get tire 'Because she wa1ked, she got tired: C.
SARAMACCAN
(Lefebvre's field notes)
FACTIVE
Di waka a waka, hen mel a
ko wei.
walk 3rd walk it cause 3rd get tire 'The fact that she walked caused her to get tired:
SARAMACCAN
DEF
d.
(Lefebvre's field notes)
PREDICATE CLEFT
Waka a waka loutu dl wosu. walk 3rd walk go around DEF house 'He really wa1ked around the house:
SARAMACCAN
(= (llb) in van den Berg 1987: 104)
21
22
Claire Lefebvre
Papiamentu exhibits the same four constructions, as is shown in (10). (10)
a
TEMPORAL ADVERBIAL
Yega ku Juan a
yega, Maria a
arrive LOC John PERF arrive Mary ~ soon as John arrived, Mary left: b.
PERF
PAPIAMl!NTU
(Kearns 2008)
CAUSAL ADVERBIAL
E
yegt~
ku
Juan a
yega, Maria a
arrive COMP John PERF arrive Mary 'Because John has arrived, Mary left: DEF
C.
bal. go
PERF
bal. go
PAPIAMl!NTU
(Kearns 2008)
FACTIVE
E
yega ku
Juan a
yega
a
hasi su
mama fells.
arrive COMP John PERF arrive PERF make POSS mother happy 'The fact that John has arrived made his mother happy.'
PAPIAMl!NTU
DEF
d.
(Kearns 2008)
PREDICATE CLEFT
Ta kome el
a
kome.
it.is eat 3SG 'He has eaten:
PERF
eat
PAPIAMl!NTU
(= (332) in Maurer 1988: 141)
The fact that verb-doubling phenomena are available in Haitian Creole, Saramaccan, Papiamentu, and other Caribbean creoles such as Martinican Creole (Bernabe 1983), as well as in Santome, cannot be attributed to their superstrate languages (French, English, Portuguese, Spanish) since the latter do not manifest these phenomena. The fact that Caribbean creoles and Santome do manifest verb-doubling phenomena is most probably due, however, to their substrate languages, in which verb doubling is a typological feature. Not surprisingly, this particular cluster of phenomena are found only in creoles that have a West African substrate; they are not found in creoles spoken in Asia or in the Pacific. 3.2.10
Discourse structures
Discourse structures also vary among creoles. Once more, creoles reflect the typological differences of their substrate languages. For example, China Coast Pidgin reproduces the pattern of Cantonese, whereas Papuan Malay reproduces that of Melanesian languages. While China Coast Pidgin has a topic-comment discourse structure similar to the one tound in Cantonese (Ansaldo, Matthews and Smith), Papuan Malay makes use of tail-head linkage, a discourse strategy widely observed in the languages of Melanesia (Donohue). 3.2.11
Summary
The sample of data discussed in this section shows that creole languages vary with respect to their typological features and that this variation reflects the typological differences manifested by the respective substrate languages. I now turn to a discussion of the processes identified by the various authors to account for this state of affairs.
The problem of the typologic:al classification of creoles
3·3
Processes
Several processes have been called upon by various authors, as the means by which the substrate features are reproduced in the creoles. Most authors claim that the process of transfer plays a role (Ansaldo, Bao, Brousseau, Hagemejier and Ogie, Ansaldo, Matthews and Smith, Munro, Roberts, Schwegler, Siegel, and Terrill). This process, which goes back to Weinreich (1953: 1), refers to the use of features of their first language by learners who are speaking a second language. For Andersen (1983: 7), this process may also manifest itself in second language acquisition: "Transfer from a learner's previously acquired language (... ) is assumed to interact with the normal acquisitional process by causing the learner to perceive input in terms of certain aspects of the structure of the previously acquired language." For Siegel (1997: 120, 2001), transfer is the main process in the formation of creole languages: "Here I am defining substrate influence as the evidence of transfer (or interference) at an earlier stage of development. Transfer refers to speakers unconsciously carrying over teatures from one language (usually their first) when speaking (or trying to speak) another language." Other authors appeal to the process of calquing (Ansaldo, Hagemejier and Ogie, Jacob and Grimes, Ansaldo, Matthews and Smith, Migge). Keesing (1988) defines calquing as the process by which creole speakers copy the properties of their native languages when speaking a creole. A similar definition is given by Holm ( 1988: 86): "Calquing is a process whereby words or idioms in one language are translated word-for-word (or even morpheme-by-morpheme) into another." Jacobs and Grimes appeal to the process of relexification. Muysken (1981 a: 61) defines relexification as follows: "Given the concept oflexical entry, relexification can be defined as the process of vocabulary substitution in which the only information adopted from the target language in the lexical entry is the phonological representation." The process is presented in (11), adapted from Muysken's schema. (11)
J
SOURCE LANGUAGE
[
/phonology/1 [semantic] 1 [syntactic] 1
LEXIPffiR LANGUAGE
[
~
/
NEW LANGUAGE
[
/phonology/i [semantic]j [syntactic].
/phonology/1 [semantic], [syntactic];
J
1
J
This process is exemplified in (12) on the basis of Media Lengua. The lexical entry derived from Quechua and Spanish has the semantic and morphosyntactic properties drawn from the corresponding Quechua lexical entry, but a phonological form derived from a semantically related Spanish word.
23
24
Claire Lefebvre
(12)
[
[;E: l
=-~A
SPANISH
+V
NP-ta NPBEHUNGRY NP =
HUNGER
+ animate
/
MEDIA LENGUA
~a;-bri-na-/ [
NP-ta
l
NPBEHUNGRY NP =
+ animate
(= (18) in Muysken 1981a:62)
According to this definition, relexification is a mental process that builds a new lexical entry by copying a lexical entry, and by replacing its phonological representation with a new representation derived from another language. Lefebvre also appeals to the process of relexification, which, she argues, is best characterised as relabelling (Lefebvre 2008). Relabelling can be represented as in ( 13 ). Given a lexical entry, as in (13)a, assign this lexical entry a new phonological representation drawn from another language, as in ( 13b ), and eventually remove the original phonological representation, yielding (13c ). (13) a
[
/phonology/1 [semantic], [syntactic] 1
J
b.
[ /phonology/1 ,/phonology/y [semantic]; [syntactic],
c.
[
/phonology/y [semantic]; [syntactic];
J
J
The new lexical entries so formed have the semantic and syntactic properties of the original ones, and phonological representations derived from phonetic strings drawn from another language. 5 An example of a lexical entry formed by means of relabelling is provided in (14) on the basis of Haitian Creole and its source languages, French and Fongbe (taken as representative of the substrate languages). (For a detailed discussion of the semantics of the lexical entries involved, see Lefebvre 1997:69-70.)
5· The phonological representation derived from another language is identified as l rather than as j. The prime represents the fact that the new phonological fonn associated with a lexical entry is not that of language j, but rather a phonological form established on the basis of a phonetic form in language j interpreted with the phonological principles of language i (see Brousseau).
The problem of the typologic:al classification of creoles
(14)
a
b.
c.
!hU/1 'to murder' 'to mutilate' !hU/1, /ansasinen/j' (< Fr. assassiner 'to murder') 'to murder' 'to mutilate' /ansasinen/f 'to murder' 'tomutUate'
FoNGBB
PoNG BE/HAITIAN
HAITIAN
As has been pointed out in the literature, relexification/ relabelling may be viewed as a particular case of transfer (Naro 1978:337). Migge uses the term "reinterpretation": "... Substrate influence emerged in creoles because the creators of creoles structurally reinterpreted the kinds of superstrate structures that they encountered on the plantations according to the grammatical patterns and strategies of their L1s." I believe that Migge's use of the term "reinterpretation" corresponds to the process referred to as relexification/ relabelling above (see Lefebvre 2008 for further discussion of this point). Are all these processes equivalent? From a cognitive point of view, transfer/ calquing and relexification/relabelling are not entirely equivalent. While the former means that L1 material (e.g., phonological, semantic, syntactic properties) is dragged along into the L2 versions of individual speakers, the latter entails that L2 material (the labels oflexical entries) is incorporated in the L1 lexicon as a parallel label. In spite of this difference, the processes are similar in that they take the individual, that is the second language learner, as the locus where the processes take place. Furthermore, these processes are semantically driven; indeed, the lexical items that are associated by these processes must share at least partial semantics. For example, in (12), ya.rika.- be hungry' and ambre 'hunger' are semantically related, although they are not of the same syntactic category. Likewise, in (14) hit 'to murder, to mutilate' and assassiner 'to murder' overlap semantically, though they are not entirely equivalent The relevance of this state of affairs will be further explored in Section 3.4. Another process, "restructuring" (of the target language), is referred to by a few authors in the book (Ansaldo, Donohue and Slomanson). In my view, "restructuring" is conceptually different from the other processes discussed above. First. it refers to the learner acting upon the structure of L2 (see also Mufwene 2006, and the references therein). Thus, the process is not defined in terms of the individual, but in terms of the second language itself. Second, the semantic constraint (see below) involved in the first group of processes is absent from the concept of "restructuring:' Since the nature of the processes that determine the presence of substrate features in a given creole is still a matter of debate in the literature (see the references in Section 1), I shall leave further discussion of this issue to future research. In light of the above review, I now tum to a discussion of the constraints that favour or disfavour transfer/relabelling.
25
26
Claire Lefebvre
3·4
Constraints on transfer/relabelling
In this section, I shall use the terms "transfer/relabelling" to refer to all the processes discussed in Section 3.3 except "restructuring." The first constraint imposed on transfer/relabelling is provided by the very nature of the processes themselves. Indeed, as we saw above, these processes are semantically driven. Consequently, items that have semantic content can be transferred/relabelled. Those that do not, cannot be. A striking example of this state of affairs is provided in this book by data pertaining to case. As we saw in Section 3.2.5, the semantic case systems of creoles' substrate languages have been transterred/relabelled in the creoles either as suffixes (e.g., Sri Lanka(n) Malay) or as prepositions (e.g., Kriol and CAAE). In contrast, the syntactic case systems of substrate languages have not made their way into the resulting creoles. Siegel, Koch (a) and Munro all mention that the ergative case system of Australian languages has no parallel in Kriol, CAAE or in NSWP. Speaking of Mindanao Chabacano, Grant writes: Up till now, as Nolasco (2005) points out, MC and other varieties of PCs have not developed an ergative model of syntax despite the fact that Austronesian Philippine languages, in which many MC speakers are fully bilingual. customarily use ergative syntactic models which are more complex than the Spanish and MC nominative-accusative syntax.
The contrast between the transfer/relabelling of semantic and syntactic cases follows straightforwardly from the fact that transfer/relabelling is semantically driven. On this account, semantic cases are predicted to be transferred/relabelled, and so they are (see Section 3.2.5). In contrast, syntactic cases, which are deprived of semantic content, are predicted not to be transferred/relabelled, and they are not. Note, however, that, as we saw in Section 3.2.6, the creators of creoles, who were native speakers of syntactic ergative case languages, found a way to manifest the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs that is pervasive in their native languages by developing transitivity markers in their respective creoles. The fact that the processes of transfer/relabelling are semantically driven requires the starting point item to have semantic content, as we just saw above. It also requires that there be a form in the superstrate language that can be semantically associated with the substrate item. Transfer/relabelling is thus constrained by whether the superstrate language has a form available to transfer or relabel a substrate lexical entry. The first formulation of this constraint is known as the "transfer to somewhere principle" of Andersen (1983). This inspired Siegefs (1999) Availability Constraint, which states that the superstrate language must have a form that is available for a substrate feature to transfer to (see also Munro). Likewise, relexificationl relabelling is constrained by what the superstrate language has to offer to relexif)r/relabel a substrate lexical entry (see Lefebvre 1998 for an extensive discussion of this point). The chapter by Terrill on Solomon Islands Pijin (SIP) illustrates this constraint. Terrill addresses the following question: "What grammatical elements of a substrate language find their way into a creole?" She writes: "Grammatical features of the Oceanic substrate languages have been shown to be crucial in the development of Solomon Islands Pijin and of Melanesian Pidgin as a whole (Keesing 1988), so one might expect constructions which are very stable in the Oceanic tamily of languages to show up as substrate influence in the creole:' Terrill's chapter investigates three Oceanic language constructions which have been
The problem of the typologic:al classification of creoles
stable over thousands of years and persist throughout a majority of the Oceanic languages spoken in the Solomon Islands. She shows that, in the case of the locative, possessive and transitive constructions, "there was no congruent construction or available lexical item to be brought in to express any of these distinctions:' She therefore concludes that "despite the ubiquity, stability and uniformity of the locative, possessive and transitive constructions in the substrate languages, none of them appear in SIP': Her study argues that the constraint imposed by the superstrate language in terms of availability of linguistic material is more important than the ubiquity, stability or uniformity of the structure in the substrate languages as a predictor of linguistic transfer from a substrate into a creole. Munro also appeals to this constraint in accounting for why "evitative" mood is not manifested in Kriol although it is part of the TMA system of its substrate languages. As we saw in Section 3.2.5, Koch (a) appeals to the same constraint in explaining the range of meanings covered by a single creole form while the substrate languages have different forms to encode their various meanings. The convergence of substrate and superstrate languages on a given feature is assumed to favour transfer/relabelling of a substrate feature in a creole (see Bartens, Kihm, Siegel, Sandeman and Escure). In such a case, semantic and phonological features are con.flated to produce a creole's lexical entry. An example of con.tlation is given by Kihm in his account of the sources of the negation marker ka in Kriyol. This word has a form similar to the negative form nunca 'never' in Portuguese. The reason why the form of the negation is ka can be explained by the presence of this syllable as a negative morpheme in substrate languages, such as kaka 'negative imperfective imperative' in Mandink.a, ke 'negation marker' in Balanta, and dika. 'negative imperfective' in Manjaku. Kihm goes so far as to claim that substrate influence in creoles occurs precisely in cases of semantic and phonological conflation. The typological congruence of the substrate languages (Ansaldo) is also claimed to favour transfer of a substrate feature into a creole. Siegel speaks of substrate reinforcement: "Substrate reinforcement occurs when a particular variant has a corresponding feature in a numerically or socially dominant substrate language or languages. By a corresponding feature, I mean one that occurs in the same surface syntactic position and that can be interpreted (or misinterpreted) as having the same or a closely related function." In his study of the nine Pan-Pacific teatures, Siegel finds that when a feature is present in the contact variety, a corresponding feature is also present in the substrate languages, and when it is absent from the contact variety, it is absent from the substrate languages. He concludes that "the presence or absence of substrate reinforcement during levelling can account for the retention of particular features:' A last constraint on transfer is discussed by Kihm. This one appears to be social rather than linguistic. Kihm shows that, in contrast to other creoles with an African substrate, which reproduce the typological features of their Mrican substrate (e.g., Haitian Creole), Kriyol does not reproduce many features of its African substrate: "In fact, substrate influence, although readily visible, turns out to be limited as can be shown by comparing core grammatical phenomena between Kriyol and a selection oflocallanguages (Balanta, Diola, Manjaku, Mankanya)." Kihm proposes that there are two main reasons for this state of affairs: First, the creole-creating grumetes soon formed a tightly united group with its own culture; second, they were perfectly bilingual in Kriyol and one or more local languages and therefore able to keep their grammars separate. This study claims that, if the creators of a creole are very bilingual, speaking the creole and the
27
28
Claire Lefebvre
substrate languages fluently, this will constrain (negatively) the amount of transfer from substrate languages into a creole. 3·5
Summary
This section was dedicated to a discussion of the results of the comparisons of some 30 creoles and their substrates from a global perspective. The various ways in which the typological features of the substrate languages are manifested in creoles were first considered. Then, several subsystems of the grammar across creoles were discussed, showing that creole languages vary among each other with respect to typological features. The variation among creoles was shown to reflect the typological differences manifested by their respective substrate languages. The cognitive processes of transfer/calquing or relexification/relabelling were identified as the means by which substrate features enter creole languages. These processes were shown to be constrained in various ways, both linguistically and socially, such that not all the features of substrate languages can be reproduced in the creoles. & a result, creole languages cannot be claimed to be exact replicas of their substrate languages. 6 Other processes were identified by some authors as playing a role in the development of creoles. For example, levelling and its interaction with transfer are briefly discussed by Lang, Migge and Siegel. Reanalysis and its role in a creole's development are discussed by Koch (b). In light of the contents of this section, I now turn to a more general discussion of creoles and language typology.
4·
Creoles and language typology
In this section, I shall address three questions: Do creoles constitute an identifiable typological class? To what extent do creoles replicate the typological features of their substrate languages? Why are creole languages typologically isolating? 4.1
Do creoles constitute an identifiable typological class?
In Section 3.2, it was shown that pronominal forms, classifiers, TMA systems, negation, case systems, transitivity markers, the properties of verbs, serial verbs, verb-doubling phenomena, and discourse structures are not the same in the various creoles. This argues that creoles cannot be claimed to be "alike." Furthermore, it was shown that the variation among creoles reflects the variation observed among their respective substrate languages, such that creoles largely reproduce the typological features of their substrate languages. This argues that creoles cannot be claimed to constitute an identifiable typological class. Assuming this general conclusion, I will now turn to further discussion of the typology of creole languages. 6. Creoles cannot be said to be exact replicas of their substrate languages not only because some substrate features cannot be transferred/relabelled, but also because, as is the case in other languages, creoles may innovate and diverge from their contributing languages (see Ansaldo).
The problem of the typologic:al classification of creoles
4.2
To what extent do creoles replicate the typological features of their substrate languages?
The data discussed in this book show that creoles massively replicate the typological features of their substrate languages. This conclusion may, however, reflect the fact that the great majority of the chapters consider data related to the lexicon and to syntactic constructions (e.g., serial verb constructions, verb-doubling phenomena, etc.). The fact that the properties of creole lexicons should replicate those of their respective substrate languages follows from the analysis that creole lexical entries are, to a great extent, created by means of transfer/ calquing or relexification/relabelling (see Section 3.3 ). The tact that the syntactic constructions of creoles should replicate those of their respective substrate languages follows from the fact that, to a great extent. these are adopted wholesale in the creoles (by a process, or processes, not discussed here)? Would the same conclusion hold for the phonological component of the grammar or for word order phenomena? Below, I briefly discuss these two areas of the grammar and identify topics for future research. The phonological inventories of creoles are derivable in a straightforward way from those of their respective substrate languages. This is what the chapter by Brousseau convincingly shows on the basis of Haitian Creole, St. Lucian and their contributing languages. However, it cannot be claimed that these creoles are typologically similar to their substrate languages in all aspects of their phonology. For example, Brousseau shows that in the formation of the Haitian and St. Lucian creoles, the complex consonants (/kp/, I gb/, etc.) of the substrate languages were abandoned. For this feature at least the creoles typologically diverge from their substrate languages. Likewise, the prosodic systems of substrate languages are not necessarily reproduced in the creoles. For example, most West Mrican languages have tones. Saramaccan has tones, but its tonal system does not reproduce that of its substrate languages, according to the analyses in Good (2004) (see also Ham 1999). In contrast. Haitian Creole does not have tones but it has a complex accentual system (Brousseau 2003). Another complexity of the prosodic systems of creoles is brought up by Lim. In her study of tones in Singlish, Lim investigates the possibility that the presence of a high tone in Singlish might not be attributable only to its tonal substrate languages, but also to the intonation pattern of Malay, its non-tonal substrate. In the same vein, the syllable structures of creoles constitute a problem for typologists. For example, Saramaccan and Haitian Creole both have Gbe languages as their main substrate languages. Gbe languages exhibit V and CV but no *CVC syllable structures (Capo 1991). While the syllable structures of Saramaccan replicate those of the Gbe languages in manifesting V and CV structures but no *CVC structures (Smith 1987), Haitian Creole exhibits CVC structures as well as V and CV ones (e.g., Brousseau & Nikiema 2006). So, with respect to syllable structure, Saramaccan is typologically like its Gbe substrate languages but Haitian Creole is not It thus seems that. as regards the phonological component of the grammar, creoles do not reproduce the typological teatures of their substrate languages as straightforwardly as they do in the lexicon and the syntax.
7. One account of this fact lies in the relexifu:ation/relabelling of functional categories (see Lefebvre 1998). Another account, based on construction grammar, advocates the transfer of whole construction frames. The latter view is explored by Aboh (n.d.) and by Gerrit Dirnrnendaal (p.c.).
29
30
Claire Lefebvre
Word order is another area of creole grammars that presents a challenge for the typological classification of creoles. Although none of the chapters in this book are dedicated entirely to word order, there are some observations on word order in various chapters. For example, in China Coast Pidgin, some word orders follow Cantonese, thus the word order of its substrate language (Matthews, Ansaldo and Smith). Likewise, Sri Lanka(n) Malay has adopted the OV ordering of its adstrate languages Sinhala and Tamil (Ansaldo). Koch (a, b) and Munro, however, claim that creoles' word order generally follows that of their superstrate languages. Kihm shows that this claim is borne out in some cases but not in others, where the word order seems to follow that of the substrate languages.8 So, as is the case with the phonological component of the grammar, word order in creoles does not appear to straightforwardly reflect the properties of the substrate languages. I leave this matter for future research. It therefore appears that creole languages do not equally reflect the typological features of their substrate languages in all components of the grammar. Furthermore, a striking feature of creoles is that. regardless of the typological option of their substrate languages, creoles are typologically isolating, a topic to which I now turn. 4·3
Why are creole languages typologically isolating?
With a few exceptions (Ansaldo on case suffixes, Koch (b) on -im and -fela and Siegel on -im), creoles tend to be typologically isolating languages regardless of whether their substrates are isolating or agglutinating languages. The three varieties of creoles- CAAE, NSWP and Kriol- that have evolved from a hundred agglutinating Aboriginal languages in Australia, discussed in the two chapters by Koch and the chapter by Munro, illustrate this clearly. For example, the bulk of the TMA suffixes of the Australian languages have been reproduced as preverbal periphrastic markers in Kriol. Likewise, the properties of the case suffixes of the Australian languages have been reproduced in prepositions in both CAAE and Kriol. In the same vein, Bartens shows that Twi affixes have not been reproduced as such in the Caribbean creoles that she studies. The fact that substrate affixes are generally realised as free morphemes in creoles follows from the way the processes that play a role in their formation apply in creole genesis (see Section 3.3). All authors agree that the superstrate forms that are selected for transfer/calquing or for relexification/relabelling must be free forms. Hence, person markers are transferred/relabelled on the basis of personal pronouns, case markers on the basis of prepositions, and so on. This explains why creoles are isolating languages (see also Lumsden & Lefebvre 1994).
5·
Conclusion
As we saw throughout this chapter, creoles manifest a great deal of variation among themselves. Thus, they cannot be claimed to be "alike" in any sense of the word, nor to constitute a typological class as such. As regards the semantic and syntactic properties of their lexical entries and their
8. For a detailed discussion of word order in creole languages, see Plag (2008).
The problem of the typologic:al classification of creoles
syntactic constructions, creoles generally manifest the typological features of their substrate ianguages. This rules out the claim that creole languages should be typologically classified with their superstrate languages. As for the phonological component of the grammar (segmental inventories, tonaVprosodic systems and syllable structures), as well as word order, the extent to which the creoles reproduce (or not) the typological features of their substrate languages remains to be further documented. My general conclusions open up a whole new set of questions. For example, from a typologist's perspective, are substrate features in a given creole important enough to lead one to conclude that creoles should be typologically classified with their substrate languages? What should be the parameters involved in measuring the weight of features favouring one or the other view? These are but a few questions raised by the results of the research discussed in this chapter. The concluding chapter by Comrie provides the typologist's point of view on these issues.
References Aboh, E. n.d. Serial verb constructions: A Trans-Atlantic Sprachbund? Ms. Adam, L. 1883. Les idiomes negro-arytm et maleo-arytm. Paris: Maisonneuve. Andersen, R W. 1983. A language acquisition interpretation of pidginisation and creolisation. In Pidginisation and Creolisation as Language Acquisition, R W. Andersen (ed.), 1-59. Rowley MA: Newbury House. Anonymous. 1983. Blemmts de recherche sur la langue Fo,J. Cotono\L Ansaldo, U., Matthews, S. & Lim, L. 2007. Deconstructing Creole [Typological studies in Language 73). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Bally, A.-S. 2004. t:interpretation aspectuo-temporelle des enonces en Saramaccan. MA thesis, Universite du Quebec aMontreal Bernabe, J. 1983. Fo,Jdal-Natal [Grammaire basilectale approchee des creoles guadeloupeen et martiniquais 3]. Paris: t:Harmattan. Bickerton, D. 1984. The language bioprogram hypothesis. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 7: 173-221. Blake, B. 1987. Australian Aborigi1ml Grammar. London: Croom Helm. Brousseau, A.-M. 1995. Les pronoms en creole hai:tien, en fran~ et en fongbe. In Research report prepared for FCAR on the projectlbrganisation des lexiques et des mtrees lexicales, Volume IV, C. Lefebvre (ed.). Montreal: Universite du Quebec aMontreal Brousseau, A.-M. 2003. The accentual system of Haitian Creole: The role of transfer and markedness values. In The Phonology and Morphology of Creole Languages, I. Plag (ed.), 3-23. Tiibingen: Niemeyer. Brousseau, A.-M. & Nikiema, E. 2006. From Gbe to Haitian: The multi-stage evolution of syllable structure. In L2 Acquisition and Creole Gtmesis: Dialogues [Language Acquisition & Language Disorders 42), C. Lefebvre, L. White & C. Jourdan (eds), 292-331. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Byrne, F. 1987. Grammatical Relations in a Radical Creole. Verb Complementation in Saramaccan [Creole Language Library 3]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Camden, W. G. 1979. Parallels in structure of lexicon and syntax between New Hebrides Bislama and the South Santo language as spoken at Tangoa. In Papers in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics No. 2, P. Miihlhausler and others (eds), 51-117. Canberra: Australian National University. Capo, H. B. C. 1991. A Comparative Pho,wlogy of Gbe [Publications in Mrican Languages and Linguistics 14]. Dordrecht: Foris. Chaudenson, R 2003. La creolisation: Theories, applications, implications. Paris: t:Harmattan. Crowley, T. 2004. Bislanm Reference Grammar. Honolulu HI: University ofHawai'i Press. Dixon, R M. W. 1980. The Languages of Australia. Cambridge: CUP.
31
32
Claire Lefebvre
Eades, D. 1991. Aboriginal English: An introduction. Vox: Journal of the Australian Advisory Council on Languages
and Multicultural Education (AACLAME) 5: 55-61. Eades, D. 1996. Aboriginal English. In Atlas ofLanguages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, S. A. Wurm, P. Miihlhii.usler & D. T. Tryon (eds), 133-141. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Fattier, D. 1998. Contribution afetude de la genese d'un creole. Atelier national de reproduction des theses. Good, J. 2004. Tone and accent in Saramaccan: Charting a deep split in the phonology of a language. Lingua 114: 575-619.
Goodman, M. F. 1964. A Camparative Study of Creole French Dialects. The Hague; Mouton. Hall, R A. 1950. The genetic relationships of Haitian Creole. Ricerche Linguistiche 1: 194-203. Ham, W. H. 1999. Tone Sandhi in Saramaccan: A case of substrate transfer? Joumal ofPidgi,J wJd Creole LwJgUages 14; 45-91.
Hancock, I. F. 1980. Gullah and Barbadian: Origins and relationships. American Speech 55: 17-35. Holm, J. A. 1988. Pidgins and Creoles, VoL 1: Theory and Structure. Cambridge: CUP. Kearns, L. 2008. Terrain sur Ia la'JKUC Papiwnentu (par Internet-Curafao ). Keesing, R M. 1988. Melanesian Pidgin wJd the Oceanic Substrate. Palo Alto CA: Stanford University Press. Koch, H. 2007. An overview of Australian traditional languages. In The Habitat ofAustralids Aboriginal Languages: Past, Present, wJd Future [Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 179), G. Leitner & I. G. Malcolm (eds), 23-56. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Kouwenberg, S. & Lefebvre, C. 2007. A new analysis of the Papiamentu clause structure. Probus 19: 37-75. Lefebvre, C. 1994. On spelling out R 1ravaux de recherche sur le creole hai"tien 23: 1-33. Lefebvre, C. 1996. The tense, mood and aspect system of Haitian Creole and the problem of transmission of grammar in creole genesis. Journal ofPidgin and Creole Languages 11:231-313. Lefebvre, C. 1997. Relexifi.cation in creole genesis: The case of demonstrative terms in Haitian Creole. Journal of
Pidgin a,Jd Creole Languages 12: 181-203. Lefebvre, C. 1998. Creole Genesis and the Acquisition of Grammar. Cambridge: CUP. Lefebvre, C. 2008. Relabelling: A major process in language contact. Joumal ofLanguage Contact 2.
. Lefebvre, C. & Loranger, V. 2006. On the properties of Saramaccan fu: Synchronic and diachronic perspectives. Journal ofPidgin wJd Creole Languages 21:275-337. Lim, L. & Gisborne, N. (eds). 2009. The Typology of A.sianEnglishes. &Jglish World-Wide 30. (Special issue). Lumsden, J. & Lefebvre, C. 1994. The genesis of Haitian Creole. In The Central Role ofRelexification in Creole Genesis: The Case of Haitian Creole. Research Report, C. Lefebvre & J. Lumsden (eds), 3-15. UQAM. Maurer, P. 1988. Les modifications temporelles et modales du verbe dans le papiwnento de Curafao (Antilles NeerlwJdaises). Hamburg: Buske. McWhorter, J. H. 1998. Identifying the creole prototype: Vindicating a typological class. Language 74: 788-818. McWhorter, J. H. 200 1. The world's simplest grammars are creole grammars. Linguistic T}pology 5: 125-166. Michaelis, S. (eel.). 2008. Roots of Creole Structures: Weighing the Contribution of Substrates and Superstrates [Creole Language Library 33]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Michaelis, S. & Haspelmath, M. 2003. Ditransitive constructions: Creole languages in a cross-linguistic perspective. Creolica 2003-04-23 <WWW.creolica.net>. Mosel, U. 1980. Tolai wJd Tok Pisin: The Influence of the Substratum on the Developme,Jt of New Guinea Pidgin. Canberra: Australian National University. Mufwene, S. S. 1990. Transfer and the substrate hypothesis in creolistics. Studies in Second La'Jgtlage Acquisition 12: 1-23.
Mufwene, S. S. 2006. The Ecology of Language Evolution. Cambridge: CUP. Miihlhli.usler, P. 1980. Structural expansion and the process of creolisati.on. In Theoretical Orientations in Creole Studies, A. Valdman & A. Highfield (eds), 19-56. New York NY: Academic Press. Miihlhli.usler, P. 1986. Pidgin and Creole Linguistics [Language in Sodety II]. Oxford: Basil BlackwelL
The problem of the typologic:al classification of creoles
Munro, J. M. 2004. Substrate Language Influence in Kriol: The Application of Transfer Constraints to Language Contact in Northern Australia. PhD dissertation, University of New England, Armidale NSW. Muysken, P. C. 1981a. Half-way between Quechua and Spanish: The case for relexification. In Historicity and Variaticm in Creole Studies, A Highfield & A Valdrnan (eds), 52-79. Ann Arbor MI: Karoma. Muysken, P. C. 1981b. Creole Tense/Mood/Aspect systems: The unmar.lred case? In Gtmerative Studies o,J Creole Languages, P. C. Muysken (ed.), 181-199. Dordrecht Foris. Muys.lren, P. & Smith, N. (eds). 1986. Substrata versus Universals in Creole Gtmesis [Creole Language Library 1]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Naro, A J. 1978. A study of the origins ofpidginisation. Language 54:314-347. Neumann-Holzschuh, I. & Schneider, E. W. (eds). 2001. Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages [Creole Language Library 32]. Amsterdam: John Benj amins. Nolasco, R. M. 2005. The Chabacano challenge to Philippine ergativity. In Linguistics mul LmJguage Education in the Philippines and Beyo,ul: A Festschrift in Honor of Ma. Lourdes S. Bautista, D. Dayag & S. Qua.lrenbush (eds), 401-433. Manila: De La Salle University Press. Plag. I. 2008. Creoles as interlanguages: Syntactic structures. Journal of Pidgin am Creole LmJguages 23: 307-329. Rountree, C. S. 1992. Saramaccan Grammar Sketch. Paramaribo: Summer Institute ofLinguistics. Sandefur, J. R. & Sandefur, J. L 1979. Beginnings ofa Ngukurr-Bamyili Creole Dictionary. [Work Papers ofSIL-AAB B4]. Darwin: Summer Institute of linguistics. Sharpe, M. C. 1972 Alawa Phonology mJd Grmnmar. Canberra: Australian Institute of Agoriginal Studies. Siegel, J. 1997. Mixing, levelling and pidgin I creole development In The Structure am Status ofPidgins and Creoles [Creole Language Library 19], A K. Spears & D. Winford (eds), 111-149. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Siegel, J. 1999. Transfer constraints and substrate influence in Melanesian Pidgin. journal of Pidgin am Creole Languages 14(1): 1-44. Siegel, J. 2001. Koine formation and creole genesis. In Creolization mul Contact [Creole Language Library 23], N. Smith & T. Veenstra (eds), 175-197. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Smith, N. 1987. The Genesis of the Creole Languages of Surinam. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam. Sylvain, S. 1936. Le creole haftitm: Morphologic et syntaxe. Wetteren: Irnprirnerie De Meester/Port-au-Prince: By the author. Valdrnan, A et al. 1981. Haitian Creole-English-French Dictionary, 2 Vols. Bloomington IN: Indiana University, Creole Institute. van den Berg, H. 1987. A note on predicate cleft in Saramaccan. In Studies in Sarmnaccan LmJguage Structure [Caribbean Culture Studies 2], M. Alleyne (ed.), 103-112 Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam. Veenstra, T. 1996. Serial Verbs in Saramaccan: Predication and Creole Genesis. Dordrecht: Holland Institute of Generative Linguistics. Weinreich, U. 1953. LmJguages in Contact. The Hague: Mouton. Winford, D. & Migge, B. 2007. Substrate influence on the emergence of the TMA systems of the Surinamese creoles. journal of Pidgin am Creole Languages 22: 73-100.
33
Creoles spoken in Africa and in the Caribbean
Ed6 influence on Santome Evidence from verb serialisation Tjerk Hagemeijer and Ota Ogie Centro de Lingufstica da Universidade de Lisboa I Notwegian University of Science and Technology
Ferraz (1979) convincingly shows the impact of two typologically distinct African strata in the making of Santome: ed6 and Klkongo. In this paper, it will be shown that the extensive verb serialisation found in Santome shows a significant amount of typological overlap with Ed6 multi-event and compound verb constructions. Since the impact of Ed6 on Santome goes dearly beyond verb serial!sation and Is also found in the other Gulf of Guinea creoles, the findings strongly suggest an early ed6 founder impact in detriment ofKikongo and Bantu in general Keywords: ed6, Santome, verb serialisation
1.
Introduction
Santome (Sao-Tomense) is a Portuguese-related creole language spoken on the island of Sao Tome, in the Gulf of Guinea, and the short name for Lungwa Santome (language of Sao Tome). Locally, the language is also known as F6l6 or its Portuguese counterpart Farro, as well as Dialecto (dialect). The social group associated with the language is the so-called Forros, which is the historical designation for freed slaves. According to the 2001 census, 72.4% of the total population older than 5 of the country Sao Tome and Principe (137,599 inhabitants in the same census) speaks Santome, but no distinction is made between native and non-native use. The census suggests that the rate ofSantome speakers is dropping considerably among young people. Santome is the diachronic continuation in space and time of the proto-Gulf of Guinea Creole (PGGC) whose formative period starts at the end of the fifteenth century, in 1493, when the northeast of the island ofS. Tome was permanently settled. In addition to Santome, three other creoles are offshoots ofthis PGGC, namely Lung'ie (Principense, spoken on the island ofPrincipe), Fa d'AmM (Annobonense. spoken on the island ofAnnob6n) and Lunga Ngola or, in short. Ngola (Angolar). 1
Ferraz (1979:9): "This first Creole, the original Sao Tomense, later changed into four Creoles through geographical separation, and possibly also because of differences which might have existed to some extent in the substratum."
1.
38
Tjerk Hagerneijer and Ota Ogie
In the former two cases, the PGGC or a variety thereofwas exported to the islands of Principe and Annob6n, whereas Ngola is nowadays generally considered a maroon creole that was formed by slaves who constantly escaped from the plantations from the very early stages on (Lorenzino 1998). While Ngola was long thought of as a Bantu language that was becoming creolised (Valkhoff 1966, among others), at least as far back as the nineteenth century, writers have noted that there are considerable similarities between Santome, Lungie and Fa d'AmM (Matos 1842, among others). Notwithstanding the earliest brief descriptions of Santome by Schuchardt (1882), Coelho (1880-1886) and Negreiros (1895 ), Ferraz' (1979) The Creole of Sao Tomt is the first monograph on Santome and still an important reference work for scholars working on the GGCs. Other work mostly focuses on the morphosyntax of Santome (Alexandre & Hagemeijer 2002, 2007; Hagemeijer 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2007), on several GGCs at the same time (Lorenzino 1998; Schang 2000) or on the lexicon (Fontes 2007; Rouge 2004). Ferraz' (1979) study also stands out because of its discussion on the historical and linguistic relevance of two African strata for Santome: :bd6 and Kikongo. The present paper focuses primarily on so-called serial verb constructions (SVCs), which constitute a core feature of Santome's grammar where particularly strong impact from the Niger Delta typology, and .td6 in particular, is felt 2
1.1
Historical background
Between 1487 and 1507, the period that coincides with the settlement of the island ofS. Tome, a Portuguese trading post functioned intermittently in Ughoton (Gwato ), a village on a side arm of the Benin River (Rio Formoso) (Mota 1976; Ryder 1977) from where intensive contact was established by land with the Ed6 speaking Kingdom of Benin. The first permanent settlers of S. Tome were granted trade privileges in the Niger Delta. Ryder (1977: 35) writes that "[King] John II had given the captain of the island a licence to import 1.080 slaves from the 'slave rivers' [which includes Benin River] over a period of five years. By July 1499 about 920 of this number had been landed." Many of the slaves imported to S. Tome were traded for gold at the fortress of Sao Jorge da Mina (Ghana). In the will of Alvaro de Caminha, the first donatory captain of the island, dating back to 1499, several references are made to "Bini" CBd6) slaves. In what is probably the most reliable historical descriptive source on slave areas from the early sixteenth century, Esmeralda Situ. Orbis (ca. 1505), written by eyewitness Duarte Pacheco Pereira (ca. 1506), it is mentioned that most slaves were from the Kingdom of Benin and few from the area between Rio Real (eastern Nigeria) and the Congo. Therefore, there is a small but important time lapse between the settlement stage (societe d'habitation) and the shift towards a plantation economy (societe de plantation), around 1520, which coincides roughly with the shift of the slave trade from the Niger Delta towards the Congo and, slightly later, Angola (Almeida Mendes 2008a, b). The island of Principe was permanently settled around 1500, from S. Tome. At least 1514 to 1518 slaves were directly imported from the Kingdom of Benin during the period known as
2. Note that in the past, Edoid belonged to the Kwa branch of Niger-Congo. Although Edoid is now considered an independent branch, it shares many features with the Kwa languages.
Ed6 influence on Santorne
Carneiro's contract (Ladhams 2003). As for Annob6n, permanent settlement occurred in the mid-sixteenth century (Caldeira 2006).
1.2
:Bd6 and Santome in a typological perspective
This subsection provides a brief overview of a few typological features of Ed6 and Santome. :Ed6 is a north-central Edoid language. It exhibits seven oral vowels and five nasal vowels, tones (high and low), strictly consonant-initial verbs and strictly vowel-initial nouns, and absence of consonant clusters (Agheyisi 1990; Elugbe 1989 ). Ed6 exhibits preverbal TMA-marking and uses suffixes and tone for temporal distinctions and is further quite productive in derivational processes and verbal and nominal compounding (Agheyisi 1990). :Bd6 is a SVO language exhibiting widespread verb serialisation and allows for Double Object Constructions. The DP is strongly head-initial. Only determiners precede the head noun, whereas modifiers (possessives, adjectives, nominals, quantifiers and demonstratives, clauses) are post-nominal (Agheyisi 1990). Santome exhibits seven oral and five nasal vowels and is a pitch-accent language (Ferraz 1979). Maurer (2008), however, argues that Santome is a tone language, a claim he also makes for Ngola and Lung'ie (Maurer 1995, 2009). All verbs are strictly consonant-initial. While Santome exhibits consonant clusters (Ferraz 1979 ), these are absent in the three sister creoles, which means that they were arguably missing in the proto-creole of the Gulf of Guinea. Santome is a strongly isolating SVO language exhibiting preverbal TMA-marking, widespread verb serialisation and Double Object Constructions. With respect to the DP, determiners and quantifiers precede the nouns whereas other modifiers (demonstratives, possessives, adjectives, nominals, clauses) are postnominal (Alexandre & Hagemeijer 2004, 2007). Note that in sister creoles Lung'ie and Fa d'AmM, quantifiers are postnominal and therefore possibly constituted a feature of the protocreole of the Gulf of Guinea.
1.3
A few specific :Bd6 features in the Gulf of Guinea creoles
Lexicon The first study of the African lexicon in Santome was carried out by Ferraz (1979:90-97), who provides a Bantu etymology, mostly from Kikongo, for 60 items, and a Niger Delta etymology, almost without exception from E,d6, for 36 items. Rouge (2004) lists 381 items which he considered to be of non-Portuguese origin (African, other, unknown, in his classification). Ladhams (forthcoming) presents an appendix of slightly more than 100 African lexical items, based on Ferraz (1979) and Rouge (2004), and concludes that 37% of the etymologies can be assigned to :Bd6 and 63% to Bantu. In closely related Lung'ie, Ladham's calculated that these percentages are 76% and 24% respectively. In the introduction to his Lung'ie glossary, Maurer (2009:211) mentions that the African lexicon in this creole is almost exclusively Edoid-related. These percentages
39
40
Tjerk Hagerneijer and Ota Ogie
are consistent with a few phonological features that are exclusively found in Lungie and refer to the Niger Delta, such as labial velars3 and trills (Gunther 1973; Ferraz 1975; Maurer 2009). Since several Edoid items in Santome are also found in the other GGCs, whereas shared Kikongo items are clearly less common, this is a strong indication that Ed6 constitutes an older lexical layer.
Interrogation The GGCs exhibit a specific interrogative structure with a final interrogation marker of place that questions DPs only: ( 1)
Lomba e, moto b6 b6? Lomba VOC motorbike POS INT 'Oh Lomba, where ls your motorbike?'
(2)
P.le b6? 3SG
SANTOME
(Hagemeljer's field notes) SANTOMJ!
INT
'Where ls he?'
(Hagemeijer 2007: 25)
This structure and the interrogative marker itself are calqued on :Bd6 1'b06 [u06], where this marker also questions the locus ofDPs and, similarly to ST, requires the use of strong pronouns: (3)
Owa rut vb06? house 2sG INT 'Where ls your house?'
(4)
Ren vb06? 3SG INT
'Where ls he?'
En6 (Agheyisi 1986: 160)
En6 (Melzlan 1937:218)
Furthermore, with respect to the paradigm of fronted interrogatives, STand Ed6 follow basically the same Wh-formation strategy, which consists of a question word and a noun. However, Ed6 exhibits one simplex Wh-word, namely gha 'whO, in alternative to domwim (from: de + Om.wan = Q +person) (Agheyisi 1990). ST also exhibits a simplex and a complex forms for 'whO, namely ken and k€ nge (lit. Q +person), as well as for 'where' (andji-ke xitu-k€ kamya) and 'how'
(kuma-ke modu). Reflexivisation Like many other creole languages (Muysken & Smith 1994), ST exhibits so-called body-part reflexives. The four GGCs are exceptional among creole languages in the sense that not only the reflexive strategy can be assigned to .td6 but also the word for 'bodY, ubwe in ST and igbe in Lung'ie, both from Ed6 egbe.
3- Labial velars are typologically rare phonemes that constitute an areal feature of Kwa and Niger Delta languages. Considering the common etymologies, the Proto-Gulf of Guinea Creole on the island of S. Tome must have exhibited labial ve1ars as well at some stage. This phonological feature survived in Lung'ie, but not in the other c.reoles arguably because of later massive contact with Bantu slaves. In Santome, in particular,/gb/ became labial /kw/ or /bw/- e.g., Lung'ie [igbe] 'body', ST [ukwe], from Ed6 ikpe 'seed, gram
Ed6 influence on Santorne
(5)
a
E
mat'ubw~ d~
buta.
SANTOMB
3SG kill-body POS throw b.
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
'S/he committed suicide? 0 gbUgbe ere rua.
En6
3sG kill-body 3sG away
(Ogie's field notes)
'S/he committed suicide? (6)
a
b.
E toma
ubw~ d~
3SG take
body POS give PRJ!P-Stone
da
n'budu.
'S/he bumped against a stone.' 0 mu-egbe gbe okutd.
SANTOMB
(Hageme~jer's
field notes) En6
3sG carry-body against stone
'S/he bumped against a stone?
(Ogie's field notes)
So far, we have argued that Ed6 was both historically and linguistically important for the formation of the GGCs. In the remainder of this paper, it will be shown that evidence from verb serialisation in Santome reinforces this claim.
2.
Verb serialisation
So-called serial verb constructions (SVCs) constitute a distinctive areal feature essentially restricted to the Kwa area (Watters 2000) and a number of Nigerian language clusters, such as Yoruboid (Awoyale 1988; Bamgbose 1982), Edoid (Agheyisi 1990; Melzian 1942; Ogie 2004; Stewart 1998) and Ijoid (Williamson 1965), but are atypical of Bantu languages. Assuming McWhorter's (1992) typological claim that SVCs occur in creole languages with serialising substrates, it follows that widespread verb serialisation found in the GGCs (Gunther 1973; Hagemeijer 2000, 2001; Maurer 1995, 1999, 2009; Post 1992) ought to be related to the oldest slave trade area, namely the Niger Delta. The classification of SVCs and even the label itself is not uncontroversial For comparative purposes, we will adopt mostly traditional labels such as 'give'-serials, 'take'-serials, locative serials, which are mostly based on the meaning of the fixed or most grammaticalised verb in the construction. It should be noted, however, that in the Ed6 tradition the label multi-verb has now often been adopted as a means to distinguish between different types of constructions according to certain morphosyntactic properties (Baker & Stewart 2002; Ogie 2004).4 Moreover, Ed6 exhibits so-called compound verbs, which do not pertain to the class of multi-verb constructions. Agheyisi (1990: 42) defines them as the set of derived verbs forming a tight semantic unit which are made up of either two basic verbs, or a verb plus an adverbial particle. In sum, the label "serial verb construction" ranges over both multi-verb and compound verb constructions. In fact, any typology of verb sequences relies heavily on the degree of grammaticalisation of one of the verbs
4· The term multi-verb constructions is defined as consisting of verbs in series that can function as independent verbs in simple sentences, with at least one shared argument and no marking of syntactic dependency (Ameka 2005:2).
41
42
Tjerk Hagerneijer and Ota Ogie
in the series, as mentioned by Lord (1993) for SVCs in general, Melzian (1942) and later authors for £d6, and by Hagemeijer (2000, 2001) for Santome. We assume the following basic criteria for the constructions under discussion: two (or more) verbs expressing a single event; a single overt subject; one specification for tense and negation; one negation marker on Vl; no subordinate or coordinate conjunctions; no discursive pauses; objects can be extracted from both VPl and VP2. In addition. it is illustrated in (7) that both :Bd6 and Santome allow for verb clefting with a verb copy, which is a property common to many other serialising languages, with the difference that the clefted verb in .td6 is overtly nominalised. (7)
a b.
K6le so
inen kOM lentla ke.
run Foe
3PL
SANTOMB
run enter house
1-rhulf
Qrf ira11 rhUle lad awd. NOM-run Foe 3PL run enter house Both: 'It is running they ran into the house.'
En6 (Hagemeijer/Ogie's field notes)
The possibility ofverb clefting from serial verb constructions depends on the type of construction and the status of the verb in verb series, since V2s typically tend to be gramrnaticalised to some extent. This also follows from the fact that some V2s can take an aspect marker. Table 3 (Section 3) summarises how the different serial verb constructions in .td6 and Santome behave with respect to clefting and aspect marking. 'Give' -construction
2.1
In Santome, da. functions both as a main verb ('to give') and as a prepositional element with the meaning 'for, to, from: introducing benefactive, goal, experiencer and recipient, as in (8) to (11) respectively: (8)
Sela pa n
toma zawa pa n
ba pya da b6.
must for 1so take urine for 1so go look for 2sG 'I must take urine to go check you out: (9)
Po se kye da son.
(Hagemeijer 2000: 25) SANTOMB
tree sP fall hit ground 'The tree in question fell down.' (10)
SANTOMB
Fogon sa kentxi da non. kitchen be hot for 1PL 'The kitchen is hot for
us:
(Hagemeijer's field notes) SANTOMB
(Hagemeijer 2000: 101)
Sd6 influence on Santorne
(11) N gdg6 da sa11 6. 1sG please for you CTP 'I'm pleased for you.'
SANTOME
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
A number of syntactic tests, such as subject drop, null VPs or predicate cleft, show that prepositional da. exhibits the same properties as the limited number of prepositions proper in Santome (Hagemeijer 2000).5 In this sense, these constructions are not true SVCs. There is, however, one property that distinguishes prepositional da. above from prepositions proper, namely preposition stranding. In Santome, prepositions proper are obligatorily stranded with an invariable element corresponding to the third person singular, also labelled spelled-out trace in the literature (Veenstra & den Besten 1994). This is illustrated in (12), where the interrogative construction leaves the preposition proper stranded with spelled-out trace~ (ku ~).but in (13), da has to be stranded without this trace. (12)
Ke
kwa
ku
e
va nha
ku e!*ku?
what thing coMP 3sG cut wood with 3sG/with 'What did he cut the wood with!' (13) Ke nge ku e tlaba dal*dH what person coMP 3sG work for/for-3sG 'Who does he work for?'
SANTOMB
(Hagemeijer's field notes) SANTOME
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
In this respect, da behaves like the second verb in SVCs, which can readily be stranded, showing that this is not a case of covert coordination. (14)
a
San 1 so e ligi mina tlega [-lr lady POC 3SG lift-up child give 'It was the lady she handed the child to:
b.
"San 1 so
2 ligi
SANTOMB
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
mina tlegt,.
lady POC 3SG lift-up child give-3SG
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
With respect to .td6, Melzi.an (1942: 33) argues that net is a verb that always occurs in the second position of verb combinations. However, Ed6linguists nowadays agree that ne!na is a preposition (Agheyisi 1986:99, 1990: 63; Baker & Stewart 2002:26, 36; Ogie 2002:85; Stewart 1998: 169) which always occurs in second positions in compound verb constructions. In addition, :Bd6
5· Note that da can be preceded by aspect marker ka, but this implies a change in meaning, as follows from the contrast between (i) and (ii): (i) E
ka
aaba da mu. work give me 'He (habitually) works for me:
SANTOME
3SG ASP
(ii) E ka aaba ka da mu. ~he works, he gives me (his earnings): *'He (habitually) works for me:
SANTOME
Crucially, then, repeated ka triggers a proportional reading, which does not qualify as a unitary syntactic event
43
44
Tjerk Hagerneijer and Ota Ogie
uses both da(a) and gbe for Goal arguments. The following examples illustrate the uses of these items in Ed6. Ne/Na 'for, to, from' (15)
1
rh!e
~e nu~n. 6
(16)
(Melzian 1937: 127)
nwlmi 11d
En6
(Recipient)
work for 'To work for' (17)
:en6
(Benefactive)
1SG take.PST 3SG PREP-2SG.OBL 'I gave it to you.'
(Melzian 1942: 103)
(Source)
l€re na
6n6 (Melzian 1942: 103)
'to hide from'
Daa 'stretch out toward~ 'toward' (18)
Mu ar6 dad m~n. take eye toward 1so 'Turn (your) face towards me:
(Goal) (Agheyist 1986: 16)
(19) gi~ dad mw~n laugh towards 1so 'Laugh towards me:
(Goal)
En6 (Melzian 1937:22)
Gbe 'againsf (20) Erhdn de gbe fk~n. tree fallPsT against wall 1\. tree fell against the wall:
(Goal) (= (34) inAgheyisi 1990:66)
Similarly to ST da, Ed6 ne can also be stranded in final position, where it has to be obligatorily realised as na, as illustrated in the following focus construction. (21)
[0z6]i ~re Q rhie {gh6 nd Ozo Foe 3so take.PST money to 'It was Ozo s/he gave money to:
a. (Agheyisi 1986:99)
But, as in Santome, true prepositions - i.e. elements that lack verbal features - cannot be stranded in .Bd6, as follows from the case of vbe in (22a) and (22b ). (22)
0 rre
a
vbe Owi(. 3so came in morning 'He came in the morning:
b.
Ow~
g,e
9
(= (30) inAgheyisi 1990:65)
yal na rre.
morning FOC 3SG SEQ come.PST 'It was in the morning that he
came:
En6 (= (32) inAgheyisi 1990:65)
Upon extraction of the object of a preposition proper, owie 'morning: the preposition vbe in .Bd6 is deleted and replaced by an adverbial clitic particle. In order to tormalise this distinction, we
6.
Nutn is composed of the following morphemes ne (prep) + rU4 (second person direct object pronoun).
Ed6 influence on Santorne
will adopt the label "dynamic preposition" for cases like .Ed6 ne!na and "prepositions proper" for cases like 1'be. It is highly suggestive that dynamic prepositions are derived from verbs. Note further that Wescott (1962: 151) claims that of all .Ed6 verbs, nan 'to give' is "phonetically the most affix-like" with the behaviour of a lexicalised compound verb construction, as in: (23)
mu-na
En6
take/carry-to 'to give (something big or bulky) to'
In fact, this also applies to da in ST, where at least the following two items are fully lexicalised: (24)
a b.
fa-da 'to tell' (lit. speak-give) tan-da 'to hand over' (lit take-give)1
SANTOMB SANTOMB
Note finally that Ed6 na also means 'to narrate!, a meaning also associated to ST da. - e.g., da ua soya 'narrate a story'. In sum, ST da conflates a number of functions that are expressed by different items, typically dynamic prepositions, in :Bd6. The exclusive use of ST da, derived from Portuguese dar 'to give, is not surprising, since not only is it the prototypical verb of transfer, but it also has the secondary meaning 'to hit' (cf. (9), Ed6 gM).
Locative constructions
2.2
To express the endpoint of movement, the GGCs use a highly productive construction with the partly grammaticalised verb p~ 'to put' (from Old Ptg. poer 'to put') in the second position (Hagemeijer 2000, 2001; Maurer 1999). (25)
N ga zuga
kupi pe son.
SANTOMB
I ASP throw saliva put ground 'I spit on the ground' (26)
Sun ka vumba
pi! boka-poto
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
se.
SANTOMB
he ASP introduce put mouth-door sP 'He puts (it) in the keyhole.'
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
In Hagemeijer (2000, 2001), it is shown that~ as V2 in an SVC exhibits properties of verbs and prepositions with respect to a number of syntactic tests. One of the tests shows that pe patterns with verbs with respect to stranding (cf. da). (27)
e
[Djelu] 1 so tufu jibela pe [-] 1• money Foe 3sG stick pocket put 'It was money that he stacked in his pocket'
SANTOMB
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
Note further that locatives that do not imply movement typically make use of locative preposition ni 'in, at, on, frotn: which is briefly addressed in Section 3.
7.
Note that tan 'to take' is the reduced form of toma 'to take:
45
46
Tjerk Hagerneijer and Ota Ogie
ST locative~ above corresponds to .td6 ye!yf. Melzian (1937, 1942) argues that yfis a verb, because it is tonally marked for imperfective and perfective, indicating the direction in which an action is performed. However, as in the case oftd6 na, nowadays the prepositional status of ye/y{ is generally accepted (Agheyisi 1990:64; Baker & Stewart 2002:36; Stewart 1998: 169). Agheyisi (1990:64) further states that ye is a preposition that expresses location, which takes on the form yf when it occurs in sentence-final position. Differently from Santome pe, Ed6 ye!yf does not operate as a main verb. (28) 1 rhie ~re ye evba. 1sG take.PsT 3so on there 'I put it there:
En6 (Melzlan 1937: 228)
Extraction of the object leaves ye stranded with the extraction being marked by vowel and tonal changes, yielding y£ in the final position, as exemplified by the following sentences. (29) a
b.
lgan (Ire Oz6 rhie ye l}ok6ro. feather Poe Ozo take on small.chair 'It's a feather that Ozo put on the small chair: ~iok6ro (Ire Oz6 rhie lgan yf. smallchair Poe Ozo take feather on 'It's on a small chair that Ozo put the feather:
En6 (= (41b) in Stewart 1998: 169)
En6 (= (41c) in Stewart 1998: 169)
However, as shown above, prepositions proper do not strand in td6 which shows that yetyf still has properties that are reminiscent of a former verbal status.8 In sum, both languages exhibit locative construction with substantial overlap of semantic and syntactic properties, but to which applies a different degree of grammaticalisation. 2.3
Resultative constructions
As illustrated in examples (30) to (32), Ed6 and ST both exhibit resultative constructions, where VP2 indicates the resultative state of the event expressed by VP 1. (30)
a
Budu
b.
Okutd gbe ukpu guqgh9. stone hit cup break 'The stone broke the cup:
(31) a b.
Zon
da
kopu kebla.
kye m6le. Oz6 de wu. ZI:Jn/Ozo fall die ''ZI:Jnl Ow fell to his death:
SANTOMJ!
En6 (Hagemeijer's field notes;= (39a) in Stewart 1998: 131) SANTOMR
En6 (Hagemeijer's field notes;= (11a) in Stewart 1998: 18)
8. A monosyllabic transitive verb (or preposition) subcategorising for an extracted direct object, adopts the tonal (morphological) signature of an intransitive predicate (Beermann, Hellan & Ogie 2002: 1).
Sd6 influence on Santorne
(32)
a
La11ta
mundja.
SANTOME
to raise stand/stop 'Get up: I 'Pull yourselftogether: b.
Kpaa
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
En6
mudia.
to raise stand/stop 'Get up: I 'Put in upright position.'
(Melzlan 1937: 116; Ogie's field notes)
Note that in (32a), mu.ndja not only occurs in an identical td6 construction, it is also a lexical item borrowed from Ed6. Interestingly, mz'uiia is a compound form in Ed6 (mu+dia), which was integrally borrowed into Santome. Directed motion
2.4
As in most serialising languages, combinations of directed motion and manner of motion are highly productive in Santome and Ed6, where the following types can be found: Direction away/towards (33) a P. nda be nda bi. b. Q khia11 v6 khian rre. 3sG walk go walk come ST: 'He walked to and fro: EDO: 'He is walking to and fro: (34)
a b.
a b.
En6 (Hagemeijer's field notes) (Melzi.an 1937: 228)
Inen Mle lentla ke.
SANTOMB
owa.
En6
fran rhUlt. /eM 3PL ran enter house
'They ran into the house: (35)
SANTOME
Inen x~ ka fran kpag a
ba
( = ( 36)
in Agheyisi 1990: 66; Hagemeijer's field notes)
poson.9
SANTOMJ!
En6
rrie EkO.
leave TMA go town/Lagos 'They left and went to town/Lagos: 3PL
(36)
a b.
Zon Oz6
(Agheyisi 1986: 90; Hagemeijer's field notes)
sata vala ubwa. saan rra 6gba.
'ZI:Jn!Ozo jump cross fence 'ZI:Jn!Oz6 jumped over the fence:
SANTOMB
En6 (HagemeijeriOgie's field notes)
9· Unlike other motion verbs, the verb kpa::> 'to leave' does not take a direct locative object but an object preceded by preposition vbe. A similar restriction can be found in ST: (i) N
1
X~
ni
ke
kpaa vbt! owa
1SG leave PREP house 'I left the house:
(SANTOME,
Hagerneijer's field notes) (Sn6, Ogie's field notes)
47
48
Tjerk Hagerneijer and Ota Ogie
Circwnvention (V +modifier) (37) a E fe ubwa loja b. 0 gbd 6gba legda
ke ~Owa re. 3sG bulld fence go-around house his/her 'S/he built a fence around his/her house:
SANTOME
En6 (Agheyisi 1986: 90; Hagemeijer' field notes)
Accompaniment (V+modifier) (38) a lema 1~1~ awa. b. gua lele ~ze.
row follow river 'to row alongside the river:
SANTOME
En6 (Hagemeijer's field notes; Melzlan 1942:98)
Not only do accompaniment constructions in STand td6 exhibit identical syntax, this SVC is yet another case where STuses a lexical item, lt!le, drawn from Ed6 in the second position, which was also the case of mundja, in (32a) above. Overtaking (V+modifier) (39)
a.
b.
Orne se nda vala mu ni lwa. man sP walk surpass me on street 'The man (in question) overtook me on the street: Dkpid nif khidn gbemi.a mwtn vbe ukpO. man DBM walk.PsT pass 1sG on street 'The man overtook me on the street:
Origin (40) E vwa
xe matu. he fly leave bushes 'He rushed out of the bushes:
(41)
.fo
tluvisu ba ke. come-out work go home 'I go home from work:
N
ga
SANTOME
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
En6 (Ogie's field notes)
SANTOME
(Hagemeijer's field notes) SANTOMB
1sG ASP
(42)
N bi .fo tluvisu. I come from work 'I came from work:
(Hagemeijer's field notes) SANTOME
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
F6 is interesting because it is arguably derived from a nominal item, namely Portuguese fora 'outside' (Maurer 2005). However, the possibility of aspect marking onfo (ka.fo) shows that this item exhibits verbal properties. Although td6 also exhibits origin constructions, the origin (ke) precedes the motion verb. Similarly to nMne and ye/yf, Melzian (1937) considers ke a verb, but recent work on Ed6 (Agheyisi 1986, among others) assumes that we are dealing with a preposition. Word order shows that itis likely that kewas originally a verb, since PPs in Ed6 typically follow the V(P). (43)
ke iwinna y6 owa. 1sa from work go house 'I go home from work'
I
En6 (Ogie's field notes)
Sd6 influence on Santorne
(44)
&16
1 1ce dee Edo lsG from come.PROG 'From Benin I am coming:
En6
(Melzian 1937: 1109)
Ed6 ke is further used as a verb meaning 'to be next to/neat, which is expressed by (nominal) preposition bodo in ST. Although serialisation involving directed motion is one of the most common types crosslinguistically, several of its subtypes, such as accompaniment or origin, occur less frequently and show that there is a significant amount of overlap between the full range of constructions. 2.5
Comitatives
ST may use a SVC with the verb zu.nta. 'to join to express togetherness: (45)
( 46)
Bamu zunta kopla minjan. let's join buy remedy 'Lefs buy the remedy together: Nen zunta kume. 3PL join eat 'They ate together.'
SANTOMI!
(Hagemeijer's field notes) SANTOMJ!
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
More often, however, adverb zuntu 'together' expresses togetherness- e.g., zuga bola zuntu 'play (foot) ball together'. In Ed6 this construction (V +infinitival complement) appears to be far more prolific, to the extent that it can be expressed by three different verbs that can be found in free variation: gbti, kokO and kugbe 'to jom. (47)
k~gbe-re
rr£ izf.
En6
they join.together.PsT-rv eat rice 'They ate the rice together:
(= (10) in Ogie 2004: 5)
Iran
Despite this difference between ST and Ed6, the base line is once more that both languages exhibit a typologically less common type of serial verb construction. 2.6
Degree constructions
ST has two verbs that can be used in comparative constructions: pasa. and vala. The latter is also used for overtaking constructions (Section 2.4). (48)
.Mwala sa glavi pasa/vala woman be pretty surpass 'The woman is prettier than the man:
SANTOME
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
Degree constructions are also attested in Ed6, where the verb is different from the verb used in the overtaking construction.
49
so
Tjerk Hagerneijer and Ota Ogie
(49)
Oz6 mase
Azari.
En6
Ow be-beautiful surpass Azari 'Ow is more beautiful than Azari.'
(= (21) in Ogie 2004:7)
An interesting property of comparative constructions is that they allow Wh-movement, as illustrated in the following example: (50)
Ke
kali
inen mina mosu Zon sa maxi tamen pas'e?
what which 3PL little boy Zon be more big 'Zon is taller than which boys?' (lit: ..Which boys is Zon taller than him?')
SANTOME surpass-3sG (= (15) in Alexandre & Hagemeijer 2002: 24)
:Bd6 also allows this type ofWh-movement but, unlike in Santome, there is no invariable spelledout trace (Veenstra & den Besten 1994) in the locus of extraction. (51) De fbi~ka lkpiti ne Oz6 tan-r~n sM? INT.PRON little boy.PL COMP Ow tall.PST-rV surpass 'Ow is taller than which boys?'
En6 (Ogie's field notes)
In ST, pasa 'surpass' is also used in excessive constructions, a use not found in Ed6: (52)
Maya sa glavi pasa.
SANTOME
Maya be pretty surpass 'Maya is very pretty.'
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
These constructions in Ed6 and ST do not exhibit the properties of true SVCs because pasa., vala, on the one hand, and on the other, fail to respond to tests that determine their verbal status, such as the possibility of aspect marking or verb clefting. It also follows that Ed6 and ST do not fully overlap with respect to these constructions. In fact, the broad typological overlap observed in general is not a warranty for overlap of fine-grained details of each construction.
see
2.7
Completive constructions
The items kaba in ST and fo6 in Ed6 both modify predicates and have the meaning 'to finish' as main verbs. The emphasis of the construction lies in the completion of the event (53)
a b.
Zon Oz6
fla
kaba.
guan-r~n
fo6
SANTOME (11~)
ZonJOw speak finish (perfective) 'Zon/Ozo spoke once and for all/had finished talking?
En6 (Hagemeijer/Ogie's field notes)
Thus, both Santome and :Bd6 use the verb meaning 'to finish' in the second slot but, as in the case of pasa/vala in the previous section, in neither language does the respective item exhibit verbal properties.
Sd6 influence on Santorne
2.8
'Particle' -constructions
:bd6 exhibits compound verbs in which typically a 'launch' -verb is followed by the adverbs/particles foa!kiui 'away, off' (Agheyisi 1986; Melzian 1942; Stewart 1997). According to Stewart (1997), the choice depends on the plurality of the object (count versus mass). In ST, this function is rendered exclusively by buta 'away, off' - from Portuguese botar 'to throw' - which also behaves like a particle in the sense that it is intransitive and lacks verbal properties overall. (54)
a
Zon bloka awa buta.
b.
Oz6 tue ame kua. Ozo pour water away 'Ozo poured water away.'
(55) a b.
En6 (Hagemeijer's field notes; = (26a) in Stewart 1997: 164)
Zon zuga budu buta. Oz6 fi ugbe foa. Ozo throw stone away 'Ozo threw the stone away.'
(56) a b.
SANTOMI!
SANTOMJ!
:En6 (Hagemeijer's field notes; = (29a) in Stewart 1997: 165)
kota buta. fian foa.
SANTOME
'to cutoff'
(Hagemeijer's field notes; Melztan 1937: 60)
:En6
It follows from the descriptions that :bd6 foa and kua and ST buta are unable to select for objects. If the location of the 'launch'-verb is indicated, the transitive locative construction (Section 2.2) is typically used: (57) Omali klaga lodoma zuga p~ ple. sea carry bottle throw put beach 'The sea threw the bottle on the beach!near the river: (58) Oje slla 61£ udO fi o vbi ukp6de. Oje push the stone throw cL we road 'Oje pushed the stone onto the road:
SANTOME (Hageme~Jer's
field notes)
(Schaefer & Egbokhare 2002: 67)
There are also cases where movement is expressed differently in td6 and ST. In fact, it follows that ST buta is used more restrictively than bd6 fM/kua. (59) ElfkhilkhU tin fod. pigeon fly.PsT away 'The pigeon flew away.' (60) Bisu vwa be. bird fly go 'The bird flew awaY:
:En6 (Agheyisi 1986: 143) SANTOME (Hageme~Jer's
field notes)
In sum, both languages exhibit similar constructions, but .Bd6 exhibits a semantically more finegrained system to distinguish between mass and count nouns. On the other hand, ST uses, for
10.
Emai is a North-Central Edoid language.
Sl
52
Tjerk Hagerneijer and Ota Ogie
instance, a directed motion verb to indicate movement away from the deictic centre, whereas Ed6 uses a particle for this meaning. 2.9
'Take' -serials
STand Ed6 exhibit all types of what is sometimes labelled in the literature as 'take-serials. Depending on the type of taking/carrying, a significant number of other verbs fulfils the 'take'-function in ST: ligi 'lift. up. pega 'to take, to grab: klaga 'to carrY, etc. These are all syntactically fullfledged verbs in and outside SVCs and essentially vary with respect to their semantics. In Ed6, these constructions are extremely productive, with the difference that some of the 'take'-verbs, such as mu and ya, exhibit clear signs of grammaticalisation and are better accounted for as light verbs (Grimshaw & Mester 1988), forming lexical chunks with other verbs. (61)
a
b.
(62)
a
b.
(63)
a
b.
Z.m tom~ bi. Zon take-3so come 'Zon brought herlhim/if. Oz6 rhie ~re rre. Ozo take.PsT 3so come 'Ozo brought her/him/if. ZiJn toma basola bali. Zon take broom sweep 'Zon swept with a broom.' Atlti ya 6wt kpol6. .Atiti use.PsT broom sweep 'Zon/.Atiti swept with a broom.' ZiJn toma faka kota Ianza. Zon take knife cut orange 'Zon cut the orange with a knife: Oz6 rhltf ehq fian alfm6f. Ozo take.PsT knife cut orange 'Ozo cut the orange with a knife:
SANTOMl!
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
:en6 (Ogie's field notes) SANTOME
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
En6 (= (25) inAgheyisi 1990:94) SANTOME
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
En6 (= (14) in Ogle 2004: 5)
Although both languages exhibit the same range of 'take' -constructions, none of the 'take'-verbs in ST shows the signs of grammaticalisation found in Ed6.
2.10
Consequential constructions
Both Ed6 and Santome exhibit consequential constructions. Irrespective of the analysis for these constructions, these structures are characterized by the absence of a pronominal object following V2 co-referent with the object ofVl. Neither Ed6 nor Santome exhibit object drop.
Ed6 influence on Santorne
(64)
(65)
a
Thma mpo11 va.U
b.
Mu
ebredi fian. take bread cut 'Slice the bread' I 'Take and slice the bread'
a
Zon ka
b.
Oz6 le ~ze re. Ozo ASP cook rice eat 'Ozo cooks rice and eats it'
kuji
1656 kume.
SANTOMB
En6
(Hagemeijer/Ogie's field notes) SANTOMB
En6
(Hagemeijer/Ogie's field notes)
In :bd6, consequential constructions are considered true SVCs (Baker & Stewart 1999, 2002; Ogie 2008; Stewart 1998 ).
Summary
3·
It follows from the previous sections that there is a significant amount of typological overlap between SVCs in STand bd6. Although SVCs constitute an areal feature that goes far beyond :bd6, historical and other linguistic evidence pinpoint :bd6 as the crucial stratum where these structures were transferred from. In fact, in a few constructions the verb in V2, the most grammaticalised slot, was directly borrowed from f;d6 (/€M, mzmdja). Since the prepositional function in strongly serialising languages is typically rendered by verbs and not by a special class of prepositions, inclusion of the following table summarily shows how E.d6 and ST behave in this respect and comparatively to each other. It tallows that both languages typically use nominals and verbs for the prepositional function, exhibiting a low number of prepositions proper, [-N, - V] . Although it was argued that some verbs in the second slot of SVCs do not exhibit verbal properties or only vestiges of verbal behaviour, we have included these items in the class of elements with the specification [-N, +V]. In addition to the prepositional function represented in Table 1, ST and :bd6 also exhibit a number of common complex elements with the structure Prep+Noun that function as complex prepositions. Finally, Table 3 contrastively sums up the properties of the different serial constructions in :bd6 and Santome considered throughout this paper for the features aspect marking on V2, verb clefting and stranding. The most striking contrast between serialising constructions in E.d6 and San tome arises within the class of directional constructions. In :bd6, these constructions are typically Verb+ Modifier constructions, with a grammaticalised item in the V2 slot, as tallows from the impossibility of aspect marking and verb cleft; in Santome, however, it can be concluded that, according to the
11. The difference between Ed6 and ST is that mu is a more grammaticalised item than toma (cf. Table 3). Yet, Santome also exhibits a more grammaticalised use of toma, as illustrated in the following example:
(i)
Toma ope be.
(SANTOME)
take foot go 'Goon foot.'
(Hagemeijer's field notes)
53
54
Tjerk Hagerneijer and Ota Ogie
Table 1. The prepositional function in tld6 and Santome [-N,-V] (prepositions/particles)
[+N,-V] (nominals)
~6
Santome
~d6
di'of'
aro 'in front of, 'in front of, the front, eye' the front, eye' oddro 'front, forward direction, ahead
1ifle 'in, from, ni 'in, from, at' on, at' yadn'on' an~
'until, to'
[-N, +V] (V2/d:ynamic preposition in serialising structures)
Santome
we
iyeke 'behind,
.t\d6
Santome
ne/nd 'to, for'
da 'for, from, to, on'
ghee 'towards, in the (to give, to hit) direction'
tlaxi 'behind, the back part, back'
ye!y!'on, in at'
p~ 'in'
back'
uwa 'inside'
gMntu 'inside,
yo/rrie'tci (to go)
be/ba 'to' (to go)
(to put)
the inside'
ftna 'from, since'
s~ 'without'
leu 'with, and'
kild/fild 'away, buta 'away, off'
off'
pla 'for'
iikhUnmwim 'on top. above' ilhUnmwim 'head, upside, upward, on top' odUkhunmwim 'top(side), up, skies'
liba 'on top of, upper part' (e.g., ST liba oke, ~d6
OtotlJ 'under, bottom of' otQ 'bottom of, floor, ground'
basu 'beneath,
rre 'from' (to come) bi 'from' (to come)
t'thtlnmwun ilk£ Cup-hill')
hin 'up, go up, from' subli 'up' (to go up)
under(neath), lower part'
ades~ 'centre, middle, between, core, kernel'
dm~ 'centre, middle, between'
tuore 'to hang low, descend'
d~~ 'down' (to go down)
egpe 'side, body'
bodo 'next to, side'
l~gaa
'around' (to surround, to go around) sikM 'next to, by side'
loja 'around'
lele 'along, with, after'
We 'alongside'
kt 'from, since'
fd 'from, since'
q~n
'side of, edge of'
(to encircle, to go around)
(to follow, to accompany) (to come from)
gberrad, rrd 'to pass, vala 'across' to cross, to go through'
(to pass)
de 'to fall'
kyt 'in(side), on' (to fall)
Ed6 influence on Santorne
Table 1. (continued) [-N, -V] (prepositions/par- [+N, -V] (nominals) tides) Santome
:ado
[-N, +VI (V2/d.ynamic preposition in serialising structures)
Santome
~6
Santome
kpaa 'away from'
x~ 'away from,
(to leave)
of' (to leave)
out
lad 'inside' (to enter) lentla 'inside' (to enter)
f6 'finish'
kaba 'finisH
s~~ 'than'
pasa!vala 'than'
(to surpass)
(to surpass)
mitdid 'to stop. stand'
mundja 'up(right)' (stop, stand)
d:Jd 1oin together' kild:Je 'join together'
zunta 'together,
to join'
k0k6 'gather together'
Table 2. Examples of the use of nl/vbe+N ~6
Santome
Gloss
Meaning
vbe-awu vbe-tmwdn vbe-evbd 1ifle-aro, 1ifle-odaro vbe-!yektl 1ve-obQ vbe-illdnmmwUn vbt!-QJcM:n
n-gMntu rfai rfala niwt ,Ji tlaxi nimon niliba nibodo
'inside' 'here' 'there' 'in front' 'behind'
vbe-ades~
r(iJ~
P +inside P+here P+there P+eye P + back/behind P+hand P+ above P+ side P+ centre
'from' 'on top'
'by the side of' 'in the centre'
same tests, V2 in directional constructions exhibit verbal properties, despite signs of grammaticalisation. It also follows that resultative serial constructions do not exhibit the same behaviour in Santome and Ed6: In the latter language, none of the verbs in resultative constructions can be clefted (Baker & Stewart 1999: 24) nor is possible to license an aspect marker before V2; in Santome, these restrictions do not apply.
4·
Conclusions
The linguistic impact of Ed6 (Bini) on Santome and the Gulf of Guinea creoles in general was first proposed by Ferraz (1979), especially for the lexicon, but also with respect to a few grammatical
55
56
Tjerk Hagerneijer and Ota Ogie
Table 3. Properties of verbs in verb serialisation Dynamic prepN2 V2 give-construction
~6
nd (nt)
Aspect marking
,.
diuf
Stranding
Verb cleft VI
./ ./
V2
,.
./
gbe V2locative construction V2 completive Degree
ST
da
~6
ye ()of)
ST
pe
~6
ST
fo6 kaba
~6
see
ST ST Directional
~6 ST
,.
vala
pasa y6, me, rre
Mli
./
~6
gberraa
ST
vala lee 'next to' (V2) lee 'from' (VI)
,.
./
,. ,.
./
,.
ST ~6 ST
fo
~6 ST
h!n subli
~6
tuere
ST
dese
~6
de
,.
ST
kye
./
~6
lad lentla
./
ST ~6
foa leU a
ST
buta
~6
gbd
ST
./
??!*
,.
??
./ ./ n.a. n.a. ./ ./ ./
./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./
./
./ ./ ./
,.
./
,.
./ ./
kpaa
kyi
./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ? ./ ./
./
ST
~6
Vl comitat:ive
./
./
~6
V2partide
./
ba-be, bi Iegaa loja lele
~6 ST
./
./
,.
./
,.
./
,. ,.
./
./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./
./ ./ ./
,.
kOkO kUgbe
./
./
zunta
./
./
./
,.
./
,.
./ ./ ./ ./ n.a. ./ n.a. ./ ./ ./ ./ n.a. ./ ./ ./ n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.
Ed6 influence on Santorne
Table 3. (continued) Dynamic prepfV2 Aspect marking
Verb cleft VI
~6
VI-take
Consequential Resultative
ST Ed6 ST Ed6 ST
Stranding
V2
..
rhie ya
./
..
./
mu
./ ./ ./ ./
./ ./ ./ ./
.
./
./
./
./
toma, klaga, pega
.
..
./
n.a. n.a . n.a. n.a. ./
..
n.a. n.a .
./ = grammatical; * = ungrammatical; ? = marginal; ?? = unlikely; n.a. =not applicable.
properties. In this paper, we have shown that Santome verb serialisation (in a broad sense), the categories used for the prepositional function (Tables 1 and 2) and several other features briefly addressed in Section 1.3 underscore the typological impact of Ed6 and possibly other, generally less well described languages from the Edoid cluster. These findings are consistent with a founder effect that brought in contact Ed6 and Portuguese-speaking people in the early settlement. In fact, it was shown that pretty much the full range of types of SVCs in Ed6 can also be found in Santome. Nevertheless, the languages often differ with respect to the more fine-grained properties of SVCs, which is expected from many centuries of independent development and, foremost, due to the creolisation process itself. It can be noted that Ed6 exhibits a richer variety within several types of constructions, for instance 'take'-serials, comitatives and particle constructions. But not only does Ed6 use a greater number of verbs to the same end, it is also more prolific with respect to compound verb constructions (not studied in this paper), which have lexicalised and therefore become semantically opaque. Thus, our contribution intends to show that partial substrate transfer of, or calquing on, the substrate typology played an important role in the making of a new language.
List of abbreviations ASP
CL COMP CTP DEM DET FOC INT
NOM OBL
aspectmarker clitic complementiser clause-typing particle demonstrative determiner focus particle interrogative particle nominalizer oblique
POS PRI!P PRN PROG PST
rv SEQ
SP TMA
voc
possessive preposition pronoun progressive marker past root vowel sequential marker specific marker tense-mood-aspect vocative
S7
58
Tjerk Hagerneijer and Ota Ogie
References Agheyisi, R.N. 1986. An Edo-English dictionary. Benin City: Bthiope Publishing Corporation. Agheyisi, R.N. 1990. A grammar ofEdo. Ms. Unesco. Alexandre, N. & Hagemeij er, T. 2002 Pronomes reswnptivos e abandono de preposic;:ao nos crioulos at:IAnticos de base lexical portuguesa. In Aetas do XVII Encontro da .Associtlflio Portuguesa de Lingufstica, A. Gon<;:alves & C. Nunes Correia (eds),17-30. Lisboa: APL. Alexandre, N. & Hagerneijer, T. 2004. The nominal domain in Santome. In Los criollos de base iberica: ACBLPE 2003, M. Ferrul..ndez, M. Fernandez-Ferreiro & N. Vazquez Veiga (eds), 85-100. Frankfurt/Madrid: Vervuert/ Iberoamericana. Alexandre, N. & Hagemeijer, T. 2007. Bare nouns and the nominal domain in Santome. In Noun Phrases in Creole Languages: A Multi1aceted Approach [Creole Language Library 31], M. Baptista & J. Gueron (eds), 37-59. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Almeida Mendes, A. de. 2008a. Les reseaux de la traite iberique dans l'Atlantique nord. Aux origines de la traite atlantique ( 1440-1640 ). Les Annales. Histoire, Scimces sociales 4: 739-7 68. Almeida Mendes, A. de. 2008b. The foundations of the system: A reassessment of the slave trade to the Spanish Americas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In Extending the Frontiers: Essays on the New Transatlantic Slave 'frade Data Base, D. Eltis & D. Richardson (eds), 63-95. New Haven CT: Yale University Press. Ameka, E 2005. Multiverb constructions in areal typological perspective. TROSS 03 Proceedings. Trondheim: NTNU. Awoyale, Y. 1988. Complex predicates and verb serialization. MIT Lexicon Project, Paper 29. Cambridge MA: MIT Center for Cognitive Science. Baker, M. & Stewart, 0. T. 1999. Verb movement, objects, and serialization. Ms, Rutgers University. Baker, M. & Stewart, 0. T. 2002 A serial verb construction without constructions. Ms, Rutgers University. Bamgbose, A. 1982. Issues in the analysis of serial verb constructions. Journal of West African Languages 12(2): 3-21. Beermann, D., Hellan, L. & Ogie, 0. 2002 Extraction in Edo. Ms, NTNU. Caldeira, A. 2006. Uma ilha quase desconhedda. Notas para a hist6ria de Ano Born. Studia Africana - Revista bJteruniversitt:iria tfEstudis Africans 17: 99-109. Coelho, A. 1880-1886. Os dialectos romA.nicos ou neo-latinos na Africa, Asia e America. In Crioulos, J. Morais Barbosa (ed.) 1967. Lisboa: Academia International de Cultura Portuguesa. Elugbe, B. 1989. Comparative Edoid: Pho,wlogy and Lexicon [Delta Series 6]. Port Harcourt: University of Port Harcourt Press. Ferraz, L I. 1975. African influences on Principense creole. Otlprint of Misceldnea luso-africana, 153-164. Ferraz, L I. 1979. The creole of Siio Tome. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. Fontes, C. 2007. Estudo do lexico do sao-tomense com didonario. MA thesis, Universidade de Coimbra. Grimshaw, J. & Mester, A. 1988. Light verbs and ®-marking. Linguistic Inquiry 19: 205-232. Giinther, W. 1973. Das Portugiesische Kreolisch der ilha do Principe. Mar burg an der Lahn: Marburger Studien zur Afrika und Asienkunde. Hagemeijer, T. 1999. As Ilhas de Babel: a crioulizac;:ao no Golfo da Guine. Revista Cam6es 6: 74-88. Hagemeijer, T. 2000. Serial verbs in sao-tomense. MA thesis, Universidade de Lisboa. Hagemeijer, T. 2001. Semi-lexicality and underspedfication in serial verb constructions. In Semi-lexical Heads, N. Corver & H. van Riernsdijk (eds ), 415-451. New York NY: Mouton de Gruyter. Hagemeijer, T. 2003. A negac;:ao nos crioulos do Golfo da Guine: aspectos sincr6nicos e diacr6nicos. Revista Internacional de Lingiiistica Iberoamericana 2: 151-178. Hagemeijer, T. 2007. Clause Structure in Santome. PhD dissertation, Universidade de Lisboa. Ladhams, J. 2003. The Formation of the Portuguese Plantation Creoles. PhD dissertation, University of Westminster.
Sd6 influence on Santorne
Ladharns, J. Forthcoming. Article agglutination and the African contribution to the Portuguese-based Creoles. In Black through White, A. Bartens & P. Baker (eds). London: Battlebridge. Lord, C. 1993. Historical Change in Serial Verb Constructions ['I}rpologi.cal Studies in Language 26]. Amsterdam: John Be.ojamins. Lorenzino, G. 1998. The Angolar Creole Portuguese of Sao Tome: Its Grammar and Sociolinguistic History. PhD dissertation, City University of New York. Matos, R C. 1842 Corographia his~rica das ilhas deS. Thome, Principe, Anno Bom e Fernando P6. Porto: Typographia da Revista. Maurer, P. 1995. EAngolar: Un creole r.ifro-portugaise parle aSilo Tome. Hamburg: Helmut Buske. Maurer, P. 1999. El verbo locativo poner en santomense, principense y angolar. In Lmguas criollas de base lexical espatiola y portuguesa, K Zimmermann (ed.), 89-100. Frankfurt/Madrid: Vervuert/Iberoamericana. Maurer, P. 2005. La preposition for di du papiamento et le verbe f6 des creoles du Golfe de Guinee. La linguistique 41 (1): 57-66.
Maurer, P. 2008. A first step towards the analysis of tone in Santomense. In Roots of Creole Structures, S. Michaelis (ed.), 253-261. Amsterdam: John Be.ojamins. Maurer, P. 2009. Principense. Grammar, Text and Vocabulary of The Afro-Portuguese Creole of the Island ofPr£ncipe, Gulf of Guinea. London: Battle bridge. McWhorter, J. 1992. Substrata! influence in Saramaccan serial verb constrUL"ti.ons. Jourt'lal ofPidgin and Creole Languages7(1): 1-53.
Melzian, H. J. 1937. A CotiCise Dictiot'lary af the Bini Language af Southern Nigeria. London: Kegan Paul, Trench Trubner & Co. Melzian, H. J. 1942. Vergleichende Charakteristik des ~lrbums im Bini. Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz. da Mota, A. T. 1976. Alguns aspectos da colonizafilo e do comercio mar(timo dos Portugueses na Africa Ocidental ,ws seculos XV e XVI. Lisboa: Junta de Investiga¢es Cientfficas do Ultramar. Muysken, P. & Smith, N. 1994. Reflexives. In Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction, J. Arends, P. Muysken & N. Smith (eds), 271-288. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Negreiros, J. A. de. 1895. Historia eth,wgraphica da ilha deS. Tome. Lisbon: Antiga Casa Bertrand- Jose Bastos. Ogie, 0. 2002. NP focus and non-canonical arguments in Edo. 1n Papers in Linguistics from the University of Manchester: Proceedings of the 9th Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics, 25 March 2000, K. Hiietam & C. R Schubert (eds), 78-89. Manchester: Department of Linguistics, University of Manchester. Ogi.e, 0. 2004. About multi-verb constructions in Edo: Multi-verb construction, past tense suffixation and syntactic representation in Edo. TROSS 03 Proceedings. Trondheim: NTNU. Ogie, 0. 2008. Multi-verb constructions in Edo: A typology. In Proceedings of the Second PhD-conference in Linguistics and Philology in Bergen, M. D. Cardona et al. (eds), 359-388. Bergen: University of Bergen. Post, M. 1992. The serial verb construction in Fa d'AmblL In Aetas do Col6quio sobre Crioulos de Base Lexical Portuguesa, E. d~drade & A. Kihm (eds), 153-169. Lisboa: Colibri Rouge, J.-L. 2004. Dictionnaire etymologique des creoles portugais d:4.frique. Paris: Karthala. Ryder, A. 1977. BenbJ and the Europewu 1485-1897. London: Longman. Schaefer, R P. & Egbokhare, F. 2002 On Emai's causative motion parameter. Jourt'lal af African Languages and Linguistics 23(1): 63-76. Schang, E. 2000. Ilmergence des creoles portugais du Golfe de Guinee. PhD dissertation, Universite de Nancy 2. Schuchardt, H. 1882. Kreolische Studien I. Ober das Negerportugiesische von S. Thome ~Westafrika). In Sitzungsberichte der philosophisc.h-historisc.hen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien 101: 889917. Stewart, 0. T. 1997. Object agreement and the serial verb construction: Some minimalist considerations. In Object Positions in Benue-Kwa, R-M. Dechaine & V. Manfredi (eds), 153-168. Leiden: HIL. Stewart, 0. T. 1998. The Serial Verb Constructions Parameter. PhD dissertation, McGill University. Valkhofl; M. 1966. Studies in Portuguese and Creole. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
59
6o
Tjerk Hagerneijer and Ota Ogie
Veenstra, T. & den Besten, H. 1994. Fronting. In Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction [Creole Language Library 15), J. Arends, P. Muysken &N. Smith (eds), 303-315. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Watters, J. R. 2000. Syntax. In African Languages: An Introduction, B. Heine & D. Nurse (eds), 194-230. Cambridge: CUP. Wescott, R. W. 1962 A Bini Grammar. East Lansing Ml: African Language and Area Center, Michigan State University. Williamson, Kay. 1965. A Grammar of the Kolokuma Dialect of ljo. Cambridge: CUP.
A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Portuguese Creole of Santiago Island (Cape Verde)* Ji.irgen Lang University of Erlangen-Ntirnberg
A few cases of simple relexification of elements from Wolof in Santiago Creole suggest that the Wolofs were the dominant linguistic group amongst the "creolisers" in Santiago. Two arguments taken from the history of the slave trade will be proposed to confirm this hypothesis. In a final section, we present a case of the survival, in a simplified form, of a verbal category ofWolof in Santiago Creole: The imperfective variety of the Wolof'situative' survives in a semantically simplified form in the progressive of Santiago Creole. Both categories are marked by a series of two verbal particles, the second of which is the marker of imperfectivity. However, the Santiago Creole progressive has retained only the progressive meaning of the imperfective variety of the Wolof'situative: abandoning its 'situative' meaning. Such cases suggest that, in the creolisation process, the language structures of the group dominant amongst the creolisers more often survive in a modified form (generally, simplified) than as simple calques. Arguably, these modifications/simplifications are intended to ease the joining of other groups. Keywords: Santiago Creole, Wolof, Manding, Mandinka, relexification, calque, 'situativl!, progressive, imperfectivity, simplification
By way of introduction, some background information will be given on the early history of Santiago (Section 1). It is followed by a brief survey of the literature that has focussed on the contribution of African languages to the formation of Santiago Creole (Section 2 ). A few cases of relexification ofWolof elements in Santiago Creole are mentioned here. Based on these examples, we propose the hypothesis, since confirmed (see Section 1.4 ), that the Wolofs must have constituted the dominant linguistic group amongst the slaves at the time of the creolisation of Portuguese in Santiago. In the final section ( 3), we present a case of the survival, in a simplified form, of a verbal category of Wolof (the imperfective variety of the Wolof 'situative') in a verbal category of Santiago Creole (the Santiago Creole progressive).
I would like to express my thanks to Claire Lefebvre, Lisa Lim and Alain Kihm for their valuable comments on the initial draft ofthis paper, to Sheila Regan for translating the text from French into English and to Zofia Laubltz for her final revision.
62.
Jilrgen Lang
1
Santiago in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
1.1
Overview
The Cape Verde archipelago, situated approximately 500 km to the west of Dakar, is today an independent state. Although Portuguese (Pg) remains the official language of this state, the local inhabitants - almost half a million people - all speak, as their first language, a creole based on Portuguese, which varies from island to island. Santiago, the main island in the Leeward group (Sotavento ), where both the old capital ( Cidade Velha, previously known as Ribeira Grande) and the new capital (Praia) are located, is home to half of the inhabitants, followed by Sao Vicente which, including its town of Mindelo, is the predominant population centre among the Windward islands (Barlavento ). Only half of all Cape Verdeans reside on the islands themselves. The other half live in various countries bordering on the Atlantic. Those who have emigrated do not all have a camp lete command of the creole. The history of the Cape Verdean archipelago from the time of its discovery up until today can be subdivided into four periods: (1) from the discovery until the crisis at the end of the sixteenth century; (2) a period of abandonment by the mother country (seventeenth and eighteenth centuries); (3) a period in which Portugal again strengthened its ties with the archipelago (from around 1800 until independence, which occurred in 1975); and (4) the period of Cape Verde's independence. We will limit our historical overview to the first of the four periods, which witnessed the development of Santiago Creole (SC). The Cape Verde islands were discovered purely by chance, between 1456 and 1460, during the voyages of exploration along the West African coast coordinated by the Portuguese prince, Henry the Navigator (Albuquerque 1991). The discovery of these uninhabited islands provided the Portuguese with a port of call to protect them from possible attacks launched by African rulers whilst they followed maritime routes along the African coast and, a little later, towards the East Indies and Brazil. The settlement of the islands, which was greatly desired by the crown, proved difficult due to a lack of mineral deposits or conditions favourable to agriculture. In order to attract settlers (moradores), a privilege granted in 1466 gave future Santiago colonists the right to trade under extremely favourable conditions with countries along the west coast of Africa (Albuquerque & Madeira Santos 1988: 19-22). The wealth of the colonists thus grew to such an extent that, six years later, the king imposed a very restrictive interpretation of the freedoms granted in 1466 (Albuquerque & Madeira Santos 1988:22-28), as follows: The part of the coast along which the moradores from Santiago were given the right to trade was limited to what had already been discovered in 1466. The ships belonging to the moradores were obliged to leave from Santiago and return there directly after having landed on the coast. On the coast, the moradores were only allowed to exchange goods that had been produced on the island. In spite of these restrictions, which were frequently violated, the population of Santiago and the wealth of its moradores continued to increase spectacularly, thanks to this trade.
A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Pol1:ugllese Creole
The moradores were generally merchants, ship owners, and landowners at the same time. On the coast, they exchanged cloth and horses for a range of goods, but mostly for slaves. Only a minority of these slaves remained on the island, as the majority were resold to Portuguese, Spanish and Italian merchants who dispatched them to the European markets and, from 1507, to American markets (in Santo Domingo, Cartagena, Veracruz and Brazil). The manufacture of cloth destined for export to Africa gave a large boost to the cotton industry (Albuquerque & Madeira Santos 1991 [henceforth HGCV I]: 183-186) and, by the same token, to the settlement of Santiago and the neighbouring island of Fogo, which was particularly suited to the cultivation of this crop (HGCV I 1991: 143-146).1 The other islands remained unpopulated for a long period, except for a few shepherds to tend the herds of goats that had been brought there (HGCV I 1991: 146-148). The re-exporting of goods and slaves acquired on the coast became the main source of wealth for the moradores, and thus a situation of complementarity emerged between the commercial port towns (Ribeira Grande, Praia) and the inland areas dedicated to the raising ofhorses and the production of merchandise (cotton, cloth) destined for Africa. The increase in the population of Santiago (see Section 1.3) and in the wealth of the moradares could only last as long as the Portuguese were able to protect their monopoly along the West African coast, which the treaties of Alc~ovas (1479) and ofTordesillas (1494) had granted them. From 1565 on, they became less and less successful at this. 2 An economic crisis thus ensued which became ever more pronounced. The loss of control over the seas left Ribeira Grande at the mercy of English, French and Dutch corsairs.3 Assisted by the lan(:ados, Portuguese and Cape Verdean traders who had established themselves on the continent in defiance of the Portuguese government ban, the African rulers increasingly dealt directly with the Dutch, the English and the French, who were able to supply them with any type of European goods they desired. The Portuguese crown was finally forced to lift this ban, which led to the rapid marginalisation of Santiago in respect of commercial routes: Even the Portuguese merchants were no longer obliged to land at Santiago be.tore setting off again for Europe or crossing the Atlantic. The loss of the island's role in the Atlantic trade had serious repercussions for Santiago society. Due to a lack of financial reserves, the effects of periodic droughts could no longer be offset by importing supplies. The landowners, less and less inclined to live on the island, freed a large proportion of their slaves in order to relieve themselves of the responsibility of feeding them. Some of these emancipated slaves left tor other islands (Brava, Santo Antao, Sao Nicolau) in search of land that could support them. A system of slavery was replaced with a system of tenancy, with small tenants working the lands of absentee landowners. On the islands, the social boundaries between the freed and the enslaved and between white, mixed race and black inhabitants became blurred. Around 1507, Valentirn Fernandes wrote on the subject of Santiago island, «Ern esta ilya nat;:e muyto algodorn" [On this island much cotton is grown] and on the subject of Fogo "Nat;:e aqui muyto algodom" [Here much cotton is grown] (Ed. 1997:157, 158-159). 1.
2.
See Boulegue (1989:37,footnote 1) and HGCV I (1991: 140).
3· Between 1583 and 1598, the island sustained at least five attacks by corsairs and Ribeira Grande was twice pillaged (see Madeira Santos 1995 [henceforth HGCV 11]: 153-162).
63
64
Jilrgen Lang
Because of the isolation of the archipelago that took place at the end of this period, the ethnic composition of the population of Santiago has changed little since that time. During the second period, the number of Africans arriving and departing declined and only the number of departing Europeans rose. In the third and fourth periods, the influence of Portuguese on the creole spoken in Santiago increased considerably.
1.2
The population of Santiago
The sources available on the settlement of Santiago allow us to identify several main strands: The colonists arrived with very few servants, and those who were married, without their spouses.4 In these circumstances, close cohabitation between the white master and several people of African origin (temale partner(s) and servants of both sexes) must have been established immediately. From the second generation on, there were already more "mulattos" than whites, even amongst non-slaves, thanks to the freeing of children born of the union of a white master and an African slave. In Ribeira Grande, the population was composed of the following groups: the settlers (moradores); the Portuguese, Spanish and Italian visiting merchants and sailors (estantes) who provided the moradores with any goods they needed from Europe or America and took with them the slaves and goods that the mora.dores brought from Africa; some administrators and clerics; freed slaves; and, finally, the slaves who served their masters at home, in business, on the ships or as interpreters. In the inland areas there were some administrators of land and properties (generally, freed slaves); slaves who tended the goats, worked in the fields or wove cloth at home; one priest per parish. As regards the slave population, three groups can be identified: those who lived in close contact with their masters, those who worked inland on the island on properties lfazendas) far away from their masters and- probably living among the latter group - those who were soon to leave. Among the first group. the acquisition of Pg would have begun immediately, leading to an acrolectal creole and possibly resulting, in some cases, in perfect mastery of the language used by the masters.5 In the second group, the African languages would have been maintained for longer and the crystallisation of a new language would have taken more time. The result would have 4· According to the corregedor P~ro de Guimaraes, in 1513, there were four households (vizinhos) with white, unmarried women (mulheres branquas solteiras) in Ribeira Grande and 10 with black women (negras). Ant6nio Correia e Silva assumes that these were prostitutes (HGCV 11991:235). In 1588, Philip II called home the men of Santiago who had left their wives in Portugal- without the least success (HGCV11991:235). In 1620, the king ordered that exiled women be sent to Santiago to eradicate as far as possible the persons of mixed -race ("... a fun que se extinga, quanto possivel, a ra~ de mulatos·; HGCV 111995: 255-256). 5· Dulce Pereira (2006: 169) doubts whether at all creolisation of Portuguese took place in Ribeira Grande. We should notforget, however, that Portuguese creoles even developed in the Portuguese factories on the Indian coast. We will see a little later that the Africans soon formed the majority in Ribeira Grande: The colonists there did not prepare their meals themselves; did not plant or harvest their vegetables themselves; did not fetch water from the
A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Pol1:ugllese Creole
been a more basilectal creole, an approximation of the language of the overseers, which, in turn, was an approximation of the language of the masters. Pereira (2006: 174-175) is undoubtedly correct in her assumption that the relative levelling of the differences between masters and slaves, and town and country, at the time of the crisis at the end of the sixteenth century must also have involved a similar levelling in linguistic terms. This levelling most likely favoured rural, basilectal varieties of the creole at the expense of urban, acrolectal varieties. The slaves who were en route would only have been able to acquire a more or less elaborated variety of pidgin Portuguese if their stay with the lanfados on the coast or on the fazendas in Santiago or Fogo was extended. These pidginised varieties of Portuguese may have left traces in Caribbean creoles.
1.3
Some statistics
The documents available do not allow us to follow in detail the growth in the population of Santiago during the first period. However, we are able to present some useful information. In 1513, the corregedor Pero de Guimaraes provided the king with some figures concerning Ribeira Grande. According to his account, Ribeira Grande possessed 58 "vizinhos homens honrados brancos" [honourable white neighbours], 16 "vizinhos negros" [black neighbours], 56 "estantes estrangeiros, naturais dos vossos Reinos" [overseas visitors, originating from your kingdoms] (these were legally not real vizinhos as they had no permanent residence), 4 "mulheres brancas solteiras" [white unmarried women], around 10 "negras" [black women], 12 "clerigos" [clerics] (including the priest) and 3 "moines" [monks] (HGCV I 1991: 137). The term vizinho [neighbour] denotes a 'free person, head of a household'. Together with other overseas visitors mentioned in the text, the heads of households could thus have numbered around 170 in 1513, according to the Cape Verdean historian Ant6nio Carreia e Silva (HGCV I 1991:233). As can be seen, there were already a considerable number of emancipated Africans. The total number of inhabitants of Ribeira Grande could then have been close to 500, if we estimate that there was an average of five slaves in the households of those colonists with a permanent residence (home1ts honrados brancos) but far fewer in the other households. Towards the middle of the sixteenth century an anonymous piloto estimated that there were "mais de quinhentos fogos" [more than 500 fires] at Ribeira Grande (HGCV I 1991:147, 233). If we assume that one fire represented one household, then the population must have increased almost five-fold in the space of under 40 years. In 1582, the report by sargento-mor Francisco de Andrade to the king provides, for the first time, a reliable estimate of the population of the whole of Santiago Island and the neighbouring island of Fogo. According to this remarkable piece of evidence, approximately 13,400 people were then living in Santiago and 2,300 on the neighbouring island, not including children, fugitive slaves or other marginalised persons. There were 508 vizinhos residing in Ribeira Grande, who had around 5,700 slaves working for them in their households and in the fields on the outskirts well themselves, etc. And there must necessarily have been many people who carne and went between the town and the inland area of the island.
65
66
Jilrgen Lang
of the town. In Praia, there were approximately 200 vizinhos, with some 1,000 slaves. Taken as a whole, these two urban centres, therefore, accommodated more than half the entire population of the island (HGCV I 1991:230-236). As regards the inland areas of the island, Andrade documents circa "600 home[n]s branq[u]os e pardos [600 whites and free mulattos] e 400 pretos forros casados [400 emancipated Africans], os quaes terao em suas fazendas de serui<;:o de suas casas 5v [5,000) escravos, ..."[who may employ in their properties and houses some 5,000 slaves]. This scattered population of6,000 was distributed across eight parishes. Inland and in Praia, there were therefore around five slaves for every one free person; in Ribeira Grande, around ten. The fact that, again according to Andrade, in the capital all the slaves had been baptised, whereas in Praia one in five, and inland even two out of five were prepared for baptism, seems to confirm that the socialisation of the slaves who had recently arrived from the continent took place in the inland areas of Santiago and in Fogo. The estimates made by Francisco de Andrade provide us with an overall figure and most likely a true picture of the social composition of the population of Santiago at the beginning of the major crisis. Yet they tell us nothing about the ethnic composition of its African element 1.4
The role of the Wolofs in the populating of Santiago
The silence of Francisco de Andrade on the subject of the ethnic origin of the slaves is not exceptional. There are no documents that provide direct information on the origin of the slaves who were deported to Santiago during the first hundred years of its history.6 We believe, however, that we have demonstrated elsewhere, albeit indirectly, that speakers of Wolof formed the majority amongst the first groups of slaves who disembarked at Santiago (Lang 2006). Two arguments will be given to support this idea. 1.4.1
The Wolofo and the slave market at Valencia
The city of Valencia in Spain preserves all the documentation concerning the local market of slaves under the reign of the Catholic Kings (1479-1516). According to Vicenta Cortes Alonso (1964), who studied these documents in detail, 2,452 of the approximately 4,275 slaves who were sold there in the period in question declared themselves to be Jalofos (this is the name under which the Wolofs appear in writings from this period). Of these Wolofs, 2,258, that is 92%, arrived before 1500.1he ethnonyms Mandiga, Mantinga, Ma.ndenga and Mantenga. appear in only 43 of these documents. And among the slaves sold before the year 1500, only three used one of these terms to indicate their origin. The ethnonyms Beni, Benne and Bennich appear in 45 documents, all of these later than 1500. Unfortunately, similar documents are not available for the slave markets at Seville and Lisbon, which were larger than the Valencia market Alfonso Franco Silva nevertheless maintains in his work, La escla.vitud en Sevilla y su tierra. a finales de la. Edad Media. (1979), that there were
6. "... , praticamente nao h3. referancias sobre a identidade etnica da massa escrava entrada nas ilhas [caboverdianas] ate meados de Quinhentos" [There is hardly any information concerning the ethnic identity of the masses of slaves who entered the [Cape Verdean] islands before 1550] (Didio Cabral Baleno in HGCYI1991: 155).
A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Pol1:ugllese Creole
many more Wolofs amongst the African slaves (los guineanos) than there were speakers of Manding languages (Franco Silva 1979: 69).
The evidence of descriptions of the African coast All Cape Verdean authors writing at around 1600- Francisco de Andrade (1582), Andre Alvares d'Almada (1594) and Andre Donelha (1625) -lamented the passing of the times when the Dutch, French and English had not yet replaced them as the privileged commercial partners of the Wolof kings (see quotations in Lang 2006: 56-58). Jean Boulegue describes more precisely the time of the loss of the Portuguese quasi-monopoly over this trade: "Portugal suffered a decisive fall in influence on the "Petite C6te" [the Wolof coast south of Cape Verde, J. L.] around the time 15651570, as Francisco de Andrade, a well-placed witness, wrote to the king in 1582~ 7 So, against their will the Cape Verdean merchants had relocated the centre of their activities to the south. For Valentim Fernandes (before 1507) and Pacheco Pereira (between 1505 and 1508) who, although not from Cape Verde, nonetheless had access to excellent information, the past that Andrade, d'Almada and Donelha yearned for was still present They only regretted that in the Wolof lands they no longer received 15 or 14 slaves for a horse, as had been usual at the beginning of the trading times, but at most six (cf. quotations in Lang 2006: 58-59). 1.4.2
Conclusions To conclude, we can state two irrefutable facts:
1.4.3
Among the slaves sold at the market at Valencia in the final two decades of the fifteenth century, those who declared themselves to be "Jalofos" were greatly in the majority. 2. In the same period, Portuguese and Cape Verdean merchants continued to maintain close commercial ties with the Wolof kings. According to sources, the whites mostly provided horses in exchange for slaves. 1.
Considering the privileged position for trade along the African coast which Santiago enjoyed at this time, it would appear highly probable that the majority of black slaves at the Valencia market would have passed through Santiago. This leads us to believe that most of the slaves who were kept in Santiago in the fifteenth century were also Wolof, as it is difficult to believe that the Cape Verdean merchants would have systematically re-exported Wolofs so as only to keep slaves of other ethnic groups on the island. Indeed, nothing would be more natural than for the momdores of Santiago to favour trade with the Wolofs for as long as was possible. The Royal Charter of 1466 granted them important privileges for trade between the Senegal River and Sierra Leone. And it was in tact the Wolofs who inhabited the section of this part of the coast that lay directly opposite the archipelago. Let us examine some possible objections to these conclusions.
7. J. L?s translation. In a footnote, Boulegue translates a passage from Francisco de Andrade into French: "Maintenant, depuis quinze ans [Le. since 1567], cette traite ne peut plus se faire dans cette region [on the Petite COte] acause des nombreux navires fran¢s qui se trouvent toute fanmle sur 1a cOte de ces quatre lieux de traite" [For fifteen years, this trade has been impossible in this region because of the many French ships that are found on the coast of these four trading areas all year long] (Boulegue 1989:37, footnote 1).
67
68
Jilrgen Lang
First of all, rather than really declaring themselves "Jalofos': the slaves at Valencia could have been labelled "Jalofos" by the merchants involved. The label "Jalofo" could, therefore, have signified "bought and boarded in Wolof territory': without implying that the slave in question was a member of the Wolof linguistic community. Would it not be surprising if the Wolof kings had sold their own people? This is a valid argument The Wolof were able to sell to the Portuguese and Cape Verdeans numerous slaves who spoke Ndut, Noon, Saafen, Serer and Manding languages, slaves who had been taken prisoner during their last conquests.8 However, their contact with the Portuguese and the economic interest that these contacts brought to the coast immediately prompted the disintegration of the Grand Jolof. The slaves sold by the kings could, therefore, very soon be provided from the internal conflicts that accompanied this disintegration of the empire. Moreover, the inordinate thirst for goods offered by the Europeans soon encouraged the Wolof kings to find the pretexts necessary to condemn certain of their subjects to slavery and to declare war on their nearest Wolof neighbours. If we accept the account ofValentim Fernandes, often a pretext was not even sought: "Quando quer que as carauellas dos christaos vern e algliu senhor [gyloffo] quer cauallos comprar logo ho dito senhor salta em a primeyra aldea que acha tanto manta de amjgos como de emmjgos E apanha homens e molheres quanta lhe abasta pera aquella vez e quanta pode escapar" [When the caravels of the Christians arrive and some [Wolof] gentleman wants to buy horses, this gentleman heads for the first village he finds, regardless of whether it is friendly or hostile, and seizes the number of men and women sufficient to his needs at that time and as many as he is able to take] (Valentim Fernandes, ed. 1997: 66). Even if certain kings were more scrupulous with regard to their own subjects, the idea that ethnic solidarity would have prevented a Wolof king from selling another's subjects, who were also Wolot~ certainly does not correspond to the attitudes common at that time. This does not mean, however, that on interro galion at Valencia, there might not actually have been speakers of Serer, Ndut, Noon, Saafen or Mandinka (a Manding dialect) who were declared Wolof simply because they came from a region that was part of the "Grand Jolof". This is true. Yet one might suppose that belonging to the Grand ]olaf would necessarily imply some minimal knowledge ofWolot~ Alone or along with other languages, Wolofis thought to have functioned as a lingua franca across the lands dominated by the Wolof for a period (Boulegue 1989: 22). It even seems reasonable to assume that it was precisely the creation of the Grand Jolof that produced a certain linguistic levelling among speakers of different West Atlantic dialects, under the leadership of the Djolof proper. The limited knowledge ofWolof that speakers of Serer or of Ndut had would have been more useful for them than knowledge of their mother tongue, once they were transported to Santiago or to Valencia.
8. "Enclavees panni les Wolof ou sur les franges meridionales de leur domaine, il faut signaler de petites ethnies, les Ndut, les Noon and les Safen, qui ont ete probablement partiellement refoulees ou assimilees par leurs voisins et, al'epoque dont nous traitons, ont plus que les autres souffert de la traite esclava.giste" [In enclaves among the Wolof or on the southern fringes of their territory, we should note some small ethnic groups, the Ndut, Noon and Safen, who were probably partially suppressed or assimilated by their neighbours and who, at the time we are speaking of, suffered more than other peoples from the slave trade] (Boulegue 1989: 22).
A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Pol1:ugllese Creole
Thus, history does not appear to refute the idea that there was an initial preponderance of Wolof speak.ers,9 as is suggested in the grammar ofSC (see below). This idea is also not refuted by the fact that the lexemes of Manding origin seem to be more numerous in SC than those ofWolof origin (see below): the Wolof slaves laid the structural foundations of SC to which those who arrived later had to conform, 10 but the merchants and the slaves who came from more southerly regions were able to continue to introduce African vocabulary following the end of the period of trade with the Wolofs.
2.
Research on the contribution of Mrican languages to the development of Santiago Creole
Research on traces of African languages in Portuguese creoles was undertaken earlier for the creole varieties of the West African coast (Guinea-Bissau and Casamance) than for the varieties of the Cape Verde islands. For research on the former, we refer the reader to the work of Kihm (1980, 1988, 1994) and Rouge (1985, 1988), which centers on the discovery of cases of conjlation (or of convergence, to use the term from Baptista 2006) of Portuguese and '~ican" lexemes and the identification of creole lexemes of African origin. The affinity between creole varieties on the continent and those found on the archipelago, particularly those of Santiago and Fogo, is undeniable. When studies on the traces of African languages were extended to SC (Baptista 2006; Bartens 2006; Couto & Souza 2006; Lang 2004, 2005; Quint 2000, 2006; Rouge 1994, 1999, 2006), it was naturally thought that the African languages involved in the development of this creole must have been the same as those involved in the development of the continental creoles, namely Mandinka, a Mande language spoken in Gambia, and, to a lesser extent, Wolof, a West Atlantic language spoken to the north of the Gambia River, and several other West Atlantic languages spoken to the south of the Gambia, including Temne, native to Sierra Leone but used in a wider area due to its historical role as a lingua franca (see Rouge 1994: 142, 145; claims that are repeated in Quint 2000: 25, 32 ). The results of research concerning the provenance of lexemes of "African" origin in SC, moreover, seemed to confirm the preponderance ofMandinka (see Rouge 1999, 2004; also Quint 2000). Given that the impact ofWolof (W) on the creole of Casamance was slight and its impact on tlle creole of Guinea- Bissau almost nonexistent, this interpretation has long led to an underestimation of the role of this language in the development of SC. As early as 2000, Nicolas Quint nevertheless drew attention to the parallels between tlle verbal pair ten - tene 'to have' of SC and theW pair am - ame, respectively used for essential possession and temporary possession (Quint 2000: 55). We have shown elsewhere that the SC pair mimics (semantically as well as morphologically) that in W to such an extent tllat an acknowledgement of a direct role ofW in the creolisation of Portuguese in Santiago becomes unavoidable (Lang
9· For more details, see Lang (2006).
We have just formulated a new "founder principle~ The founders that are envisaged here are not the founders of the colony, as in Mufwene (1996), but rather the founders of the creole.
10.
69
70
Jilrgen Lang
2005). The same can be seen in the case of the oppositions [±imperfective] and [±anterior] in the two languages: The SC marker of imperfectivity t(a) corresponds to theW di (variants d-and-y); the SC marker of anteriority -ba corresponds to theW -(w)oon (Lang 2004). 11 And it would be difficult to explain the reinterpretation of the Pg deictic adverbs ali [-e'li], la ['la] (both indicating distance) in the SC forms of li ['li] (proximity) and la ['11il] (distance), without taking into account the deictic value of the Wvowels [i], for proximity, and [-e), for distance (Lang 2005).IZ Furthermore, a comparison of the grammatical structures of our creoles with those of Mandinka led Jean-Louis Rouge to the conclusion that there was evidence at this level of some influence from Mandinka on the creoles of the coast, but that Mandinka influence was "quasi inexistante au Cap-Vert" [all but nonexistent in Cape Verde] (Rouge 2006: 73). The leading language amongst the ancestral languages of the creolisers in Santiago must, therefore, have been a Wolof dialect of that time or at the very least a West Atlantic language closely related to Wolof. This realisation prompted us to revisit the question of the settlement of the island - the results of which can be seen in 1.4. These results encourage us now to take a further step. The reader will recall that two central categories of the verbal system of SC bear a striking resemblance to those ofW; what about the third central verbal category of SC?
3·
The trace of the Wolof 'situative' in the progressive of the Santiago Creole
The African, West Atlantic and, most likely, Wolof character of the two central categories of the verbal system of SC would appear, therefore, to have been proven. In our opinion, it is possible to speak of a relexification of the W markers di (variations: d-, -y), for the imperfective, and -(w)oon, for the anterior, by t(a) and -ba, respectively in SC, in the sense given to this term by Claire Letebvre (1998, 2001) and John Lumsden (1999). However, the strict parallels between the two verbal systems end there. Many verbal categories in modern W do not exist in SC, while some categories that can be found in both languages are similar in certain respects but different in others. A less rigorous observer might claim that the similarities are simply those that one always finds when comparing two languages. And yet, is it really conceivable that the Wolof imprint, which is so evident in particular parts of SC grammar, could be completely absent from other parts? A careful comparison of the Wolof'situative' with the progressive in SC allows us to answer this very question. 3.1
Wolof
We will first reproduce a table diagramming the verbal system ofW (see Table 1), taken from the Dictionnaire Woloffran~is by Fal et al. (1990:25) and slightly modified in accordance with
11.
For the Wolof markers, we refer the reader to the table in Section 3.1.
12. See also the SC so 'only, alone~ of which certain very common uses correspond to theW rekk 'onlY, but not to the Pg so 'only, alone' (Lang 2008).
Table 1. The verbal system of modern Wolof according to Pal et a1. (1990: 25) ASSERTIF
Dependant
"t::
~
q
::a
terminatif
subjectif
objectif
processif
situatif
desider.
rna bey (dugub) nga bey mubey nubey ngeen bey iiu bey
beynaa beynga beyna beynanu beyngeen bey na.iiu
maabey yaa bey moo bey noo bey yeena bey iioo bey
dugub laa bey ... nga bey ... la bey lanubey ... ngeen bey ... laiiu bey
damabey danga bey dafa bey danubey dangeen bey daiiubey
maangi bey yaangi bey mungibey nungi bey yeena ngi bey iiungi bey
naa bey nanga bey na bey nanubey nangeen naiiu
beyoonnaa
maabeyoon
... laa beyoon
damabeyoon
maa ngi beyoon
may bey ngaybey muybey nuybey ngeen bey fiuybey
dinaa bey dinga bey dina bey dinanubey dingeen bey dinafiu bey
maaybey yaaybey mooybey nooybey yeenaybey flooy bey
... laaybey ... ngaybey lay bey ... lanuybey ... ngeen di bey ... laiiuybey
damaybey dangaybey dafaybey danuy bey dangeen di bey daiiuybey
maangiybey yangiybey mungiybey nungiybey yeena ngiy bey flungiy bey
doonnaa bey
maadoon bey
... laa do on bey
dam a doon bey maa ngiy doon bey
beyuma
maa beyul
... laa beyul
damabeyul
mabeyul
beyuma
maa beyul
damabeyul
WOOD
WOOD
WOOD
... laa beyul woon
duma bey
maadul bey
dumawoon bey
maadul woonbey
~ :!l Passe rna beyoon
~ ~
'Tj
~ "t::
~
q
' Tj
Passe rna doon bey
"t::
~
z
~ ~
'Tj
rna beyul
madul bey
~
"t::
~
Injonctif
madul woon bey
rna ban bey
madiban bey
laa dul bey laa dulwoon bey
WOOD
damadul bey dam a dul woon bey
imper. beyal
beyleen
naaybey nangaybey dilbey nay bey nanuybey nangeen di bey dileen nafiuy bey bey
> ~
a:
s!;: 5'
burna bey, buL .. , bwnu... , bumu. .. , buleen ... , bunu ... Perfectif: action envisagee dans sa globalite: je1al garab gii « Prends ce medicament ! • Imperfect.if. action envisagee dans son deroulement: dil je1 garab gii « Prends ce medicament (regulierement) ! »
..S" ~
0"
~
1 g,
g.
I "'"'
Q
"'~ ..... ...
72
Jilrgen Lang
other published works. The table shows the conjugation of the W bey (dugub ), in English, 'to grow (millet): accompanied byW subject pronouns. As there are no forms corresponding to the forms of theW 'situative' in English, French approximations are used in the translation ofW examples below. 3.1.1
The 'situative' in Wolof
Table 1 shows that the marker indicating the 'situative'- Sauvageot (1965), Robert (1991) and Diouf (2001) use the term 'presentative'- in W is formed by using a "presenter" ng-, followed by a variable deictic element. The deictic element shown in the table is the vowel [i], which indicates proximity. An alternative to this vowel would be the vowel [-e] to indicate distance; other deictic elements, such as -ii and -oogo, can also appear in this position. We therefore have, for the thirdperson singular of bey (dugu.b) (French: 'cultiver du mif): (1)
.Mu ngi bey dugub. 3sG presenter-near grow millet 'Voici qu'il cultive du mil.' Mu nga bey dugub. 3sG presenter-far grow millet 'Voila qu'il cultive du mil.'
WoLOF
(Fal et aL 1990: 25) WOLOF
In the first- and second-person singular, as well as in the second-person plural, we find the morpheme -a combined with the personal pronoun. In the Kajoor region, we also find the same phenomenon in the first- and third-person plural (Robert 1991: 168). In Dakar, however, we find: sa 1. Maa ngi ... , 2. Yaa ngi... , 3. Mu ngi... , PL 1. Nu ngi ... , 2. Yeena ttgi ... , 3. Nu ngi .... This -a resembles that which is found in the subjective for all persons (see Table 1; -u+a regularly appears as -oo in Wolof). It can also be found in the third person of the 'situative' following a lexical subject, where the personal pronoun mu may be used as an alternative. We, therefore, have either lexical subject+ mu + ngi ... , orlexical subject+ a+ ngi ... (Robert 1991:166, 168): (2)
(3)
Xaj bi mu ngi lekk yapp. dog CLF-near 3PS presenter-near eat meat 'Void que le chien mange de 1a viande: Pierre a 11gi ak Omar. Jar Peter a presenter-near take-sides with Omar 'Voici que Pierre prend parti pour 0 mar.'
WOLOF
(Robert 1991: 166) WoLOF
(Diouf & Yaguello 1991: 87)
It is not easy to formulate the rules that determine the choice between ngi and nga. It would appear that speakers should choose nga (which is in fact much less frequent than ngi), if they wished to indicate that the action is outside of the immediate or current field of vision of their interlocutor, that is to say, located firr away or in the recent past For more on this subject, see Robert (1991: 195-197) and the following example taken from Diouf & Yaguello (1991:63), where the 'far' meaning of ca and wale echoes that of nga:
A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Pol1:ugllese Creole
(4)
Mu ngay
dem ca
wall wale.
WoLOF
3sG presenter-far-IPFV go at-far side DEM-far ·n vade l'autre c6te l.A-bas: (Literally: 'Voila qu'll vade l'autre cru:e la-bas.')
In stories, ngi seems to bring us spatially nearer to the action, in a manner similar to the effect, in temporal terms, of the historical present in English. 3.1.2
Use of the imperfective marker in the Wolof'situative'
Theoretically, it is only possible to point to something that is still there. Semantically, the 'situative' is therefore intrinsically imperfective. 13 As can be seen from the examples (1 )-(3) above, this intrinsic imperfectivity of the spatial deixis does not need to be marked explicitly in W by the imperfective marker di. This does not, however, prevent us from finding frequent examples in which the imperfective marker, in the form of -y, combines with the element ngi or nga indicating the 'situative~ The resultant forms are ngiy, which occurs frequently (this form appears in Table 1), and ngay, which is more rarely seen (see (4)). In this particular context, the marker allows the expression of a sub-type of the imperfective. Ngom (2003:76) explains: "When the NGI form is in the perfective aspect, the sentence is interpreted as present tense in English. When it is used in the imperfective aspect, the sentence is interpreted as present progressive:' Stephane Robert made the same assertion as early as 1991, without using a comparison with English. According to Robert, the forms of the 'situative' with the imperfective marker indicate that "at the moment of speaking TO' the process has begun, is continuing and is not yet completed" (Robert1991: 190; J. L:s translation). It therefore follows, among other things, that, "... whenever the verb takes a plural object which implies both duration and progression, the tendency is towards the use of the imperfective marker" (Robert 1991: 190). This phenomenon is confirmed by examples found in dictionaries and texts: (5)
Mu ngiy
bey
dugub.
3sG presentative-near-IFFY grow millet 'Le voici en train de cultiver du mil'
WoLOF
(Fal et al. 1990: 25)
Robert further explains that the form without the imperfective marker and with a present meaning, "is by no means incompatible with processes which suppose a certain duration" (Robert 1991: 190). None of this is surprising. It must be remembered that forms that are not marked morphologically are almost always also not marked semantically. That is to say, rather than indicating the opposite of the marked forms, they remain in principle indefinite (or semantically neutral) compared with the predse meaning the marker would give (Robert 1991: 191: "In sum, the simple form of the presentative would not seem to be really completed or incomplete:';]. L:s translation). If there is no reason to emphasise the progressive aspect or if it is clearly evident from the context, it is not necessary to use a specific marker.
13. Only in exceptional circumstances could a 'situative' produce a past tense meaning. The examples given in Robert (1991: 187-189)involve resultative verbs and indicate the results in question.
73
74
Jilrgen Lang
3.2
Santiago Creole
3.2.1
Ihe presentative construction in SC
Let us now turn our focus to SC, which has a clear presentative construction: (6)
Ale
-l
ADV-near
3PS
[-e'lel] ta IPFV
pi/a
midju.
pound
COrn
SANTIAGO CREOLE
'Le voici qui pile du ma:is.'
Ala
-l [-e'l-el] ta
ADV-far 3PS
IPFV
pila
midju.
pound
corn
SANTIAGO CREOLE
'Le voila qui pile du m.als? One would expect to findAli-1 ta ... ,in place of Aie-l ta ... , given that the two deictic adverbs in SC are (a)li [(-e)'li] 'here' and (a)la [(-e)'l-e] 'there~ Nicolas Quint may well be correct in his interpretation of this construction as containing verbal uses of ali and ala (pc). Essentially, the unstressed [-i] of SC verbs is changed to a stressed [e] in front of verb endings and enclitic pronouns. The opposition of'near' and 'far' in the presentative construction in SC does indeed call to mind the W 'situative: but the characteristics that make the SC construction similar to the presentative construction of Pg Ei-lo a pilar milho 'Le voici qui pile du m.a'is' are much more numerous: The order and the function of the elements (firstly a presenter, then a clitidsed object pronoun) are the same as in Pg; In both the SC and the Portuguese constructions, there is a localisation of the subject of the action and not a localisation of the process; Contrary to the case ofWolof, in the SC construction, the verb is automatically introduced by the imperfective marker ta, which corresponds to the preposition a in the Portuguese construction (see once again, Pg Ei-lo a pilar milho ); The 'situative' is found much more frequently in Wolof texts than SC and Portuguese presentative constructions in SC and Portuguese texts. All of these factors lead us to believe that the presentative construction in SC does not stem from the process of creolisation. Instead, it would seem to have developed later according to the Portuguese model and using available creole elements. On this occasion. the speakers would have substituted for the Pg ei, the creole forms ali!ala and - as in a number of verbal periphrases that SC has borrowed from Pg (Lang 2000: 470)- the creole ta for the Portuguese preposition a. Thus, the W 'situative' has not survived in SC in a relexified form. We hope, however, to demonstrate that it has nonetheless profoundly influenced the verbal system ofSC. 3.2.2
Ihe progressive aspect in Santiago Creole
Strangely, the aspectual system of SC is richer than that ofW: Only SC has a progressive aspect within the impertective aspect The aspectual system of SC thus has the forms as shown in Table 2. As can be seen, the marker of the progressive in SC is sa (variation: s'), invariably followed by the marker of the imperfective, ta. This is because the progressive presupposes imperfectivity.
A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Pol1:ugllese Creole
Table 2. SC pila midju 'to pound corn' N
bu e nu nhos es Imperfective
Progressive
Imperfective
N
ta
bu e nu nhos es
ta ta ta
N
bu e nu nhos es
3·3
ta ta
sa sa sa sa sa sa
ta ta ta ta ta ta
pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju pila rnidju
Birth of the progressive in Santiago Creole under the influence of Wolof
SC forms beginning with sa ta or s'ta therefore have the same meaning as 'situative' forms in W in cases where they are accompanied by the marker of the imperfective - apart from the situative or presentative effect itself. It is as if, in functional terms, the speakers ofW had, in the process of creolising Pg in Santiago, abandoned their 'situative. but not relinquished the possibility that this forms provided to express the progressive aspect. This supposition would remain purely hypothetical if certain material clues were not available to support it. In the Portuguese progressive periphrasis, est a fazer 'he is (in the process of) doing: it is esta a that provides the expression of the progressive aspect Two ways of pronouncing esta a would have already been in competition at the time of creolisation: (Ele) esta a [s'ta-e] (comer) 'He is (in the process of) eating' 14 and (Ele) ta a ['ta-e] (comer). Nowadays, the variant with the elided [s] is very common in informal language. In search of a phonic sequence in the Portuguese utterances that they heard, which was likely to be the equivalent of their imperfective marker di (modern variants d-, -y, although these may not yet have existed at this time), they came across the popular and very common ['ta-e] in the progressive periphrasis in Pg. The reinterpretation of this Pg string as a verbal particle in SC brought with it the loss of its stressed character and the transformation of its open [a] into a closed [-e]. SC does not, in fact, have any open vowels [s], [a], [:JI in unstressed syllables. The resulting [-eI merged with the second [-e]. In this way, the marker of the imperfective aspect in SC was born:
a
14. The pronunciation [' fta-e] did not yet exist at that time. By contrast, the variant with the elided e- already appears after a vowel twice in a Portuguese document dating back to 1280 and reproduced in Maia (1986: 186-187, no. 97).
75
76
JilrgenLang
OldPg
*(Ele)
taa ['tall]
(comer.)
sc
(El)
ta [t"e]
(kume.)
OldW.
*(Mu)
di
(lekk.)
•
~
ModernW.
+
/
(lekk.)
Muly
Figure 1. Development of the imperfective marker in SC
(Cf. modern W Muy bey (dugub) in the third person of the imperfective of the 'dependant' in Table 1.) In this account, the phonic substance of the marker of the imperfective in SC originated from 'above' (from Pg), and its phonic form (a monosyllabic unstressed particle) came from 'below' (fromW). Searching for a phonic sequence in the Portuguese utterances that they heard that could be the equivalent of their complex marker *ngi di (nowadays, ngiy), the speakers ofW must ahnost inevitably have come across the same periphrasis. Yet this time they had good reason to favour the longer variant [stag]. In effect, this choice of the longer variant, subjected to the same phonic analysis as the one reconstructed for the transformation ['tag] > [tl:'!], and thus ['stag] > [stl:'!], allowed them to identify two parts: The first, [s), was not required to be the marker of the 'situative: but the distinctive sign of the progressive and the second, [tl:'!], was identified as the marker of the imperfective. Thus, the complex marker of the progressive aspect in SC was born: staa ['stall]
(comer.)
sl ta [ste]
(kume.)
OldPg
*(Ele)
sc
(El)
OldW.
*(Mu)
ngi I di
(lekk.)
ModernW.
Mu
ngil y
(lekk.)
• •• tt
Figure 2. Development of the progressive marker in SC
From s'ta [s I t1:'!], we would arrive at sa ta [81:'! I t1:'! ], which is closer to the canonical syllable structure ofSC (cf. Pg escuro [(e)s'kuru] 'dark'> SC sukuru [su'kuru]). Once again, the phonic substance of the markers of the progressive in SC originated from 'above' (from Pg), and their phonic form (a succession of two particles, s'ta transforming into sa ta) came from 'below' (from W). However, here we are no longer dealing with a simple case of relexi:fication: The signijie of ngiy (or *ngi di), that is to say, its semantic "form~ situative + imperfective, has not remained intact. It has been simplified into progressive(+ imperfective). Let us stress at this point that, provided that this analysis is correct, in this interpretation of the Portuguese phonic chain modelled on W *ngi di or ngiy we are dealing with a false
A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Pol1:ugllese Creole
segmentation. As we know, such segmentation errors are often produced at the beginning of the unassisted acquisition of a second language. A creole generally retains a fairly large number of such errors. However, these segmentation errors are rarely completely arbitrary. In the present case, the make-up ofW *ngi di, ngiy suggested a segmentation of [srn], while the competition within Portuguese between the variants ['sta] and ['ta] suggested a break of the [sIte] type, rather than of the [st 1-e] type. After sa. tawas promoted to the rank of complex marker of the progressive, its use was extended to the optative in order to create optative forms with a progressive meaning. The modal content of an optative naturally implies imperfectivity. This inherent imperfectivity does not, therefore, require a specific marker. It is only when there is a need for a progressive meaning that the marker sa ta is added to the optative. One final observation seems to confirm the validity of our conclusions: If the progressive implies imperfectivity, why is it not ever possible, in accordance with the theory just expounded, to dispense with the marker ta after the progressive marker sa? Most likely because, in the relevant contexts of their masters' utterances, the slaves sometimes heard [sta] and sometimes [ta], but never [s] without [ta). Finally we arrive at the following verbal system (see Table 3). Table 3. SC pila 'to pound' Indicative
Optative
N bu e nu nhos es Ant
Imperfective
Ant
Progressive
Imperfective
Ant
pila
N
aJ.
pila pila pila pila
bu e nos nhos es
al al al al al
pila pila pila pila pila pila
pilaba
N
al
piJ.aba
pila
N N bu e nu nhos es
ta ta ta ta ta ta
pila
N
ta
pilaba
pila pila pila pila
pila
N bu e nu nhos es
sa sa sa sa sa sa
ta ta ta ta ta ta
pila
N
pila pila pila pila pila
bu e nos nhos es
al al al al al al
sata sata sata sata sata sata
pila pila pila pila pila pila
N
sa
ta
pilaba
N
al
sata
piJ.aba
77
78
Jilrgen Lang
In order to gain an idea of the full extent of verbal forms that SC speakers have at their disposal, we need only add to all of these forms the corresponding passive forms. As can be seen, the SC system is much simpler than that of modem-day W, but at the same time much closer to it than to the Pg verbal system of any era.
Conclusions At the point of embarking on this research, the extensive presence ofWolof speakers in Santiago at the time of the birth of its creole and the existence of certain calques from Wolof in SC (evident from surviving forms in modem Wolof) was no longer in doubt. The question that remained to be addressed was whether it was possible, considering these circumstances, that we might find less visible traces of ancient Wolof in SC, in other domains. Given that these varieties had no written form, we had to base our comparisons on modem Wolof. We believe that we have shown that the SC progressive can be explained as resulting from a simplification of the imperfective version of the Wolof 'si tuative'. In semantic terms, the progressive meaning of these Wolof forms was preserved, yet their strictly situative meaning was lost. Morphologically, there would have been the usual replacement of Wolof material with Portuguese material, along with the retention of the Wolof morphological structure (in this case: two particles, the second of which identical with the imperfective marker). The semantic simplification would have occurred to ease the joining of other groups whose language may have had a progressive, but not a 'situative' with a progressive meaning in the imperfective. It is not possible, however, tor us to identify these groups at present. Our explanation of the SC progressive remains hypothetical. How could it be anything else at this stage? A new methodology will undoubtedly have to take shape gradually that will clarify which criteria need to be fulfilled by such a reconstruction if it is to be accepted by the academic community. We believe that there is no alternative. To reject any investigation of the impact on creoles of the ancestral languages of the creolisers would probably amount to a complete renunciation of historical explanation (Lang 2008). For the time being, we propose that research on the traces of the ancestral languages of the creolisers in a creole should begin with the identification of creole elements that are more or less pedtd matches with forms found in these languages, but that it should be extended to other domains if and when such calques are discovered.
List of abbreviations AJJV
CLP
Dl!M IPFV
Pg
adverb classifier demonstrative imperfective Portuguese
PS
SC
person Santiago Creole (Cape Verde)
SG
singular
W
Wolof (Senegal)
A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Pol1:ugllese Creole
References de Albuquerque, L. 1991. 0 descobrimento das illias de Cabo Verde. In HGCV I: 23-39. de Albuquerque, L. & Madeira Santos, M. E. (eds). 1988. Hist6ria Geral de Cabo ~rde, Corpo documental, Vol. I. Lisbon & Praia: lnstituto de Investiga~o Cientlfica Tropical - Dire~o-Geral do Patrirn6nio Cuhural de Cabo Verde. de Albuquerque, L. & Madeira Santos, M. E. (eds). 1991. Hist6ria Geral de Cabo Verde, Vol. I [HGCVI]. Lisbon & Praia: Instituto de Investiga~ao Cientffica Tropical- Direq:ao-Geral do Patrirn6nio Cultural de Cabo Verde. Baptista, M. 2006. When substrates meet superstrate: The case of Cape Verdean Creole. In Cabo Verde. Origem da Sua Sociedade e do Seu Crioulo, J. Lang, J. Holm,J.-L. Rouge & M. J. Soares (eds), 91-116. Ttibingen: Narr. Bartens, A. 2006. A contribui~o do substrato africano para a genese dos crioulos caboverdianos: 0 caso dos ideofones. In Cabo V?.rde. Origens da Sua Sociedade e do Seu Crioulo, J. Lang, J. Holm, J.-L Rouge & M. J. Soares (eds), 117-131. Tiibingen: Narr. Boulegue, J. 1989. Les Luso-Africains de Senegambie: XVI-~ siedes. Lisbon: Ministerio da Educa~o, Instituto de Investiga~o Cientffica Tropical Cortes Alonso, V. 1964. La esclavitud en Valencia durante el reinado de los Reyes Cat6licos (1479-1516). Valencia: Ayuntamiento. do Couto, H. H. & de Souza, U. R. 2006. As consoantes pre-nasalizadas no crioulo caboverdiano: Por uma interpreta~o bifonematica. In Cabo Verde. Origens da Sua Sociedade e do Seu Crioulo, J. Lang, J. Holm, J.-L Rouge & M. J. Soares (eds), 133-146. Tiibingen: Narr. Diouf, J.-L 200 1. Grammaire du wolaf contemporain. Tokyo: University of Foreign Studies. The Institute for the Study ofLanguages and Cuhures (ILCAA). Diouf, J.-L. & Yaguello, M. 1991. fapprends le wolof, 1 vol. etune cassette. Paris: Karthala. Fal, A, Santos, R. & Doneux, J.- L 1990. Dictionnaire wolof-fratlfais, suivi d'un index franfais-wolof. Paris: Karthala. Fernandes, V. 1997. Codice Valentim Fernandes. Ofrecido Pelo Academico Titular Fundador Joaquim Bensaude (1859-1952), Leitura Paleogrdfica, Notas e lndice Pelo Academico de NUmero Jose Pereira da Costa. Lisbon: Academia Portuguesa da Hist6ria. Franco Silva, A. 1979. La esclavitud en Sevilla y su tierra a finales de la Edad Media. Seville: Diputact6n Provincial. Kihm, A. 1980. Aspects d'une syntaxe historlque: Etude sur le creole portugais de Guinee-Bissau. PhD dissertation, Universite Paris III. Kihm, A. 1988. Conflation as a directive process in creolization. In Beitrage zum 4. Essener KDlloquium Sprachkontakt, Sprachwandel, Sprachwechsel, Sprachtod 1987, N. Boretzky, W. Enniger & T. Stohz (eds), 111-137. Bochum: Brockmeyer. Kihm, A. 1994. Kriyol Syntax: The Portuguese-Based Creole Language of Guinea-Bissau. Amsterdam: Jolm Benjamins. Lang, J. 2000. Centre africain et peripherie portugaise dans le creole santiagais du Cap Vert. In Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages, I. Neumann-Holzschuh & E. W. Sclmeider (eds), 469-482 Amsterdam: Jolm Benjamins. Lang, J. 2004. Affinites grammaticales entre le creole portugais de l'lle de Santiago (Cap Vert) et le wolof (Senegal): Aspect et temps. In Los Criollos de Base Iberica. ACBLPE 2003, M. Fernandez et al. (eds), 137-147. Frankfurt/ Madrid: Iberoamericana/ Vervuert. Lang, J. 2005. Zwei Fiille, in denen das portugiesische Kreol von Santiago (Kapverde) mit dem Wolof iibereinstimmt. In Portugiesische Kreolsprachen: Entstehung. Entwicklung, Ausbau und Verwendung, A. Endruschat & A. Schonberger (eds), 45-56. Frankfurt: Domus Editoria Europea. Lang, J. 2006. I:influence des Wolof et du wolof sur la formation du creole santiagais. In Cabo Verde. OriguiS da Sua Sociedade e do Seu Crioulo, J. Lang, J. Holm, J.-L Rouge & M. J. Soares (eds), 53-62 Tiibingen: Narr.
79
So
Jilrgen Lang
Lang, J. 2008. Explications universelles et explications historiques. Les emplois de so en creole santiagais. In Romanische Syntax im Wandel, E. Stark et a1 (eds), 487-497. 'llibingen: Narr. Lefebvre, C. 1998. Creole Genesis and the Acquisition of Grammar. The Case ofHaitian Creole. Cambridge: CUP. Lefebvre, C. 2001. Relexification in creole genesis and its effects on the development of the creole. In Creolization and Co,Jtact, N. Smith & T. Veenstra (eds), 9-42. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Lwnsden, J. S. 1999. Language acquisition and creolization. In Language Creation and Language Change. Creolization, Diachronyand Development, M. DeGraff(ed.),129-157. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. Madeira Santos, M. E. (ed.). 1995. Hist6ria Geral de Cabo Verde, Vol II [HGCYII]. Lisbon & Praia: Instituto de Investiga~o Cientifica Tropical- Direq:ao-Geral do Patrim6nio Cultural de Cabo Verde. Maia, C. de A. 1986. Hist6ria do Galego-Portuglds. Estado Li1Jguistico da Galiza e do Noroeste de Portugal desde o Seculo XIII ao Seculo XVI (Com Refertncia a Situas:ao do Galego Modemo), reprint. Coimbra: Gulbenkian - JNICT. Mufwene, S. 1996. The founder prindple in creole genesis. Diachronica 13: 83-134. Ngom, R 2003. Wolof. Munich: Lincom. Pereira, D. 2006. Contributes da Hist6ria Geral de Cabo Verde para o estu.do da forma~o e da difusao do crioulo caboverdiano. In Cabo ~rde. Origms da Sua Sociedade e do Seu Crioulo, J. Lang, J. Holm, J.-L. Rouge & M. J. Soares (eds), 161-178. Tiibingen: Narr. Quint, N. 2000. Le cap-verdien: origines et devenir d'une langue metisse. Paris: I:Harmattan. Quint, N. 2006. Un bref aper~Tu des radnes africaines de la langue c:apverdienne. In Cabo Verde. Origens da Sua Sociedade e do Seu Crioulo, J. Lang, J. Holm, J.-L Rouge & M. J. Soares (eds), 75-90. Tiibingen: Narr. Robert, S. 1991. Approche enonciative du systhne verbal: Le cas du wolof. Paris: CNRS. Rouge, J.-L. 1985. Formation et evolution du creole de Guinee Bissao et de Casamance. PhD dissertation, Universite Lyon II. Rouge, J.-L 1988. Petit dictiommire etymologique du Kriol de Gumee-Bissau et Casamance. Bissau: Instituto Nadonal de Estu.dos e Pesquisa. Rouge, J.-L. 1994. A propos de 1a formation des creoles du Cap-Vert etde Guinee.PAPIA 3: 137-149. Rouge, J.-L. 1999. Apontamentos sobre o lexico de origem africana dos c.rioulos da Guine e de Cabo Verde (Santiago). In Lmguas Criollas de Base Lexical Espafiola y Portuguesa, K. Zimmermann (ed.), 49-65. Frankfurt/ Madrid: Vervuert/Iberoamericana. Rouge, J.-L. 2004. Dictionnaire etymologique des creoles portugais d'Afrique. Paris: Karthala. Rouge, J.-L. 2006. !:influence manding sur 1a formation des creoles du Cap-Vert et de Guinee-Bissau et Casamance. In Cabo Verde. Origens da Sua Sociedade e do Seu Crioulo, J. Lang, J. Holm, J.-L. Rouge & M. J. Soares (eds), 63-7 4. Tiibingen: Narr. Sauvageot, S. 1965. Description sychronique d'un dialecte wolof: Le parler du Dyolof. PhD dissertation, Universite de Dakar/IFAN.
Substrate influences in Kriyol Guinea-Bissau and Casamance Portuguese-related Creole AlainKihm CNRS, Paris
Kriyol is a Portuguese-related creole language spoken in Guinea-Bissau (former Portuguese Guinea) and Senegalese Casamance. Besides being the primary language of an important community, tt also serves as a lingua franca in a multilingual country where Portuguese, although being the official language, actually has little currency. Kriyol counts among the oldest Creoles in the world, having emerged probably during the sixteenth century from a pidginised variety of Portuguese used by the local intermediaries (grumetes) between the few Portuguese settlers and the local populations. Given this situation, one would expect a high degree of substrate influence. In fact, substrate influence, although readily visible, turns out to be limited as can be shown by comparing core grammatical phenomena between Kriyol and a selection oflocallanguages (Balanta, Diola, Manjaku, Mankanya). It is proposed that the main reasons for such a limitation are ( 1) that the creole-creating grumetes soon formed a tightly united group with its own culture; and (2) that they were perfectly bilingual in Kriyol and one or several local languages, therefore able to keep their grammars separate. Keywords: adstrate, Atlantic languages, Basic Varieties, Creoles, creolisation, grumetes, lanfados, Mande languages, pidgins, Portuguese-related Creoles, substrate, West-African history
1.
Introduction
According to the now conventional division of creole languages into plantation and fort ereales (Reinecke 1937), the Portuguese-related Creole of Guinea-Bissau and Casamance (West Africa), Kriyol by its vernacular name, clearly belongs to the latter category.1 Its present-day speakers live in the same place as did their forebears who initiated the language some four centuries ago. It therefore never lost contact with the languages these initiators spoke before the creole existed and which are still spoken today alongside the creole. Indeed, contact is not only spatial - the "local" languages and Kriyol sharing the same territory -, but it is mental insofar as every "native" Kriyol speaker is fully bilingual in at least one local language, and few local language speakers lack competence in Kriyol. In fact, as suggested by the inverted commas, the 1.
For detailed descriptions of the language, see Wilson (1962); Kihrn (1994).
82
Alain IGhm
notion "native speaker" is moot in an environment where extensive bilingualism almost from the cradle has always been the rule. In such a situation we expect pervasive sub stratal (or ad stratal) influences, such as are evident in all varieties of Melanesian Pidgin English (Keesing 1988) or, even more so, in Korlai, another Portuguese-related fort Creole (Clements 2007). One would even expect Kriyol to result from relexification of one (or more) of the local languages, in the sense that relexification of Gbe languages is claimed to have played a crucial role in the formation of Haitian Creole (Lefebvre 1998). If fifty to a hundred years of spatial and mental contact of the lexifier with the substrate languages are deemed sufficient in that case, how much more should four hundred years achieve? The extent to which such expectations are frustrated is actually surprising. It is not that Kriyol does not exhibit features taken from or betraying the influence of the surrounding languages, but how many of them really pertain to what can be considered core grammar, i.e. major constituents order, NP and VP structure, TMA marking, complementation, etc, is open to debate. As far as such phenomena are concerned, Kriyol indeed turns out to be a rather typical creole, not in McWhorter's (1998) technical sense of (proto )typicality, but in the simple, pre- theoretical sense that, in all these domains, it looks very much like the other Atlantic creoles with different substrates and other or the same lexifiers. Even lexical borrowings from local languages are few. Many features not analysable as "creole" are clearly identifiable as coming from the lexifier. Like most if not all known creole languages, however, Kriyol exhibits the noun-verb split that seems to characterize this pseudo-family. 2 In the nominal domain, NP morphosyntax does not diverge significantly from that of the lexifier and, where Kriyol and European Portuguese (EP) do differ, the substrate is at most indirectly responsible. In the verbal domain, in contrast, the morphosyntax of the verbal complex (VC) is just as clearly not inherited from the lexifier.3 In its main outlines the Kriyol VC looks very much like what is found in many other creoles, crucially including some of non-Indo-European provenance such as Arabic-based Nubi (Wellens 2005; Kihm 2008b ), so one would rather lean towards explanations in terms of internal developments specific to creole genesis. Nonetheless, the fact that in most surrounding languages the VC structure is at least partly (never fully) compatible with this "creole template" must certainly be taken into account The relative scarcity of morphosyntactic influences from the substrate does not mean, however, that Kriyol is not perfectly embedded in its sociolinguistic and cultural environment. Quite the opposite in fact: in terms oflexical semantics, discourse strategies, pragmatics, and language uses in general, Kriyol is just as "African" as the surrounding languages - scare quotes necessary since the epithet is not susceptible of a precise definition, but it is an impressionistic label for a very complex set of cultural attitudes and practices, shared beliefs, etc. Two questions must therefore be raised, if not answered, in the present study. First, we would like to know why not more of Kriyol morphosyntactic structure can be traced back to direct substrate influence in an environment seemingly so favourable to it. Is it a consequence of the
2. See Kihm (2008a) for a precise characterization of this split and its significance for any theory of creole formation.
3· By verbal complex (VC) I mean the VP minus its internal NP arguments and PP adjuncts, ie. the verb itself, auxiliaries, TMA markers, predicate adverbs, object ditics, and predicate negation.
Substrate influences in Kriyol
particular circumstances in which Kriyol was formed, or should it be taken as evidence that the substrate does not play such a crucial role in creole formation after all? Secondly, we must ask why the features that are due to substrate influence occur precisely where they do. Why these influences rather than others, in other words? With these goals in mind, the study will proceed as follows. First, I will describe the history and sociolinguistic situation of Kriyol from its inception to the present. Then, switching from an e-language to ani-language perspective, I will review the two main domains of Kriyol morphosyntax, the nominal and the verbal. For each domain, I will contrast those features that certainly or possibly reflect substrata! influence with those that come from the lexifier or from creolisation itself. This will enable me to at least partially answer the second question above. Finally, I will capitalise on the historical and the morp hosyntactic surveys in order to find an answer to the first question as well, which will lead me to a reassessment of the role and nature of the substrate, at least for creole languages having the same ecology as Kriyol.
2.
A historical and sociolinguistic sketch
2.1
Before the Europeans
In the first half of the fifteenth century, on the eve of the first direct contacts with Europeans, the populations of present-day Guinea- Bissau and Casamance seem to have been established roughly in their present locations (Silva 1959; PAIGC 1974). Then as now the principal divide was between the coast and the interior. The interior was theoretically a province of the Empire of Mali which had extended to the Rio Geba during the fourteenth century. This province, Gabu, was placed under the authority of governors lfa.rins) named by the emperor (ma.nsa). ru the Empire of Mali began to decline at the end of the fourteenth century, however, the governors shook off its authority and proclaimed themselves kings (mansa). The Manding kingdom of Gabu then continued as a highly hierarchised society based on extensive agriculture and cattle raising. It thrived until the end of the nineteenth century, when it was finally conquered by the Fula Muslim State of Futa Jalon in 1867, the Fula almami (imam) Umaru taking pretext of the Mandings' animism to launch an all-out jihad against them. The last mansa, Diank.e Walli, chose to die rather than surrender by blowing up his gunpowder reserve together with his last followers and himself. The coastal peoples may have come from the interior, pushed forward by the conquering Mandings under whose dominion part of them had stood tor a time. To name only the most numerous and most likely to have entertained regular contacts with the Europeans, these peoples are the Diolas (most of them across the present border with Senegal), the Manjakus, the Mankanyas, the Papels, and the Balantas. All of them live between the Casamance River and the Rio Geba. At the time we are concerned with, they constituted traditional societies with no state power, except for some hierarchy perhaps retained from the period when the Mandinkas ruled: they had kings, called regulos 'chieftains' by the Portuguese, with exclusively religious powers. We may also cite the Biafadas, more to the south, then a kingdom organised after the Mali imperial model. The
83
Bijag6s were isolated on their islands then as now and stood aloof from any contact before and after the coming of the Europeans. As far as Guinea-Bissau and Casamance (and Senegambia more generally) are concerned, nothing could therefore be farther from the truth than the popular image of helpless, traditional (read "primitive"!) Africans being raided over by superiorly organised Europeans. Actually, one cannot insist too much on the fact that the technological and socio-cultural gap between Europe and West Africa in the late Middle Ages and beginning of the Renaissance was anything but wide (Albuquerque 1991). The only obvious technical superiority the Europeans had were firearms, and they did not keep it very long. Politically, a still largely feudal Europe and the West African kingdoms were not worlds apart. As we saw, even the stateless peoples had regular exchanges with powerfully hierarchised states: the Empire of Mali, the Kingdom of Gabu, and also the Jolof Kingdom to the north (Boulegue 1987). Language diversity was and still is quite important. All the languages involved belong to the Niger-Congo phylum. Whereas the Mandings speak various dialects of Mandinka, a language cluster belonging to the Mande family, all other peoples speak languages of the Atlantic family. Diola (actually a language cluster), Manjaku, Mankanya, Papel, and Balanta are closely related within the Bak subgroup of the Northern branch (Wilson 1989). Manjaku, Mankanya, and Papel may even be considered dialects (or rather dialect clusters) of one language, with some degree of intercomprehension. Diola and Balanta, the latter also a dialect cluster, are overtly quite different, however. Biafada belongs to a different subgroup, the Eastern Senegal-Guinea languages, and Bijag6 is an isolate. Wolof and Serer, two languages of the Senegambian subgroup spoken north of the Casamance river, should probably be brought into the picture as well. Finally, Fula, also a Senegambian language, is now spoken in Guinea-Bissau, but that is probably fairly recent (see above). Despite such diversity, there is not the slightest doubt that, given their constant interchanges, the peoples of Guinea-Bissau and surrounding lands never had any problem communicating with each other (Rouge 1986). Extended bilingualism was probably the solution, plus possibly the use of Mandinka as a trade language. There is no question, therefore, of the European language coming in to fill a gap. Kriyol did not emerge because the local people needed it in order to talk to each other. Did it emerge because they needed to talk with the European newcomers? This is what we shall now examine.
2.2
The first European settlements
The coast of present-day Guinea-Bissau and Casamance was touched in 1446 by Portuguese ships under the command of Nuno Tristao or Alvaro Fernandes (Mota 1946; Boxer 1969; Pinto Bull 1989: 31). Conquest proceeded at a very slow pace. The first fortified settlement (praf!J), Cacheu, was not founded until1 588. It was the first capital (capitan ia) of the province. Bissau, also a fortified settlement, was founded in 1686, but it became the capital only in 1941. For a very long time, actually until the beginning of the twentieth century, Portuguese presence was scant, it did not reach into the interior, and there was no real attempt at effective colonisation. Until the end of the eighteenth century, slave trade was the main economic activity, although there also was some export of rice, leather, gold, and ivory. The slaves from inland were shipped to
Substrate influences in Kriyol
Portugal or to Brazil. During the whole period from the sixteenth to the late eighteenth centuries, the flux of slaves to Portugal was quite significant According to serious estimates, about 150 000 slaves coming from Guine, that is the whole West Mrican coast from Senegal to Angola, entered Portugal between 1441 and 1505 (Tinhorao 1988:Chapter 6). In 1551 their number in Lisbon alone was estimated at 9950, i.e. 10% of the city's total population of 100 000 (Saraiva 1991: 194; Tinhorao 1988: 112). Most of them probably came from the Guinea area, whereas slaves shipped to Brazil after 1500 came from further south. 'This is important because, among the tasks imposed on the slaves, there was that of serving as interpreters and/or crew aboard Portuguese ships on trading expeditions, which gave them the prospect of earning their freedom provided they helped in securing a certain number of new slaves (see Ca da Mosto's relation of his 1455 voyage as published in Academia Portuguesa da Hist6ria 1948/1988; Tinhorao 1988). These African interpreters (turcima.ni inCa da Mosto's terms), having stayed not more than a decade in Portugal, must have spoken, not "proper" ER but the Basic Variety of it that came to be known as Lfngua de Preto "language of the Black" (Kihm & Rouge 2009 ). Although Ca da Mosto's relation is unclear on this count, it is therefore very possible that successful interpreters were released on the spot, thus providing an entrance for pidgin EP on the West Mrican coast.4 All trade from Guinea was officially in the hands of companies authorized by the Royal Court and endowed with a theoretical monopoly. The Portuguese government, however, never had the means to enforce its own regulations, given the dearth of administrative personnel and regular troops that lasted until the end of the nineteenth century. Offical trade then had to compete with smugglers, the so-called lan~dos, meaning literally "men who cast themselves away (into the bush)" (Silva 1970). They were adventurers who landed clandestinely on the coast - an easy job at the time - and settled in villages where they began to trade in slaves and other goods with crews of any European nationality without paying taxes to the Portuguese Crown. Many of them were converted Jews (cristaos novos) who thus put safe distance between themselves and a growingly suspiscious Inquisition. They seem to have been easily accepted by the local people, who were not prone to feel any moral scruples in trading with slaves since slavery was part of the economy of all West Mrican societies at the time. The lan~dos went native in a few years, married local wives and begot children. It can hardly be doubted, therefore, that they constituted the other channel, besides manumitted interpreters (see above), through which pidgin EP penetrated Senegambia and Guinea, where it soon became a lingua franca. The mixed offspring of the lanfados are called filhos da terra "children of the land". They soon formed a mixed caste that actually constituted the bulk of the Portuguese presence in Guinea, as very few "true" Portuguese ever came from the homeland to this forlorn province, at least until the beginning of the twentieth century. (This shows they had inherited a good share of lusitanity from their lan~do fathers.)
4· I speak of Basic Variety for the form of EP acquired by slaves in Portugal, and of pidgin for what resulted from carrying this Basic Variety EP over to Africa. It should be clear that both terms cover very much the same reality. Notice moreover that Basic Variety research (Perdue 1993; Klein & Perdue 1997) leaves no room for Naro's (1978) unli.lrely asswnption that the Portuguese discoverers deliberately contrived the pidgin to serve as a 'reconnaissance language' (also see Clements 1992).
85
86
Alain Kihm
In and around the prUfas a new society slowly took form. At its classical stage, say in the middle of the eighteenth century, it consisted of three social groups (see Rouge 1986). First there were the so-called Portuguese, many of whom, as just mentioned, were actually "assimilated" (assimi/ados) individuals with mixed or African phenotypes, more or less direct descendants of the filhos da terra. They were practicing Christians, lived in the European fashion (except for keeping local wives), and spoke EP. All the trade with the surrounding populations, whose independence was still intact, was in their hands despite the companies' official monopoly. Then there were the troops, apparently a rabble made up of the refuse of the Cape Verdean garrison. Finally there was the most interesting group from our point of view, namely the so-called grumetes meaning "ship's boys': They were Africans with fiunily ties in the local populations, who lived in the outskirts of the prUfas and worked for the Portuguese, either as sailors on the boats that plied the rivers (hence their name) or as go-betweens in trade relations. They were nominally Christian, submitted to a special legislation, and notoriously disorderly and riotous. Quite possibly, many of them were also "re-Mricanized" descendants from the lan~dos (Silva 1970). Given their in-between position, neither European (or "assimilated") nor fully African, since they did not live in the ancestral villages but kept to their own quarters next to the cities, the grumetes form the only community within which a creolised variety may have developed. Among them it served a double purpose. On the one hand it allowed them to communicate with the members of the Portuguese group who, precisely because of the grumetes' role as intermediaries, had no reason to learn the local languages. This emerging creole was rooted in the pidgin EP the la.n~ados must have used with the villagers among whom they had settled (although probably not with their own children, as suggested above). The other function of the creole among the grumetes has to do with group identity (Rouge 1986). Clearly, indeed, they would not have used it to communicate with the local peoples, Manjakus, Balantas, etc., since they always retained native or near native command of the latter's respective languages. On the other hand, one would not understand why they kept to it and never switched to "true" EP, to which they had ready access, if the creolised variety had not functioned as an in-group code with a double benefit: identifYing them with the economically powerful Portuguese community in the opinion of the local peoples; keeping the same Portuguese community at a profitable arm's length which allowed them to get their own returns from the businesses they transacted in its behalf. Besides, Kriyol is not so different from EP, at least in the outward form of the lexemes, that basic exchanges are out of the question between speakers of each language. Some understanding remains possible, but not too much. Because of that, the Portuguese never had any incentive to learn Kriyol since they believed they understood it sufficiently for what it was worth in their eyes. The grumetes, on their side, had no good reason to speak EP since they did not need it to make themselves understood as much as and no more than was useful Kriyol therefore developed at the same pace that the grumetes built up a distinct community, of whose identity it became the most conspicuous sign. Creolisation in the present instance is therefore certainly not a consequence of restricted access to the lexifier on the part of the creole initiators. For one thing, insofar as the immediate lexifi.er was not EP, but a pidgin variety thereof, the creole initiators had full access to it at this stage. Next, when both a Portuguese and a grumete community had come into existence and were living in close, if segregated, contact with each other, full access to non-pidgin EP could not have
Substrate influences in Kriyol
been barred. Creolisation was actually a matter of restricting access in order to construct and preserve a separate community. Within that community, Kriyol was obviously necessary also as a common language between people of diverse origins, who could have communicated without it given generalised bilingualism, but did it even better through a medium where the practical and the symbolic functions were fully reconciled. Given this situation, it seems dear that no particular substrate language could exercise a predominant influence on the emerging creole. What influences took place were either due to properties the substrate languages had in common or to the fact that they all expressed a common civilisation involving largely shared speech habits and cultural uses of language over and beyond language diversity.
2.3
Colonisation and after
Kriyol seems to have stabilised rather early. The first documents we have date back from the first half of the nineteenth century, and they show a language not significantly different from what is heard nowadays (Bocande 1849; Barros 1882; Schuchardt 1888). Between that period and the present, however, the sociolinguistic environment changed drastically. When the Portuguese settlements turned into a Portuguese colony at the beginning of the twentieth century, after a series of "pacification wars" had subdued the previously independent peoples of the territory, the gmmete community had probably already disappeared as such. The main divide then was and still is between city dwellers and farmers. The former, many of them but not all ex-grumetes, had Kriyol as a native or primary language, whereas the latter used it as a vehicular language. Another effect of colonisation was to cut the Kriyol-speaking domain asunder when, following the (in)famous 1886 Berlin conference, the French and Portuguese governments signed a treaty that devolved Casamance to the former. Henceforth, a European-style border, never tight but nevertheless effective, cut across what had always been one country so far. Casamance became part of the French Senegalese colony, with a resulting influx of Muslim Wolof-speakers from the north. The linguistic consequences were that Casamance Kriyol was isolated from Guinea-Bissau Kriyol and Portuguese, preserved archaisms that have disappeared from the more southern dialects, and became the distinctive native language of the Christian community (Chataignier 1963). In Portuguese Guinea, then Guinea-Bissau, in contrast, the number of first or primary speakers grew significantly during the twentieth century because of the expansion of the cities, especially Bissau, and the role of Kri yol as a lingua franca increased accordingly. The war of independence ( 1963-1975) contributed enormously to the diffusion of Kriyol, as the language was widely used in the PAIGC Liberation Army (as well as by the Portuguese military's propaganda to the Guinean population). 5 At the same time, EP influence made itself felt more strongly, especially and somewhat paradoxically after independence, due to the development of school education and the mass media. (EP remained the official language ofindependent Guinea-Bissau, Kriyol being granted the status of"nationallanguage" along with the other languages of the country- with few
5· PAIGC: Partido Africano da Independtncia da Guine e Cabo Verde.
87
88
Alain IGhm
practical consequences.) Speech levels thus appeared, which can be described as mesolectal and which probably did not exist previously, as Kriyol never was - and still is not - in a continuum situation with respect to its lexifier.
3·
Kriyol compared to its lexifi.ers and its substrate
Having thus reviewed the origin and evolution ofKriyol as a sociolinguistic object (e-language), we shall now explore some of its inner grammatical mechanisms (i-language) from a contrastive perspective, setting them up against their counterparts in the contributors to their coming about, namely EP and its Basic Variety known as Lingua de Preto- hence the plural of'lexifiers' in the heading of this section - and the substrate languages. As for Lingua. de Preto (Ld P) we shall have to rely on the only relics of it we have at our disposal, namely the not insignificant traces it left in Portuguese literature, especially sixteenth and early seventeenth century theatre (Teyssier 1959; Tinhorao 1988; Kihm & Rouge 2009). As explained at length in the third reference, "literary" Ld.P can be taken as a faithful representation of what Mrican slaves in Portugal actually spoke, and consequently (see above) of sixteenth century Senegambian and Guinean pidgin EP. Finally, I will limit myself to five local languages, namely Balanta, Diola, Mandinka, Manjaku, and Wolof The main reason is opportunistic: those are languages for which good descriptions are available. On the other hand, those are also languages with many speakers, now and presumably six centuries ago already, so they are the most likely sources of influences. Also noteworthy is the fact that the four Atlantic languages (Balanta, Diola, Manjaku, and Wolof) are agglutinative languages characterised by great morphological complexity, inflectional as well as derivational, which sets them conspicuously apart from the languages usually invoked as substrates for the Atlantic Creoles, namely the largely isolating Kwa languages. Mandinka, albeit not so complex, is also quite well provided in derivational processes. As indicated above, we shall review the two main domains of the morphosyntactic set-up: the noun phrase and the verbal complex.
3.1
The noun phrase
The most striking property ofKriyol noun phrases is the frequency ofbare nouns potentially multiply ambiguous between a definite or indefinite, singular or plural interpretation (Kihm 2007). This is due to (1) the absence of a definite determiner; (2) the specific meaning of the indefinite determiner un "a certain"; (3) the dependency of number marking in count nouns on specificity of reference and position in the individualisation hierarchy. 6 In principle, then, a sentence such as (1) should be susceptible of seven translations:
6. By this I mean the degree to which viewing instances of a countable entity as individuals is psychologically mandatory. It is maximal with human beings, minimal with small things such as rice grains.
Substrate influences in Kriyol
(1) Minjer kumpra kabra. KRIYOL woman buy goat (a) The woman bought the goat I (b) The woman bought a goat I (c) The woman bought the goats I (d) The woman bought goats/ (e) A woman bought the goat I (f) A woman bought a goat I (g) A woman bought the goats I (h) A woman bought goats.
Notice however that (c) and (g) are highly unlikely because goats stand high in the individualisation hierarchy, so kabra would almost obligatorily be marked for plurality (kabras) if several specific individuals were being referred to. For similar reasons, no reading where mi njer instead of pluralised minjeris denotes several women, specific or not ("the women" or "women"), is acceptable. Add to this that, minjer being subject, indefinite interpretations as in (e)-(h) are strongly disfavoured. All together, actual ambiguity boils down to the equal possibility (out of context) of readings (a), (b), and (d), meaning that the object kabra "goat" may be understood as definite or indefinite ((a) vs. (b)), singular or plural ((a)-(b) vs. (d)). Both dimensions interact insofar as kabra's plurality implies indefiniteness ("goats", not "the goats"). And even so, plural indefinite kab ra could very well be overtly marked for Number. In fact, given the individualisation hierarchy, only entities on the lowest rungs, e.g. objects such as pratu "dish", are commonly abstracted from the Number contrast to be given a transnumeral, neither singular nor plural reading (Acquaviva 2008). Things are of course quite different in EP where there is a definite determiner o(s)la(s), plural marking of count nouns is automatic as soon as more than one token is involved, and there are no bare nouns (except in quite restricted syntactic environments), but only bare plurals. Three different sentences therefore correspond to (a), (b), and (d): A mulher comprou a cabra; A mulher comprou uma cabra; A mulhercomprou cabms. One will have noticed in passing that plural marking in Kriyol proceeds through the same morphological device as in EP, namely suffixation of -s after a vowel, -es/-is after a consonant The form thus did not change in comparison to the lexifier, although the semantics did quite significantly, along the lines pointed to above. Yet, this change has little to do with substrate influence. For one thing, linking overt plural marking with referent speci:fidty and the fact that count nouns denoting human beings or familiar animals are generally pluralised when more than one because collections of them are not felicitously viewed as undifferentiated aggregates, these phenomena are quite widespread in nearly all creole languages and many non-creole ones (Acquaviva 2008 ). Actually, it might well be languages like EP and its "arithmetic" pluralisation that are exceptional Interestingly, the putative substrate languages of Kriyol pertain to that typology. Before turning to them, though, let us have a look at LdP. Things there are extremely simple: nouns are not marked for Number ever; and there are no determiners at all. Definiteness and plurality were thus entirely left to the discourse context to ascertain, as is customary in Basic Varieties and pidgins. The continued absence of a definite determiner in Kriyol is therefore probably a legacy from the pidgin period. On the other hand, the complex morphosemantic pattern of Number marking and definiteness interpretation can only be seen as an inner development in the creolising language, which nothing in the pidgin allowed one to predict. Did the substrate contribute in some measure to this development? The four Atlantic languages Balanta, Diola, Manjaku, and Wolof are noun class languages, meaning that roots are realised as nouns via association with affixes, the cumulative exponents of
89
90
Alain Kihm
two morphosemantic features: Class and Number. Count nouns therefore switch affixes depending on whether they refer to one or more than one token, irrespective of any other considerations. In such languages there can be no transnumeral bare nouns. So much seems to be true in the Mande language Mandinka, where count nouns (not divided into classes) referring to more than one token of the denoted entity seem to be obligatorily marked for plurality through a dedicated suffix (Rowlands 1969: 38). As far as definite determiners are concerned, Balanta and Manjaku pattern like Kriyol in having none. Diola and Wolof. in contrast, overtly distinguish definite from indefinite noun phrases. In Mandinka, there is what may be called a specific determiner -oo interpreted as definite or indefinite. Non-suffixed nouns (so-called "stem forms") are "rarely used" (Rowlands 1969: 38). Diola and Wolof are thus the only languages in Kriyofs surrounding with something resembling the EP definite article. Keeping to a strict definition of bare nouns as bare roots, morphologically unmarked for any feature beyond lexical meaning, we conclude that only Wolof and Mandinka offer the possibility. In both languages, bare nouns so defined appear to be limited to generic contexts, unlike what we see in Kriyol. In no language do we observe the effect of anything like an individualisation hierarchy. The definiteness ambiguity of Kriyol bare nouns is therefore similar to that of Balanta and Manjaku, except that, as we just saw, there are no strictly bare nouns in these languages. The Number ambiguity, on the other hand, finds no equivalent in the surrounding languages, even in Wolof where, given the genericity condition on bare nouns and the apparent absence of an individualisation hierarchy, all plural indefinites are overtly marked. The most we can say, then, is that the similarity with Balanta and Manjaku as tar as the absence of a definite article is concerned may have contributed in the maintenance of a state of affairs that dates back to the pidgin stage and is ultimately explained by it. Not only was the pidgin deprived of such an article, but the EP lexicon offered no item capable of replacing it, like the French postposed deictic Ia "there" reanalysed as a determiner did in all French-related Creoles. One item for which substrate influence seems to be more likely is the specific indefinite determiner. First, all relevant Atlantic languages, as we saw, show the contrast of bare truly indefinite or generic nouns ("any x") and noun phrases involving an item that conveys specific indefiniteness ("a certainx"). In Kriyol the item is un, from EP um(a), which fuses both kinds ofindefiniteness, so the semantic change proceeded definitely in the direction of the substrate. As other Creoles with quite different substrates and the same fusion in the lexifier (e.g. English and French) present the same configuration, however, the evidence might still be taken as unconvincing. More particular, hence stronger evidence comes from the fact that the meaning "a certain goat" may not only be expressed by un kabra, but also by utru kabra also meaning "another goat". Such an overlap of the meanings "other" and "a certain" is a property of Balanta and Manjaku as well: cf. Balanta -olo, Manjaku -lon "a/another': The parochiality of the phenomenon makes it therefore quite plausible that utru relexifies Balanta -olo and Manjaku -Ion. Can the complete absence of the Gender category and agreement processes in Kriyol be ascribed to substrate influence? One reason to doubt it is that all creole languages share this property with very few exceptions, so that loss of Gender contrasts (if present in the lexifier) appears as one of the most constant consequences of creole formation, however it is conceived.
Substrate influences in Kriyol
Furthermore, the only substrate language that also lacks Gender and agreement processes is Mandinka; all others, as we saw, are noun class languages with far-ranging Class-Number agreement processes inside and outside the noun phrase. Since noun class and Gender are kin categories, one would imagine that speakers of such languages should have no difficulty with EP gender marking and agreement- unless of course such phenomena were not part ofKriyol's immediate lexifier, which seems indeed to be the case judging by what we know of LdP. The absence of Gender distinctions in LdP, in turn, points to the apparently true fact that EP Gender-related endings were never recognized as such by the African slaves who acquired EP as a BV. Being competent, as most LdP speakers probably were, in noun class systems such as those of Atlantic languages may therefore have been no help in acquiring the binary gender contrast of EP. This would not be surprising since the basis for classifying entities is quite different in such noun class systems than it is in gender systems like that of EP. Gender loss in LdP and afterwards in Kriyol might then be substrate-influenced, if not exactly substrate-driven, after all. Other features ofthe noun phrase are identical with what is found in the lexifier. I am referring to the positions of adjectives, demonstratives, numerals and quantifiers with respect to the head noun, as exemplified below: (2) '&a amigus r!ku kwnpra kil des kabra branku. KRIYOL my friends rich buy that ten goat white My rich friends bought those ten white goats I Os meus amigos ricos compraram estas dez cabras
brancas. To sum up, four features separate the Kriyol from the EP noun phrase: (1) no across-the-board plural marking; (2) absence of a definite determiner; (3) obligatory specificity of the indefinite determiner; (4) lack of gender contrasts. Of these, the first one constitutes, I believe, a pure product of creolisation with no roots in the lexifier or the substrate languages. The second one is partly an accident and partly the consequence of substrate reinforcement. The third one, including the a-other overlap, can also be brought back to substrate influence, although the fact that many Creoles do not fuse specific and non-specific indefiniteness cannot be ignored. Finally (4) most certainly results from a conjunction of all causes together, namely accident, (passive) substrate influence, and creolisation itself. For the remainder, Kriyol noun phrase morphosyntax appears quite similar to that of its lexifier. 3.2
The verbal complex
The marking of aspect As already mentioned, the VC consists in the main verb and its functional cortege comprising auxiliaries, Tense-Mood-Aspect (TMA) markers, predicate adverbs, object clitics, and predicate negation. As tar as structure is concerned, Kriyol appears as a run-of-the-mill creole insofar as preverbal particles realise Aspect values and negation is conveyed by a negative head preceding the aspect particles. As in Kihm (1994), I take the Aspect values to result from the combinations of two features: [±Pertective] and [±Punctual] (henceforth abbreviated to [±PF] and [±PT] - also see Muysken 1981). Here too Kriyol is unexceptional in having the simple perfective ([ +PF, +PT] unmarked on dynamic verbs, then interpreted as referring to past, accomplished events, whereas
3.2.1
91
92
Alain IGhm
bare stative verbs are understood as denoting presently obtaining states of affairs. This is shown below (Kihrn 1994:85): (3)
Jugude c!ga
elf.
KRIYOL
vulture arrive smoothly The vulture landed smoothly. (4) N sibi so kuma na pirkitu karu. I know only that my parrot be.expensive. All I know is that my parrot costs a lot.
KRIYOL
Under no circumstances can Kriyol bare dynamic verbs reter to nonpast events as is the case in, e.g., Haitian when the predicate involves a generic internal argument (DeGraff 2007). This is shown by (5), where ta, glossed Imperfective (IPF), is the exponent of the feature complex [-PF, -PT]: (5)
ta hindi kabra. s/he IPP sell goat S/he sells goats.
KRIYOL
In addition, Kriyol expesses the feature complex [-PF, +PT] with the particle na as in (6): (6)
na bindi kabra(s). s/he PROG sell goat-(PL) Slhe's selling I will sell (the) goats.
KRIYOL
The gloss PROG for "progressive" is for convenience. The point is that an event modified by na is seen as both non-accomplished ([-PF]) and punctual in the sense that it is either taking place entirely at speech time (E, R, S in Reichenbachian notation) or at some future time if the actual speech time context demonstrates it is not (yet) taking place? With stative predicates na assumes an inchoative meaning as in (7) (Kihm 1994:87): (7)
Gera na forti kada byas mas. war PROG be.strong each time more The war is becoming fiercer all the time.
KRIYOL
The ta vs. na contrast sets Kriyol apart from its closest relative, Sotavento Cape Verdean, where na has no counterpart, and ta's uses straddle those ofKriyol ta and na (see Baptista 2002:76ff.). Whereas ta obviously comes from the EP imperfective copula estar, na must be analysed as a further grammaticalization of the locative preposition na "in, on, at: itself from the EP cumulation na =*/em a! "in theFEM". The progressive form thus clearly originates in a locative, be-in/at-Ving-type construction which calls for several remarks. First, it is noticeably ubiquitous. Secondly, more to the point, it exists in EP: estarfazendo or estar a fazer 'to be (a-)doing: using the imperfective-locative copula estar. This form constitutes the direct source of a sta na V construction still encountered in the
7. See Reichenbach (1947). For a general application of Reichenbach's system to creole TMA, see Muysken (1981).
Substrate influences in Kriyol
CasamancevarietyofKriyoland in old Kriyol texts (Barros 1882), and of which the modem na V form probably represents a reduction. Thirdly, and just as much to the point, similar constructions occur in the substrate languages, as shown in the following examples: (8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
N ga a til-a. 1sG.s be in write-INP I am writing.
BALANTA (Intumbo 2007: 65)
Na-lako a-jaw. 3sG.s-stay 3sG.s-go Slhe/it was going.
DIOLA (Sapir 1969: 104)
Bu-ci ri u-kiy. 3PL.S-be in INP-dancing They are dancing. be maani-katoo le M la. 1sG.s be rice-cutting EMPHin I am cutting rice.
MANJAKU (Buis 1990:63)
MANDINKA (Rowlands 1959: 97)
In Balanta as in Kriyo~ the progressive construction may refer to a future event: (12)
A ga a to-a a odn de bluthn. 2sG.s be in go-INP in house 2sG tomorrow You'll go home tomorrow I Bu na bay na bu kasa amaiian. (KRIYoL)
BALANTA (Intumbo 2007: 67)
This does not seem to be the case in the other languages, nor in EP. Conceivably, therefore, the fact that many creole initiators were Balanta native speakers may have been crucial in steering the semantics of the Kriyol na V construction, whereas the other languages contributed to the entrenchment of the construction in the emerging creole. Note, however, that the construction is fully grammaticalised only in the latter, in the sense that it no longer looks like a locative predicate, and na has become a pure aspect particle, disjoint from the homophonous preposition. This, I surmise, represents the specific contribution of creolisation itselt~ Another way that Balanta is especially close to Kriyol is in having an imperfective nonpunctual aspect, realised as the preverbal marker ma(t), which does not seem to be liable to any interpretation but habitual/ iterative, as shown in ( 13): (13)
Bi-iian ma(t) to a sinema. cL-person IPF go to cinema People go to the cinema I ]inti ta bay sinema. (KRIYoL)
BALANTA (Intumbo 2007:71)
Mandinka looks very much like Balanta in this area, with its preverbal marker ka called "simple imperfective" by Row lands ( 1959: 80). In Manjaku, in contrast, the feature set [-PF, - PT] realized as preverbal kamay also refer to a future event (Buis 1990:62; Kihm & Gomes 1990), which the progressive construction cannot do, as I mentioned. Manjaku thus appears to be semantically closer to Cape Verdean than to Kriyol (Baptista 2002). To return to the bare verb form exemplified in (3)-(4), Balanta and Manjaku again present the most similar systems. To (3)-(4) we may compare (14)-(17):
93
94
Alain IGhm
(14) N us ki-garte. 1sG.s buy cL-book I bought a book IN kumpra libru. (15)
(16)
U-kac a yits. CL-bird AGR fly-away The birds flew away I Pastru bua e bay. (KRIYoL)
ten ki-til 1sG.s have cL-pen I have a pen IN tene kaneta. (KRIYOL)
N
(17) A
wara.
be.good Thafs good I I bon. (KRIYoL)
BALANTA
(Intumbo 2007: 58) MANJAKU
(Klhm & Gomes 1990: 358) BALANTA
(Intumbo 2007: 58) MANJAKU
AGR
(Buis 1990: 61)
In Diola, on the other hand, "An utterance entirely unmarked for tense is assumed to indicate a recent past or a present" (Sapir 1969: 31). In Mandinka and in Wolof, there are no bare verb forms - meanings forms that bear no affix or do not stand in the scope of a TMA particle - at least in matrix sentences. Looking now at the lexifier, Kriyol verb stems come from EP infinitives having lost their final -r. LdP confirms it, as nearly all verbs appear in the infinitive (with -r), so we can be pretty sure it was a feature of the pidgin that anteceded the creole. Needless to say, LdP shows none of the creole TMA markers, except one to which I return below. The question then is why verb forms referring to perfected events or present states remained bare when Tense-Aspect values began to be overtly marked. The presence of Balanta and Manjaku in the linguistic landscape certainly played a role, but neither a necessary nor a sufficient one. This is so because the same allotment of bare form values is found in many other creoles with quite different substrates. Actually it could be that perfective or accomplished is the default- i.e. assumed unless there is evidence to the contrary- Tense-Aspect value for event-denoting items, while imperfective is the default value for state-denoting ones. In the creolisation process, these values would then be spontaneously alloted to unmodified stems having the adequate semantics. The fact that part of the Kriyol initiators were native speakers of languages that conform to the default setting in that area was of course a reinforcing factor, although not a triggering cause. To sum up, the substrate probably was a causal factor in the setting up of the Kriyol TMA system, but not at the level of the main distinction between bare perfective and marked imperfective. Where it did play a crucial role was in the further division, quite special to Kriyol, of the imperfective into a nonpunctual (habitual-iterative) form and a punctual (progressive-future) form. Only part of the substrate contributed to this, it seems, namely Manjaku, Mandinka, and Balanta, the latter two more than the former. That the ever-varying substrate should be responsible for what makes creole languages different from each other, not for what they have in common, seems indeed a reasonable assumption. 3.2.2
Tense marking: The anterior
Here too Kriyol appears as a typical creole language in having a tense form, the anterior to use a now well-entrenched term, that refers to entirely past events or states as distinct from perfected or accomplished events or states. "Entirely past" events or states are not only over and done with
Substrate influences in Kriyol
in the present equated to speech time, but they are separated from the latter by some intermediate, often implicit event or state that sets a reference time distinct from speech time and from the time at which the event took place or the state obtained. In Reichenbachian notation, anterior events or states are described by the formula E_ R_ S. Where Kriyol is less typical is in the formal marking of the anterior tense. Contrary to other Romance-based Creoles, the exponent is not a preverbal marker clearly related to the past form of the lexi.fier's copula, but it is a postverbal morpheme ba. Sotavento Cape Verdean has the same morpheme, with a crucial difference: Cape Verdean -ba is a bound form attached to the verb stem and it is adequately analysed as an inflectional suffix. Kriyol ba, in contrast, is a free form that can be separated from the verb, usually by a clitic object pronoun as in (18), but possibly as well by a noun phrase as in (19), a recorded utterance: (18) N oja-1 ba. 1SG.S see-3SG.O ANT I had seen her/him/it (19)
N tene bu toto tudu ba. 1SG.S have 2SG.POSS picture all ANT I had all your pictures.
KRIYOL
KRIYOL
Ba is not even limited to verb phrases: cf. na J..il tempu ba "in that time': This feature raises the issue of ba's origin (Rouge & Kihm 2008 ). At first blush the answer seems straightforward: ba's etymon is EP -1% i.e. the first or third person singular indicative imperfect ending of conjugation I verbs - compare EP Olhava-a/o KI looked at her/him" with (18)- generalised to all verb forms, probably due to its greater phonological saliency (cf. Kriyol N durmi ba "I had slept" vs. EP Dormia "I slept"). Perhaps nothing more need be said concerning Sotavento Cape Verdean. For Kriyol, however, two facts call for an explanation: (1) that ba became a free form of uncertain category; (2) that in so doing it did not change its location with respect to the verb. that is after it. This is where the substrate languages enter the stage. First, the TMA systems of nearly all of them include a tense form referentially similar to the Kriyol anterior, the exponent of which is a free form that can be separated from its verb in some, a bound morpheme in others. Thus in Wolof and Balanta we find (20) and (21) to be compared with (18) and (19): (20) Gis-u-ma ko woon. see-NI!G-1 SG 3SG.O ANT I hadn't seen her/him/it (21) N ten g-garte ge. 1sG.s have CL-book ANT I had a book.
WOLOF (Church 1981) BALANTA (Intumbo 2007: 64)
Notice that Gisuma.woon ko and N ten ge g-garte are equally grammatical alternatives to (20) and (21), just like Kriyol N tene ba libru is an acceptable and actually more usual variant of N tene libru ba. In Diola, in contrast, only (22) seems to be grammatical as the anterior marker -een is a first-position suffix that must immediately follow the verb stem:
95
(22)
Sunksn ni-baj-ssn-baj b~ori. lastyear 1sG.s-have-ANT-have money Last year I had money.
DIOLA (Sapir 1969:33)
All three languages, however, share the property that the marker is ordered to the right of the verb stem. Mandink:a and Manjaku also share this property, but in addition the free-form markers they use happen to be phonetically similar to the Kriyol marker ba. More accurately, Mandink:a ban and Manjaku ba., to which one must add Diola ban, are verbs meaning "to finish" appearing in various sorts of constructions, but always following the main verb they modify. Their contribution to the meaning of the predicate is that the event referred to is indeed "finished': completed, no longer relevant for defining the situation at speech time: (23)
(24)
(25)
ke-ra ka ban wa? Dani reckoning do-PF INF finish Q Has the reckoning been done completely? Ku-tok ja ku-ban ... 3PL.s-bury c 3PL.S-finish When they finished burying... A-reala ba. 3so.s-eat finish S!he ate already.
BAMBARA (Bazln 1906/1965) DIOLA (Sapir 1969: 104) MANJAKU (Buis 1990:51)
Admittedly, the semantics of the forms is not entirely identical to that of Kriyol ba - nor probably is it entirely identical from one language to the next In particular, more emphasis seems to be laid on the "finished" character of the event, less on its being cut off from speech time. Formally, Manjaku stands closest to Kriyol insofar as ba in the construction exemplified in (25) has clearly been reanalysed as an adverbial particle, as shown by the fact that it does not take an agreement prefix contrary to its cognate ban in the Diola equivalent construction (see (24)). Adverbial particle seems indeed to be the best definition we can reach for Kriyol ba looking at examples (18) and (19). In Mandinka, ka ba.n is a nonfinite verb form. Morphosyntactically distinct as it is, this latter form gives us our best lead towards Kriyol ba's possible origin, however. The verb meaning "to finish" in Kriyol is kaba from EP acaba,.. Actually, kaba is more accurately translated as "to be finished': as transitive "to finish something" is rendered by the derived causative kabanta (Kihm 1994:251ff.). Besides being a main verb, kaba is also used in ways that make it look very much like its counterpart in the substrate languages illustrated above. Take for instance the following sentence: (26)
Bajudas fididu jinjirba tudu i kaba, e say. girls be.split gum all it be.finished they leave All the girls had their gums tattooed and then they left
KRIYOL (Kihm 1994: 245)
The first clause appears structurally very similar to (23) except that instead of being nonfinite as Bambara ban, Kriyol ka.ba is a finite (perfective) form with an expletive subject i 'it'. Given this, there are two (non-exclusive) routes leading from kaba to ba. First, the use of verb forms meaning "to be finished" in order to express past or completedness is a well-attested phenomenon of the transitory grammars that make up BVs. Sentence (26) could thus well
Substrate influences in Kriyol
represent the creolised end-result of a construction dating back to the pidgin stage. Clearly the fact that many pidgin users had constructions like (23) in their native competence and the striking similarity of Mandinka ka ban and pidgin kaba would have been crucial to ensure the stabilisation and retention of the form. In other words, kaba. was identified with ka. ban through lexical conflation (Kihm 1989). Secondly, stray past forms in -va must have occurred in pidgin utterances. One instance of sa.ba < esta.va 'was' is found in the LdP text analysed in Kihm & Rouge (2008 ). Frequency was probably higher in actual speech. Moreover, as we saw, the pidgin, then the creole were in constant contact with EP. One can therefore assume another, parallel conflation process between the EP and/or pidgin ending and Diola-Manjaku ba(n) shown in (24) and (25). Such a process, however, would have guaranteed the survival of the -ba ending where it occurred, it does not account for its generalisation or its change into a free form. These two developments, we assume, were triggered by the triple conflation ofDiola-Manjaku ba(n)- already or simultaneously conflated with EP -va - with Mandinka ka ban and pidgin I early Kriyol kaba. The overall process was therefore a complex one. At the same time that kaba. continued as a full verb or a completion auxiliary as in (26), it was also identified with the emerging ba morpheme resulting from the -va I ba(n) conflation. The latter, that inherited its anterior meaning mostly from the EP imperfect, could be retained precisely because of its phonetic similarity and semantic kinship with substrate verb-modifYing morphemes similarly ordered with respect to the verb head. The same phonetic similarity and semantic kinship, this time with kaba, explain why the morpheme not only was retained, but it was recategorised as a free form, probably best defined as a time adverbial. Notice that such a story does not force us to hypothesize an actual change from kaba to ba, even though such a change (e.g., kaba > *kba. > ba.) does not raise any practical difficulty. It is just unnecessary given the logic of conflation where the mere presence of a form may act as a catalyst for a reanalysis process that imp lies a minimum of formal rebuilding. Sub stratal contacts therefore played a crucial role in the emergence of the anterior category in Kriyol, the exponent of which, although basically lexi.fier-inherited in form and meaning, managed to win the day thanks to its accidental resemblance, in form as well as in meaning, with substrate items. As this similarity covers real semantic differences, however, the said exponent cannot be regarded as relexifyi.ng any of the substrate items. 3.2.3
Tense marking: The future
As mentioned above, futurity is a possible interpretation besides actual present for predicates involving the progressive particle na. The following example unambiguously shows both meanings in succession: (27) J.illu Sapu na kuda kuma ku na paila si jintis. Mr. Toad PROG think how that he PROG catch his people Mr. Toad is wondering how he will catch his men.
KRIYOL
(Kihm 1994: 86)
The usual interpretation of (27)'s second clause is that the catching event will take place once (if ever) at some point in time to come. Yet, this does not inhere in the meaning of na predicates, it is only an inference probably related to the lexical meaning ofpaiia "to catch~ but in no way obligatory. Predicates involving na. can equally well refer to events of which one may assume they will
97
occur repeatedly in the future. In other words, na with a future meaning is perfectly unassuming as to the possible definiteness of the denoted event. If the speaker wishes to make it known that she conceives of the future event as destined to occur once at some definite moment, she does so by using bin "to come" as an auxiliary in conjunction with na: (28)
Kin kunsi si nomi, el ku na bin kasa L Who know her name he that PROG come marry her Whoever guesses her name will marry her.
KRIYOL (Kihm 1994: 108)
This example shows event definiteness to be relative: the marrying event is predicted to take place at a definite juncture in future time, the location of which is determined relative to the performance of the name guessing task. The certainty overtone often sensed in such futures is an effect of their definiteness. Kriyol grammar also allows the speaker to suggest that the future event she's talking about will occur an indefinite number of times in the open-ended future, that it is indefinite in other words. This she does by putting the main verb in the scope of the habitual particle ta, preceded by the auxiliary ba, a reduced form of bay "to go': itself in the scope of progressive na if the clause is finite, by itself if it is non-finite. The following two examples speak by themselves and illustrate both possibilities: (29) Kunformu no na ba ta skirbi 1, asin ku no na ba ta minjorya L KRIYOL according we PROG go HAB write it so that we PROG go HAB improve it According to how we shall write it (Kriyol), we shall improve it (Kihm 1994: 113) (30)
Bail.as gosi ta misti ba ta bibi manera ku omi ta blbi you-girls now HAB want go HAB drink manner that man HAB drink You girls now, you want to be drinking the way a man drinks.
KRIYOL (Kihm 1994: 114)
Neither of these constructions finds a direct equivalent in EP, which does not make a grammaticalised distinction between definite and indefinite futures in any event Although ir "to go" is regularly used as a future auxiliary preceding an infinitive main verb, the difference between the [ir VINF] construction and the inflectional future not only does not replicate that between Kriyol [na ba ta V] and [na V], but it is ordinarily hard to assess. Moreover, [ir VrnFl qua periphrastic construction never appears as the complement of a control verb as [ba ta V] does in (30). EP grammar thus cannot produce the direct equivalent of (30 ), unless ir is given its full meaning "to go": ... querem ir beber... "... want to go and drink ..." A connection between EP vai "s/he/itgoes" and Kriyol ba(y), both used as future auxiliaries, cannot be denied, nevertheless. What changed most was not so much the syntax as the tense-aspect system within which the respective constructions are embedded. EP vir "to come" (1'em "s/he/itcomes"), in contrast, does not enter any future periphrasis. The link with the future auxiliary use of Kriyol bin is more roundabout than in the preceding case. The ultimate source probably lies in the uses of vir with a consecutive meaning: cf. Veio a saber que ... "S/he came to know that. .." This meaning is preserved and fully grammaticalised in Kriyol as shown in (31):
Substrate influences in Kriyol
(31) Asin me ku Fulas bin kunsigi ciga Kansala So therefore that Fulas come manage reach Kansala It was therefore thus that the Fulas finally managed to reach Kansala
KRIYOL (Klhm 1994: 109)
In such sentences, bin expresses the notion that there is a final event that immediately follows and is the result of a certain chain of preceding events. From there it was but a short semantic jump to having it express the fact that a certain event will immediately follow a chain of future events including (or reduced to) the present moment It is therefore possible to account for the Kriyol future forms by viewing them as semantic modifications of lexifier resources. Such an account will remain partial, however, unless two other factors are considered. One is the surprising ubiquity within and outside the realm of creole languages of verbal constructions involving 'to go and/or 'to come' and conveying some kind of future meaning, which seems to point towards some universal spatia-temporal metaphor. The second factor that must be taken into account is the substrate, as it probably played a role, at least for the definite future [na bin V] construction. Most surrounding Atlantic languages as well as Mandinka indeed have the option of indicating successivity or futurity by means of periphrastic constructions involving the verb meaning "to come". Only the first meaning is attested in Mandinka. Balanta and Manjaku have both meanings. Moreover, the verbs "to come" - bin in both languages with some dialect variation in the timbre of the vowel - show a remarkable phonetic similarity with Kriyol bin: (32)
(33)
Bu ka bin pero wuL they IPF come do it They will do it Ngaa bin sifa. I be PROG come work I shall work.
MANJAKU (Buis 1990)
BALANTA (Intwnbo 2007:74)
Since it would be unreasonable to suppose that Kriyol borrowed its bin from Balanta and/or Manjaku, given the obvious EP etymology of the item, we are led to acknowledge the role of the substrate here to have been crucially reinforcing. I mean by that that the weakly grammaticalised successive vir a V of EP could give rise to the fully grammaticalised successivity and futurity auxiliary bin of Kriyol only because of the possible semantic and phonetic conflation with corresponding items in the substrate languages. On the other hand, it is not clear from the available descriptions that these languages make the definite-indefinite distinction that Kriyol does in the domain of futurity. "To come" in them implies no more than that the event so qualified will happen "later" relative to speech time. They show no counterpart to the use of "to go" as a distinct future auxiliary. If it is so, we must conclude that the ultimate force that drove the evolution was indeed the spontaneous reorganisation of the TMA system of emerging Kriyol following a default blueprint, not fully instantiated in the lexifier or the substrate. What the latter two did in their accidental collusion was to provide the material to express the meaning required by the creolisation process.
99
100
Alain IGhm
3.2.4 Negation Here is another case where the reinforcing contribution of the substrate and the steering role of lexical conflation are especially clear. Kriyol predicates are negated by means of the negation ka which must occur at the very beginning of the VC, preceding all TMA markers. It thus seems to occupy the same position as its EP counterpart niio. The latter, however, is also the negative sentence word meaning "no': whereas ka is kept strictly separate from naw "no': This is illustrated in the example below:
(34) Naw, i ka na bin kasa L no s!he NEG PROG come marry him/her No, s/he won't marry him/her I Nio, nio val casa-la (EP)
KRIYOL
Such a separation may be considered a substrate effect, as it constitutes a constant feature of all surrounding languages. Beyond that, ka's syntax is sufficiently accounted for by analysing it as identical to that of its lexifier's counterpart and/or as realising the universal default or unmarked position for a negative head. No appeal to the substrate is necessary. There remains a question, however: where does ka come from? The only plausible EP etymology is nunca "never': It is quite probably right, and it is supported by a few passages in the LDP texts where nunca seems indeed to replace standard EP niio. There is a hitch, however: why did Kriyol inherit the second, unstressed syllable of nunca? And note that the EP item survived in full as the negative polarity adverb nunka "never". Lexical conflation is the answer: all the doubtless most influent substrate languages negate predicates by means of items that happen to include a /k.a/ syllable or something that sounds very much like it: cf. Mandinka buka "negative simple imperfective indicative': kana "negative subjunctive': kaka "negative imperfective imperative"; Manjaku dika. "negative imperfective': katsa. "no longer" ( Buis 1990: 41-42 ); Balanta ke NEG (Wilson 1961 ), keya "negative imperfective': kam "negative imperative" (Intumbo 2007: 90). Whether /kal is the negative morpheme in these items is irrelevant; it is enough there should be an association between the sound /k.a/ and the idea of negation for conflation to get triggered. One would therefore be wrong in claiming that ka comes from or relexifies substrate forms. Reality is more complex: ka. comes from EP nu.nca, but it does so via an unusual sound change (dropping the stressed rather than the unstressed syllable). In this deflection from expected evolution lies the substrate's contribution.
4·
Conclusion: Trying to answer one more question
Recall the remaining question we would like to be able to answer: why can so comparatively little of Kriyol morphosyntactic structure be traced back to direct substrate influence in an environment seemingly so favourable to it? Shall we take it as a consequence of the particular circumstances in which Kriyol emerged, or as evidence that the substrate does not or not always play a central role in creole formation? I think both conclusions are actually warranted. In defense of the first one, the most important factor, I believe, is precisely the fact that the linguistic environment of Kriyol at its inception was so rich and varied. This had the con-
Substrate influences in Kriyol
sequence that no particular language or tightly knit dialect cluster was in a position to exert a predominant influence like Gbe or Eastern Ijo did on emerging Haitian and Berbice Dutch respectively (Lefebvre 1998; Kouwenberg 1994). One should always beware of metonymies: languages do not influence each other, systems represented in the minds ofbilingual individuals do (Weinreich 1953). Given their origin and social role, the initiators of Kriyol, the filhos da te"a and the grumetes, had to be perfectly bilingual and even multilingual: they spoke the developing creole language and were fluent in one or more local languages, one of which may have been their mother tongue. Such a situation has been going on since the beginning of Kriyol and it is still going on. Now it seems to be a fact that (near) perfect bilinguals are more capable to keep their languages separate than are imperfect bilinguals. 8 Little leakage between internalised systems is therefore to be expected in such a situation, beyond conscious borrowings (actually rare as we saw) and influences made ahnost inevitable by the reinforcing effect of confl.ation. The second conclusion, on the other hand, follows from the status of the substrate as one factor among several, the importance of which is therefore expected to vary according to the sociolinguistic setting of each creole emergence. Given a mental view of the substrate (as collective bilingualism), the primary cause of the variation resides in the social role and the relative proficiency of the bilinguals embodying possible substrate influences. In Guinea-Bissau and Casamance, these individuals came to form a relatively self-contained group with a well-defined social function: that of serving as intermediaries between the local populations and the Europeans. They thus constituted the in-between group generally needed for a creole language to emerge. Three distinctive characteristics of this group then explain why substrate influences remained limited: it endured as a stable, endogenously reproducing group for a very long time; the creole language was its exclusive mark of identity also for a long time; its members were (near) perfectly bilingual in Kriyol and one or several of the numerous local languages. As each of these attributes (and also the number of languages composing the substrate) will vary in different situations, the extent and depth of the substrate's influence will be modified accordingly.
List of abbreviations AGR ANT BV CL
EMPH EP HAB
INF
IPF LdP
Agreement Anterior Basic Variety Noun class marker Emphatic European Portuguese Habitual Infinitive Imperfective Lingua de Preto
NEG
PF PROG PT Q
VC 3PLS 3SG.O 3SG.S
Negation Perfective Progressive Punctual Question Verbal complex 3rd person plural subject pronoun 3rd person singular object pronoun 3rd person singular subject pronoun
8. Which does not mean they cannot dedde to mix them, giving rise to intertwined languages or to code switching. See Bakker & Muysken (1995) for an argument to the effect that language intertwining requires profidency.
101
102
Alain IGhm
References Academia Portuguesa da Hist6ria. 1948/1988. VwgulS de Luis de Cadamosto e de Pedro de Sintra. Lisboa. Acquaviva, P. 2008. Lexical Plurals: A Morphosemantic Approach. Oxford: OUP. de Albuquerque, L. (ed.). 1991. 0 con_fronto do olhar: 0 encontro dos povos na epoca das navegllf6es portuguesas. Lisboa: Edi<;i.o Caminho. Bakker, P. & Muysken, P. 1995. Mixed languages and language intertwining. In Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction [Creole Language Library 15], J. Arends, P. Muysken & N. Smith (eds), 41-52. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Baptista, M. 2002. The Syntax of Cape Verdean Creole: The Sotavento Varieties (Linguistik AktueWLinguistics Today 54]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. de Barros, M. Marques. 1882. Guine portuguesa ou breve notkia sobre alguns dos seus usos, costumes, lfnguas e origem dos seus povos. Boletim da Sociedade de Geografta de Lisboa 12:707-731. Bazin, H. 1906. Dictionnaire bambara-.fra11fais, precede d'un ab:rege de grammaire bambara. Paris: Imprirnerie nationale (Reprint 1965, Farnborough, Gregg Press). Bocande, B. 1849. De la langue creole de la Guinee portugaise (notes sur la Guinee portugaise ou Senegambie meridionale). Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie 12: 73-77. Boulegue, J. 1987. Legrand Jolof (XHI"-XVP siecles). Paris: Karthala. Boxer, C. R. 1969. The Portuguese Seaborne Empire: 1415-1825. London: Hutchinson. Buis, P. 1990. Essai sur la langue manjako de Ia zone de Bassarel. Bissau: INEP. Chataignier, A 1963. Le creole portugais du Senegal: Observations et textes. Journal of African Languages 2: 4471. Church, F. 1981. Le systemeverbal du wolof. Dakar: Universite de Dakar. Clements, J. C. 1992. Foreigner talk and the origins of Pidgin Portuguese. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 7:75-92. Clements, J. C. 2007. Korlai (Creole Portuguese). In Comparative Creole Synta;~~:: Parallel Outlines of 18 Creole Grammars,J. Holm & P. L Patrick (eds),153-173. London: Battlebridge. DeGratt: M. 2007. Krey61 Ayisyen, or Haitian Creole (Creole French). In Comparative Creole Syntax: Parallel Outlines of18 Creole Grammars, J. Holm & P. L Patrick (eds), 101-126. London: Battlebridge. Intum bo, I. 2007. Estudo comparativo da morfossintaxe do crioulo guineense, do balanta e do portugub. Disserta<;:ao de Mestrado, Universidade de Coirnbra. Keesing, R. 1988. Melanesian Pidgin and the Oceanic Substrate. Palo Aho CA: Stanford University Press. Kihm, A 1989. Lexical conflation as a basis for relexifu:ation. The Canadian Journal of Linguistics I Revue canadienne de linguistique 36: 351-376. Kihm, A. 1994. Kriyol Syntax: The Portuguese-based Creole Language of Guinea-Bissau [Creole Language Library 14]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Kihm, A. 2007. On the interpretation of bare noun phrases in Guinea-Bissau Portuguese Creole (Kriyol). In Noun Phrases in Creole Languages: A Multi-faceted Approach [Creole Language Library 31], M. Baptista & J. Gueron (eds),145-169. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Kihm, A 2008a. The two faces of creole grammar and their implications for the origin of complex language. In Variaticm, Selectio,J, Development: ProbbJK the Evolutionary Model ofLa'JgUQge ChwJge, R. Eckardt, G. Jager & T. Veenstra (eds), 253-305. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Kihm, A 2008b. Nubi plural formation: How a creole may become more complex than its lexifier and what it irnplies for creolization theory. Paper presented at the Berkeley Linguistic Society Conference. Kihm, A & Gomes, A. 1990. The structure of INFL in Manjalru: A first study. Ms, UQAM. Kihm, A. & Rouge, J.-L. 2009. Lingua de Preto: The basic variety at the root of West African Portuguese Creoles. Ms. Klein, W. & Perdue, C. 1997. The basic variety. Second Language Research 13: 301-347. Kouwenberg, S. 1994. A Grammar ofBerbice Dutch Creole. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Lefebvre, C. 1998. Creole Genesis and the Acquisition of Grammar: The case ofHaitian Creole. Cam bridge: CUP.
Substrate influences in Kriyol
McWhorter, J. H. 1998. Identifying the creole prototype: Vindicating a typological class. Language 74: 788-818. da Mota, A. Teixeira. 1946. A descoberta da Guine, Boletim Cultural da Guine Portuguesa I, 1-3: 11-68,273-326, 457-509.
Muysken, P. 1981. Creole tense/mood/aspect systems: The unmarked case? In Generative Studies on Creole Languages, P. Muysken (ed.), 181-199. Dordrecht: Foris. Naro, A. 1978. A study of the origins of pidginization. Language 54: 314-347. PAIGC. 1974. HistOria da GuinC e Jlhas de Cabo Verde. Porto: Edi<;:<)es Afrontamento. Perdue, C. 1993. Adult Language Acquisition: Crosslinguistic Perspecth•es. Strasbourg: European Science Foundation. Pinto Bull, B. 1989. 0 crioulo da GuinC-Bissau: filosojia e sabedoria. Lisboa!Bissau: Instituto de Cultura e Lingua portuguesa (Portugal)/Instituto nacional de estudos e pesquisas (Guine-Bissau). Reichenbach, H. 1947. Elements af Symbolic Logic. New York NY: Macmillan. Reinecke, John E. 1937. Marginal Languages: A Sociological Survey of the Creole Languages and Trade Jargons. PhD dissertation, Yale University. Rouge, J.-L 1986. Uma hip6tese sobre a forma~o do crioulo da GuiDe-Bissau e da Casamansa. Soronda 2: 2849.
Rouge, J.-L. & Kilun, A. 2008. As origens de ba. Paper presented at the ACBLPE Conference, Lisbon, July 3-5. Rowlands, E. C. 1969. A Grammar of Gambian Mandinka. London: SOAS. Sapir, J. D. 1969. A Grammar ofDiola-Fogny: A Language Spoken in the Basse-Casamance Region ofSenegal. Cambridge: CUP. Saraiva, J. H. 1991. HistOria concisa de Portugal. Lisboa: Publica¢es Europa-America. Schuchardt, H. 1888. Beitrage zur Kenntnis des kreolischen Romanisch II: Zum Negerportugiesischen Senegambiens. Zeitschrift fUr romanische Philologie 12: 301-322. da Silva, A. A. 1959. Apontamentos sobre as popula¢es oeste-africanas segundo os aut:ores portugueses dos seculos XVI e XVII. Boletim Cultural da GuinC Portuguesa XIV: 373-406. da Silva, M. da Gra~ Garcia Nolasco. 1970. Subsl:dio para o estudo dos 'lan~dos' na Guine. Boletim Cultural da Guine Portuguesa XXV: 97-100: 25-40,217-232,397-420, 13-63. Teyssier, P. 1959. La langue de Gil Vicente. Paris: Klincksieck. Tinhorao, J. R 1988. Os Negros em Portugal: Uma prese11fa silenciosa. Lisboa.: Caminho. Weinreich, U. 1953. Languages in Contact. The Hague: Mouton. Wellens, I. 2005. The Nubi Language of Uganda: An Arabic Creole in Africa. Leiden: Bri11 Wilson, W. A. A. 1961. Outline of the Balanta language. African Language Studies 2. London: SOAS. Wilson, W. A. A. 1962 The Crioulo ofGuine. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. Wilson, W. A. A. 1989. Atlantic. In The Niger-Congo Languages, J. Bandor-Samuel (ed.), 81-104. Lanham MA: University Press of America.
103
One substrate, two creoles The development of segmental inventories in St. Lucian and Haitian* Anne-Marie Brousseau University of Toronto
In this paper, I compare the segmental inventories of Haitian and St. Lucian with those of their contributing languages, in order to evaluate the impact of the substrate languages on the development of these systems. I show that the segmental inventories of the creoles display many features that were inherited from the Gbe languages through transfe~ which suggests a massive impact of the substrate in the development of the segmental inventories of the creoles. In a nutshell, the phonological systems of Haitian and St. Lucian appear as a compromise between those of their contributing languages, Fongbe and other Gbe languages (the substrate), and French (the superstrate). Whlle both creoles have essentially the same vowel inventory as the substrate, their consonantal inventory is closer to the superstrate. This hybrid character of the creoles is s lmllar to what is found in an interlanguage. in the more canonical cases of second language acquisition. I propose scenarios where the differences between the two creoles and their superstrate result from phonological and phonetic processes that are typical of interlanguages - e.g., segmental substitution under phonological equivalence, transfer of L1 allophonic rules. The scenarios assume that the emergence of a creole is a particular case of second language acquisition (Andersen 1983). They also assume the Full Transfer/Full Access model of Second Language Acquisition (Schwartz & Sprouse 1996; White 2000), according to which second language learners assume the grammar ofL1 as a starting point - Full Transfer- and progressively restructure this initial grammar using principles and parameters of Universal Grammar- Full Access. It is shown that the features of the substrates have guided the acquisition (or non acquisition) of the segmental inventories of French, even in cases where Universal Grammar may have been at play. Keywords: Haitian Creole, St. Lucian Creole, French, Gbe, phonology, consonant inventory, vowel inventory, transfer, segmental substitution, parameter resetting, second language acquisition, universal grammar
A previous version of this paper was presented at the workshop The Genesis of Creole Languages, XVIIIth International Conference on Historical Linguistics {Montreal, August 2007). I wish to thank the audience at the workshop, as well as the reviewers of the paper for their useful comments and suggestions. Part of this research was funded by the Social Sciences and Hwnanities Research Council of Canada (#410990735).
to6
Anne-Marie Brousseau
1.
Introduction
Haitian and St Lucian, two Caribbean French-based creoles spoken in Haiti and St Lucia respectively, are very similar in many aspects of their respective grammars, including phonology. This should come as no surprise since both languages share the same main substrate languages (Gbe languages) and the same superstrate language (French). However, there are differences between the two phonological systems, which need to be accounted for if we are to seek a plausible explanation for the emergence of the properties of a given creole language. In this paper, I compare the segmental inventories of Haitian and St Lucian with those of their contributing languages, in order to evaluate the impact of the substrate languages on the development of these systems. While the contribution of Gbe languages has yet to be documented forSt Lucian, it has been shown to be central to the development of Haitian. & shown extensively in Lefebvre (1998) and the numerous references therein, a large number of substrata! features are found in the syntax, morphology and lexical semantics of Haitian. Substrata! features are also found in phonology (Brousseau 2003; Brousseau & Niltiema 2006; Steele & Brousseau 2006). In a nutshell, the phonological systems of Haitian and St. Lucian appear as a compromise between those of their contributing languages. This hybrid character of the creoles is similar to what is typically found in an interlanguage, in the more canonical cases of L2 acquisition (Archibald 1988; Broselow & Finer 1991; Devonish 1989 for phonology). The similarities between the creoles and their substrates are too striking to constitute a mere coincidence. Wode (1986) proposes that transfer occurs in all contact situations, since it is a major component oflanguage processing abilities. Different speakers who share a common language background- either L1 or substrate- use the same substitution patterns in different situations. Below, I propose scenarios where the differences between the two creoles and their superstrate result from phonological and phonetic processes that are typical of interlanguages emerging in more canonical cases of second language acquisition. The scenarios assume that the emergence of a creole is a particular case of second language acquisition (Andersen 1983) and that creolisation is the "crystallization and subsequent elaboration of an autonomous interlanguage system" (Valdman 1983:214). This assumption has proved enlightening in the field of creole studies, as attested by a number of publications that draw parallels between creolisation and L2 acquisition (Alber & Plag 2001; Mather 2000; Muysken 2001; Plag & Uffmann 2001; Uffmann 2003; Veronique 1994; and the various contributions in Lefebvre et al. 2006). The remainder of this article is structured as follows. Section 2 provides some background information regarding theoretical assumptions and data. Sections 3 and 4 present the segmental inventories of the languages under study, focusing on vowels (Section 3) and consonants (Section 4) in turn, and propose scenarios of second language acquisition that explain the differences between the inventories of the creoles and those of their contributing languages. 1 Section 5 assesses the role of transfer from the substrate in the development of the two creoles. It is shown
1. Given space limitations, prosodic properties will not be discussed here. See Brousseau (2003), Brousseau & Nikiema (2006), and Steele & Brousseau (2006) for comparisons of the accentual and syllabic systems of Haitian with those of its contributing languages.
One substrate, two creoles
that the features of the substrates have guided the acquisition (or non acquisition) of the segmental inventories of French, even in cases where Universal Grammar may have been at play.
2.
Some background
This section provides the theoretical background for the analyses presented in this chapter, as well as information on the languages under study and the source of the data.
2.1
Creole formation as 12 acquisition
If an emerging creole equates to an interlanguage in a contact situation, we need to determine what mechanisms set the grammar of the creole/interlanguage apart from both the substrate/first language and the superstrate/second language. These mechanisms may involve general properties determined by Universal Grammar and transfer from the substrate/L1.2 Therefore, assessing precisely the role of transfer in the genesis of creole languages is certainly not a trivial task. Recent developments in SLA theory acknowledge the role of both Universal Grammar and transfer. According to the Full Transfer/Full Access model (Schwartz & Sprouse 1996; White 2000), second language learners assume the grammar ofL1 as a starting point- Full Transferand progressively restructure this initial grammar using principles and parameters of Universal Grammar - Full Access. Learners maintain the parameter settings of L1 in the interlanguage unless they are exposed to evidence to the contrary: Positive evidence in the target language triggers the resetting of the parameters in the interlanguage. In this view, an interlanguage is the "combination of (incorrect) L1 parameter settings, and the effect of Universal Grammar manifested in parameters that have been reset to the (correct) L2 value" (Archibald 1998:283). Markedness conditions act as guiding principles in SLA. They determine the order in which structures are acquired and they constrain the transfer from L1. Hyltenstam ( 1987) shows that in the early stages of acquisition, the interlanguage is immune to L1 and L2 influences: Unmarked categories are preferred.3 This explains the similarities found in all Ll- L2 situations. In later stages, differences arise which reflect the various interactions between the markedness values of the two languages. Thus, Hyltenstam (1987) makes the following predictions for a given parameter or set of parameters: (1) When both L1 and L2 are unmarked, the acquisition is straightforward; (2) when L1 is unmarked and L2 is marked, the unmarked category is transterred and will often remain for a while as a feature of the interlanguage; (3) when L1 is marked and L2 is unmarked, transfer is not likely to occur and, if it does, the marked category will not remain; (4) when both
2. See Sprouse (2006) for a discussion of the convergent developments in creolistics and SLA, represented respectively by the Relexification hypothesis and the Full Transfer /Full Access model
3- While the terms "marked" and "unmarked" may give the impression that markedness is an absolute, binary property, it is in fact relative. Segments are more or less marked than others in a given hierarchy - e.g., place or articulation for consonants, nasality for vowels, etc. Hence, these terms are to be understood as Kmore marked" and iess marked" respectively (see de Lacy 2006, especially the first chapter, for an extensive discussion).
107
to8
Anne-Marie Brousseau
L1 and L2 are marked, the unmarked value can occur, but will be abandoned rapidly in favour of the marked value. Markedness conditions also guide the process of parameter resetting, given the kind of evidence needed to reset the value of a parameter. It is easier for the learner to reset a value from the subset (unmarked value) to the superset (marked value) than vice versa, since only positive evidence is needed in this case (Dresher & Kaye 1990; White 1989). This leads to the following paradox. When L1 is unmarked and L2 is marked for a given parameter, the interlanguage can show one value or the other: Either the unmarked value transferred from L1 remains (Hyltenstam 1987) or the marked value ofL2 is adopted, following parameter resetting (Dresher & Kaye 1990).
2.2
The data
Haitian is by far the most widely spoken among the French-based creoles. It has almost 7 million speakers or 94% of the population of Haiti (2001 data) and is spoken worldwide by members of the diaspora. St Lucian, also a French-based creole, has roughly 159,000 speakers in St Lucia, or 44% of the population (2001 data) and has also 43,000 speakers in Dominica (1998 data). While the vehicular language in Haiti is the creole, it is English in St Lucia.4 The French colonies of Haiti and St. Lucia are both believed to have started in the mid-seventeenth century: 1659 for Haiti (Singler 1996), 1651 for St. Lucia (Breen 1844; Rogozinski 1992). Singler (1996) hypothesises that Haitian was created between 1680 and 1740. It is during this period - the beginnings of the sugar economy- that the social conditions required for the emergence of a creole were present: a high ratio of slaves/Europeans, multilingualism among the slave population leading to the need for a lingua franca and very limited exposure to the superstrate language. For St. Lucia, no date has been proposed in the literature for the emergence of the creole, but if the development of a sugar economy is assumed to provide the required social conditions, we can conjecture that the creole was formed between 1765 (establishment of the first sugar plantations in Vieux-Fort) and 1815 (permanent cession of the island to Britain by France). Singler (1996) shows that, despite the widespread multilingualism found in the slave population, the majority of slaves in Haiti during the crucial period of formation (1680-1740) were speakers of Gbe languages (among other Kwa languages and, in a lesser proportion, Bantu languages). The Gbe dialect cluster comprises five main varieties (Capo 1991): Fongbe, Vhegbe (also known as Ewe), Gengbe (or Mina), Ajagbe, and Phla-Phera. These dialects are hypothesised to have played a major sub stratal role in the formation of Haitian creole. Among those, special attention has been given to Fongbe in the comparison, because, among others reasons, of the impact the Fon people have had on the history and culture of Haiti (see Lefebvre 1998: Chapter 3, for a detailed discussion). In the absence of detailed information regarding St Luda tor the relevant period and given that demography was similar across French colonies in the Antilles (Singler 1995), I will assume that Gbe languages played a major role in the formation of St Lucian as well.
4· Source: Ethnologue database, SIL International.
One substrate, two creoles
Due to the scarcity of historical data and to the tact that early written texts provide no consistent or credible clues about the phonology of the languages, the systems of Haitian, St. Ludan and Gbe were established on the basis of contemporary data. As for French, historical data is abundant enough to provide information on the phonology of seventeenth and eighteen century French. But what varieties of French should be considered to represent the superstrate of the two creoles? In keeping with current views on the French spoken by the settlers in America, I assume that the French who emigrated to New France and to the Antilles shared common sodal and geographical origins. French settlers in America were mainly from the western and central regions of France (Brasseur 1997; Chaudenson 1994), Poitou-Charentes being the region that exported the highest numbers of settlers to New France. I assume further that these French emigrants constituted a fairly homogeneous speech community; they all spoke a mesolectal variety of French showing some regional peculiarities (mainly Ile-de-France and western France), a local variety of the Parisian norm, referred to as Regional Standard French (see the contributions by Chaudenson, Hul~ Morin and Poirier in Mougeon & Beniak 1994).5 Thus, the inventories for seventeenth and eighteenth century French have been reconstructed within this perspective. 6
3·
Comparison of the vowel systems
The vowel inventories of the four languages under study are presented in this section without further justification of the segments they comprise, unless these segments are directly relevant to the comparison.
3.1
Vowel inventories
The vowel systems of Haitian and St. Lucian are almost, if not completely, identical (see Table 1). They consist of seven oral vowels and five nasal vowels, with a possible eighth oral vowel, the low back Ia!? Carrington (1984: 19-20) argues tor the presence in St. Ludan of two low vowels, /a/ and I oJ, on the basis of minimal pairs such as those in ( 1) below, despite the tact that I oJ appears only in a few words. He notes that /a/ is lax and long, similar to the Ia/ of French. The few examples
5-
See Brousseau (2005) for language-internal arguments supporting this view.
6. The inventories for the three languages were devised based on my work with informants and on the available literature. See Brousseau (2005), Brousseau & Nikiema (2006), and Lefebvre (1998) for the references that were consuhed to devise the inventories.
7In Tables 1 through 6, the following coding has been used: (i) brackets - e.g., (a) - indicate marginally attested segments; (ii) vertical slashes- e.g., lhl- signal segments that are found in St Lucian but not in Haitian; (iii) angular brackets -e.g., - signal segments that are found in Haitian but not in St Lucian; (iv) square brackets - e.g., [j] - identify allophones.
109
110
Anne-Marie Brousseau
Table 1. Vowel inventory of Haitian and St. Lucian Oral Front
Nasal
Back
Central
Front
Back
Central
u
e
ii
0
5
:l
£
a
(a)
Table 2. Vowel inventory of seventeenth-eighteenth century French Oral
Nasal
Front rounded
Back
y
u
e
0
0
£
a/re a
a
Front
Front
Front rounded
£
re
a
Back
d
provided suggest that the distribution of Ia! is limited to forms where the postvocalic !HI of the French etymons has been deleted. (1)
[pa]
'not' [lam] 'blade'
[pa]
'through'
l.lam]
'tear'
(French [paH]) (French l.laJim])
(Carrington 1984:20)
However, the distinction between the two low vowels is hard to find in contemporary St. Lucian. None of the two available dictionaries of St Lucian make the distinction. In his introduction to Mondesir's dictionary, Carrington justifies his decision not to represent the distinction by the fact that it has become "tenuous~ an observation that is consistent with my own observations during fieldwork. Interestingly, Valdman (1978) proposes the existence in Haitian of a back I a/ which appears in the same restricted contexts as in St. Lucian, that is, where the French etymon has either /rur/ or /aH/. However, most of the literature on Haitian agrees that there is only one low vowel and the dictionaries - including Valdman et al. (2007) - do not recognise any distinction. Haitian and St. Lucian have phonetic nasal variants of the high vowels, resulting from either regressive or progressive nasalisation - e.g., St. Lucian [wasin-ni], Haitian [yasin-ni], 'his/her roof. For Haitian, most of the consulted sources also recognise the phonemic status of Iii and fill, attested in a small number of words, most of them of African origin e.g., /hilga/ 'voodoo priesf. For St. Lucian, Carrington (1984) excludes Iii and/il/ from the phonemic inventory, while recognising them as phonetically derived through nasalisation. The inventory of seventeenth and eighteenth century French contains twelve oral vowels and five nasal vowels (Table 2 ). The inventory clearly contains two "a" vowels: Back /a/ and central /a/. Back /a/ became part of the phonemic inventory of French during the sixteenth century (Fouche 1966) and was also found in the regional dialects spoken in the Centre and the West of France of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including Poitou and Saintonge (Morin 1994).
One substrate, two creoles
Table 3. Vowel inventory of Gbe Oral Front
Central
Nasal
Back
Front
Central
u
e
ii.
0
e
:l
£
a
Back 0 5
a
The vowel system of Gbe consists of seven oral and seven nasal vowels, including two high nasal vowels (Table 3). Following Capo (1991), the inventory includes the two phonemic vowels, tel and /6/. However, these vowels are always realised phonetically as [il) and [3) respectively in Fongbe. In fact, only two Gbe dialects show a straighttorward phonetic realisation of these vowels as [e] and [6]. 3.2
Vowels: From Gbe to Haitian and St. Lucian
A comparison of Tables 1 and 3 shows that the vowel inventory of Gbe is strikingly similar to those of the two creoles. The differences are that the two creoles lack the nasal vowels lei and /6/ found in Gbe, while Gbe lacks the distinction between the two "a"' that is marginally found in the creoles. The first difference is linked to an empirical problem. The phonemes /e/ and /6/, in most Gbe dialects, are always realised as [e] and [3] respectively. Given that/et and 161 are not attested in French, neither phonemically nor phonetically, the creators of the creoles had two possible ways to interpret the [£] and [3] they encountered as part of the phonetic strings of French: either as transparent/Sf and /3/ or as the realisation of the underlying phonemic let and /6/. Of course, the allophony being categorical, there is no empirical way to determine which of the two analyses is correct In the first case, the phonemic vowels would most probably have disappeared, finding no role to play in the realisation of phonetic strings. In the second case, the phonemic vowels could correspond to the underlying representation of some, if not all, nasal mid-vowels. It is theoretically unlikely, however, that such abstract representations would have subsisted in the languages as they render the forms in which they appear unnecessarily opaque. It thus seems more reasonable to adopt the first option and to explain the absence of tel and /6/ in the creoles by the fact that French provided no data that could be interpreted as targets for the transfer of these phonemes. The second difference involves the interaction of segments with syllable structure. It is not a mere reflex of the equivalent distinction in French, as the vast majority of the French etymons including /a/ are realised in the creoles with /a/. In both creoles, the back /a/ appears only in some forms where the postvocalic !HI of the French etymons has been deleted. Given that Ia/ is the only low vowel that is phonemically long in French, the presence of I a/ in the creoles could a priori be explained by a process of compensatory lengthening: /a/ would spread to the syllable slot left empty by the deletion of the postvocalic !HI, hence being realised as I a/. This explanation is dubious for the following reasons. First, it seems that the distribution of Ia/ is scarce, even for the authors who report its existence. It appears only in a small subset of the torms that provide
111
112
Anne-Marie
Brousseau
the appropriate context (etymons containing Irurl or /ax/) and this subset does not form a natural class that would allow a sound characterisation of the phonological environment of Ia!. If Ia! were to be analyzed as a reflex of compensatory lengthening, we would expect it to appear systematically in forms where a postvocalic !HI has been deleted, which is not the case. Second, in order to recognise I a/ as the only low vowel that is phonemically long, the creators of the creoles would have had to acquire the abstract relationships between length and place of articulation for the low vowels of French. A cluster of factors would have rendered this acquisition extremely difficult, including the low degree of exposition to French, the absence of any distinction for low vowels in the substrate and the fact that the distinction is both phonemic and phonetic in French. 'Third, even if the creators had been successful in acquiring the abstract properties of the two "a"s of French, we would expect the forms in the creoles to pattern more closely to those of French. As shown in (2), this is not the case: There is no correspondence neither for place of articulation nor for length between the French and the creole forms. (2)
a
HAITIAN
ST. LUCIAN
FRENCH
[lam]
[lam]
lame grave pas larme par
[gyav]
[gwav]
[pa] [lam] [pa]
[pa] [lam] [pa]
GLOSS
[lam] [gHa:v] [pa:] [lllB'm] [pa:B']
'blade' 'serious' 'not'
'tear' 'through'
This leads me to conclude that [a] is at best an idiosyncrasy, a phonetic variant that appears sporadically in some specific lexical forms. Summing up, the inventory of Haitian and St. Lucian does not include a back /a/ after all. Depending on the status of /e/ and /6/ in the creoles, this leaves a single possible difference (if any), which applies only at the phonemic level. Vowels: The French input to Haitian and St. Lucian
3·3
Comparing the creoles with French (Tables 1 and 2) reveals many differences, notably the lack in the creoles of the whole front rounded series. As illustrated in (3), the rounded vowels of French etymons are realised as front unrounded vowels, or, in a few cases, as back rounded vowels. (3)
i
HAITIAN
ST. LUCIAN
FRENCH
[lim&] [mi] [3is]/[Jus] [bule] [suse] [dife] [m(i)sje] [agjo]
[limS:] [mi]
allwner mO.r juste brftler sucer feu monsieur adieu aveugle peuple voleur
[Jis]
[bwile] [suse] [dife] [misje]
[avs.g]
[avs.g]
[pep] [v:lle]
[pep] [~Is.]
GLOSS
[alyme] [myr] [3ys(t)] [bB'yle] [syse] [f0]
'to light' 'ripe'
[m(~)sy0]
'mister'
'until'
'to bunt 'to suck' 'fire'
[ady0] 'farewell' [avceg(l)] 'blind' [pcep(l)] 'people' [~leer] 'thief
One substrate, two creoles
:>
< ce
s: < re
[dpl] [bit']
gueule brun
[gcel]
'mouth'
[brre]
'browrl
This constitutes a clear case of substitution, as is often observed in more canonical cases of SLA. Substitution is a process that consists in replacing a phoneme of the target language by a phoneme of the native inventory that is the closest to the target segment, in terms of perceptual similarity or classificatory equivalence in the phonological system. Since they are absent from the Gbe inventory and since they constitute a marked option cross-linguistically, the front-rounded vowels of French were substituted by vowels that are similar either in terms of place of articulation (frontunrounded vowels) or in terms of manner of articulation (back-rounded vowels). These two sets of vowels are both good candidates since in each case the native segment differs from the target segment by only one feature. The lack of schwa in their inventory also sets the creoles apart from French. As shown in (4), the schwa of French etymons is realised as /e/ or, less frequently, as /if in the corresponding creole torms. (4) i,e<::~
e<::~
HAITIAN
ST. LUCIAN
FRENCH
Uem€/fime] [five/feve] [demi] [menas] [leve]
[(ime] [(ive] [dimi] [menas] [leve]
chemin cheveu demie menace lever
GLOSS ij(::~)me] ij(::~)v0] [d(::~)mi] [m(::~)nas] [l(::~)ve]
'road' 'hair' 'half' 'threat' 'to raise'
The presence of two substitutes reflects the ambiguous behaviour of schwa in French. Schwa has two possible phonetic outputs: It may either be realised as [ce]/[0] 8 or be phonetically null (deleted). In many French torms, a given schwa may be realised or not, depending on factors such as properties of the neighbouring syllables, speech rate and register. If the input form to which the creators of the creoles were exposed contained a realised schwa- e.g., [sariz] 'cherry'-, the expected outcome would be [e], on a par with the other cases of substitution of front-rounded vowels. However, if the input was a form with deleted schwa- e.g., [sriz] 'cherry'-, there was no segment to substitute. The presence of [i] thus requires a different line of explanation, namely syllable structures. The syllable structures of Gbe languages are far simpler than those of French. Codas are prohibited while a limited set of syllable-initial clusters are allowed. Specifically, a cluster may consist of almost any consonant followed by a liquid or a small subset of consonants followed by yod. As noted in Steele and Brousseau (2006), L2 learners typically do not acquire all clusters of the target language with equal ease. Learners who are exposed to clusters that are not allowed in their native grammar and/or are marked resort to two strategies to adapt the target clusters: consonant deletion and vowel epenthesis. 9 This second strategy is precisely the one used in adapting loanwords from French in contemporary Gbe languages and the epenthetic vowels that shows up 8. The phonetically realised schwa is subject to variation across dialects and sodolects of French, being realised as [ce] and [0].
9- See Plag and Uffinann (200 1) and U.ffinann (2003) for discussion of these strategies in 12 acquisition and the development of phonology in creoles.
113
114
Anne-Marie Brousseau
in loanwords is precisely /if, the default vowel of the system- e.g., Fongbe [minisite] from French [mini~teH] .10 The third difference between the vowel inventories is that French lacks the nasal high vowels that are found in the two creoles and in Gbe. Again, this situation parallels more canonical cases ofSLA. According to Steele and Brousseau (2006), L2leamers may acquire target-language sounds in a native-like manner yet apply allophonic rules transferred from the Ll, resulting in non-target-like realisations. Transferred allophonic rules may be fossilised and hence exist even in the grammars of advanced learners. Regressive nasalisation is a rule that applies in the four languages under study and, in fuct, in a wide variety of languages. However, the rule typically applies to all vowels except high, as is the case in French. The fuct that high vowels are nasalised in the two creoles, a marked option, can only be the result of transfer from the substrate language. 11 In the case of Haitian, the presence of nasalised high vowels may have helped the preservation of high vowels that are phonemically nasal, in forms of African origin. The fourth difference is the absence of a back low vowel in the creoles. As discussed in 3.2, the few occurrences of I a/ found in the creoles do not correspond in any systematic fashion to the I a/ of French etymons. Again, this is a clear case of substitution, where a segment that is not part of the native grammar is replaced by its closest equivalent. in this case /a/, which is both perceptually and phonologically similar.
3·4
Vowels: Summary
As concerns vowels, Haitian and St. Lucian share the same inventory, with the possible exception of nasal high vowels, which may have a phonemic status in Haitian only. This inventory is identical to that of Gbe, with the possible following exception: the nasal mid-vowels /e/ and /5/. It~ indeed, these segments are not part of the phonemic inventory of the creole - a state of affairs that cannot be substantiated-, their absence results from the fuct that French provided no data that could be interpreted as targets for the transfer of these phonemes. In other words, there was nowhere to transfer to, a situation that prevents transfer to apply, following Andersen's Transfer to Somewhere Principle. According to this principle,
10. Of course, there is no way to tell what was the pronundation to which the creators of the creoles were exposed when they adapted a French lexical containing a schwa. We can reasonably hypothesise variation among the creators of the creoles as the result of the variation in the input, which would have lead to the variation we still see in modern creoles - e.g., demi vs. dimi. The fact that many lexical items of the creoles do not show variation can be either the result of an homogeneous input at the moment of the creation of the creoles or the result of a later process of dialect levelling.
11. In his investigation of the inventories of317languages, Maddieson (1984: 131) notes that/I/, /ft/ and /a/ are the most common nasalized vowels. If typological frequency were to be used as a diagnostic for markedness, this would entail that the high nasal vowels are unmarked. However, I assume with de Lacy (2006: 20-30) that the frequency of a given segment across inventories is influenced by many factors- e.g., conflicting constraints such as Preservation of the Marked, performance factors - and thus does not constitute a valid diagnostic of markedness.
One substrate, two creoles
A grammatical form will occur consistently and to a significant extent in the !nterlanguage as a result of transfer if and only if ( 1) natural acquisition principles are consistent with the L1 structure or (2) there already exists within the L2 input the potential for (mis- )generalisation from the input to produce the same form or structure. (Andersen 1983: 182)
The inventory of French is larger and more complex than those of the two creoles, and reveals more important differences. To adopt the phonetic strings of French in the process of creating the emerging creoles, the creators resorted to typical L2 acquisition strategies: substitution of new sounds by their closest native equivalents (front-unrounded vowels, realised schwas, back /a/), vowel epenthesis (unrealised schwas) and transfer of an allophonic rule (retention of nasal high vowels).
Comparison of the consonant systems
4·
The inventories of consonants presented below comprise phonemes and allophones. The inventories do not include phonetic variants in free variation or superficial phonetic variants, which may occur, for example, as a result of rapid speech.
Consonant inventories
4.1
The consonant inventories of Haitian and St. Lucian are almost identical (see Table 4). To the common set of 22 consonants (20 phonemes and two allophones), St Lucian adds the laryngeal/hi and the labialised velars /yw/ and /w/, while Haitian adds the fricative /y/ and the sonorant /y/. Most authors agree that the velar nasal [I)] does not have a phonemic status in Haitian, being the nasalised allomorph of /g! in word-final position - e.g., /repsg! > [rep'SIJ] 'pili Carrington (1984) analyses the St. Lucian velar nasal as phonemic, but notes that it has a limited occurrence. However, an examination of the forms involved reveals that it appears in the same contexts as the equivalent in Haitian. On the basis of the examples given, I contend that [IJ] is best analyzed as the result of the progressive nasalisation of I g! in St Lucian and Haitian alike. The two creoles also have in common a nasalised version of yod resulting from progressive nasalisation. which alternates with the nasal/]1/. In Haitian, /y/ behaves as the language's rhotic. As is the case in Gbe, French, and many other languages, the "r-like" rhotic may behave both as a fricative and as a sonorant (liquid or Table 4. Consonant inventory of Haitian and St. Lucian Bilabial
Labio-dental
p,b f,v
Alveo-dental Alveo-palatal
t,d s,z
Palatal
Velar
J1
[IJ]
j [J]
lwl
{.3
tf, d3 rn w
n
Laryngeal
115
116
Anne-Marie Brousseau
Table 5. Consonant inventory of Gbe Bilabial
Labio-dental
Alveo-dental
Alveo-palatal
Palatal
t,d
f, v
s,z
Velar
Labio-velar
k,g x,y
xw,yw
kp,gb
tf, d3
d. [n]
b[m]
)l
1 [r] j [j]
w
y
Table 6. Consonant inventory of seventeenth and eighteenth century French Bilabial
Labio-dental Alveo-dental Alveo-palatal
p,b
t,d
tv
s,z
J~3
[tf,d3]
n
w
r
Velar
Uvular
Laryngeal
1f
h
k.g
[ts,dz] m
Palatal
Jl
[IJ] 1f
semi-vowel). In St. Lucian, the rhotic has the same ambiguous status, but differs in its articulatory properties. According to Carrington (1984: 27), "labialization of this consonant is a prominent feature of St. Lucian Creole, to such an extent that more often than not/yw; resembles back semivowel/w/." The Gbe inventory includes 23 phonemes, plus four allophones (Table 5). In Gbe, /b/ and I d/ are best analysed as sonorants. First, they pattern with the other sonorants with respect to tone. Second, they are in complementary distribution with the nasals [m] and [n]: /b/ and /d/ appear before oral vowels, while the nasals appear elsewhere. The fact that /b/ is a sonorant explains that, even though all voiced stops have a voiceless counterpart, there is no /pi in the inventory. As for /y/, it exhibits the ambiguous behaviour of a rhotic, being both a fricative and a sonorant, whereas [r] is an allophone of IV in the context of a preceding coronal consonant. The inventory of seventeenth and eighteenth century French possesses 22 consonant phonemes, including the language's rhotic, which has two variants (the coronal/r/ and the dorsal velar /JJ/) (see Table 6). In contrast with contemporary French, it includes the laryngeal fricative /hi, the realisation of the so-called "h aspire in words of Germanic origin e.g., haut [ho] 'high: hacher [hafe] 'to chop' (Brousseau 2005). The inventory also includes two sets of allophones. The affricates [ts] and [dz] are allophones of It/ and /d/ in the context of a following Iii or lyl while the affricates [tf] and [d3] are palatalised variants of It/ and I dl, lkl and I gl.
One substrate, two creoles
4.2
Consonants: From Gbe to Haitian and St. Lucian
A comparison of the two consonant inventories (Tables 4 and 5) reveals several mismatches. First, whereas the creoles have the two bilabial stops /pi and /b/, Fongbe has no /pi but has a sonorant lbl. Second, while Haitian has the fricatives If/ and /3f, Fongbe does not. Third, many of the Gbe consonants are missing from the creole inventories: the sonorant /dj, the fricative /x/, and the whole series of labio-velars. This may come as a surprise, given the striking similarity between the vowel systems. Andersen's "Transfer to Somewhere Principle" provides an explanation for the absence oflabio-velars, /x/ and I d/ in the creoles. The French input did not include any sounds that resembled these consonants; hence the transfer had nowhere to apply. The emergence of the stops /p/ and /b/ in the creoles can be viewed as the result of a regularisation of the phonemic system of Gbe. While some Gbe dialects have it in their phonemic inventory- e.g., Gen dialects -, Fongbe and the other dialects that lack a phonemic /pi allow [p] in ideophones and loan words. Given this situation, it is possible that the seventeenth and eighteenth century Gbe speakers also manifested the variation we observe today. On the assumption that this was the case, these Gbe speakers were faced with French phonetic strings containing /pi and they obviously integrated /p/ in the system that they were creating. This is attested by the large number of words containing /pi in the modem creoles. The reason they integrated /p/ is either because they already had it in their phonemic inventory- e.g., Gen dialects - or in their phonetic inventory - e.g., Fongbe. A likely hypothesis, then, is that the presence of /pi in French phonetic strings only helped accelerating an incipient change which had already begun to take place in the grammar of substratum speakers at the time the creoles were formed. 12 The presence of an obstruent /pi in the creoles raises the question of the status of /b/ within the system. This question bears on the assumption that the default case will produce a system where gaps are avoided. According to Clements (2003 and previous work), this avoidance of gaps in inventories follows from the Principle of Feature Economy. "According to this principle, languages tend to maximise the combinatory possibilities of features across the inventory of speech sounds: Features used once in a system tend to be used again" (Clements 2003:287). In all three languages, stops all appear in voiced/voiceless pairs. We thus expect that, given that the creoles have /p/, they will also have its voiced counterpart, namely the stop /b/. This is exactly what we find. In contrast with Gbe, but on a par with French, /b/ does not behave like a sonorant in the creoles. It thus appears that the creators of the creoles modified the feature specification of /b/ from its L1 value to the L2 value. Presumably, the target provided an abundance of positive evidence showing that /b/ was not in complementary distribution with /m/ - French forms such as lbaJ ,/bf./, /b3/ -, hence allowing the acquisition of the values of French. The change from sonorant to stop had the effect of filling a gap in the new consonant system.
Maddieson ( 1984: 32) notes that 99.1% of the 317languages under study have at least one bilabial stop, which could suggest an unmarked value for /pl. On the other hand, de Lacy (2006: 2) provides the following hierarchy for major places of articulation (where> means "is more marked than"): !dorsal> labial> coronal> glottal!. This makes /p/ relatively marked. 12.
117
118
Anne-Marie Brousseau
As for the acquisition of the fricatives If/ and /3f, I propose to link it to the presence of the affricates /tf/ and /dy, as will be seen in the next section.
Consonants: The French input to Haitian and St. Lucian
4·3
The consonant inventories of the two creoles parallel French more closely than Gbe. The differences are as follows. First, the affricates [ts I and [dzl are missing in the creoles and the affricates [tf) and [d3] have phonemic status in the creoles. Second, whereas French has /H/ and /hi, Haitian has /y/ and St. Ludan has /w/ and /hi. The first difference is the result of straightforward transfer from the substratum. The French input to which the creators of creoles were exposed offered occurrences of [tn and [d3l, as well as [ts] and [dz], both pairs being allophones of It/ and I d! respectively. Of course, whether it is a phoneme or an allophone in the system, an affricate will be perceptually identical. Given that [tn and [d3] were part of the native inventory, the affricates were transferred into the system of the emerging creoles with their native values, i.e. as the phonemes /tf/ and/d3f. In contrast, since they were missing from the native inventory, [ts I and [dzI did not make their way into the creoles. The adoption of the fricatives If/ and /3f may be linked to the existence of the affricates in the system. Both pairs of consonants share the same place of articulation and, in part, the same manner of articulation: In terms of perception and articulation, an affricate is the fusion of a fricative and a homorganic stop. Given the fact that Gbe had the affricates !tf/ and /dy, it was only natural to expand the system so as to include the fricatives If/ and /y. Once more, as was the case for the introduction of /p/, this choice may have been quite straightforward as it had the effect of making better use of the available phonological features for consonants, following the Principle of Feature Economy. To explain the second difference that sets the creoles apart from French, I first provide an account of the Haitian system. I adopt the analysis of Steele and Brousseau (2006), which involves the substitution of postcoronal fricatives (/HI and /hi) under equivalence classification by the creators of Haitian. In contemporary French, the label Kh-aspire refers to a subset of these words which pattern like consonant-initial words in blocking liaison. In contrast, "h-muef' words behave phonologically like any other vowel-initial word. The initial/hi ofh-aspire items was historically realised in French, including in the seventeenth and eighteenth century varieties to which the Gbe-speaking creators of the creoles would have been exposed (Brousseau 2005). Such differences manifest themselves in the HC adaptation of French h-aspire and h-muet etymons. In adapting the h-aspire targets in (5), HC substituted the voiced velar fricative [y]. (5)
FRENCH
HAITIAN
rach ranch ranni rayi
[yaj] [yil.j] [yil.ni] [yaji]
hache hanche hennir hair
GLOSS
[haj] [hil.j] [henJH] [ha(j)ilr]
'axe'
'hip' 'to neigh' 'to hate'
In contrast, the adaptations ofh-muet etymons are phonetically vowel-initial- e.g., French habitude [abityd] 'habif, HC abitid [abitid]; French heureuse [0B'121Z] 'happY, HC erez [eysz].
One substrate, two creoles
Since laryngeals were not part of their native inventory, Gbe learners of seventeenth and eighteenth century French would have had to acquire /hi. In order to do so, they proceeded to adapt target lhl via equivalence classification, equating French /h/ with /y/, an L1 segment that shares the manner and has the closest place of articulation to that of the target segment. The equivalence classification hypothesis is further supported by the adaptation of targets involving/HI, which is substituted with /yl in HC, as illustrated in (6). Gbe languages have a velar but no uvular series. Accordingly, in an attempt to master target hr/, native speakers of both languages substitute the perceptually equivalent velar /y/. (6)
HAITIAN
rim trete erez ipokrit
[yim]
[tyete] [ey&z] [lpokyit]
FRENCH
GLOSS
[:sym] rhwne [tB'ete] traiter heureuse (0H0Z] hypocrite [ipokB'it:]
'cold (n.)' 'to treat' 'happy' 'hypocrite'
The fact that this substitution also occurs after a coronal- e.g., trete [tyete] -, that is, in the only context where Gbe allows the coronal/r/, confirms that the target !HI is substituted by a sound that is perceptually equivalent and not phonologically equivalent. In other words, the creators of Haitian have privileged the perceptual similarity of lyl and !HI over the phonological rho tic status of lrl and /HIP The allophonic variation of I y/ can also be understood as a case of the transfer and fossilisation of an Ll-based allophonic rule. As shown in (8) and (9), in both singleton and complex onsets, HC /yl is realised as [w] in front of a rounded vowel. In all other contexts, as in (7), it is realised as [y]. No such alternation exists in French. where [H] can occur before any vowel. (7)
HAITIAN
ra chire pouri debraye prete (8)
HAITIAN
nimero parol ronfie roulo trop (9)
FRENCH
[ya] [fiye] [puyi] [debyaje] [pyete]
p~ter
GLOSS
(HaJj'] [defiB'e] [pwrl] [debHaje] [pHete]
'rare
[nymeHo] [pu:>l] [K3fie] [Kulo] [tHo]
'number' 'words' 'to snore' 'roll' 'too (much)'
l.ho] l.h5t] l.hu]
'high' 'shame' 'hoe'
FRENCH
[nimewo] [paw:>l] [w5fie] [wulo] [tw:>p]
nwnero parole ronfier rouleau trop
[wo] [w3t]
haut honte houe
HAITIAN
ro ront rou
rare dechirer pourri debraille
GLOSS
FRENCH
[wu]
'to shred' 'rotten' 'sloppy' 'to lend'
GLOSS
13. Another property may have accentuated the phonetic similarity between /y/ and /Jr/. Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996) note that the velar fricative is often like an approximant and that uvular rhotics have a tendency to weaken, hence being realised as fricatives or approximants.
119
120
Anne-Marie Brousseau
The identical allophonic variation occurs in some Gbe dialects. In these varieties, the distribution is identical to that observed in Haitian: [w] occurs before back vowels, [y] is found elsewhere. As such, the HC variation in the realisation of /y/ is a dear case of the transfer of an L1 allophonic rule. This transfer might provide the key to explaining how St. Lucian differs from Haitian in the substitution of French /JJ/ and the adoption of French /hi. In St Lucian, /w/ (or /yw/) appears in place of the French /Jr/, regardless of the quality of the following vowel. Hence, the forms equivalent to those in (7) above are realised with /w/ where Haitian has /y/. However, as Carrington (1984:27) notes, /y/ is observed in the speech of older rural dwellers, particularly word-initially- e.g., [yi] 'to laugh: [diyi] 'rice, [yete] 'to remain: all contexts where the following vowel is not rounded. It thus seems reasonable to assume that historically St Lucian was similar to Haitian, exhibiting the very same allophonic variation between /y/ and /w/. While this variation is still robust in Haitian, it would have started to erode in St. Lucian at some point in time, possibly under the influence of English. The influence of English as a contributing factor is plausible for two reasons. The first one is language external. Besides French, St Lucians have been exposed to another colonising language quite early, namely English. The island changed hands between France and England many times between 1635 and 1815, when it definitely became a British possession. The censuses of 1911 and 1921 already indicate that approximately 40% of the population had the ability to speak English, a rate that steadily increased to almost 60% in 1946 (Carrington's data was gathered in 1964-1966). In fact, in the most densely populated area of the island (Castries), many speakers of the "patwa" acknowledge an influence of English in their creole speech. The second reason is language internal. If, as I have shown above, perceptual similarity is at play in determining the equivalencies between phonemes of different languages, then it is plausible that the rhotic of English, being perceptually similar to St. Lucian /w/ and I ywI, has influenced St. Lucian in promoting the allophone to the rank of phonemes in all contexts. The influence of English may also explain the presence of /hi in St Lucian. While St. Lucian patterns with Haitian in exhibiting an allophonic variation between [w] and the reflex of the French /hi, it departs from Haitian in generalising the [w] variant to contexts where there is no back vowel, that is, contexts where the only possible realisation should be /hi. In many forms, the two realisations are acceptable, as shown below: (10)
ST. LUCIAN
FRENCH
[hafl/[wafl [.hele]/[wele] [h5t]/[w3t] [.hu]/[wu]
hache heler honte houe
GLOSS
[.haJJ [.hele] [.h5t] [.hu]
'axe' 'to call' 'shame' 'hoe'
This suggests that the same phenomenon of erosion applied to the allophonic distribution that may have characterised an earlier state of the language where, exactly as in Haitian, /y/ would have alternated with [w]. If this is the case, the expected variation in forms such as those in (10) would be /y/and [w] rather than and /hi and [w]. Where does this /hi come from? The direct adoption of French /hi by the creators of St. Lucian is unlikely for the same reasons that explain the substitution of /hi by /y/ in Haitian. Given that the creators of the creole
One substrate, two creoles
had very limited exposure to French, it is doubtful that they could have managed to acquire this segment, missing from their native inventory. An influence from English offers a better line of explanation. As mentioned earlier, the British have been recurrently present in St. Lucian as early as 1635. The creators of St Lucian may thus have been exposed, at least minimally, to some variety of English at different points in time. The combining pressure of the two colonising languages would have expanded the exposure to the target segment /hi, especially since this consonant is widespread in the English vocabulary- which is not the case in French, where h-aspire is restricted to a small set of words. This combined pressure may have provided a more salient exposure to /hi, resulting in its introduction in the consonantal inventory. The consistent presence of English, starting in the mid-nineteenth century, would have helped preserve /hi, despite its alternation with /w/. In contrast. since neither French nor English provided data involving /y/, the alternation between /y/ and /w/ resulted in the gradual disappearance of the velar fricative.
4·4
Consonants: Summary
The consonant inventories of Haitian and St Lucian are more similar to that of French than to that of Gbe languages. They lack many of the consonants of their substrate, namely all those that do not have a French counterpart. This follows from the Transfer to Somewhere Principle. Again, the creators of the creoles resorted to typical L2 acquisition strategies when faced with sounds that were not part of their native grammar. The segments corresponding to the /JJ/ and /h/ of French are the result ofboth the substitution of new sounds by their closest native equivalents and the transfer of an allophonic rule. Other consonants of French were more directly adopted as part of a process of regularisation of the consonant system (!pi, If/ and /y), resulting in an inventory that is even closer to that of French.
5·
Conclusion
Transfers that are typical of L2 acquisition suffice to explain how the inventories of Haitian and St. Lucian acquired the features they have, given the features of their contributing languages. But is this the only plausible explanation? Could the role of Universal Grammar provide as good an explanation as transfer does? In order to answer these questions, I first recapitulate the relevant features. Table 7 lists the differences between the two creole and French inventories, with the L2 processes involved in the emergence of the creole features. The last column indicates the markedness of each given feature, relatively to French (where M indicates marked or more marked, U indicates unmarked or less marked). To measure the impact of the substrate in the development of the segmental inventories of the creoles, the question that really needs answering is the following: Of all the features of the creole inventories that depart from those of French, what features are the result of transfer from the Gbe languages? Assuming the Full Transfer/Full Access hypothesis, the answer to the latter question is straightforward: All the features of L1 ( Gbe) that were not later restructured - i.e. all
121
122
Anne-Marie Brousseau
Table 7. Differences in the inventories of the creoles and French French
Haitian
St Lucian
Front rounded V s
Front unrounded V s (back rounded Vs)
Back/a/
Front/a/
Realised schwa
/e/
Deleted schwa
!if
L2 acquisition process
M/U
Under equivalent classification, substitution of the target by its closest equivalent (each candidate departing from the target by one feature, roundedness or place).
u
Repair strategy to break consonant clusters and to accommodate Ll syllable.
u
[i, ii]
Transfer of Ll allophonic rule.
M
[ts, dz] [tf, d3]
!tf, d3/
Transfer with phonemic value of Ll.
M
!hi
/y/
Substitution of the target by its closest equivalent
u
!hi
(Haitian).
/JI/
/y/
/w/
Erosion of variation and influence of English (St. Lucian).
?
/JI/
[w]
[w]
Transfer of Ll allophonic rule.
M
the parameters that have not been reset. In other words, all the differences listed in Table 7 must be the result of transfer. Indeed, Table 7 shows that parameter resetting has been not overly successful. It did not happen with the following segments of French: (1) front rounded vowels; (2) back /a/; (3) realised schwa; (4) some consonants clusters (V epenthesis for deleted schwa); (5) the affricates [ts] and [dz]; (6) postvelar fricatives, including the rhotic. In the first three cases, as in the case of the substitution of /h/ and lKI in Haitian, acquiring the features of French would have involved resetting parameters from less marked (Gbe) to more marked (French), a paradoxical situation whose outcome can go both ways. & we have seen at the beginning of this chapter, when L1 is unmarked and L2 is marked for a given parameter, the interlanguage can show one value or the other: Either the unmarked value transferred from Ll remains, precisely because it is less or not marked (Eckman 1977; Kellerman 1987), or the marked value of L2 is adopted after parameter resetting is achieved on the basis of positive evidence (Archibald 1988). It thus seems that exposure was not sufficient to constitute positive evidence in all theses cases. However, the case of /hi in St. Lucian shows that parameter resetting towards a marked value has succeeded, contrary to Haitian. The fact that the creators of St. Lucian were exposed to a second European language, English, where /hi is considerably more frequent, could explain this difference: The higher exposure to the segment here could have constituted enough positive evidence to allow the resetting of the parameter. In Table 7, the cases involving transfer of allophonic rules (nasal high vowels and rounding of IKI) or phonemic value have reversed markedness values. Acquiring the features of French, rather than transferring the values of Gbe, would have involved resetting parameters from more marked (Gbe) to less marked (French), a situation unlikely to occur, according to Hyltenstam (1987), but that has indeed occurred here. However, parameter resetting was indeed involved in the development of the creole inventories, in all the cases where the creoles pattern with French but not with Gbe. This includes the
One substrate, two creoles
following segments: (1) the affricates [tf] and [d3] (marked as phonemes but probably not as allophones); (2) the fricatives If/ and /y (marked); (3) the obstruents /p/ and /b/ (unmarked). Unmarked as well as marked parameters have been successfully transferred. Since the success of parameter resetting - as the lack of success for the cases in Table 7 - cannot be attributed to markedness values, what can account for it? In each case, the success of parameter resetting seems to be linked to a common property: the presence of similar segments in Ll, if not phonemically, at least phonetically. Gbe languages have phonemic affricates [tf] and [d3] while French has the perceptually identical phonetic counterpart, which also facilitates the adoption of the homorganic fricatives If/ and /y. The majority of Gbe dialects have a phonetic /p/ and an approximant /b/. In sum, the vowel and consonant inventories of the creoles show features that were inherited from the Gbe languages through transfer, irrespective of the markedness value of these features. So, in the end, how significant was the impact of the substrate on the development of the segmental inventories of the creoles? The answer is quite clear: It was massive. The influence of the substrate is pervasive in the inventories of the two creoles, even for cases where we could convincingly argue for the role of Universal Grammar.
References Alber, B. & Plag, I. 2001. Epenthesis, deletion and the emergence of the optimal syllable in Creole: The case of Sranan. Lingua 111:811-840. Andersen, R. W. (ed.). 1983. Pidginization and Creolization as Language Acquisition. Rowley MA: Newbury House. Archibald, J. 1998. Seco,Jd Language Phonology [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 17]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Brasseur, P. 1997. Creoles abase lexicale fran~se et fran~ marginaux d'Amerique du Nord: Quelques points de comparaison. In Contacts de langues, contacts de cultures, creolisation, M.-C. Hazael-Massieux & D. de Robillard (eds), 141-166. Paris: I:Harmattan. Breen, H. H. 1844. St. Lucia. Historical, Statistical and Descriptive. Frank Cass [1970]. Broselow, E. & Finer, D. 1991. Parameter setting in second language phonology and syntax. Second Language Research 7: 35-59. Brousseau, A.-M. 2003. The accentual system of Haitian creole: The role of transfers and markedness values. In Phonology and Morphology of Creole Languages, I. Plag (ed.), 123-147. Tlibingen: Niemeyer. Brousseau, A.-M. 2005. The sociolect of 17th-18th century French settlers: Phonological clues from French Creoles. In Selected Papers from NWAVB 32 [Penn Working Papers in Linguistics Volume 10(2)], K. Evans & G. Nguyen (eds), 45-60. Philadelphia PA: Penn Linguistics Club. Brousseau, A.-M. & Nikierna, E. 2006. From Gbe to Haitian: The multi-stage evolution of syllable structure. In L2 Acquisition wJd Creole Genesis: Dialogues [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 42] C. Lefebvre, L. White & C. Jourdan (eds), 295-331. Amsterdam: Jolm Benjamins. Capo, H. B. C. 1991. A Comparative Phonology of Gbe. Dordrecht: Foris. Carrington, L D. 1984. St. Lucian Creole. A Descriptive Analysis of its Phonology and Morpho-Syntax. Hamburg: Helmut Buske. Chaudenson, R 1994. Fran~s d'Amerique du Nord et cn!oles fran~: Le fran~s parle par les immigrants du XVII" siede. In Les origines dufranfais quebecois, R Mougeon & R Bemak (eds), 167-180. Quebec: Presses de fUniversite Laval. Clements, G. N. 2003. Feature economy in sound systems. Phonology 20: 287-333.
123
124
Anne-Marie Brousseau
de Lacy, P. 2006. Markedness: Reduction and Preservation in Phonology. Cambridge: CUP. Devonish, H. 1989. Talking in Tones: A Study of Tone in Afro-Europea,J Languages. London: Karia Press. Dresher, E. & Kaye, J. 1990. A computational learning model for metrical phonology. Cognition 34: 137-195. Eckman, F. R.1977. Markedness and the contrastive analysis hypothesis. Language Learning 27:315-330. Ethnologue database, SIL International . Hull, A 1994. Des origines du franr;ais dans le Nouveau Monde. In Les origines du fr&mfais quebecois, R. Mougeon & E. Beniak (eds ), 183-198. Quebec: Presses de l'Universite Laval. Hyltenstam, K. 1987. Markedness, language universals, language typology, and second language acquisition. In First and Second Language Acquisition Processes, C. Pfaff (ed.), 55-81. Cambridge MA: Newbury House. Kellerman, E. 1987. Aspects of Transferability in Seco,Jd Language Acquisition. Nijmegen: Katholieke Universiteit te Nijmegen. Ladefoged, P. & Maddieson, I. 1996. The Sounds of the World~ Languages. Oxford: Blackwell Lefebvre, C. 1998. Creole Genesis a,Jd the Acquisition of Grammar: The Case of Haitian Creole. Cambridge: CUP. Lefebvre, C., White, L. & Jourdan, C. (eds). 2006. L2 Acquisition and Creole Genesis: Dialogues [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 34]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Maddieson,l. 1984. Patterns of SowJds. Cambridge: CUP. Mather, P.-A. 2000. Cross-linguistic Influence in Second Language Acquisition and in Creole Genesis. PhD dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. Mondesir, J. E. 1992 Dictionary of St. Lucian Creole. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Morin, Y.-C. 1994. Les sources historiques de 1a prononciation du franr;ais du Quebec. In Les origines du franrais quebecois, R. Mougeon & E. Beniak (eds), 199-236. Quebec: Presses de l'Universite Laval. Mougeon, R. & Beniak, E. 1994. Les origines du fr&mfais quebecois. Quebec: Presses de l'Universite Laval Muysken, P. 2001. The origin of Creole languages: The perspective of second language learning. In Creolization and Contact, N. Smith &T. Veenstra (eds),157-173. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. P1ag, I. & Uffmann, C. 2001. Phonological restructuring in Creole: The development of paragoge in Sranan. In Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages, I. Neumann-Holzschuh & E. W. Schneider (eds), 309-337. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Rogozinski, J. 1992 A BriefHistory of the Caribbean. New York: Facts on File. Schwartz, B. & Sprouse, R. 1996. L2 cognitive states and the full transfer/full access mode. Second Language Research 12: 40-72 Singler, J. V. 1995. The demographics of Creole genesis in the Caribbean: A comparison of Martinique and Haiti In The Early Stages ofCreolisation [Creole Language Library 13], J. Arends (ed.), 203-232 Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Singler, J. V. 1996. Theories of Creole genesis, sociohistorical considerations, and the evaluation of evidence: The case of Haitian creole and the relexification hypothesis. Journal of Pidgin and Creole La''lgullges 11: 185-231. Sprouse, R. A 2006. Full transfer andrelexification: Second language acquisition and Creole genesis. In L2 Acquisition and Creole Genesis: Dialogues [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 34], C. Lefebvre, L. White & C. Jourdan (eds), 169-183. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Steele, J. & Brousseau. A.-M. 2006. Parallels in process: Comparing Haitian Creole and French learner phonologies. In L2 Acquisition and Creole Genesis: Dialogues [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 34], C. Lefebvre, L. White & C. Jourdan (eds), 331-355. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. U.ffmann, C. 2003. Markedness, faithfulness, and creolization: The retention of the unmarked. In The Phonology and Morphology of Creole Languages, I. Plag (ed.), 3-23. Tiibingen: Niemeyer. Valdman, A. 1978. Le creole: statut et origine. Paris: Klincksieck. Valdman, A. 1983. Creolization and second language acquisition. In Pidginization and Creolization as Language Acquisition, R. Andersen (ed.), 212-234. Rowley MA: Newbury House. Valdman, A, Iskrova, I., Pierre, J. & Andre, N. 2007. Haitian Creole-English Bilingual Dictionary. Bloomington IN: Creole Institute, Indiana University.
One substrate, two creoles
Veronique, D. 1994. Naturalistic adult acquisition of French as L2 and French-based Creole genesis compared: Insights into creolization and language change. In Creolization and Language Change, D. Adone & I. P1ag (eds), 297-311. Tiibingen: Niemeyer. White, L. 1989. Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 1]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. White, L 2000. Second language acquisition: From initial to final state. In Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theory, J. Archibald (ed.), 130-155. Oxford: Blackwell. Wode, H. 1986. Language transfer: A cognitive, functional and developmental view. In Crosslinguistic Influence in Second Language Acquisition, E. Kellerman & M. Sharwood Smith (eds), 173-186. New York NY: Pergamon Insti lute of English.
125
Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles Haitian Creole, Saramaccan and Papiamentu* Claire Lefebvre UQAM and MPI-EVA
The aim of this paper is to investigate a subset of the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles, Haitian Creole, Saramaccan and Papiamentu - all three created around the same time and sharing the same core substrate languages, but having different lexifier/superstrate languages - and to compare these properties with those of verbs in their contrlbutinglanguages, that is, their substrate languages, on one hand. and their superstrate languages, on the other. The three-way comparison undertaken in this paper shows in a dear way that first, the properties of verbs in the three creoles often contrast with those of the corresponding verbs in their respective superstrate languages; second, these properties parallel those of the corresponding verbs in their substrate languages; and third. in spite of the fact that the three creoles under investigation have different lexifier languages, the properties of the substrate verbs manifest themselves in the three creoles. Keywords: properties of verbs, Haitian Creole, Saramaccan, Papiamentu. Fongbe and other West African languages, French, English, Spanish
1.
Introduction
The three creole languages under investigation are Haitian Creole (Haiti), Sararnaccan (Surinam and French Guiana) and Papiamentu (Aruba, Bonaire and Cura~o). These three creoles are also spoken in countries that have welcomed creole speakers of the diaspora, mainly Canada, France,
The research reported on in this paper was financed by SSHRCC. I thank all the participants in this research, who are cited in the paper, for their contribution to the research. I express my gratitude to the munerous informants of all the languages involved for their most important contribution. Thanks to Bettina Migge for discussing the Saramaccan data with me, and to Marta Dijkhott; Silvia Kouwenberg, Philip Maurer and Mirto Lade for fruitful exchanges on the Papiamentu data. Preliminary versions of this paper were presented at the Leipzig Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in May 2008, and at the Koln SPCL conference in August 2009. I thank the participants for most useful comments and questions on my presentations. More particularly, I want to thank Martin Haspelmath, Sylvia Kouwenberg and Mirto Lade. Thanks to four reviewers for their comments on a prefinal draft to this paper, to Andree Belanger for formatting the manuscript and to Lucie Kearns for copy-editing it.
128
Claire Lefebvre
the Netherlands and the United States. According to Grimes (2000), Haitian has 7,800,000 speakers, Saramaccan 26,000 and Papiamentu 329,000. All three Atlantic creoles studied in this paper were created during the second half of the seventeenth century. They all share a core pool of substrate languages: West African language families with a significant input from Kwa and more particularly from Gbe languages (for Haitian Creole, see Singler 1996; for Saramaccan, see Arends 1995; Migge 1998; Smith 1987; for Papiamentu, see Parkvall2000; Postma 1990). However, these three creoles have different superstrate languages. Haitian Creole has French, Saramaccan has English (50% of basic vocabulary), Portuguese (35% of basic vocabulary) and Dutch (10% of basic vocabulary) (Smith 1987), and Papiamentu has Portuguese and Spanish (60%) and Dutch (30%) (Maurer 1986). The fact that these three creoles share a common core of substrate languages while having different superstrate languages constitutes an advantage in trying to identify the contribution of the substrate languages (and eventually of the superstrate languages) to these three creoles. Furthermore, the three creoles display varying degrees of radicalness, as defined by Bickerton (1981), with Saramaccan being closest to the substrate, followed by Haitian (Muysken 1994), followed by Papiamentu (Maurer 1986). This paper shows that. regardless of the superstrate language and regardless of the degree of radicalness of the creole, the substrate features manifest themselves in the same way in the properties of verbs in the three creoles. The West Mrican languages spoken by the creators of the Atlantic creoles were numerous. They include several language families such as Kwa, West Atlantic, Kru, Mande and Gur languages (Singler 1993, 1996). In tum, each of these language families involves several clusters of languages. For example, the Kwa family alone comprises the following language clusters: Lagoon (including Abbey); Akan, which includes three dialect clusters, Twi-Fante, Anyi-Baule and Guang; the Gan-Adangme dialect cluster; the Yoruba or Ede cluster; the Ewe or Gbe cluster; the Nupe languages, which divide up into several dialect clusters; the Bini languages; and the Igbo dialect cluster. In spite of the fact that the large majority of these languages are not mutually intelligible, they share a significant number of typological features (Westerman & Bryan 1970, among others). In fact. these languages have semantic and syntactic properties that are so similar as to lead Koopman (1986: 233) to treat them as a coherent linguistic group which she refers to as West Mrican. Considering the properties of verbs in a sample of Kru and Kwa languages, as well as a Mande and a Gur language, Koopman writes:"( ... ) these languages share a number of characteristics, which are also characteristic of many other West African languages, such as Yoruba for instance. The presence of a number of common properties will allow us to refer to general West African properties." Considering a number of features such as the availability of logop boric pronouns, labial-velar consonants (/gb/), ATR vowel harmony, labial flap consonants and specific word orders, Gtildemann (2007) also concludes that West Mrican languages constitute a significant typological area. Thus, in spite of the fact that the substrate languages of the three creoles under study in this paper were not mutually intelligible, they were typologically quite similar. As for the superstrate languages which were spoken by the colonisers of the Atlantic islands, French and Portuguese/Spanish are Romance, and English and Dutch are Germanic. Romance and Germanic languages are typologically distinct. Regardless, from a typological point of view, neither have much in common with West African languages (for further discussion of this issue, see Lefebvre 1998: 58-65).
Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles
So, during the formation period of the three Atlantic creoles, speakers of numerous but typologically similar West African languages were faced with colonial languages that were typologically different from their own. It is worth mentioning here that, in contexts where creoles are formed, substrate speakers have reduced access to superstrate languages. Without doubt, this situation creates conditions that favour the manifestation of substrate properties in the creoles. The methodology required by the topic of this paper calls for a three-way comparison between the properties of the creoles' verbs and those of their contributing languages. Due to constraints of space, this paper presents the following limitations. First, the paper will consider only a subset of verbs: BODY-state expressions, WEATHER verbs, object to subject raising verbs, the selectional properties of verbs meaning 'to wanf, the selectional properties of verbs meaning 'to promise~ the selectional properties of verbs meaning 'to ask' or 'to requesf. double object verbs and serial verbs. The properties of verbs in this subset all have syntactic incidences. Furthermore, data were available on these topics for all the languages involved. A comparison of other verbal properties, such as argument structures, case assigning properties, etc. will have to await future research. Second, only the main superstrate languages of all three creoles are being considered: hence, French for Haitian, English for Saramaccan and Spanish for Papiamentu. Third, only one substrate language is being taken into account: Fongbe, a Gbe language of the Kwa family, taken as representative of the substrate languages. This is compatible with Koopman's view above. Furthermore, as per the above cited authors, Fongbe is one of the Gbe languages identified as having had an important input into all three creoles. Finally, Fongbe has been extensively documented (Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002 and references therein) making data on its verbs' properties readily available (for further discussion of this general methodological choice based on Haitian and its source languages, see Lefebvre 1998: 65-70). A fourth limitation consists in the fact that not all the variation in the data can be reported on in this paper. The languages under discussion have a number of native speakers that is large enough so as to manifest the linguistic variation expected of complex linguistic communities ( Labov 1972 ). I will limit the discussion of the properties of verbs to data that are "typical" of each of the languages involved. For example, there is more than one way to express 'It rains' in Papiamentu: Awaseru ta kayendo/kai 'Rain is falling' and Ta yo be 'It is raining'. I retain the first expression because it is the typical weather expression in this language. Likewise, while it is possible to say 'The rain is falling' in English, the expression is not a typical weather expression. 'It is raining' rather is. A second aspect of variation has to do with variation between speakers. Whenever available, variation between speakers will be pointed out in notes. The data presented in this paper come from various sources. Some come from the literature and they are identify as such in the text. Original data have also been collected by myself and members of my research team. In addition to extensive fieldwork on Haitian Creole and Fongbe over the past thirty years, I collected original data on Saramaccan in California with a native speaker from Surinam and in French Guiana in the Saramacca village; I refer to this corpus as Lefebvre (2005). Bally collected original data in the Saramacca village in French Guiana. This corpus is cited as part of Bally, Dionne and Olguin (2006). Olguin (2006) has gathered original data on Papiamentu. Finally, over the year 2008, Kearns collected data in the Saramacca village in French Guiana, a corpus referred to as Kearns (2008a), and on Cura~aoan Papiamentu, a corpus referred to as Kearns (2008b ). The source of each piece of data presented in the paper is identified.
129
130
Claire Lefebvre
The findings presented here add to other published work involving a detailed comparison of the three creoles in question with their contributing languages: for Haitian Creole, see Koopman (1986) and Lefebvre (1998, 2004 and references therein); for Saramaccan, see Aboh (2006a, b), Lefebvre and Loranger (2006, 2008) and Migge (1998, 2003 and references therein); for Papiamentu, see Lefebvre and Therrien (2007a, b and references therein).
BODY-state expressions
2.
In Haitian, BODY-state expressions typically involve the following structure: a body part occurring in subject position, an active verb and an experiencer occurring in object position, as shown in (1). (1)
Dan ap manje m. tooth IMP eat 1so 'I have a toothache.' [Lit.: 'tooth is eating me']
HAITIAN
(= (4c) in Lefebvre 1998:250)
This contrasts with French where BODY-state expressions typically involve an experiencer occurring in subject position, a stative predicate a.voir ma.l (lil 'have pain) and a body parl (2)
ai mal a la tete. I have pain at DEF head 'I have a headache:
J'
FRENCH
In Saramaccan, BODY-state expressions are typically built on the same model as in Haitian, as shown in (3). (3)
Hedi ta n}dn mf. head IMP eat 1SG 'I have a headache.' [Lit.: 'head is eating me']
SARAMACCAN
(Kearns 2008a)
This contrasts with English where BODY-state expressions involve an experiencer occurring in subject position, the verb have followed by a body-part+ ache, as illustrated in (4). (4)
I have a headache.
ENGLISH
In Papiamentu, BODY-state expressions are typically built on the same model as in Haitian and Saramaccan, as shown in (5). (5)
a
Cabes ta
morde mi. 1
PAPIAMENTU
head IMP eat 1SG 'I have a headache: [Lit: 'head is eating me1 b.
Mi cabes ta
1sg head IMP eat 'I have a headache: [Lit: 'my head is eating']
1.
(Mamerpc)
morde.
PAPIAMENTU
Ouliana 1970, cited in Maurer 1988: 354)
Not all speakers consulted accept (Sa). Mirto Lade (pc) has mi tin dolor di cabes.
Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles
This partially differs from Spanish where the corresponding expression typically involves a bodypart occurring in subject position, the stative verb doTer 'to hurt, and an experiencer, as shown in (6). Note, however, the contrast between the Papiamentu structure involving an active verb and the Spanish structure involving a stative verb. (6)
Me duele la cabeza. 1SG hwt DEP head 'I have a headache: [Lit: 'the head hwts me']
SPANISH
The above data show that in each creole, the structure of typical BODY-state expressions contrasts with that found in their respective superstate languages. They also show that the same structure is used in the three creoles to encode BODY- state expressions. Interestingly enough, this structure is typical of West Mrican languages, as exemplified in (7) based on Fongbe. (7)
Aqu c(o
qucfu
mi
we.
tooth be.at eating 1SG PART 'I have a toothache? [Lit.: 'tooth is eating me']
FoNGBB (= (6) in Lefebvre 1998:251)
WEATHER verbs
3·
Haitian Creole does not have WEATHER verbs. 2 Typically, Haitian expresses various atmospheric phenomena by means of a construction involving a natural element occurring in the subject position of a non WEATHER verb. This is illustrated in (8). (8)
Lapli ap
tonbe.
rain IMP fall 'It is raining.'
HAITIAN
(= (3) in Dumais 1988)
Both Koopman (1986) and Dumais (1988) point out that the above Haitian data contrast with French, where the same concepts are rendered by means of WEATHER verbs that select an expletive subject, as shown in (9). (9)
Il pleut. 3 'It is raining.'
FRENCH
Saramaccan does not have WEATHER verbs either. Typically it expresses atmospheric phenomena in the same way Haitian does, as shown in (10). (10)
2.
'ISuba ttl kai.
SARAMACCAN
rain IMP fall 'It is raining.'
(= (9b) in Byrne 1987:74)
Fe fret [Lit: 'do cold'] 'It is cold' is an exception to the general pattern.
3· Ahhough the expressions La pluie tombe 'Rain is fallin!(. or La chaleur m'accable 'Heat is killing me' are grammatical in French, they are not typically used as a statement about the weather. The same holds for the corresponding English expressions.
131
132
Claire Lefebvre
This contrasts with English where atmospheric phenomena are rendered by WEATHER verbs that select an expletive subject, as shown in (11 ). (11)
It rains. /It is raining.
ENGLISH
In Papiamentu, there are no WEATHER verbs either and atmospheric phenomena are typically rendered as in Haitian, as shown in (12) (see also Henriquez 1954, cited in Maurer 1988: 394). (12)
Awaseru ta kai. rain IMP fall 'It is raining:
PAPIAMI!NTU
(Kearns 2008b)
This contrasts with Spanish where atmospheric phenomena are rendered by WEATHER verbs, that select an expletive subject realised as a suffix on the tensed verb, as shown in (13). (13)
Estd
llaviendo.
SPANISH
AUX.3SG raining
'It is raining:
What about expressions conveying atmospheric phenomena in the substrate languages? Koopman (1986:245) points out that WEATHER verbs selecting an expletive subject do not exist in West African languages. On the basis of examples from Vata and Abe, she shows that West African languages generally express the various atmospheric phenomena in a construction involving a natural element in subject position and a non WEATHER verb. The Fongbe data in (14) illustrate this pattern. (14)
/{ qo jija rain be.at falling 'It is raining:
wt.
FoNGBl!
POC
(Segurola & Rassinoux 2000: 278)
In contrast to their respective superstrate languages, Haitian, Saramaccan and Papiamentu do not have a paradigm of WEATHER verbs. Like their substrate languages, these three creoles typically express atmospheric phenomena by means of a construction involving a natural element occurring in the subject position of a non WEATHER verb.
4·
Object to subject raising verbs
A subset of verbs in a subset of languages allow raising of their object to the subject position, as in An apple remains in the basket(< There remains an apple in the basket). In this section, object to subject raising is discussed for verbs meaning 'to remain/to be left' and for verbs meaning 'to be missing/to lack' in all the languages under comparison in this chapter.
Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles
4.1
Object to subject raising for verbs meaning 'to remain/to be left'
In Haitian, the argument of the verb rete 'to remain/to be left' (Valdman et al 2007: 636) may appear in two surface positions, as shown in (15). In the (a) sentence, the argument follows the verb and the subject position is optionally filled with the expletive subject li. In the (b) sentence, the argument of the verb rete appears in subject position, and the postverbal position is empty. (15)
a
(LI) rete yon sepan nan pannye an. it remain a snake in basket DEF 'There remains a snake in the basket:
b.
Yon sepa11 rete
11an pannye an.
a
snake be-left-over in basket ~ snake remains in the basket:
HAITIAN
(= (14) in Dumais 1988) HAITIAN
DEF
(= (15) in Dumais 1988)
In French, the argument of the verb rester 'to remain/to be left' (Correard & Grundy (eds) 1994: 71) appears in the position following the verb and the subject position is obligatorily filled by the expletive subject il, as in (16a), which parallels (lSa). The ungrarnmaticality of (16b) shows that, unlike in Haitian, the argument of the verb rester cannot be raised to subject position. (16)
a
11 reste
un serpent dans le panier. snake in DEF basket 'There remains a snake in the basket: *Un serpent reste dans le panier a snake remain in DEF basket
FRENCH
it remain a
b.
(= (30a) in Lefebvre 1998: 263) FRENCH
(= (30b) in Lefebvre 1998: 263)
In Sararnaccan, the argument of the verb fika 'to remain/to be left ovei (Rountree et al. 2000: 36) may appear in two surface positions, as shown in (17). In the (a) sentence, the argument follows the verb and the subject position is obligatorily filled with the expletive subject pronoun a. In sentence (b), the argument appears in the subject position and the postverbal position is empty. (17)
a
A
jika
wan sindeki a
di
manda dandu.
remain a snake LOC DEF basket inside 'There remains a snake in the basket:
SARAMACCAN
3SG
b.
Wan sindeki jika
a
di
manda dandu.
snake remain Loc DEF basket inside ~ snake remains in the basket:
(Kearns 2008a; Lefebvre 2005) SARAMACCAN
a
(Kearns 2008a; Lefebvre 2005)
In English, the argument of remain 'to remain/to be left' (Flexner & Hauck (eds) 1987: 1629) may also occur either after the verb, or in subject position. (18)
a b.
There remains a snake i11 the basket. A snake remains 111 the basket.
ENGLISH ENGLISH
In Papiarnentu, the argument of the verb keda. 'to remain/to be left' (Websteis online Dictionary 2008) may appear in two surface positions, as shown in ( 19 ). In (a), the argument follows the verb and the subject position is phonologically null In (b), the argument appears in the subject position and the postverbal position is empty.
133
134
Claire Lefebvre
(19)
a
- a
keda
ocho alumno de11 klas.
PAPIAMENTU
ASP remain eight student in dass 'There remained eight students in the class? b.
Ocho alumno a
keda
( = (52a) in Olguin 2006: 25; Kearns 2008b)
de11 klas.
PAPIAMENTU
eight student ASP remain in dass 'Eight students were left in the dass:
( = (52b) in Olguin 2006: 25; Kearns 2008b)
Olguin (2006: 28) remarks that the Papiamentu data contrast with the Spanish data involving the verb qu.edar 'to remain/to be left' (Alvarez Garcia et al. 1998: 418). As is shown in (20), the argument of quedar has to remain in the position following the verb. (20)
a
Quedaron ocho alumnos en la
dase.
SPANISH
remain.3PL eight student in DEF class 'There remained eight students in the class?
b.
*Ocho alumnos quedaron
en Ia
(= (53a) in Olguin 2006:25)
dase'
SPANISH (= (53b) in Olguin 2006:25)
eight student remain.3PL in DEF class
All three creoles display the same pattern of argument raising to subject position. While the Saramaccan and English data match in this case. both the Haitian and the Papiamentu data differ from those of their respective superstrate languages. What about the corresponding substrate data? For example, in Fongbe, the verb kpo means 'to remain/to be left' (Segurola 1963: 339). As is the case in the three creoles, the argument of this verb may surface in two positions. In (21a), it occurs after the verb and the subject position is filled with the expletive subject In (21b), it occurs in the subject position of the verb kpO and the post-verbal position is empty.
e.
(21)
a
E kpo
dtbl
q6kp6
qo
xasun :5
mt.
it remain snake one be.at basket DEF in 'There remains a snake in the basket?
b.
Da11 q6kp6 kpo
qo
xa5Un :5
FoNGBE
(= (14) in Dumais 1988)
me.
snake one remain be.at basket DEF in 1\. snake remains in the basket:
FoNGBE
(= (15) in Dumais 1988)
It thus appears that the object to subject raising property of the creole verbs meaning 'to remain/ to be left' follows that of the corresponding verbs in the substrate languages.
Object to subject raising for verbs meaning 'to be missing/to lack'
4.2
The verbs meaning 'to be missing/to lack' in the languages under consideration present a similar pattern. In Haitian, manke 'to be missing/ to lack' (Valdman et al. 2007: 460) takes two arguments:
4· Olguin (2006: 28) remarks that in specific contexts and with a particular emphatic intonation, the sentence in (i) could be grammatical (i)
en la clase
SPANISH
only eight student rernain.3PL in the class 'Only eight students remained in the clasS:
Solamente ocho alumnos quedaron
(= (53c) in Olguin 2006)
Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles
one referring to the object that is missing and one referring to the object which is deprived of the missing object. Both arguments may follow the verb, in which case the subject position is optionally filled by the expletive li, as shown in (22a). The verb manke also allows for either of its two arguments to appear in subject position. In (22b ), the argument referring to the missing object occupies the subject position and, in (22c), the argument referring to the object which is deprived of the missing object fills this position. (22) a
Li manke set 11an soup la. it lack salt in soup DBP 'There lacks salt in the soup:
b.
Set manke nan soup la. salt lack in soup DBF 'Salt is lacking from the soup: Soup la manke sel. soup DBP lack salt 'The soup lacks salt:
c.
HAITIAN (= (16) in Dumais 1988)
HAITIAN (= (17) in Dumais 1988)
HAITIAN (= (18) in Dumais 1988)
As is the case in Haitian, the French verb manque,- 'to be missing/to lack' (Atkins et al. 1987: 426) also takes two arguments. Both arguments may follow the verb, in which case the subject position is obligatorily filled by the expletive subject il. This is shown in (23a), which parallels Haitian (22a). Unlike the Haitian verb ma.nke, however, French manque,- does not allow the argument referring to the missing object to occur in subject position. The ungrammaticality of (23b) thus contrasts with the grammaticality of Haitian (22b). Finally, French manquerallows the argument referring to the deprived object to occur in subject position, as shown in (23c).This corresponds to Haitian (22c). (23) a
n maJ~que
de sel dansla soupe. of salt in DBP soup 'There lacks salt in the soup: *Du sel manque da,IS la soupe DBP salt lack in the soup La soupe manque de sel. DBP soup lack PART salt 'The soup lacks salt:
FRENCH
it lack
b. c.
(= (16) in Dumais 1988)
FRENCH (= (17) in Dumais 1988)
FRENCH (= (18) in Dumais 1988)
The data in (22) and (23) thus show that the syntactic properties of the Haitian verb manke do not correspond entirely to those of the French verb manquer. As we will see below, however, the syntactic properties of the Haitian verb manquer are like those of the corresponding verb in Fongbe. As is the case in Haitian, Saramaccan offers the three possibilities in (24). (24) a.
b.
A ta makeI satu a di baafu. 3SG ASP lack salt LOC DBP SOUp 'There lacks salt in the soup: Satu ta makeI a di baafu. salt ASP lack LOC DBF SOUp 'Salt is missing from the soup:
SARAMACCAN (Kearns 2008a) SARAMACCAN (Kearns 2008a)
135
136
Claire Lefebvre
c.
Di baafu ta makei satu. DEF SOUp ASP lack salt 'The soup lacks salt:
SARAMACCAN
(Kearns 2008a)
These parallel the English data in (25). (25)
a b. c.
There lacks salt In the soup. Salt Is lacking from the soup. The soup lacks salt.
ENGLISH ENGLISH ENGLISH
In Papiamentu, the verb falta 'to be missing/to lack' (Webster's online dictionary 2008) takes two arguments. In (26a), the two arguments occur after the verb and the subject position is empty. This verb also allows for either one of the two arguments to appear in subject position, as is shown in (26b) and (26c). Note that not all speakers accept (26b). (26)
a
b.
c.
folta salu den e si'Jpi. lack salt in DEF soup 'There lacks salt in the soup: Salu folta 11a/de11 slJpi. salt lack in soup 'Salt ls lacking from the soup: E slJpi (ta) folta salu. DEF SOUp IMP lack salt 'The soup lacks salt:
PAPIAMENTU
(Kearns 2008b) PAPIAMENTU
(= (56) in Olguin 2006: 26; Kearns 2008b) PAPIAMENTU
(= (55c) in Olguin 2006: 26; Kearns 2008b)
In Spanish,faltar 'to be missing/to lack' (Jarman et al. (eds) 1998:333) also takes two arguments. In (27a), the two arguments follow the verb and the expletive subject is expressed as a suffix onto the verb. None of the two arguments can occur in subject position, as can be seen from the ungrammaticality of (27b) and (27c). (27) a
b. c.
(Le) falta sal a la sopa. lack.3sG salt to DEF soup 'There lacks salt in the soup:
*sal folta a la sopa salt lack to DEF soup *Ia sopa falta sal DEF soup lack salt
SPANISH
(= (54a) in Olguin 2006:26) SPANISH
(= (54b) in Olguin 2006:26) SPANISH
(= (54c) in Olguin 2006:26)
The ungrarnmaticality of (27b) and c in Spanish contrasts with the grarnmaticality of (26b) and (26c) in Papiarnentu. The following data show that the properties of the creoles' verbs parallel those of the corresponding verbs in the substrate languages. For example, Fongbe has a verb hwe meaning 'to be missing/to lack' (Hoftmann 2003:231). This verb may take two arguments. Both arguments may be realised after the verb, in which case the subject position is filled by the expletive as in (28a). As is the case in the creoles, but not in their superstrate languages (except for English), the verb hwe allows for either of its two arguments to appear in subject position. In (28b ), the argument referring to the missing object occupies the subject position and, in (28c ), the argument referring to the argument deprived of the missing object fills this position.
e,
Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles
(28)
a
E hwt
zt cfo
11usUm~
it be-missing salt be.at soup 'There lacks salt in the soup:
b.
c.
5
mf..
DBF
in
Zl hwt cfO 11asUnu mf.. salt be-missing be.at soup In 'Salt is lacking from the soup: Nusunu :S hwE. zt. soup DBF be-missing salt 'The soup lacks salt:
FoNGBB
(= (16) In Dumais 1988) FoNGBB
(= (17) In Dumais 1988) FoNGBB
(= (18) in Dumais 1988)
The Haitian, Saramaccan, and Papiamentu data in (22), (24) and (26), respectively, parallel the Fongbe data in (28), regardless of the possibilities offered by their superstrate languages. 5
The selectional properties of verbs meaning 'to want'
5·
The verbs meaning 'to want' display variable properties among the languages of the world. This section discusses the properties of the verbs meaning 'to want' in the languages under comparison. Since these are linked to the selectional properties of these verbs, the section is structured around these. Verbs meaning 'to want' selecting an infinitival CP complement
5.1
Typically, verbs meaning 'to want' select a [-tense] CP complement. In this context, the verbs meaning 'to want' function as control verbs. Control verbs allow a matrix verb argument to be coindexed with the non-expressed subject of the infinitival complement clause of the matrix verb. The non-expressed subject is represented as PRO, a label that stands for an abstract pronoun. For example. in the English sentence ]ohni wants PROi to leave, John controls the phonologically empty subject of the embedded clause represented as PRO. The controller and the controlee are coindexed. In all the languages under comparison, verbs meaning 'to want' may take an infinitival complement whose subject is controlled by the matrix verb subject This is illustrated in (29) to (35), where the control relationship between the two elements is represented by indices. (29) Jan 1 vle PRO; kraze manchln nan. John want destroy car DBF 'John wants to destroy the car: (30)
]ean 1 veut
PRo 1
detruire l'
auto.
HAITIAN
(= (50a) in Lefebvre 1998: 272) FRENCH
John want destroy DBF car 'John wants to destroy the
car:
5· Due to the complexity of the data and to the space required to analyse them, the facts involving subject to subject raising will be discussed in a separate paper. For a preliminary discussion, see Lefebvre (1998: 266-269) and the references therein.
137
138
Claire Lefebvre
(31)
MaUtd; ke PRO; njan df de. Malita want eat DEF DEM 'Malita wants to eat that one:
(32)
John 1 wants PRo1 to leave.
(33)
E;
(34)
ke PRO; bini. 3sG want come 'He wants to come:
(= (74) in Bally, Dionne & Olguin 2006:21) ENGLISH PAPIAMENTU (= (68) in Bally, Dionne & Olguin 2006:21)
El1 quiere PRo1 comer. 3sG want 'He wants to
(35)
SARAMACCAN
SPANISH
eat
eat:
K3ku1 jl6 PRo1 nd gba
m5tO 5. Koku want MO destroy car DEF 'Koku wants to destroy the cal:'
FoNGBE (=(SOc) in Lefebvre 1998:272)
Verbs of the want-class in all seven languages may thus select an infinitival complement whose subject is controlled by the matrix verb subject The above facts are not exceptional. Verbs meaning 'to wan~ however, have other properties that are not shared by all the languages under scrutiny in this paper.
5.2
Verbs meaning 'to want' selecting a tensed CP complement
The Haitian verb vle 'to want' may select a tensed complement introduced by the tensed complementiser pou (Koopman & Letebvre 1982). The embedded subject may be either coreferential with the matrix subject or disjoint in reference from it (Koopman 1986; Sterlin 1988, 1989), as shown in (36). (36)
111 vle
pou
l11J vlni.
he want coMP he come 'He1 wants PRo 1to come: 'He1 wants~ to come:
HAITIAN
(= (18b) in Koopman 1986)
The two interpretations available for Haitian vie are not available for the corresponding French verb vouloir 'to want' (Koopman 1986: 240). The French verb vouloir 'to want' only allows for disjoint reference of the subjects, as shown in (37). (37)
Il1
veut qu'
ilJ
vienne.
3rd want coMP 3rd come # 'He1 wants PRO 1to come: 'He1 wants himj to come:
FRENCH
(= (1Sb) in Koopman 1986)
In Saramaccan, the verb ke 'to want' may select a tensed complement introduced by the tensed complementiserfu (Lefebvre & Loranger 2006 and references therein). The embedded subject may be either coreferential with the matrix subject or disjoint in reference from it, as shown in (38).
Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles
(38)
fu au1 bi sa baja. 3sg want COMP 3SG TNS MOD dance 'She; wanted PRO; to be able to dance.' 'She; wanted~ to be able to dance.'
SARAMACCAN
A 1 ke
(= (49) in Wijnen&Alleyne 1987:48) (Lefebvre 2005)
In contrast, in English, the verb want typically takes an infinitival complement- e.g., Maty wants to come. It does not take a tensed complement, as is shown in (39). Note, however, the difference in grammaticality judgements between sentences (39a and b). While (a) is clearly ungrammatical, (b) is questionable. As pointed out in Chomsky (1981: 19), such sentences are not idiomatic English "but we may assume this to be an accidental gap reflecting properties that are not part of core grammar:' (39)
a b.
*Ma1)'t wanted that she1 come. ?Mary1 wanted that John1come.
ENGLISH ENGLISH
In Papiamentu, the verb ke 'to want' may select a tensed complement introduced by the tensed complementiser pa (Lefebvre & Therrien 2007b ). For some speakers, the embedded subject may be either coreferential with the matrix subject or disjoint in reference from it, as shown in (40). ( 40)
ke pa e111 bini. 6 3SG Want COMP 3SG come 'He1wants PRo1to come.' 'He1wants heri to come.'
E,
PA PIAMl!NTU
(Kouwenberg pc) (Kearns 2008b)
In Spanish, however, the subject of the tensed complement of the verb querer 'to want' is obligatorily disjoint from that of the matrix clause, as shown in (41). (41)
Bl1 desea que
el1 venga. 3SG Want COMP 3SG come # 'He1wants PRO 1to come.' 'He1 wants himi to come.'
SPANISH
(= (68) in Olguin 2006: 33)
All three creoles allow for the subject of the tensed complement clause of verbs of the ·want-class to be either coreferential with or disjoint in reference from the subject of the main clause. This contrasts with the corresponding verbs in the respective superstrate languages of the creoles, which only allow for a disjoint reference of the two subjects. As shown below, however, the referential properties of subjects of verbs of the want-class in the three creoles parallel those of the corresponding verbs in the substrate languages. For example, in Fongbe, the verb jl6 'to want' may select a tensed complement introduced by the tensed complementiser (Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002: 116-118). As is the case in the three creoles, the embedded subject can either be coreterential with or disjoint in reference from the matrix subject. Koopman (1986:241) provides similar examples from Vata and Akan.
nu
6. The speakers in Kearns (2008b) accept only the second interpretation.
139
140
Claire Lefebvre
(42)
nu
jl6 ei/1 n£ yl. 3rd want coMP 3rd suB leave 'He1 wants PRo 1to leave: 'He1 wants him i to leave:
E;
FoNGBB
(= (49) in Lefebvre 1998:272)
Verbs meaning 'to want' selecting a IP complemenf
5·3
Both Haitian and Fongbe may select an IP complement containing an overt subject This embedded overt subject in (43a) must be referentially disjoint from the matrix subject. As can be seen by the ungrammaticality of (43b ), French does not offer this option. In contrast, Fongbe, like Haitian, does, as shown in (43c). (43)
a
Ll1 vle 11 vini.
b.
'He wants him to come: *II veut lui venir [Lit.: 'He wants him to come.1
c.
E; ba e1 wa. 'He wants him to come:
HAITIAN
(= (5la) in Lefebvre 1998:273)
FRENCH (= (51b) in Lefebvre 1998:273) FONGBB (= (5lc) in Lefebvre 1998:273)
Sterlin (1988, 1989) shows that, in Haitian, complements of verbs of the want-class may, in some cases, appear without the complementiser pou, as in (44b). She points out the difference in the referential properties of the embedded subjects between (44a) and (44b). In (44a), the subject of the embedded clause may be either coreferential with or disjoint in reference from the matrix subject. In (44b ), however, the subject of the embedded complement must be referentially disjoint from the matrix subject (44)
a.
Li1 vle
pou
1111 vini.
HAITIAN
he want coMP he come 'He wants for him to come: b.
Li1 vle
11 vini.
he want he come 'He wants him to come:
HAITIAN
(= (8) inSterlin 1988)
Sterlin argues that, while the embedded clause in (44a) is tensed, the embedded clause in (44b) is tenseless. First, (44a) allows for the expression of the anterior marker te, as shown in (45a). This marker is disallowed in a tenseless clause (Lefebvre 1998: 116). Second, the extraction site of the embedded subject of (44a) requires the resumptive form ki, as is shown in (45b ). Since resumptive ki is inherently [+nominative] and since nominative is the case assigned to the subject of tensed clauses, ki is only allowed in tensed clauses (Lefebvre 1998:193-208 and references therein). (45)
7.
a
Li1 vie pou 1111 te vini. he want coMP he ANT come 'He wants him to have come:
For a discussion on verbs selecting an IP complement, see Wiirmbrand (2001).
HAITIAN
(= (22a) inSterlin 1988)
Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles
b.
(Se) ki moun1 li vle pou ki; vini? (it-is) which man he want coMP RBS come 'Who does he want to come?'
HAITIAN
(= (19c) inSterlin 1988)
By contrast. the embedded clause in (44)b is not tensed because it does not allow for the expression of the anterior marker te, as shown by the ungrammaticality of (46a), nor for ki in the extraction site of the embedded subject, as shown by the ungrammaticality of (46b ). (46)
a b.
*Li vle 1 te vini [Lit.: 'He wants him to have come.'] *(Se) ki moun Jan vle ki vini? [Lit.: 'Who does John want to come?']
HAITIAN
(= (21a) inSterlin 1988) HAITIAN
(= (19d) inSterlin 1988)
Sterlin (1988) shows that the difference in the referential properties of the embedded subjects in the sentences in (44) follows directly from the difference in finiteness between (44a) and (44b ). In (44a), the embedded clause is introduced by the [+tense] complementiser pou.This complementiser creates, for the embedded clause, a binding domain which is distinct from that of the main clause. Hence, the subject of the embedded clause may be interpreted as being either coreferential with, or referentially disjoint from, the subject of the main clause. By contrast, in (44b), the embedded clause is not introduced by any complementiser, such that the subject of the embedded clause is in the same binding domain as the subject of the main clause. Consequently, it must be referentially disjoint from the matrix subject The difference in the finiteness of the two sentences in (44) raises the question of what case is assigned to the overt subject of the infinitival complement clause in (44b). Sterlin proposes that, because there is no complementiser in this sentence, the embedded subject of the non-finite clause is in the case-assigning domain of the matrix verb. She proposes that the embedded subject in (44b) is assigned accusative case by the matrix verb, just like him is in the English sentence John ·wants him to come under Exceptional Case Marking. This analysis, though theoretically motivated (e.g., Chomsky 1981 ), is not reflected in the morphology of the Haitian pronominal forms, as pronominal forms are not morphologically distinguished on the basis of case in this language. Thus, the two pronominal forms occurring in the subject position of the embedded clause in (44a and b) are phonologically identical. Nevertheless, a look at the substrate data provides support for the above proposal. As is the case of Haitian vle, Fongbe jl6 may select either a tensed complement, as in (47a), or a tenseless complement as in (47b). The Fongbe embedded clause in (47a) has the same properties as the Haitian embedded clause in (44a). First, itis introduced by the tensed complementiser nf (or nu) which corresponds to Haitian pou (Lefebvre 1998: 118-119). Second, the embedded subject pronoun may be either coreterential with or referentially disjoint from the main clause subject. The Fongbe embedded clause in (47b) has the same properties as the Haitian embedded clause in (44b ). It is not introduced by a complementiser. Its subject is thus in the domain of the main verb and, therefore, it must be disjoint in reference from the matrix subject. (47)
a
E1
j/6
nflnu
e11J
nf
yi.
3rd want coMP 3rd sUB leave 'He1 wants that he11i leave:
FONGBR
(= (55a) in Lefebvre 1998: 275)
141
142
Claire Lefebvre
b.
Ei jl6
eJ yi. 3rd want 3rd leave 'He1 wants~ to leave.'
FoNGBB (= (55b) in Lefebvre 1998:275)
Strikingly enough, the embedded subject pronouns in (47a) and b are distinguished for Case. In Fongbe, the third person pronoun bears a low tone when it occurs in a [+objective] context and a high tone elsewhere. In (47b ), the embedded subject pronoun bears a low tone, showing that it is in the objective case. In (47a), however, the pronoun bears a high tone, as does a pronoun in the subject position of any tensed clause. The Fongbe facts can be accounted for straightforwardly along the lines of the analysis proposed by Sterlin for Haitian. In (47a), the embedded subject is assigned nominative case within the tensed embedded clause, whereas in (47b) it is assigned accusative case by the matrix verb. There are several striking facts about the data discussed in this section. First, while French verbs of the wa.n t-class select only one type of infinitival complement (without an overt subject as in (30)), both Haitian and Fongbe select two types of such complements. In the first type, there is no overt subject in the embedded clause, but the embedded clause subject is understood as coreferential with that of the matrix clause (see (29) and (35), respectively). In the second type, in both languages, an overt subject must be referentially disjoint from the matrix subject (see (43a and c), respectively). The selectional properties of the Haitian verb thus follow the properties of the substrate verb. Furthermore, the availability of an overt subject is attributable to the fact that the Haitian and Fongbe verbs can assign accusative case to the subject of the embedded clause, a property that the French verb vou.loir does not have. What about Saramaccan? For some speakers, Saramaccan is like Haitian and Fongbe, as they accept ke with an infinitival complement manifesting an overt subject, as shown in (48). (48) A1 ke henJ go 3SG want 3SG go 'He1 wanted hlmi to go:
SARAMACCAN (Kearns 2008a)
I assume that, as is the case in Haitian and Fongbe, the subject pronoun of the embedded clause is assigned accusative case by the matrix verb. In this respect, Saramaccan is like English, its superstrate language, as shown in (49 ). (49) He1 wanted him 1 to go.
ENGLISH
As for Papiamentu, it appears to be like Haitian, Fongbe and Saramaccan. In this language as well, the verb meaning 'to want' takes an infinitival complement with an overt subject that must be disjoint in reference from the matrix subject This is shown in (50). (50) E ke e bini. 3sG want 3sG come 'He1 wants himj to come.'
PAPIAMBNTU (Kearns 2008b)
This option is not available in Spanish, as shown by the ungrammaticality of (51). (51) *Qulere1 e/1/leJ venir want.3sG 3sG come
SPANISH
Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles
So, again, all three creoles display the same pattern, which replicates that of their substrate languages, regardless of what their superstrate languages allow.
6.
The selectional properties of verbs meaning 'to promise'
A three-way comparison of the selectional properties of verbs meaning 'to promise' shows that the properties of the creoles verbs differ from those of their superstrate languages, but match those of their substrate languages. In Haitian, the verb pwomet 'to promise' does not select an infinitival complement, as is shown by the ungrammaticality of (52a). However, it does select a tensed complement introduced by the tensed complementiser pou. In this case, the embedded subject is referentially free, as shown in ( 52b) and ( 52c), respectively. (52) a.
*M; pmmet Ja11 PRO; vini
HAITIAN
promise John come [lit.: 'I promised John to come:] M 1 pmmet Ja11 pou m1 vini. I promise John coMP I come 'I promised John that I will come: M pwc}met Jan 1 pou liuJ vini. I promise John coMP 3so come 'I promised John that he will come: I
b.
c.
(= (56a) in Lefebvre 1998:276)
HAITIAN (= (56b) in Lefebvre 1998:276)
HAITIAN (Lefebvre's field notes)
In contrast to the Haitian verb pwomet, the French verb promettre 'to promise' may take an infinitival complement, as shown by the grammaticality of (53a). It may also take a tensed complement and, in this case as well, the embedded subject is referentially free, as shown in (53b) and (53c), respectively. (53) a
/'1 al
promis
a
Jean de
PRo 1 venlr. come
I AUX promise CASE John COMP 'I promised John to come:
b.
C.
/'! al promis a
Jean que jei viendrai. I AUX promise CASE John COMP I come.PUT 'I promised John that I will come: J' ai promis a fean 1 qu' ilVj viendra. 1SG AUX promise CASE John COMP 3SG come.PUT 'I promised John that he will come:
FRENCH (= (57a) in Lefebvre 1998: 276) FRENCH (= (57b) in Lefebvre 1998:276)
FRENCH
So, although the French (see (53)) and Haitian (see (52)) data are similar for (b) and (c), they differ for (a). The Fongbe data in (54) present the same pattern as the Haitian in (52). As shown in (54), the notion 'to promise' in Fongbe is rendered by the verb q3 which basically means 'to say'. This verb does not select an infinitival complement, but rather a tensed complement Here also, the embedded subject is reterentially free, as shown in (54b and c).
143
144
Claire Lefebvre
(54) a
b.
c.
*N1 q:J m4 K:Jku PRo1 nd wd 1sG say to Koku MO come [lit.: 'I promised Koku to come.1 N1 q:J 11u K:Jku q:J n1 11d wd. 1sG say to Koku coMP 1sG MO come 'I promised Koku that I will come? N q:J 11u K:Jku 1 q:J eui 11d wd. 1SG say to Koku COMP 3SG MO come 'I promised Koku that he will come?
FoNGBB (=
(58a) in Lefebvre 1998: 277) FoNGBB
(=
(58b) in Lefebvre 1998: 277) FoNGBB (Lefebvre's field notes)
Thus, while the subcategorisation properties of the Haitian verb meaning 'to promise' in (52) do not entirely match those of the corresponding French verb in (53), they correspond exactly to those of the corresponding Fongbe verb in (54). The Saramaccan data present a pattern that is similar to that of the Haitian and Fongbe data. Afl shown in (SSa), the verb paamisi 'to promise' does not select an infinitival complement. It selects a tensed complement whose subject is referentially free, as shown in (SSb) and (SSe). (55) a
*Mi 1 paamisi di
mii PR0 1 baja 1sG promise DBP child dance [lit.: 'I promised the child to dance.1
b.
Mi 1 paamisi di
c.
1SG promise DBP child COMP 1SG come help 3SG 'I promised the child to help him: (= (4c) in Wijnen&Alleyne 1987:47; Kearns 2008a) Mi paamisi di mii1 tda au1 6 baja. SARAMACCAN 1SG promise DBP child COMP 3SG PUT dance (Kearns 2008a; Lefebvre 2005) 'I promised the child that he will dance:
mii fu
mi1 ko
SARAMACCAN
heepi hen.
(Lefebvre 2005) SARAMACCAN
This contrasts with the selectional properties of the English verb 'to promise' which selects either an infinitival complement, as in (56a), or a tensed complement, as in (56b and c). (56) a b. c.
I 1 promised John PRo 1 to come.
ENGLISH ENGLISH ENGLISH
I1 promised John that I; would come. I promised John 1 that hev1 would come.
In Papiamentu, the verb priminti 'to promise' does not select an infinitival complement, as shown by the ungrammaticality of(S7a). It selects a tensed complement introduced by the tensed complementiser ku (Lefebvre & Therrien 2007a). In this case, the embedded subject is referentially free, as shown in (57b) and (57 c), respectively. (57) a
*Nan 1 a 3PL
b.
Nan 1 a
primlntf Juan PRo1 bini
ASP promise Juan
primlntf Juan ku
PAPIAMI!NTU (= (79a) in Olguin 2006: 36)
come
bini. 8
PAPIAMI!NTU
3PL ASP promise Juan COMP PUT 3PL ASP come 'They promised Juan that they will come?
lo
nan 1 a
(= (79b) in Olguin 2006: 37)
8. Marta Dijkhoffnotes that (57b) is rather marked in Papiamentu.
Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles
c.
Nan a
prlml11ff Juan1 ku
lo
el11i a
bl11i.
3PL ASP promise Juan COMP FUT 3SG ASP come 'They promised Juan that he will come?
PAPIAMENTU
(= (79c) In Olguin 2006: 37)
In contrast to the Papiamentu verb priminti, the Spanish verb prometer 'to promise' may take an infinitival complement, as shown by the grammaticality of (58a). As in Papiamentu, the Spanish verb may also take a tensed complement whose subject is referentially free, as shown in (58b) and (58c), respectively. (58)
a
(Ellos) 1 Le
prometleron PRo 1 venlr a Juan.
SPANISH
they 3sG promise.3PL come to Juan 'They promised Juan to come:
(= (7Sa) In Olguin 2006: 36)
b.
(Ellos) 1 Le
c.
they 3sG promise.3PL to Juan coMP they come.3PL 'They promised Juan that they would come: (Ellos) Le prometleron a Juan 1 que (el) 11J vendrfa. they 3SG promise.3PL to Juan COMP 3SG come.3SG 'They promised Juan that he would come:
prometleron a Juan que
(ellos) 1 vendrfan.
SPANISH
(= (78b) In Olguin 2006: 36) SPANISH
(= (78c) In Olguin 2006: 36)
So, although the Spanish (see (58)) and the Papiamentu (see (57)) data are similar for (b) and (c), they differ for (a). The Papiamentu data in (57), however, match the Fongbe data in (54). Summarising: while the three creoles' verbs select only a tensed complement, the superstrate corresponding verbs also select an infinitival complement. Once again, the creole verbs manifest the properties of their substrate languages.
7·
The selectional properties of verbs meaning 'to ask' or 'to request'
Let us first consider Haitian, French and Fongbe. While the French verb selects an infinitival complement, the Haitian and Fongbe verbs do not, as shown in (59). (59) a
~Yo
mande Marl1 PRo 1 patl
3PL request Mary b.
c.
1/s
ont demandf
HAITIAN
(= (20b) In Koopman 1986)
leave
a
Marie1 de
3PL AUX request to Mary COMP 'They asked Mary to leave: ~Ye by:S Marl1 PRo 1 yl 3PL request Mary leave
PR01 partir.
FRENCH
leave FONGBE (= (59c) in Lefebvre 1998: 277)
On the other hand, while the French verb does not select a tensed complement with the coreferential properties in (60b ), the Haitian and Fongbe verbs do. (60) a
b.
mande Marl1 pou 11 paN. 3PL request Mary coMP 3sG leave 'They asked Mary to leave: Yo
*fls ont demande
a
3PL
to Mary
AUX
request
Marle1 qu'
HAITIAN
(= (20a) in Koopman 1986) elle 1 parte
COMP 3SG leave
FRENCH
145
146
Claire Lefebvre
c.
Ye by:S Mari 1 cf3 e; 11! yl. 3PL request Mary coMP 3sG MO leave 'They asked Mary to leave.'
FoNGBB (= (60c) in Lefebvre 1998:33)
Thus, the properties ofboth the Haitian and Fongbe verbs differ from those of the French verb in the same way. The Saramaccan, English and Fongbe data manifest the same pattern. While the English verb selects an infinitival complement, the Saramaccan and Fongbe verbs do not, as shown in (61). (61)
a
b. c.
*De takl da Mary1 PRo 1 ~ they ask to Mary leave [Lit.: 'They asked Mary to leave:] They asked Mary1 PROt to leave *Ye by.J Mari1 PRo 1 yl 3PL request Mary leave
SARAMACCAN
(=
(Lefebvre 2005) ENGLISH FONGBB (59c) in Lefebvre 1998: 277)
On the other hand, while the English verb does not select a tensed complement with the coreferential properties in (62b ), the Saramaccan and Fongbe verbs do. (62)
a
Ml taki da hen 1gbee a1 bi go. 9 1SG tell give blm COMP 3SG PA go 'I told him to go:
b. c.
*They asked Mary that she leave Ye by:S Mari 1 cf3 e1 11! yi. 3PL request Mary coMP 3sG MO leave 'They asked Mary to leave.'
SARAMACCAN (= (3j) in Wijnen & Alleyne 1987:46) ENGLISH FoNGBB (= (60c) in Lefebvre 1998:33)
Finally, let us consider the data from Papiamentu, Spanish and Fongbe. While the Spanish verb selects an infinitival complement, as in (63b), the Papiamentu and the Fongbe verbs do not, as shown in (63a) and (63c), respectively. (63)
a
b.
c.
*nan a
suplika nan mama1 pa PROt bini 10
3PL ASP ask 3PL mother for PRO come [Lit.: 'They asked their mother to come.'] Le suplicaron PRo1 venir a su mama1 3sG ask.3PL come to their mother 'They asked their mother to come.' *Ye by.JMari1 PRo 1yi [Lit.: 'They asked Mary to leave.']
PAPIAMI!NTU (= (77a) in Olguin 2006: 35)
SPANISH
(=
(Olgufnpc) FONGBB (59c) in Lefebvre 1998: 277)
Thus again, the properties ofboth the Papiamentu and Fongbe verbs differ from those of the Spanish in the same way. As for the coreferential properties in (64), all three languages are similar.
9· Note that the informants in Kearns (2008a) have a question mark on or reject (62a). 10.
Marta Dijkhoffnotes that this sentence is grammatical for her.
Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles
(64)
a
Nan pidi Ana1 pa
e1
bini.
PAPIAMENTU
3PL ask Anna COMP 3SG come 'They asked Anna to come:
b.
Ellos le
pide11
a A11a; que
(adapted from (76) In Olguin 2006: 34)
venga1•
they 3SG ask3PL to Anna COMP come. SUB.3SG 'They ask Anna to come: c.
Ye by:S Marii
q:3
el
n{ yi.
3PL ask Mary COMP 3SG MO leave 'They asked Mary to leave:
SPANISH
(= (75a) In Olguin 2006: 34) FoNGBB
(= (60c) in Lefebvre 1998:278)
The selectional properties of the verbs meaning 'to ask/to request' in the three creoles under study are not always the same as those of the corresponding verbs in their respective su perstrate. They are, however, systematically parallel to those of the corresponding verbs in their substrate languages.
Double object verbs
8.
There are two manifestations of the double object verbs. John sent Mary a letter is an example of the Recipient-Theme construction (NP NP), whereas John sent a letter to Mary is an example of the Theme-Locative/Goal construction (NP PP). These two constructions are semantically and syntactically distinct as is extensively argued for in Lefebvre (1994 and references therein).n This section focuses on the Recipient-Theme construction. It is shown that, although all three ereales under study have the Recipient-Theme construction, only one of the su perstrate languages, namely English, displays this construction. The construction is however available in the substrate languages of all three creoles. The sentence in (65) illustrates the Recipient-Theme construction for Haitian. (65)
Mwen bay Pol liv
la.
give Paul book Dl!P 'I gave Paul the book:
HAITIAN
I
(= (19) in Lumsden 1994)
French does not have the Recipient-Theme construction (Kayne 1984; Tremblay 1991), as is shown by the ungrammaticality of the sentence in (66).12
For example, it is argued that the semantics of the NP NP construction may be represented as ~ent CAUSE Recipient BECOME in possession of Theme' as opposed to that of the NP PP constrUL""tion which may be represented as ~ent CAUSE Theme undergo change of location/possession to Goal: Further, it is argued that this semantic difference is reflected in several ways in the syntax, such that the two constructions have different syntactic representations which are not derivable from one another.
11.
12. One of the reviewers remarks that French seems to have the NP NP constrUL""tion when the two objects of the verb appear as clitics as in (i):
(i)
Je le lui ai envoye 1st 3rd 3rd AUX send 'I sent it to him:
FRENCH
147
148
Claire Lefebvre
(66)
*J' ai
donne Paul le
livre
I
give
book
AUX
Paul
DEF
FRENCH
French only has a Theme-Goal construction where the Goal is either assigned Dative Case by or marked for dative case a, depending on one's analysis of a. This is illustrated in (67). (67) J' ai dom11? le livre a Paul. I AUX give DEF book to Paul 'I gave the book to Paul.'
a.,
FRENCH
In Sararnaccan, the Recipient-Theme construction is available, as exarnplified in (68). (68) Mi da Carlo wan fisi. 1sG give Carlo a fish 'I gave Carlo a fish:
SARAMACCAN
(= (188) in Bally, Dionne & Olguin 2006:48)
The Recipient-Theme construction is also available in English, as shown in (69). (69)
I gave John a book.
ENGLISH
In Papiamentu, the Recipient-Theme construction is available, as shown in (70). (70)
B~
duna Michiel un doshi di lusaft. Michael a box of matches 'You gave Michel a box of matches:
PAPIAMENTU
2sG.ASP give
(Maurer 1988: 378)
However, it is not available in Spanish, as shown by the ungrammaticality of (71 ). (71) *Marfa le dio Juan el libro Maria 3so give.3so Juan DEF book
SPANISH
(Olguin 2006:43)
Spanish is like French in having only a Theme-Goal construction, as illustrated in (72 ). (72)
Marfa le
dio
e1
libro a Juan
SPANISH
Maria 3so give.3so DEF book to Juan 'Maria gave the book to Juan:
(Olguin 2006:40)
Where do all three creoles draw the Recipient-Theme construction from? Even though one could claim that Saramaccan draws this property from English, it could not be claimed that Haitian and Papiamentu draw it from their respective superstrate languages, for neither of them have the Recipient-Theme construction. As pointed out in Koopman (1986:235), with the exception of Mande languages, West African languages all display the Recipient-Theme construction, illustrated in (73), based on Fongbe (Lefebvre 1992, 1993, 1994).
In my view, an analysis of (i) as an instantiation of the NP NP construction would be erroneous. Typically, in the NP NP construction, the two NPs both bear accusative case. This is visible in languages with overt case such as Quechua (Lefebvre & Muysken 1988). In French, pronominal ditics are marked for case. Thus, in (i), leis accusative (and refers to the Theme), whereas lui is dative (and refers to the Goal). The sentence in (i) is thus an instantiation of the NP PP construction, illustrated in (67).
Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles
(73)
K3ku ml Asl'bd :~.we :5. Koku give Asiba house DEF 'Koku gave Asiba the house:
FoNGBE
(= (la, b) in Lefebvre 1994)
I thus conclude that the availability of the Recipient-Theme construction in all three Atlantic creoles has been inherited from their West African substrate languages (Lefebvre 1998: 287-302, 357-360). This is in line with the conclusion in Michaelis and Haspelmath (2003), based on a sample of250 languages, according to which the Recipient-Theme construction is found only in those creoles whose substrate languages have the construction, regardless of whether superstrate languages have it (contra Bruyn et al. 1999 ). 13
9·
Serial verbs
While serial verbs are not available in French, English nor Spanish, they are available in all three creoles under analysis in this paper and in West African languages. I thus assume the availability of this construction to have been inherited from the West Mrican substrate languages of the creoles (Lefebvre 1998: 355-357). Due to space limitations, the details concerning the verbs participating in this construction will have to be discussed elsewhere. For further discussion on the relationship between the serial verb construction in creoles and their substrate languages, see Donohue (this volume), Jacob and Grimes (this volume), Lefebvre (this volume a).
10.
Conclusion
This paper has investigated the properties of a subset of verbs in three Atlantic creoles: Haitian Creole, Saramaccan and Papiamentu, which share a basic core of substrate languages (among which the Gbe languages), but have different superstrate languages: French, English and Spanish, respectively. It was shown that for each class of verbs, the creoles' verbs have the same properties as those of corresponding verbs in the substrate languages, and among themselves, regardless of the properties of the corresponding verbs in the superstrate languages. These findings are summarised in Table 1. Furthermore, it was shown that, in most cases, the properties of the creoles' verbs are different from those of the superstrate verbs from which they draw their label Therefore, my conclusion is that the properties of the West African substrate languages verbs have been carried over into the Atlantic creoles. This conclusion may not be surprising for Haitian Creole and Saramaccan, generally considered as "radical creoles" in the literature, but it is more surprising for Papiamentu, which is not considered a "radical" a creole. The data show that, even in this case, have the substrate properties of verbs made their way into the creole.
13. The question of the range of the double object verbs in the languages under study is addressed in Lefebvre (2009).
149
150
Claire Lefebvre
Table 1. Swnmary of the properties of verbs in three creoles and in their source languages H
BODY-state expressions • body part + active verb + experiencer • experiencer + stative verb + body part
Fr
+
Sa +
+
Object to subject raising verbs • verbs meaning 'to remain/to be left' • verbs meaning 'to be missing/to lack' • raising of the argument referring to the missing object • raising of the argwnent deprived of the missing object Verbs meaning 'to want' • selecting a [-T] CP complement • selecting a [+T] CP complement free reference of embedded subject • selecting a IP complement: ECM
+
+
+
+ +
+
+
+
+
+ +
+ +
+ +
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ +
+
+
+
+ +
+
Verbs meaning 'to ask' or 'to request' • selecting a [-T] complement • selecting a [+T] complement and matrix object and embedded subject are coreferential
+
+
Availability of the NP N P construction Availability of serial verbs
+ +
+ +
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ +
Fongbe
+
+ +
+
Sp
+
+
+
+ +
Verbs meaning 'to promise' • selecting a [-T] complement • selecting a [+T] complement
Pa
+
+
WEATHER verbs/expressions • Wl!ATHER verbs • natural element + non Wl!ATHER verb
E
+ + + +
+
+ +
+
+
+
+
+
+ + +
List of abbreviations ANT ASP AUX
CASI! COMP DI!F DEM FOC FUT
IMP
we MO
marker of anteriority aspect auxiliary case complementiser definite determiner demonstrative determiner focus future imperfective aspect locative mood
MOD OP PA PART PL PRO 3rd RES SG
SUB TNS
modal operator past partitive plural pronominal without a phonemic representation third person resumptive pronoun singular subjunctive marker tense
Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles
References Aboh, R 0. 2006a. Complementation in Saramaccan and Gungbe: The case of C-type modal particles. Natural languages and Linguistic Theory 24(1): 1-55. Aboh, R 0. 2006b. The role of the syntax-semantic interface in language transfer. In L2 Acquisition and Creole Genesis: Dialogues [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 34], C. Lefebvre, L White & C. Jourdan (eds), 221-253. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Alvarez Garcia, T. et al 1998. Collins Spanish-English, English-Spanish Dictionary. New York NY: Harper Collins. Arends, J. 1995. Demographic factors in the formation ofSranan. In The EarlyStage.s ofCreolisation [Creole Language Library 13], J. Arends (ed.), 233-277. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Atkins, B. et al1987. Collins-Robert French-English, English-French Dictionary. New York NY: Harper Collins. Bally, A-S., Dionne, C. & Olguin, M. 2006. Les constructions verb ales dans q uatre langues creoles de fAtlantique et leurs langues contributrices. Research report, Universite du Quebec a Montreal Bickerton, D. 1981. Roots of Language. Ann Arbor MI: Karoma. Bruyn, A., Muysken P. & Verrips, M. 1999. Double-object constructions in the creole languages: Development and acquisition. In Language Creation and Language Change, M. A. F. DeGraff (ed.), 329-337. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. Byrne, F. 1987. Grammatical Relations in a Radical Creole. Verb Complementation in Sarwnaccan [Creole Language Library 3]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Chomsky, N. 1981. Lectures on Gavernment and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris. Correard, M.-H. & Grundy, V. (eds). 1994. The Oxford-Hachette Dictionary: French-English, English-French. New York/Paris: OUP/Hachette. Dumais, D. 1988. INFL en creole hailien. In Etudes syntaxiques, morphologiques et phonologiques, Research report prepared for SSHRCC, FCAR and PAFAC on the project Haiti-Fan, C. Lefebvre (ed.), 242-265. Montreal: Universite du Quebec aMontreal Flexner, S. B. & Hauck, L. C. (eds). 1987. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language. New York NY: Random House. Grimes, B. F. 2000. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 14th edn. Dallas TX: SIL. Giildemann, T. 2007. The Macro-Sudan belt: Towards identifying a linguistic area in northern sub-Saharan Africa. In A Linguistic Geography ofAfrica, B. Heine & D. Nurse (eds), 151-185. Cambridge: CUP. Henriquez, M. 1954. Laiza porko sushi. Un fantasia basa riba e komedia 'Pygmalioti di G. B. Shaw. Korsou. Hoftmann, H. 2003. Dictionnaire Fon - FratJfais avec esquisse grwnmaticale. Koln: RUdiger Koppe. Jarman, B. G., Russell, R., Styles Carvajal, C. & Horwood, J. (eds). 1998. The Oxford Spanish Dictionary: SpanishEnglish, English-Spanish. Oxford: OUP. Juliana, R 1970. Echa cutmta. Amsterdam. Kayne, R S. 1984. Comrectedness atJd Binary Branching. Dordrecht: Foris. Kearns, L 2008a. Corpus Saramaka. Universite du Quebec a Montreal. Kearns, L 2008b. Corpus Papiamentu. Universite du Quebec a Montreal Koopman, H. 1986. The genesis of Haitian: Implications of a comparison of some features of the syntax of Haitian, French and West Mrican languages. In Substrata Versus Universals in Creole Genesis [Creole Language Library 1], P. Muysk.en & N. Smith (eds), 231-258. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Koopman, H. & Lefebvre, C. 1982. PU: Marqueur de mode, preposition et complementeur. In Syntaxe de l'hailien, C. Lefebvre, H. Magloire-Holly & N. Piou (eds), 64-91. Ann Arbor MI: Karoma. Labov, W. 1972. Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia PA: The University of Pennsylvania Press. Lefebvre, C. 1992. The double object construction and the DP hypothesis. McGill Working Papers in Linguistics 7: 113-131. Lefebvre, C. 1993. Dominance versus precedence in the double object construction: New facts from Fongbe. Revue canadienne de linguistique 38: 395-425. Lefebvre, C. 1994. New facts from Fongbe on the double object constructions. Lingua 94: 69-163.
151
152
Claire Lefebvre
Lefebvre, C. 1998. Creole Genesis and the Acquisition of Grammar: The Case ofHaitian Creole. Cambridge: CUP. Lefebvre, C. 2004. Issues in the Study of Pidgin and Creole Languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Lefebvre, C. 2005. Corpus Sararnaka. Universite du Quebec a Montreal Lefebvre, C. 2009. On the prindpled nature of the respective contribution of substrate and superstrate languages to a creole's lexicon. In Roots of Creole Structures: Weighing the Contributions of Substrates and Superstrates [Creole Language Library 33], S. Michaelis (ed.), 197-223. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Lefebvre, C. & Brousseau, A-M. 2002. A GrammarofFongbe [Mouton Grammar Library 25]. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Lefebvre, C. & Loranger, V. 2006. On the properties of Saramaccan .fu: Synchronic and diachronic perspectives. Joumal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 21(2): 275-337. Lefebvre, C. & Loranger, V. 2008. A diachronic and synchronic account of the muhifu.nctionality of Saramaccan tda. Linguistics 46(6): 1167-1228. Lefebvre, C. & Muyslren, P. C. 1988. Mixed Categories: Nominalisations in Quechua [Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory]. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Lefebvre, C. & Therrien, I. 2007a. The various dimensions of Paplamentu ku. Creolica. Lefebvre, C. & Therrien, I. 2007b. On the properties of Papiamentu pa: Synchronic and diachronic perspectives. In Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective on Contact Languages [Creole Language Library 32], M. Huber & V. Velupillai (eds), 215-256. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Lumsden, J. S. 1994. Possession: Substratum semantics in Haitian Creole. Jounud of Pidgin a,ul Creole Languages 9:25-51. Maurer, P. 1986. Le paplamento de Cura.;:ao: Un cas de creolisation atypique? Etudes moles 9(1): 97-113. Maurer, P. 1988. Les modifications temporelles et modales du verbe dans le papiamento de Curafao (Antilles Neerlmulaises). Hamburg: Buske. Michaelis, S. & Haspelmath, M. 2003. Ditransitive constructions: Creole languages in a cross-linguistic perspective. Creolica. Migge, B. M. 1998. Substrate Influence in the Formation of the Surinamese Plantation Creole: A Consideration of Sodohistorical Data and Linguistic Data from Ndyuka and Gbe. PhD dissertation, Ohio State University. Migge, B. M. 2003. Creole Formation as Language Contact: The Case o_fSuriname Creoles [Creole Language Library 25]. Amsterdam: John Benjarnins. Muyslren, P. C. 1994. Sararnaccan and Haitian: A comparison. JounJal of Pidgin and Creole La''lgullges 9: 305-314. Olguin, M. 2006. Analyse comparative des proprietes lexicales de dix classes de verbes en papiamentu et en espagnol MA thesis, Universite du Quebec a Montreal Parkvall, M. 2000. Out ofAfrica: African Influences in Atlantic Creoles. London: Battle bridge. Pinalie, P. 1992. Dictionnaire elementaire franfais-creole. Paris: L'Harmattan. Postma, J. 1990. The Dutch in the AtlmJtic Slave Trade, 1600-1815. Cambridge: CUP. Rountree, C., Asodanoe, J. & Glock. N. 2000. Saramaccan-English Word list (with idioms). Paramaribo: SIL Segurola, R P. B. 1963. Dictionnaire fon-franfais. Cotonou: Procure de fArchidiocese. Segurola, B. & Rassinoux, J. 2000. Dictionnaire Fon-Franfais. Madrid: Sodete des Missions africaines. Singler, J. V. 1993. The African presence in Caribbean French colonies in the seventeenth century: Documentary evidence. Travaux de recherche sur le creole haftien 16-17: 1-236 [UQAM]. Singler, J. V. 1996. Theories of creole genesis, sodohistorical considerations, and the evaluation of evidence: The case of Haitian creole and the relexification hypothesis. Joumal ofPidgin and Creole languages 11: 185-231. Smith, N. 1987. The Genesis of the Creole Languages of Surinam. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam. Sterlin, M.-D. 1988. Les di.fferentes caracteristiques de pou en creole hailien. Travaux de recherche sur le creole haftien 3: 1-34 [UQAM]. Sterlin, M.-D. 1989. Les caracteristiques de pou: Un modal en position de complementeur. Le creole haftien. Spedal issue of Ret'l.le quebecoise de linguistique 18(2): 131-147. 'fremblay, M. 1991. Possession and Datives: Binary Branching from Lexicon to Syntax. PhD dissertation, McGill University.
Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles
Valdman, A et a1 2007. Haitian Creole-English Bilingual Dictionary. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Creole Institute. Webster~ online Dictionary with Multilingual Thesaurus Translation. 2008. . Westerman, D. & Bryan, M. A 1970. The Languages of West Africa. Folkestone: Dawsons, The Gresham Press (new edn). Wijnen, B. & Alle}'Ile. M. C. 1987. A note on fu in Saramaccan. In Studies in Saramaccan Language Structure [Caribbean Culture Studies 2], M. C. Alleyne (ed.), 41-49. Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam. Wilrmbrand, S. 200 1. Infinitives: Restructuring and Clause Structure. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
153
Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the formation and development of the creoles of Suriname* Bettina Migge University College Dublin
Over the last 30 years or so, a significant amount of research has been carried out on the genesis and development of creoles. This research has shown that the creators of creoles' first languages made an important contribution to creole grammars, but that their overall role in any specific case was largely dependent on the social circumstances in which the creole emerged. This suggests that substrate influence always interacted with other sources. However, to date, relatively little research has been done on the various ways in which the creators' first languages influenced specific creole features and how this interaction was determined or constrained by other processes and sources. The aim of this paper is to investigate these issues in more detail in the light of ongoing research on the formation and development of the Tense, Mood and Aspect system of the creoles of Suriname. Keywords: language contact, substrate influence, creoles of Suriname (Ndyuka, Pamaka, Saamaka, Sranan Tongo), Gbe (Ajagbe, Pongbe, Gengbe, Maxigbe, Wacigbe, Xwelagbe, Xwlagbe), Tense, Mood and Aspect system
1.
Introduction
A significant amount of research on substrate influence in creole genesis has been carried out over the past 30 years. This research has mainly focused on the morphosyntactic system and, to a much lesser extent, on the lexicosemantic or even phonological subsystems of grammar. In addition to demonstrating the importance of substrate influence in creole genesis, this research has led to a continuous elaboration of the methodology for establishing substrate influence and to a better understanding of its role. While there exists by now widespread agreement that the This research was carried out within the framework of a 200 1-2004 research grant from the NSF entitled «The influence of West African Languages on the tense/mood/aspect (TMA) systems of two Surinamese creoles" (PI Donald Winford). I would like to hereby gratefully acknowledge the funding of the National Science Foundation (NSF Grant #BCS-0 113826). I would also like to thank informants in Benin, Suriname and French Guiana for generously giving their time.
156
Bettina Migge
creators of creoles' first languages played an important role in the emergence and development of creoles, there is still a fair amount of disagreement about several issues: a. b. c.
the nature of substrate features, the procedures to establish substrate influence and its interaction with other sources and processes.
In this paper, I address these three issues but particularly issues (a) and (c) in light of recent research I have been conducting with Donald Winford and Laurence Goury on the origin and development of the Tense, Mood and Aspect system (TMA) in the creoles of Suriname. The paper argues that substrate influence is not a uniform process, but affected creole grammars in a range of different ways, to different degrees and at different stages in a creole's development. While some creole features appear to be complete or near-complete calques of corresponding substrate features, in the case of others, only the structures from which a particular creole feature must have derived are based on substrate patterns. The differential role and effects of substrate influence are directly linked to its interaction with other factors and processes, namely influence from the superstrate(s) and processes of language-internal change. The paper assumes that substrate influence emerged in creoles because the creators of creoles structurally reinterpreted the kinds of superstrate structures that they encountered on the plantations according to the grammatical patterns and strategies of their Lls (Migge 2003a). The creoles of Suriname is a cover term for seven related languages, all ofwhich descend from the varieties that emerged on the plantations of Suriname between roughly 1680 and 1720 (Migge 2003a). Sranan Tango is associated with the descendants of slaves that remained on the plantations and are currently settled on the coastal strip and in the capital of Suriname, Paramaribo. In modern day Suriname, Sranan Tonga also functions as the national language and lingua franca of its multilingual population. The other six languages- Aluku, Ndyuka, Pamaka, Kwinti, Matawai and Saamaka- are each associated with a Maroon group of the same name. The Maroon societies emerged roughly between the late seventeenth century and the middle of the eighteenth century when slaves defected from the plantations and set up their own societies in the rainforest, out of the reach of the plantation society. The first three languages are highly mutually intelligible and are best characterised as dialects of a common language called Nenge( e) by its speakers and Eastern Maroon Creole (EMC) or Ndyuka by linguists (Goury & Migge 2003; Leglise & Migge 2006). The traditional villages of Eastern Maroons are located in the eastern part of Suriname and the western part of French Guiana along the Maroni River and its tributaries, the Lawa and the Tapanahoni Rivers, in the interior of the rainforest. Today, the majority of Maroon populations live in and around the urban centres of Suriname and French Guiana. However, the traditional villages retain great sociocultural value. Matawai and Saamaka are equally highly mutually intelligible, but there are important lexical differences between the former and the latter group- about 30% of the latter group's lexicon derives from Portuguese - which inhibits full mutual intelligibility with the other four creoles. The main Saamaka villages are located on the banks of the Suriname River and the Matawai villages are on the banks of the Saamaka River in the centre of Suriname. Kwinti shares features with both groups. The traditional villages are on the Coppename River and the Saramaka River in western Suriname. Mutual intelligibility between Sranan Tango and the
Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the creoles of Suriname
Maroon creoles is only partial, though the similarities are greater between the EMC and Sranan Tongo than between Saamak.a/Matawai and Sranan Tongo. The creoles of Suriname are generally classified as English-lexified creoles since the majority of their lexical items derive from English. The other two European languages that played a role in their formation, though to a lesser extent, are Portuguese and Dutch. In terms of non-European languages, varieties of Gbe and Kikongo and, to a lesser extent, Akan varieties were the main L1 s spoken by the creators of these creoles (Arends 1995). Local Amerindian languages also contributed vocabulary items related to flora, fauna and food-production processes (Goury 2003). The creoles of Suriname have figured prominently in the research on substrate influence (Migge & Smith 2007 and references therein). The main reason for this is that they are widely considered to be very conservative. They are quite distinct from their European input languages and arose and developed under extreme social conditions. This has greatly promoted the survival of African language patterns. Moreover, unlike many other creoles in the region, they have had very little or no contact with their main lexical source language - English - throughout their history because Suriname changed from an English to a Dutch colony in 1667, only 17 years after its foundation, which led to the slow exodus of English planters. Equally important is the fact that throughout most of the period of their emergence and early development, the ratio of Europeans to African slaves was quite low, effectively leading to the Africans' lack of exposure to the language( s) of the Europeans. The overwhelming majority of the slaves would have only had access to reduced second language and pidgin varieties of the European languages (Migge 2003a). The Maroon populations in particular have until recently lived in relative isolation in the interior of the rainforest and have had relatively little extensive contact with the other population groups and urban mainstream cultures in the region. Being the language of the coastal and urban population, urban varieties of Sranan Tongo have however undergone a significant amount of change due to contact with Suriname's official language, Dutch. Migge and Winford (2009), for instance, show that the difference between the Maroon creoles and Sranan Tongo in the expression of notions of possibility are related to influence from Dutch. A few other examples are discussed in de Kleine (2002).1 Most of the research on substrate influence on the creoles of Suriname has tocused on the Eastern Maroon Creoles (EMC), Saamaka and Sranan Tango and on morphosyntactic properties. There are studies on the role of substrate influence in the emergence of copula elements (McWhorter 1995, 1997; Migge 2002, 2003a), property items (Migge 2000), serial verb constructions (McWhorter 1992; Migge 1998a, b, 2003a), the Tense, Mood and Aspect system (Migge 2006; Migge & Goury 2008; Migge & Winford 2009; Winford & Migge 2007), focus constructions (Smith 1996), question words (Smith 2001), noun derivation (Migge 2003a), predicate reduplication (Migge 2003b), locational phrases (Bruyn 1995, 1996; Migge 1999). There is also some work on lexical similarities between creoles and West African languages (Huttar 1981, 1985, 1986). To date, few studies have systematically explored the structure and origin of the phonological system (but see Smith & Haboo 2007; Uffmann 2008), and particularly semantic (but see Essegbey 2005; Essegbey & Ameka 2007; Huttar, Essegbey & Ameka 2007) and
The differences between the Bakra and Nengre varieties of Sranan posited by Schwnann (1778 in Schuchardt 1914) and Riemer (1779 in Arends & Perl1995) may be largely due to differential Dutch influence.
1.
1S7
158
Bettina Migge
pragmatic notions in creoles. Overall these studies demonstrate that substrate influence played a vital role in the emergence of a great number of grammatical features in the creoles of Suriname. The first languages of the slaves appear to have influenced Maroon creoles most strongly. This research also points to the importance of other sources though. Superstrate influences and language-internal change, for instance. also contributed in many ways to the emergence and development of the properties of modem creoles. This paper is organised as follows: Section 2 briefly presents the research methodology for the project; Section 3 assesses the overall impact of substrate influence in the TMA system; Section 4 discusses the different ways in which the main substrate sources influenced the emergence of different TMA categories in the creoles of Suriname; Section 5 assesses the relationship between substrate influence and other inputs and processes; and Section 6 summarises the findings and discusses their implications for creole genesis theories.
2.
Methodology and data for the study
The research on the origin of the TMA system in the creoles of Suriname used the methodology for investigating contact-induced language change presented in Thomason (199 3: 2871f. ). She suggests that any credible claim for substrate influence has to be based on the following evidence: 1.
2.
Evidence that the source language( s) for the feature was present and played a significant role in the setting at the time of its proposed emergence, based on a careful analysis of the contact setting. Evidence that the feature emerged due to influence from the proposed source language, based on a detailed comparison of the feature in the creole, the proposed source language and possibly other languages that played a role in the setting.
In terms of the research process, this meant that we first constructed a scenario of creole formation in Suriname based on the available sociohistorical evidence (Migge 1998a, b, 2002, 2003a). We focused on demographic and ethnolinguistic data on West Africa and Suriname (Arends 1995) and on various sources dealing with the social context in Suriname- e.g., interactional patterns, codes of interaction, work distribution). These data suggest that the plantation varieties emerged roughly between 1680 and 1720. During this period, speakers of varieties of Gbe and, to a lesser extent, speakers of Kikongo made up the overwhelming majority of the slaves in Suriname. In the pre-1680 period, the Europeans were mainly speakers of English and a subgroup were also speakers of Portuguese. In the later period, they were speakers of various languages. Dutch hardly played an important role in seventeenth and eighteenth century Suriname (de Kleine 2002). It was only in the eighteenth century that Dutch started to be more widely diffused in the colony. The main agents in this process were descendants of mixed Afro-Surinamese-European unions who were quite wealthy, welleducated and occupied important sodal positions. They adopted Dutch as their main language to distinguish themselves from the slave population (de Kleine 2002:211). Dutch was rapidly gaining in importance during the nineteenth century. According to de Kleine (2002), well-situated families increasingly sent their children to Holland tor their education and a growing number of
Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the creoles of Suriname
non-white intellectuals and members of the middle class adopted Dutch as their main means of expression, teaching it as a first language to their children. The vast majority of Afro-Surinamese, however, had little opportunity to learn Dutch until1876 when it was made the obligatory medium of instruction in Surinamese schools. The Maroons and Amerindian populations residing in the interior of Suriname have generally had little or no access to Dutch. L2 and pidgin varieties of English were most likely used by both early planters and the slaves who had arrived prior to 1680. With regards to the social matrix, the data suggest that the overwhelming majority of the slaves came directly from Africa. Due to their numerical strength and patterns of segregation, these newcomers had little substantial contact with the small number of Europeans and existing slaves. While the early slaves and the Europeans shared common social and linguistic conventions established during the previous period, the new slaves had to newly forge such conventions. The inputs were their native social and linguistic conventions and those they encountered on the plantations. Access to the latter was quite restricted though, due to absence of dose contact with the other two social groups, i.e. Europeans and existing slaves (Migge 2003a). According to Thomason ( 199 3), the linguistic data should ideally come from the time period when the contact occurred. Since there are no historical documents available, this study is based on modern data and, to a lesser extent, on historical data from the periods immediately following. The modern data come from recordings of natural interactions, formal elicitations using an adapted version of Dahl's (1985) questionnaire for comparative research on TMA (Migge 2006) and from discussions of constructions with informants and native Gbe linguists. This paper focuses on data from the Maroon creoles, Ndyuka (ND) and Pamaka (PM), but also considers relevant data from Saamaka (SM) and Sranan Tango (SN). With respect to the varieties of Gbe, the study investigated data from representatives of the five main subclusters (Capo 1988). The varieties were Ajagbe, Fongbe, Gengbe, Gungbe, Wacigbe, Xwelagbe, Xwlagbe, Maxigbe. The analytical framework is modelled after typological studies ofTMA systems such as Dahl (1985) and Bybee et al. (1994). The analysis focuses on establishing the semantic domains- e.g., Necessity- and the various strategies- e.g., grammatical markers, modal verbs, adverbs, etc.that are employed to express the meanings that are part of such a domain. In relation to each strategy, the study aimed to determine its dominant or prototypical uses and the contextually determined interpretations that arise from more peripheral uses.
3·
Impact of substrate influence on TMA in the creoles of Suriname
Substrate influence in the context of creole formation is defined here as a process whereby the creators of a creole fully or partially functionally reinterpreted constructions they encountered from (Ll, L2, pidgin, etc.) varieties of the European superstrate language(s) in the setting- and the elements that make them up- according to the principles and patterns of their first language(s) (Migge 2003a). In historical linguistic and typological/descriptive approaches to language contact, it is commonly believed that a claim for substrate influence has to necessarily involve showing that a given contact phenomenon cannot have come about due to language-internal change or derive from a
159
160
Bettina Migge
secondary feature or a less widely distributed feature associated with regional varieties. In relation to the first claim, this essentially means that, in these traditional approaches, valid instances of contact-induced language change are only those changes that contradict so-called cross-linguistically regular changes and tendencies. However, Thomason & Kaufman argue that
though adopting this criterion is useful as a methodological strategy for convincing sceptics, it is not promising as a general theoretical approach to the analysis of linguistic change, because [... ] there is every reason to suppose that external causation is responsible for common and natural changes as well as for uncommon changes. (Thomason & Kaufman 1988: 59-60) With regard to the second claim, it has long been shown in the literature on L2 acquisition and in research on creole genesis (e.g., Valdman 1977) that the retention of substrate features is much dependent on or enhanced by the existence of semantically somewhat similar structures in the superstrate with which the substrate constructions can be identified. Such constructions maximally lend themselves for reinterpretation according to substrate patterns and principles. This then suggests that substrate features are generally not out of the ordinary linguistic features and, in a good number of cases, emerged due to multiple causes. The findings from current research on the TMA system in the creoles of Suriname (Migge 2006; Migge & Goury 2008; Migge & Winford 2009; Winford & Migge 2007) show that the overall structure of the system closely resembles that of Gbe varieties. However, this does not mean that the Surinamese system is a direct copy of the Gbe system. In fact, there are interesting differences that appear to be due to the interaction of substrate influence with other sources and processes, such as superstrate influence and language-internal change. I discuss this in more detail in Section 5.
Table 1. Tense and Aspect in the creoles of Suriname (Winford & Mlgge 2007: 78) Forms
Category
Meanings
hi
Relative Past
0
0
Future
Past events 'distanced' from Speaker background past or 'framepast' especially in narratives. Past in relation to another reference point in the past. Later time reference; Intention or prediction. Predictability.
e
e
e
e
e
ta
Perfective Imperfective
kaba
kaa
Completive2
ND
SM..
Tense ben be
be
0
0
e e
SN
PM
Aspect
k(a)ba kaba
States or events seen as unanalysed wholes. Situations (both states and occurrences) seen as 'unbounded' and ongoing at reference time, which encompasses situations that are repeated, habitual, in progress or continuous. Situations seen as completed. Conveys the meaning 'already: Expresses the sense of a 'perlect of result' with non-stati ves, and the sense of a state beginning in the past and continuing to the reference point with statives.
*Note: SN: Sranan Tongo, PM: Pamak:a, ND: Ndyuka. SM: Saamak:a.
2.
This category might also be labelled "Perfect': It is a subtype of the category PERFECT (Dahl1985).
Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the creoles of Suriname
Tables 1 to 4 show that there are important similarities between Gbe and the Surinamese creoles in the area of Aspect and Modality. The similarities are less strong in the case of Tense. With respect to Perfective Aspect, we see that both the Gbe languages and the Surinamese creoles employ the unmarked verb to express states or events seen as unanalysed wholes. They also express Completive Aspect; the postverbal strategy for expressing Completive Aspect used in the Surinamese creoles appears to closely resemble the strategy used in western Gbe varieties, Pattern 2. In relation to Progressive Aspect, both the Gbe languages and the Surinamese creoles employ the verb to be-at also found in existential contexts. Differences are found with respect to Table 2. Tense and Aspect categories in Gbe languages (Winford & Migge 2007: 80) Category
Form
Meanings/uses
dV ldV ndV
Later time reference.
fJ
States or events seen as unanalysed wholes. Simple past with non-statives, present with statives (when reference point is Speaker).
Tense
Future
Aspect
Perfective
Completive Pattern (1)
Pattern (2)
kO V (Maxi-, Fongbe) m3 V (Xwelagbe) n:5 V (Xwlagbe) VP + v3 (Aja-, Gen-, Wacigbe)
Progressive Pattern (1)
Pattern (2)
(ll) VV (.ld) (Ajagbe) (/a) VV!) {Wacigbe) (le) VV nu (Xwlagbe) (Mt)) vv we (Maxigbe) le XP V (.ld) (Ajagbe) laXPV!) (Wacigbe) le XP V nu (Xwlagbe) VV wtl (Maxigbe) n:5 V (Xwelagbe) lee (Gengbe)
Situations seen as completed. Conveys the meaning 'already'. Expresses the sense of a 'perfect of resuh' with non-statives, and the sense of a state beginning in the past and continuing to reference point with statives. Events in progress. In cases where the Progressive element immediately precedes the verb, e.g., intransitive verbs or transitive verbs taking a Pronominal object (SVO order).
In other transitive sentences.
o Pattern (3)
Habitual Pattern (1) Pattern (2) Pattern (3)
Customary or habitual situations. V nd (Gen-, Wacigbe) V n::i (Ajagbe) n:5 V (Maxi-,Xwlagbe) High tone on V (Xwelagbe)
Prospective Pattern (1) Pattern (2) Pattern (3)
With intransitive and transitive verbs.
Events about to occur.
o(XP) na V (Maxi-, Fongbe) le (XP) v ge/gbe (Ewe. Gengbe) Ia (XP) jd V (Wacigbe)
161
162
Bettina Migge
Table 3. Modality in the creoles of Suriname (based on Migge 2006: 341f. and Winford 2000: 70ff.) Forms SN
PM
ND
LEARNED
sabifu
Sabi
Category
Meanings
SM
ABILITY sabi sd
Ability or skills acquired through learning or training.
POTENTIAL sa sa man poy
sa sa
Positive Negative
Physical ability (Deontic) ability subject to physical or natural law.
sa man
sa poy
sa sa
Positive Negative
sa man
sa poy
sa sa
Positive Negative
Deontic (root) possibility ability/possibility subject to moral or social law, involving situations under the agent's control Permission Deontic possibility imposed by authority (social, legal, etc.).
sa sa kande
Positive Negative
manlkan
kan
mag!kan
kande
sa sa man/sa poy/sa kande kande
NECI!SSITY musu/sa mtt mu musu musu musu rmtsu fu mustt fit sa musu musu
wani
DI!SIRI! wani wani
musu musu musu tt musu
ke
(stronger)
(strong)
Epistemic possibility Possible situations or situations to the certainty of which the speaker is not committed. Deontic necessity or obligation "Existence of external, social conditions compelling an agent to complete the predicate action" Bybee et a1 (1994: 177). Epistemic necessity Inference based on sound evidence (prior knowledge, experience, etc.). Expresses a high degree of certainty on the speaker's part about some situation. Expresses speaker's desire and need.
Nl!l!D a(bi) fanoudtt (fit}*
Expresses speaker's need.
fmwttdu * Note: This construction is found in all the creoles in question.
Habitual Aspect and Prospective Aspect They are separate categories in Gbe languages while they are subsumed in part under the Imperfective category in the creoles. There are also close similarities between the two language groups in the area of Modality. In relation to Potential Modality, we find the following similarities. First, an ability or a skill acquired through specific training is expressed using a verb meaning 'to know'. Second, with the possible exception of Sranan Tonga (but see Migge & Winford 2009), the notions of physical ability, root possibility, permission and epistemic possibility are expressed by the same element( s) in the two language groups. Moreover, the different notions subsumed under Necessity- such as obligations, admonition, unfulfilled obligation, inferred certainty, probability- are all expressed by the same element in both the Gbe languages and in the Surinamese creoles. Finally, Desire and Need are also conveyed by different elements with similar meanings in the two language groups. The
Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the creoles of Suriname
Table 4. Modality in varieties of Gbe (Migge 2006: 35) Forms
A*
G
w
Category
Meanings
physical ability
Xwl
M
ny:J
np
ten
sixu3
Pos
kpeji
sixu
Neg
hen fe1)(U)
ten
sixu
Pos
kpego
kpeji
sixu
Neg
ten
si.xu
Pos
kpeji
sixu
Neg
ten
sixu
Xwe
LEARNED ABILITY
nya
nya
nya
ttr}tt
teT)
WJ
Sen1)tt
te1)
ti1)
np POTENTIAL
hen te'}(tt) kpego S1t
m1u
te1)
ti1]
Sen1JU
te1)
ti1]
deontic (root) possibility
su fe1)u
tet}
ti1]
SetiT)U
te1)
ti1]
fe1)(U) hen kpego
permission
su tet}lt
te1)
te'}
ti1]
epistemic possibility
NECESSITY
MOa
Mola
MOfa
Mola
MOa
MOna
deontic necessity
MOa
Mola
MO fa
Mola
MOa
MOna
epistemic necessity
ne
ne
na
ne
ni
optative, hortative, jussive
lea
jlo
SUBJUNCTIVE
ni DESIRE
ji
ji
ji
din
ba
ro NEED
MO_
wudo
hya ji
hinyii
hyii
kii
ba
din
*A: Ajagbe, G: Gengbe, W: Wacigbe, Xwe: Xwelagbe, Xwl: Xwlagbe, M: Maxigbe.
main difference emerges in relation to the subjunctive category. While Gbe seems to have such a category, it is not well attested in the Surinamese creoles (but see Lefebvre & Loranger 2006 for a discussion ofSaamaka data). In the subsystem of Tense, the correspondences between the two language groups are less strong. First, while the Surinamese creoles have a Future and a Past category, Gbe only has a Future category. Second, the Future category in the creoles most likely developed gradually from a possible earlier Prospective Aspect category, but was not directly calqued on the Gbe Future. Third, while the past-marking element in the creoles seems to be based on a superstrate form, the 3· Besides sixu, the conversational data from Maxi also contain the element sikii. It occurs much less frequently than sixu in the conversational data. The native informant never employed sikii in the elicitations.
163
164
Bettina Migge
past participle been, its functions show significant similarity with the adverbial construction used to express past time reference in Gbe. Overalt this overview suggests that substrate influence definitely had an important impact on the emergence of the TMA system in the creoles of Suriname. However, this discussion also makes very clear that substrate influence affected different categories at different stages of their emergence, to different degrees and in different ways. This strongly suggests that substrate influence is not a homogeneous, unified process. Its operation and outcomes appear to take different forms, most likely due to its interaction with other processes and sources.
Nature of substrate influence
4·
In this section, I outline the different ways in which substrate influence played a role in the emergence of the meanings and functions of Surinamese creole TMA categories.
Direct calque
4.1
In some instances, the creole feature very closely resembles its counterpart in the substrate language in structure, form and meaning. A case in point is the Perfective category in the Surinamese TMA system (Winford & Migge 2007). In both languages- creole and substrate- it is expressed by the unmarked verb. It has a sense of'presenf time reference with stative verbs (1) and property items (2) and 'simple past' with non-stative verbs (3) in the default cases, where the point of reference is speech time. (1)
a.
b.
Sunu :Jn t:Jnwun ny:Jnuvi :J. boy DET know girl DET
'The boy knows the girl' A b!!)l sabi a meise.
boy know DET girl 'The boy knows the girl'
MAXIGBE
(Elicitation 1)4 NDYUKA
DET
(2)
[Speaker looks at a house and exclaims:] a :o ey:J dagba. house this big 'The house is big: b. A osu bigi. DET house big 'The house is big:
(Elicitation 2) MAXIGBE
(Elicitation 1) NDYUKA
(Elicitation 2)
4· (Elicitation 1) refers to elicitations carried out in 2002 in Benin with native speakers of different Gbe varieties using a modified version of the Dahl (1985) questionnaire. (Elicitation 2) refers to such elicitation with native speakers of Ndyuka, Pamaka and Saamaka carried out in St. Laurent du Maroni, French Guiana, in 2002. The reference (field notes) indicates constrUL"t.ions overheard during natural conversations.
Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the creoles of Suriname
(3)
[What did your sister do last night?]
a
E
wlan wema.
she write letter 'She wrote a letter?
b.
A
sikitfi wa11 biifi.
she write one letter 'She wrote a letter?
MAXIGBB
(Elicitation 1) NDYUKA
(Elicitation 2)
The unmarked verb is also used to convey the sense of current relevance (4). (4)
[Have you heard the news?]
a
Axus.J king
.J
wa/jawe.
come 'The king has come?
b.
MAXIGBB
DBT
A
kownu ko11. DET king arrive/come 'The king has come?
(Elicitation 1) NDYUKA
(Elicitation 2)
The main difference between the Gbe languages and the Surinamese creoles is that in Gbe, unmarked stative-type verbs may also have past time reference, while they are generally preceded by the past time marker be!bilben in the creoles (5). (5)
[Did you know my fathe~ who died last year?]
a
b.
enen, un t.Jnwun in. yes I know him 'Yes, I knew him: Eyee, mi be sabi en. Yes I PAST know him 'Yes, I knew him:
MAXIGBB
(Elicitation 1) NDYUKA
(Elicitation 2)
The main reason for this difference seems to be that the Gbe varieties, unlike the creoles, do not have a past time category. Past time marking is therefore generally retrieved from the context. However, in cases where such marking becomes necessary, an adverbial form can be employed (see Section 4.5).
4.2
Direct calque on one of several available substrate constructions
In the literature, it is often assumed that heterogeneity in substrate strategies tends to disfavour substrate influence (Singler 1988). Our data suggest this is not necessarily the case. Speakers can either select one among the different strategies or retain both. I discuss the first case in this section and the second in Section 4.3. In Gbe, Completive Aspect is either expressed by a construction where a main verb meaning 'to finish', 1'-'• occurs in VP-final position (6a) or by a structure employing a preverbal element (6b).
165
166
Bettina Migge
(6)
a
a
b.
she read book finish 'She has finished reading the book.' Ee, e ";; xlt xwema 3. yes she COMPL read book DET 'Yes, she has already read this book.'
hliJ11
wamd v:S.
WACIGBE (Elicitation 1) XWLAGBE (Elicitation 1)
In the Surinamese creoles, by contrast, only the first option is attested: Completive Aspect is conveyed by an element that is formally similar to a main verb meaning 'to finish: ka.ba, occurring in VP-final position (7). (7)
[I want to give her a book. Has she read this one?] Eyee, a leisi disi ya kaba. Yes she read this here coMPL 'Yes, she has already read this:
PAMAKA (Elicitation 2)
The creole strategy does not only resemble the Gbe strategy in overall structure, but also in meaning. It conveys a sense of a 'perfect of result' ((6)- (7)) and the sense of a state beginning in the past and continuing to the reference point (8). (8) a
b.
U tan ya wantu yall kaba. we stay here one-two year coMPL 'Wf1ve already lived here for several years: a d amd v:) ye 6 gb;; liv:) d dn. he stay naked coMPL then they return pagne take run 'He was already naked when they came back and dressed him in a pagne:
PAMAKA (Elicitation 2) WACIGBE (Waci- Migge 1)5
Moreover, in both language groups, the Completive is not used in sentences expressing lack of completion of an activity or state. Instead, the main verb is preceded (Gen, Waci kp:;, Xwla kp::m) or followed (Aja h!>."-E:, Xwela gba, Ndyuka, Pamaka, Sranan ete, Saamaka yete) by another form translating as 'yet' (Winford & Migge 2007). (9)
a
b.
A kownu an doo ete. DET king NEG arrive yet 'The king has not yet arrived: aft:S, ma kp:J va o. king NEG yet come INSIST 'The king has not even come/arrived yet:
PAMAKA (Elicitation 2) WACIGBE (Elicitation 1)
This example demonstrates that, in cases where the substrate involves a certain degree of heterogeneity, creators of creoles may just select one of the available constructions. In this case, the choice of the postverbal construction was promoted by the following factors. First, since v-1, like kaba, is a lexical verb and has the same lexical meaning 'to finish', it was easy to interlingually identify it with kaba.. Second, even if the structure was not part of the Ll, it was semantically 5· (Waci-Migge 1) and similar codes refer to transcriptions of recorded conversations between native speakers of the indicated variety. The recordings involving the Surinamese Creoles were made in Suriname and French Guiana between 1994 and 2007. The recordings for the varieties ofGbeweremade in Benin between 1997 and 2002.
Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the creoles of Suriname
transparent (i.e. action + to finish = completion of an action). Third, it was also reinterpretable from a consecutive construction such as "I work and finish".
4·3
Retention of more than one of the available substrate constructions
In Gbe, possibility is expressed preverbally. In some varieties (Wacigbe, Gengbe, Maxigbe), the same element is used in positive and negative constructions (lOa, b), while in others (Ajagbe, Xwelagbe, Xwlagbe), two distinct forms are employed (lOc, d). (10)
a
b.
c.
d.
(I)ye
tuwe slxu s:J
basiya
MO.
mother your can take container put 'Your mother can put the container here? eme co ma slxu m::> vuvo. person all NEG can find free-time 'Everybody could not find the time [to repair the pump]: :Jjl11 t€11 MU :Jgo n5. mouse can eat bag for. you 'The mouse can eat your bag? 00 kpe a kp:!m im ki.sln o. no he-NEG can PUT see I DEM INSIST 'No, he cannot even see me like that'
un
MAXIGBB
(Maxi-Migge1) MAXIGBB
(Maxi-Migge2) XWLAGBB
XWLAGBB
(Xwlagbe-NSF4)
The Gbe patterns closely mirror the distribution of possibility elements in the Surinamese creole where Aluku, Ndyuka and Pamaka distinguish negative and positive possibility (lla, b), while Saamaka does not (llc, d). (11)
a
b.
c.
d.
I
sa wasi koo wata anda.
you can wash cold water over.there 'Will you be able to wash with cold water there? Fu a pikin nenge, i na man foni en for DET small person you NEG can find her/him enke fa i wani. like how you want ~out the child. you cannot find it the way you want it' Mi a moni nou mi sa go a booko di dia. I have money now I can go Loc break DET day 'I have money, now I can go to the party? Me a moni nou mi a sa go a booko di dia. I-NEG have money now I NEG can go we break DET day 'I doItt have money thus I cannot go to the party;'
PAMAKA
(Pamaka-Migge5) PAMAKA
(Pamaka-Migge5) SAAMAKA
(Elicitation 2)
SAAMAKA
There are also close similarities in function and meaning. Migge (2006) demonstrated in detail that these elements do not only express root possibility, but are also used to express ability, permission and epistemic possibility. Moreover, the negative forms derive from phrases denoting (lack of) physical strength:
167
168
Bettina Migge
(12) a b. c.
ma11 <man va V 'man to do s.tbJhave the ability to do' kpU-ji 'reach-its-summit/top' kpU-(e)IJu-(ci) 'reach-its-body-tree/body, be as strong as'
(Van den Berg 2001:249) (Xwlagbe) (Ajagbe)
Ma.n in the creoles has become a modal verb, while the negative Gbe forms are not fully verbal (Migge 2006). Finally, the negative forms in the creoles and in Gbe are also used to express a challenge (in questions) and to assert ability (13). (13)
a
A:.
1
man sikiifi a
biifi de?
PAMAKA
you MOD write DBT letter there 'Do you (really) think that you'll be able to write that letter?'
B:
Eeye, mi man. yes I can 'Yes, I am able to do it?
b.
fln:3
we a
kpe-ji d
g:3 ba
a
kpe :31JkUsl do suklu wu.
(Elicitation 2) XwuaBB
where Poe PUT can PUT still come PUT can eye put school on '[talking to a girl who had a child while still at school] Where can you still go, how will you be able to take care of your studies?' (Xwla- NSF 1)
These data suggest that the two strategies that are used in the Surinamese creoles closely mirror those found in their main substrate input, the varieties of Gbe. This in turn confirms that substrate heterogeneity does not necessarily lead to an absence of substrate influence, but may lead to the instantiation of several different strategies.
4·4
Partial calque
A good number of creole features are what could be termed partial substrate calques. They resemble a certain substrate feature in several important respects only. There are two main reasons for this. On one hand, this could be due to the fact that the substrate makes categorical subdivisions that were not instantiated in the creole or that the creole has categories that are not found in the substrate. On the other hand, this could be due to influence from another source such as the superstrate. An example of the first type is the Imperfective category in the creoles. In the Gbe varieties, Progressive Aspect is marked by one of the three related constructions in (14). Pattern 1 is used in cases where the existential or locative verb meaning 'be-af preceded the main verb. 6 Pattern 2 is employed where this verb does not directly precede the main verb. Pattern 3 is found in Gen and Xwela in both transitive and intransitive constructions. (14)
a
Pattern 1: (existential!locative V) +reduplicated V +Progressive Particle
e.g., (le) VV (b) (Ajagbe) E hltnhltn wema w6. he RED.read book PL 'He is reading books?
AJAGBB
(Elicitation 1)
6. Note that some varieties of Gbe, such as Fongbe and Maxigbe, have separate verbs for expressing existence and the notion of 'be-at' while other varieties, such as Wacigbe, use the same verb in both functions. In the examples, I gloss it as 'be-at:
Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the creoles of Suriname
b.
c.
Pattern 2: existential/locative V + XP V + Progressive Particle e.g., ltXP V (k.:3) (Ajagbe) AJAGBB
A le enu hlf:n. he-PUT be-at thing read 'He is reading something: Pattern 3: existential/locative V + V e.g., leeV (Gengbe)
E lee
po-te yebe
X:J
(Elicitation 1)
me.
GBNGBB
he be-at clean his room in 'He is cleaning his room:
(Elicitation 1)
While there are differences between the three constructions, they all share one important similarity: The locative verb precedes the main verb. The construction in the Eastern Maroon Creoles closely resembles this common denominator. The preverbal marker of Progressive Aspect, e, derives from the locative and existential verb de (Winford & Migge 2007). (15)
leisi wan buku.
PAMAKA
she PROG read a book 'She is reading a book.'
A
e
(Elicitation 2)
The creole and Gbe constructions are also similar semantically. Besides expressing Progressive Aspect with activity verbs, they also convey Inchoative Aspect with property items (Migge 2000) and some state-denoting elements (16); a longer period in the present (beyond the time of speaking) (17); and a future meaning with motion verbs (18). (16)
a
b.
(17)
a
Da 11a foluku ne en e bigi a ko11de. then FOC people FOC it PROG big DBT village 'Ifs the people who are making the village important' eho :; e ba le sif.n 11~. money DBT it come be-at hard PART 'The price [needed for food] is getting problematic? Nounou na a
baafu hangl
e
kil u.
now FOC DBT meat hunger PROG kill US 'Now, we are suffering from lack of meat.' b.
sit
mi-tttt
gble ml le
aya
ftiU-n~.
now DET thing-all spoil we be-at misery eat-thing 'Now, everything is spoiled and we are suffering? (18) a
b.
A
tamaa a e gwe kaba. Foe tomorrow she PROG leave already 'It's tom or row she is already going to leave? (lit. : .. she is leaving already.. ?) Me le jo}o-t;. I be-at RBD.leave-PART 'I will be/am going to leaving (soon).' (lit. 'I am leaving?)
PAMAKA (Pamaka-~igge18)
XWLAGBB (Xwla-NSF1) PAMAKA (fieldnotes) XWLAGBB (Xwla-NSF2) PAMAKA
(fieldnotes) WACIGBB (Elicitation 1)
169
170
Bettina Migge
There is an important difference between the progressive elements in Gbe and e (and ta) in the Surinamese creoles. While e in the Eastern Maroon Creoles is regularly used to express habitual (19a) and generic (19b) meanings, the Gbe elements do not ( 19) a
[What does your brother do after dinner?]
A e
b.
leisi wan buku.
NDYUKA
he IMPF read one book 'He (usually) reads a book.' [What do dogs do?]
(Elicitation 2)
howhow.
NDYUKA
they IMPF make.noise wauwau 'They make wauwau/bark.'
Den e
bali
(Elicitation 2)
In Gbe, habitual and generic meanings are typically expressed by a separate habitual element. In Xwlagbe, Maxigbe and other Fongbe varieties, n:J occurs preverbally (20a) while in others- such as Ajagbe, Gengbe, and Wacigbe- the habitual marker, na (Gengbe, Wacigbe) or n:J (Ajagbe), occurs postverbally (20b ). Xwelagbe marks habitual aspect with a high tone on the verb. (20)
a
E n:J xa
b.
he HAB read book 'He always reads: [What do dogs do?]
6
nu.
gbo net
they bark HAB 'Dogs bark.'
c.
I fin "ie gan atrokpome. I wake- HAB LOC hour 6 'I (usually) wake up at six in the morning:
MAXIGBR
(Elicitation 1) WACIGBR
(Elicitation 1) XWRLAGBR
(Elicitation 1)
Based on the evidence presented above (see also Winford & Migge 2007) and in relation to the emergence and development of the locational verb and existential verb de in the Surinamese creoles (Migge 2002, 2003a), it seems most likely that the emergence of de as a locational and existential verb triggered its extension to the marking of progressive meanings. Essentially, the slaves identified existential constructions in Gbe (2la) with copula-less L2 English constructions (2lb) and thereby created the existential verb de (2lc). (21)
a
Mallk::Jcwe Me. banana exlst 'There's a banana'
b.
Mastra scopie de. master rhum there [adv] 'Master, there is rhum:
c.
Mastra scopie de.
XWI!LAGBI!
(Elicitations 1997) Early Sranan (Van Dyk 1765; Arends & Perl1995: 170) Early Sranan
master rhum exist [V] 'Master, there is rhum:
Once de had emerged as an existential verb, it came to be used in all the meanings in which its substrate counterpart was used. Thus, in addition to becoming a predicator of locational
Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the creoles of Suriname
phrases and stative reduplicated adjectives, it came to function as a Progressive Aspect marker. Its habitual and generic function seems to have emerged later, possibly due to language-internal change- a process widely attested cross-linguistically. The main reason for this later extension of de to habitual and generic contexts rather than the emergence of a separate Habitual Aspect category seems to have been that the creators of the creole did not find a suitable English form in the English constructions available to them which could have been reinterpreted as a Habitual Aspect marker on the model of the Gbe Habitual marker.
4·5
Some semantic impact
In Goury and Migge (2008: 322), we argued that, both etymologically and functionally, the past time markers ben!be!bi in the Surinamese creoles derive from the English past participle been. The slaves most likely encountered the form in English (regular) present perfect (I've been here before.), polite (I\•e been wanting to see you.), past perfect (Il:J been there ... ) and counterfactual (If HI been there ... ) constructions in which the auxiliary (have/had) was contracted and thus not at all or little perceptible to them.
Since the Gbe languages, unlike English, do not have a Present Perfect Aspect category and the slaves' contact with English was relatively minor, they would have only picked up on the past temporal reference of English Present Perfect constructions and not on its durational aspect As a result, been came to be reinterpreted as a past time marker associated with past time reference, past before past, polite and counterfactual meanings. This scenario then argues that ben!bin!bi in the Surinamese creoles is a superstrate retention which has undergone a contextually or pragmatically driven process of semantic and structural reinterpretation. However, an analysis of past time marking in Gbe also reveals interesting similarities between the Gbe and the creole strategy. While Gbe does not appear to have an established Past category and past time reference is generally retrieved from contextual clues, all varieties of Gbe also make use of a postverbal adverbial form meaning 'before' to convey past meanings. This strategy shares the tollowing similarities with ben!bin!bi. First, it is used to express a past before past activity (22): (22)
[regarding a window that is now closed: You OPEN the window (and closed it again?)] a A:. E h(m sejle b sa a? AJAGBB you open window DET before Q 'Have you opened the window (and closed it)?' B: oo, n-hw-in sa gO. no I-open-it before NEG (Elicitation 1) 'No, I have not opened it' b. A:. I be opo a fense? PAMAKA you PAST open DET windOW 'Had you opened the window (and close it)?' B: No, mi an be opo en. no I NEG PAST open it (Elicitation 2) 'No, I have not open it'
171
172
Bettina Migge
Second, it is used to convey that a state no longer exists:
(23) [person talks about a house were they used to live which has been dismantled] a AipJ d lol6 san. house DET big before 'The house was big: b. Di wosu bi bigl. DET house PAST big 'The house was big:
WACIGBE (Elicitation 1)
SAAMAKA (Elicitation 2)
Third, in several varieties, it also regularly occurs in conditional clauses to express counterfactuality in the if-clause (24): (24)
a. b.
N:) " MO ehO sa, Jla xwle ehUn Mfkd. if I have money before I-PUT buy car one
Yee mi bi
a
moni
,wu mi bi o bai wa wagi. PAST PUT buy a car
if I PAST have money then I 'Ifl had the money, Hi buy a
car:
AJAGBE (Elicitation 1)
SAAMAKA (Elicitation 2)
Finally, although ben!bin!bi express the Past category in the creoles, it is not the only strategy for expressing past time reference. As in the Gbe varieties, past time reference is commonly conveyed by the unmarked verb form in conjunction with contextual clues (25): (25)
Di mi go doo, a doo f' en de, a booko a booko en. when I go arrive DET door Poss him there Poe break he break it 'The other day he ate three pieces of cake:
PAMAKA (Pamaka11)
These data show that, even though ben!bin!bi was clearly reanalysed from the English Present Perfect construction, there are close similarities in meaning with the adverbial Gbe construction. This clearly suggests that the emergence and retention of its meanings and broad distribution in the creoles was reinforced by substrate influence.
4.6
Conclusion
The discussion demonstrated that substrate influence affected the emergence and development of creole features in different ways. At one end of the continuum, we find (near-)perfect copies of substrate features and, at the other end, cases where substrate influence was only one of the contributing factors in the emergence and maintenance of certain semantic properties of a creole feature. Most features would lie between these two extreme poles. Moreover, the investigation showed that absence of homogeneity in substrate strategies for expressing a particular category does not necessarily inhibit the occurrence of substrate influence; speakers either pick one of the available options or instantiate both. In relation to conceptualising creole genesis, this suggests that substrate influence played an important role in the emergence of creole grammars, but did not affect each creole feature in the same way or to the same extent. Other sources and processes interacted with substrate influence and thus came to affect them in different ways. In Section 5, I look in more detail at how the different sources and processes intersected with substrate influence.
Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the creoles of Suriname
5·
The interaction between substrate influence and other sources
In discussions about creole genesis, one of the questions that has received much attention is the relative contribution of each of the main inputs - namely, substrate influence, superstrate influence and language-internal change- to the formation and development of creole grammar. In some theories, such as the substrate theory and the relexification theory, the substrate contributed the bulk of the semantic and syntactic information, while superstrate influence is primarily responsible for the lexical shape and some word order phenomena (Lefebvre 1998). In other theories, such as the superstrate theory, the lexical shape and the bulk of the semantic and syntactic information are argued to come from superstrate varieties while substrate influence was seen to mainly reinforce similar superstrate features (Mufwene 2006). Language-internal change is responsible for new features that diverged from superstrate and substrate patterns.
5.1
The interaction between superstrate and substrate influence
The discussion of the emergence of the TMA system in the creoles of Suriname so far suggests that superstrate and substrate influences interacted in different ways. In the case of some TMA features, such as the Perfective Aspect category, superstrate influence does not seem to have played a role at all. In other cases, the superstrate provided the structure from which the element expressing a category- and, ultimately, also the category itself- was reinterpreted due to substrate influence. A case in point is the emergence of the Progressive (Imperfective) marker. Although English also has a verb meaning 'to exisf, it is lexically, semantically and dis tributionally different from its counterpart in the creoles. De was reinterpreted from the distallocational adverb 'there' in copulaless locational phrases of the sort given in (21b). Once it had been interpreted as an existential verb (21c) due to its identification with its substrate counterpart, it also came to function as a Progressive marker- and locational copula, predicator of stative reduplicated adjectives, etc. (Migge 2002)- by analogy with the substrate counterpart with which it had become identified. In other cases, there are similarities in form and function between the superstrate and the creole feature and these meanings overlap to a certain degree with those found in the substrate. The past marker ben/be/bin, for instance, clearly emerged from been in English present perfect constructions. While its primary and secondary functions in the creoles- past-time marking and marking of counterfactuality and politeness -are clearly not synonymous with its English functions, the creole functions can be easily derived from the English functions, as seen above. However, they also overlap with those of its substrate counterpart This suggests that the two sources acted together or reinforced each other. ln yet other cases, such as the category of Necessity, there are definite similarities in form and meaning between the superstrate and the creole feature. The semantic similarities between the creole teature and Gbe are slightly stronger, however. In the creoles, Necessity is expressed by the elements mu (Ndyuka, Pamaka) and musu (Saamaka, Sranan Tongo) which both derive from English must. In English, must conveys strong obligation. but the creole and Gbe forms express both weak and strong obligation.
173
174
Bettina Migge
(26)
a
b.
c.
(27)
a.
b.
c.
Ml anga yu, a moyti u mu meki a den baka. me with you it effort we must make we their back '[talking about relationship to Europeans:] Me and you, we must make an effort to keep up with them: Yee i lee di moni fi i, nou tide ndeti if you want DET money for you then today night you musu ko a mi. must come Loc me 'If you want your money, you must come to me tonight: ijfbet:J MO na nu est human must PUT drink water 'Hwnans must drink water:
PAMAKA
(Pamaka-NSF 1)
SAAMAKA (Elicitation 2) MAXIGBE (Elicitation 1)
tbl mu membe taki nd wan sani di a e du fu a go anga you NEG must believe that NEG One thing REL he IMPP do for he go with baka [...]. A SIJSIJ a Jesi a e gwe. PAMAKA back POC only DET fuce he IMPF go 'You should not believe that he [European] is doing anything that makes him go backwards, (Pamaka-NSF1) he only moves forwards.' Di sembe de a musu suku muyee bifo a gaandi. SAAMAKA DET person there he must search woman before he old 'That man should find a wife before he is old: (Elicitation 2) 0 MO na kple akw:) tuwe. MAXIGBE you must FUT collect money your (Elicitation 1) 'You should save your money.'
I
In English, Gbe and the creoles, this element is also used to express admonition and forbidding (28), probability (29), inferred certainty (30). (28)
a
b.
(29)
a
b.
(30)
Den lanti an mu koli den foluku fu den. DET government NEG must fool DET people POSS them 'The government must not fool its people: PC mJ M6 ld flu agblad?Jt:J w6 o. com.party NEG must PUT fool furmer PL INSIST 'The communist party must not fool the peasants.' A mu de a osu nounou. he must be-at we house now 'He must be at home now.' Jan M6 ld n:) ax6me fiJian. Jean must PUT coP house now. 'Jean must be at home right now:
[you see a totally destroyed motorbike at a tree] A man musu dede (tuutuu/ye). DET man must dead true-true/assertion 'The man must (surely) be dead.'
a
b.
Kakat:J a M6
Ia ku
kpo e.
driver DET must FUT dead SUre INSIST 'The driver must surely be dead.'
PAMAKA (Elicitation 2) WACIGBE (Capo, pc, 2003) PAMAKA (Elicitation 2) GENGBE (Elicitation 1) PAMAKA (Elicitation 2) WACIGBE (Capo, pc, Nov. 2003)
Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the creoles of Suriname
Note that there are also similarities in the categorical status. The Gbe and the Ndyuk.a and Pamak:a Necessity elements, mu and M6la respectively, seem to be markers in that they cannot be extraposed without the main verb following. The Saamaka, Sranan Tongo and English forms, musu and must, are modal verbs. 5.2
Substrate influence and language-internal change
Substrate influence also interacts with language-internal change. Our discussion so far suggests that language-internal change essentially operates on structures that had previously emerged due to the interaction of substrate and su perstrate structures. Cases in point are the emergence of the Imperfective marker in the Surinamese creoles (Migge 2003a and above). Once de had emerged as a Progressive marker due to the substrate-driven reinterpretation of the English distallocational adverb there in locational phrases, de was extended to habitual and generic contexts. Since there are no clear models for this usage in any of the source languages, it most likely occurred due to the language-internal process of semantic extension that is cross-linguistically commonly attested. In a few cases, the emergence of a category seems to be entirely due to language-internal change. An example is the emergence of the Future category and marker in the Surinamese ereales. Migge and Goury (2008) and others (Van den Berg 2007 and references therein) argue that the contemporary future marker o developed from the construction de go V and the Saamak.a equivalent ta.n go V attested in the early texts written in Sranan Tango and Saamak:a, respectively. Superstrate sources do not seem responsible for the emergence of these constructions since this kind of Progressive Future construction is not attested in Dutch, and the 'be going to' construction in English emerged only at the end of the seventeenth century. However, there is a possible model in the Gbevarieties, namely the Prospective Future construction (see Table 2). In the latter construction, the verb is juxtaposed with the existential/locative verb and a particle expressing Progressive Aspect (see Table 2). It seems quite likely that when the creators of the creoles reinterpreted the adverb de as an existential verb on the basis of the existential verb in their native Gbe (Migge 2002), de also came to be extended to constructions expressing prospective future. Evidence in favour of this can be seen in the fact that modern e < de does not only express Progressive and Habitual Aspect. but also Intentional Future notions (31), as a secondary meaning. (31)
a
a
tamaa
mi e
dongo.
tomorrow I IMPF go.d.own-river 'It's tomorrow that I'll go down river? mi e begin den examen taa wiki. I IMPF start DET exam other week 'I'm going to start the exams next week.'
PAMAKA
Foe
b.
(Elicitation 2) PAMAKA
(field.notes 2008)
Once this prospective future construction had been instantiated, the combination de + movement verb go emerged as a future-marking strategy. De go then reduced to go and finally to o. This analysis is supported by two pieces of evidence. First, grammaticalisation of a 'movement towards a goal construction' (I'm going to ... ) to a Future construction is a well-attested path of development (Bybee et al. 1994; Heine & Kuteva 2002). Second, all three stages (de go, go and o) are attested in the early texts.
175
176
Bettina Migge
Finally, the only case that may possibly contradict the hypothesis that language-internal change takes place after the initial emergence of creole features due to substrate and superstrate influence is the emergence scenario for the Past marker. This case suggests that the initial Kinterpretation" of been as a past marker was due to a contextually driven reinterpretation of English Present Perfect constructions involving been.
6.
Conclusion
The discussion in this paper suggests that substrate influence was clearly central to the emergence of the TMA categories in the creoles of Suriname. However, substrate influence played a different role in the formation of the different categories. We can establish a continuum ranging from features that were completely due to substrate influence to those for which only the initial construction from which the category derived had emerged due to substrate influence while emergence was mainly driven by a different process. The study also shows that substrate influence interacted in many different ways with the European input(s) and language-internal change. While the former interacted with substrate influence to give rise to the initial categories and elements, the latter mainly affected them after their initial instantiation. The research on the TMA system in the creoles of Suriname then challenges views that conceptualise creolisation or creole tormation as a separate, unitary and abrupt process of language creation (Thomason & Kaufman 1988) and supports those that conceptualise creole formation as a gradual and multilayered process (Arends 1993; Bruyn 1995) involving processes oflanguage change that also operate in other so-called "normal" contact settings (Lefebvre 1998; Thomason & Kaufinan 1988; Winford 2003).1he present-day TMA system emerged in several stages involving first, "interference through shift" - speakers of Mrican languages reinterpreted strings and elements from L2 English according to L1 models - and retention of superstrate models. Second, other elements, categories and functions later emerged either as a result of gradual language-internal change (and contact) affecting elements that had previously emerged due to interference through shift or as a result of retention.
List of abbreviations COMPL Completive aspect Dl!T Determiner FOC Focus marker HAB
IMPF INSIST
MOD Nl!G
Habitual aspect Imperfective aspect Marker of insistence and emphasis Modality Negative marker
PAST PL POSS PROG Q
Rl!D Rl!L
Past time marker Plural Possessive marker Progressive Question particle Reduplication Relative marker
Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the creoles of Suriname
References Arends, J. 1993. Towards a gradualist model of creolization. In Atlantic meets Pacific [Creole Language Library 11), F. Byrne & J. Holm (eds), 371-380. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Arends, J. 1995. Demographic factors in the formation ofSranan. In The Early Stages of Creolization [Creole Language Library 13], J. Arends (ed.), 233-285. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Arends, J. & M. Perl. 1995. Early Suriname Creole texts: A collection of 18th-century Sranan and Saramaccan docwnents. Frankfurt: Vervuert Bruyn, A. 1995. Grammaticalization in Creoles: The Development of Determiners and Relative Clauses in Sranan [Studies in Language and Language Use 21). Amsterdam: IFOTT. Bruyn, A. 1996. On identifying instances of grammaticalization in Creole languages. In Changing Meanings, Changing Functions: Papers Relating to Grammaticalization in Contact Languages, P. Baker & A. Syea (eds), 29-46. London: University of Westminster Press. Bybee, J., Perkins, R & Pagliuca, W. 1994. The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect, and Modality in the Languages of the World. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Capo, H. B. C. 1988. Renaissance du gbe: Rejlexions critiques et constructives sur lble, le fan, le gen, Iilja, le gun, etc. Hamburg: Helmut Buske. Dahl, 0. 1985. Ttmse and Aspect Systems. Oxford: Blackwell. de Kleine, C. 2002 Surinamese Dutch. In The Atlas of the Languages of Suriname, E. Carlin & J. Arends (eds), 209-230. Leiden: KITLVPress. Essegbey, J. 2005. The 'basic locative construction' in Gbe languages and Surinamese Creoles. Journal ofPidgin and Creole languages 20: 229-268. Essegbey, J. & Ameka, F. 2007. 'Cut' and 'break' verbs in Gbe and Sranan. Journal ofPidgin and Creole languages 22:37-56. Goury, L 2003. Le ndyuka. Une langue creole du Surinam et de Guya,re franfaise. Paris: I:Harmattan. Goury, L & Migge, B. 2003. Grammaire du nengee: Introduction awe langues aluku, ndjuka et pamaka [Collection Didactique]. Paris: Editions IRD. Goury, L. & Migge, B. 2008. Between contact and internal development: Towards a multi-layered explanation for the development of the TMA system in the Creoles of Suriname. In Roots of Creole Structure: Weighing the Contribution of Substrates and Superstrates [Creole Language Library 33], S. Michaelis (ed.), 301-332. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Heine, B. & Kuteva, T. 2002 World Lexicon of Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Huttar, G. 1981. Some Kwa-li.ke features of Djuka syntax. Studies in African Linguistics 12: 291-323. Huttar, G. 1985. Sources ofNdjuka African vocabulary. De Nieuwe We.st-Indische Gids 59: 45-71. Huttar, G. 1986. KiKongo, Saramaccan, and Ndyuka. In Language in Global Perspective: Papers in Honour of the 50th Anniversary of the Summer Institute of Linguistics 1935-1985, B. Elson (ed.), 563-586. Dallas TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Huttar, G., Essegbey, J. & Ame.ka, F. 2007. Gbe and other West African sources of Suriname Creole semantic structures: Implications for Creole genesis. Journal of Pidgin and Creole languages 22(1): 57-72 Lefebvre, C. 1998. Creole Genesis and the Acquisition of Grammar. The Case of Haitian Creole. Cambridge: CUP. Lefebvre, C. & Loranger, V. 2006. On the properties of Saramaccan FU: Synchronic and diachronic perspectives. Journal ofPidgin and Creole Languages 21:275-335. Leglise, I. & Migge, B. 2006. Language naming practices, ideologies and linguistic practices: Toward a comprehensive description oflanguage varieties. Language in Society 35: 313-339. McWhorter, J. H. 1992 Substrata! influence on Saramaccan serial verb constructions. Journal ofPidgin and Creole Languages7: 1-53. McWhorter, J. H. 1995. Sisters under the skin: A case for genetic relationship between the Atlantic English-based creoles.Journal ofPidgin and Creole Languages 10:289-333.
177
178
Bettina Migge
McWhorter, J. H. 1997. Lost in transmission: A case for the independent emergence of the copula in Atlantic ereoles. In Pidgins and Creoles: Structure and Status [Creole Language Library 19], A. Spears & D. Winford (eds), 241-261. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Migge, B. 1998a. Substrate Influence in the Formation of the Surinamese Plantation Creole: A Consideration of Sociohistorical Data and Linguistic Data from Ndyuka and Gbe. PhD dissertation, Ohio State University. Migge, B. 1998b. Substrate influence in Creole formation: The origin of give-type serial verb constructions in the Surinamese Plantation Creole. journal ofPidgin and Creole Languages 13: 215-265. Migge, B. 1999. The Origin ofPrepositional Phrases in the Surinamese Plantation Creole. 9th International Colloquium on Creole Studies. Universite de Aix-en-Province, Aix-en-Province, France. Migge, B. 2000. The origin of property items in the Surinamese Plantation Creole. In Language Change and Language Contact in Pidgins and Creoles [Creole Language Library 21], J. H. McWhorter (ed.), 201-234. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Migge, B. 2002 The origin of the copulas (dln)a and de in the Eastern Maroon Creole. Diachro,Jica 19:83-136. Migge, B. 2003a. Creole Formation as Language Contact: The Case of the Suriname Creoles [Creole Language Library 25]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Migge, B. 2003b. The origin of predicate reduplication in the Suriname Eastern Maroon Creole. In Twice as Meaningful. Reduplication in Pidgi1u, Creoles and other Contact Languages, S. Kouwenberg (ed.), 61-71. London: Battle bridge. Migge, B. 2006. Tracing the origin of modality in the creoles of Suriname. In Structure a,Jd Variation in Co,Jtact Languages [Creole Language Library 29],A. Deumert &S. Durrleman-Tame (eds), 29-59. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Migge, B. & Goury, L. 2008. Between contact and internal development; ToWllfds a multi-layered explanation for the development of the TMA system in the Creoles of Suriname. In Roots of Creole Structures [Creole Language Library 33], S. Michaelis (ed.), 301-331. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Migge, B. & Smith, N. 2007. Introduction: Substrate influence in creole formation. In Substrate influence in creole genesis. journal o_fPidgin and Creole Languages 22(1): 1-15. Migge, B. & Winford, D. 2009. The origin and development of possibility in the Surinamese creoles. In Roots of Creole Structures: Weighing the Contribution of Substrates and Superstrates [Creole Language Library 34], R. Selbach, H. C. Cardoso & M. Van den Berg (eds),129-154. Amsterdam: John Benjamlns. Mufwene, S. 2006. Albert Valdman on the development of creoles. In History, Society a,Jd Variation: In Ho,wr of Albert Valdman, J. C. Clements et al. (eds.), 203-223. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Schuchardt, H. (ed.). 1914. Die Sprache der Saramakkaneger in Surinam. Amsterdam: Johannes Milller. Singler, J. 1988. The homogeneity of the substrate as a factor in pidgin/creole genesis. Language 64: 27-51. Smith, N. 1996. Focus-marking we in Saramaccan: Grammaticalization or substrate. In Changing Meanings, Changing Punctio,u: Papers Relating to Grammaticalization in Co,Jtact Languages, P. Baker & A. Syea (eds), 113-128. London: University of Westminster Press. Smith, N. 2001. Voodoo Chile: Differential substrate effects in Saramaccan and Haitian. In Creolization and Language Contact, N. Smith & T. Veenstra (eds), 43-80. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Smith, N. & Haboo, V. 2007. The Saramaccan implosives: Tools for linguistic archaeology. journal of Pidgin and Creole languages 22: 101-122 Thomason, S. G. 1993. On identifying the sources of creole structures. In Africanisms in Afro-AmericmJ Language Varieties, S. Mufwene (ed.), 280-295. Athens GA: University of Georgia Press. Thomason, S. G. & Kaufman, T. 1988. Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. Uffmann, C. 2008. Vowel epenthesis and Creole syllable structure. In Roots of Creole Structures, S. Michaelis (ed.), 123-152 Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Valdman, A. 1977. Creolisation sans pidgin: Le systeme des determinants du nom dans les parlers franco-creoles. In Langues en contact: Pidgin-Creoles-Languages in contact, J. Meisel (ed.), 105-136. Tiibingen: Narr.
Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the creoles of Suriname
van den Berg, M. 2001. 'Mingo, joi'l no man': Oud-Sranan in verhoren en verslagen van rechtsza.ken. Oso 20: 241-253. van den Berg, M. 2007. A Grammar of Early Sranan. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam. Winford, D. 2000. Irrealisin Sranan: Mood and modality in a radical creole. Journal ofPidgin and Creole Languages 15(1): 63-126. Winford, D. 2003. An Introduction to Contact Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwel1 Winford, D. & Migge, B. 2007. Substrate influence on the emergence of the TMA systems of the Surinamese creoles./oumal of Pidgin and Creole languages 22: 73-99.
179
African substrata! influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole* Genevieve Escure University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
Belizean Creole (BC) has a counterfactual structure expressed by a preverbal combination of the past and future morphemes (me wan V). There is no equivalent structure in the English superstrate of Belizean Creole, so the possibility of the continuity and transmission of African substrata! features (especially from Bantu) is explored here. Furthermore, although many creoles mark counterfactuality in one way or another, the only English-based creoles exhibiting a past+ future sequence - albeit with different morphemes - are Krio, Sranan and Guyanese Creole, and they are all geographically distant from Bellze. I will attempt to explain the unique presence of BC me wan in terms of the particular sociolinguistic history of Belize. Belize differs from other West Indian colonies in the sense that it was never a plantation society, but rather a settlement (British Honduras) that was exclusively dedicated to the exploitation oflogwood Due to the woodcutting economy, African slave-labourers remained relatively isolated from European influences in forest camps and may therefore have retained more African linguistic characteristics than the plantation slaves in other colonies. In addition, the territory of British Honduras was particularly exposed to interethnic contacts within Central America and the possibility that such contacts impacted the linguistic development of the creole cannot be discounted Keywords: counterfactual, past negation, Belize history, Belizean Creole, Kwa, Benue-Congo, Garifuna, interethnic contacts
Introduction
1.
Belizean Creole has a special counterfa.ctual structure - expressed by a past+future preverbal combination [me wa.n V]. Some African languages also exhibit parallel sequences, so the presence of this feature in Belizean Creole (BC) may well represent the continuity and transmission of the African substrate, considering that there is no equivalent structure in superstrate Indo-European languages. Although many creoles have counterfactual structures, BC differs from them in its distinctive use of the past+future morphological combination. I will attempt to
Many thanks to Urnberto Ansaldo, Anthony Grant and Claire Lefebvre for their insightful comments on this chapter.
182
Genevieve Escure
explain the (probably conservative) presence of this idiosyncratic sequence in terms of the sociolinguistic history of Belize, in particular with reference to the origin and ethnicity of its African labour force, but also the potential impact oflocal interethnic contacts in Central America. Section 2 reviews the sociohistorical and linguistic background of Belize. I then outline and illustrate the counterfactual feature in BC and other creoles in Section 3 and its reflexes in some West African (Kwa and Benue-Congo) languages, including a special negative allomorph in Section 4. Other putative substrates are briefly explored in Section 5 before the concluding overview of findings in Section 6.
2.
The sociolinguistic background
Belize, the former British colony of British Honduras, is a complex society in spite of its small size. It has the lowest population density in Central America (240,204 according to the 2000 Population Census) for a territory covering barely 13,000 square kilometres. However, because of its pivotal geographical position at the juncture of Central America and the West Indies as well as its complicated history, it exhibits both multiculturalism and multilingualism. It is also the Central American country with the highest percentage of English-speakers, since the Creole group currently amounts to almost one third of the total population. The population is generally identified as including four major groups: Creoles, Mestizos, Amerindians (Maya) and Garinagu (see Note 2). All speak different native languages as shown in Table 1. Although the Creole group is now statistically exceeded by the Mestizo group (who are generally Spanish speakers), Belizean Creole is in fact a thriving lingua franca, constantly gaining speakers thanks to its popularity and identity value even in the non-Creole population (Escure 2004a, b, 2005).
2.1
A tumultuous history
The Yucatan peninsula was largely peripheral to Spain's economic policy in Latin America, and yet the Bay of Honduras, a remote stretch of the Central American coast, was for a long time a subject of dispute between Spain and England. Unlike other Caribbean regions, Belize was not Table 1. Ethnic groups in Belize in 2000 (Escure 2004a)
%
Ethnic group
Language
Population
Mestizo Creole Maya Garifuna.. Mennonite East Indian Other TOTAL
Spanish,BC Belizean Creole Maya,BC Garifuna,BC German,BC Bellzean Creole Chinese, Arabic
112,935
47.0
67,480
26.1
24,400
10.2
15,685
6.5
8,125 8,020
3.4 3.3
3,559
1.5
240,204
* Garifima is the language, its speakers are Garinagu (previously Black Caribs).
African substrata! influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole
initially a plantation society, but was primarily exploited for its precious woods, such as Iogwood, mahogany, rosewood and sapodilla that were in great demand in Europe. 1 The Spaniards were the first to conduct the wood trade. The Bay of Honduras also offered convenient shelters for British buccaneers, usually based in Jan1aica, from which they could launch their attacks on the Spanish galleons transporting cargoes of precious woods. However, exploitation of the areas natural forestry resources soon became the primary activity of the English privateers when buccaneering was outlawed in 1685. The beginning of the British settlement in the Bay of Honduras (in the 1620s) is not well documented. The "colony of Honduras" is qualified as an "isolated possession [... ] to be classed among the lesser chapters in the development of the Empire, for the number of those engaged were always small and their adventures were little known even to their contemporaries" (Burdon 1935:xii). Determining the origin of the slave force brought to Belize to work in the Iogwood camps is a challenging issue, as it is in most other colonial societies. Consequently, the search for putative African substrata! influence is primarily speculative and based on indirect evidence. In the seventeenth century, the labour force in the colonial British West Indies was primarily supplied by white indentured servants. A stable economy based on African slave labour did not emerge until1740 in Jamaica. This was probably the case for Belize as well. It is generally assumed that the slaves employed as woodcutters in Belize were imported from Jamaica, which was the closest British colony, rather than directly from Mrica, but there is no clear record of the time of arrival of the first slaves or their origin. Burdon ( 19 35) rarely mentions slaves in his Archives of British Honduras (three volumes) that record significant events spanning a period ranging from 1667 to 1884. He refers to the King of Spain's orders (1766) to grant freedom to slaves who escaped their British masters and often mentions the "fatal effects of slave seduction on the wood-cutting industry" (Burdon 1935: 15, 111). Indeed, the Spanish systematically attempted to harass the British by promising freedom to a slave population that certainly outnumbered their masters. During 1773, there were several insurrections along the Belize River. The rebels, in groups ranging from six to fifty, took five settlements and killed six white men (Burdon 1935: 121-123). Considering the rugged, sparsely populated geography of the mahogany forests, it is very likely that slaves scattered in largely unsupervised camps had "a better chance of complete escape than on the islands of the Caribbean" (de Groot et al. 1997: 169). Maroon groups. such as the runaway slaves who rebelled in 1673 and fled the sugar plantations ofJantaica (Alleyne 1980: 142) must have formed isolated groups, which would have tacilitated the retention of African features in the developing creole. As the Iogwood trade was expanded to other British settlements along the Central American coast, such as the Bay Islands of Honduras and the Mosquito Shores of Nicaragua, there were extensive internal migrations, mostly due to various skirmishes between the Spanish and the British, which complicates tracing the roots of the contemporary local people. Africans escaped from Spanish mines or English plantations - especially after the English Puritans were routed out of Providence Island by the Spaniards- and found refuge on the eastern Nicaraguan coast.
1. The Belize Estate and Produce Company Ltd from London was established in 1875 and owned more than one fifth of the country in 1942. The forest was so voraciously plundered that it was mostly exhausted by the end of the nineteenth century, leaving behind bare northern and central areas (Grant 1976).
183
184
Genevieve Escure
A mixed black-Indian population emerged, the Miskito-Zambo, who established commercial links with the British in the early part of the eighteenth century, conducting slave raids and selling captives to the British for the Jamaican slave market or to foreign settlers on the Miskito Coast (Helms 1983: 184). When the English colonists were forced by the Spanish to evacuate the British Settlement of the Mosquito Coast in 1787, Miskito Indians joined them in British Honduras. The arrival of new settlers - K537 free and 1777 slaves from the evacuated Mosquito Shore" - is noted by Burdon (1935: 45). The Miskito had close links with Belize (Miskito kings were crowned in Belize City), so their slaves may have added to the Belize work force. Finally, another Mro- Indian group contributed to the ethnic and linguistic melting pot. Mter a failed rebellion, the "Black Caribs" or Garinagu were deported by the British in 1797, from the Eastern Caribbean (St Vincent) to Central America (specifically to the island of Roatan, in the Bay Islands of Honduras). This group developed out of contacts and intermarriage between Amerindians and runaway slaves from British or French plantations in the vicinity of Barbados or St Lucia, as well as a cargo of slaves shipwrecked near St Vincent Like the Jamaican Maroons, the Mrican forebears of the Garinagu may have been Cromantees from the Akan-speaking area, according to Craton (1997:238). Following their deportation to Central America, many moved from their original settlements in Honduras northward to Belize, and others southward to the Miskito Coast (now Nicaragua). Those who lived along the Miskito Coast were involved in trading with the Miskito/Zambo. It is therefore impossible to discount multiple, multiethnic linguistic influences that resulted from the complex population movements that swept across the Caribbean from East to West into Central America (Escure 2004b ). 2 Approximations of Belize's population development can be inferred from various occasional references. According to the Colonial Office (1803), Belize's population in 1800 numbered 4,000 people, including 3,000 slaves and only 300 whites. Table 2 shows an approximation of the demographic expansion of the settlement of British Honduras. This table is a reduced version ofintormation on Caribbean populations, 1700-1900, which was culled from various sources (Engerman & Higman 1997: 48-54). The British Honduras Settlement became a Crown colony in 1862 and gained independence in 1981. Table 2. British Honduras population, 1750, 1830, 1880
Year 1750 1830 1880
White
so 302 375
Slave
Free persons of colour
Total
114 1,898
6 1,999
170 4,200 27,452*
?
* Including 2,037 Black Caribs.
The Garinagu probably spoke a creole that they learned in the Eastern Caribbean, but they also preserved their own language Garifuna, which is an Arawak/Carib contact language with extensive French borrowing (due to lengthy alliances with the French in St Vincent). They are still fluent speakers of Belizean Creole, even in Spanish-speaking Honduras. 2.
African substrata! influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole
2.2
The language context
Africans brought to the Caribbean between 1650 and 1900 had diverse origins, although most came from West Africa. African captives in the early eighteenth century originated mostly from the stretch of coast ranging from the Senegambia to the Bight of Benin. More than half of the slaves taken by the British and the French came from the Akan people of the Gold Coast (Engerman & Higman 1997: 79-80; Vila Vilar 1999: 161). lf creoles display any linguistic influence traceable back to ancestral languages, the most likely candidates would belong to languages spoken along the Atlantic coast ofWest Africa- in parts of Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin, Nigeria and Liberia - and thus belonging to the Kwa and Benue Congo phyla (e.g., Gbe, Ga, Yoruba, Igbo, Ashanti) or Ijoid.3 In addition, Bantu languages - a large subgroup of the Benue-Congo family, spoken throughout Central and South Africa - may have been ancestral languages of the transported slaves, as well as other non-Bantu languages spoken in Nigeria and Cameroon. The range of possibilities is enormous and the usual approach is to look at features common to several West African languages as likely candidates for transmission into the creoles invented by the slaves. There are a tew traces of African language retentions (mostly Yoruba varieties) in religious contexts in Cuba and Brazil, and Twi/Akan was once spoken by the Jamaican Maroons. Besides some relatively rare lexical items (e.g., nyam 'eat'), African influences are likely to be reflected in more subtle structural patterns, represented in morphological or syntactic features. The most extreme version of the substrate hypothesis for creole formation was first expressed by Sylvain (1936), who claimed that Haitian Creole was Ewe (part of the Gbe cluster) grammar with French lexicon. This approach was more recently refined and developed in the relexification theory (Lefebvre 1996). Some creolists have defined a cline of English-based creoles showing variable African influence, in descending order from most to least influenced by African features: Saramaccan and Sranan; next, Krio and Gullah; then, rural varieties ofJamaican, Antiguan and Guyanese; and finally, urban African-American varieties in the United States and middle class speech everywhere (Alleyne 1980: 18). BC is not included in this cline, but it is probably a more conservative variety than Jamaican Creole (JC). 4 It would tallow from the (unconfirmed but plausible) hypothesis of the importation of slaves from Jamaica that an early stage of Jamaican Creole was brought to Belize and became the basis of what is now BC. The relative isolation of the Iogwood camp slaves in Belize may have contributed to the preservation of African linguistic characteristics, especially if the slaves had a common ethnic heritage. Jamaican and Belizean offer many structural similarities (also occurring in other Caribbean creoles), but they are not identical, especially in their morphological realisation. For example, BC's impertective morpheme - continuative and habitual- is de and its tocusing particle is da, butJC uses the morpheme a for both. 5 There are other differences between JC and 3· Thanks to Anthony Grant for pointing out the ambiguous status of Ijo, which was originally classified as Kwa by Greenberg, but has been reclassilied in a "co-ordinate branch of Central Niger-Congo" (Heine & Nurse 2000a: 16, 22).
4· Jamaican rural varieties have been reported to use (rarely) the distinctive- and widespread- Belizean morphemeda.
5· There are rare instances of the morpheme a functioning as a topic particle in BC (whereas dais widespread).
185
186
Genevieve Escure
BC, but the principal Belizean singularity to be examined here involves the counterfactual that JC does not have. In fact, the closest equivalents to the BC counterfactual occur in far-flung areas (South America and West Africa), for example in Sranan, Guyanese Creole and Krio, whereas the closest neighbours- JC and Gullah- do not have a counterfactual. Variations between BC and JC suggest that different social factors or linguistic influences may have operated in the two areas. The most obvious reason for the difference relates to the fact that Belize is not an island nation like Jamaica, but has always maintained close links with other Central American British settlements. As indicated above, the language may thus have been subjected to multiple influences from other mainland slave populations, as well as from local mixed Afro-Indian groups that lived in close contacts with the African slaves (Miskito/Zambu and Garinagu). The evidence for African - or for that matter Amerindian6 - language presence in the Bay of Honduras during colonisation is non-existent, in contrast to Jamaica and Trinidad where traces ofYoruba, Kikongo and Kromanti have been clearly identified. Although there were strong pressures on the slaves to discontinue the use of their native languages, African languages continued to be spoken for a considerable time in the New World (Alleyne 1980: 141-142; Lovejoy 2004: 33 ). In spite of the absence of information on language usage in Belize in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it is plausible to assume that African languages survived in the isolated Iogwood camps and contributed to the development of the local creole. Substrata! African influence is apparent in Belizean Creole, as in other creoles in many aspects of its verbal and nominal representation. African languages present elements that are widespread in creoles, such as prefixal verbal inflection, including perfective vs. imperfective aspect, as well as other subtle tense/ aspect categories, foreground vs. background marking, serialisation and topicalisation. Many of those features occur in languages belonging to the Niger-Congo phylum, but are rare outside Africa (Creissels 2000:239).
3·
The counterfactual in Belize
Although TMA features and their connection to West African languages are relatively well documented in creoles in general, the counterfactual feature represented as a past+future morphological sequence is not often mentioned in the literature. This counterfactual (i.e. contrary to fact) pattern is often used in creoles to capture an unrealised event, often conditional to another. This is mostly reflected after an "if clause': An approximate equivalent in English is the "past conditional" ('would have come') in the consequent clause ['(if I had known) I would have come']. However, I will show that the Belizean counterfactual covers a broader range of meanings than the English equivalent structures. Caribbean creoles (e.g., JC, Gullah, Miskito Coast Creole) do not have the past+future counterfactual at all, using instead the English modals wuda or J..-uda, or even a simple past auxiliary ('did' or 'was'), but the past+future structure is widespread and stable in BC and merits close
6. By the time of the Spanish conquest of Central America, there were no longer signs of important Amerindian population around the great archeological sites of the Peten area (Guatemala and Belize).
African substrata! influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole
examination because of its connection to African languages. It is illustrated in (1) and following examples: 7 (1)
a
b.
If yu
si an hai pantap a mangru no go luk i gaan lang taim Be if 2s see 3s high on.top of mangrove NEG go look 3s gone long time sambadi me wcm pik it in somebody ANT FU pick it up 'If you see [a rope] on top of the mangrove, don't even look, ifs no good, somebody would have already picked it up: (Escure 1983a: 36)
In (la), a hypothetical situation is evoked ('if you can see a rope lying on the mangrove'); (1b) proposes a hypothetical event to explain why 'it's no good' (the rope is not usable). The imagined event ('someone would have already taken it'- if it were usable) is represented in BC by the me wan combination.
Representations of the counterfactual
3.1
Counterfactuals have generally been briefly mentioned, and minimally discussed, by Alleyne (1980: 11, 86), Bickerton (1975:42), Escure (1997:48, 2004a: 536), Holm (1983b: 103, 2000: 189), Robertson(1990: 179), Voorhoeve (1957: 383) and Winford (1993: 359-360). Lefebvre (1996:28329 5) offers the most thorough treatment of this feature (referred to as "conditional"). In her comparison of Fongbe and Haitian Creole, she shows that "in both languages, the interpretation of a clause containing both the marker of anteriority and the definite future marker is conditional" (Lefebvre 1996: 283). In English-based creoles, the counterfactual is represented as bin go (Krio), bin sa (Sranan), bin sa I bin go (Guyanese Creole) - all located far from Belize-, but it is uniquely me wan in Belizean Creole. In creoles with a different lexical base, it is, for example, wa malsa in Berbice Dutch and te ap I tava in Haitian Creole. The lexical variations of the past and future markers in English-based creoles are illustrated below: (2)
(3)
Ef a ben kon eside, mi ben sa aksi en dati. if Is ANT come inside ls ANT FU ask 3s that 'If he had come yesterday, I would have asked him that.' If dem bin si am, dem bin sa biit am baad. if 3P ANT see 3S 3P ANT FU beat 3S bad 'If they had seen him, they would have beaten him badly.'
(4) If ren no bin kam, a bin go t-~ooaka. if rain Nl!G ANT come Is ANT FU walk 'If it hadn't rained, I would have walked:
SRANAN
(Alleyne I980: 86) GUYANESE
(Alleyne 1980: 86) KRIO
(Alleyne I980: 86)
7. Regardless of their tense or aspectual values (to be discussed), me will be abbreviated as ANT (anterior) and wan as FU (future). When quoting data from other authors, I conform to their chosen term -for example Pl!RF for past perfective, which I assume to be equivalent to ANT for the purpose of this discussion.
187
188
Genevieve Escure
(5) Dat da we a me wtm tel you, man. That TOP what ls ANT FU tell 2s man 'That's what I would have told you (if you had listened): (6)
a
b.
c.
If
dey me wan dig wan ship auta de a mean 8 if 3P ANT FU dig a ship out.of there 1s mean you me wan ga wan lang channel,
BC
(Escure 1980: R 1.6) Be
2s ANT FU get a long channel den an me wan put dat san op de. then 3P ANT FU put that sand up there 'If you had dug out a ship out of that spot, I mean, you would have needed (to excavate) a long channel, then you would have put that sand away up there? (Escure 1980: 5.1.15)
Individual functions of me and wan
3.2
In Belize at least, and apparently in other varieties as well, the ANT morpheme that constitutes the first element of the counterfactual is not a simple indicator of past, or perfect, or past-before-past. When used by itself in preverbal position (independently from the counterfactual), it indicates a relative past, sometimes denoting anteriority, but mostly indicating relevance to the context of the conversation. It is therefore a type of aspect rather than a simple tense marker. The following examples illustrate the various grammatical contexts of preverbal me in the real life conversations collected in Belize. It combines with a continuative morpheme (me de) in imperfective situations (7), in which it has a backgrounding function; with a locative verb phrase and before the locative verb (8); or it occurs directly before a noun phrase (9) in a predicate without a copula. In (10) the interaction of me+ V and me wan +Vis illustrated. The same morpheme me occurs in Miskito Coast Creole (MCC) (11 ), but in this variety, the past+future counterfactual has not been recorded to my knowledge: (7)
Wi me de luk fu rop wan taim an a fain di bes rop. lP ANT IMP look for rope one time and IS find the best rope 'We were looking for some rope. and I found the best rope:
Be
(Escure 1983a: 34)
(8)
Lata pipl me awt de, me de de9 da shalo paat. Be lot.of people ANT out there ANT we there at shallow part 'There were lots of people down there, (they) were at the shallow part: [before something happened] (Escure 1997: 105)
(9)
Wen a da 10 me wan grup lida de a now dem gyal. when ls TOP ANT a group leader there ls know 3P girl 'When I was a group leader there, I knew those girls:
BC
(Escure 1980:R2.10)
8. Note the presence of the counterfactual in the conditional clause as well.
9· The locative verb de is homophonous with the imperfective particle. There is a slight phonetic difference in the adverbial de 'there' (lower mid vowel) - not represented here. 10. It is dear in this sentence that da is a topic marker and not a copula, since it precedes me that is necessarily a preverbal auxiliary (Escure 1983 b).
African substrata! influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole
(10)
Tmli kaal mi tel mi dey me gat tu pipl we me wan kum in. sc Toni call 1s tell 1s 3s ANT get two people REL ANT FU come in 'Toni called me to tell me that they had two people who might come in.' (Escure 1997: 101-1 02)
In (10), it is clear that Toni called to refer to a prior event- two tourists had been in touch to ask if they could come on the island. This is mar ked by me get. The actual visit of the two people is unrealised, whence the use of me wan kum. 11 (11)
If a me ded a go12 pan di ship an haal yu af if 1s ANT dead 1s go on the ship and haul you off 'Ifl died, I would go to the ship and haul you ofP.
MCC
(Holm 1983a: 103)
The etymology of bin (as past or anterior marker) in many English-based creoles is a straightforward adaptation of the borrowed English morpheme 'been' (as in "he's been eating"). But what of the etymology of me in BC (also appearing occasionally as men, wen or ·we in other Central American varieties such as Nicaragua's Miskito Coast Creole and Providencia Creole)? The hypothesis that me was derived from 'been' (Alleyne 1980: 85) requires several phonetic changes modification of the bilabial onset (/b/ > /m/), of the vowel (Iii > /e/) and loss of the final nasal. However, such changes (especially the first) have not operated anywhere else in the lexicon (phonotactic constraints allow word-initial bilabial voiced stops, as in [bwai] 'boy' or [be] 'bay'). This explanation is also unsatisfactory because it assumes that ben is older than me, which is counterintuitive.13 I will therefore consider other possible etymological sources for BC me, in particular that of a direct Mrican loan. As to the future marker contained in the counterfactual, it generally functions as a straightforward tense marker. Its origin is unambiguous. Creole future markers are based on words indicating either direction or volition. This is a familiar pattern which accounts for the English future 'will' (volition), or the French future in -rai (je ma.ngera.i 'l will eat'), obviously derived from a grammaticalised form of'go'). So the differences between the wi future(< 'will' in Jamaican Creole),go (in Krio), sa(< 'shall' in Sranan and Guyanese) and wan(< 'want' in Belizean and Nicaraguan Miskito Coast Creole) simply reflect various choices oflexical forms selected from the superstrate. In this respect, BC is closer to JC, but still constitutes an exception among Caribbean English creoles, since all other varieties derive their future from a motion 'go' verb: (12)
a b.
A tel dem pipol dat nobodi els wcm de da kam 1s tell 3s people that nobody else FU Loc at camp A wan mek im now dat.
BC
1s FU make him know that 'I told those people that nobody else will be at the camp, I'll let him know that: (EscW'e 1997: 105)
11. Wan also exists as a separate verb, with the semantic value of 'want There is sometinles semantic ambiguity in the use of the future particle and, in fact, the irrealis value of the particle and the word 'want' overlap. 12. Ahhough Miskito Coast Creole has the anterior me like BC, it does not seem to have a past+ future counterfactual (at least not in the available data). Here, the bare verb has counterfactual value.
13. Some Jamaican Creole rural varieties are reported as having a min variant (Alleyne 1980: 85).
189
190
Genevieve Escure
(13)
Az mi nuo
di ruod, im wi se11
mi.
JAMAICAN CREOLE
as 1s know the road 3s FU send 1s 1\.s I know the road, she will send me.'
3·3
(Winford 1993:58)
Functions of the countertactual
Not all Caribbean varieties have a past+future counterfactual. They may use instead a variant of 'would have' (wuda/kuda ), even in the most basilectal varieties. This is the case for Jamaican Creole and Gullah. In addition, the English-style conditional also occurs in the mesolectal versions of those creoles that regularly use the specific countertactual. In Belizean varieties (especially in a basilect/mesolect borderline variety), wuda and kuda occasionally combine with the anterior morpheme me, thus producing a new hybrid counterfactual especially in intermediate varieties: (14)
Dey kuda me gu bak n tla. 3P could ANT go back and tear 'They could have gone back and fled.'
BC
(Escure 1980: 5.1.2)
The following short conversation illustrates the productive use of me in BC. which can denote various types of unrealised, imagined or reported events: ( 15)
[S. (43-year old woman) discusses with E (26- year old man) the professional future of her son R., who is E's friend]: a. R. wan tek wan korespondens kos, uc R FU take a correspondence course
b.
i
me wan tek it bifo
i kum owt.
3s ANT PU
c.
d. e.
take 3s before 3s come out I me de plan Ju tek it dat 3s ANT IMP plan to take it that da taim di tern dan di kos dan. TOP time the term done the course done
A tink
i
se
i
wuda
me
wan kos
ina kowntin.
1s think 3s say 3s would ANT a course in accounting f. I kuda me gEt wan djab da big krik. 3s could ANT get a job at Big Creek 'R will (may) take a correspondence course (hoping that) he might complete it before they go out (for the start of the lobster season). He was planning to take it so that the course might (hopefully) be finished by the time the term is over. I think he said that it would be (possibly) an accounting (Escure 1997: 48) course. He might (possibly, hopefully) get a job at Big Creek.'
BC makes active use of me and uses it for a range of functions. Although it clearly refers to some time prior to the conversation (backgrounding) when combined with the imperfective - i me de plan 'he was/had been planning in (lSc), the combination me wan in (15b)- i me wan tek it 'he would have taken it/ he would hope to take it' - expresses a complex kind of irrealis, a hypothetical outcome, simply wishful thinking, or the reported intentions of R by his mother. It is difficult to express those hypothetical nuances in the English translation. The morpheme wan also clearly denotes something else than definite futurity or volition, even when occurring alone in preverbal
African substrata! influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole
position as in (lSa). It then has a hypothetical value that overlaps with an epistemic modality. When me and wan are combined, the expression of uncertainty is heightened, but there is still a possibility of realisation, so in this case the structure is not a past conditional, or a statement of unrealised events, such as a. me wan tel yu. (5), which refers to a finite unreality ('I would/could/ might have told you, but didn't because you didn't let me'). On the other hand, in (10), there is a potential realisation of the event expressed in tu pipl we me wan J..-um in ('Two people might have come I or might come' [to an isolated island] ... if conditions are met, ifit's not too late, if a boat is available). In conclusion, me wan covers an extensive range of hypothetical situations not directly expressed as such in English and, consequently, BC uses the counterfactual to express subtle perceptions of events, anticipated or imagined, in a manner than cannot be derived directly from the superstrate. In the next section, I will examine how some African languages express hypothetical situations of the type illustrated above.
4·
African sources of the Belizean counterfactual
In spite of the European masters' efforts to separate slaves from their compatriots so as to avoid communication and therefore rebellion and com plots, retention of African languages may have been quite common while a new lingua franca or creole was developing. If multilingualism was present, then the incipient creole would have coexisted with African languages, and it is then much easier to explain the transmission of sub stratal features as an integral part of the language acquisition process. I will first identify some putative sources tor BC tense and aspect markers, more specifically as they involve the past/ anterior and future BC morphemes, then I will investigate the presence of counterfactual structures in Niger-Congo languages. The task is admittedly ambitious, considering that the Niger-Congo phylum numbers 1,436languages, including the Bantu tamily, which in itself has about 500 members (Heine & Nurse 2000b: 1). Of particular interest are members of the Kwa/Benue-Congo/Bantu families, so I will restrict the scope of this brief overview to those languages that appear to offer similarities with the counterfactual feature under consideration. 4.1
Tense/aspect in Kwa and Bantu languages and the source tor me
Across the enormous spectrum of African languages, tense and aspect inflections may appear in prefixal or suffixal positions in relation to the verb and can also be discontinuous morphemes (before and after the verb), but preverbal positions prevail overall. A majority of languages resort to a short set of verbs - sometimes called auxiliary verbs such as 'want/like, come, be, go, finish, have, be with' -which are grammaticalised as tense/aspect markers in a manner directly reflected in creoles. Typically 'go or 'want' lexical items mark future and a 'finish' verb becomes past. anterior or completive marker, to mention only elements relevant to this discussion. Although this pattern is widespread in world languages, its occurrence in African languages is bound to have at least contributed to its diffusion in developing contact languages.
191
192
Genevieve Escure
Nurse (1989) documents linguistic changes across three Bantu varieties (Gikuyu, Ganda and Standard Swahili) that range over a continuum of "tense" marking from conservative to innovative- three pasts, three futures, one present in Gikuyu, but only one past and one future in Standard Swahili (Ganda is intermediate with two pasts, two futures). While some tense morphemes are "pre-stem" and other suffixes in Gikuyu, Swahili uses only pre-stem elements (Nurse 1989). The past and future markers are derived as follows in the three Bantu varieties (Nurse 1989:286):
taka 'want' > ta (future marker) mele 'finish' > me (past marker) The use of Swahili me as a perfective preverbal morpheme is illustrated below. It shows that the development of a simpler system in Swahili matches exactly what happened in BC: (16)
u me kata 14 2s PERF cut 'you have cut'
(17) Ni me ji ju11za Ki-swahili. 1S PERF REFL learn Swahlli 'I have learned Swahlli.'
SWAinll
(Dimmendaal2000: 161) SWAinll
(Dimmendaal2000: 161)
Niger-Congo languages generally exhibit more complex tense-aspect systems in which it is often difficult to neatly separate tense from aspect (not to mention mood). In that regard, they are quite distinct from Indo-European verbal systems that can be more simply categorised. Different types of past and future - proximate, remote, definite or indefinite - are represented through a broad range of distinct flexions or tone contours. The concept of"relative tense" is often invoked in descriptions of African languages, a notion that is readily applicable to creoles as seen with BC in the previous section. The ambiguous nature of African "tense/aspect" is illustrated in Ibibio (a language of Nigeria related to Efik, East Benue-Congo, Cross River subgroup of Bantu). Ibibio has a "neutral" tense allomorph or past (ma-), whereas another allomorph (me-) ranges over present tense, perfect aspect and past tense functions. Me- indicates that a past (extended now) action has present relevance. The Ibibio structure differs from the English present perfect in that "the essence of me in Ibibio is to emphasise not so much the continuing present relevance of a situation as indicating the proximity of the past in relation to the moment of the speaking" (Essien 1987: 159): (18)
Ime a-ma-k£p.
IBIBIO
Ime C+PA+hear 'Ime heard.' 15
14. All diacritics (tone marks, special phonetic symbols) are omitted from the African examples, since I am merely dealing with simple morphemes that are not distinguished phonetically. Otherwise examples are presented as in the original text 15. C in the Ibibio sentence corresponds to a concord marker.
African substrata! influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole
(19)
Ami m-me-dep moto. I c+PBRF+buy a car 'I have bought a car:
(20)
Mm-me-tolyo
awo ado.
c+PRBS remember that man 'I remember that man: (21)
M-me-wewet
nwed. C+IMPA Write+RBDUPL book 'I have already written a book (before some other situation):
(Essien 1983: 330- 336)
Kituba, an African creole related to Bantu also has a "relative tense system" marking a variety of temporal delimitations - transient duration, concomitant duration, subsequent - according to Mufwene (1990). Kituba also uses a me(ne) particle as a sort of perfect that denotes current relevance and functions very much like Ibibio me: (22)
(23)
Bo me kanga yandi. [they have caught him (and he is still in their hands)] 'They have him: Ya11di me lala. [he finish- fall asleep] 'He is asleep:
KITUBA (Mufwene 1990: 105)
KITUBA (Mufwene 1990: 105)
The resemblance, both phonetic and grammatical, between the Swahili, Ibibio and Kituba particles, and the Belizean me (labelled ANT) is of course striking and perhaps not coincidental. In fact, similar me/mi/ma morphemes occur in parallel preverbal positions in several languages ranging from West to East Africa. 4.2
The expression of counterfactuals in African languages
In addition to the spectrum of tense and aspect options carried by independent past and future elements, several West African languages also combine markers of anteriority with future markers to indicate various types of irrealis functions. Lefebvre (1996) offers the most comprehensive illustration of parallels between Haitian Creole and Fongbe (Kwa). Fongbe uses a ko+na (anterior+de.finite future) or ko+nawa (anterior+indefinite future) to mark various types of conditional (more or less definite). Haitian Creole has transferred the Fongbe constructions, with relexification of the African morphemes, choosing superstrate (French) items that have some overlapping semantic value. In the case of Haitian Creole (te+ap ), creole speakers selected the French past auxiliary 'ete' > t/te and the future adverbial 'apres' > ap, or a variant of the 'go verb> a.-va. (used as indefinite future marker). The parallel Fongbe/Haitian structures are illustrated in (24) and (25): (24)
Mari ko na da wo. Mari te ap prepare pat. Mary ANT DBP-PUT prepare dough 'Mary would prepare/would have prepared dough:
PONGBB HAITIAN (Lefebvre 1996: 283)
193
194
Genevieve Escure
(25)
Mari leo Mari t' Mary
na-wa a-va
ANT IND-FUT
da wo. prepare pat
FONGBB HAITIAN
prepa1e dough
'Ma~y might prepare/might have prepaied the
dough:
(Lefebvre 1996: 285)
Other Niger-Congo languages such as Bambara (Mande group) and Yoruba (east Kwa or BenueCongo group) also exhibit similar structures (Bamgbose 1966:94), although they may be in a different order (a ti is fu ture+past in Yoruba ). In a study ofYoruba counterfactuals, Salone (1987) shows that "future" markers (yio, o, a, maa) play an important role in the expression of conditions and thus function as counterfactuals. Their definite aspectual qualities merge with the set of unreality markers often marked by iba, which in (27) combines with the past marker ti. That is because "what is imaginary, what is contrary to reality and what is predicted are all unreal" (Salone 1987: 348): (26)
(27)
Bi m ba ri esin to m IJie maa daku. if I INDBF see horse which has wings I-Fu fuint 'Ifl saw a winged horse, I would filint::
Bi o ba se pe o le so Y ni won iba ti gba a. if it INDEF be that he can speak Y COP they UNR PBRF accept him 'If he had been able to speak Yoruba, they would have accepted him:
YORUBA
(Salone 1987:343) YO RUB A
(Salone 1987: 343)
Not all African languages have the past+future (or future+past) combinations, but the expression of unrealised conditions appears to be represented through various strategies, including the extension of"tense" markers like the future, as shown in Yoruba. This extension is also common in pidgins and creoles, for example in Kru Pidgin English which uses the future particles go and we as irrealis markers (Singler 1990:207). 4·3
Past negation
The structure of Belizean negative sentences with ANT reference strengthens the Mrican substrate hypothesis. BC has a negative particle no in preverbal position (as well as occasional double negation), except when an irrealis ANT notion is involved. A special negative structure is required in unrealised/hypothetical contexts. So the negative equivalent of me is never *no me, but invariably neva - which does not mean simply 'never. but usually negates a past event. 16 Furthermore, neva. functions as the negative allomorph of both me and me wan. By the same token, me and neva never co-occur: 17
16. However, neva may also have the meaning of 'never: depending on the context
trip de me neva tu bad 'That trip (there) wasn't too bad' (Escure 1980: D.5.1.4). This is an emphatic sentence ('It was a great trip'). I attribute this «duplication" to the emphatic nature of the sentence. 17. I found a single exception in my Belizean corpus: da
African substrata! influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole
(28) If dey neva get tu an kwik I me wtm drown. if 3P NBG.PA get to 3s quick 3s PA FU drown 'If they hadift got to him fast he would have drowned.'
BC (Escure 1980: 5.1.21)
This usage also appears in the traditional ending of Anansi Stories, in which neva has an irrealis function in both the hypothetical and the consequent clauses of the following sequential conditional statement: (29) Di pin neva ben di story neva en. the pin Nl!G.PA bend the story NBG.PA end '(10 the pin hadn't bent, the story wouldn't have ended.'
BC (Anansi Story)
Negation is often treated as an aspect in African languages. Not uncommonly, negation is expressed through a specific negative allomorph of the verb that parallels a positive and an interrogative form rather than with a negative affix attached to the verb base. Some languages have a single morpheme that merges tense, aspect and negation function. For example, Zarma uses si as IMPERF/NEG morpheme and Mandinka mat1 as PERF/NEG (Creissels 2000:238, 244). lbibio has two allomorphs for the past marker: rna (or me as discussed above) in simple affirmative sentences (without any form of negation, emphasis, marked modality, or Wh-question) and ke in negative, emphatic and modally marked sentences, as well as Yes-No questions: (30) a
b.
c.
Affirmative Ime amakop. Ime c+PA+hear 'Imeheard? Negative Ime ikikoppo. Ime c+PA+hear+NBG 'Ime didn't hear? Emphatic Ime akekop. BMPHime C+PA+hear 'It was Ime (not any other person) who heard.'
IBIBIO
(Essien 1983: 330-331)
This pattern also occurs in Mandinka: ye (positive) alternates with ma.n (negative): (31)
a
b.
I ye kulun-o }e. they PBRF boat-DBF see 'They saw the boat: I man kulun je. they PBRF-NBG boat see 'They did not see the boat:
MANDINKA
(Creissels 2000: 244)
Finally, Swahili has a three-way distinction between an anterior verb form (marked with me) and a past tense (marked with li) in the affirmative. When one negates these verb forms, the two types merge in a different form with siku:
195
196
Genevieve Escure
(32)
a
Nl!lWifunza kiswahili.
SWAiflLI
'I have learned K!swahlli'
b.
Nilijifunza kiswahili. 'I learned Kiswahlli.'
c.
Sikuiiju11za kiswahili. 'I havelft learned/ didlft learn K!swahlli'
(Dimmendaal2000: 173)
This convergence of negation in past contexts is mirrored in BC. It is represented in the sentence: di pin neva ben di stori neva en (29), in which neva. functions as negative simple past or negative anterior past, as well as negative counterfactual. The first clause could be translated as either 'if the pin didn't bend' or 'if the pin hadn't bent' and the second clause as 'the story would not end' or 'the story would not have ended'. The sequence neva. wan is impossible as a negative counterfactual. This usage of neva as negator in past sentences is common, at least in Caribbean creoles.
Garifuna reinforcement
5·
A final question arises in the Central American context: How could local populations not have had an impact on the development of Belizean Creole? I noted earlier the frequent interactions between the African slaves and at least two independent Afro-Amerindian groups: those that were natives of Central America (Miskito) and those that originated from the Amazon area and were then deported to Central America after extensive miscegenation with African maroons (Garinagu). The possibility of Mrican influence via Garifuna arises because of the presence in the language of a me morpheme (with variants meha/meti) 18 indicating remote past in preverbal position: (33)
Dan-11Wei mehc1 h-eidin mutu ouchaha. time-PT ANT 3P-go people fish 'In the old days, people would go fishing:
GARIPUNA (Escure 2004b: 57)
One can therefore speculate that the unique selection of me in BC (and other Central American creoles) was strengthened by language convergence. 19 If anterior me existed in the languages spoken by the African ancestors of the Garinagu, then this element may have been loaned to the Amerindian language that the Africans adopted in the seventeenth and eighteenth century after they merged with the Arawaks/ Caribs in the Eastern Caribbean. When the Mro- Indian group moved to Central America by the end of the eighteenth century, the Black Caribs, as they were then called, regularly interacted with the Creoles. The co-occurrence of a grammatically and phonologically similar item in BC and in Garifuna could have reinforced its presence in the developing Central American creole. The Garinagu were, and still are, fluent speakers of the creole- partly because of their low social status vis-a-vis the Creole group (Escure 1979, 1983c). On 18. -ha and -ti are generally emphatic particles (they also have other functions).
19. I have previously explained the presence of me in Garifuna - apparently not derived from Amazonian languages - as the result of BC influence, but the direction of the putative borrowing is uncertain due to the absence of earlier language data. Instead of being influenced by BC, Garifuna may have provided independent support to the creole.
African substrata! influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole
the other hand, the Creoles do not speak Garifuna. Bantu substrata! influence in Garifuna is not obviously widespread, but there are at least a few clearly identifiable Bantu lexical items in Garifuna - mutu 'person, people' in ( 33) is one of them. Garifuna may well have transmitted more African components than is currently assumed. There is clearly a need for further investigation of possible sub stratal reflexes in the contact languages of Central America.
6.
Overview of African substrate influence
The evidence for substrata! influence in the case of Belizean Creole is indirect On one hand, it is inferred from the scant, incomplete historical records of the European colonisation of the Bay of Honduras and its practice of slavery. On the other hand, it is based on contemporary data from modem African languages, with the additional caveat that available data are often limited, restricted to brief sentences or sentence fragments that hardly convey an accurate rendering of native speakers' intent and complete use of their languages. This is particularly problematic in the case of Mrican languages that express perceptual capabilities that are not exactly matched in Indo-European languages. I believe that these perceptual divergences, especially in the case of the marking of reality or unreality (including counterfactuality) are at the core of the issue discussed here. Nevertheless, the possibility of an Mrican transmission of irrealis markers is supported. The discrepancy noted between the perception of events in Belizean Creole- especially in the expression ofhypotheticals and conditionals- and its English counterpart seems to have developed out of Mrican linguistic representations of perceptual patterns, rather than out of su perstratal or even universal ways of expressing unrealised events. The ANT morpheme me in BC marks the relative sequencing of events from the speaker's viewpoint and is more aspectual than tense-linked, especially when combining with a future/irrealis marker. It effectively serves to express the speakers' perceptions or their interpretations of others' viewpoints - as for example in the case of the woman talking about her son's plans in (15). BC is like other Caribbean creoles in that it shows African substratal influence in the case of relexified countertactuals and particles that have preserved special temporallaspectual ways of referring to related events, including separate ways of expressing negation through allomorphic verbal variations. But the extent of the continuity of the African substrate in BC is particularly convincing in the case of me, which is likely to be a direct transter from one or several BenueCongo languages. Homophonous elements denoting relative past, perfect or anterior occur not only in Ibibio/Efik (Nigeria) and Kituba (a lingua franca of Central Africa), but also in Swahili. This direct transmission would make Belizean Creole unique. Its maintenance over the centuries - and resistance to relexification as bin - may be due to the active presence of a similar morpheme in Garifuna, which may itself have been brought independently from Africa. There is one aspect of the putative Mrican substrate that is rarely discussed: the potential impact of Mrican trade languages and pidgins/creoles that have long existed on the Mrican continent Even if the majority of slaves were native speakers of Gold Coast languages, it is possible, and even likely, that they had been fluent in one of several African lingua francas prior to their exile. The Efik of Calabar were among the earliest groups along the Guinea Coast to trade with Europeans. They were involved in the transatlantic trade and had extensive commercial links
197
198
Genevieve Escure
from southeastern Nigeria to western Cameroon (Faraclas 1989: 377). Efik was therefore a lingua franca in the region, and it is therefore quite possible that many of the slaves had some knowledge ofEfik, closely related to lbibio, whose similarities with Belizean Creole I have shown above. The same may be said about Kituba and Swahili. The African creole Kituba, now widely spoken in Central and South Africa, may also have been used by Africans in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as a language of wider communication. As to Swahili, it is a contact language with extensive Arabic borrowings, the result of centuries of contact between Arabic traders and Bantu speakers. It was used as a trade language in commercial and slavery contacts between Arabs and Africans long before Western slavery was established in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Lingua francas such as Efik, Kituba, Swahili or a general West African Pidgin English must have had commonalities (as they do now) and would have presented practical reference points for the Central American slaves developing a new creole language.
7·
Conclusion
Belize was not a plantation slave society. The relative isolation oflogwood camp slaves and their limited contacts with whites facilitated the maintenance of African elements, including the intact preservation of some essential verbal morphology such as ANT me and its counterfactual structure. Direct African antecedents have been found for this structure (lbibio/Efik, Kituba, Swahili and generally Bantoid languages). Its anteriority morpheme, the specific shape ofits futurity/irrealis marker and its related counterfactual combinations appear to closely mirror aspects of Bantu morphology, as well as the semantics of hypothetical events. Finally, the counterfactual and its iconic African representation may have been reinforced through the convergence with a phonetically and semantically similar structure in Garifuna - perhaps itself traceable back to Bantu through independent migration.
List of abbreviations Anterior Belizean Creole c Concord COP Copula Dl!F Definite Dl!F-FUT Definite Future EMPH Emphasis FU Future IMPA Immediate Past IMP Imperfective IND-FUT Indefinite Future INDEF Indefinite Jamaican Creole JC we Locative MCC Miski.to Coast Creole ANT
BC
NEG NEG.PA p
PA Pl!RF PRJ!S PT
Rl!DUPL Rl!FL RilL
s TOP UNR
v
Negative Negative Past Plural Past Perfective Present Particle Reduplication Reflexive Relative Pronoun Singular Topic Particle Unrealised Verb
African substrata! influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole
References Alleyne, M. 1980. Comparative Afro-American. Ann Arbor MI: Karoma. Bamgbose, A. 1966. A Grammar ofYoruba. Cambridge: CUP. Bickerton, D. 1975. Dynamics of a Creole System. Cambridge: CUP. Burdon, J. A. 1935. Archives of British Honduras. London: Sifton Praed & Company. Colonial Office (London). 1803. British Honduras Population as of1803. CO 123/15. Craton, M. 1997. Forms of resistance to slavery. In General history of the Caribbean, Vol. III: The Slave Societies in the Caribbean, E W. Knight (ed..), 222-270. London: UNESCO Publishing. Creissels, D. 2000. Typology. In African Languages, B. Heine & D. Nurse (eds ), 231-258. Cambridge: CUP. de Groot, S., Christen, C. & Wright, F. 1997. Maroon communities in the circum-Caribbean. In Grneral History of the Caribbean, Vol. III: The Sltm Societies in the Caribbean, F. W. Knight (ed.), 169-193. London: UNESCO Publishing. Dirnmendaal, G. 2000. Morphology. In African Languages, B. Heine & D. Nurse (eds), 161-193. Cambridge: CUP. Engerrnan, S. & Higman, B. W. 1997. The demographic structure of the Caribbean slave societies in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In Grneral History of the Caribbean, Vol III: The Slave Societies in the Caribbean, F. W. Knight (ed.), 45-104. London: UNESCO Publishing. Escure, G. 1979. Linguistic variation and ethnic interaction in Belize: Creole/Carib. In Language and Eth,Jic Relatiom, H. Giles & B. Saint-Jacques (eds), 101-116. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Escure, G. 1980. Belizean Creole corpus (Unpublished). Escure, G. 1983a. Belizean Creole. In Central American English, J. Holm (ed..), 29-70. Heidelberg: Julius Groos. Escure, G. 1983b. The Belizean copula: A case of semantactic shift In Studies in Caribbean Language, L. Carrington (ed.), 190-202 Trinidad: Society for Caribbean Linguistics. Escure, G. 1983c. The use of creole as interlanguage by the Black Caribs of Belize. In 1982 Mid America Linguistics Conference Papers, F. Ingemann (ed..), 271-282. Lawrence KS: University of Kansas Press. Escure, G. 1997. Creole and Dialect Continua: Standard Acquisition Processes in Belize and China (PRC) [Creole Lanuage Library 18]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Escure, G. 2004a. Belize and other Central American varieties: Morphology and syntax. In A Handbook of Varieties ofEnglish, Vol 2, B. Kortmann, E. W. Schneider, K. Burridge, R. Mesthrie & C. Upton (eds), 517-544. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Escure, G. 2004b. Garifuna in Belize and Honduras. In Creoles, Contact and Language Change, G. Escure & A. Schwegler (eds), 35-65. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Escure, G. 2005. Belize: Language situation. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. 2nd edn. Oxford: Elsevier. Essien, 0. 1983. The tense system of Ibibio. In CurmJt Approaches to African Linguistics, Vol 2, J. Kaye, H. Koopman, D. Sportiche & A. Dugas (eds), 329-344. Dordrecht: Foris. Essien, 0. 1987. The aspectual system of Ibibio. In Current Approaches to African Linguistics, Vol4, D. Odden (ed..), 151-166. Dordrecht: Foris. Faraclas, N. 1989. Cross River. In The Niger-Congo Languages, J. Bendor-Samuel (ed.), 377-399. Lanham MD: University Press of America. Grant, C. H. 1976. The Making of Modern Belize. Cambridge: CUP. Heine, B. & Nurse, D. (eds). 2000a. African Languages. Cambridge: CUP. Heine, B. & Nurse, D. 2000b. Introduction. In African Languages, B. Heine & D. Nurse (eds), 1-10. Cambridge: CUP. Helms, M. 1983. Miskito slaving and culture contact: Ethnldty and opportunity in an expanding population. Journal of Anthropological Research 39(2): 179-197. Holm, J. (ed.). 1983a. Central American English. Heidelberg: Julius Groos. Holm, J. 1983b. Miskito Coast Creole. In Central American English, J. Holm (ed..), 95-114. Heidelberg: Julius Groos.
199
wo Genevieve Escure
Holm, J. 2000. An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles. Cam bridge: CUP. Lefebvre, C. 1996. The tense, mood and aspect system of Haitian Creole: Problem of transmission of grammar in creole genesis. Journal o_fPidgin and Creole Languages 11(2): 231-311. Lovejoy, P. 2004. The Yo.ruba factor in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In The Yotuba Diaspora in the Atlantic World, T. Faiola & M.D. Childs (eds), 40-55. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press. Mufwene, S. 1990. Time reference in Kikongo-Kituba. In Pidgin and Creole TuiSe-nwod-aspect SystertiS [Creole Language Library 6], J. V. Singler (ed.), 97-117. Amsterdam: John Benjamlns. Nurse, D. 1989. Change in tense and aspect Evidence from Northeast Coast Bantu languages. In Current Approaches to African Linguistics, VoL 6, I. Halk & L Fuller (eds), 277-291. Dordrecht: Foris. Robertson, I. 1990. The tense-mood-aspect system of Berbice Dutch. In Pidgin and Creole Tense-mood-aspect Systems [Creole Language Library 6], J. V. Singler (ed.), 169-184. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Salone, S. 1987. Unreality in Yoruba. In Current Approaches to African Linguistics, Vol. 4, D. Odden (ed.), 339-346. Do.rdrecht: Foris. Singler, J. V. 1990. The impact of decreolization upon T-M-A: Tenselessness, mood, and aspect in Kru Pidgin English. In Pidgin and Creole Tense-nwod-aspect Systems [Creole Language Library 6], J. V. Singler (ed.), 203-230. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Sylvain, S. 1936. Le creole hai"tien. Wettern: Irnprimerie de Meester. Vila Vilar, E. 1999. Forced African settlement. The basis offorced settlement: Africa and its trading conditions. In General History of the Caribbean, VoL II, New Societies; The Caribbean in the Lo'Jg Sixteenth Century, P. Emmer (ed.), 159-179. London: UNESCO Publishing. Voorhoeve, J. 1957. The verbal system ofSranan. Lingua 6: 374-396. Winford, D. 1993. Predication in Caribbean English creoles [Creole Language Library 10]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andres Creole Englishes* A comparison with Twi Angela Bartens University of Turku and University of Helsinki
This paper investigates the influence ofthe substrate as represented by the Kwa language Twi on the English-based creoles spoken on San Andres and Old Providence (Colombia) and on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. Thirty phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical features were selected for scrutiny. In a number of cases, it was impossible to make a case for exclusive substrate influence and it seems preferable to speak of convergence. However, there are also many language structures for which substrate tnfiuence offers the most likely explanation.
Keywords: English-based creoles, San Andres, Providence, Nicaragua, substrate influence, morphosyntax, lexlcosemantics, phonology
1.
Introduction
In this paper, I aim at presenting an overview of a number of structures which potentially reveal substrate influence in the three English-based Western Caribbean creoles spoken on San Andres and Providence (henceforth SA and PR) and on the Nicaraguan Atlantic Coast (Nicaraguan Kriol, i.e. NK, formerly called Mosquito Coast Creole English, Holm 1978). It is generally assumed that the foundations of the actual population of the archipelago 1 were laid around 1730 with the arrival of colonists from other parts of the British Caribbean especially Jamaica - and directly from the British Isles - above all from Scotland and Ireland - as well as from West Atrica. The cultivation of the island's cash crop, cotton, required a continual influx of slaves. The predominance of Jamaica as a source of origin created an important historical
* I would like to thank the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters for supporting my research in 2001-2002 through an individual grant for research on San Andres and Providencia Creole English (grant number 73187), in 2006-2008 through a research project on language and language use in Nicaragua and Guatemala (grant nwnber 111544), and in 2008 through the position of a senior research fellow (grant nwnber 119750 ). 1. In reality, the archipelago consists of three islands: San Andres, Old Providence and Santa Catalina. In this paper, the term (Old) Providence includes Santa Catalina.
202
Angela Bartens
link with Jamaica and Jamaican Creole (Edwards 1970:29). The Akan cluster including the Twi language has been long established as the most important single substrate of Jamaican Creole English (Alleyne 1986: 313; Patrick 2007: 127) and therefore also constitutes the key substrate language cluster for all the varieties in the region (Parkvall2000: 123, 150), including SA, PR and NK. The Miskitu Coast of Nicaragua was settled by the British during the 1630s. As settlement was more continuous than on San Andres and Old Providence, NK may be considered one of the oldest English-based varieties in the Americas (Holm 1978:5, 1983:95). During its short existence - until1641 -, the Puritan community of Old Providence traded with the Miskitu Coast and the Puritans obtained permission from the Miskitu chiefs for taking Miskitu wives (Petersen 2001: 26). It also seems likely that the first Africans to be incorporated into the Miskitu nation fled from Old Providence in 1641 (Holm 1978:179-180, 1983:97, 1986:7, 10). The paper is organised as follows. In Section 2, I will discuss the methodology adopted for the selection of the linguistic features presented and analysed in Section 3, the main part of the paper. I will close the paper in Section 4 with some brief concluding remarks and suggestions for further research.
2.
Methodology
In order to give a panoramic view of the impact of the substrate on present-day SA, PR and N K - henceforth also WCCEs (Western Caribbean Creole Englishes) which, for reasons of space, stands for the three varieties under survey unless otherwise specified-, the framework adopted here is the feature catalog of the APiCS (Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structzu-es), an international research project coordinated by the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig and aiming at the compilation of a typological language atlas of a large number of Pidgin and Creole languages modelled after the WALS (World Atlas of La.nguage Structzu-es) previously coordinated by the same institution.2 This seemed a logical choice for three reasons: the range of features covered is quite wide (120 in the final version of the APiCS); the choice of features is a result of a process in which specialists in the field have participated tor several years, i.e., it is not based on the subjective insights of one single person like myself; and I am one of the contributors to the project to which I am supplying the data on SA (with notes on divergent structures in PR) and NK. The APiCS teature catalog concentrates on morphosyntax although the description of each language includes a presentation of its segmental phonemes and some observations on syllable structure and suprasegmentals. The lexicon, the area where documenting substrate influence is in a certain way most straightforward in spite of the sometimes precarious tools for searching for etyma,3 plays a marginal role in the APiCS, amounting to a few entries on calques and/or lexica-
2.
See the project homepage at: https:/ /lingweb.eva.mpg.de/apics/index. php/APiCS:About:.
3· It is common knowledge among c.reolists that many of the African substrate languages of the Atlantic c.reoles lack any language sketch or word list whatsoever and that even for the best researched ones, only diachronic stages much more recent than the time of c.reolisation are described.
Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andres Creole Englishes
semantics and two on specific lexical items, the wide-spread words piknini 'child' < Port. pequeninho 'small (diminutive)' and sa11e 'to know' (and related meanings) < Port saber 'to know'.4 Encountering a "parallel structure" is obviously not enough in order to unequivocally demonstrate substrate influence, although structural convergence between the super- and substrate has undoubtedly facilitated the consolidation of many creole structures (see Thomason 2001: 181). As a result, I am obliged to evaluate the probability of substrate influence in many cases I have nevertheless chosen to include instead of leaving them out altogether. After identifying the Twi equivalent of all120 APi CS features, I selected a third of them for scrutiny in this paper. Because of the impossibility of surveying all putative substrate languages in the case of each structure within the limits of this paper, I have checked as many features as possible with Christaller (1875, 1933).5 As far as the WCCEs are concerned, one option would have been to concentrate on the basilectal varieties, represented most prominently by SA. However, even in the SA community, different lects coexist in the speech of the same speakers. Due to this enormous heterogeneity of actual speech and for the sake of including all three geographic varieties, meso- and acrolectal examples are also included.
3·
Substrate influence in the language structure of SA, PR and NK
In this section, the language structures discussed follow the numerical order of the A PiCS questionnaire and are not divided, for example, according to the level of the language structure they occur in. 3.1
No gender distinction in third person singular personal pronoun (APiCS 13)
As far as subject pronouns are concerned, basilectal SA does not make a gender distinction in the third person singular (ihn, him)- or any other person, for that matter. Overall, mesolectal NK and acrolectal PR, on the other hand, employ different variants for the masculine, feminine and neuter (ihn!him, shi, it). Besides gender distinctions, case distinctions are also supposed to be lacking in typical creoles to the effect that subject, object and adnominally used possessive
4· I have conducted some research on the lexicon, specifically on possible African retentions, in all three varieties (Bartens 2003: Appendi~ Bartens & Farquharson forthcoming). African lexical retentions persist in the WCCEs although their proportion of the entire lexicon is not as big as, for instance, in the Suriname creoles, and many terms are nowadays obsolete. 5· It is true that Christaller's description ofT'wiis based on the Akuapem dialect which probably was not the most important one spoken by the slaves. The selective use of the data supplied by Christaller (1875, 1933[1888]) by creolists is criticised by Frajzyngier (1984: 208). The fact remains that we dispose of little data on substrate languages, espedally earlier stages, and Christaller (1875) is a better reference than nothing, last but not least because it goes back approx. 130 years.
203
204
Angela Bartens
Table 1. Pronominal system of SA, PR and NK
Adnominal POSS ADJ
Person
Subject
Object
8G
PL
SG
PL
SG
PL
1st
rni (A, Ai)
m
mi
m
mi
m
2nd
yu
unu
yu
unu
yo
unu
(yu-aal) 3rd
ibn (h)im (shi,it)
dehn dem (dey)
yu ibn (h)im (bar, it)
dehn dem
ibn (h)im (bar, it)
dehn dem
Table 2. Independent personal subject pronouns in Twi (Christaller 1875: 39, 41)
1st 2nd 3rdanimate 3rd inanimate
8G
PL
me w6 :m6 en6
y£1) m6 ~
en6,en6nom
pronouns all have the same form (Holm 1988:201 ). 6 There is a tendency to distinguish between subject vs. object and possessive third person singular pronouns in all three varieties although case-neutral pronouns can still be found in SA. NK and PR have a separate third person singular female pronoun whereas SA and PR make a case distinction with regard to the second person singular adnominally used possessive pronoun. The second person plural subject pronoun yu-aal is typical ofN K. As a result, in Table 1 we obtain the pronominal system where meso- and acrolectal varieties are given in brackets? As far as the lack of gender distinctions in the basilect is concerned, the same situation obtains in Twi. However, in Twi, subject pronouns may be used both as independent pronouns and as verbal prefixes. There is some morphonological and distinctive tonological variation according to following context and case. In the third persons, a distinction is made between animate and inanimate reterents (Christaller 1875:40-41). In Table 2, I list only the independent subject pronouns. If only the basilectal SA system is compared with Twi, the parallels are striking.
6. When used as a pronoun, the possessive consists offi (SA) or fa (NK, PR) and the invariable pronoun. However, some spea.lrers of SA use fi + pronoun even in the adnominal position. 7- The variation of him - im is essentially morphonologicaL For the sake of a more elegant presentation, I have omitted the brackets in (h )im in the text above.
Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andres Creole Englishes
Compound interrogatives (APiCS 19)
3.2
Bimorphemic interrogatives consisting of a general interrogative particle and a noun are sometimes interpreted as a case of substrate influence in Atlantic creoles. However, since they also occur in creoles spoken outside the Atlantic area as well as other languages quite frequently, the case for substrate influence is not very strong and it seems preferable to speak of a convergence of semantic transparency and substrata! and even superstrata! influence (Muysken & Smith 1990; Parkvall2000: 101). While there are indeed compound interrogatives formed in the manner described above for Twi- e.g., ehlna 'who' (lit 'which person'), den 'what' (lit. 'what thing'), ehe 'where' (lit 'which place'), daben 'when' (lit. 'what day'; Christaller 1875:42-43) -, among the creoles under survey, SA features wepaat/wapaat (< where/what + part) 'where' and wentaim (<when+ time) 'whet\ we...fa (<where/what ... for), wa meik (<what+ make) 'whY, alongside with we 'where, wen 'when' and wai 'why' (Bartens 2003: 70). Holm ( 1978: 228-229) reports wen tai m 'whet\ wich paat (< which part) and wat/wich said (< what/which side) 'where. fo wat (
Nominal plural marking (APiCS 23, 25)
3·3
Nominal plural marking is achieved by means of postposing the third person plural personal pronoun in many Atlantic creoles (Holm 1988: 193):8 (1)
bwai dem boy 3PL 'the boys'
SA
(Bartens' notes) 9
As can be gleaned from the preceding example, the WCCEs are no exception to the rule although espedally present-day NK increasingly makes use of the English plural suffix {-s}. In SA, the suffix mostly occurs in fossilised forms like wan shuuz 'a shoe'. PR also features somes-plurals. In the Twi substrate, there is overlap of functions: nominal plurals are usually marked by means of a change in the prefixation and possibly also suffixation ( Christaller 1875: 33-35 ). However, the morpheme -nom, which derives from the third person plural pronoun for inanimates, is "also used in apposition or as a suffix with nouns and pronouns to provide for, or strengthen their plural form"- e.g., obi 'some one, anothet, ebfnom 'some/other people' (Christaller 1875:42-43). In Twi, this plural formation strategy is most typically used in the associative plural where -nom is postposed to the name of a person in order to express company. This structure with a postposed third person plural pronoun is wide-spread in the Atlantic creoles (Holm 1988: 193):
8. There are some exceptions to this word order: Principense Creole Portuguese and. for instance, Yoruba among the putative substrate languages prepose the pronoun to the noun (Holm 1988: 193 ). 9- For the abbreviations used in the interlinear glosses, see http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/resources/glossingrules.php.
205
206
Angela Bartens
(2)
Paulo nom
TWI
Paul 3PL 'Paul and his company' (3)
(Chr!staller 1875:44)
Mls Aurora dem
PR
Miss Aurora 3PL 'Miss Aurora and her folks/family/friends' (4)
(Bartens 2003:31)
Dama dem
NK
Dama 3PL 'Dama and his family>
(FOREIBCA 2005b)
In this case, the Twi substrate serves above all to explain the occurrence of the associative plural, but not the general plural construction. However, as Hohn (1988: 193) notes, marking nominal plurality with the third person plural pronoun "is so frequent in Kwa and other West African languages and so unusual among the world's languages" that other substrate languages may account for the formation of WCCE nominal plurals in general.
3·4
Reduplication (APiCS 26)
Reduplication in Atlantic creoles is frequently attributed to substrate influence (Hohn 1988: 88; Parkvall2000:79-80). In the WCCEs, reduplication is used for intensification and diverse augmentative and distributive meanings (see also APiCS feature 34 below): (5)
Bikaaz di
chrukta
difrent difrent.
because ART.DEP structure different different 'Because the structure is totally different: (6)
AI
yuustu go huom tranquilo tranquilo.
1SG.SUBJ HAB.PST go home calm calm 'I could go home without anyone bothering me:
NK
(FARP2007) NK
(FARP2007)
However, apart from the remnants of a distributive reading discussed below, it may be possible to account for WCCE reduplication without recourse to the substrate. The substrate languages feature much more idiosyncratic uses of reduplication, among them a wide range of grammatical functions. In Twi, this includes for example the formation of absolutive superlatives of predicative adjectives or the iterative or frequentative forms of verbs which at times entail semantic shift, e.g., pono 'to bend~ ponopono 'to wrinkle' (Christaller 1875:48, 64). 3·5
The indefinite article homophonous with numeral 'one' (APiCS 29)
In the basilectal varieties of the WCCE s, the indefinite article is homophonous with the cardinal number 'one', which makes it at times difficult to decide whether one is dealing with an article or a numeral. The more one moves to the acrolect, the more wan is replaced by (invariant!) a and the sense 'one' is definitely lost In the substrate language Twi, there is slight overlap between the postposed indefinite pronoun bi 'a, a certain, another' which is also used to form numerals
Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andres Creole Englishes
denoting any individual of a kind when used with most nouns or when counting a number of items superior to 'three' (Christaller 1875:49-50, 52-53). Considering the wide-spread grammaticalisation of'one' to 'a' in the languages of the world (Heine & Kuteva 2002:220-221), on the one hand, and the fact that the substrate languages frequently do not make use of an indefinite article where a creole would (Holm 1988: 192), the case for substrate influence is not exactly conclusive.
3.6
Generic noun phrases in subject function (APiCS 30)
Since Bickerton (1981: 56), it has been established that creole article use reflects the [±specific] rather than[± definite] opposition to the effect that presupposed NPs receive the definite, existentially asserted NPs the indefinite article. ~ a result, generic reading may be expressed by means of bare nouns. This is the standard solution in NK (Holm 1978: 277) and apparently also in PR: (7)
Aligieta gou ap tu footiin
jilt.
NK
alligator go up to fourteen feet ~ators measure up to fourteen feet'
(FARP2007)
(8) Naansl tel Breda Monkl fi luk hou fi Anansi tell Brother Monkey coMP look how for ~nansi told Brother Monkey to look how
him
PR
ded dag hed kyan kech hag.
3sG.Poss dead dog head can catch hog his dead dog's head could catch hogs.'
(Bartens' notes)
The same structure exists in many substrate languages (see Holm 1988:192 for Yoruba) - e.g.• Twi: (9)
Opete te fonu nkli a, na :rre-bd vulture perceive carcass smell PTCL 10 coMP 3so-PROG-come 'When the vulture smells a carcass, it comes forthwith.'
TWI
(Christaller 1875: 162)11
However, in SA generic NPs take both the definite article and the plural marker: (10)
Dl
dag dem baak.
ART.DEF dog PL 'Dogs bark.'
SA
bark (Bartens' notes)
As a result, whereas NK and PR appear to retain the substrata! structure, SA complies neither with the substrata! nor the superstrata! pattern.
The particle a at the end of a subordinate clause signifies that the time frame of the event or state is indefinite (Christaller 1875: 161). PTCLis an abbreviation for "particle" not included in the Leipzig glossing rules.
10.
11. In spite of the definite article in the English gloss given by Christaller, this seems to be a statement about vultures and carcasses in general
207
208
Angela Bartens
3·7
Pronominal and adnominal demonstratives (APiCS 32)
In the WCCEs under survey, pronominal and adnominal demonstratives are identical: (11)
(12)
So dis die Beda Taiga gaa11 sii hou ih11 muma de. so DEM.SG day Brother Tiger go.ANT see how 3sG.Poss mother coP.LOC 'So on this day Brother Tiger went to see how his mother was doing: Dilz yong pitpl du-in dis. DEM.PL young people do-GER DEM.SG 'These young people are doing it:
sA (Bartens' notes) NK
(PARP 2007)
The same obtains in Twi: (13)
(14)
E-hb1a tdm ne yi? which-person doth COP DEM 'Whose cloth is this?' :Jtdm yi w~ me doth DEM COP.LOC 1SG.POSS 'This doth belongs to me:
TWI
(Christaller 1875:43) AKAN
(Christaller 1875:43)
In addition, adnominal demonstratives have emphatic forms. In SA. these forms are disya Nand
dat de N, inN K disya N and dat N de: 12 (15)
Dis-ya leta da fi mi. DEM-ENF letter POC for lSG 'This (very) letter is for me/mine:
SA
(Bartens 2003:48)
In Twi, adnominal demonstratives take the suffix -ara for emphasis: (16)
Abofra no-ara
ni! child DEM-ENP COP! 'This is just that boy!'
TWI
(Christaller 1875:49)
The existence of emphatic adnominal demonstratives constitutes an important parallel between the Twi substrate and the WCCEs under survey.
3.8
Distributive numerals through reduplication (APiCS 34)
The expression of distributive meaning by means of reduplication in numerals is generally acknowledged as being a substrate feature in the Atlantic creolesY In SA, PR and NK. the most common occurrence is wan-wan 'one by one, one at a time':
dis N ya strange or even unacceptable and, as a matter of fact, the sequence is nearly impossible to pronounce. NK speakers also dislike the variant dat deN.
12. Note that both SA and NK speakers find
13. Parkvall (2003:22) argues that universal tendencies cannot be ruled out and observes that wan-wan appears to be semi-lexicalised in many English-based creoles - e.g., Jamaican. The semi-lexicalised status of Jamaican
Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andres Creole Englishes
(17)
Dehn
kom
ii11 wan wan.
SA
3PL.SUBJ come in one one 'They came in one by one:
(Bartens 2003: 65)
However, sporadically, also other numerals occur in this apparently archaic structure: (18)
Mary an Peter keerl tril
tril
grip.
Mary and Peter carry three three suitcase 'Mary and Peter carried three suitcases each:
SA
(Bartens' notes)
Considering examples such as (19) below, there is a dear case for substrata! influence. (19)
mmofra du
:Jmtia
110
nhl'na mman du du
3SG-PRET.give PL. boy ten DEM all string ten ten 'He gave those ten boys each of them ten strings:
3·9
TWI
(Christaller 1875: 53)
Ordinal numbers (APiCS 35)
The number of ordinal numbers distinct from cardinals has been drastically reduced in many creole languages when compared to their lexifier languages. This may be due to several factors: substrate influence- e.g., Twi does not possess separate cardinals (Christaller 1875: 54)14 -, simplification in the syllable coda as far as English-based creoles are concerned (set'en vs. seventh), for instance, or morpho syntactic and conceptual simplification. The WCCEs are no exception as distinct cardinals exist only up to 'the fifth' (Bartens 2003: 64). However, there is a parallel which makes it possible to suggest some minor influence from substrate languages like Twi: both in it as well as in the creoles under survey, it is possible to use 'the next' or a related item for 'the second': (20)
(21)
neks wan A gwain gill yu ... ART.INDF next one 1SG.SUBJ FUT give 2SG.OBJ ... ~second/another [story] I will tell you .. .'
A
6di
hi
3sG.be that.place 'He occupies the next place (=he is second):
PR (Bartens' notes) TWI
(Christaller 187 5: 54)
As a result, the dearest instance of substrate influence in relation to cardinals appears to occur in the form of'the next= the second~ 15
wan-wan is preswnably due to the fact that the meaning has been extended to cover 'occasionally, sporadically; occasional, isolated: To my knowledge, this semantic extension has not occurred in the creoles under survey. 14. Note, however, that the Portuguese-based Gulf of Guinea creoles as well as Papiamentu. for example, have ordinals calqued on the Bantu construction GBN + cardinal nwnber (Bartens 1996: 122). 15. Another meaning of neks in the WCCEs under survey is 'another'.
209
210
Angela Bartens
3.10
Nominal possession (APiCS 37, 38, 39)
In Twi, the possessor NP precedes the possessed NP. This entails changes in the prefixation and tonality of the possessed N P. When the possessor is the name of a person, the third person singular possessive pronoun ne introduces the possessed NP ( Christaller 187 5: 37-38, 108-109): (22)
Y6sef ne
nud-nom bae.
Joseph 3SG.POSS slbling-PL come.PST 'Joseph's brethren came.'
TWI
(Chrlstaller 1875: 109)
The aforementioned construction, known in many creoles such as Papiamentu (Kouwenberg & Murray 1994:50), is not used in the WCCEs in which the possessor NP precedes the possessed NP, both NPs being invariable. Acrolectal varieties of NK feature some superstrata! possessives with English genitive-s attached to the possessor (example (23) as opposed to (22)): (23) Das di bleb! mada langwij. DEM.COP ART.DEF baby mother language 'That's the baby's mother tongue: (24)
di
Ki11gcz
NK
(FARP2007)
data
NK
ART.DEF King-GEN daughter 'the King's daughter'
(FARP2007)
As a result, possession expressed by full NPs seems to lack substrate influence. The same applies to dependent pronominal possessors which precede the possessed NP in all language groups involved (WCCEs, English, Twi). However, the WCCE structure involving independent pronominal possessors mirrors a Twi structure: whereas the creoles use filfa +personal pronoun, Twi employs personal pronoun + de: (25) Dem bell no big laik fo wii. 3PL.POSS belly NI!G big like for 1PL 'Their bellies weren't as big as ours: (26)
e-ye
me
3SG.SUBJ-COP 1SG.POSS 'It is mine:
NK
(FARP2007)
de
TWI
thing.INDF
(Christaller 1875: 43) 16
Independent pronominal possessors therefore appear to reflect substrate influence.
3.11
The TMA system (APiCS 49, 51, 54)
Creole TMA systems constitute the area where the case for substrate influence- or any other origin scenario, for that matter- has been debated the most vigorously (Holm 1988: 1481f.; Parkvall
16. The possessive is constructed with ft (SA) or fa (PI, NK) also in the following contexts: with adnominal pronominal possessors when the sentence is introduced by the topicaliser da and occasionally with full NP possessors as in ft Jack ftnga 1ack.'s finger' (SA, Bartens' notes).
Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andres Creole Englishes
2000: 84). In the case of the WCCEs vis-a-vis Twi, it is impossible to claim that, for instance, relexification has occurred since Twi operates with a combination of prefixation and suffixation as well as tonal modifications in marking tense and aspect. Other significant differences compared to the creole systems include the tact that the negative marker intervenes between the verb stem and its aspecto-temporal prefix (usually stem-alternation occurs as well) and the fact that the forms are mutually exclusive. While creoles permit marker combinations, there is no habitual aspect- which does not exist in all creoles, either- or conditional (Christaller 1875: 58-60).17 However, if one chooses to search for similarities, one can conclude that both Twi and the WCCEs have mixed aspectual-temporal systems (APiCS feature 49) and that weak suppletion occurs in tense and aspect (APiCS feature 54; Christaller 1875:60-61, 65). In addition, the cornerstone of creolist wisdom with regard to the unmarked forms of verbs, i.e. that stative verbs tend to have a present, dynamic verbs a past reading (APiCS feature 51; Holm 1988:150-151), has a parallel, albeit not exact correspondence, in Twi in which certain verbs only have a continuous form. Those verbs correspond to items which in the WCCEs are statives- copulas, verbs denoting holding, possessing, existence and motion in a place, qualities, and states of mind (Christaller 1875: 66-67).
3.12
(Imperative) and prohibitive (APiCS 56)
In the WCCEs, the bare verb serves as imperative and the prohibitive is formed by means of ordinary negation of the predicate. However, when the person addressed is the second plural, both the imperative and the prohibitive adopt an explicit subject pronoun much more frequently than SE: (27)
Unu no worl! 2PL.SUBJ NI!G worry
'Do.tft you worry!'
NK
(FOREIBCA 2005b)
When adhortatives are addressed at the first and third persons, alternative constructions are used: monomorphemic 1es (+pronoun)+ verb for the first plural and meik +pronoun+ verb for all first and third persons: (28)
(29)
Les wl gou lie dong a likl bit. let.s lPL.SUBJ go lie down ART.INDF little bit 'Lefs go and lie down a little bit' Meik Ai giv yu a nekswan JIOU. make lSG.SUBJ give 2SG.OBJ ART.INDF next one now 'Let me tell you another one [story]:
SA
(Bartens' notes) PR
(Bartens' notes)
17. Nevertheless, the future proximate is marked with a sequence of the prefixes of the progressive aspect re- and the general future be-. The present tense includes habitual actions (Christaller 1875:59, 101-102).
211
212
Angela Bartens
As a result. only the imperative addressed at the second person singular does not take an explicit subject pronoun. 18 Crucially, Twi manifests striking parallels: the imperative directed at the second person singular is constituted by the bare verb stem without any prefixes whatsoever. For all other persons, a compound imperative has to be used. It is formed with a nasal prefix and the verb stem or with a compound imperative consisting of ma 'to lef and the verb. If the compound imperative is addressed to the second person singular, ma is again used without a prefix (Chris taller 1875: 58-60, 99). (30)
(31)
ma :rm-fa let 3SG-IMP-take 'let him take'
TWI
(Chrlstaller 1875: 59)
m6-m-mil :rm-fa 3PL-IMP-let 3SG-IMP-take 'let (pl) him take'
TWI
(Chrlstaller 1875: 59)
On the other hand, as all Twi verb forms are negated by means of infixation - and possibly stem alternation (see above) -,there is parallelism with the creole prohibitives only with regard to the explicit marking of the subject, not the nature of the negation itself.
3.13
Existential clauses (APiCS 64, 78)
English-type existential clauses with expletive pronouns are disallowed in basilectal WCCEs, which resort to other constructions: (32)
(33)
Tu moch hous iina Nort End. too much house in North End 'There are too many houses in North End.'
SA
(Bartens 2003: 46)
San Andres gat plenty biich. San Andres get plenty beach 'There are many beaches on San Andres:
SA
(Bartens 2003: 46)
The verb get which is typically used in these sentences is the same which is used to express possession: (34) Jack memba
se
ih11
get seven okro iina ih11
pakit.
SA
Jack remember coMP 3sG.SUBJ get seven okra in 3so.Poss pocket jack remembered he had seven pods of okra in his pocket:
(Bartens' notes)
Note also that basilectal WCCEs do not differentiate between 'to have' and 'to get' but use get for both. Hav occurs in acrolectal varieties. In our point of comparison, Twi, constructions with the locative copula w.J are used to render the contents of English existential sentences:
18. Ahhough the les-construction appears quite acrolectal at first sight, the subject pronoun becomes optional only when one moves toward the acrolect.
Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andres Creole Englishes
(35)
Silcd bi w:> me JOto mil. gold some coP.LOC 1sG.Poss moneybag within 'There is some gold in my bag:
TWI
(Christaller 1875: 119)
The equivalent of 'to get' is not used in existential constructions. Interestingly enough, however, the perfect tense of nyii 'to get, receive, obtain' is to be translated into English as 'to have, possess' (Chris taller 19 33: 35 5). This type of aspectual conditioning of the verb's semantics may not be a phenomenon cross-linguistically unheard ot~ but it may have reinforced the establishment ofWCCEget.
3·14
'Headache' (APiCS 66)
The semantic notion of having a headache is rendered by the construction 'my head hurts me' both in SA and in Twi, whereas NK has adopted the superstrata! construction with the experiencer in the subject position. It seems likely that SA conserves a sub stratal calque which may have been lost in NK: 19 (36)
(37)
Mi hed de hot mi. lSG.POSS head PROG hwt lSG.OBJ 'I have a headache:
Me
ti
SA (Bartens' notes)
beiJ me.
TWI
1SG.POSS head hwt 1SG.OBJ 'My head aches: (38)
Ih
get a
(Christaller 1875: 116)
hediek.
NK
3SG.SUBJ get ART.INDF headache 'He got a headache:
3.15
(FOREIBCA 2005b)
Comitative = NP conjunction (APiCS 71)
The homophony of the comitative preposition and the NP conjunction is generally recognised as a case of substrate influence in the Atlantic creoles. For instance, in Haitian, the same element joins also verbs (Holm 1988: 206-207). In Twi, expresses the comitative and joins NPs (Christaller 1875:90). In the WCCEs, only the NK as documented by Holm (1978) possesses this feature which may nevertheless have existed in all of them:
ne
19. Ahhough Spanish likewise expresses the concept as la
cabeza me
ART.DEF head 'my head hurts'
duele
lSG.REFL 3SG.hurt
I consider it unlikely that the SA structure be borrowed from Spanish. Having historical data from the WCCEs would be of great help in such instances.
213
214
Angela Bartens
(39)
Di
kaptin wi evibadi waz der. captain with everybody COP.PST there 'The captain and everybody was there.'
NK
ART.DEF
(Holm 1978:291)
By consequence, at an earlier stage, all WCCEs under survey may have featured this clearly substratal structure. 3.16
Copulas (APiCS 75, 76, 77)
According to traditional analyses of Caribbean ECs, three different copulas could be distinguished in SA: da is used in equational constructions, the 0-copula may be postulated with stative predicates and in certain other constructions, and de is used in locative constructions (Bartens 2003:76). However, instead of postulating two homophonous morphemes da, functioning as an equational copula and a topicaliser or focusing particle, both functions can be successfully resumed under the label "topicaliser" (Escure 2004: 149-150). A further argument in favour of this analysis is that the past marker wehn follows da but precedes de. Acrolectal varieties, especially PR and NK, conserve the English copulas iz. woz and the infinitive bii. (40)
Hi
man Breda Taiga da
guud fren.
SA
3sG.SUBJ and Brother Tiger Foe good friend
(Bartens' notes)
'He and Brother Tiger were good friends: (41)
(42)
(43)
Neks talm Beda Taiga mama sik. next time Brother Tiger mother sick ~nother time Brother Tiger's mother was sick.'
SA
(Bartens' notes)
Beda
Naansi djos de. Brother Anansi just coP.LOC 'Brother Anasi was right there:
lin dem taim piipl
had
SA
(Bartens' notes) tu
in DEM time people have.PST COMP 'In those days people had to be good:
bii
gud.
COP.INF
good
NK
(FARP2007)
The WCCEs' substrate languages typically feature several copula verbs, functionally distributed along the same lines as in the creoles. Twi has an equational copula ne which according to Christaller (1875: 110) has evolved from de which again is one of four emphatic particles used in topicalisation (Christaller 1875: 146). There is a locative copula w\ whereas ye appears to correspond to the 0-copula of the WCCE basilect. Sono andfanim are reserved for the expression of difference of existence (Christaller 1875:111-112, 118). In particular, the historical link between topicalisation particle and equational copula constitutes an important parallel between the Twi substrate and the WCCEs under survey.
Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andres Creole Englishes
3.17
Coming from and going to named places (APiCS 81, 82)
The WCCEs and Twi differ in that coming from and going to named places is expressed by means of the prepositionfaa.n,fram <Engl. from in the first case and, in the case of'going t~ mostly by 0 in the basilect and tu in the acrolecl At the same time, Twi uses serial verb constructions with fi 'to come' and b'to go (Christaller 1875:71,74, 132). However, the meaningofboth Twifiand WCCE faan, fram has been extended from spatial to temporal contexts: (44)
0-fi
ne
mme.frdase yare.
TWI
3sG.PRs-to.come.forth coP childhood sick 'He is sick from his infancy.' (45)
Ai
neva
(Christaller 187 5: 134)
went bak dier agen fram fuo yier-z.
NK
lSG.SUBJ Nl!G.PST go.PST back there again from four year-PL 'I have not gone back there since I was four years old'
(FARP2007)
While the same semantic shift has occurred in other languages as yet another instance of the grammaticalisation of spatial into temporal concepts (Heine & Kuteva 2002: 35), I would suggest substrate influence in this specific case.
3.18
Serial verbs meaning 'come: 'go' (APiCS 84)
The occurrence of serial verbs in the Atlantic creoles is attributable to substrate influence, especially from Kwa languages, although their degree of lexicalisation is lower than in the substrate languages (Holm 1988: 183-184; McWhorter 2004:88-91 ). In the WCCEs, the use of serial verbs is quite limited. It is virtually restricted to verb pairs in which one of the elements, usually the first one, is 'come' or 'go: (46) An wan die ihn
kom sie ihn
nou gat notn
fi
kuk.
and one day 3sG.SUBJ come say 3sG.SUBJ Nl!G get nothing coMP cook ~d one day she came and said she didrlt have anything to cook.'
sA
(Bartens' notes)
As a matter offact, Washabaugh (1981) argues that PRgo. gaan, and kom have been grammaticalised into infinitive markers. SA has a recurrent structure where gaan, the anterior/past ofgo, is repeated as in the following example: (47)
gaan .fish in.
SA
Brother Anansi and Brother Tiger 3PLSUBJ go.PsT go.PsT fish 20 ' [Once upon a time,] Brother Anansi and Brother Tiger went fishing.'
(Bartens' notes)
Beda
Naansi an
Beda
Taiga, dem
gaan
Since it is the first sentence of an oral narrative, the function of the repetition appears to go beyond emphasis, conveying a directional meaning as the above-mentioned serial verb structures do.
20. In the creoles under survey,fishbJ is not a gerund but the basic verb form. The gerund would be .fishinin and occurs in acrolectal varieties like PR.
215
216
Angela Bartens
Albeit less frequent, serial verb constructions where the directional verb comes in second position also occur: (48)
Di
uman
tek ihn
piknini dem an ron gaan.
ART.DEF woman take 3SG.POSS child PL 'The woman took her children and ran away.'
SA
and run go.ANT
(Bartens' notes)
Twi makes quite ample use of serial verbs, among them ba 'to come' and b 'to go' (Christaller 1875:69-73): (49)
0-fil
Osu gualj b!J
3so-come.forth.PsT Osu flee 'He fled from Osu to Adi:
Adi.
TWI
go.PsT Adi (Chrlstaller 1875: 132)
As a result. the modest occurrence of serial verbs in the WCCEs by necessity constitutes a carryover from substrate languages such as Twi.
3.19
Body-part reflexives (APiCS 87)
The formation of reflexives with terms denoting body parts in the Atlantic creoles can be traced to the substrate languages- e.g., Twi e-h6 'the human frame, the whole body' (Holm 1988:204205; Christaller 1933: 177)- as in example (50). (50)
onipa bi-ara d:1
ne
hli
man any-ENF love 3SG.POSS body 'every one loves himself'
TWI
(Chrlstaller 1933: 178)
In the WCCEs, body-part reflexives occur in certain expressions in NK (Holm 1978:230): (51)
wori
yu
hed
NK
worry 2SG.POSS head 'to worry' (52)
wash yu
(FARP2007)
skin
NK
wash 2SG.POSS skin 'to wash yourself'
(FARP2007)
Body-part reflexives no longer appear to exist in SA or PR: Dittman (1992:76) only reports the formation of reflexives by suffixing -seifto the personal pronouns: (53)
Wi
haft
difon
wlself.
1PL.SUBJ have.to defend 1PL.REFL 'We have to defend ourselves:
SA
(Bartens' notes)
However, this does not exclude that they have existed at some previous stage oflanguage development in all the WCCEs under survey.
Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andres Creole Englishes
3.20
Passive (APiCS 90)
The lack of morphological passives in basilectal Atlantic creoles may be the result of the structural simplification in creolisation. Incidentally, it is also a feature of the substrate languages which resort to two alternative structures that can also be found in the creoles, namely the use of transitive verbs as intransitive ones or the adding of a pronominal subject to the corresponding verbal form, usually in the third person plural (Holm 1988: 83 ), here exemplified with data from SA: (54)
(55)
Da hous peint ogly. DEM house paint ugly 'That house is painted in an ugly color: Dem kil im. 3PL.SUBJ kill 3SG.OBJ 'They killed him:
SA
(Bartens 2003: 93) SA
(Bartens 2003: 93)
Christaller (1875: 101) informs us that these are the very structures which in Twi correspond to the passive of languages like English: (56)
W:>-t~ Y6sef n6, na wa-di m-Jf. duns6tj. 3PL-sellPsT Joseph DBM and coNSEc-have PL-year seventeen 'Joseph was seventeen years old when he was sold.'
TWI
(Christaller 1875: 163)
The English get-passive constitutes a third alternative construction employed by the WCCEs: (57)
Ihn get biit op. 3SG.SUBJ get beat up 'He got beaten up.'
SA
(Bartens 2003: 93)
The acrolectal varieties of the WCCEs make use of superstrata! passive constructions: (58)
Dehn woz laik fours tu du diiz ting-z an so... 3PL.SUBJ COP.PST like force COMP do Dl!M.PL thing-PL and SO 'They were kind of forced to do these kinds of things .. :
PR
(Bartens' notes)
Nevertheless, overall the WCCE data corresponds to the Twi structures.
3.21
Complementiser clauses (APiCS 95, 96, 98)
The complementiser se which occurs in many English-based Atlantic creoles has frequently been traced to the substrate, specifically to Twise 'to say, that' (Holm 1988: 185-188) in spite of the fact that Frajzyngier (1984:208), for instance, argues for its origin in English say. As a matter of fact, whereas the phonetic form seems to come from English, the semantic properties correspond to those of Twi se. In this context it is important to recall that the grammaticalisation of the verb 'to say' to a complementiser is an areal feature of West African languages (Giildemann 2005). In the WCCEs, se introduces subordinate clauses which follow verbs of saying, knowing and thinking. However, waa.n 'to want' takes a different complementiser: SAfi, PRfa., NKja or 0:
217
218
Angela Bartens
(59)
Yu
11uo se
Taiga freed a waata.
2sG.SUBJ know coMP Tiger afraid of water 'You know that Tiger ls afraid of water.' (60) Mi waahn John fi go kech guana. 1SG.SUBJ want John COMP go catch iguana 'I want John to go to catch iguanas:
SA
(Bartens 2003: 122) SA
(Bartens 2003: 131)
Twi employs se even in such purpose clauses:21 (61) Ma-b:J obi paa st: 6mo/igye me ba. 1SG.PRP-hire somebody contract COMP IMP.nurse 1SG.POSS child 'I have hired a person to nurse my child.'
TWI
(Chrlstaller 1933: 433)
As a result, the match with substrata! structures is not complete as the above-mentioned purpose clauses introduced by 'to want' take a different complementiser in the WCCEs. However, one detail points again into the direction of Twi as the original source of the WCCE structures: SA- but not PR nor NK - omits se when the verb which governs the complement clause is se(i) 'to say'. This is precisely what happens in Twi: after se as the governing verb, se in the function of complementiser is omitted (Christaller 1875: 156).
3.22
Indefinites and negation (APiCS 102)
The fact that, in most creole varieties, indefinite pronouns and adverbs have the same form in affirmative and negative sentences - i.e. they are not affected by negation- is usually called "negative concord" in the creolist literature (Holm 1988: 172). Although pertinent substrate languages like Twi feature negative concord - "few, fwefwe 'anything, with neg. verb 'nothing"' Christaller 1875:42) -,it also occurs, for example, in Spanish and Portuguese and, as Patrick (2007: 137) observes, in many dialects of English, albeit not in SE. Therefore, substrate influence may have helped consolidate a structure that was latent in the lexifier language. Negative concord occurs in all three creoles in the basilect while the acrolects conform to the SE norm: (62) A no sii non-bady no-we. 1SG.SUBJ Nl!G see NEG-body Nl!G-Where 'I did not see anybody anywhere:
3.23
SA
(Bartens 2003:61)
Verb doubling for focus (APiCS 105)
The doubling of verbs for focus results in structures which do not exist in the European superstrate languages. However, their existence in Atlantic creoles and their substrate languages suggests that we are dealing with a case of substrate influence (Holm 1988: 179-180 ):
In some rather exceptional cases, the final clause is introduced by the conjunction na 'and (then)' (Christaller 1875: 173-174).
21.
Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andres Creole Englishes
(63) Da Jaam ihn wehn de foam. FOC pretend 3SG.SBJ ANT FROG pretend 'Pretending, she was just pretending: (64) :rydw nk6 ara nil w:rte h:J yaw INF-abuse only just Foe 3PL-live there abuse 'They live in continual quarreling:
SA (CU 2001: 57) TWI (Chrlstaller 1875: 147)
This structure which is fairly rare in present-day WCCEs appears to be of substrata! origin.
3.24
Vocative marker (APiCS 107)
A number of creoles, for example Seychellois CF, Principense CP and Nigerian Pidgin (English), feature postposed vocative markers. These are carry-overs from the African substrate languages: if a vocative marker can be postulated for a language like English at all, it is always a preposed exclamation, most commonly Hey! ln the creoles under survey, l have encountered postposed vocative markers only in SA and they occur extremely rarely: (65) Ma-yo! mother-voc 'Hey, old lady!' (66) Alma-oi! Alma-voc 'Hey, Alma!'
SA (Bartens' notes) SA
(Bartens' notes)
In Twi, the postposed vocative particle is e, in the Fante dialect also o: (67) Kwasi-e! Kwasi-voc 'Hey, Kwasi!'
TWI (Chrlstaller 1875: 37)
Clearly, postposed vocative markers are a substrata! feature in SA.
3.25
Clicks (APiCS 108)
Probably all Atlantic creoles make use of clicks to convey mostly affective meanings, most frequently contempt, irritation, disapproval, etc. The seminal paper by Rickford and Rickford (1980) established the substrata! origin of this feature and to the adoption of the term "suck-teeth" for describing it In Caribbean ECs, it is rendered orthographically as {cho!} or {chups!} In Twi, we find the interjections in examples (68) to (70 ). (68) tweaa 'interjection expressing utmost disregar-d or contempt'
TWI (Chrlstaller 1933: 551)
(69) ntw:Jm TWI 'a dick or smacking with the tongue from displeasure, indignation, annoyance, grief, etc: (Chrlstaller 1933: 556)
219
220
Angela Bartens
(70)
Md, tWew 'of course, exactly!'
TWI
(Chrlstaller 1875:95)
The feature "suck-teeth" is used to mark contempt and related meanings in all the three varieties studied here: (71)
hia di stuori? - Tshoo! hear ART.DEF story Choo 'Have you heard the story? - Choo!' Unu
SA
2PL.SUBJ
3.26
(Bartens' notes)
'Eye water' (APiCS 111)
'Eye water' for 'tears' is one of the well-known and widespread calques from West African languages into the Atlantic creoles (Holm 1978: Appendix sub voce). In all three varieties, ai waata persists. The same expression exists in a number of West Mrican languages, among them Twi, Ewe, Yoruba, Igbo, Bambara and KishiKongo (Bartens 2003:170 and references within), which explains its diffusion in creoles.22 The Twi counterpart is ani suo 'eye water = tears' according to Holm and Shilling (1982). Also: (72)
n-ani
taata
nsu
3sG.Poss-eye to.be.filledwith water 'Hls eyes filled with tears.'
3.27
TWI
(Chrlstaller 1933: 336)
'Hand, arm' (APiCS 112)
The existence of a single term which denotes both 'hand' and '(lower) arm' is widespread in the African substrate languages and the Atlantic creoles. Han 'hand, arm' occurs in all three WCCEs. Holm (1978: 217) notes that according to the Oxford English Dictionary, English hand was used by anatomists until1750 to refer to the entire arm. According to him, the fact that the cutting point of NK han was located approximately at the elbow as in the substrate languages suggests the latter ones were to be held responsible for the semantic extension. In modern Twi, there is partial overlap: nsa 'hand, finger(s), arni, :Jbasa 'arm' (Christaller 1933:8, 416). Holm (pc) quotes Koelle (1854:40) who lists Twi a.l6nu 'arm from the elbow'. However, fieldwork results revealed that at least in SA and NK, han at present refers to the entire arm. The same observation applies to WCCE fut 'foot, leg'.
3.28
Animal names (APiCS 117)
Both in creole languages of all regions and in Mrican languages, at least part of the names of animals are formed by means of adding a term corresponding to 'male' and 'female' to the basic
22. AB a matter of fact, Migge and Smith (2007: 9) observe that it is very difficult to determine a single substrate source in the area oflexical semantics."
Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andres Creole Englishes
term. This is often attributed to African substrate languages although the same procedure has been employed in European languages as well: Holm (1988:86-87) mentions Scots but does not rule out that returning immigrants from the Caribbean may have contributed forms like lad-bain, lass-ba.in to il Until today, Portuguese, especially Brazilian Portuguese, employs terms like cabra ftmea 'female goat'. However, these structures are more common in the substrate languages, so we may consider them at least another case of convergence: (73)
na11tWi-nl11i
TWI
cow-male 'a bull' (74)
(Chrlstaller 1875: 32)
nantWI-bere
TWI
cow-female 'a cow'
(Chrlstal1er 1875: 32)
Note that in the creoles, the masculine constitutes the default category and often only the female has to be explicitly marked as in the following example: (75)
Wen di shii monki si di monki shi when ART.DEF FEM monkey see ART.Dl!F monkey 3SG.SUBJ.Fl!M 'When the female monkey saw the [male] monkey, she
get in lov
wid
im.
get in love With 3SG.OBJ.MASC fell in love with him:
3·29
NK
(FOREIBCA 2005a)
Syllable onsets and codas (APiCS 118, 119)
According to Christaller (1875: 13), "A principal [Twi] syllable consists of a consonant, simple or compound, and a vowel or diphthong (or triphthong [ ... ]),which may be followed by one or two nasal consonants." This basic CV syllable structure predominates in the Atlantic creoles' West African substrate languages in general (Holm 1988: 108). In the WCCEs, there is a tendency towards a basic syllable structure CVin the more basilectal varieties (Parkvall 2000:52). However, PR and NK feature less syllable onsets with three consonants than SA, above all because /str-/ has been palatalised to Ur-] -SA strang, PR, NK shrang 'strong'.
3.30
Tonal contrasts (APiCS 120)
Twi manifests three tones: low, high, and middle (Christaller 1875: 15). Considering that no lexifier language possesses tonal oppositions nor do they tend to surge spontaneously in language contact situations, it is fair to assume that they must be of substrata! origin. Until now, tonal oppositions were not identified for any of the WCCEs studied here. However, just as in Tobagoman (James 2003: 170), SA distinguishes between kyan 'can' and its negative form kyaan 'can't' by
221
222
Angela Bartens
falling vs. rising tone (rather than by vowel quantity).Z3 This analysis can be extended to other minimal pairs as for instance the basic negative particle no (falling tone) vs. the emphatic negator noh (rising tone). In addition to these grammatical and pragmatic minimal pairs, SA also employs tonal oppositions to distinguish between lexical pairs such as hu61 'to hold' vs. huol 'whole'. Marcia Dittman (pc, December 2008) confirmed that tonal oppositions also exist in PR. So far, tonal oppositions have not been found in NK.
4·
Conclusions
As noted above, the final version of the APi CS questionnaire consists of 120 features. After identifying the Twi counterparts for all of them, I selected approximately a third of them as susceptible of revealing some substrate influence. 24 As can be gleaned from the preceding remarks, in several cases substrate influence can be considered to have had a converging effect at best, although I initially aimed at excluding features in which superstrate and substrate converge - e.g., because both are SVO-languages. I would say that based on the data from nineteenth century Twi as described by Christaller, the following appear relatively clear manifestations of substrate influence: the associative plural (4.3); the existence of emphatic demonstratives (4.7); distributive numerals (4.8); the use of next as an ordinal (4.9 ); the formation of imperatives and prohibitives, especially as far as subject marking is concerned (4.12); the equivalent of 'to have a headache' (4.14); the homophony of the comitative and the conjunction joining two NPs (4.15); the distribution of different copulas and the link between a topicaliser and the equational copula (4.16); the temporal acceptation offaa.n 'from' (4.17); the existence of serial verbs formed with 'come' and 'go (4.18); the remains ofbody-part reflexives in certain NK expressions (4.19); the complementiser se (4.21); verb doubling for focus (4.23); the existence of postposed vocative markers (4.24); the use of paralinguistic clicks (4.25); the calque 'eye water= tears' (4.26); the semantic extension ha.n 'hand, arm' (4.27); and the existence of tonal oppositions (4.30). The formation of independent pronominal possessors (4.10) and the existence of stative vs. dynamic predicates in the WCCEs (4.11) may also at least in part betray sub stratal influence. The fact that Twi employs the perfect of the verb 'to get' with the meaning of 'to have' (4.13) seems also an interesting "coincidence". In any case, it is clear that much more research needs to be conducted in order to enable us to indicate with more precision the areas of the WCCE language structure influenced by the substrate languages. The obvious approach to start with is to not limit oneself to a closed list like the APiCS feature catalogue. For example, the second person plural personal pronoun unu which
23. James (2003: 170) postulates low vs. high tone for Tobagonian but according to my experience ofWCCE, it is rather falling vs. rising tone. Obviously, I am talking about basilectal varieties here.
24. To be precise, 41 APiCS features are addressed but at times with an emphasis not on the definition of the APiCS feature but a related issue. This is the case of 5.17: APiCS feature nwnber 81 seeks to establish how the concept of 'corning from named places' is rendered in creole languages whereas my observations concern the extension of the meaning ofWCCE faan, fram from the spatial to the temporal domain.
Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andres Creole Englishes
occurs in many Atlantic CEs, including basilectal WCCEs, 25 and is attributable to Igbo (Parkvall 2000: 102-103), is not listed in the APiCS. Many more examples could be given. All levels of the language structure need to be examined equitably. Based on a scrutiny of the sociohistory of the WCCEs, other putative substrate languages have to be identified and compared with the creoles. If possible, sources on other varieties (geographic, chronological) of Akan should be contrasted with the WCCEs as well. Finally, the WCCEs under survey need to be documented better, especially with regard to variation within the individual geographical varieties (SA, PR, NK).
List of abbreviations APiCS CE FOREIBCA lit NK
NP PR SA
SE WCCE
Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Creole English Fortalecimiento de Education Intercultural Bilingiie en la Costa Atlintica literally Nicaraguan Krlol Noun Phrase Providence Creole English Saintandrewan Standard English Western Caribbean Creole English
For abbreviations used in interlinear glosses, see link in Note 9.
References Alleyne, M. C. 1986. Substrate influences- Guilty until proven innocent. In Substrata versus Universals in Creole Genesis. Papers from the Amsterdam Creole Workshop, April1985 [Creole Language Library 1), P. Muysken & N. Smith (eds), 301-315. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Bartens, A. 1996. Der kreolische Raum: Geschichte und Gegenwart. Helsinki: Die Finnische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Bartens, A 2003. A Contrasth•e Grammar Islander - Caribbean Standard English - Spanish. Helsinki: The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. Bartens, A. & Farquharson, J. T. Forthcoming. Lexical Africanisms in Western Caribbean English(-based) Creoles. In Black Through White. African Words and Calques in Creoles and 'Iransplanted European Languages, A Bartens & P. Baker (eds). London: Battlebridge Press. Bickerton, D. 1981. Roots of Language. Ann Arbor MI: Karoma. Chris taller, J. G. 1875. A Grammar of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi [ Chwee, Twi] Based on the Akuapem Dialect with Referet~ces to the Other (Akan and Fa,Jte) Dialects. Basel: Basel Evangelical Missionary Society. Christaller, J. G. 1933 [1888]. Dictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called TShi (I'wi), 2nd edn, revised and enlarged. Basel: Basel Evangelical Missionary Society.
25. Acrolectal varieties ofWCCE make use of yu-aal.
223
224
Angela Bartens
CU [The Christian University Corporation of San Andres, Providence and Kathleen]. 2001. ABC Stuoriz. An blander English Reader. San Andres Island: The Christian University Corporation of San Andres, Providence and Kathleen Islands, Colombia. Dittman, M. L. 1992. El criollo sa11a11dresa110: Lengua y cultura. Cali: Universidad del Valle. Edwards, J. 1970. Social Linguistics on San AJJdres and Providence Islands. PhD dissertation, Tulane University (University Microfilms International 1979). Escure, G. 2004. A review of~ Contrastive Grammar Islander-Caribbean Standard English-SpanisH by Angela Bartens. English World- Wide 25(1): 148-152. FARP. 2007. Finnish Academy Research Project 111544, field recordings. FOREIBCA. 2005a. Kuos Riijan Stuoriz I, Bhrufiilz: IPILC/URACCAN/MECD. FOREIBCA. 2005b. Kuos Riijan Stuoriz II, Bluufiilz: IPILC/URACCAN!MECD. Frajzyngier, Z. 1984. On the origin of say and se as complementizers in black English and English-based Creoles. American Speech 59(3): 207-210. Giildemann, T. 2005. The alleged grammaticallzation of quotative-complementi.zers in Atlantic creoles: A West African substrate perspective. Paper presented at the conference Creole Language Structure between Substrates atul Superstrates, Leipzig. 3-5 June 2005. Heine, B. & Kuteva, T. 2002 World Lexicon of Grammaticalization. Cambridge: CUP. Holm, J. 1978. The English Creole of Nicaragua's Miskitu Coast: It's Sociolinguistic History and a Comparative Study of it's Lexicon and Syntax. PhD dissertation, University of London. Holm, J. 1983. Nicaragua's Miskitu Coast Creole English. In Central American English [Varieties of English Around the World T2], J. Holm (ed.), 95-130. Heidelberg: Julius Groos. Holm, J. 1986. The Spread of English in the Caribbean Area. In Focus on the Caribbean [Varieties of English Around the World G8], M. Gorlach & J. A. Holm (eds), 1-22. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Holm, J. 1988. Pidgin and Creole Languages, VoL I: Theory and Structure. Cambridge: CUP. Holm, J. A. & Watt Shilling. A. 1982. Dictionary of Bahatnian English. Cold Spring NY: Lexi.k House. James, W. 2003. The role of tone and rhyme structure in the organisation of grammatical morphemes in Tobagonian. In Pho,wlogy and Morphology in Creole LatJgUages, I. P1ag (ed. ), 165-19 2 !Ubingen: Niemeyer. Koelle, S. W. 1854. Polyglotta Africana, or a Comparative Vocabulary ofNearly Three Hundred Words atJd Phrases, in More Than one Hundred Distinct African Languages. London: Church Missionary House. Kouwenberg. S. & Murray, R 1994. Papiatnentu. Munich: Lincom. McWhorter, J. 2004. Saramaccan and Haitian as young grammars: The pitfalls of syntactocentrism in Creole genesis research. Journal ofPidgin and Creole LatJgUage.s 19(1): 77-137. Migge, B. & Smith, N. 2007. Introduction: Substrate influence in creole formation. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 22(1): 1-15. Muys.lren, P. & Smith, N. 1990. Question words in Pidgin and creole languages. Linguistics 28: 883-903. Parkvall, M. 2000. Out o_fAfrica. African Influences in Atlantic Creoles. London: Battlebridge. Parkvall, M. 2003. Reduplication in the Atlantic creoles. In Th'ice as Meaningful. Reduplication in Pidgins, Creoles atJd Other Contact Languages, S. Kouwenberg (ed.),19-36. London: Battlebridge. Patrick, P. L. 2007. Jamaican Patwa (Creole English). In Comparative Creole Syntax. Parallel Outlines of 18 Grammars, J. Holm & P. L. Patrick (eds),127-152. London: Battlebridge. Petersen, W. G. 200 1. The Province of Providence. San Andres Island, Colombia: The Christian University of San Andres, Providence and Kathleen Islands, Colombia. Rlckford, J. R. & Rlckford, A. 1980. Cut-eye and suck-teeth: African words and gestures in new world guise. In Perspecth'es on American English, J. L. Dillard (ed.), 347-365. The Hague: Mouton. Thomason, S. G. 2001. LatJgUage Contact: An Introduction. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. Washabaugh, W. 1981. Pursuing Creole roots. In Generative Studies in Creole Languages, P. Muysken (ed.), 85-102. Dordrecht: Foris.
Palenque(ro) The search for its African substrate* Armin Schwegler University of California, Irvine
In memary of German de Granda ( 1932-2008), friend and pioneer ofPalenquero studies This article examines substrata! influences in Palenquero (Colombia). It begins with an explanation of why research on the origins of Palenque and its language has been particular! y challenging, and what these challenges mean in terms of how convincing the reigning hypothesis of a sole Klkongo substrate can (or cannot) be. The study then concentrates on relevant external and inter nallanguage data, as these are in many ways complementary. Language-internal features tied to Klkongo will be shown to come from all domains of grammar (phonology, morphology and syntax). Three fundamental conclusions will be reached: (1) Kikongo speakers must indeed have been a dominant force in the early Palenque; (2) lacunae in our historical and linguistic knowledge are, however, so great that we should keep a guarded attitude toward the current substrate hypothesis; and (3) there are multl:ple reasons to be optimistic about future attempts to refine substratist investigations into the creole. Part of that optimism rests on ongoing DNA research (based on comparison of the DNA ofPalenqueros and Central West Africans), as well as on an astonishing turnaround of sociolinguistic attitudes in twenty-first -century Palenque. This turnaround has prompted a rapid re-evaluation and never-before seen appreciation oflocal Africanlsms. Local enthusiasm for Palenquero is currently bringing to the fore a corpus of hitherto undocumented ancestral words that may help us advance explorations into the orlgins of the language.
This is a much abridged version of Schwegler (2009b). I thank Marlyse Baptista, Ernesto Bassi, Alejandro Correa, Tobias Green, Bart Jacobs, Alain Kihm, Carol Myers-Scotton, Rafael Orozco, Constanza Rojas-Primus, and two anonymous referees for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this paper. I owe a special debt of gratitude to William Samarin for his insightful remarks on early and late drafts of this study. I am also grateful to the many Palenqueros who in one way or another have assisted me in my research over the years. Among them are Sebastian Salgado Reyes, JesU.S Perez Palomino, Julia Simarra, Maria Luisa Simarra, and VIctor Simarra. My friend and colleague Yves Mofiino (CNRS, Paris) has provided me with pertinent materials and information that I could not otherwise have obtained easily. Finally, I wish to thank Claire Lefebvre, the editor of this volume. Without her extraordinary patience and enthusiasm for the project, I could not have contributed to this book. As is natural, any shortcomings in this study are entirely my responsibility.
226
Armin Schwegler
Keywords: Palenque, Palenquero, Africanlsms, African infiuence, substrate, Kikongo, Bantu infiuence, DNA population study
1.
Introduction
Research into the African origins ofPalenquero (henceforth PAL.) began in earnest in the 1970s and especially the 1980s, after Bickerton & Escalante (1970) and Granda (1968) had first identifiedLengua. (local name of PAL.) as acreoleratherthan "simply" as a Spanish dialect. At first, the search for the African origins of PAL. seemed daunting indeed. The task appeared particularly difficult, in part because the ancestors of this maroon community had escaped from nearby seventeenth-century Cartagena de Indias, then Latin America's major slave trade centre. As such, Cartagena (founded in 1533) was the "blackest" and most ethnically diverse city in the New World, a fact that the well-informed contemporary observer Alonso de Sandoval made clear in his enlightening De instauranda aethiopum salute. Un tratado sobre Ia escla.vitu.d (Sandoval1627/1987). Additional historical records as well as subsequent twentieth-century investigations by historians such as Arnizola (1955, 1970), Borrego Phi (1973, 1983, 1994), Friedemann (1993: Ch. 3), Green (2007) and Vidal Ortega (2002) further corroborated the fact that, during Cartagena's heyday (ca. 1600-1700), boza.les (newly imported slaves) from virtually every corner of West and Central West Africa arrived in the city, thereby contributing to an unusually rich situation of New World multilingualism. (As Del Castillo 1982: 19 notes, Sandoval reported that in his time over 70 African languages were spoken in Cartagena.) Obtained from historical records and, in some instances, eyewitness accounts, information about the provenance of Cartagena's unusually heterogeneous Black population was later advanced by Del Castillds incisive Esclavos negros en Ca.rtagena y sus aportes lexicos (1982). 1 More recently, Navarrete (1995a, 1995b, 2003, 2008a, 2008b, 2009) further broadened our understanding of Cartagena's Black history by studying how maroon slaves established their first palenques (fortifications) in Cartagena's hinterland during the seventeenth century. When viewed against this backdrop of Cartagena's seventeenth-century multilingual Black population, it is easy to understand why researchers originally held working assumptions that conceived of Palenque's early inhabitants as a mix of profoundly diverse ethnicities, each endowed with its own separate language. The search for substrate influences in PAL. thus seemed unusually daunting, and the expectation persisted that pertinent research would eventually lead to the discovery of several dominant substrates (rather than a single one). As it turns out, to date these expectations have not been met Instead, investigations carried out over the past quarter century (1985-2009) suggest that Kikongo (Map 1) may have been Palenque's only significant African substrate. This conclusion has, however, never been subjected to rigorous debate. The goal of this study is twofold: First, it aims to outline how and why Kikongo has emerged as a convincing primary (and maybe sole) substrate. (For a fuller account, I refer readers to the unabridged version of this study (Schwegler forthcoming], where language-external and other
1.
See also the companion study, Del Castillo (1984).
Palenque(ro)
Kikongo encompasses several more or less mutually intelligible Bantu dialects including tsiVili, kiSolongo, kiYombe, kiSansala, kiNtandu, til.ari, kiNdibu, kiBembe, and kiSundi. For the genetic filiation of Kikongo within Bantu, see Guthrie (1971): H10 as well as subbranch H16.
Map 1. Approximate area in which Klkongo is spoken: northern Angola, the Democratic Republic (D. R.) of the Congo, and the Republic of the Congo evidence is considered in greater depth.) Second, it seeks to explain why the question of"African input" into PAL. is far from settled and thus deserves renewed attention. As will become evident in the course of this paper, a major reason for casting some doubt on the hypothesis that Kikongo is the only substrate - a hypothesis that I myself have advanced on multiple occasions - rests on the fact that so much about Palenque's formative period remains unknown. This study will highlight critical lacunae in our historical and linguistic knowledge, and explain why we should maintain a guarded attitude toward the currently reigning hypothesis. The article is structured as follows: Section 2 explains how language-external evidence has helped specialists narrow down the origins of early Palenqueros. The article then segues into what can (and cannot) be gleaned from eighteenth-century documentary sources about Palenque's early history. Section 3 is dedicated to language-internal evidence. Here, the creole's substrate is studied by focusing successively on African elements in its lexicon (3.1), phonology (3.2) and morphosyntax (3.3). A conclusion completes the study.
2.
Origins of the Palenqueros: Language-external evidence
My multiple extended stays in Palenque (1985 to 1996, and 2008) confirmed that, prior to the first arrival of scholars in the community in the 1950s and then again in the 1970s and 1980s, the Palenqueros had no collective memory of the slave trade in general, nor of any other historical events that predated the 1900s. Since that time (i.e., the 1970s and 1980s), a good deal of ethnohistorical re-inventing has taken place inside and outside of Palenque, so much so that nowadays many locals claim to possess rather predse ideas about their supposed African origins and history as maroons. Especially among youngsters, some of these ideas have been brought to the community in scholarly
227
228
Armin Schwegler
Statue ofBeokos Bioho, located in the central plaza of Palen que. The text reads: BENKos• BIOHO, FOUNDER OF PALEN QUE
1603 • Word-final-s in Benk~ is a hypercorrection, common in Palenque (d: PAL. sinkos 'five' < SPAN. cinco).
Figure 1
Figure2
publications (my own included) and/or magazine and newspaper articles. Of late, other "origin ideas,. have been introduced by the aforementioned pan-Colombian movement of negritud (Black awareness), which, among other things, led UNESCO in 2005 to proclaim Palenque as a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity." This newly afforded international recognition has triggered additional rewriting of Palenque's heroic past Paid for by UNESCO and placed in the centre of town, a large and aesthetically pleasing statue (Figures 1 and 2) now informs locals and visitors alike that Benko Bioho (also Bioo or Biho ), a legendary maroon leader, was the supposed founder of the community. Moreover, an inscription on the pedestal of the statue firmly anchors the date- 1603 -when Benko Bioho presumably established Palen que. As I have already hinted, none of these recent claims about the origins ofPalenque and its inhabitants is based on verifiable historical documentation. As we shall see in Part 2 of this study, it is true that Bantu-speaking maroons must have played a dominant role in the formation of Palen que. It is also true that Benko Bioho was indeed a historic figure and a rebel maroon leader (he was captured and drowned by the governor of Cartagena shortly before 1620; seeNavarrete 2008a: 43). But, as Del Castillo (1984:80-85) makes clear in his little-known study "El Iexico negro-afrkano de San Basilio de Palenque:' Escalante's claim that Benko Bioho was the founder of Palenque is fiction rather than fact. 2 :u
What is known about Palenque's early history
The first reliable documentary evidence about the existence of Palenque dates from the Noticia historial of 1772, written by Diego de Peredo, bishop of Cartagena, and his secretary Francisco Escudero (Del Castillo 1984:83). The document makes two relevant points: ( 1) The Palenqueros already spoke among themselves a "peculiar local tongue; 3 as well as fluent Spanish, and (2) their 2.
The claim is embraced in Escalante (1954 [1979]: 22-25) as well as in Bickerton & Escalante (1970: 255).
3· • [H]ablan entre sf un particular idioma en que a sus sol as instruyen a los muchachos; sin embargo de que cortan con mucha expedicron el castellano ... "(Hemmdez De Alba 1982: 219-220).
Palenque(ro)
[Catholic] priest oversaw 178 families with 396 converted souls and 90 slaves ( 1\dm inistra su cura
178 familias con 396 almas de confesi6n y 90 esclavos"4). The approximate time (ca. 1650-1750) ofPalenque's formative years situates us within aperiod when (1) Cartagena had already risen to great prominence as a heavily multilingual slave trade centre, and (2) West Central Africa (Kongo, Angola, etc.) was already providing large slave contingents to Colombia and other parts of Latin America (Heywood & Thornton 2007).
2.2
What is not known about Palenque's early history
Much about Palenque's early history is mired in uncertainty, so much so that a search for its African roots is inherently subject to considerable speculation (but see Navarrete 2003, 2008a). Contrary to other situations of creole formation (e.g., Suriname) where historical demographic information on bozal and creole societies is plentiful (see, for instance, the pioneering work by Arends 199 5), the case of Palenque is so poorly documented that scholars have never had at their disposal language-external evidence like birth or church records, information about the ratio of bozales to creoles, detailed accounts of slave voyages directly linkable to maroons who escaped Cartagena, or other pertinent historical data that might enlighten us about the maroons' ethnolinguistic provenance. Moreover, there remains the nagging question of whether the creole is possibly a vestigial remnant of a once fairly widespread creole, as I have proposed on several occasions (Schwegler 1991b, 1993c, 1996b, 1999, 2002c), or whether PAL. is strictly the result of an in situ formation, fostered by exceptional sodohistorical circumstances of maroonage. This second hypothesis has been espoused by Lipski (among others), who recently argued that "(c]onditions favoring the formation of a stable creole never existed in the Spanish Caribbean" (2005: 302). But he too admits that the question is far from settled, and that, "[m]uch as in physical archaeology, the reconstruction of prior linguistic epochs is an evolving science that relies on methodological improvements, theoretical refinements, and ongoing discovery of raw materials" (2005: 304). No matter what the exact evolutionary steps were in the formation of Palenque's language and society, one thing is certain: Today, more than SO years after Escalante's pioneering 1954 (1979) book, we are still woefully lacking in verifiable historical information about Palenque's early inhabitants. In terms of documentary evidence, we are thus left with a situation in which approximately 200 years (1700-1900) of its history remain essentially unrecorded. As is natural, in the absence of such evidence, substratist research is bound to be more tenuous than usual. Nonetheless, as the following sections show, sufficient progress has been made to allow for a set of well-grounded conclusions.
4· By the early 1830s, Palenque already had 1,073 residents (Helg 2004:38).
229
230
Armin Schwegler
3·
Origins of Palenqueros: Linking language-external evidence with language-internal clues
Over the last hundred years, PAL. has undergone neither decreolisation nor other substantial internal change (for details, see Schwegler 2001), with the exception of its Mrican vocabulary. which in the twentieth century underwent substantial reduction (see 3.1). The morphosyntactic features described in this section are, therefore, not of recent vintage, and must have characterised the creole for centuries.
3.1
Palenque's African lexicon
The search for the ethnic and linguistic origins of Palenque seemed daunting indeed when linguists (Bickerton and Granda) first set foot in the village in the late 1960s. Facing a bewildering and undocumented array of African languages that could potentially have exerted substrata! influences on PAL., scholars gradually sifted through language-internal data in order to build their claims on a more solid footing. Clinging to the hypothesis of a heavily multiethnic and multilingual early Palenque, Escalante's pioneering El Palenque de San Basilio (1954/1979) provided a key observation that later led Granda (1968) and Bickerton & Escalante (1970) to suspect that speakers of Bantu languages must have played a key role in the genesis of the creole. While attending funeral rites in Palenque, Escalante noticed the prominence of a fossilised ritual chant whose main stanzas contain the words Kongo, Luango and Angola (Escalante 1954/1979: 8, 1988) - three toponyms or ethnic names that could readily be linked to an area of Central West Africa where early Portuguese slaving activities are known to have been intense (Arbell2002; Bottcher 1995; Granda 1971:87, and sources therein). Subsequent fieldwork (Schwegler 1996a) revealed three critical facts: (1) Already in the 1980s, Palenqueros no longer understood the literal meaning of the stanzas in question, (2) Escalante's early transcriptions were partially faulty but nonetheless sufficiently transparent to confirm the existence of Kongo, Luango and Angola in the stanzas in question (see below), and- importantly perhaps for substratist research- (3) in Palenque, there is no collective memory of additional African place names or ethnonyms. The text and translation of the song containing Kongo, Luango and Angola are as follows (the first three lines are in the Palenquero creole, but have no literal meaning to Palenqueros; the last two lines are in local Spanish;5 for the location ofLoango- both the region and the city, see Map 2): Chi rna nkongo [Palenquero funeral chant] Chi rna nkongo, Chi rna luango, Chi rna ri Luango di Angou1 e; Huan GungU me flamo yo; Huan GungU me a de nyama, ee.
From the Kongo [Palenquero funeral chant] From the Kongo [people I am], From the Loango [people I am], From the Loango of Angola [people I am], eh; Juan Gungu is my name; Juan Gungu I shall be called, eh. (Schwegler 1996a: 524-537)
s.
The Spanish of Palenque differs in significant respects from regional Spanish. For a detailed discussion and examples, see Schwegler & Morton (2003).
Palenque(ro)
Taking as a point of departure these ritual data as well as a short list of (presumably) African vocabulary, 6 Bickerton & Escalante also concluded that"... the Palenqueros came mainly from Angola and Congo" (1970:261). In the first detailed article dedicated to the African provenance of the Palenquero community, the Spanish creolist Granda reached a similar verdict. arguing that "the conclusions obtained by Aquiles Escalante on the basis of ethnological data are evidently solid, and his claim of a predominantly Angolan origin of the Palenque maroons is confirmed by the mention in Palenquero chants of Angola, Congo and Loango" (1971: 86, my translation). Granda then proceeded to provide additional well-founded arguments (see 1971:86, n. 12) that helped cement the idea that the ritual lines in question must be of considerable antiquity. At a time when linguists and others interested in Palenque had not yet acquired an advanced knowledge of the creole, it seemed logical that efforts to advance substrate research should concentrate on the creole's esoteric local vocabulary, especially that which had a distinct nonHispanic configuration. "Notas sobre lexico palenquero de origen bantU" (1978) by Granda, who by then had briefly visited Palenque, was written with this purpose in mind. While the resulting list of words remained modest (totalling about 40 items) and some of the proposed etymologies were tenuous or, in some instances, misguided, this expanded lexical corpus of words once again pointed to Kikongo as the principal substrate. However, to gain greater clarity about potential Kimbundu and other contributions, a larger corpus of Afro- Palenquerisms (henceforth called simply KAfricanisms") was clearly needed. From approximately 1950 to 2000, the number of actively used African words was surprisingly low, barely more than a dozen. Included among these active words are those listed below (examples are uniformly derived from Kikongo; references to etymological sources are given in Schwegler 2002b ). chimbumbe 'water spirit'
< KIK. ki 'plural class PREP' + mbumba 'mythological figure of the lower Congo/Zaire river' < KIK. ma 'plural class PREP: Class 6 in Guthrie's classification (pluralia tantum) < KIK. lu (class PREP) + Knc. mbalu 'memory, recol-
rna
'plural particle'
lumbalti
'name oflocal funeral rite'
mahan a
< KIK. ma (class PREP)+ aana or d-ana PL of youngsters' mwdna 'child. descendant, offspring, etc: 'child. adolescent, youngster' < KIK. mwdna 'child. descendant, offspring, etC: 'steer I cow' (rna ngombe 'cattle') < KIK. ngombe 'cow, steer' 'father' < KIK. tdata 'father, uncle, chief'
lection'
mona ngornbe
tata
'children, adolescents,
During the second half of the twentieth century, prevailing negative attitudes towards anything local made members of the community feel ashamed of their speech, so much so that many began to altogether abandon the creole, and along with it overt Africanisms (Del Castillo 1984:89; Patino Rosselli 1983: 188-191; for a sample of earlier outside attitudes, consult Ochoa Franco 1945:62). Given such sociolinguistic attitudes, it should not be surprising that many
6. I say "(presumably) African" because some of the supposed Africanisms turned out to be Hispanisms. One such Hispanism is kasariambe 'cemetery', derived from Spanish casa de hambre, lit 'house of hunger: For detailed etymological explanations of this and related items, see Schwegler (1989, 2000, 2002b).
231
232
Armin Schwegler
older Palenqueros - then the best source of archaisms of putative African origins - were often reticent to provide outsiders (linguists included) with lexical gems that could potentially elucidate substratist research. Aware of these challenges, during the late 1980s and 1990s, I sought to use my extended stays in Palenque to undertake a systematic collection of remaining Mro- Palenquero vocabulary. The search confirmed that Palenque still offered fertile grounds for the retention of Africanisms, yielding about 200 autochthonous lexical items of putative Mrican origin (Schwegler 2000, 2002b). As we will see shortly, at present there is reason to believe that additional fieldwork could significantly expand this corpus, especially if the task were undertaken with the assistance oflocal consultants. The approximately 200 Afro-Palenquero words analysed in Schwegler (2000, 2002b) fall into essentially two categories: ritual (lumbalzt) and extra-ritual vocabulary. The latter constitute the vast majority of the corpus, and are more useful for determining Palenque's substrate (ritual lexicon is less useful since its literal meaning has often been lost, rendering etymological work more speculative). Of the extra-ritual words (mostly archaisms), about half have been etymologised (Schwegler 2002b: 176-216). The remainder consists of words whose origin(s) are unknown or are in doubt (Schwegler 2002b: 218-220). This etymological research leads to a surprising and important conclusion: As mentioned earlier, Granda, Del Castillo, Bickerton & Escalante and other scholars (myself included) had long suspected that multiple Bantu languages could eventually be shown to have contributed to the formation of PAL. Besides Kikongo, the Kimbundu language of Angola in particular was viewed as a potentially rich source of Mro- Palenquerisms. Scholars assumed this position in part because (1) Mbundu slaves were known to have been shipped to Cartagena in relatively large numbers, and (2), as mentioned earlier, Palenque's most famous lumbalzt songexplicitlymentions Angola (see KChi rna nkongo, chi rna ri ANGOLA" above). As it turns out, however, these expectations of multiple Bantu origins have not been met Instead, Kikongo has emerged as virtually the only demonstrable donor of African lexicon? Although it is true that several Africanisms could plausibly be traced to Kimbundu, the same words are always cognates in Kikongo as well (e.g., anguba. 'peanut(s)' < KIK. ng(tba. I KIMB. nguba). The opposite is, however, not the case, as many Africanisms have irrefutable Kikongo etyma that lack plausible Kimbundu derivations. This finding naturally leads to the question of why Kikongo-speaking maroons would refer to Angola. The answer may be simpler than expected: As the travel account by Degranpre (1801) shows, during the slave trade, "Angola" had a wider geographic meaning than it does today, and included the Loango Coast Old ritual expressions like Chi ma ri LuANGO di ANGOLA are thus perhaps best translated as 'From the Loango [people] of the West Central African Coast" Table 1 presents a sampling of 10 Kikongo-derived Palenquero words (for etymological sources, see Schwegler 2002b ). All etymologies shown therein exhibit regular sound change.
7.
See also Schwegler (1989, 1990, 1992b, 1993b, 1994, 1996a).
Palenque(ro)
Table 1. Sampling of ten Palenquero words and their Klkongo etymologies Palenquero
Gloss
Kikongo etymology
Lhasa
'chamber pot (traditionally made of one half of a gourd)'
KIK. baasu 'something cut in half; the half of something. for example half a coconut'
2.binde
i:bree stones (on the ground) on which a cooking pot is perched so that the firewood can be pushed in below it'
KIK. wiindi (PL bi-wii1Jdi) 'perch'
3.bongo
bonga 'Ceiba penta,Jdra' (big Ceiba tree with a KIK. v(mga 'big. large' very large trunk). Note: ENGL. bongo (drum) is a cognate. The same is true of La Bonga 'toponym near Palen que that received its name from a big Ceiba tree'
4. buru - mbulu
'money, change'
KIK. mvil.lu 'riches, wealth'
5. cherre-cberre
'ear of corn that has defective growth (on kernels)'
KIK. nzeJ.e-nzele 'apoplexy'
6.eroe
'interjection meaning "yes, of course!·
KIK. eJ.oe 'yei
7.indende
'stupid, slow (of mind), retarded'
KIK. ndende 'slow (to take off or obey), insupportable, dragging down'
8. imba-imba
'argument without value; stupid or unsupported claim'
KIK. ba-ba 'onornat for speaking fast, like a retarded or deaf person' (the prenasal [m] and word-initial [i-] are non-etymological phonetic accommodations)
9. gere-gere
'mule, donkey'
KIK. ngeele (REDUPL) '(hard) worker'
'a lie, an excuse, something invented'
KIK. (ny)yaJ.a 'to have an inclination to be corrupted or dishonest, to be of poor character'
10. iftala
All words are from Palenque's extra- ritual lexicon. Atthe time of their collection (approx. 1985-1995), only binde (2)
and bongo (3) were commonly used. the others being archaisms that were recalled by only a few speakers.
3.1.1
Pa.lenque's lexicon today: Revival of Africanisms
As mentioned earlier, throughout much of the twentieth century, persistent linguistic and social stigmatisation and marginalisation exerted enormous pressure on PAL. As a result, Africanisms viewed as anticu.ados ('outdated') -were shunned with increasing frequency. Since the tum of the millennium, an astonishing reversal of fortunes has occurred, giving PAL. renewed vigour. As my recent visit (November 2008) to Palenque has revealed, the once dire situation has been dramatically changed: Adolescents now take pleasure in learning the creole, and gone are the days when local Lengu.a was heavily stigmatised both inside and outside of Palenque (Schwegler 2009; see also Morton 2005; Pfleiderer 1998). Partly as a result of this shift in language attitudes, most of today's Palenqueros take considerable pride in conversing in their Lengua, whether in a fragmented manner or with full competence. And contrary to past practice, most residents of the community now proudly display their creole and especially its "Africanisms"
233
2.34
Armin Schwegler
lhls store Is owned by Bernadino Perez Miranda, former Instructor of Lengua In Palenque~ lnstitud6n Educativa Benkos Biobo. It bas been given the name of Ma Cbaramuka because of Its Afrlcanlslng ring rather than Its denotative meaning (In creole, ma charamuka means 'dry, chopped twigs used to start or fan a [kitchen] fire'). The adornmentofpublicbuUdings with creole expressions Is a very recent development, and an overt expression of local acceptance of and pride In the vernacular. Charamuka Is also known In other parts of Colombia (Alario de Filippo 1983:222, charamusqu/na) , but Palenqueros tend to view It as a strictly local word.
Figure 3. Ma Charamuka, one of Palenque's local stores
rOn,
ell
f"4o
1.0 hablli'\TI)
)_
0
~{)I:~• cJ,~.$09;rc ~,/,.o a 1•C>r!~oc/n 1St(} ~ "'' n011( ''-"" / tJ.:fll•ll i"' 2 'c. I (i l.rul,cuo-qb/o•.~.ulo1C' It Cr:J• olo oJU'nf.~ fltn J. lr 1"\ ff •u l t .., 1 ,,,
r'"""'"' .,)
r
'>I":C\
l.r• 1" ~o - rf~t$cl)t:1 ~-/l•mo/ ck,...,bfl~r.A~:o Jdfr ("~r1i 5o/f1tJ•bo dfa·.tt~~iu· ~dt.l, rr1la. 'i'O= dd orr clio cVt~nQ ·
l'ka"?_- r~da:;r; dt ro~ne /:n~
<.hooya, 11/!l. ~- moj t•
'(;/Jo
r~~v • f'1G 'f;:I>~JtJOio .,C
c/>od10=-lo/(IC \.he fO'· - 'P.,ofq
The last word on this list Is chepa ['tfepa] 'clothes, clothing (usually of lower quality or elegance), rags~ Ued strictly In Palenque, chepa bas never been documented before. Derived from Knc. kl-pa8 'rag, piece of cloth that one bas sewn,, lt Is yet another of Palenque's Afrlcanlsms. Word Usts like this one regularly contain Africanlsms also found elsewhere in Colombia For example, chopo 'small revolver' (fourth word from the bottom in Figure 4) Is common in popular Spanish of Cartagena9 Chopo too is from Kikongo, namely kyo 'small' + po 'noise made by a small firearm (onomat): thus literally 'small firearm~ In Kikongo, kyo routinely undergoes palataUsation to ['tfo]; hence, the phonetic outcome PAL./SPAN. rtJopo]ls entirely logical A similar phonetic development can be observed in Knc. kyo+ nkUiu 'small+ (old) jug' > CoL. cb6corolcb6colo '(small) jug, container' (intermediate phonetic steps were KIK. •[tJ]yo nkolo > •[tJ]6-kolo > cb6coro/ ch6colo).
Figure 4. Creole word list drawn up in 2008 by a Palenquero middle-school student
to national and international visitors. In addition, Palenque's teachers (especially those who grew up in the community) and their students (about 800 in all) now routinely engage in enthusiastic "Palenquero word hunts," some of which yield precious, hitherto undocumented Afrtcanisms (see Rgure 4). There can be no doubt: Words with an "African ring" are currently in high fashion in Palenque, thereby giving once antiquated vocabulary renewed and unexpected vitality.
8. Articulated ['kipa] or ['tfipa], depending on the Kikongo dialect. For kipa, see Laman (1936/1964: 290) and Swartenbroeckx (1973 :177). For the [ki] I (tfi] alternation in Kikongo, see the first entry in Laman (1936/1964: 99). 9· Alario di Filippo (1983) does not list chopo, but does include chopa 'small rifle', similarly derived from Kikongo: kyo 'small' + pa 'onomat. "paf' for the smaU noise made by a fire arm' (Laman 1936/1964:371 and 841, respectively) .
Palenque(ro)
3.1.2
Palenque's African lexicon: Is Kikongo its only substrate?
We can be highly optimistic that additional data collection will yield further Africanisms. As is natural, the larger the corpus, the firmer our overall conclusions will be. The collection of additional Africanisms may help us discover etymologies from African languages other than Kikongo; or, conversely, the expanded corpus may lend further support to the established theory of Kikongo as the lone substrate. A preliminary informal perusal of Palenquero word lists collected by students has already revealed this potential, and led to the "discovery" of additional Kik.ongo etymologies. One such recent "discovery" is, for instance. PAL. guatina [mtati'na - wati'na] 'to watch, to observe, to listen in, to spy upmi, 10 whose root morpheme gua- is derived from KIK. "M'ii 11 'to hear, to observe, to listen (in) (PERF)' (Laman 1936/1964: 1089). Another example taken from the same source (student notebook, November 2008) is juandana [wan'dana] 'jerk, asshole [insult directed at females]: derived from KIK. wandama.- ba.ndama, an insult literally meaning 'turning the buttocks in the air, in the direction of someone in order to insult the individuaf (Laman 1936/1964: 16; for the ba- wa alternation, see Laman 1936/1964: 1091 wanda). Also strongly suggestive of Kikongo origin are other recently collected words such as PAL. pola 'blood (of an animal): derived from KIK. paula- baula 'cut open (an aninlal), make (blood) run, etc: (Laman 1936/1964:67, 854); 12 motundo 'bundle, package or merchandise that is carried or balanced on the head (by women)' < KIK. mu ntzt-ntu. lit 'on the head-head' (Laman 1936/1964:799-800), easily reconstructed in a straightforward manner by positing the intermediate steps KIK. mu ntu-ntu > *montunto > *montundo > motundo. 13 More transparent is the derivation of PAL. sokola 'to weed, to free a plot of agricultural land of debris' (Schwegler 2002b: 213) < KIK. sitkula 'to clean, to clear land, etc: (Laman 1936/1964: 921). All of these words point to Kik.ongo as the principal and potentially sole African substrate.
3.2
Substrata! features in Palenquero phonology
As regards phonology, PAL. closely matches Caribbean Spanish, especially its informal registers. The creole thus exhibits relatively few substrata! features. Given the above-mentioned dearth of documentary evidence surrounding the formative period of the creole, and in light of the fact that substrata! phonological features - especially those originating in Western Bantu languages -
10.
See also the nominal derivation PAL. guatinero 'an observer, someone who watches/spies:
The base form of KIK. wa is KIK. wiidi, which has left numerous traces in the ritual speech of Cuban Palo Monte (cf. Palero wiri or gi.iiri 'to listen: documented in Cabrera 1984: 112).
11.
12. ln Laman, see also KIK. ma bftula 'wound' as well as ki.k. bUla 'to become adult, to reach puberty (women), to menstruate for the first time:
13. Each step exhibits regular sound changes; the voicing of -nto > -ndo is a substrata! feature attested in words like SPAN. sentir > PAL sind{). KIK. nta 'head' is also the root of other PAL words, including tukuta 'strong headache, migraine' < KIK. ntilku 'trouble' + nta 'head' (Schwegler 2002a:215). KIK. nta is widely attested in Palo Monte (Cuba) ritual language (see Cabrera 1984:36, where ntuchando < ntu+chando 'moving one's head' is of particular interest, as it shows the integration of KIK. nta into Spanish verb morphology). This and other evidence (not listed here) have convinced me that the etymology proposed here for PAL motundo is no longer in doubt.
235
236
Armin Schwegler
tend to be large(r)-scale areal phenomena (Park.vall2000), scholars have understandably deemed Palenqueros' articulatory practices to be not particularly helpful for pinpointing their precise African origin(s). To date, Granda (1989) and (1992) remain the most useful panoramic investigations on the topic (see also Park.vall2000; Schwegler 1998:264-267). There, Granda links several Palenquero articulatory characteristics to a putative Bantu and Kwa substrate. Included among these characteristics are (1) the preference for CV syllable structure and the related phenomenon of vowel paragoge in words like dioso 'God'< SPAN. dios; (2) the sonorisation of /p, t, kJ +NASAL (e.g., kombla 'to buy'< SPAN. comp_rar;flende 'front, forehead'< SPAN.frente, Palengue <SPAN. PalemJ_ue); (3) occasional vowel harmony (jiri 'to hurt'< SPAN. hf.rir; minf.'to come'< SPAN. Vf.nir; sibiri 'to serve'< SPAN. s~rvir); (4) the at times free interchange of apico-alveolar [d]/[Cl], [r] and [1] in words like do- ro -lo 'two'< SPAN. dos; 14 and (5) the frequent vowel elision at word junctures in rapid speech (e.g., p' uto kum' asina < P!l (s)uto kumj_ a.sina. 'for us to eat this way'). By far the most recurrent and noticeable non-Hispanic phonetic feature of PAL. is, however, found in (6) the productive prenasalisation (always homorganic) of word-initial stops /b, d, gl. applicable in free variation to lexemes of African as well as Spanish origin (e.g., PAL. mboka. 'mouth'< SPAN. boca., PAL.n.do 'two'< SPAN. dos, ngota ('l)gota] 'drop'< SPAN. gota, etc.). 15 All of the aforementioned phonological features are productive in Kikongo. Given the importance ofKikongo to Palenque's ancestral lexicon, this is not surprising. Patifio Rosselli had already characterised Palenquero prenasalisation as "a feature of clear African origin(s)" (1983: 101), and Granda (1989) correctly linked it to Kikongo, albeit not without mentioning other Sub-Saharan languages as possible contributors. Even a cursory look at Lamarls (1936/1964) Dictionna.ire reveals that such prenasalisations are indeed very common, which probably explains, at least in part, why the feature eventually spread to the entire Palenquero lexicon. Similarly likely to represent a direct Kik.ongo influence is the free interchange of apicoalveolar [d), [r) and [l) in expressions such as do, ro, lo 'two'< SPAN. dos, ore di ele- e ri eleeli ele (SPAN. es de el) 'ofhim/hei, first studied in depth by Granda (1989). 16 As can be gleaned from the Introduction to Laman (1936/1964) and, more succinctly, also from his entry on the letter r, the same sounds exhibit similar behaviour among the Bakongo: Kr is found in (S[outhem] B[antu]) instead of d betore i, y, for example ria. (dia), eat; riambu. (dyambu), word"; and "r or l, retroflex din Bembe is found only in word-interior position, for example uru, ulu, udu" (Laman 1936/1964:860, my translations)P
Granda (1989) is dedicated entirely to the study of the [d], [t] and [l]in PAL. As noted by Mofiino (2002: 228), [d] - [r] - [1] alternations have their most common application when followed by a high front vowel, as in PAL. di, ri, li 'of.
14.
15. For additional details, see Patifio Rosselli (1983: 100-103) and Schwegler (1998:264). 16. Elsewhere in the Americas, Bakongo slaves produced the same [d] [t] - [1] alternations in their Spanish. Cuban Bozal Spanish, for instance, is a rich source for the further study of this phenomenon (Castellanos 1990: 77; Schwegler 2006b: 83).
17. Limitations of space preclude me from showing that the [t -1] interchange in PAL. must also have Andalusian Spanish dialectal sources.
Palenque(ro)
Not all specialists agree that the phonological phenomena under analysis can be plausibly linked to African substrate languages. In a section dedicated to vowel harmony, Parkvall notes, for instance, that the feature is often commented upon in studies on Atlantic Creole phonology, but that, with the exception of Cape Verde Portuguese Creole, "no form of harmony is productive in any Atlantic Creole, and show [sic] no signs of ever having been so either" (2000: 55). In Atlantic Creoles (PAL. included), says Parkvall (p. 55), one can therefore speak of slight tendencies towards vowel harmony, but these tendencies mainly manifest themselves in determining the quality of the paragogic vowels (e.g., PAL. dioso 'God'< SPAN. dios). While acknowledging that vowel harmony is common in some West African languages (see his list of sources on p. 55), Parkvall cautions that "it is possible, but by no means certain, that the tendencies towards vowel harmony in the Atlantic Creoles are due to the presence of harmonising vowel systems in West Africa [ ... ]"and "[a] part from the existence of a similar tendency in Portugal, the absence of anything similar in the putative substrates makes it reasonable to suspect that these harmony rules developed after Creolisation, and independently of substrata! input" (2000: 55-56). There are, however, at least four considerations that rehabilitate the sub stratal explanation. Limitations of space prohibit me from listing them here, but readers can find them in the unabridged version of this study (Schwegler forthcoming). Of the phonological traits listed as potential substrate phenomena, Palenqueros' preference for an open syllable structure may, upon further analysis, turn out to be the weakest link in substratist theories. As Parkvall shrewdly points out, the proportion of CV syllables is rather similar in PAL. and Spanish, "the main difference being a higher proportion ofCVC syllables in Spanish, and a higher proportion ofV syllables in Palenquero, with non-nasal codas being very sparse" (2000: 52). This stands in rather sharp contrast to Bantu and Kru languages, which typically accept no codas at all. This last observation makes it clear that, during the formative phase of PAL., creole speakers did not impose phonotactic Bantu rules in a wholesale fashion. Parkvall is therefore right to argue that the tendency to an open syllable structure is "not necessarily a substrate feature, since it could have been brought about by pidginisation tendencies alone" (2000: 55). Moreover, as I pointed out earlier, even if the feature under analysis could ultimately be linked to an African substrate, it would not point to any specific West African language(s). In Sub-Saharan Africa, CV syllables are too widely distributed to be useful for narrowing down the Palenqueros' provenance. 3.2.1
Palenquero intonation: A substratal feature?
The least understood aspect of PAL. phonology is its intonational system. This is a serious gap, as it is precisely in the realm of prosody that the most striking phonological differences between PAL. and (Caribbean) Spanish are apparent Several authors (e.g., Montes Giraldo 1962: 450, cited in Patiiio Rosselli 1983: 110) speculated that African influence might be at the source of Palenqueros' peculiar intonation, but until recently, published research offered no detailed information on the matter. The joint effort by Hualde & Schwegler ("Intonation in Palenquero," 2008) seeks to remedy this situation. The main thrust of Hualde & Schwegler (2008) is to identify several specific intonational features whereby conservative (or older-generation) PAL. differs from (Caribbean) Spanish. As such, the article is not primarily concerned with the possible origins of these intonational
237
238
Armin Schwegler
features, though it does address the question to some extent in the concluding section. There, several notable suprasegmental patterns are identified and tentatively linked to a Bantu substrate (see Schwegler forthcoming for a partial summary of these patterns; also relevant is Moiiino forthcoming).
3·3
Substrata! features in Palenquero morphosyntax
PAL. displays many of the morphosyntactic traits associated with Atlantic creoles (Bickerton & Escalante 1970; Granda 1968, 1978; Patino Rosselli 1983, 2002; Schwegler 1998; and especially Schwegler & Green 2007). For some of these features, substrata! influence has been invoked, especially from Bantu languages and Kikongo in particular. The amount of morphosyntax that can confidently be traced to Kik.ongo and/or other African languages is, however, fairly limited, and includes: 1.
2. 3.
nominal pluralisation (MA hende '(the) people, un MA hende 'some people'); person/number marking (e.g., YO Ita abla 'I am speaking); possessive constructions of the type webo ri ele 'his/her egg( s): literally 'egg( s) of his/her.
Similarly of clear Kikongo origin but not examined in this paper are: 4. 5. 6. 7.
the "singularising" value of PAL. un in constructions such as k'UN mano 'with one [of the two] hands' vs. ku mano 'by hand' (Moiiino 2007 a: 45-47, 2007b: 61-63); the suffix -eno (2nd PL) in commands like jabl-eno! 'speak!: /k-um-eno! 'eat!: jtnin-eno! 'come!' (Schwegler 2002a "-enu - enu - enu" and references therein); certain aspectual functions held by preverbal tense/mood/aspect markers, studied in Moiiino (1999); reduplication in approximately 30 documented nouns, verbs, adverbs and interjections. Most if not all of these have certain or probable African origins. Examples: imba-imbtt. 'bullshit, talk without value: lombo-lombo 'black bird:foi-foi 'to jump (from place to place): kapa-kapa 'almos~ kachi-kachi 'come and eat; come to the table!' (Schwegler 2002b; for a convenient list, see Moiiino & Ortiz 1999:Section 3).
Arguably also ofKikongo and other African provenance are: 8. 9.
embracing and/or postverbal negation such as ele (NU) kelt kume NU 's/he does not want to eat (not)' (Dieck 2000, 2002; Patiiio Rosselli 2002:27; Schwegler 1991a, 1996c); postnominal placement of possessive pronouns (mona mi 'son/daughter my= my sonldaughter'; cp. KIK. mwana aami 'son/daughter my= my son/daughter').
As is the case with most if not all Atlantic creole languages, PAL. may have received much additional substrata! input. But attempts to unequivocally trace such "deep" influence to a substrate typically founder because structural adaptations (e.g., paradigmatic simplification, impoverishment of morphology) may well have been triggered by pidginisation rather than substrata! input (or by both), especially in localities where Spanish and other languages were an L2 for a large proportion of the population, as was the case in the Cartagena area. In examining key morphological
Palenque(ro)
characteristics of Lengu.a, one notes, for instance, the structural simplicity of its verbal paradigms (when compared to Spanish), the non-inversion of subject and verb in interrogatives (e.g., lk' o kelt? 'what you want?= what do you want?'), and the absence of gender marking on nouns, adjectives and pronouns (e.g., mailo!muhe goddo si 'husband/wife overweight your= your overweight husband/wife'). Creolists have long known that these three features are found in many if not most creoles, and deliberations about what and how much can be ascribed to substrate influence, pidginisation, language acquisition, the bioprogram, and/or universals continue unabated. Of late, the pendulum appears to be swinging back in the direction of a greater appreciation of sub stratal positions (as in the recently released Roots of Creole Structures, Michaelis 2008). Clearly, much work remains to be done on the topic. But that PAL. morphosyntax received at least some Kik.ongo and possibly other Bantu input at an early period is beyond doubt This is so in no small measure because, in some instances, Kikongo grammatical particles actually survived into modern-day PAL., thereby tacilitating the identification of the substrate-driven functions with which they are associated. The following sections, necessarily abridged for reasons of space, will highlight two such features (additional data can be found in Schwegler forthcoming). To date, their Kik.ongo provenance has never been contested. 3·3·1
Palenquero morphosyntax: The pluraliser MA
Patino Rosselli (1983: 138-149 ), Megenney ( 1986: 149-150) and other early investigations of PAL. uniformly reported that ma 'definite particle' and zm ma 'indefinite particle' (lit 'one PL') regularly mark the plural, thereby presumably yielding a system in which the singular alone allows bare nouns. Representative examples (from my field notes) with plural ma. are given in (1) to (3). (1)
nima ta a£. animal be there 'The animals are there.' MA
PL
(2)
To ese MA kusa Jue malo. all that PL thing be bad 1\11 these things are bad'
(3)
MA
ri Marfa e
meh6.
of Maria be better 'Those of Maria are better= Maria's are better: PL
Scholars' early and repeated attention to PAL. ma can readily be understood: On one hand, this particle is a prominent. highly frequent element of the creole; on the other hand, it was identified early on as an "exotic" Africa.n feature, one that I and others have deemed especially useful for tracing the substrata! (Kikongo) origins of PAL. As mentioned earlier, PAL. ma must have originated in the Kikongo class prefix ma (Class 6 in Guthrie's classification), 18 after which it was assigned wider functionality as a universal pluraliser of all PAL. nouns (as well as pronouns, see ma ri 'those' in (3) above).
18. For references to etymological inquiries about ma, see Schwegler (2002b: 198) and Mofiino (2002:245-246).
The latter provides convincing arguments as to why KIK. ma rather than SPAN. mds more' (Megenney 2002: 109111) must be the source of PAL. ma.
239
240
Armin Schwegler
In a recent article (Schwegler 2007a), I have shown that the traditional analysis of the t\mctionality of rna is seriously flawed in that it posits rna as an obligatory and predictable marker of definite plural nouns. While it is true that rna -whenever it is present- explicitly signals Kplura~" it is equally true that the particle is a non-obligatory, and therefore non-predictable, component of PAL. grammar (on this point, see also Moftino 2007a:47-52, 2007b:64-68). Context, it turns out, rather than overt morphology or lexical structure is key to conveying pluralisation in PAL. This new approach represents a radical departure from earlier analyses, as it renders all PAL. nouns ~ansnume~" as can be seen in the examples in (4) from Schwegler (2007a: 211 ). Readers will note that decontextualised expressions like puetta ri kasa lit. 'door(s) of house(s)' can have any of the following singular and/or plural meanings: (4)
puetto ri kdsa a b. c. d.
'the door' OR 'the doors ... of the house' 'a door' OR 'doors ... of the house' 'the door' OR 'the doors ... of a house OR houses' 'a door' OR 'doors ... of a house OR houses'
Returning to the question of substrate origins, in this new analysis, PAL. nominal pluralisation presents us with a seemingly conflicting situation: On one hand, Kikongo influence in terms of form and (partial) function of PAL. rna is beyond doubt, and its impact on the creole is substantial given its high frequency of use (in well over half of all plural noun phrases, rna is expressed even though discourse content clearly signals plural meaning [Schwegler 2007a: 211]). On the other hand, the optional placement of PAL. rna does not appear to mirror behavioural patterns typically associated with Kikongo and other Central West Mrican class prefixes (which are mostly obligatory and predictable). Why that should be so is a mystery, and points to the need for further investigation (Moftino 2007b: 53-68 serves as an excellent point of departure). 3.3.2
Palenquero morphosyntax: Pronouns and person/number marking
As Schwegler (1993a, 2002a) and Schwegler & Green (2007) reveal, the PAL. paradigm strongly resembles that of other creoles in that the expression of person/number (henceforth P/N) is realised by preverbal subject pronouns. Drawing on Schwegler (2002b ), the following paragraphs briefly delineate the main ways in which not just Kik.ongo forms (enu 'you' [PL], ane 'they') but also morphosyntactic patterns have been transferred into the creole. PAL. P/N markers generally occur in preverbal position (e.g., YO kelt kurne 'I want to eat'; SUTO a-ten ke bae 'we got to go'). In addition to this pattern of PIN MARKER +VERB, there exists a common syntagmatic construction that prior to 2002 had received virtually no attention in the literature. In these sentences, the verb phrase contains not one but two preverbal subject PIN markers (with the number being the same). The syntagm exhibits the structure PIN MARKER+ PIN MARKER + VERB, with the PIN markers always occurring in juxtaposition (see the conceptual examples in (5) below). In this respect, the creole resembles the better-known informal spoken French, where sets like rnoi (free)- je (bound), toi- tu, lui- il, etc., are employed for purposes of topicalisation or "highlighting" (as in informal FR. MOI JB crois pas 'I [topic] don't think so'). No known dialect of Spanish exhibits such juxtapositions.
Palenque(ro)
As examples (5) to (11) illustrate, the form of the PAL. clitic marker can vary. For instance, first person singular forms are i, yo, andy-. The origins of this variation are complex, and not directly relevant to the discussion. What matters here is above all the reiterative nature of PIN marking, and the fact that the clitics in question can take on the phonetic forms i or y- (1st s), o (2nd s), and e (3rd s). (5) yo
i a yo yo a yo y- a
kele- lo. kele- lo. kele- lo.
ls I PAST want them 'I (emphatic/topic) wanted them:
Its (6)
Yo yosabe-lo nu. 'I don't know that:
(7)
Yo y-ase-a sal£ a la kuatro. 'I used to go out at four (o'clock):
(8)
Yo i-sabt eso nu. 'I don't know that:
(9) Jl boo- ase kanda-lo? ~d do you (s.) usually sing it?' (10)
Eleele a degobbe tambif.n. 'He/she/it also returned (it):
(11)
Eli e- ta akf nu. 'He/she/it ls not here:
A plausible hypothesis concerning the origin( s) of the above PIN reiteration in PAL. can be formulated with data from Kikongo. where PIN marking is similarly achieved via the concatenation of an INDEPENDENT PRONOUN (optional)+ COMBINED PERSONAL PRONOUNS+ VERB. As a comparison between (12) and (13) below illustrates, the resulting Kikongo syntagms exhibit a "one-to-one correspondence" with their PAL. counterparts. Moreover, the phonetic alternation i - y- (before vowel [a]) is tound in both languages (in PAL., this alternation is seemingly free). These formal and semantic coincidences, taken in conjunction with other paradigmatic parallelisms examined in Schwegler (2002a), constitute persuasive evidence of a link between Kikongo and PAL. Kikongo (12) mono mono
I I
yy-
aa-
bazola. bazola. bazola. bazola.
'I (emphatic/topic) love them.' (PRESENT) 'I love them: (PRESENT) 'I (emphatic/topic) loved them: (PAST) 'I loved them.' (PAST) (Kikongo examples are from Laman 1912: 123-124)
241
242
Armin Schwegler
Palenq;-ue_ro_----,---,---, (13) yo I I
yo ls
Y-1 Y-1
a a
kele-lo. kele-lo. kele-lo. kele-lo.
ls CUTIC
PAST
loved/want them
'I (emphatic/topic) love them.' 'I love them.' 'I (emphatic/topic) loved them.' 'I loved them.'
(PRESENT) (PRESENT) (PAST) (PAST)
Importantly, the formal and functional parallelism exemplified above between PAL. and Kikongo obtains in second- and third-person singular constructions as well (for examples, see (9) to (11) above). ln the singular, the two languages thus share paradigmatic homophony for PIN clitics: i or y- for first person, o for second person, and e for third person (for a fuller presentation of data and Kik.ongo etyma, see Schwegler 2002b ).
4·
Conclusions
Early on in this study, I argued that critical lacunae in our historical and linguistic knowledge should compel us to keep a guarded attitude concerning the hypothesis that Kikongo is the sole substrate of PAL. I have said so in part because the circle of researchers who have examined PAL:s origins in earnest has been rather small (half a dozen scholars at most), and because, to date, not a single African-born Bantuist has participated in the debate. Naturally, these are two limiting factors that, I trust. our field will overcome in the near future. These limitations notwithstanding, a fundamental conclusion emerges from the data and considerations presented in this study: Half a century of research has solidly established the central role that Kik.ongo-speaking maroons must have played in the formation ofPalenque's society. As we have seen, language-external and internal evidence has gradually cemented this conclusion to the point where it currently reigns- justifiably- as the best hypothesis. Moreover, we now also have a better understanding of how it is possible that no Kimbundu words have been unearthed in Palenque even though "Angola" (where Kimbundu is spoken) figures prominently in time-honoured lumbalu chants. Contemporary travel accounts (e.g., Degranpre 1801) clarifY that "Angola" once had a far wider geographic application, and included the Loango Coast, where Kik.ongo has been the dominant indigenous language for centuries. With regard to language-external data, this paper has limited itself mostly to reviewing an early eighteenth-century document- the Noticia historial- which provided us with a terminus ab quo of 1713-1716 for the existence ofPalenque and its creole. Additional external data were adduced from a brief citation of a locally famous funeral dirge (lumbalu), in which Palenqueros chant Angola, Kongo and Loango. 1 should, however, remind readers that one finds in Palenque a plethora of additional cultural patterns that are similarly suggestive of Western Central African and especially Kongo influence (Schwegler 1992a, 2006a, 2007b). Although we do not know when Palenque was founded, historical considerations relating to the slave trade suggest 1660 to 1713 as a likely period. I base my argument on the fact that, as explained in Martin's (1970) elucidating study, the slave trade on the Loango coast remained very modest until about the 1660s, after which it grew substantially in volume, so much so
Palenque(ro)
that by 1670, the Dutch West India Company exported 3,000 slaves annually from that region (Martin 1970: 148). We know that the Dutch shipped slaves to Cartagena (Del Castillo 1982:98101, 108), and some of them may well have been responsible for inserting chi rna ri loango ('from the Loango [people we are]') into Palenque's originallumba.lzt chants. Fortunately, reconstructing Palenque's past does not rely on oral tradition alone. Documentary evidence and linguistic and ethnographic considerations have provided the necessary background for understanding that the contemporary oral accounts of a 1601 foundation by Benko Bioho are a historical myth. While one must agree with Harms that "the relationship between recollections of the past and historical myth is a complex one which needs to be dealt with carefully" (1979:65), we can be confident that in the case ofPalenque, we have successfully sorted out fact from symbol. Turning to language-internal data, we have noted that sub stratal influence can be detected in multiple domains: in the creole's lexicon, where dozens of words are traceable to Kikongo etyma; in its phonology, where several features (including prenasalisations, the free [d], [r] and [1] alternations, and peculiar intonational patterns) point to Kikongo roots; and in its morphosyntax, where nominal pluralisations with rna and reiterative PIN marking in the singular (e.g., yo i kele-lo 'I want it'), and a host of other traits are similarly suggestive of Kikongo input. That said, it is also worth pointing out that PAL. has not preserved the extensive agreement system (class concord, etc.) that characterises many Bantu languages. No New World creole has done so (Holm 1988-1989), and PAL. is thus no exception. Still undetermined is the degree to which Africans from non- Kikongo territories may have contributed to the formation of Palenque(ro). This lack of clarity is due, in part, to the paucity of historical records as well as our continued inability to etymologise half of the documented Africanisms. We can, however, be optimistic that this current impasse may be broken, because additional fieldwork should soon help us solve etymological riddles. The recent radical shift in local language attitudes in the direction of a greater appreciation of Africanisms bodes well for future research for two reasons: On one hand, it promises to augment a database of ancestral vocabulary that has been key to PAL. substratist investigations; on the other, it is currently reviving Africanisms that had been almost completely abandoned. There is an additional consideration that convinces me of the imminence of further rapid advances in substrate inquiries: I am referring here to ongoing population genetic research in which Palenque plays a significant role. At University College London, the Centre for Genetic Anthropology (TCGA) 19 has collected DNA samples (from mouth-swabs) in Palenque as well as among five Bakongo populations (Beembe, Laari, Vili, Yombe and Kunyi), each of which either has been identified as a potential contributor to Palenque's substrate or is directly adjacent to such a population (for comparative purposes, DNA samples have also been obtained in two non- Bakongo populations from the interior of the Congo). A total of 700 samples were collected (1 00 for each population) in Africa, and 166 in Palenque. The DNA data are currently being analysed, and the
19. TCGA is working in collaboration with several research centres in sub-Saharan Africa. Project members include Neil N. Bradman (geneticist), Chairman of TCGA; Jean Akiana (biologist) of the Laboratoire National de Sante Publique, Brazzaville; and Yves Mo.ii.ino, Research Director at the CNRS, Laboratoire de langues et cultures d~ique Noire, Villejuif, France.
243
244
Armin Schwegler
first results should become available within a year. The extent to which this genetic research will confirm (or cast doubt on) our linguistic findings remains to be seen. But judging from historical documentation of the slave trade, and basing ourselves on substratist research into PAL. and Palero ritual speech (Cuba), we should not be surprised if the Palenqueros' principal ancestral lands coincided squarely with the small western Congo area that Jesus Fuentes Guerra and I recently identified as the source of Palo Monte traditions (Fuentes Guerra & Schwegler 2005: 34, Map 4; see also Schwegler 2002d, and Schwegler & Rojas-Primus 2010). This same DNA research may also clarify whether Kongo people indeed constitute Palenque's first human stratum. Although the currently available data put the presence of a strong Kongo substrate beyond doubt, we do not know exactly when the bulk of Kikongo-speaking maroons arrived in Palenque. For this reason, the question remains of the chronological age of the dominant African influence in the creole. While clearly ancestral, Kikongo features may have been grafted onto an existing Spanish-based creole. If this was so, then the DNA data may illuminate whether Kikongo restructured (rather than simply "structured") original PAL. The Kikongo-speaking region of Mayombe (Map 2, shaded area) and its adjacent territories (including coastal Loango) may be particularly rich in genetic and linguistic connections with Palenque. Much like today, already at the time of the slave trade, "all these peoples spoke the same language [i.e., Kikongo]" and in the second half of the seventeenth century, the provinces of Malemba, Cabinda, and Loango may have constituted "some 600,000 people" (Degranpre 1801: 167 and 216, respectively; my translation). As Heywood & Thornton note, "there is no continuous record of slave exports from Central Africa for most of the 17th century, though the Portuguese government did keep detailed tax books that have not survived" (2007: 160). Piecing together records from both the New and the Old World, the authors are nonetheless able to show that slave exports from the area in question were substantial, numbering in the thousands per
Mayombe L
CONGO
0 Loan go
A N
River
Pointe Noire
G
DEMOCRAT I C REPUBL I C OF THE CONGO
ANGOLA •
Ambrizete
Ambriz
Map adapted from Fuentes & Schwegler (2005:33)
Map 2. General area of West Central Africa from where many ofPalenque's maroons may have come
Palenque(ro)
year. They note, for instance, that for the mid-1630s, annual exports from Luanda were around 15,000 slaves, before falling to 10,000 annually. The impact of this trade was felt in the Spanish West Indies, as well as elsewhere in Latin America where the slave trade was in full swing. As Martin (1970) explains, the hinterland of Loango (the Mayombe included) was probably only thinly populated prior to the middle of the seventeenth century. when Kongo groups started to move into the area of the Niari valley on the eastern side of the Mayombe. The Mayombe played an important role in the slave trade, in part because "the roads from Loango to the interior had to pass through the treacherous Mayombe region, where the good paths were few and the routes passed along the sides of mountain slopes, by deep precipices, and through dense tropical forest" (Martin 1970: 153). Most of the slaves were brought in caravans to the coast from afar, as described by Degranpre (1801), a French slave trader in the area for 30 years.
List of abbreviations CoL ENGL FR. KIK. KIM B. L2 lit. onomat.
Colombian English French Kikongo Kimbundu second language literally onomatopoeic
PAL PERF
Palenquero Pertective
PL
plural
PIN
person/number
PREP
prefix
RBDUPL
reduplicated, reduplication of singular Spanish
s SPAN.
References Alario di Filippo, M. 1983. Lexicon de colombianismos, 2 Vols., 2nd edn. Bogota: Banco de 1a Rep(tblica. Arbell, M. 2002. The jewish Nation of the Caribbean. The Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Settlements in the Caribbean and the Guianas. Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House. Arends, J. 1995. Demographic factors in the formation ofSranan. In The Early Stages of Creolization [Creole Language library 13], J. Arends (ed.), 233-285. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Arrazola, R. 1955. Historial de Cartagena (datos biogr4ficos sobre los personajes hist6ricos), 2d edn. Cartagena: Tall. Grtf. de Casa National del Periodista. Arrazola, R. 1970. Palenque, primer pueblo libre de America: Historia de las sublevaciones de los esdavos de Cartagena. Cartagena: Ediciones Hernandez. Biclrerton, D. & Escalante, A. 1970. Palenquero: A Spanish-based creole of northern Colombia. Lingua 24: 254267.
Borrego Pla, C. 1973. Palenques de negros en Cartagena de lndias a fines del siglo XVII. Prologo del Dr. Don Luis Navarro Garda. Seville: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos. Borrego Pla, C. 1983. Cartagena de lndias en el siglo XVI. Seville: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos de Sevilla. Borrego Pla, C. 1994. La conformaci6n de una sociedad mestiza en la epoca de los Austrias, 1540-1700. In Historia econ6mica y social del Caribe colombiano, A. Meisel Roca (ed.), 59-108. Bogota: Ediciones Uninorte. Bottcher, N. 1995. Aufttieg und Fall eines atlantischen Hamielsimperiums. Frankfurt, Madrid: Vervuert, lberoamericana.
245
246
Armin Schwegler
Cabrera, L. 1984. Vocabulario congo: E1 banta que se habla en Cuba. Miami: Edlciones CR Castellanos, I. 1990. Grammatical structure, historical development, and religious usage of Afro-Cuban bozal speech. Folklore Forum 23: 57-84. Del Castillo, N. 1982. Esclavos negros en Cartagena y sus aportes lexicos. Bogota: lnstituto Caro y Cuervo. Del Castillo, N. 1984. Ellmco negro-africa.no de San Basilio de Palenque. Thesaurus 39: 80-169. Degranpre, L. 1801. Voyage ala CfJte Occidentale d'Afrique,fait dans les annees 1786 et 1787, Vol. 1. Paris: Imprimeur-Libraire Palais de Tribunal. Dieck, M. 2000. La negacion en palenquero. Andlisis sincronico, estudio comparativo y consecuencias teoricas. Madrid: Iberoamericana. Dieck, M. 2002. Distribuci6n y escopo de la negaci6n en palenquero. In Palen que, Cartagena y Afro-Caribe: Historia y lengua, Y. Mofiino & A. Schwegler (eds), 149-167. Tli.bingen: Niemeyer. Escalante, A. 1954/1979. El Palenque de San Basilio. Barranquilla: Editorial Mejoras. [First published in 1954 as 'Notas sobre El Palenque de San Basilio, una comunidad negra de Colombia: Divulgaciones Etnologicas 3: 207-358.]
Escalante, A 1988. Influencia bantU en la cultura popular de la costa atlAntica colombiana. Desarrollo 87: 37-47. Friedemann, N. S. De 1993. La saga del negro. Prese,JCia africana en Colombia. Bogota: Instituto de Gent\tica Humana, Facult:ad de Medicina, PontffK:a Universidad Javeriana. Fuentes Guerra, J. & Schwegler, A 2005. Lengua y ritos del Palo Monte Mayombe: Dioses cubanos y sus fuentes africanas. Frankfurt/Madrid: Vervuert/Iberoamericana. de Granda, G. 1968. La tipologia 'criolla' de dos hablas del area lingillstica hispamca. Thesaurus 23: 193-205. de Granda, G. 1971. Sobre la procedencia africana del habla 'criolla' de San Basilio de Palenque (Departamento de Bolivar, Colombia). Thesaurus 26: 84-94. de Granda, G. 1978. Estudios luJgU.isticos hispdnicos, afrohispdnicos y criollos. Madrid: Gredos. de Granda, G. 1989. Condicionamiento kik6ongo de un fen6meno fonetico en el criollo palen quero.Anuario de LingUistica Hispdnica 5: 49-57. (Reprinted in Granda 1994, 412-423). de Granda, G. 1992 Retenciones africanas en el nivel font\tico del criollo palenquero. In Actes du XVIIIe Congre.s bJternational de Linguistique et de Philologie Romanes (I'rier 1986), no editor, 542-552. Tli.bingen: Niemeyer. (Reprinted in Granda 1994, 399-411 ). de Granda, G. 1994. Bspafiol de America, espatiol de Africa y hablas criollas hispdnicas. Cambios, contactos y contextos. Madrid: Editorial Gredos. Green, T. 2007. Masters of Difference: Creolization and the Jewish Presence in Cabo Verde, 1497-1672 PhD dissertation, Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham. Guthrie, M. 1971. Comparative Bantu, 4 Vols. Farnborough: Gregg International Publishers. Harms, R 1979. Oral tradition and ethnicity. Journal ofInterdisciplinary History 10:61-85. Heywood, L. M. & Thornton, J. K. 2007. Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the FowJdatio,J of the Americas, 1585-1660. Cambridge: CUP. Helg, A 2004. Liberty and Equality in Caribbean Colombia, 1770-1835. Chapel Hill: UNC Press. Hernandez De Alba, G. (ed.). 1982. Poemas en alabanza de los defmsores de Cartagena de lndias en 1741. Bogota: Publicaciones dellnstituto Caro y Cuervo. Holm, John. 1988-1989. Pidgins and Creoles, I. Theory and Structure. II. Reference Survey. Cambridge: CUP. Hualde, J. I. & Schwegler, A. 2008. Intonation in Palenquero. Joumal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 23: 1-31. Laman, K. E. 1912 Grammar of the Kongo Language (Kikongo). New York NY: The Christian Alliance Publication Company. Laman, K. E. 1936/1964. Dictionnaire kilwngo:ffarifais, 2 Vols. Ridgewood NJ: The Gregg Press. Lipski, J. 2005. A History ofAfro-Hispanic Language. Cambridge: CUP. Martin, P. 1970. The trade of Loango in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In Pre-Colonial African Trade, R Gray & D. Birmingham (eds), 139-161. London: OUP. Megenney, W. W. 1986. E1 palenquero. Un lenguaje post-criollo de Colombia. Bogota: Instituto Caro y Cuervo.
Palenque(ro)
Megenney, W. W. 2002. Sobre los or.fgenes de algunas estructuras grarnaticales del palenq uero. In Palenque, Cartagena y Afro-Caribe: Historia y lengua, Y. Moilino & A. Schwegler (eds), 103-115. Tlibingen: Niemeyer. Michaelis, S. (ed.). 2008. Roots of Creole Structures. Weighing the Contribution of Substrates and Superstrates [Creole Language Library 33]. Amsterdam: John Benjarnins. Moilino, Y. 1999. I.:aspect en palenquero: Une semantaxe africaine. Actances 10: 177-190. Mo.ii.ino, Y. 2002. Las construcciones de genitivo en palenquero: tUna semanta:xis africana? In Palenque, Cartagena y Afro-Caribe: Historia y lengua, Y. Mo.ii.ino & A. Schwegler (eds), 227-248. Tlibingen: Niemeyer. Mo.ii.ino, Y. 2007a. Convergencias lingillsticas iberocongolesas en palenquero: tlntegrarse a la sociedad mayoritaria o distinguirse de ella? In Language Contact and Language Change in the Caribbean and Beyond - Lenguas en contacto y cambio lingiifstico en el Caribe y mds alltf, W. Mihatsch & M. Sokol (eds), 37-58. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Mo.ii.ino, Y. 2007b. Les rl'lles du substrat dans les cn!oles et les langues secretes: Le cas du palenquero, creole espagnol de Colombie. In Grammaires creoles et grammaire comparative, K Gadelii & A. Zribi-Hertz (eds), 49-72. Saint-Denis: Presses Universitaires de Vincennes. Mo.ii.ino, Y. Forthcoming. Tons et accents en palenquero. To appear in Dynamique des contacts de langues en Afrique et dans les Amenques ,Joires, Y. Mofiino & M.-C. Sirneone-Senelle (eds ). Special issue of Joumal des
Africanistes. Mo.ii.ino, Y. & Ortiz, C. 1999. Reevaluation de deux procedes de morphologie evaluative en palenq uero. Silexicales 2: 253-261. de Montes Giraldo, J. J. 1962. Sobre el habla de San Basilio de Palenque (Bolivar, Colombia). Thesaurus 17: 446450. Morton, T. 2005. Sociolinguistic Variation and Language Change in ffi Palenq ue de San Basilio (Colombia). PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania. Navarrete, M. C. 1995a. Historia social del negro e,J la colonia. Cartagena siglo XVII. Cali: Universidad del Valle. Navarrete, M. C. 1995b. Prdcticas religiosas de los negros en la colonia: Cartagena, siglo XVII. Santiago de Cali: Universidad del Valle, Editorial Facultad de Hurnanidades. Navarrete, M. C. 2003. Cimarrones y palenques en el siglo >..'VII. Cali: Editorial Facultad de Hurnanidades. Navarrete, M. C. 2008a. San Basilio de Palenque: Memoria y tradici6n. Cali: Prograrna Editorial Universidad del Valle. Navarrete, M. C. 2008b. 'Por haber todos concebido ser generalla libertad para los de su color: Construyendo el pasado del palenque de Matudere. Historia Caribe 13. Barranquilla: Universidad del AtJ.antico. Navarrete, M. C. 2009. Nuevos aspectos en 1a historia de los palenq ues y los cimarrones del Carlbe negroandino, siglos XVI-XVII. MS, Universidad del Valle, Cali. Ochoa Franco, J. V. 1945. Consideraciones generales sobre costumbres y luJgUaje palenqueros (precedidas de un estudio sobre el indio goajiro). Cartagena: Direcci6n de Educaci6n PUblica de Bolivar. Parkvall, M. 2000. Out o_fAfrica. African Influences in Atlantic Creoles. London: Battlebridge. Patifio Roselli, C. 1983. El habla en El Palenque de San Basilio. In Lengua y sociedad en El Palen que de San Basilio, N. S. de Friedernann & C. Patifio Rosselli (eds), 83-287. Bogota: Instituto Caro y Cuervo. Patifio Roselli, C. 2002. Sobre orlgen y composici6n del criollo palenquero. In Palenque, Cartagena y Afro-Caribe: Historia )' lengua, Y. Mo.ii.ino & A. Schwegler (eds), 21-32. Tiibingen: Niemeyer. Pfleiderer, B. 1998. Sprachtod und Revitalisierung der spanisch basierten Kreolsprache Palenquero (Kolumbien). Berlin: Freie Universitiit Berlin. de Sandoval, A. 1627/1987. De instauranda aethiapum salute. Un tratado sobre la esclmlitud. Introduction and transcription by Enriq ueta VIla Vilar. Madrid: Alianza Editorial Schwegler, A. 1989. Notas etlmol6gicas palenqueras: Casariambe, tUnganand, agae, nwnicongo, maricongo y otras voces africanas y pseudo-afrlcanas. Thesaurus 44: 1-28. Schwegler, A. 1990. Abrakabraka, suebbesuebbe, tando, kobbej6, lunga y otras voces palenqueras: Sus orfgenes e irnportancia para el estudio de dialectos afrohispanocaribe.iios. Thesaurus 45: 690-731. Schwegler, A. 1991a. Negation in Palenquero: Synchrony. Joumal o.fPidgi,J and Creole Languages 6: 165-214.
247
248
Armin Schwegler
Schwegler, A. 1991 b. Zur Problematik der afroportugiesischen Kontaktsprache in Am erika: Neues aus El Palenque de San Basilio (Kolumbien). Lusorama 15: 54-79. Schwegler, A. 1992a. Haci.a una arqueologfa afrocolombiana: Restos de tradidones religiosas bantt1es en una comunidad negroamerlcana. America Negra 4: 35-82. Schwegler, A. 1992b. Afrohisp. mariandd 'tipo de baile (negro)': Su etimologfa e importanci.a para los estudios lingiilsticos caribefios. Anuario de LingU{stica Hispdnica 8: 259-271. Schwegler, A. 1993a. Subject pronouns and person/number in Palenquero. In Atlantic Meets Pacific: A Global View ofPidginization and Creolization [Creole Language library 11], F. Byrne & J. Holm (eds), 145-161. Amsterdam: John Benjamlns. Schwegler, A. 1993b. El origen de esp. mo,Jicaco 'hombre de poco valor': Un ejemplo de convergencia hispana, criolla y africana. Romance Philology 46: 284-296. Schwegler, A. 1993c. Rasgos (afro-) portugueses en el criollo del Palen que de San Basilio (Colombia). In Homenaje a Jose Perez Vidal, C. Diaz Alay6n (ed.), 667-696. La Laguna, Tenerife: Litografia A. Romero S. A. Schwegler, A. 1994. El Palenque de San Basilio (Colombia): Persistencia africana y problemas de (auto-) identificaci6n de elementos llngillsticos subsaharicos. Papia 3: 6-30. Schwegler, A. 1996a. Chima "ko,Jgo: Lmgua y rito ancestrales en El Palenque de San Basilio (Colombia), 2 Vols. Frankfurt: Vervuert Schwegler, A. 1996b. Lenguas criollas en Hispanoamenca y la contribud6n africana al espafiol de America. Contactos y transferendas lingiUsticas e,J Hispanoamerica. Signo y Se1la 6: 295-346. Schwegler, A. 1996c. La doble negad6n dominicana y la genesis del espafiol caribeiio. Hispanic Linguistics 8: 246315. Schwegler, A. 1998. Palenquero. In America negra: Panordmica actual de los estudios lingiUsticos sobre 11ariedades criollas yafrohispanas, M. Perl & A. Schwegler (eds), 220-291. Frankfurt/Madrid: Vervuert/Iberoamericana. Schwegler, A. 1999. Monogenesis revisited: The Spanish perspective. In Creole Genesis, Discourse and Attitudes: Studies Celebrating Charlene Sato [Creole Language Library 20], J. Rickford & S. Romaine (eds), 235-262. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Schwegler, A. 2000. The African vocabulary ofPalenque (Colombia). Part 1: Introduction and corpus of previously undocumented Afro-Palenq uerisms.Journal ofPidgin and Creole Language 15: 241-312. Schwegler, A. 2001. The myth of decreolization: The anomalous case of Palenquero. In Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages [Creole Language Library 22], I. Neumann-Holzschuh & R Schneider (eds), 409-436. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Schwegler, A. 2002a. On the (African) origins ofPalenquero subject pronouns. Diachronica 19: 273-332 Schwegler, A. 2002b. El vocabulario africano de Palenque (Colombia). Segunda Parte: compendio de palabras (con etimologias). In Palenque, Cartagena y Afro-Caribe: historia y luJgUa, Y. Mofiino & A. Schwegler (eds), 171-227. Tiibingen: Niemeyer. Schwegler, A. 2002c. Creolistics in Latin America: Past, present, and future. In Pidgin and Creole Linguistics in the 21st Century, G. Gilbert (ed), 121-171. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Schwegler, A. 2002d. El vocabulario (ritual) bantU de Cuba. Parte I: Acerca de la matriz africana de la 1engua congo' en El Monte y Vocabulario Congo de Lydia Cabrera. Parte II: Apendices 1-2 In La Romania americana. Proce.sos lingiUsticos m situaciones de contacto, N. Dfaz, R Ludwig & S.l'flinder (eds), 97-194. Frankfurt/Madrid: Vervuert/Iberoamericana. Schwegler, A. 2006a. Bantu elements in Palenque (Colombia): Anthropological, archeological and linguistic evidence. In African Re-genesis: Confronting Social Issues in the Diaspora, B. Haviser & K. C. MacDonald (eds), 204-222 London: University College London Press. Schwegler, A. 2006b. Bozal Spanish: Captivating new evidence from a contemporary source (Afro-Cuban 'Palo Monte'). In Studies in Contact Linguistics: Essays in Honor of Glmn G. Gilbert, J. Fuller & L. L. Thornburg (eds), 71-101. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Palenque(ro)
Schwegler, A 2007a. A fresh consensus in the malting: Plural MA and bare nouns in Palenquero. In Noun Phrases in Creole Languages: A Multi-Faceted Approach [Creole Language Library 31), M. Baptista & J. Gueron (eds ), 205-222. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Schwegler, A 2007b. ffiack ritual insulting in the Americas: On the art of 'vociferar' (Colombia), 'vadlar' (Ecuador) and 'snapping, 'sounding' or 'playing the dozens' (USA). Indiana 24: 105-155. Schwegler, A. 2009. Extraordinary revival of a creole: Palenquero in the 21st century. Paper presented at the joing summer meeting of the SPCL and ACBLPE, Cologne, August 11-15, 2009. Schwegler, A. Forthcoming. Sobre el origen africano de 1a lengua criolla de Palenque (Colombia). To appear in Palenque (Colombia): oralidad, identidad y resistencia. Un enfoque interdisciplinario, ed. Graciela Maglia & A. Schwegler. Bogota: lnstituto Caro y Cuervo & Universidad Javeriana. Schwegler, A. & Green, K. 2007. Palenquero (Creole Spanish). In Comparative Creole Syntax: Parallel Outlines of 18 Creole Grammars, J. Holm & P. Patrick (eds), 273-306. London: Battlebridge. Schwegler, A. & Morton, T. 2003. Vernacular Spanish in a microcosm: Kateyano in E1 Palenque de San Basilio (Colombia). Revista Internacional de Lingiiistica Iberoamericana (RILl) 1: 97-159. Schwegler, A & Rojas-Primus, C. 2010. La iengua' ritual del Palo Monte (Cuba): Estudio comparativo (Holgufn! Cienfuegos). To appear in Revista lnternacional de Lingiifstica lberoamericana (RILl) 15. Swartenbroeckx, P. S. J. 1973. DictiomJaire kikongo et kituba- frar!fais (vocabulaire compare des latJgages kongo traditioMels et vehiculaires). Bandundu: Ceeba Publications. Vidal Ortega, A 2002 Cartagena de lndias y la regi6n hist6rica del Caribe, 1580-1640. Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, CSIC.
249
Creoles spoken in Asia
Convergence-to-substratwn and the passives in Singapore English Bao Zhiming National University of Singapore
Singapore English is a non-native variety of English that has emerged from intense contact with the local languages, mainly Chinese and Malay. It has two passive forms appropriated from the local languages, In addition to the English passives (be V-en and get V-en). In this paper, I study the usage patterns of the four passives in the Singaporean component of the International Corpus of English, and show that the locally derived passives are adversative and the English-derived passives exhibit dear adversity bias. The quantitative analysis supports two distinct mechanisms of substratum influence: the abrupt substratum transfer (the locally derived passives) and the gradual convergence-to-substratum (the English-derived passives). Keywords: contact linguistics, Singapore English, New English, non-native variety of English, frequency of use, convergence-to-substratum, passive voice
1.
Introduction
Singapore, a former British colony. is a city-state with a resident population of four million. Since its founding by the British in 1819, it has been a thriving multi-racial and multilingual entrepot. Ethnically, about three quarters of the population are Chinese. The remaining quarter are Malay, Indian and other smaller ethnic groups. This population mix has been constant since the latter half of the nineteenth century (Turnbull1977). The main languages spoken in Singapore are Chinese, Malay. Tamil and English, all of which are recognised as the official languages of Singapore. English has the additional title of working language. Linguistically, the Chinese community was diverse, speaking a plethora of mutually unintelligible dialects, mainly Southern Min (Hokkien and Teochew) and Cantonese. Thanks to the annual Spea.k Ma.ndarin campaigns that the government organises to encourage Chinese Singaporeans to speak Mandarin instead of the native dialects, Mandarin is now the most spoken Chinese dialect in Singapore (see Census of Popula.tion 2000, available from the Government of Singapore website www.gov.sg). Malay played the role of lingua franca in the colonial days of Singapore, giving rise to a pidginised variety commonly referred to as Bazaar Malay. Bazaar Malay is no longer spoken among younger Singaporeans (Daw Khin Khin 2005 and references therein). English is now the language of choice.
254
Bao Zhirning
Table 1. Languages most often spoken in the Chinese community, by age group, in percentage* 5-14
15-24
25-39
40-54
55-
Mandarin
59.6
59.8
46.5
43.9
17.8
English
35.8
21.5
25.1
9.9
Dialects
4.3
18.4
25.2 28.0
30.7
71.8
Source: Singapore Census of Population 2000, Advance Data Release No. 3, Literacy and Language.
* Less than 1% of the Chinese population speak other languages.
The spread of English among the three major ethnic groups in Singapore started as soon as the British annexed the island. At first, it was the language of the political and economic elite. The masses spoke their native languages for intragroup communication and Bazaar Malay for intergroup communication. Their children went to vernacular schools. After independence, the government adopted an English-centric language policy which stipulated English as the medium of instruction in all educational institutions, at the expense of vernacular schools. At the turn of the twenty-first century, according to the Census af Population 2000, English is widely spoken, especially among the post-independence generations. Singapore has effectively shifted to English-dominant bilingualism. The Chinese community has experienced double language-shift: from dialects to Mandarin and from Chinese to English. The effect of the government-mandated language shift can be seen from the census data taken in 2000, summarised in Table 1. For a growing segment of the population, English is acquired as mother tongue, with a stabilising indigenous grammatical norm (Gupta 1991 ). Still, there is enormous variation in English proficiency among Singaporeans. At the top end of the proficiency cline, the so-called acrolectal variety is not much different from standard English elsewhere, but at the other end, the basilectal varieties, and the mesolectal varieties to a lesser extent, contain unique grammatical features as a result of contact with the local languages, as has been noted by early researchers of Singapore English (Platt 1977; Tay 1982). Gupta (1991) adopts a diglossic view of Singapore English a. la. Ferguson ( 1959), identifying the basilectal end of the proficiency cline as the L variety in opposition to Standard English, the H variety. Here, we adopt Gupta's diglossic view and use the term SINGAPORE ENGLISH to refer to the L variety unique to the community. In Schneider (2003), Singapore English is characterised as having reached Stage 4 along a five-stage developmental path. It is a New English with a stable endonormative grammatical norm. Given Singapore's sociolinguistic and linguistic environment, Singapore English exhibits the effect of linguistic restructuring under the influence of the local languages, which collectively form the substratum. There are essentially two basic types of substratum influence: substratum grammatical features may be appropriated into the emerging contact vernacular (substratum transfer), or English grammatical features may converge with similar substratum features (convergence-to-substratum). In the contact linguistics literature, substratum transfer is well understood (see Keesing 1988; Lefebvre 1998; Thomason & Kaufinan 1988; and contributions in Muysken & Smith 1986). Convergence-to-substratum has so far not received the attention it deserves (but see the so-called superstratist arguments in Chaudenson 2001; Mufwene 200 1). Part of the reason is the availability of suitable quantitative data that reveal the process of convergence. In this paper, I show that the usage patterns of four forms of the passive construction in Singapore English demonstrate these two types of substratum influence. The four passive forms are exemplified below:
Convergence-to-substratum and the passives in Singapore English
(1)
a b. c. d.
John was scolded by his boss John got scolded by his boss John give his boss scold John kena scolded by his boss
SINGAPORE ENGLISH
(Bao & Wee 1999: 1 (2a))
The four forms have the same meaning. I will refer to these forms as be, get, give and kena. passives, respectively. To varying degrees, the four statements are judged acceptable by native speaker informants. The first two passives are inherited from English and the other two borrowed from Chinese and Malay, the dominant local languages- the give passive from the southern Chinese dialects ofHokkien and Cantonese, and the kena passive from Malay. By the intuitive judgment of native speakers, both the give and kena passives are adversative, describing actions with unpleasant consequences for the subject of the passive form. Adversity is not only a property of the give and kena passives in Singapore English, it is also a salient property of their respective sources in Chinese and Malay, and indeed a property of the passive construction in the languages of the region (Matisoff 1991; Matthews & Yip 1994; Mintz 1994). The question is, do the English-derived passives converge with the give and kena passives - and the passive constructions of the substratum languages - and become adversative? On native speaker intuition, the answer is unequivocally negative. Examples like (2) can be easily observed by casual visitors to Singapore: (2)
a. b.
John is frightened. John is impressed.
(2a) is adversative, but (2b) is not Native-speaker judgment does not provide reliable data on the convergence of the English-derived passives in Singapore English. The availability of computer corpora of linguistic data, such as the International Corpus of English, makes it possible to investigate the usage pattern of grammatical innovations through quantitative analysis. 1 The corpus is a useful tool for comparative studies ofhow English adapts to The International Corpus of English, ICE for short, was started in the 1990s by the late linguist Sidney Greenbaum (Greenbaum 1988, 1996). It is a compendium of separate country corpora that follow the same design structure. Each country corpus consists of 500 2,000-word texts, for a total of 1,000,000 words. For a description of the ICE project and works based on the ICE corpora, see Greenbaum (1988, 1996), Greenbaum and Nelson (1996) and Nelson, Wallis and Aarts (2002). Bao and Hong (2006) group the 500 texts into four registers, as follows: 1.
PRIVATE DIALOGUE., face-to-face
and telephone conversations; 100 texts, 200,000 words DIALOGUE, classroom lessons and formal debates; 80 texts, 160,000 words MoNOWGUB, prepared speeches and broadcast news; 120 texts, 240,000 words WRITING, short stories and student essays; 200 texts, 400,000 words. PUBLIC
The data cited from the International Corpus of English are referenced by filenames in the country corpus: GB refers to the British component and SIN to the Singaporean component The term 'Singapore Englisli is often used in two senses in the literature on Singapore English In the broad sense, it refers to the variety represented in the entire ICE-SIN; in the narrow sense, it refers to the vernacular variety re-presented in the PRIVATE DIALOGUil subcorpus and is often called Singapore Colloquial English or Singlish. It is the L variety in diglossic opposition to standard English, the H variety. In this paper, the term is used mainly in the narrow sense and occasionally in the broad sense; context of use disambiguates it.
255
256
Bao Zhirning
Table 2. Frequencies of the four passives in PRIVATE DIALOGUE, ICE-SIN and ICE-GB
ICE-SIN beV-en getV-en give kena
ICE-GB
token
type
token
type
686 56 0 6
309 47 0 4
708
320
64
43
new sociolinguistic and linguistic environments and evolves into distinct local varieties, the socalled New Englishes. The corpus-based quantitative data complement the qualitative data based on field notes and on native speaker grammaticality judgment. The quantitative data also reveal the extent to which grammatical innovations have stabilised or converged with the languages in the contact ecology. The frequencies of the passives are shown in Table 2. The token frequency measures the actual number of times a passive form is used. The type frequency measures each verb exactly once, regardless of the number of times it is used in the passive construction. The top three verbs in the ICE-SIN corpus are call (26 tokens), give (15 tokens) and involve/worry (each 13 tokens); in ICEGB. they are call (57 tokens), involve (20 tokens) and allow/use (each 15 tokens). The complete list of verbs used in the be V-en form is provided in the Appendix. Table 2 shows that the English-derived passives are dominant in Singapore English and their substratum -derived counterparts are hardly used in daily interaction. As mentioned earlier, on the basis of native speaker intuition, the give and kena passives are adversative, but the be/get V-en passives are not In what follows, I report the results of a corpus-based quantitative study that reveals a convergent trend on the adversity reading among the tour passives in Singapore English. The English -derived passives have a higher incidence of adversative usage in Singapore English than in British English, but the difference is not yet statistically significant at a high confidence level. I argue that the four Singapore English passives exemplify two distinct types of substratum influence, convergence-to-substratum and substratum transfer. Adversity is not yet a semantic condition on the use of the be/get passives in Singapore English, indicating that the convergence-to-substratum process is gradual. By contrast, the adversity effect piggybacks on the givelkena passives as they transfer from the substratum languages. The influence from the substratum language is abrupt. In addition, we study the usage patterns of already and also, which are the exponents of Chinesederived grammatical features. Both words have high inddence of use in the ICE corpora. The usage patterns clearly demonstrate the abrupt nature of substratum transfer.
2.
The give and kena passives
The give and kena passives have been discussed in the literature (see Baa & Wee 1999 and references therein). Baa and Wees work (1999) is based on data obtained through native speaker judgment and occasional field notes. According to their analysis, the syntactic templates of the give and kena passives are shown below:
Convergence-to-substratum and the passives in Singapore English
(3) a b.
The give passive The kena passive
NP 1 giveNP 2 V NP 1 ke11a V (byNP2)
Here, NP 1 is the patient (the logical object) and NP 2 the agent (the logical subject), which is optional in the kena passive, but obligatory in the give passive. Kena. has the lexical meaning of 'strike' in Malay as well as in Singapore English, as we shall see shortly. The examples below are cited from Bao and Wee (1999): (4) a b. c. d.
(5) a. b.
c. d.
Johngivehisbossscold(=(lc)) The dog give the boy kick *The dog give the boy stroke *John give his boss praise John kena scolded by his boss(= (lc)) The condominium kena destroyed by the typhoon yesterday *John kena praised by his boss *The condominium ke11a built by the developer last year
The starred examples show the adversity effect of the give and kena. passives, respectively. Adversity is a strong characteristic of the passive construction in Chinese and Malay as well, as illustrated in examples (6) and (7) (PART, particle). 2 (6) a
b.
c.
d.
(7) a
b.
c.
Zh.angsangei ren du-shi le Zh.angsan give people poison-die PART 'Zh.angsan was poisoned to death by people: wo gege gEl xian-li na-le qu brother give county-inside take-PART go 'My brother was arrested by the county.' *Zhangsan gEi Lisi xihuan Zh.angsan give Lisi like 'Zh.angsan is liked by Lisi: *Zhangsan gEi ren yi-hao le Zh.angsan give people cure PART 'Zh.angsan was cured by people: Budak jahat itu kena pukul oleh ibu-nya boy naughty the beat by mother-his 'The naughty was beaten by his mother: Ali kena tangkap oleh polis Ali catch by police ~i was caught by the police: *Budak itu kena suap Boy the feed 'The boy was fed:
2. The data are adapted from Bao and Wee (1999) (on Chinese, see also Bodman 1955; Matthews & Yip (1994); Wang 1982; on Malay, see Sulainlan 1990). The Mandarin passive is marked by bei 'suffer' and gei 'give'; both carry the adversative reading. In the southern Chinese dialects of Hokkien and Cantonese, the preferred marker of the passive is the etymon ofgei. For the sake of simplicity, I cite the Mandarin data with gei.
2S7
258
Bao Zhirning
d.
*Kamb!ngnya kena pegang Goat-his touch 'His goat was touched.'
In addition to the adversative reading, the Singapore English gi1'e passive expresses other meanings which are consistent with its substratum source. We will not discuss here the whole range of meanings associated with the give passive; the interested reader should consult Bao and Wee (1999) and references cited therein. The same range of meanings is observed with the passive marked by kasi 'give' in Baba Malay (Pakir 1986; Shellabear 1913) and Bazaar Malay (Daw Khin Khin 2005), both of which have Hokkien as the substratum. Incidentally, Malay also uses kasi and beri- both have the meaning of'give'- to mark the passive, in addition to kena (Mintz 1994; Shellabear 1913 ). It is a robust feature among the local languages active in the contact ecology of Singapore English. Although the give passive has been cited as a substratum-derived feature in the literature, it is hardly used in daily interaction. I have not personally encountered a single token of the give passive in any real-life communicative context in Singapore. The kena passive is much more noticeable. Bao and Wee (1999) reported the results of an informal survey of ten Singaporeans on their familiarity with the give and kena passives. While all were familiar with the latter, only five had heard the tormer. These results are consistent with the usage profile of the two passives in the PRIVATE DIALOGUE subcorpus of the ICE-SIN, displayed in Table 2. Out of the 177 tokens of give in the conversational corpus, not a single token marks the passive construction. Incidentally, give is passivised in the be V-en form 15 times, earning a top-two spot in PRIVATE DIALOGUE, ICE-SIN. Kena fares better, with a total of six tokens in the corpus: (8)
a
I mean they're like there is guy who must be sixty over then always kena teased by this other (SIN: s1a-079) His taillike like kena caught In the In the ... hut. (SIN: s1a-052) I kena sexual harassed again you know. (SIN: s1a-031) (on the topic ofharassment) She just said she kena, right? (SIN: s1a-031) I feel like ke11a sexual harassed (SIN: s1a-031) I kena shocked you know (SIN: s1a-096)
guy.
b. c. d. e. f.
The verbs which are passivised, tease, catch, ha.rass and shock, all have adversative readings. The ICE-SIN corpus does not contain a single token of kena that can be interpreted with a neutral or positive connotation. This is not surprising, given the fact that it is adversative in Malay, the source language. The lack of attestation of the give passive in the PRIVATE DIALOGUE of ICE-SIN deserves some comment. The give passive, like the kena passive, is heavily stigmatised. It is therefore not surprising that it is rarely used. The extremely low frequency of the gi1'e passive has serious consequences for its stabilisation. The grammatical intuition on the construction will inevitably weaken as fewer and fewer people use it in daily interaction. To determine the effect of frequency on intuition-based grammaticality judgment. I conducted an Internet-based survey among students of the National University of Singapore. The survey contains ten passive sentences with ken a and give, half adversative and the other half non-adversative. Four are shown below:
Convergence-to-substratum and the passives in Singapore English
Table 3. Adversative and non-adversative passive sentences containing give and kena judged as acceptable by respondents, in percentage* Adversative
Non-adversative
give
21.8
26.8
kena
78.3
11.8
* Nwnber of respondents: 127.
(9) a a'. b. b'.
I kena caught speeding last night The condominium kena build last year The house give fire destroy last year John give his boss praise
(9a, b) are adversative, and (9a', b') are neutral, i.e. non-adversative. For each sentence. therespondents were asked to decide whether it was acceptable or unacceptable in Singapore English. The survey results are displayed in Table 3. The results are revealing. The respondents show a clear preference for the kena passive in adversative context over non-adversative context. 78.3% vs. 11.8%. This distribution is within our expectation. The distribution of the give passive, however, is surprising. Here, the majority of the respondents reject the form regardless of context of use. Furthermore. non-adversative context is preferred over adversative context, albeit by a small margin, contrary to our expectation of an adversative passive construction. The most reasonable interpretation of this result is that, due to its low frequency of use, the give passive is no longer part of the grammar of Singapore English.
The English passives
3·
In English and Singapore English, the passives are not known to exhibit the adversativity effect. The examples in ( 10) are tokens of the be passive cited from ICE: (10)
a b. c. d.
Ham did something wrong and he was cursed by his father I was introduced to Celeste, uhm who is on the board of Aspire I was actually rather disappointed that they stopped the film The sale of my fiat has been approved
(GB: s2a-053) (GB: sla-004) (SIN: sla-075) (SIN: sla-040)
Obviously, (lOa, c) are adversative and (lOb, d) are not Adversity does not affect the acceptability of the be passive forms in English and, prima facie, not in Singapore English either. The same is true of the get passive. In the contact ecology of Singapore English, the passive construction is adversative in Chinese and Malay, the major contributing languages. An interesting issue is whether the be and get passives, which are not adversative in English, converge with the locally derived passives and exhibit an adversity bias in the contact vernacular. Convergence is a gradual process. To address the issue, data based on native speaker intuition, which is typically categorical need to be complemented by quantitative evidence. The ICE corpora offer a rich source of naturally occurring data for quantitative analysis of convergence in the usage of the English-derived passives in Singapore
259
26o
Bao Zhirning
English. If the English passives exhibit a tendency toward convergence, we expect a higher incidence of usage in adversative contexts in Singapore English than in British English, which is free from the conformative pressure unique to the contact ecology of Singapore English. This is the question we proceed to answer. We construe adversity broadly to refer to contexts which are generally unpleasant and need to be avoided under normal circumstances. Even under such broad categorisation, the evaluation of a passive token is not an easy matter. For verbs such as curse/disappoint and introduce/approve (see (10)), the adversative and non-adversative effect is lexically obvious. For many others, the matter is not as straightforward. Take, for example, the verbs cancel and condition in the following tokens of the passive construction: (11) a b.
I'm afraid yeah last week's cricket was cancelled So w~re condiNoned to like this type of watch
(GB: s1a-095) (GB: s1a-049)
Cancellation and conditioning are normal events which may carry adversative or non-adversative connotations. Since the token in (lla) has a weak adversative reading- the speaker does not like the cancellation of the cricket match - we consider cancel to be adversative. The token in (11b) is neutral. For practical reasons our evaluation relies more on the lexical meaning of the verb or verb phrase than on the immediate context of the passive token. Lexically neutral verbs are classified neutral even if they are used in sentences with undesirable connotations: (12) Oh outside Shaw Centre uhm and all the cars are parked Illegally there
(SIN: s1a-079)
Here, the unfavourable reading derives from the adverb illegally rather than from the passivised park. Some apparently neutral verbs, such as leave, are typically used with their usual collocational phrases. In such cases, the evaluation is based on the verb and its immediate collocational complement The following tokens are deemed adversative: (13)
a b.
Two boys were left mauled here I mean the introductions were left in a very vague way anyway
(SIN: s la-087) (GB: s la-060)
The passive to be left is often accompanied with a resultant state. The complements mauled and in a 1'ery vague way make the tokens adversative. Incidentally, all passive tokens of leave in the ICE-SIN and ICE-GB corpora can be interpreted in an unfavourable light. The token and type frequencies of the be and get passives in the PRIVATE DIALOGUE subcorpora ofiCE-SIN and ICE-GB are displayed in Tables 4 through 7. The frequencies of the two passives, especially the type frequencies, do not differ much between Singapore English and British English. This is partially due to the fact that our adversity evaluation relies more on the lexical meanings of the verbs rather than on the immediate contexts Table 4. Token frequencies of the be passive.
Neutral Adversative Total
x2 = 3.41, p < 0.05
SIN
GB
465 221
512
686
708
196
Convergence-to-substratum and the passives in Singapore English
Table 5. Token frequencies of the get passive. x2 = 2.75, p < 0.05 Neutral Adversative Total
SIN
GB
23
36 28 64
33 56
Table 6. 'IY:Pe frequencies ofthe be passive. x2 = 0.09, p < 0.20 Neutral Adversative Total
SIN
GB
204
105
215 105
309
320
Table 7. 'IY:Pe frequencies of the get passive. x2 = 0. 34, p < 0.20 Neutral Adversative Total
SIN
GB
19
20
28
23
47
43
of the passive tokens. A chi-square test indicates that the frequency differences are not significant, suggesting that adversity has not yet evolved to the point where it affects the grammaticality judgment of passive tokens by native speakers. Nevertheless, the adversity bias of the be and get passives is unmistakable. In tact, the chi-square values of the token frequencies of the be and get passives (see Tables 4 and 5), while not statistically significant, are close to the critical value (X2 = 3.84, p < 0.05), where they would be deemed significant at 95% confidence level. The quantitative data presented in Tables 4 through 7 show that the English -derived passives are not immune to the adaptive pressure from the languages active in the contact ecology of Singapore English. In such an environment, the competing languages exert antagonistic pressures on the passive construction in the emerging contact vernacular. Consequently, convergence-to- substratum is a gradual and slow process.
4·
Excursion: Already and also
The weak adversity bias of the be and get passives contrasts sharply with the strong adversity effect of the kena passive- all six tokens of the kena passive are adversative. While this contrast supports the view that substratum transfer is responsible for abrupt substratum influence, unfortunately only six tokens were present in the ICE-SIN corpus. To show that substratum transfer is abrupt, in opposition to the gradual adaptive convergence-to-substratum, we diverge from the passives and turn to already and also, two words which have acquired Chinese-derived grammatical functions. The analysis here follows from Bao and Hong (2006 ). We look at already first
261
262
Bao Zhirning
Already has been analysed extensively in the growing literature on Singapore English (see Bao 1995, 2005; Brown 1999; Ho & Platt 1993; Ho & Wong 2001; Kwan-Terry 1989; and references therein). It marks the perfective and inchoative aspects, as shown in the two examples below:3 (14)
Perfective I bought a place already. b. They have all moved towards disposables already.
a
Inchoative c. So are you spring-cleaning already? d. It's like kind of oldish already. 'It is oldish now.' I *'It was/has been oldish.'
(SIN: sla-035) (SIN: sla-022) (SIN: sla-091) (SIN: sla-076)
The perfective use of already emphasises the completion of an event. corresponding to the English simple past or perfect. The inchoative use emphasises the start of a state or an event. or a change of state, which is not expressed by the English simple past or perfect, see (14d). Already is the exponent of the multiple aspectual functions of Chinese le, which is part of the aspectual system that has transferred from the substratum language to Singapore English (Bao 2005). In English, already can occur at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a sentence, but its canonical position is sentence-medial. Likewise, in Singapore English, already can occur in all three positions. We have already seen already in sentence-final position in (14). The examples in (15) show already in the other two positions (lah, particle).4 ( 15)
a
b.
Sentence-initial
Already it has been taken that day. Already he can do freelance lah.
(SIN: sla-001) (SIN: sla-012)
Sentence-medial That one I already got. My boss already did not give me a lot of work.
(SIN: sla-086) (SIN: sla-036)
As noted in Brown (1999), a.lrea.dy is typically sentence-medial in English, but sentence-final in Singapore English. Bao and Hong (2006) study the usage pattern of already in the ICE corpora. They show that the distribution of a.lt-ea.dy in English and Singapore English varieties exhibits significant difference only in the informal, spontaneous register of PRIVATE DIALOGUE. In the
3· The data on already are cited in Bao and Hong (2006), with added references to ICE-SIN. They are glossed only when their meanings are not transparent. 4· Already may occur in negative sentences in Singapore English, see (15b). More spedrnens follow (lor, partide): (i)
If reject then she wouldn't get her PP already lor. 'If (her proposal is) rejected, then she wouldn't get her PP.'
(SIN:s1a-051)
(ii)
What else to watch? No more already.
(SIN:s1a-049)
(iii)
Sure but they want don't want already.
(SIN:s1a-089)
These uses betray the substratum influence on already (see Bao 1995, 2005). In English, already does not occur in negative sentences (Biber et a1. 1999; Quirk et a1. 1972).
Convergence-to-substratum and the passives in Singapore English
Table 8. Frequencies of already by position in four registers, ICE-SIN and ICE-GB Initial
PRIVATE DIALOGUE, f = 44.21, p < 0.001 SIN 6 GB 2 PuBUC
DIALOGUE, f
SIN GB
WRITING, f SIN GB
Total
84
194 7
284 44
89 47
14 4
106 53
74 96
14 4
91 104
156 148
6 7
169
=256, p < 0.20 1 2
MONOLOGUE, f SIN GB
Final
Medial
=7.71, p < 0.025 3 4
=6.69, p < 0.05 7 0
155
more formal registers, there is little difference. The distribution of already in PRIVATE DIALOGUE is summarised in Table 8.5 Of the four registers shown above, the token counts are higher in Singapore English in PRIVATE DIALOGUE and PUBLIC DIALOGUE, and are roughly the same in the remaining two registers. In PuBLIC DIALOGUE, MoNOLOGUE, and WRITING, the usage pattern is similar between the two varieties of English: Sentence-medial is the preferred position. The differences in these registers are not significant at 99% confidence level (p < 0.01), as indicated by the chi-square values. 6 In PRIVATE DIALOGUE, Singapore English and English have diverged significantly in the usage of already, not only in terms of token counts, 284 vs. 44, but also in terms of position. The chi-square test shows that the distribution is significant at a confidence levelof99.9% (p < 0.001). The results in Table 8 show that substrate influence is abrupt when the feature involved is due to substratum transfer, in contrast to the be/get passives. We now proceed to examine the usage pattern of also, which is the exponent of the universal quantifier that transfers from Chinese, the substratum. Like a.lready, also's preferred position is sentence-medial in English, but sentence-final in Singapore English (Biber et al. 1999; Brown 1999): Compare He also sells cars vs. He sells cars also. In addition to the sentence-final position, also has acquired subtle grammatical meanings associated with universal quantifiers or expressions with additive and concessive functions. These are illustrated below (what, hedging particle) (Bao & Hong 2006):
5· The data in Table 8 are raw frequencies adapted from Table 2 ofBao and Hong (2006), which displays the data in ratio per text. Tokens of already in negative sentences are excluded.
6. Due to the low frequencies in the initial position, the chi-square values in PUBuc DIALOGUE, MoNOLOGUE and WRITING, and their interpretation, should be treated with care. In the WRITING register of ICE-GB, for example, if there is a single token of sentence-initial already, we obtain f = 4.27, p < 0.20.
263
264
Bao Zhirning
(16)
Universal a Everythi11gl also want (title oflocal comic strip) b. Every day also have to go through this what Concessive c. Even Mandarin is also not standard. d. After sixty-five even if you want to pay also we don't want to accept the money.
Also reinforces the universal quantification meaning in (16a, b) and the concessive meaning of even in (16c, d). This use of also is derived from Chinese, specifically Cantonese. The Cantonese particle dou 'all, too' reinforces the quantification and additive/concessive meanings. The examples below are typical (Bao & Hong 2006): (17) a
b.
mo-ye ngodou oi everything I want 'I want everything' Yingmen dou m tsun English not standard 'English is also not standard'
See Matthews and Yip (1994) for a full treatment of dou in Cantonese. In Singapore English, as in English, also occurs in all three positions: ( 18) a b. c.
Initial: Also in Holland Village. Medial: Kang Heng also lost the bet to us. Final: He'll run away also what
(SIN: S1a-037) (SIN: S1A-013) (SIN: S1A-008)
The difference lies in the distribution of also in three positions. Table 9 summarises the frequencies of also in PRIVATE DIALOGUE of the International Corpus of English (adapted from Table 3 of Bao and Hong 2006).
Table 9. Frequencies of also by position in four registers, ICE-GB and ICE-SIN Initial PRIVATE DIALOGUE,
PuBUC DIALOGUE,
MONOLOGUE,
SIN GB WRITING,
SIN GB
Total
130 77
147 0
322 101
351 129
22
5
399 148
564 315
7 3
606 345
"f = 2.28, p < 0.20 26 14
SIN GB
Final
f = 70.83, p < 0.001 45 24
SIN GB
Medial
f = 1.66, p < 0.20 35 27
i =0.73, p < 0.20 57 32
952 642
1010 675
Convergence-to-substratum and the passives in Singapore English
Like already, also enjoys a much higher incidence of use in Singapore English, but only in PRIVATE DIALOGUE does
the sentence-final position become dominant In all other registers, the dominant position is sentence-medial, and except for the higher token counts, the usage pattern of also in Singapore English is generally in line with that in English. Singapore English differs significantly from English in the distribution of also in the PRIVATE DIALOGUE subcorpus, which contains materials gathered through spontaneous conversation. Like already, also is the morphosyntactic exponent that expresses the Chinese-derived universal quantification or concessive meanings. The influence from the substratum on also is abrupt.
5·
Concluding remarks
In the preceding sections, we analysed the usage patterns of the four passives in Singapore English and showed that two distinct types of substratum influence are at work. The give and kena passives are transferred from the local languages and the adversity effect is transferred along with the passive forms. Like their sources in the substratum languages, these passives are judged as adversative by native speaker intuition. This conclusion is supported by the corpus-based usage data on kena, as well as on the substratum-derived aspectual marker already and universal or concessive marker also. Quantitative data and intuition-based data are not mutually exclusive. They are indeed complementary. & our analysis shows, the quantitative method should be part of an adequate theory of contact-induced linguistic change. It is not surprising that Singapore English contains grammatical constructions, or features, inherited from English and grammatical constructions appropriated from the local languages. Since its early days in the nineteenth century, the vernacular has developed in a contact environment with a constant linguistic substratum. English has always enjoyed the status of power and prestige. The grammar of vernacular Singapore English shows the imprint of this contact dynamic. Its feature pool, in the sense of Mufwene (2001), is made up of grammatical features from Chinese, Malay, Tamil and, of course, English, the four designated 'officiaf languages. An adequate theory of linguistic change under such contact conditions must take into consideration the contribution of the substratum, the superstratum and linguistic universals. The analysis of the usage patterns of the passives in Singapore English, and of already and also, shows that we need a holistic approach to the contact phenomena that occur in contact ecologies, such as the one for Singapore English, in which the same substratum and superstratum languages compete to influence the development of the contact vernacular. Usage plays an important role in the development of 'normaf linguistic change (Bybee 2002, 2006; Bybee & Hopper 2001). It plays a significant role in the success of contact-induced linguistic change as well. Furthermore, the usage-based quantitative data reveal the two mechanisms of substratum influence at work in the linguistic ecology of Singapore English: the abrupt substratum transfer and the gradual convergence- to-substratum.
265
266
Bao Zhirning
References Bao, Z. 1995. Already in Singapore English. World Englishes 14(2): 181-188. Bao, Z 2005. The aspectual system of Singapore English and the systemic substrati.st explanation. Journal ofLinguistics 41(2): 237-267. Bao, Z. & Hong, H. 2006. Diglossia and register variation in Singapore English. World Englishes 25(1 ): 105-114. Bao, Z. & Wee, L. 1999. The passive in Singapore English. World Englishes 18( 1): 1-11. Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S. & Finegan, R 1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman. Bodman, N.C. 1955. Spoken Amoy Hokkien. Kuala Lumpur: Charles Grenier. Brown, A 1999. Singapore English in a Nutshell. Singapore: Federal Publications. Bybee, J. 2002. Word frequency and context of use in the lexical diffusion of phonetically conditioned sound change. Language Variation and Change 14(3): 261-290. Bybee, J. 2006. From usage to grammar: The mind's response to repetition. Language 82(4): 711-733. Bybee, J. & Hopper, P. (eds). 2001. Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Chaudenson, R 2001. Creolization of Language and Culture. Translated from the French by S. Pargman. London: Routledge. Daw Khin Khin, A 2005. Bazaar Malay: History, Grammar and Contact PhD dissertation, National University of Singapore. Ferguson, C. A. 1959. Diglossia. Word 15: 325-40. Greenbaum, S. 1988. A proposal for an international computerized corpus of English. World Englishes 7(3 ): 315. Greenbaum, S. (ed.). 1996. Comparing English Worldwide: The International Corpus of English. Oxford: Clarendon. Greenbaum, S. & Nelson, G. 1996. The International Corpus of English (ICE) Project. World Englishes 15(1): 3-15. Gupta, A F. 1991. Acquisition of diglossia in Singapore English. In Child Language Development in Singapore and Malaysia, A Kwan-Terry (ed.), 119-160. Singapore: Singapore University Press. Ho, M. L. & Platt, J. T. 1993. Dynamics of a Contact Continuum: Singapore English. Oxford: OUP. Ho, M. L. & Wong, I.E H. 2001. The use of ever in Singaporean English. World EngJishes 30(1): 79-87. Keesing, R. M. 1988. Melanesian Pidgin and the Oceanic Substrate. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. Kwan-Terry, A. 1989. The specification of stage by a child learning English and Cantonese simuhaneously: A study of acquisition processes. In Interlingual processes, H. W. Dechert & M. Raupach (eds), 33-48. Tiiliingen: Narr. Lefebvre, C. 1998. Creole Genesis and the Acquisition of Grammar: The Case ofHaitian Creole. Cambridge: CUP. Matisott; J. A 1991. Areal and universal dimensions of gramrnatization in LahiL In Approaches to Grammaticalization, Vol II [Typological Studies in Language 19], R C. Traugott & B. Heine (eds), 383-453. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Matthews, S. & Yip, V. 1994. Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge. Mintz, M. W. 1994. A Student's Grammar of Malay Indonesian. Singapore: EPB Publishers. Mufwene, S. S. 2001. The Ecology of Language Evolution. Cambridge: CUP. Muysken, P. & Smith, N. (eds). 1986. Substrata Versus Universals in Creole Genesis [Creole Language library 1]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Nelson, G., Wallis, S. & Aarts, B. 2002 Exploring natural language: Working with the British Component of the International Corpus of English [Varieties of English across the World G29]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Pakir, A. 1986. A Linguistic Investigation ofBaba Malay. PhD dissertation, University of Hawaii. Platt, J. 1977. A model for polyglossia and muhilingualism (with special reference to Singapore and Malaysia). Language in Society 6(3): 361-378. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. & Svartvik, J. 1972 A Grammar of Contemporary English. London: Longman.
Convergence-to-substratum and the passives in Singapore English
Shellabear, W. G. 1913. Baba Malay: An introduction to the language of the Straits-born Chinese. Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 65: 49-63. Schneider, E. W. 2003. The dynamics of new Englishes: From identity construction to dialect birth. LtmgUage 79(2): 233-281. Sulaiman, 0. 1990. Malay for Everyone: Mastering Malay through English. Selangor: Pelanduk Publications. Tay, M. W. J. 1982 The uses, users and features of English in Singapore. In New Englishes, J. B. Pride (ed.), 51-70. Rowley MA: Newbury House. Thomason, S. G. & Kaufman, T. 1988. LtmgUage Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. Thrnbull, C. M. 1977. A History of Singapore 1819-1975. Singapore: 0 UP. Wang, L. 1982 Hanyu yufa gangyao (An outline of Chinese grammar). Shanghai: Shanghai Education Press.
Appendix Usted below are the token frequencies of the verbs used in the be passive form in the PRIVATE DIAWGUE subcorpora of ICE-SIN and ICE-GB. Past participles which are normally used as adjectives are excluded. The top two are interested (SIN 40, GB 46) and married (SIN 15, GB 13). Format: verb, use (a, adversative, n, neutral), SIN tokens, GB tokens. abuse, a, 0, 1 account, n, 0, 1 add,n, 1,1 advance, n, 0, 1 affect, a, 2, 2 allow, n, 3, 15 analyse, n, 0, 1 annoy, a, 4, 0 appreciate, n, 0, 1 arrest, a, 1, 0 associate, n, 2, 3 attack, a, 0, 1 avoid, a, 1, 0 base, n, 4,6 bind, n, 0,1 bond,n,2,0 bore, a, 2, 2 break, a, 1, 0 broadcast, n, 1, 0 cancel, a, 3, 1 carve up, n, 0, 1 cause, n, 0, 2 change, n, 0, 2 cheese off; a, 1, 1 clasp, n, 0, 1 cloister, a, 1, 0 commission, n, 0, 2 complete, n, 1, 0 condition, n, 0, 1
accelerate, n, 1, 0 accuse, a, 0, 1 admit, a, 1, 0 advertise, n, 0, 2 affiliate, n, 0, 1 amaze, a, 5, 3 anglicise, n, 0, 1 apply, n, 0, 1 approve,n, 4, 0 article, n, 0, 1 assure, n,1, 0 attack, a, 1, 0 balance, n, 0, 1 batter, a, 0, 1 bleach out, n, 0, 1 book, a, 1, 2 bother, a, 9, 11 break up, n, 1, 0 build, n, 2, 1 cane, a, 1, 0 cast,n, 0, 1 censor, a, 2, 0 channel. n, 0, 1 chop up, a, 1, 0 classify, n, 2, 1 dose,n,2,4 commit, n, 1, 0 concentrate, n, 1, 0 conduct, n, 1, 0
accept, n, 1, 0 achieve, n, 1, 0 adopt, n, 0, 1 advise, n, 0, 1 allocate, n, 1, 0 amputate, a, 1, 0 announce, n, 1, 0 appoint, n, 0, 1 arrange, n, 1, 0 ask,n, 2, 2 attach, n, 2, 2 attract, n, 1, 0 ban,a,1,0 bend,n,0,1 blow, a,0,3 book,n, 1, 0 brand, n, 0, 1 bring, n, 8, 9 call, n, 26, 57 carry out, n, 0, 1 catch, a, 2, 1 certify, n, 1, 1 charge, n, 0, 2 chuck out, n, 0, 1 clear,n, 1, 3 commercialise, n, 1, 0 compare,n, 1,0 concern, n, 5, 9 confine, a, 0, 1
267
268
Bao Zhirning
confirm, n, 6, 0 congest, a, 1, 0 consider, n, 3, 0 convert, n, 2, 1 cook,n, 2, 1 cram, a, 1, 1 cross, a, 0, 1 curse, a, 0, 1 cut out, a, 1, 0 delay, a, 2, 1 depress, a, 1, 4 desert, a, 1, 1 develop, n, 2, 3 disabuse, n, 0, 1 discuss, n, 1, 1 disorganise, a, 1, 0 distort, a, 0, 1 divorce, a, 0, 1 dress, n, 0, 2 dry,n,O, 1 dye,n,0,2 edit,n, 0, 1 elevate, n, 0, 1 embarrass, a, 1, 6 encode, n, 0, 1 enlarge, n, 0, 1 entertain, n, 1, 0 equip, n, 1, 0 exclude, n, 0, 2 expect, n, 4, 1 expose, a, 1, 1 face with, a, 1, 0 fax,n, 1, 0 file,n, 0, 1 fiher, n, 0, 1 flatter, n, 1, 1 follow, n, 1, 0 forward, n, 1, 0 freeze, a, 1, 3 fund,n,O, 1 gear up, n, 1, 0 gore, a, 0, 1 handicap, a, 1, 0 head,n, 1, 0 highlight, n, 0, 1 hold,n, 4, 3 hound, a, 1, 0 identify, n, 0, 1 impress, n, 5, 3 include, n, 2, 1 indicate, n, 1, 0
confront, a, 0, 2 conjoin, n, 1, 0 constrict, a, 0, 1 convince, n, 1, 1 cost,n, 0, 1 cramp, a, 1, 0 crowd, a, 7, 1 cut,n, 1, 0 debrief, n, 0, 1 delight, n, 1, 1 deprive, a, 1, 0 design, n, 1, 2 dictate, a, 1, 0 disappoint, a, 5, 6 disgust, a, 1, 1 dissatisfy, a, 0, 1 disturb, a, 2, 0 do,n,l3,2 drive, n, 1, 0 dump,a,O, 1 eat,n, 1, 1 educate, n, 0, 2 elevate, n, 1, 0 employ, n, 1, 1 engage, n, 1, 2 enrol, n, 1, 0 entitle, n, 0, 1 establish, n, 0, 1 excrete to, a, 1, 0 o.:plain, n, 1, 0 expose (photo), n, 0, 1 fascinate, n, 0, 3 feature, n, 1, 0 fill,n, 1, 0 find,n, 2, 1 flood, a, 1, 0 force, a, 2, 0 foster,n, 1, 0 frighten, a, 5, 3 gain, n, 1, 0 get over, a, 0, 1 grade, n, 1, 0 handle, n, 1, 1 help,n,3,0 hire, n, 1, 1 hoover, n, 0, 1 hurt,a,3, 2 implement, n, 4, 0 improve, n, 0, 1 incorporate, n, 1, 0 infest, a, 0, 1
confuse, a, 4, 5 connect, n, 3, 3 contain,n,0,2 convolute, a, 0, 1 cover, n, 3, 8 crook, a, 1, 0 cube,n, 1,0 cut oft; a, 0, 1 dedicate, n, 0, 1 demolish, a, 0, 1 describe, n, 0, 1 devastate, a, 0, 1 direct, n, 2, 0 discipline, n, 1, 1 dismantle, a, 1, 0 distinguish, n, 1, 0 divide, n, 1, 2 dominate, n, 0, 2 drop,a,O, 1 dump,a,1,0 edge,n,O, 1 elect,n, 2, 0 emancipate, n, 1, 0 empty out, n, 0, 1 engross, a, 1, 0 entail. n, 1, 0 entrench, a, 1, 0 excite, n, 1, 0 execute, a, 0, 1 export, n, 0, 1 extend, n, 1, 0 fashion, n, 1, 0 feed,n, 0, 3 film,n, 1, 0 finish,n,5,6 focus, n, 2, 1 forewarn, a, 0, 2 fragment, a, 1, 0 frustrate, a, 0, 1 gear, n, 0, 1 give,n, 15, 10 hand,n,0,2 hang, a,1, 0 hide, a, 2, 0 hit, a, 0, 1 horrify, a, 0, 1 hype,a,O, 1 import, n, 3, 0 incline, n, 0, 1 increase, n, 0, 1 inflame, a, 0, 1
Convergence-to-substratum and the passives in Singapore English
influence, n, 1, 4 install, n, 0, 1 insure, n, 0, 2 interview, n, 0, 1 inure, n, 0, 2 involve, n, 13, 20 keep,n,0,1 knacker, a, 0, 2 label, n, 1, 0 layer, n, 1, 0 limit, a, 0, 3 list, n, 1, 1 lock out, a, 1, 0 lose, a, 1, 2 mark,n,3, 1 mean,n,5,4 merge, n, 0, 1 mlx,n, 1,2 name,n, 1,1 note,n,O, 1 obscure, a, 0, 1 offer,n,6,1 oppress, a, 1, 0 orientate, n, 0, 1 own,n, 1,1 pamper, n, 1, 1 park,n,1,0 pay,n, 11,2 perceive, n, 0, 1 phrase, n, 1, 0 place, n, 1, 1 pollute, a, 1, 0 possess, a, 0, 1 prefer, n, 0, 1 prick, a, 1, 0 produce, n, 1, 2 prove, n, 0, 1 publish, n, 1, 3 punish,a,2,0 quorate, n, 0, 1 rape,a,0,3 recommend, n, 2, 1 reinforce, n, 0, 1 release, n, 0, 1 renew, n, 1, 0 report, n, 2, 0 restrict, a, 0, 2 revise, n, 1, 0 rule,n,0,3 sandwich, a, 1, 0 scare, a, 11, 3
inform, n, 1, 0 instruct, n, 2, 2 integrate, n, 1, 2 intrigue, n, 1, 2 invert, n, 0, 2 isolate, a, 0, 3 keep (provide), a,1, 0 knock, a, 1, 0 laminate, n, 1, 0 leave, a, 7, 10 line up, n, 1, 0 load,n, 0, 1 log on, n, 7, 0 make,n,4,8 match, n, 0, 1 measure, n, 0, 1 mess, a, 0, 1 molest, a, 1, 0 need,n,O, 1 notify, n, 1, 0 occupy, a, 1, 0 open,n,1,0 order, n, 0, 1 overplay, a, 0, 1 packl' n, 1, 0 parallel,n, 0, 1 pass,n,O, 1 peeve, a, 0, 1 perplex, a, 0, 1 pig off; a, 0, 1 please, n, 0, 7 portray, n, 2, 0 post, n, 7, 0 prepare, n, 4, 3 prise, n, 0, 1 promote, n, 2, 0 provide, n, 0, 1 pull, n, 0, 1 put:,n, 4, 4 quote, n, 1, 0 rate,n, 1, 0 record, n, 9, 5 reject, a, 2, 2 relieve, n, 1, 0 renovate, n, 0, 1 require, n, 2, 0 return, n, 3, 0 rough up, a, 0, 1 run,n,0,2 satisfy, n, 1, 0 schedule, n, 0, 1
injure, a, 0, 1 insult, a, 0, 1 interrupt, a, 1, 0 introduce, n, 2, 6 invite, n, 2, 4 lssue,n, 1, 1 kill, a, 5, 1 know,n, 1,1 laugh at, a, 1, 0 light,n, 1, 0 link,n, 1, 1 lock, n, 0, 1 look,n, 1, 3 marginalise, a, 1, 0 maximise, n, 1, 0 mention, n, 2, 3 mistake, a, 2, 0 muffle, a, 1, 0 nominate, n, 2, 0 number, a, 1, 0 offend, a, 0, 1 oppose, a, 0, 1 organise, n, 7, 4 overstate, a, 0, 1 pads. a, 1, 0 paralyse, a, 0, 1 paste, n, 1, 0 penetrate, n, 0, 1 petrify, a, 1, 0 piss off, a, 1, 0 polson, a, 0, 1 pose,n, 1,0 predict, n, 1, 0 press, a, 0, 1 process, n, 0, 1 prompt, n, 0, 1 publicise, n, 1, 1 puncture, a, 1, 0 quilt, n, 1, 0 raise, n, 2, 1 recognise, n, 3, 0 reduce, a, 2, 2 relate, n, 3, 4 remove, a, 1, 1 replace, a, 1, 0 reserve, n, 2, 0 reverse, n, 0, 1 rub off, n, 0, 1 rush, a, 1, 0 save,n,0,2 screen, n, 1, 1
269
270
Bao Zhirning
scrunch up, a, 0, 1 see,n,5,6 sell, n, 3, 2 share, n, 0, 1 shock, a, 6, 1 show,n,3,0 slice, n, 0, 1 solve, n, 1, 0 specialise, n, 1, 0 spend, n, 2, 0 sponsor, n, 1, 0 stamp, n, 0, 1 steal, a, 2, 2 stitch, n, 0, 1 stress, a, 6, 0 stuff, a, 0, 1 surprise, a, 10, 11 sweep, a, 0, 3 take,n, 6, 10 teach, n, 5, 1 tempt, n, 1, 2 think, n, 2, 1 tickle, n, 0, 1 tieto,n,1,0 tour,n,0,1 transport, n, 1, 0 trivialise, a, 0, 1 try,n,0,2 type,n, 0, 1 unsweeten, n, 0, 1 upset, a, 9, 6 vet,n,0,1 wag,a,1,0 wash away, n, 0, 2 wipe out, n, 0, 1 write, n, 6, 10
season, n, 1, 0 segregate, a, 0, 1 send,n,1,8 shield, n, 0, 1 shoot, a, 2, 0 shut out, a, 0, 1 slot,n, 0, 1 sort out, n, 1, 0 specify,n, 1, 0 splash, n, 1, 0 spread, n, 0, 1 start, n, 0, 1 stick, a, 2, 2 stop, a, 1,2 stretch, a, 1, 0 subscribe, n, 0, 1 surround, n, 1, 0 swell, a, 1, 1 talk to, a, 0, 1 tear, a, 1, 2 terrify, a, 1, 0 thrill, n, 1, 0 tidy up. n, 1, 0 tie up, a, 2, 1 track down, n, 1, 0 trap, a, 2, 0 trouble, a, 1, 0 tune,n, 1,0 understand, n, 1, 0 untoudJ, n, 0, 1 use,n,8,15 vote away, a, 0, 1 wake,n,0,1 waste, a, 0, 1 word,n,O, 1
seat, n, 4, 0 select, n, 2, 0 set, n, 3, 7 shift, n, 2, 0 short list, n, 3, 0 sink. a, 0, 1 solemnise, n, 1, 0 speak, n, 0, 2 spell,n, 1, 0 spoil, a, 4, 0 stagger, n, 1, 0 state, n, 0, 1 stimulate, n, 1, 0 store, n, 2, 0 structure, n, 1, 0 supply, n, 1, 0 swallow, a, 0, 1 switch, n, 0, 1 tape,n,4, 1 tell, n, 7, 11 test, a, 2, 1 throw, a, 2, 1 tie down, a,1, 0 topple off, a, 0, 1 train,n, 10,2 treat, n, 0, 3 trust,n, 0, 1 tutor, n, 1, 0 unhinge, n, 0, 1 update, n, 1, 0 vary,n,O, 1 waft,n,0,1 warn,a,0,1 wear,a,0,1 worry, a, 13, 9
Tone in Singlish Substrate features from Sinitic and Malay* Lisa Lim The University of Hong Kong
This paper focuses on aspects of tone in Singlish, the (mesolectal/basllectal) variety of English spoken in Singapore and takes up the claim of tone being a marked feature in contact varieties. While the source of tonal properties may well be the dominant Sinitic substrates, the actual patterning, at both word and phrase level, would appear to actually be a consequence of prosodic patterns found in another, non-tone language substrate, Bazaar/Baba Malay. Such observations support the notion of the founder population in the ecology paradigm: This paper suggests that, as the early English speakers in Singapore, the Peranakans, with Baba Malay as their vernacular, may well have been the community of speakers whose influence on Singlish has been most significant and persistent Keywords: Singlish, Singapore English, Bazaar Malay, Baba Malay, Hokkien. Cantonese, tone
1.
Ecology and scholarship of Singlish
Singlish1 is the mesolectaVbasilectal variety of Singapore English (SgE); it is widely spoken by Singapore's population, which comprises approximately 4 million people made up of76.8% Chinese, 13.9% Malay, 7.9% Indian and 1.4% persons of other races. English formally entered the ecology during colonial rule of the trade/ exploitation colony of Singapore, which may be dated to 1819 when Sir Stamford Raffles acquired the island as a British trading post for the British East India Company. Singapore consequently became part of the
An earlier version of these ideas is foWld in L. Lim (2009a); this paper extends the idea of the contribution of a non-tone language, Malay, in influencing the tonal patterning in Singlish. I thank the anonymous reviewer for comments on this paper and Umberto Ansaldo for comments and discussions, in particular on creole languages and contact dynamics. While the majority of scholarship refers to the variety of English spoken in Singapore as Singapore English (SgE), and the term Singlish, which tends to have more layman's circulation, is avoided for its negative connotations, it is used here for the mesolectal!basilectal variety ofSgE to underline the fact that extensive divergence from standard English is found in this variety, and that much of its grammar can be explained by the features of the non-English languages. 1.
272
Usa IJrn
Straits Settlements, which at that time consisted of Penang and Malacca. From a few hundred people, largely indigenous fishing communities, the population grew to some 10,000 in the first years, the majority (some 60% in 1824) being "Malays; which included peoples from the Riau islands, Malacca, Sumatra, and Java. The Chinese population very soon started growing swiftly, coming to form the largest ethnic proportion of the population within two decades of British colonisation (45.9% by 1836), reaching its current proportion of three-quarters of the population by 1921. The vast majority of Chinese immigrants were from southern China, mainly Chaozhou in eastern Guangdong (the Teochews), Xiamen in southern Fujian (the Hokkiens), and Guangdong (the Cantonese), as well as sizeable numbers ofHakkas and Hainanese. While the school system of the Malays was established before Raffies' arrival, and traditional Chinese schools were set up by the communities themselves (through clans, voluntary associations and philanthropic individuals), the first English-medium school was established by the British in 1834. In the beginning, the tew English-medium schools were for the purpose of educating and cultivating a minority of English-speaking elites in the local population; by the end of the nineteenth century, though, with the increasing recognition of the advantages that the English language afforded, enrolment in such schools increased rapidly. By the 1950s, education was effectively universal and English-medium education increasingly the norm, with 43% of school enrolment being in English-medium schools by 1952. Leading up to independence in 1965, the 1956 White Paper on Education advocated a bilingual system of education, in which English became a compulsory language in schools, either as a first language or, in the vernacular (Chinese-, Malay- or Tamil-medium) schools, as a second language. Just two decades later, in 1987, English was institutionalised as the medium of instruction in all schools, resulting in new generations of Singaporeans who have been described as English-knowing bilinguals. Also instituted as the primary working language in Singapore, English has spread in use in all domains, beyond those of education (as above), government and administration, to become an interethnic lingua franca (taking on a role held by Bazaar Malay pre-1970s ), especially amongst younger and more educated people. Such a widespread usage of English, not just in education, but also in informal domains, by a multilingual community of speakers, has resulted in the development of a nativised variety of Singapore English. (For a comprehensive overview of the sociohistorical and political details of English in Singapore, see L. Lim 2007a, 2009b, 2010a; L. Lim & Foley 2004.) In the evolution of English in Singapore, then, we must recognise influences from a number of languages in a highly multilingual contact situation, within which three substrates have been identified as particularly influential (L. Lim 2007a, 2010a): ( 1) Hokkien, the southern Sinitic variety of the most prestigious and powerful group of Chinese traders in the early days of the colony, which was the intra-ethnic lingua franca for the Chinese; (2) Bazaar Malay, the de facto lingua franca of the region from precolonial times to the middle of the twentieth century; and (3) Cantonese, another southern Sinitic variety which has become more dominant in more recent years. (See L. Lim 2007a, 2010a, for an extensive account of the linguistic ages of Singapore's ecology.) Curiously, in a manner seemingly counter-intuitive to the multilingual ecology of Singapore, much of the research on Singlish has been from the perspective of English. The majority of ear1y research in the 1970s emphasised error analysis and how SgE deviated from Standard British English (StdBrE) - which was, in any case, the exonormative standard in Singapore's language
Tone in Singlish
and education policies. At the same time, even while the view arose (launched by Tongue's 1974 classic study) that there were forms of English spoken in Singapore (and Malaysia) that might be considered standard in their own right- this "standard variety" being that of English-educated Singaporeans, who at that point were still not a majority - there was also the recognition of a "sub-standard variety" used by Singaporeans from all language media in informal situations with their peers or as a lingua franca within the community. This would have been Singlish, though the name would not have been widely used then. It should also be noted that the English developing at that time could be viewed as an L2 variety, since the majority of Singaporeans had some other language(s) as dominant home language(s) and mostly acquired English in school. Later scholarship in the 1980s (starting with Tay and Gupta's 1983 work) recognised SgE as a variety in its own right- but this was still couched in terms of deviations from StdE, with little reference to features being the result of contact with the other languages in the ecology. The exceptions to the English-focused pattern in previous scholarship deserve mention here. Recognition that Singlish could in fact be viewed as a creole dates back to the 1970s, when Platt (1977) and Platt and Weber (1980) described the development of English in Singapore (and Malaysia) in terms of a lectal continuum within a post-creole continuum, with a basilect showing many features of creoles. 2 There is then a lull when SgE research seemed uninterested in contact dynamics, as mentioned above. lt is only in the new century that scholars - notably with nonEnglish linguistics and/or contact linguistics influences- have highlighted the contribution of the substrates: Work has addressed substrate influence on the sound system (e.g., L. Lim 2001, 2004a, 2004b, 2009a; Tan 2003 ), and focused on Singlish as the outcome of relexification of Chinese grammar (e.g., Bao 2001, 2005; Bao & Lye 2005), and as the result of typological congruence between Hokkien and Malay (e.g., Ansaldo 2004, 2009a, 2009b ). The majority of scholarship from the contact linguistics perspective has focused on areas such as tense and aspect, passivisation, topic-comment structure, and reduplication (Ansaldo 2004, 2009a, 2009b; Bao 2001, 2005; Bao & 4"e 2005; Bao & Wee 1999; Wee 2004), as well as stress and intonation (L. Lim 2001, 2004a, 2004b, 2009a; Tan 2003). In this paper, I examine the feature of tone in Singlish, which is significant and intriguing for both theory and practice for a number of reasons. In the first place, to investigate the presence of tone in a grammar that derives from languages in contact is to look deeper into claims that tonal features are complex or marked, as suggested by McWhorter (2005), for example. Second, in spite of the recognition of tone languages in Singapore's ecology, tone in Singlish is a topic that has not been addressed - a phenomenon barely recognised, in fact- until very recently (L. Lim 2007a, 2007b, 2008a, 2008b, 2009a, 2009c).3 Finally, what is particularly curious is that, while the obvious source for tone must
2.
Platt (1975) labelled it a «creoloid."
3· To my knowledge, the idea that SgE, as a New English, can be considered a tone language was seriously postulated for the first time in L. Lim (2007a: 468-469), and then more e":plicitly proposed in L. Lim (2007b, 2008a, 2008b). (Note though that Killingey 1968 suggests that SgE word stress should not be discussed on the grounds that Malayan [Singapore+ Malaysia] English is "a tone language" but later (Killingey 1972) withdraws the statement; cited in Bloom 1986:428. Note also that the ~alayan English" of four decades ago is a different animal from SgE today.) Later, other similar statements have been independently proposed or assumed (Ng 2008, 2009; Siraj 2008; Wee 2008a, 2008b ).
273
274
Usa IJrn
be the Sinitic languages- thatis, the tone languages- in the ecology (L. Lim 2008b), the actual patterns manifested in Singlish seem to derive from another substrate, (Bazaar/Baba) Malay.
2.
Tone in Singlish
This section presents a summary overview of the evidence derived from a number of fronts: discourse particles, words and utterances. The apparent brevity of the literature addressed is due to the fact that, as outlined above, little work has been done to date in the area.
2.1
Discourse particles
The most obvious presence of tone in Singlish is that found in discourse particles. These Singlish particles have long been acknowledged in most scholarship as coming from the (southern) Chinese languages (e.g., Gupta 1992; Platt 1987; and see L. Lim 2007a for a comprehensive overview of their origins), though no specific language( s) tended to be identified or acknowledged as the source(s) of the particles. Since the Chinese languages are tone languages, it is not surprising that in early scholarship on the particles the question of whether the particles themselves carry (lexical) tone was posed (Platt 1987); what is surprising is that this question was not investigated further. It is only in very recent work that these two issues have been seriously addressed (L. Lim 2007a, 2007b, 2008b, 2009a). It has been argued that. compared to the earlier particles lah, ah and what, the larger set of Singlish particles, namely hor, leh, lor, rna and meh, have their origins in Cantonese, and were acquired in Singlish in a later era. In contrast to the earlier set, which either (1) came by route ofBazaar/Baba Malay and thus were transferred without Sinitic tone, or (2) have lost their tonal qualities over time, since they appeared in Singlish earlier (L. Lim 2007a, 2009b ), the particles of the later, larger set (for convenience. referred to as the "Cantonese set") have carried their original Sinitic tone into Singlish (L. Lim 2007a, 2009a, 2009c), and are thus of more direct interest to this paper. We therefore focus here on this Cantonese set, examples of which are provided below in (la) to (le), from the Grammar of Spoken Singapore English Corpus (GSSEC). Note that, in contrast to most other scholarship on SgE, which does not represent the particles with tone, here the particles are transcribed together with their tones, represented as pitch level numbers, a practice proposed in L. Lim (2007a).4 These examples are accompanied in each case by an example of the corresponding particle in Cantonese from which each one derives (from Matthews & Yip 1994: 347, 348, 352). 5 A comparison of the SgE and Cantonese particles in the (a) and (b) pairs (the relevant
4· Singlish data for particles and utterances derive from the naturally occurring data in the Grammar of Spoken Singapore English Corpus (GSSEC; L. IJrn & Fo1ey 2004), except (4a), which is from Wong (1994). The tones of the particles are represented as pitch level numbers 1 to 5 where, in the Asianist tradition, the larger the number the higher the pitch; thus 55 represents a high level tone, 24 represents a rising tone, and so on.
s.
The transcription of examples (lb) to (Sb) is as in the source (Matthews & Yip 1994), which uses the Yale system. Rising and falling tones are shown by rising and falling accents; high level tone is indicated by a level accent;
Tone in Singlish
particles are in boldface) reveals striking parallels in segmental form, tone and meaning. In (1), for example, the SgE particle h:J24, which always occurs with a rising tone, and which asserts a proposition, making it clear that a positive response from the addressee is expected (L. Lim 2007a; Wee 2004: 124), is matched by the Cantonese h6 particle, which has the same rising tone and also indicates an expectation of the addressee's confirmation (Matthews & Yip 1994: 347). The SgE particle b33 in (3a), which occurs with mid level tone, and which indicates obviousness, and in negative contexts inevitability or resignation (L. Lim 2007a; Wee 2004: 123), is similarly matched by the Cantonese particle lo in (3b) with mid level tone and suggesting resignation (Matthews &Yip 1994:352). (1)
a
A:
B: b.
A:.
But ifs beautiful in that ... how... I mean, Finn got a chance to realise himself, right? SGE He's quite innocent la21 h:J24? Innocent. 'He's quite innocent, don't you agree?' [asserting proposition, expecting agreement] Gei leng a
h6?
CANTONESE
quite nice PRT PRT 'Pretty nice, huh?' [expecting confirmation] B:
Haih a.
is PRT 'Yes, it is: (2) a
A:.
b.
A:.
Dl
B:
furniture sell all to people 'The furniture has all been sold: Ga che It?
My parents will disown me a22 if I marry someone Caucasian or Indian My parents very what. SoE 'My parents will disown me lf I marry someone Caucasian or Indian. My parents are really impossible: B: *** very old-fashion a21. A:. My parents very old-fashion a21! Then your parents leSS? ~e you saying that my parents are old-fashioned? Then what about your parents?' [indicating comparison, 'what abouH1
gast
cL
maaih saai bel ydhn
la.
CANTONESE
PRT
CL car PRT
What about the car?' [meaning 'what about'?] (3) a
A: But um I might stop working for a while if I need to, if I need to la21, especially forlooking after kids. SoE B: But for me, I wolit stop working b33. The most I won't give birth to kids b33. For the most I dolit marry b33. 'In my case, (even if I have children to look after) I won't stop working. In the worst of cases, I won't have children. In the worst of cases, I won't get married: [indicating obviousness, resignation]
no tonal indication is given for the mid level tone, and is inserted after the vowel to indicate all low-register tones (low rising, low level and low falling).
275
276
Usa Lim
b.
Ng6h mjf d{m syun lo I not- know how act PRT
CANTONESE
'I really don't know what to do' [indicating resignation] (4)
a
A:.
B:
b.
A:.
How come you call me? SGE 'Why did you call me?' You page for me ma22. 'You paged for me. after all (as you know) (so naturally I'm returning your call)' [indicati.ng obviousness]
Bingo leihga?
CANTONESB
who PRT 'Who's that?
B:
Ngdhdeih san l6uhbaan ama. our new boss PRT 'Our new boss, of course: [indicating obviousness]
(5)
a
b.
No la21! He's using Pirelli. you don't know m£55? SGE 'No, he has Pirelli tyres; didn't you know that?' [indicating surprise, scepticism] B: Really? Dori't bluff. slnsaang wah mh dak ge me? CANTONESE teacher say not okay PRT PRT 'What, did the teacher say it wasri't okay?' [expressing surprise]
A:
As evidence for the claim that the particles occur in SgE with their original (Cantonese) tones, Figure 1 provides an illustration of the pitch contour of one SgE particle, from the utterance maybe it like what you say b33, with the particle b33 visualised clearly as being realised with level tone; instrumental analysis confirms that the particle lies in the middle of speakers' pitch range, and hence can be categorised as mid-level. 500...--------------------,
""----~--------0+------------------~
0.901655
1.71591
Time (s)
Figure 1. Mid-level tone ofSgE particle b33
Tone in Singlish
Figure 2. MH tones in SgE word 'normal, in sentence-initial, -medial and -final position (from Ng 2008b)
Word level
2.2
At the level of the word, some very recent work has suggested that SgE has tone in addition to stress, with tone being predictable from stress (Ng 2008), and with a high level tone assigned to the final syllable (Ng 2008; Wee 2008a), as can be seen in the words in example (6) (from Ng 2008; Wee 2008a, 2008b). 6 (6)
cat, see 'manage, 'teacher in 'tend, a 'round 'Singapore, 'managing 'origin, bi'lingual o 'riginal, se 'curity o 'riginally
55/ H 33-55/ MH 11-55 /LH 33-33-55/ MMH 11-33-55 /LMH 11-33-33-55/ LMMH 11-33-33-33-55/ LMMMH
This word-level tonal pattern has been shown to be independent of sentence position (Ng 2009), as illustrated in Figure 2.
2.3
Phrase/utterance
Finally, let us consider SgE prosody at the phrase level, where, echoing the observation in L. Lim (2004a:42ff.), a characteristic pattern in the intonation contour may be analysed as comprising sequences of sustained level steps or level tones which step up or down to each other, rather than glide more gradually from one pitch level to another. An illustration of such a pattern is provided in Figure 3, which depicts the intonation of the utterance I think happier, where it is evident that the pitch steps up abruptly to a high level pitch for think, and then steps down again for happier. Similarly, in Figure 4, the utterance You told me moves in a series of sustained level tones, each of which is at a slightly higher pitch than the previous one.
6. The tones on each syllable in example (6) are represented in pitch level numbers as well as in the phonological tradition where L = Low tone, M = Mid tone, and H = High tone.
277
278
Lisa Lim
I
ai
I
hrepi~
til]
Figure 3. Sustained level step pattern in SgE utterance I think happier (from L. Lim 2004a) SP. Ol
s fswin lsrate=l6000 1
300
2SO
-~ 200
-t
ju
I
-i
to!
Figure 4. Sustained level step pattern in SgE utterance You told me (from L. Lim 2004a)
mi
Tone in Singlish
3·
Tone meSS?
Some may be sceptical that what is observed in Singlish is tone 7 - the SgE particle meSS in the section heading indicates (often mock-) surprise or incredulity concerning the proposition it is attached to, as illustrated in example (Sa); thus, the translation of the section heading would be 'Is there/it really tone?!' The presence of tone, or some kind of mixed prosodic system, in creole languages is in fact not an especially difficult idea to accept. We know, of course, that suprasegmental features, including tone, are susceptible to being acquired in contact situations (Curnow 2001 ). Tone is often acquired in a non-tonal language by borrowing or imitation due to the presence of tone in the broader linguistic environment (Gussenhoven 2004:42ff.); consequently, tone has been noted to be an areal feature, occurring in genetically unrelated languages spoken by geographically contiguous speech communities, as in Africa and Southeast Asia (Nettle 1998; Svantesson 2001). A number of well-known creoles whose substrates involve tone languages - in particular languages arising from contact situations involving European accent languages and African tone languages - have been documented as possessing tone. One oft-cited example is Saramaccan, which is English- and Portuguese-based, with Gbe and Kikongo as substrates; it has been shown to have a split lexicon, with the majority of its words marked for pitch accent, and a significant minority marked for true tone (Good 2004a, 2004b, 2006). Just as widely acknowledged is Portuguese-lexified Papiamentu, which shows the use of both contrastive stress and contrastive tonal features that operate independently from stress (Kouwenberg 2004; Remijsen & van Heuven 2005; RiveraCastillo & Pickering 2004). The Austronesian language Ma'ya has also been documented as a hybrid system involving both contrastive stress and tone, the result of contact with tonal Papuan languages (Remijsen 2001: 43 ). What is interesting is that such findings have been widely accepted tor "creoles" for a while now;8 but because Singlish is always considered to be a variety of English (as opposed to an KEnglish-based creole"), there tends to be resistance in English linguistics circles to the idea that tone exists in Singlish (but see L. Lim 2009a). Nonetheless, "non-creole" languages have also been observed with similar manifestations of tone: Roermond Dutch has been found to have a Germanic-style stress system but also a lexical tonal contrast, in that words may have no tones or
7. .N. is increasingly recognised, distinguishing between so-called stress languages, accent(ual) languages and tone languages is in fact not clear-cut, and many scholars have become more amenable to regarding these categories as being more loosely or broadly defined. For instance, most now agree that the category of accent languages does not group languages of a typologically coherent class (Gussenhoven 2004; Hyman 2001 a), and take the position that the so-called accentual languages are just a subclass of tone languages (Yip 2002: 4). And tone languages are most recently defined much more broadly than before: following Hyman (2001b: 1368), Ka language with tone is one in which an indication of pitch enters into the lexical realisation of at least some morphemes; regardless of the density of lexically contrastive tones on words; lexical tonal marking, after all, has been noted to be of gradient nature (e.g. van der Hulst & Smith 1988). 8. Creole exceptionalism, ie., the view that creole languages might follow unusual developmental paths, has been seriously questioned on theoretical and empirical grounds (see especially the work by DeGraff 200 1, 2003, 2005 ), and recent trends such as studies in language evolution show that creole exceptionallsm is indeed flawed (e.g., Ansaldo 2009a; Ansaldo et al 2007; Mufwene 200 1, 2008).
279
280
Usa IJrn
a single H tone (Yip 2002:257); and the prosody of Nigerian English is suggested to be a mixed system that stands "between" an intonation/stress language and a tone language (Gut 2005), with its pitch inventory reduced compared to StdBrE, and the domain of pitch being the word, with high pitch triggered by stress, thus resembling a pitch accent language. The linguistic feature of tone is certainly present in the ecology of Singapore. The languages which are recognised as dominant in Singapore's ecology are Bazaar Malay and Hokkien in the earliest era, which were interethnic and intra-ethnic lingua franca respectively; later, Mandarin and Cantonese came to dominate (Ansaldo 2009a, 2009b; L. Lim 2007a, 2010a). As the latter three languages are Sinitic varieties, tone languages are clearly in the majority. Tone is thus a salient typological aspect of the feature pool; in other words, it is high in type- and token-frequency in the internal ecology. Other work has shown that dominant traits do influence the output (Thomason & Kaufman 1988). For example, considering the word order of the adstrates in Sri Lankan Malay, while Pidgin-Derived Malay is SVO, Sinhala and Tamil are both SOV, and the resulting Sri Lankan Malay is also SOV. Similarly, agglutinative morphology emerged in Sri Lankan Malay because it is salient in two of the three adstrates, Sinhala and Tamil (Ansaldo 2008, 2009a, 2009c). Moreover, if we consider external ecology, in Singapore it is the Chinese who form the largest ethnic group, accounting for 78% of the population, and they have been a majority since the early twentieth century (L. Lim 2007a, 2010a). On both counts, then, namely the proportion of tone languages and the proportion of speakers of these languages, tone dominates in the ecology. Moreover, tone is high in markedness, in the sense that the feature bears a heavy functional load; in other words, put in terms of Matras's (2000) model of categorial fusion, it is pragmatically dominant, which also makes it a more likely target for acquisition (Matras 2000: 577). Overall, it is very likely for tone to be acquired in SgE, given the feature's dominant presence in the ecology, both internal and external. When we consider the particles, the data presented above clearly show that the later Singlish particles were acquired in the Singlish system in their entirety, including the tone they have in Cantonese; further, they must be used in that form, and not with any other pitch pattern, for the meaning required, regardless of the intonation pattern of the utterance in which they are found. These tonal items are situated within what is possibly a different prosodic system - one that may be more of a stress/intonation language, in which pitch functions in a system of intonation relatively comparable to the forms and functions identified in other "standard" varieties of English such as StdBrE (L. Lim 2004a: 39-42; Zhu 2003; Zhu & Lim 2002). Such a phenomenon is noted by Gussenhoven (2004: 46) as one of three typologically special cases where tone languages are concerned, namely when there is lexically specified tone in intonation-only languages.9 1he observation of tone at the Singlish word level, which specifies an H-tone on the final syllable of each
9· An example of this situation is when there are tonal specifications in the "segmental-lexicon for particles that invariably appear with a particular intonation contour, such as Dutch sentence-final [he], which expresses an appeal for agreement and always appears with H after the pitch accent H*L on the preceding word (Kirsner & van Heuven 1996). Similarly, Bengali has focus-governing particles which come with their own pitch accent (Lahiri & Fitzpatrick-Cole 1999), Le., they must be lexically specified for tones, which crucially constitute morphemes in their own right and do not form part of the representation of the segmentally represented morphemes, unlike lexical tone (Gussenhoven 2004: 46).
Tone in Singlish
word, corresponds to the second of the typologically special cases identified by Gussenhoven (2004:45-46) in which languages have non-distinctive word-based tone. 10 Some clarification is perhaps necessary here. The observation above and elsewhere that Singlish has prosodic patterns that generally resemble an intonation language may in fact need elaboration: Alongside such patterns, which resemble other StdEs, one also notes a number of"characteristic CSE [Colloquial Singapore English] forms" ( L. Lim 2004a: 421f. ), such as the sustained level steps and tone patterns at word level, as illustrated above. This is not a contradiction, but instead can be understood on two levels: First, Singlish is capable of displaying a continuum of possibilities in prosodic phonology, of more mesolectal and more basilectal features; and second, in line with Singapore's extremely dynamic ecology (L. Lim 2007a, 2008a, 2010a), Singlish may in fact be viewed as changing, in the more Sinitic-dominant ecology of the recent era, to display more Sinitic features, including tone.
Tone from Sinitic?
4·
An automatic assumption would indeed be that the tone observed in Singlish originates in the Sinitic substrates, as opposed to the other substrates- notably Malay- which are not tone languages. A slightly more complex and intriguing situation emerges, however, when we dig a little deeper. In this endeavour, we shall set aside the particles (discussed in Section 2.1), which, at least in the case of the later Cantonese set. are clearly of Sinitic origin, and tum to the tone patterns at word and phrase level (presented in Sections 2.2 and 2.3). In investigations of the Englishes of Hong Kong and China, which have ecologies in which Sinitic varieties are dominant, the influence of tone on the emergent contact English variety is clearly noted and, at least superficially, is comparable to the presence of tone in Singlish; the phonological patterning, however, is distinct (L. Lim 2009a). In Hong Kong English (HKE), tor example, H tones are located on stressed syllables and L tones on unstressed ones (Chen & Au 2004; Luke 2000, 2008; Wee 2008a), illustrated in example (7); this contrasts with the pattern for wordlevel tone in Singlish, described in example (6), where H tones are located on the final syllable. (7)
in'tend 'origin, 'photograph o 'riginal
11-55/LH 55-11-11/ HLL 11-55-11-11/ LHLL
(8)
I saw the manager this morni11g
LHHHHHHHL!
Similarly, at phrase level, while HKE would have a pattern involving a sequence of tones as in (8), based on the basic LHL template and subsequent computation (Luke 2008), 11 Singlish tends to prefer prominence on the phrase-final syllable such that the pitch is perceived as relatively high: No significant decrease in fundamental frequency is measured compared to the initial syllable
10. An example of this is Noon, a language of Senegal. which predictably has an H -tone on the penultimate syllable of every word (Soukka 2000). 11.
Different boundary tones of H% or L% would then apply depending on the context (Luke 2008).
281
282
Usa IJrn
of the phrase-final word (Low 2000); such a maintenance of pitch or movement to high(er) tone phrase-finally is also observable in Figure 4. 12 One approach to accounting for this apparent disparity is to examine the ecology for other languages that may be influencing the prosody of Singlish. Languages that are or have been dominant in the ecology are the obvious candidates, one of which is clearly (Bazaar) Malay, the main interethnic lingua franca in Singapore from the earliest era until as recently as the 1970s (L. Lim 2007a, 2010a). While no comprehensive study of the prosody of (Bazaar) Malay in Singapore is available,D there has been much research on other Malay/Indonesian varieties (e.g., see various chapters in Gensler & Gil to appear). 14 Findings concerning word stress are diverse, but a number of studies do point to prominence on the penultimate and/or final syllable; at phrase level, there is a general consensus that prominence is located phrase-finally (with acceptability increasing closer to the right edge of phrase-final word) (e.g., Goedemans & van Zanten to appear). Closer to home, such a pattern of phrase-final prominence - in the form of an utterance-final rise- tall (in declaratives and wh-interrogatives), often manifested as "step-up progressions" across the final syllables of the utterance - has also been documented in Singapore's Baba Malay (Wee 2000). It would appear then that, as suggested in L. Lim (2009a), the word- and phrase-final prominence noted in Singlish is due to influence from (Bazaar) Malay. At first glance, it may indeed seem curious that Malay should have exerted this influence on Singlish, for three reasons. First, Malay-speaking Malays have comprised a minority of the population (no more than 15%) since the second decade of the populating of Singapore under British colonial rule, starting in the early 1800s; thus, numerically, and consequently socially, they have not been dominant in Singapore's ecology. (This is not to downplay the significant presence of the early Malay royalty as well as numerous influential and wealthy Malays and Arabs, such as the late-nineteenth-century community leaders; L. Lim 2010a.) Second, even if Bazaar Malay was the interethnic lingua franca, it was dominant only until around the 1970s, when English started assuming this role, especially in the new generations of native English speakers. Malay is no longer widely spoken by Singaporeans outside of the Malay community, although in that community the language is still very vital, being the most frequently spoken home language in 91.5% of Malay homes in 2000 (L. Lim 2007a, 2010a). And finally, even if we assume that Malay did influence Singlish through the first and second points, that is, in the earlier era when Bazaar Malay was a dominant language in the ecology, how is it that this earlier Malay influence appears to be maintained in spite of more recent Sinitic dominance? Quite feasible answers can be found if we consider the ecology of Singapore, as well as the founder principle in the ecology paradigm (Mufwene 2001), which suggests that the founder population in an ecology exerts a strong influence on teatures, an influence which persists in the emergent variety. A feasible reconstruction is thus as follows. Another community of peoples in Experiments investigating emphatic and contrastive stress in SgE also demonstrate that spea.lrers do not place prominence on the contrastive element as in "standard" Englishes but systematically locate pitch prominence utterance-finally (L. IJrn 2004b; L Urn & Tan 1999). 12.
13. Though Ng (2009) is now doing instrumental work on Singapore Malay word prosodic patterns. 14. What is represented in this paragraph is necessarily an extremely summarised account of the Malay/Indonesian prosodic patterns documented in the literature.
Tone in Singlish
Singapore who were also Malay speakers- and crucially also comprised the early English speakers - are the Peranakans. 15 Descendants of southern Chinese traders who settled in Southeast Asia and local Malay/Indonesian women, they comprised one of the earliest and largest groups of the influential class of Chinese capitalists in the region. By the time of European exploitation colonisation in the nineteenth century, they had accumulated much wealth and become a prestigious subgroup. Baba Malay was their vernacular. A detailed discussion of the distinction between Baba Malay and Bazaar Malay is beyond the scope of this paper, but for purposes of the argument here, suffice it to say that Baba Malay can be considered a more focused variety than Bazaar Malay (seeS. Lim 1988 and Ansaldo 2009a for good discussions of this issue). However, they were one of the earliest groups in Singapore to have held a high regard for English-medium education, and who sent their children to English-medium schools; their ability in the language further strengthened their prominent socioeconomic position within other local communities in relation to the British, and their knowledge of Malay and local ways allowed them to assume a significant role as intermediaries. (See Ansaldo et al. 2007 and L. Lim 2010b for more details on the Peranakan community and their languages Baba Malay and Peranakan English. 16) Taking into consideration their status, which would mean dominance in the external and consequently internal ecology, plus the fact that their features, which were influenced by their vernacular Malay, would have been the early features influencing the emerging variety Singlish, we find this a plausible explanation for the prosodic patterns observed in Singlish. In fact, this is not mere speculation: Investigations into structural features of naturally occurring Peranakan English speech have noted, amongst other features such as topic-comment structure, that the variety exhibits word- and utterance-final prominence in the form of pitch peak on the final syllable, which can be traced to the Baba Malay influence (L. Lim 2010b)P
5·
Final reflections
To conclude, this investigation of tone in Singlish demonstrates two main phenomena concerning substrate influence. First, the presence of tone, or the evolution of a tone-language prosody, is perfectly possible in a contact variety, if the feature pool of its ecology allows for it; such mixed prosodic systems have been documented in a number of other creoles, though they have been far less acknowledged in varieties considered to be New Englishes. In other words, in an ecology where tone is an unmarked or dominant feature, then tonal features can indeed spread into a contact language, despite McWhorter's (2005) characterisation of tone as a marked feature in contact situations.
15. They are also known as Peranakan Chinese, Babas or Straits(-born) Chinese. 16. I thank Umberto Ansaldo and Salikoko Mufwene for first pointing out to me the likelihood that the Peranakans were the founder population for Singlish.
17. Similar patterns of utterance-final rise-fall and level-fall pitch movements in both read and conversational speech have also been documented (Wee 2000).
283
284
Usa Lim
Second, even when the fea.ture of tone may be ascribed to the tone language substrates, the actual realisation in terms of prosodic patterns - for instance, in the case of Singlish, the location of the H tone at word or phrase level- can be influenced by the prosody of a non-tone language; in the case of Singlish, this is Malay. What is also significant is that this is the language of a population- the Peranakans - that is recognised as having been an earlier or founder population in the ecology, which therefore exerts a significant influence on the structure of the emergent contact language.
List of abbreviations
HKE L M
classifier Grammar of Spoken Singapore English Corpus high Hong Kong English low mid
PRT
particle
SgE
Singapore English Standard British English Standard English
CL
GSSEC H
StdBrE Std.E
References Ansaldo, U. 2004. The evolution of Singapore English: Finding the matrix. In Singapore English: A Grammatical Description, L. Lim (ed.),129-151. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Ansaldo, U. 2008. Revisiting Sri Lanka Malay: Genesis and classification. In A World of Many Voices: Lessons from Documtmting Endangered Languages, A. Dwyer, K. D. Harrison & D. Rood (eds), 13-42. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Ansaldo, U. 2009a. Contact Languages: Ecology and Evolution in Asia. Cambridge: CUP. Ansaldo, U. 2009b. The Asian typology of English: Theoretical and methodological considerations. In The Typology ofAsian Englishes, L. Lim & N. Gisborne (eds). Special issue of English World- Wide 30(2): 133-148. Ansaldo, U. 2009c. Complexity and the age of languages. In Complex Processes in New Languages, E. 0. Aboh & N. Smith (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Ansaldo, U., Lim, L. & Mufwene, S. S. 2007. The sociolinguistic history of the Peranakans. What it tells us about 'creolization'. In Deconstructing Creole, U. Ansaldo, S. Matthews & L. Lim (eds), 203-226. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Ansaldo, U., Matthews, S. & Lim, L (eds). 2007. Deconstructing Creole [Typological Studies in Language 73]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Bao, Z. 2001. The origins of empty categories in Singapore English Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 16: 275-319. Bao, Z. 2005. The aspectual system of Singapore English and the systemic substrati.st explanation. Journal of Linguistics41: 237-267. Bao, Z. & Lye, H. M. 2005. Systemic transfer, topic prominence, and the bare conditional in Singapore English. Journal ofPidgin and Creole Languages 20: 269-291. Bao, Z. & Wee, L. 1999. The passive in Singapore English. World Englishes 18: 1-11.
Tone in Singlish
Bloom, D. 1986. The English language and Singapore: A critical survey. In Singapore Studies: Critical Surveys of the Humanities and Social Sciences, B. A. Kapur (ed.), 337-452 Singapore: Singapore University Press. Chen, C. C. Jr. & Au, C.-P. 2004. Tone assignment in second language prosodic learning. Speech Prosody 2004. Nara, Japan. 23-26 March 2004. . Curnow, T. J. 200 1. What language features can be 'borrowed'? In Areal Diffusion and Genetic lnherita,JCe: Problems in Comparative Linguistics, A. Y. Aikhenvald & R. M. W. Dixon (eds), 412-436. Oxford: OUP. DeGratt: M. 2001. On the origins of creoles: A Cartesian critique ofNeo-Darwinian linguistics. Linguistic 'I}pology 5:213-230. DeGratt: M. 2003. Against Creole exceptionalism. Discussion note. Language 79: 391-410. DeGratt: M. 2005. Linguists' most dangerous myth: The fallacy of Creole exceptionalism. Language i1J Society 34: 533-591. Gensler, 0. & Gil, D. (eds). To appear. Malay/Indonesian Linguistics. London: Curzon Press. Goedemans, R. & van Zanten, F. To appear. Stress and accent in Indonesian. In Malay/lndonesia,J Linguistics, 0. Gensler & D. Gil (eds), 35-62 London: Curzon Press. Good, J. 2004a. Split prosody and creole simplicity: The case of Saramaccan. Journal of Portuguese Linguistics 3: 11-30. Good, J. 2004b. Tone and accent in Saramaccan: Charting a deep split in the phonology of a language. Li1Jgua 114: 575-619. Good, J. 2006. A twice-mixed creole? TI:acing the history of a prosodic split in the Saramaccan lexicon. Ms, MPI EVA.
Gupta, A. F. 1992 The pragmatic particles of Singapore Colloquial English. Journal o_fPragmatics 18:31-57. Gussenhoven, C. 2004. The Phonology ofTone and Intonation. Cambridge: CUP. Gut, U. 2005. Nigerian English prosody. English World- WJde 26: 153-177. Hulst, H. van der & Smith, N. (eds). 1988. Autosegmental Studies on Pitch Accent. Dordrecht: Foris. Hyman, L. M. 200 la. Privative tone in Bantu. In Proceedings from the Symposium Cross-Linguistic Studies of Tonal Phenomena: Historical Development, Phonetics o_fTone, and Descripth!t! Studies, S. Kaji (ed.), 237-257. Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Institute for Language and Cultures of Asia and Africa. Hyman, L. M. 200 lb. Tone systems. In Language Typology and Language Universals: An International Handbook, M. Haspelmath, F. Konig, W. Oesterreicher & W. Raible (eds), 1367-1380. Berlin: Walter de Grt!fter. Kirsner, R. S. & van Heuven, V. J. 1996. Boundary tones and the semantics of the Dutch final particles he, hoor, zeg, and joh. In Linguistics in the Netherlands 1996, C. Cremers & M. den Dikken (eds), 133-145. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Kouwenberg, S. 2004. The grammatical function of Papiamentu tone. Journal of Portuguese Linguistics 3: 55-69. Lahiri, A. & Fitzpatrick-Cole, J. 1999. Emphatic clitics and focus intonation in Bengali In Phrasal Phonology, W. Zonneveld & R. Kager (eds), 119-144. Nijmegen: Nijmegen University Press. Lim, L. 2001. Ethnic group varieties of Singapore English: Melody or harmony? In Bl•olving Identities: The English Language in Singapore and Malaysia, V. B. Y. Ooi (ed.), 53-68. Singapore: Times Academic Press. Lim, L. 2004a. Sounding Singaporean. In Singapore English: A Grammatical Description [Varieties of English Around the World G33], L. Lim (ed.), 19-56. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Lim, L. 2004b. Everything you wanted to know about how stressed Singaporean Englishes are. In Papers from the Eleve,Jth kmual Meeti1Jg of the Southeast Asian Li1'1guistics Society, S. Burusphat (ed.), 429-444. Tempe A'Z:. Program for Southeast Asian Studies, Arizona State University. Lim, L. 2007a. Mergers and acquisitions: On the ages and origins of Singapore English particles. World Englishe.s 26; 446-473. Lim, L. 2007b. Singapore English is a tone language meh55? SE particles and the hybrid prosody of a contact variety of English. English Language Research Seminar Series, Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Edinburgh. 30 Nov 2007. Lim, L. 2008a. Dynamic linguistic ecologies of Asian Englishes. Asian Englishes 11: 52-55.
285
286
Usa Lim
Lim, L. 2008b. Revisiting English prosody: Sinitic tone in Singapore English. The Typology of Asian Englishes Workshop. First International Conference on the Linguistics of English (ISLE I). Freiburg, Germany, 4-6 October 2008. Lim, L. 2009a. Revisiting English prosody: (Some) New Englishes as tone languages? In The Typology of Asian Englishes, L Lim & N. Gisborne (eds). Special issue of English World-Wide 30: 218-239. Lim, L. 2009b. Beyond fear and loathing in SG: The real mother tongues and language policies in multilingual Singapore. In Multilingual, Globalising Asia: Implications for Policy and Education, L. Lim & E. L Low (eds ). Special issue of AILA Review 22: 52-71. Lim, L 2009c. Not just an 'Outer Circle~ ~ian' English: Singapore English and the significance of ecology. In World Englishes: Problems, Properties, Prospects [Variaties of English Around the World G40], T. Hofiinann & L. Siebers (eds), 179-205. Amsterdam: John Benjarnins. Lim, L. 2010a. Migrants and 'mother tongues': fu.:tralinguistic forces in the ecology of English in Singapore. In English mSingapore: Modernity and Management, L. Lim, A. Pakir & L. Wee (eds), 19-54. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Lim, L. 2010b. Peranakan English In Lesser Known Varieties of English, D. Schreier, P. Trudgill, E. W. Schneider & J. P. Williams (eds), 327-347. Cambridge: CUP. Lim, L & Foley, J. A. 2004. English in Singapore and Singapore English: Background and methodology. In Singapore English: A Grammatical Description [Varieties of English around the World G33], L. Lim (ed), 1-18. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Lim, L. & Tan, Y. Y. 200 1. How are we stressed?! Phonetic correlates and stress placement in Singaporean English. In Proceedings ofPTLC2001: Phonetics Teaching and Learning Conference 2001, J. A. Maidment & R Estebas i VIl.aplana (eds), 27-30. London: University College London. Lim, S. 1988. Baba Malay: The language of the 'Straits-born' Chinese. In Papers in Western Austronesian Linguistics No.3 [Pacific Linguistics Series A, No. 78], Hein Steinhauer (ed.). Canberra: Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University. Low, R L. 2000. Is lexical stress placement different in Singapore English and British English? In The Engiish Language mSingapore: Research on Pronunciation, A. Brown, D. Deterding & E. L Low (eds), 22-34. Singapore: Singapore Association of Applied Linguistics. Luke, K K. 2000. Phonological re-interpretation: The assignment of Cantonese tones to English words. Ninth International Conference on Chinese Linguistics, National University of Singapore, Singapore, June 2000. Luke, K K. 2008. Stress and intonation in Hong Kong English. Fourteenth Conference of the International Association for World Englishes (IAWE), Hong Kong, 1-5 December 2008. McWhorter, J. 2005. Defining Creole. Oxford: OUP. Matras, Y. 2000. How predictable is contact-induced change in grammar? In T11ne Depth mHistorical Linguistics, Vol. 2, C. Renfrew, A. McMahon & L. Trask (eds), 563-583. Oxford: The MacDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. Matthews, S. J. & Yip, V. 1994. Cantonese; A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge. Mufwene, S. S. 2001. The Ecology of Language Evolution. Cambridge: CUP. Mufwene, S. S. 2008. Language Evolution: Contact, Competition and Change. London: Continuum. Nettle, D. 1998. Linguistic Diversity. Oxford: OUP. Ng, R-C. 2008. Malay meets Chinese meets English: Where does colloquial Singaporean English word-level tone come from? Language Contact workshop, Bristol, 11 July 2008. Ng, R-C. 2009. Borrowing tones: Word-level tone in Colloquial Singaporean English. The Society for Pidgin and Creole Languages (SPCL) conference, San Francisco, January 2009. Platt, J. 1975. The Singapore English speech continrnun and its basilect 'Singlish' as a 'Creoloid: AJJthropological Linguistics 17: 363-374. Platt, J. 1977. The sub-varieties of Singapore English: Their sociolectal and functional status. In The English Language mSingapore, W. J. Crewe (ed), 83-95. Singapore: Eastern Universities Press.
Tone in Singlish
Platt, J. 1987. Communicative functions of particles in Singapore English. In Language Topics: Essays in Honour of Michael Halliday, Voll, R. Steele & T. Threadgold (eds), 391-401. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Platt, J. & Weber, H. 1980. English in Singapore and Malaysia - Status, Features, Functions. Kuala Lwnpur: OUP. Rernijsen, B. 2001. Word Prosodic Systems of Raja Ampat Languages. Utrecht: LOT. Remijsen, B. & van Heuven, V. J. 2005. Stress, tone and discourse prominence in Cura~o Papiamentu. Ms, Leiden University. Rivera-Castillo, Y. & Pickering. L. 2004. Phonetic correlates of stress and tone in a mixed system. Journal ofPidgin and Creole Languages 19: 261-284. Siraj, P. 2008. Intonation in Singaporean English is stress dependent The 3rd conference on Tone and Intonation (TIE3), Lisbon. Soukka, M. 2000. A Descriptive Grammar of Noon: A Cangin Language of Senegal. Munich: Lincom. Svantesson, J.-0. 2001. Tonogenesis in South East Asia: Mon-Kinner and beyond. In Proceedings from the Symposium Cross-Linguistic Studies of Tonal Phenomena: Historical Development, Pho,Jetics of Tone, and Descriptive Studies, S. Kaji (ed.), 45-58. Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Institute for Language and Cuhures of Asia and Africa. Tan, Y. Y. 2003. Acoustic and Perceptual Properties of Stress in the Ethnic Subvarieties of Singapore English. PhD dissertation, National University of Singapore. Tay, M. W. J. & Gupta, A F. 1983. Towards a description of Standard Singapore English. In Varieties of English in Southeast Asia, R. B. Noss (ed.). Singapore: Regional Language Centre (RELC). Thomason, S. G. & Kaufman, T. 1988. Language Contact, Creolization and Genetic Linguistics. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. Tongue, R. K. 1974. The English ofSingapore and Malaysia, 1st edn. Singapore: Eastern Universities Press. Wee, K. S. G. 2000. Intonation of the Babas: An Auditory and Instrwnental Approach. BA honours thesis, National University of Singapore. Wee, L. 2004. Reduplication and discourse particles. In Singapore English: A Grammatical Description [Varieties of English Around the World G33], L Lim (ed.), 105-126. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Wee, L. 2008a. More or less English? Two phonological patterns in the Englishes of Singapore and Hong Kong. World Englishes 27: 480-50 1. Wee, L. 2008b. Notes on SgE tone. Ms. Hong Kong Baptist University. Wong. J. 0. 1994. A Wierzbickan Approach to Singlish Particles. M A dissertation, National University of Singapore. Yip, M. 2002. Tone. Cambridge: CUP. Zhu, S. 2003. Intonation in Singapore English: An Auditory and Acoustic Analysis of Four Sentence 1fpes. PhD dissertation, National University of Singapore. Zhu, S. & Lim, L 2002. Intonation in Singapore English declaratives: An auditory and acoustic analysis. Thirteenth World Congress of Applied Linguistics (AILA 2002), Singapore, 16-21 December 2002
287
The Cantonese substrate in China Coast Pidgin Umberto Ansaldo, Stephen Matthews and Geoff Smith The University of Hong Kong
The "Chinese" character of Chinese Pidgin English, or China Coast Pidgin (CCP) has been debated in previous work. While some Chinese-based features such as the use ofpiece(e) as a classifier are widely acknowledged, the extent of substrate infiuence has remained unclear. This paper surveys the role of the Cantonese substrate based on a recently transcribed Chinese source, the Chinese English Instructor. Substrate infiuence is demonstrated in a wide range of grammatical domains including serial verbs, topic- comment structure, and placement of prepositional phrases. In certain domains such as placement of adverbs and in-situ wh-phrases, the Chinese source shows substrate influence which is rare or absent from the English language sources, a pattern which suggests systematic variation between Sinophone and Anglophone lects within CCP. Keywords: substrate influence, Cantonese, Chinese Pidgin English
o.
Introduction
China Coast Pidgin, also known as Chinese Pidgin English, has been called the "mother of all pidgins" for a number of reasons ( Li, Matthews & Smith 2005: 79 ). 1 In particular, it seems to have given the name "pidgin" to functionally restricted codes that arise in predominantly bilingual communities (Reinecke 1937). China Coast Pidgin (CCP) has also been associated with the expansion of English-lexifier pidgins in the Pacific (Tryon, Miihlhliusler & Baker 1996: 485). While typically stereotyped and ridiculed in the popular British imagination and literature, it functioned as a lingua franca in the communities of Western traders found in the ports of the China Coast (and some inland markets). Moreover, it was available in written sources for the purpose of transmission among the Chinese.
1. We have chosen to use China Coast Pidgin (CCP) rather than Chinese Pidgin English (CPE) because we prefer not to imply that CCP be seen as a variety of English, for reasons which will become clear in the paper.
290
Umberto Ansaldo, Stephen Matthews and Geoff Smith
1.
Contexts of formation
The seeds ofCCP were most likely sown in the early days of the Canton Trade in the mid-seventeenth century along the Pearl River Delta, particularly in two settings: the harbour ofWhampoa (H uangpu), which functioned as a sort of customs for the foreign merchandise, and the "factories" of Canton (Guangzhou), i.e. the places of residence of the commercial representative of Western trading companies (Bolton 2003: 156; Martino 2003:24; Van Dyke 2005). At the beginning of the nineteenth century, there would have been three main contexts of intercultural communication (Bolton 2003: 147-148): communication between Chinese and (1) East-India company traders; (2) country-traders; (3) Americans. At the beginning of the Canton Trade, Western merchants were completely controlled by Chinese authorities and had to comply with strict regulations or be expelled. Among other things, learning Chinese was forbidden and whoever was found teaching it could receive a death sentence. Since the late eighteenth century. however the role and function of the East-India Company in the region grew steadily, due to an expansion of trade and further recognition of its key role by the international community. The First Opium War (1839-1842), fought in order to force Chinese authorities to release the grip on their monopoly and open up the Opium Trade, saw Western forces emerging as victors who forced China to open a total of five treaty ports (Canton, Amoy, Fuchow, Shanghai and Ningpo), where the British were free to trade with any Chinese party. It also resulted in Hong Kong becoming part of the British Empire. With further concessions resulting from the second Opium war (1856-1860), CCP spread to other parts of China. This was helped by a series of booklets, written by Chinese in Chinese characters for the purpose of teaching and learning CCP. Among the many sources, two manuals are known to us today: (1) M4§;5!ffli1HI!i The Common language of the Red-haired Foreigners (henceforth Red-haired Glossary) published in Canton around 1835 and (2) ~~MIH:: The Chinese and English Instructor (henceforth Instructor) written by Tong King-sing around 1862 (see also Leland 1876; Selby & Selby 1995; Williams 1836). CCP was thus reportedly used not only in East-West encounters and within Western circles but also among Chinese of different linguistic backgrounds. We must therefore recognize a fourth group to the three mentioned above for the nineteenth century: Chinese traders, merchants and servants. In the twentieth century. CCP started declining, a fact that can be attributed to (a) the impact of English-medium instruction becoming available in missionary schools, (b) the dissolution of the Canton Trade from around 1830 as a result of the East India Company closing their activities there; (c) the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and the new migrants that flowed into Hong Kong after WWII (see Baker & Miihlhausler 1990: 158).
2.
Previous scholarship
While grammatical features of CCP are discussed in detail in Sections 3 and 4, we briefly sketch here the general views expressed on CCP in the relevant literature so far. Typically, two somewhat divergent positions can be identified in relation to the origin of CCP grammar: (i) A substantial number of CCP features can be traced back to Chinese, especially Cantonese grammar (Bisang 1985; Selby & Selby 1995; Shi 1986, 1991) and (ii) CCP shows little Chinese influence, but some
The Cantonese substrate in China Coast Pidgin
clear influences from English can be found and otherwise "universals of pidginisation" can be detected (Baker & Miihlhausler 1990; Tryon, Miihlhausler & Baker 1996). As argued below, as well as in Li, Matthews and Smith (2005), both Chinese and English influence can be found, mostly due to the tact that two different genres of CCP can be identified: the Chinese genre, as in the Chinese-authors booklets, and anglophone CCP, as represented in the literature and possibly the speech used within Western circles. In addition, it has been noted that if pidginisation involves loss of morphology, then it becomes indistinguishable from the effect of feature transfer of isolating typology in the contact situation, in our case influence of Chinese grammar (Ansaldo 2007). Related to this is the issue of the genesis of CCP.
3·
Grammar
The "Chinese" character of CCP has been noted in previous work. Speaking of the Instructor, for example, Selby and Selby observe that "Much of the syntactic structure of Pidgin follows that of Cantonese" (Selby & Selby 1995:128). However, some of the more specific claims which have been put forward have proved to be controversiaL Shi (1986, 1991) attributed several features of CCP to structural influence from Cantonese, which is assumed to be the mother tongue of most nonEuropean users of the pidgin. The features discussed by Shi include topic-comment structure, the use of piece(e) as a classifier, the interrogative pronoun what fashion meaning 'how?' (Cantonese dfm yeuhng), compounds with 'man as in ta.ilorma.n and the distribution of belong as copula, which (as in Chinese) is not used before predicative adjectives. Baker and Mtihlhausler (1990) call a number of these teatures into question. In some cases their argument is based on the occurrence of parallel features in other pidgins. For example, Tok Pisin has compounds with -man which are comparable to CCP tailorman, etc. They nevertheless acknowledge that some expressions appear to be calqued on Cantonese. In particular, the use of piece(e) as a classifier between the demonstrative and the noun is distinctively Chinese.
3.1
Words and sounds
CCP words are derived mostly from English, with some Portuguese, Malay, Hindi and, as would be expected, Cantonese influences. Some examples are given below (from Martino 2003): pidgin < business (E.); catchee < ca.tch 'tetch' (E.); two muchy < too much 'extremely' (E.); Joss< Deus (P. 'God'); sabbee <saber (P. 'to know'); chop< chapa (M. 'chop'); well-known Cantonese words are: taipan (C. 'supercargO, lit 'big class');fankuei (C. 'Westerner, lit 'foreign devil'). Words of clear Portuguese origin are less common than one would expect considering the potential influence that Macao could have had in the early days of the Canton Trade: Bolton (2003:286) identifies 20 to 22 Portuguese words out of 372 in the Red-haired Glossary. This suggests a rather limited influence ofMacanese on CCP (Ansaldo 2009). It is difficult to present a definitive account of the phonology of CCP for a number of reasons. In the English sources, sounds are likely to have been heavily anglicised, while in the Chinese sources, there are a number of other problems: (i) Different dialectal readings of the characters
291
292
Umberto Ansaldo, Stephen Matthews and Geoff Smith
yield different sounds; in some cases, it is clear that a character was not used in the Cantonese but rather in the Mandarin reading (Shi 1991) and (ii) The transcription system makes it difficult to know what the actual pronunciation ofwords was, as the Chinese characters in the texts may have served to provide an approximation of the sound. The actual local pronunciation of the characters may well have become the target by users of the booklets, but that is difficult to establish. One of the most robust features was replacement of [r] by [l); the former does not exist in Cantonese and is thus replaced by the only non-nasal sonorant of Cantonese (Shi 1991: 14): 'rice' >'lice'. Another wide-spread feature is deletion of final consonants, again a clear influence of Cantonese phonology where syllable final consonants are restricted to nasals and unreleased stops. Baker and Miihlhausler (1990) find no significant influence of Cantonese in the vowel system, but heavy restructuring of syllable structure due to influence of Cantonese so that CCV > CVCV - e.g., 'stop'> 'sitap' (Bolton 2003: 162). z Nouns and NPs
3.2
The structure of the NP reveals variation between Sinitic and non-Sinitic constituent order, as well as typical Sinitic features such as the use of the classifier pisi (or piecee). (1)
Sixty pisi head
CCP
60 CL head 'Sixty heads'
(Shi 1991:20)
The patterns [NUM-CL-N] and [DEM-CL-N] are typically Sinitic: (2)
Yat go yahn.
Ni
go yahn
1 CL man 'One marl
DEM
CL
CANTONESE
man
'This marl
This pattern is very frequent in CCP. One other item, chop, appears to be used as a classifier in the [DEM-CL-N] position in the Instructor:-3 (3)
1hisee chop tea what name4
CCP
tea what name 'What is the name of this tea?'
DEM
cL
Considering the methodological difficulties in analysing Romanisation, as well as the inherent variability to be expected in phonology, we do not intend to discuss phonology of CCP in detail here, in particular because it is too early at this stage to have comparable data from The Instructor in terms of phonology. 2.
3· The examples from the Instructor are transcribed as in :U. Matthews and Smith (2005). The English translations follow those given in the original phrase book (Tong 1862). 4· Reconstructed pronundation following nineteenth century English sources (see :U. Matthews & Smith 2005 ). The data are here presented according to the original transcriptions with, at times, minor modifications for ease of reading. Translations also follow the original text.
The Cantonese substrate in China Coast Pidgin
The fact that a single classifier accounts for the vast majority of cases implies "reduction" of the classifier system of Cantonese. However, it is also true that while many more classifiers are technically available in the language, in discourse, there is an overwhelmingly frequent one of generic use (go in Cantonese, ge in Mandarin), which can substitute for the more specialised classifiers. This applies to other Sinitic languages as well (Erbaugh & Yang 2006), but it is clear that CCP takes the tendency a step further by reducing the system to virtually one classifier which is not necessarily obligatory (see (19)). The pronouns of CCP have attracted some attention in the literature. In particular, besides what appear to be regular English forms, Baker and Mi.ihlhausler (1990: 104) and Tryon, Mi.ihlhausler and Baker (1996:488) note that, in a first phase, three first person singular forms were found, I, my and me. All three of them could be found in subject position, while my and me were used in object position. Eventually, only my emerged in both functions. This could be taken as evidence of stabilisation in the grammatical system of CCP. Smith (2008) shows that while second and third person forms were almost invariant in the Instructor, there was considerable variation in first person forms, with some differentiation of subject and object forms. The emergence of my as the canonical first person form is somewhat surprising considering the almost universal adoption of mi in pidgins and creoles worldwide. Baker and Mi.ihlhausler (1990) note that this took place rather rapidly only after the 1830s, before which I and me were normally encountered. They hypothesise that the change was brought about by the introduction of written instructional materials and, while the timing strongly suggests this, hard evidence is difficult to pin down. It is possible that the character*· which is pronounced maih in Cantonese, was entered in the booklets by someone with the Mandarin pronunciation (mi) in mind. Another confusing factor is the superficial similarity in appearance between the character 7K: and (mi in nineteenth century Cantonese), which could have been confused during the printing process. Compounding is frequently found in CCP, particularly in reference to people and functions. A compound with thetorm ma.n ('mati, calqued on Cantonese yahn) is found: ba ba ma.n 'barber'; se lei man 'sailor'; gu.k ma.n 'cook' (Martino 2003: 86). Other compounds of the type Modifier-N can also occur- e.g., Joss pidgin 'religion' (lit God business); Joss hou.se 'temple'. Another calque of a Cantonese word is found in the term 'fashioU: rendered as fasi (Cantonese yeu.hng 'mannei, as in dfm yeuhng 'what manner' or 'hoW. Shi 1986) - e.g., wat fa si 'what fashion or what way'; niu fasi 'new fashion or new way' (Martino 2003: 87). In the Instructor, how fashion (4) is used in a way parallel to dfm yeuhng (5) in Cantonese:
*
(4)
(5)
My sawy how fashion do. 1s know how fashion do 'I will know how to act'
Ng6h jl
dim yeuhng jouh.
ls know how fashion do 'I know how to do (it):
CCP
(Instructor IV.33) CANTONESE
293
294
Umberto Ansaldo, Stephen Matthews and Geoff Smith
3·3
Copulas, zeros and existence
Baker and Mtihlhausler (1990) report at least two different types of copula: (a) have, as in (6), usually realised as hap, as in (7) - this can also be used as a possessive verb as well as an aspectual marker-; and (b) belong, as in (8). According to Baker and Mtihlhausler (1990: 103), belong took over as a copula while the aspectual usage of have increased. Eventually, hap and habgot were used in possessive constructions. (6)
Chinese man very great rogue truly but have fashion no
can help.
CANTONESE
Chinese man very great rogue truly but have fashion NEG can help 'Ch.lnese men are real rogues but that's how it is, can't help it' (Anson 1748 in Baker & Mtihlhiiusler 1990: 103) (7) My hap go court one time. 1s have go court 1 time 'I have been to court once.' (8)
CCP
(Instructor IVA)
You belong honest man.
CCP
2s COP honest man 'You are a honest man.'
(Selby & Selby 1997: 136)
Note that copula constructions are rare as more often than not CCP is zero-copula, like Sinitic languages in general, as in (9) (this was already noted in Hall1944): (9)
Englishman very good talkee all heart bad no
talkee true too mucha proudy
ccP
Englishman very good talk all heart bad NEG talk true too much proud 'Englishmen speak well but are insincere, lie and are proud.' (Selby & Selby 1995: 138)
It should be borne in mind that existential verbs in Sinitic can also be used to mark aspect and as emphatic markers. Here, the parallel with CCP is clear as hab is first and foremost an existential verb. The verb got is likewise used in existential phrases (10), just like the Cantonese verb yau.h (11), which indicates location, possession and existence (Matthews & Yip 1994): (10)
You got how muchee piece children. 2s have how much cL children 'How many children have you?'
go salmanjai? (11) Leih yauh gel do you have how many cL children 'How many children do you have?'
CCP
(b1structor IV.55) CANTONESE
It may also be the case that hab (or hap) as an emphatic marker could be mistaken for a copula. In example (6) above the second phrase but have fashion, no can help is difficult to interpret, because fashion can mean many things in CCP and is difficult to translate. For example, in the following: so fashion you buy some beefoo 'well, you better buy some beef' (Instructor VI.26), the item fashion clearly has no literal meaning, as is often the case in CCP, but is calqued on gam yeuhng'so, in that case'. Therefore, the phrase but ha1'e fashion in the example above could just mean 'well~ and not indicate a copula at all. In the Instructor, all occurrences of hap, many of which occur together with got, follow the Sinitic existential pattern 'there is' and are thus not clear-cut copulas. The
The Cantonese substrate in China Coast Pidgin
same was found already in Hall's data (1944) and strongly suggests that CCP is predominantly zero copula. As far as belong is concerned, it is worth noting that in most occurrences in the Instructor, it is either used in its lexical function, 'to belong td, or as a possessive marker. The example above can either be read as 'you are an honest man' or 'you belong to the honest ones'. This is similar to pidgin Malay varieties where punja- or related forms such as pun, pe- 'to possess' is used as a possessive marker as well as for attributive predication and as a relative marker (Adelaar & Prentice 1996). In examples (12) to (14), we see that similar usages are possible in CCP. This could either be an independent development or an influence of Bazaar Malay into CCP (it is not attested in Macanese).5 (12)
These belong you? these POSS you 'Is this yours?'
(13)
CCP
(b1structor IV. 53)
The tea belong first crop.
CCP
tea POSS first crop 'This is first crop tea'
(Instructor VI.14)
ART
(14)
This belong
~v
plum cashee.
CCP
ls plum money 'That is what I paid for it'
(Instructor Vl.3)
DBM COP
Be that as it may, it is unclear to what extent belong really represents a copula or whether a sentence with belong can be read as attributing a relation between two phrases (Shi 1991:24). In terms of negation, no (sometimes realised as lo) or no got are used in CCP; the negative existential which is typical of Sinitic is also found in CCP ( 16):
no got houso. (15) Missy(ter) _ Mr NBG be house 'Mister X is not at home.' (16)
No got suchee thing. be such thing 'There is no such thing:
CCP
(Instructor Vl.38) CCP
NEG
3·4
(Instructor IV. 51)
Verbs and VP
Another reason to be cautious about the status of the copula in CCP is the fact that adjectival and adverbial phrases behave predicatively, like property verbs, a feature that usually correlates typologically with zero-copula, and which is typical of Sinitic- e.g., Ieih h6u faai, [you very fast] 'you are (very) fa sf- and attested frequently in the Instructor:
5· This would suggest that a Portuguese Pidgin was not a necessary precursor of CCP considering the availability of Bazaar Malay in the ecology of the region.
295
296
Umberto Ansaldo, Stephen Matthews and Geoff Smith
(17)
Court e:~.pe11se too muchee. court expense too much 'The court fees are very heavy.'
(18) My too muchee trouble. 1s too much trouble
'I was very much bothered' (19)
1hisee wine gtassee no dean. wine glass NEG dean 'This wine glass Is not dean.'
CCP
(b1structor IV.32) CCP
(Instructor IV.32) CCP
this
(b1structor IV.32)
An area of variation in which we find a difference between the English sources and the Instructor is adverbial modification. Selby and Selby (1995) note that time and place adverbs follow English syntax, but the Instructor offers many examples of preverbal adverbs, as in (20) and (21), in line with Cantonese syntax, as inNg6h deih tfng yaht ban, [we tomorrow move] 'we move tomorrow' (see Matthews & Yip 1994: 187): (20)
(21)
We tomorrow make move. 1PL tomorrow make move 'We move tomorrow? He every day tipsy. 3s every day tipsy 'He gets drunk every day.'
CCP
(b1structor IV.49) CCP
(Instructor IV.55)
From a typological point of view, one of the clearest Sinitic features is the preverbal prepositional phrase, as can be seen in the patterns found in (22) to (25) with long: (22) My no long you buy any more. 1s Nl!G PREP 2s buy any more
'I won't have anymore to do with you? (23)
You can (a)long my catchee one piece good boy. can PREP 1s get 1 cL good boy 'You can get me a good boy.'
CCP
(Instructor Vl.26) CCP
2s
(24) My long he borrow. 1s PREP 3s borrow 'I borrowed from him.' (25)
My long you take alia. 1S PREP 3s take all 'I will buy the whole from yoU:
(Instructor VI.51) CCP
(lnstr uctor IV. 57) CCP
(Instructor VI.8)
It can be seen that the preposition lmtg, derived from English 'along (with)~ behaves like Cantonese tUhng 'with: since it covers the same three functions of comitative (26), benefactive (27) and ablative (28), as in:6
6. There are intriguing similarities between CCP and Tok Pisin long (Smith 2002) which could result from either historical relationship or common grammaticalisation paths.
The Cantonese substrate in China Coast Pidgin
(26)
Keuih tuhng yat go pah11gyauh g6ng. S/he with one cL friend 'He's talking with a friend.'
(27)
Ng6h tUhng leih 16
CANTONESE
talk
yat go.
CANTONESE
I with you take one cL 'I'll get one for you: (28)
Ng6h
tUh,~g
lf.ih maaih yen.
CANTONESE
I with you buy things 'I buy things from you:
With regard to the structure [PP-V-NP], it should be borne in mind that this is typologically rare, as described in Dryer (2003), which leaves little doubt as to the Sinitic origins of this feature in CCP. It can be seen that Cantonese does indeed allow for variation between preverbal and postverbal prepositional phrases, though the latter is a minority pattern, as noted in Kwan (2005): (29)
Ng6h hdi Gauluhng g6bihn jyuh. at Kowloon that-side live
CANTONESE
Ng6h jyuh hdi Gduluhng g6bihn. I live at Kowloon that-side 'I live in Kowloon:
Note the item g6bihn 'there' following a location in (29). This is calqued in CCP with side- e.g., come Sydney side '(she) comes from Sydney; bring that egg come thisee side 'bring the eggs here' -, a very common feature of CCP and indeed the use of side in this way is still commonly heard in Hong Kong English. Serial verb constructions are frequent in CCP and follow a number of patterns (Escure 2009). A well-known example is look see (from Cantonese tai gin, look-see= 'look'): (30)
My wantchee look see counta. 1s want look see account 'I want to check the accounts:
(31)
You look see dog no bitee you. look see dog NEG bite 2s 'Do.tft let the dog bite yoU:
CCP
(instructor VI.6l) CCP
2s
(Instructor VI.58)
Escure (2009) also notes the frequency of directional serial verbs, as in (32) and (33), based in particular on go and come. SVCs can denote single as well as multiple events in CCP: (32)
(33)
Bring come here.
CCP
bring come here 'Bring it here:
(Instructor I VA3)
Catchee one piece man go.
CCP
get 1 cL man go 'Engage a man to go:
(Instructor IV.66)
297
298
Umberto Ansaldo, Stephen Matthews and Geoff Smith
Directional serial verbs are also a feature of Sinitic languages; compare (34) with the Cantonese counterpart (35): (34)
What time you sendee tea come? what time 2s send tea come 'When are you going to send the tea?'
(35) Uih geisih su11g chah laih? You when send tea come 'When will you send the tea?'
CCP
(Instructor VI.16) CANTONESE
There seems to be only one tense/aspect marker in CCP, the perfective marker hap (or hab), as in: (36)
(37)
My hab sick.
CCP
1s have sick 'I am/got sick.'
(Shi 1991:23)
Coolie hap shutee alla wb1dow?
CCP
coolie have shut all window 'Has the coolie shut all windows?'
(Instructor VI.53)
In interrogatives such as (38), Cantonese uses the existential verb yauh 'have' for this function: (38)
Yduh m6uh
saan saai cheung a?
have not.have dose all window 'Have you dosed all the windows?'
CANTONESE
SFP
In CCP, alla can be used as a resumptive quantifier following a Noun Phrase, as in (39) to (41), just like the equivalent Cantonese dou (42) which replicates (41): (39)
(40)
Green tea black tea alla hap got.
CCP
green tea black tea all have got 'I have both green and black tea.'
(Instructor VI.13)
You houso alla man velly well? 2s house all man very well 'Is your family all well?'
(41)
(42)
TWo man alla same. two man all same 'We are both alike.' Leuhng go yahn
CCP
(Instructor VI.76) CCP
(Instructor VI.77) dou yat yeuhng.
two cL person all 'They are both the same:
CANTONESE
one same
Note also the use of houso 'house' in (40) to indicate family, which is identical to the Cantonese word ga 'house/family'.
The Cantonese substrate in China Coast Pidgin
3·5
Wh-interrogatives
In terms of interrogative phrases, there is some variation between WH in situ (43) and WH movement (44). In alternative pidgin renderings in different dialogues, the same wh-phrase appears variably in situ or fronted: (43)
You wantchee how muchee? 2s want how much 'How much do you want?'
(44)
How muchee more you wantchee? how much more 2s want 'What more do you want?'
CCP
(Instructor IV. 54) CCP
(b1structor IV. 54)
In the Instructor, 21% of tokens of how muchee are fronted and 79% in situ. While English-language sources typically show wh-phrases fronted as in English, the Instructor data show frequent use ofwh-in situ (45) following Chinese syntax (46): (45)
1hisee justee now sellum what pricee this just now sell what price 'What is the current price?'
(46) Ni go ylhga gel do chl11? This cL now how much money 'How much is this now?
3.6
CCP
(Instructor VI.7) CANTONESE
Topic-comment and discourse structure
Finally, a note on CCP discourse structure, which is clearly topic-comment in many of the Instructor entries. In the examples below, the topic (in brackets) is the part that is being spoken of in the comment: (47)
(48)
[Good cargo] how can sellum cheap? [good cargo] how can sell cheap 'How can good things sell cheap?'
[thatpricee] he no sellum. [that price] 2s NEG sell 'He won't sell at that price?
CCP
Instructor VI.ll) CCP
(Instructor IV.77)
As in Chinese, two kinds of topic can be distinguished: Some are understood as the object of the verb, like good cargo in (47); others are more loosely related to the predicate, like that pricee in (48).
299
300
Umberto Ansaldo, Stephen Matthews and Geoff Smith
4·
Conclusions
From the brief historical discussion and the data presented above, we can address some of the interpretations that have been offered about the formation of CCP. Considering the structural parallels shown between Cantonese and CCP, it is safe to say that the CCP of The Instructor exhibits substantial Cantonese influence. The grammar ofCCP can thus be accounted for first and foremost in terms of syntactic and semantic feature transfer from Cantonese. Since Cantonese is the dominant language, we can also explain why CCP is mostly isolating in morphology, without necessarily involving simplification as a cognitive strategy. For example, zero-copula patterns are not a result of faulty reproduction of English patterns, but rather an expression of Sinitic feature transfer. The existence of Chinese Pidgin English data that show less Cantonese influence leads us to suggest that there were two, related registers of CCP: a European and a Chinese register, probably reflecting the influence of the dominant languages of its users. This is consistent with the idea of an "expanded phase" in Hall (1944: 95) and Baker and Miihlhausler (1990: 112), that is a development from an initial pidgin used mostly within the context of the Canton trade to an expanded variety widely used among Chinese. Independently of the features of the early pidgin, the existence of the chapbooks and the spread of CCP among Chinese around the mid-nineteenth century obviously resulted in significant influence of Sinitic grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation as shown in the Instructor.
List of abbreviations 1PL
1s 2s 3s CL
first person plural pronoun first person singular pronoun second person singular pronoun third person singular pronoun classifier
COP DBM Nl!G
POSS PRI!P
copula demonstrative negative possessive preposition
References Adelaar, A. & Prentice, D. J. 1996. Malay: Its history, role and spread. In Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia and the Americas, S. A. Wunn, P. Miihlha.user & D. 'fryon (eds), 673-693. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Anon. -1835. M.'Biiffl1Ui5 (hUhng mouh tUng yuhng f3.an wah). The Common La'JgUage of the Red-haired Foreigners. GuangzhotL Ansaldo, U. 2007. Review of John McWhorter 200 5 'Defining creole: Journal ofPidgin and Creole Languages 22(1 ): 170-176. Ansaldo, U. 2009. Contact Languages. Ecology and Evolution in Asia. Cambridge: CUP. Anson, G. 1748. A voyage arowul the world: in the years MDCCXL, I, II, Ill, IV. Dublin: G. and A Ewing. Baker, P. & Miihlha.usler, P. 1990. From business to pidgin. Journal ofAsian Pacific Communication 1(1): 87-115. Bisang, W. 1985. Das chinesische Pidgin-Englisch. Ziirich: Universitiit Ziirich. Bolton, K. 2003. Chi1rese Englishes: A Socioli1Jguistic History. Cambridge: CUP.
The Cantonese substrate in China Coast Pidgin
Dryer, M. S. 2003. Word order in Sino-Tibetan languages from a typological and geographical perspective. In SinoTibetan Languages, G. Thurgood & R. LaPolla (eds), 44-55. Richmond: Curzon Press. Erbaugh, M. & Yang, B. 2006. Two general classifiers in the Shanghai Wu dialect: A comparison with Mandarin and Cantonese. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 35(2): 169-207. Escure, G. 2009. Is serialization simple? Evidence from Chinese Pidgin English. In Simplification bJ Pidgins and Creoles, T. Klein &N. Faraclas (eds.), 109-123. London: Battlebridge. Hall, R. A J. 1944. Chinese Pidgin English grammar and texts. journal of the American Oriental Society 64: 95113.
Kwan, W. M. S. 2005. On the word order oflocative prepositional phrases in Cantonese: Processing, iconicity and grammar. M. Phil, University of Hong Kong. Leland, C. 1876. Pidgin English sing-song. London: Kegan Paul. Li, M., Matthews, S. & Smith, G. P. 2005. Pidgin English texts from the Chinese Instructor. Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics 10(1): 79-168. Martino, E. 2003. Chinese Pidgin English. Genesis and et•olution ('Chinese pidgin English Genesi ed evoluzione'). Tesi di Laurea, La Sapienza, Universiti di Roma. Matthews, S. & Yip, V. 1994. Canto,rese; A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge. Reineclre, J. E. 193 7. Marginal Languages: A Sociological Survey of the Creole Languages and 'frade Jargons. PhD dissertation, Yale University. Selby, S. & Selby, A. 1995. China Coast Pidgin English journal of the Ho'Jg Ktmg BrmJch of the Royal Asiatic Society 35: 113-141. Shi, D. X 1986. Chinese Pidgin English: Its Origin and Linguistic Features. MA thesis, University of Pittsburgh. Shi, D. X 1991. Chinese Pidgin English: Its Origin and Linguistic Features. journal of Chinese Linguistics 19(1 ): 1-40. Smith, G. P. 2002 Growb~g up with Tok Pisin: Contact, Creolizatio,J, and Chm~ge i1J Papua New Guwa's National LmJgUage. London: Battlebridge. Smith, G. P. 2008. Chinese Pidgin English Pronouns Revisited. Hong Kong journal of Applied L»Jguistics 11(1): 63-76. Tong, K.-s. 1862. The Chinese and English Instructor. GuangzhoLL Tryon, D., Miihlhii.usler, P. & Baker, P. 1996. English-derived contact languages in the Pacific in the 19th century (excluding Australia). In Atlas of Languages ofbJtercultural Commu,Jication in the Pacific, Asia and the Americas, S. A. Wurm, P. Miihlhiiusler & D. Tryon (eds), 471-495. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Van Dyke, P. A. 2005. The Canton 1rade: L~fe and Enterprise on the China Coast, 1700-1845. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Williams, S. W. 1836. Jargon spoken at Canton. Chinese Repository 4: 428-435.
301
Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano* Anthony P. Grant Edge Hill University
Mindanao Chabacano (henceforth MC), a duster of varieties of Philippine Creole Spanish with almost 600,000 speakers recorded in the 2000 Philippines census, is rather unusual among creole languages because it has been in constant contact both with its chieflexifier Spanish, and with the languages which most strongly shaped it typologically, the Central Philippine languages, for most of the 300 or so years it is generally assumed to have existed. In this paper, I look at some substrate influences on MC, especially on the more widely spoken variety Zamboanguefto (hereafter Zam). I also ask what is meant by "substrate" and "superstrate~ what the potential substrate languages ofMC have been, and what it means for a creole language to be in contact with some of its component languages since its inception. M the history of MC raises questions about what can be regarded as a substrate, I explore the known and surmised history of the creole too. Keywords: Zamboanguefto, Cotabatefto, substrate, superstrate, adstrate, Tagalog, Samalan, Bisayan. Hiligaynon. Cebuano, Tausug, Hokkien
1.
Philippine Creole Spanish and MC
Philippine Creole Spanish (or PCS) is itself-a cover term for two groups ofSpanish-lexifier creoles which are used in two main areas in the Philippines. Use of this term should not be taken as prima facie evidence that these groups of creoles have a common origin or that PCS is a tamily of languages. Varieties of Philippine Creole Spanish are generally referred to as Chabacano (Chabakano, Chavacano), literally "uncouth". These creoles are supposed by many (e.g., Whinnom 1956) to have evolved from the interaction of speakers of Spanish with a Portuguese-lexifier creole used by Catholic refugees from the Moluccan (Maluku) island ofTernate in 1655, who fled to Manila Bay. Subsequently, the creoles came into contact with Tagalog and, in the case of Mindanao creoles, also with Bisayan varieties such as Hiligaynon and other Philippine languages, absorbing many features from Philippine languages. They form two groups. The first group of creoles is situated on Luzon and specifically in Manila (one such was formerly used in the old suburbs of Ermita and lntramuros) and its I wish to thank Aireen Barrios, Angela Bartens, Mauro Fernandez, John Green, Claire Lefebvre, Paz B. Naylor, Jeff Siegel Eeva Sippola, Patrick Steinkriiger, Ida Wagner, and R David Zorc for information in and comments on this paper, and Dr Naylor for Hiligaynon data.
304
Anthony P. Grant
outskirts (the towns of Cavite and Ternate), where these varieties, Cavite:fio, Ermite:fio (now extinct) and Ternate:fio, are or were spoken. They are usually called the Manila Bay Creoles. However, Ternate:fio contains numerous lexical and other features not found elsewhere on Manila Bay or even in MC.1 The second group of creoles is found in southern and western Mindanao. especially Zamboanga City and much of Zamboanga del Sur, but to a lesser extent in Cotabato City and in Davao City. These varieties - Zamboangue:fio, Cotabate:fio and Davaue:fio respectively - may be described as MC. They share a great deal of material - certainly the first two varieties - and appear to descend from a single creole.2 Given that Zamboanga City was the earliest of these settlements with a creolophone population (from 1719, with the establishment of a permanent garrison), that creole is likely to have originated in or around Zamboanga City. The only Philippine languages spoken in Zamboanga in 1719 were Tausug, Sinama and Yakan. Hiligaynon and Cebuano speakers arrived there as communities over a century later, though Cebuano is now a widespread lingua franca in the region. Zamboangue:fio, henceforth Zam, is the most widely-spoken and deeply studied PCS variety and has numerous speakers on Basilan Island and elsewhere in the region (Frake 1971). Among them, over 290,000 are native speakers and perhaps as many are L2 speakers, whose first languages are Tausug, Samalan languages, Hokkien- among people whose roots go back a long time in the area- as well as Cebuano and Tagalog- among people who have relocated to the area more recently (in the case of Tagalog speakers, often as a response to heightened military and security concerns in an area disfigured by terrorism). Zam is also spoken in Kampong Air (Malay: Water Village'), a village in the Semporna region ofSabah, Malaysia. Davaue:fio is little studied and the number of its speakers in Davao is unknown, though probably few. On the other hand, there is a certain amount of documentation on the endangered language Cotabate:fio. preeminently in Riego de Dios (1989), a lexical and grammatical work by a native speaker of that variety. The work also contains plentiful lexical material, with phonemic transcriptions for each word, from Zam, Ternate:fio and Cavite:fio, from fieldwork conducted by the author. In decreasing order of quantity, the major lexical components of MC are Spanish, Bisayan languages (especially Hiligaynon),3 Tagalog, and Philippine English. The influence of Bisayan languages and Tagalog on MC has been profound and stretches well beyond mere acculturational lexical borrowing. It has provided the creole with un-Spanish features such as more consistent
1.
These include the use of yeismo, in which the earlier Spanish sound elle, the voiced palatal lateral continuant,
is realised as /j/ - a sound-change which other forms of creole Spanish spo.lren on Manila Bay do not exhibit - and
the presence of a few dozen words of Moluccan Malay, Portuguese and Bahasa Ternate origin (a non-Austronesian Trans New Guinea Phylum language) in the lexicon. Tirona (1923) dtes many ofthe selfsame words of these disparate origins which Molony lists. The creole spea.lrers in the town ofTernate are supposed to descend from Mdrdikas (literally 'freemen', a name of ultimately Sanskrit origin for Christians from the Moluccas who immigrated from Ternate in the 1680s); this is discussed in depth in Frake (1971). We need not assume that the origin of creolephone people in Cavite is similar to that of creolophone people in Ternate. 2.
.N. will be seen, their historical relationship to one another is not quite clear.
3· The Visayas are home to the V!Sayan (or Bisayan) languages, named for the Indian kings Vy"aya.
Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano
VSO marking, a distinction between personal and other nouns, three semantically defined negators (one of them of Philippine origin), and general zero-marking of copulas. Appendix 1 provides a table of common MC structural features (inspired by the features presented in Smith 1999) with indications of origins. In Appendix 2, the sources of major features in MC as a whole are presented by linguistic stratum. Appendix 3 gives information on approximate periods of contact which speakers ofMC had with relevant languages. Lexical influence from Philippine languages is manifest. About 15% of the items on the Swadesh lists and the 200-item Hudson-Blust list used for classifying Austronesian languages are of non-Spanish but Philippine origin. The lexical influence ofTausug (an important local lingua franca), Samalan languages (including Sinama, the original language of the Zamboanga area) and Hokkien Chinese on MC may also be mentioned. 4 Many people in rural parts of the provinces of Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga del Norte who know Zam are L2 speakers of Zam whose L1 is one of the varieties of Subanun, which did not influence Zam. MC in general also contains a number of important lexical and structural elements found in creoles such as Cavitei'io, but not modern Philippine Spanish. Tausug, Tagalog and the Bisayan languages are all classified genetically as Central Philippine languages, together with languages such as Bikol which have not played a part in the formation of these creoles. The small Subanun family is regarded by Blust (1991) as part of his Greater Central Philippine hypothesis (a group which includes the Central Philip pine languages), but he does not see it as part of Central Philippine as more narrowly defined. Samalan languages such as Sinama (the original language of Zamboanga City) and Yak.an (widely spoken in the Tawitawi area) are seen by Blust as members of the Sarna-Bajaw family, a member of the Western Malaya- Polynesian linguistic anti-group, 5 just as Greater Central Philippine is. These are not among the languages of the Greater Central Philippine Hypothesis as formulated by Blust The MC variety of Cotabato City or Cotabatefio -which, according to the historical account in Riego de Dios (1989), may have a partially independent history from that ofZam with which it later converged - also contains some lexical items from indigenous Mindanao languages of the Cotabato area. The words in Cotabatefio of local origin are said by Riego de Dios to come from Tiruray and Magindanaw, the first being a Bille language spoken by animists, while the second is a Danaw language spoken by Muslims (see Blust 1991). Riego de Dios suggests they entered Cotabatefio from the original languages of ransomed children. In 1872, the Tamontakareduction just outside Cotabato City was established by Jesuits who ransomed Tiruray and Magindanaw children from Tausug slave markets, put them in sexually segregated dormitories and raised them 4· Tausug, which itself borrowed heavily from Samalan languages when its speakers moved westwards, has provided Chabacano with vocabulary dealing with Islam, much of which is itselftaken from Brunei Malay- and much of that ultimately from Arabic. Hokkien has provided a small number of words - of which sen 'money' is the most notable - while Samalan languages have furnished a few terms such as munduhin 'pirate: Samalan languages are the source of the name Zamboanga itself, sambwanggan meaning 'landing-stage' or 1etty' in Sinama (Reid 1971). Some lexical influence has gone in the other direction. Tausug and Sinama,languages which normally look to Malay rather than Spanish for additional vocabulary, do contain a few loans from Zam, such as tyangge 'market An anti-group or paraphyletic taxon is a group of languages historically related to one another at a higher level, but lacking any evidence of shared innovations which demonstrate that they shared a period of joint development This is the case with 'Western Malayo-Polynesiarf, for instance (Blust 1992).
5-
305
306
Anthony P. Grant
as Catholics. Riego de Dios claims the children developed a rudimentary (and undocumented) Magindanaw-Spanish pidgin. In 1882, when a cholera epidemic affected the area, 148 children were living there, many of whom had been relocated from Zamboanga City because of the epidemic. These children brought their creole with them and this affected the speech of the ex- slaves. Riego de Dios took Cotabate:iio (her Ll) to have linguistic developed from that interaction. The reduction at Tamontaka closed in 1899. The two creoles are certainly very similar. This argues for a development of Zam from before the late nineteenth century since, if a form of Zamboangue:iio influenced the speech used by children at Cotabato, it must have had a similar structure to that of modern Cotabate:iio. Cotabate:iio speakers were always a minority in their own city, more so nowadays, as theirs is an endangered language.
2.
The origins of Mindanao Chabacano varieties: Endogenous or otherwise?
The origin of Zam (and of Cotabate:iio) is naturally relevant if we consider substrate influences. Two major schools of thought exist on its origins. The first theory, outlined for example in Frak.e (1971), states that Zam derives from the interaction of a number of language varieties- Spanish, probably including restructured Spanish, Manila Bay Creoles, Tagalog and Hiligaynon- brought to Zamboanga during the building and reestablishment there of Fort Pilar in the seventeenth or early eighteenth centuries, specifically the periods around 1635, when the fort was first established, and 1718-1719, when it was rebuilt after its destruction by the Tausugs. The factor of the Hiligaynon- speaking city of Iloilo serving as an important way station on the journey from Cavite to Mindanao, including its role in serving as a source of locally born (or at least Philippine) Catholic wives for the members of the Catholic garrison from Manila Bay on its way to a non-Catholic area (Frak.e 1971) is important in this theory. This is because it accounts for many Philippine-style features of Zam if it arose in households where both restructured or creole forms of Spanish and Hiligaynon were available as home languages for acquisition by children and where a bisayanised form of creole Spanish could have emerged as the basis for modern Zam. The second theory asserts that Zam is of much more recent origin, maybe dating only from the late nineteenth century - betore which a less heavily restructured form of Spanish was in everyday use in Zamboanga City-, and that it arose then not from a pidgin but as the result of the dynamic interaction between Spanish, Bisayan languages and latterly Tagalog (Lipski 1992; Fernandez 2004). The American Hispanist John Lipski's published work on Zam (Lipski 1987, 1992, 2001, n.d.) and more specifically on its origins has received much attention and deserves especial discussion here. Lipski sees Zam as emerging from a process of convergence of features of various languages: Spanish, Bisayan, Tagalog, local languages. This viewpoint was first put forwards in Lipski (1992) and has been presented in a number of subsequent pieces (e.g., Lipski 2001). As Lipski points out, the origin ofZam could, if one so chose, be seen as the culmination of a series of processes involving language creation. This viewpoint- presented from the version given in
Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano
Lipski (2001: 21), Appendix 4- has been influential and is still mentioned, for instance, in Lipski and Santoro (2007). But it overlooks certain issues: The presence of Hiligaynon and Tagalog lexicon in Zam - including items recorded in Zam materials gathered in the pre-1990 period - which cannot be explained as effects of recent influence from incursive Cebuano. The presence of some structural and lexical features - e.g., certain TMA markers such as ta 'habitual~ but also Portuguese-derived prepositional na, common to many Lusoasian creoles complete with a rule embargoing its use with definite articles; Portuguese-derived kilaya 'how?'; older Spanish ansina 'so, thus~ gum ita. 'to vomif, 6 etc. These forms link Zam to Manila Bay varieties such as Cavitefio which also include these. They cannot be easily explained as being from forms of non-creolised Philippine Spanish which might have quite coincidentally and independently found their way into creoles at opposite ends of the archipelago. They look more like shared innovations (note Lipski 1987). The fact that Bisayan/Visayan and Cebuano are not mutually interchangeable terms to refer exclusively to the dominant language of the island of Cebu, although Lipski uses them that way. As Zorc (1977) shows, the Bisayan varieties are far from being mere dialects of one language and, what is more, the Bisayan elements in Zam can frequently be safely assigned to particular groups within Bisayan that do not always include Cebuano- Hiligaynon/Ilongo is as Bisayan a language as Cebuano is. The total absence of textual materials from the earlier stages of the development of Zam in Lipski's model. This raises the question of attestation and publications of materials representing earlier, more hispanised varieties of Zam. Lipski has yet to publish any sizeable tranche ofhis data from older and more rural speakers ofZam which he has claimed has a far greater number of Spanish features than the material from Frake,7 Forman, etc. It is always possible that the hispanising language in Whinnom's song texts (Whinnom 1956) is similar to the hispanised variety recorded by Lipski from his oldest consultants- but till Lipski publishes texts in the "older" forms of Zam ( some have been waiting two decades for him to do so), it remains unsure. Lipski (1987) has written of the widespread use of Spanish in official notices in Zamboanga until WWII and points out that non-creolised Spanish, in both spoken and written forms, seems to have had a higher and more persistent profile at a public level in Zamboanga City than elsewhere in the Philippines. For his part. Fernandez (2004) discussed the documentation by Jesuits and others of the sociolinguistic situation of nineteenth century Zamboanga City, showing that little evidence was available for the presence of a Spanish-lexifier creole rather than for a more traditional form of 6. This form, a popular reshaping from Latin VOMITARE. is found in the "Manila Bay Creole?, as well as in MC, Papiamentu, the Portuguese-lexifier creoles of West Africa, and also as gumbitd in the Portuguese lexical stratum in Saramaccan. 7- For example, Charles Frake (1980) used Zam as field language for his fieldwork in the 1960s among Western Subanen speakers and members of other ethnic groups in the rural parts of Zamboanga del Norte and Za.m boanga del Sur.
307
308
Anthony P. Grant
Spanish- the major exception being comments by one Fr Pio Pi, writing in Spanish in a letter about Zamboanga in 1894, which indicate that the people of Zamboanga spoke a mixture of Spanish (including elements of Andalusian origin), Tagalog, "Mora" (presumably Tausug or Yakan here, as both were spoken by Muslim groups), and Chinese (Pi 1894). But he did point out that speakers of Hiligaynon from Iloilo City on the island of Panay, a language which Frake (1971) showed as having provided much lexicon to MC, were present in large numbers in aregion of the city called Tetuan after the Moroccan city.
3·
On the documentation of Zam
The first attestation of Zam of more than a few words in length is relatively late, namely Henry Broad's handful of sentences and phrases, documented in 1929. McKaughan's texts (published in 1954, but probably collected some time earlier) are the first large sample of Zam, with some insightful grammatical notes, collected by a specialist in southern Philippine languages from an MC speaker raised in the eastern Visayas who was in her mid-twenties at the time. Many sentences and textlets in the Zamboanga variety of MC are also provided in the discussion of the MC verbal system in Frake (1980). Furthermore, a short text in IPA phonemic transcription is available in Ing (1967), the work of a native Sino-Filipina speaker ofZam. Whinnom's 1956 handful of song texts (the only Zam material provided in his book) are very different from all other published Zam material. These may, but need not, reflect an earlier stage of Zam of the kind Lipski has suggested. In contrast, Broad's and McKaughan's works represent a variety of Zam which is lexically and structurally very similar to what Ing spoke and documented and which Frake recorded in the 1960s, and to the spoken and written Zam data which Forman was to collect shortly thereafter (Forman 1972). A recently published typological sketch of Zamboanguefio with information on issues and effects of language contact, in Spanish, is found in Grant(2002a), while Grant (2003) deals with reduplication. Lipski and Santoro (2007) present much grammatical information, some gathered by Santoro from a native speaker of the language, a woman who was living in New York. Lipski and Santoro's treatment is presented in the comparative framework used in other sketches in the volume in which their work appeared (Holm & Patrick (eds) 2007). Two collections of papers on Chabacano have recently appeared (Fernandez (ed.) 2001, do Couto (ed.) 2002). There have been several collections oflexical materials. The most important of these are Camins (1989) and Riego de Dios ( 1989), the latter being the primary source ofCotabato Chabacano data, while Chambers (Wee (ed.) 2003) is an EnglishChabacano dictionary. More work on Zam is currently underway, much of it by native speakers.
4·
Philippine languages in contact with Zam- which and when?
We must not lose sight of the fact that Zam has been in constant contact with speakers of Central Philippine languages, though maybe also influenced by a Samalan substrate, throughout its history. Contact was firstly with Hiligaynon and probably Tagalog in the early days of Fort Pilar; then with Tausug, consistently through the years; then with Cebuano, but only from the late nineteenth
Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano
century onwards as Cebuano speakers bought up land in Mindanao; and finally with Tagalog in its nationalist avatar of Filipino, especially since post-WWII independence. This has been emphasised in recent decades given the rise of the Muslim separatist organisation Mora National Liberation Front - and latterly that of the Abu Sayyaf terrorists (the Arabic name means the Fathers of the Sword) on Jolo and in Tawitawi province-, the states of emergency and consequent military intervention by government and military forces in Manila, which have characterised life in this region since the 1970s. But Tagalog also exerted indirect influence on the language in the early days, as it is a crucial component of the lexicon of Manila Bay creoles such as Cavite:iio. As stated previously, the one Central Philippine language which has shaped MC most strongly and deeply is Hiligaynon, a western Bisayan language spoken on the islands of Panay and Negros. Most importantly, it is the native language of Iloilo City on Panay. the most important staging point on voyages between Manila - where the Spanish-speaking soldiers who helped found Zamboanga as a permanent garrison in 1719 sailed from - and Zamboanga itself. The first locally born generation of the permanent garrison community of Zamboanga appears to have arisen through the intermarriage of Hiligaynon-speaking women from Iloilo City with soldiers and mariners from Manila Bay. Many families of Hiligaynon origin in Zamboanga maintained connections with Iloilo City for a long time. Fernandez (2004) says many labourers from Panay went to Zamboanga in the nineteenth century to find work, and settled there permanently. Hiligaynon is probably not the first Philippine language to have left its imprint on MC. If the language has its roots in a form of Manila Bay Creole - and all linguistic evidence that points in any direction suggests that it does - then the Tagalog influence on such creoles will have historical precedence. But Hiligaynon is the source of the most profound Philippine lexical influence on the creole. The other Central Philippine languages which influenced MC, namely Tausug and Cebuano, largely just donated vocabulary rather than structural features. Some speakers of MC would have known Tausug in earlier decades, as it was a lingua franca in southwestern Mindanao, but MC speakers would be unlikely to shift to Tausug as their first language, as it was closely associated with Islam. By contrast. M C was the language of intrusive soldiers and their families, an island of Catholics in a sea of Islam. Zam is therefore one of a rather small group of creoles which has been in continued and unbroken contact with what traditional creolists would call its sUBSTRATE languages (Yakan, Sinama, Hiligaynon, Tagalog, earlier possibly Cavitefto, which itself blends elements of Spanish, Tagalog, and a Lusoasian or Malayo-Portuguese creole), SUPERSTRATE language(s) (possibly Cavite:iio or something like it and certainly some form of Spanish) and ADSTRATE languages ( Cebuano, Spanish, Tagalog, English) simultaneously at various times in its history. The same language has often been both substrate and superstrate or substrate and adstrate language, and the same language has served as both superstrate and adstrate. This raises problems for any model of creole formation which assumes that substrate, superstrate and adstrate are categories usually containing or involving different languages. And the pattern of interinfluences outlined above says nothing of the possible influences that fluent L2 speakers of Zam may have wrought on the creole in recent decades, as they constitute and have long constituted a sizeable proportion of the Zam speech community and often use Zam on a daily or even an hourly basis. What the changes through L2 transmission actually are is as yet a matter for speculation, as most published work on Zam deals with the language as it is used
309
310
Anthony P. Grant
by native speakers of Zam. However, an increasing number of fluent speakers of Zam speak one or more Philippine languages natively. Metatypy (Ross 1996) with Philippine languages is not complet- MC does not have a topic and focus system, for example -but it is extensive. Typologically Zam's greatest similarities with Philippine languages are with those of the Central Philippine group. The distinction of transfer offabric and transfer ofpattern (Grant 2002a) is relevant here. The transfer ofpa.tterns- the borrowing of actual morphs - from Philippine languages to Zam, a process which has been going on for a long time, is accompanied ever more by transfer of Philippinelanguage fabric into MC in the form of Bisayan-origin morphemes which are structural rather than lexical, but this too has been going on for centuries.
5·
Just what do we mean by a substrate?
Baker (2001) has sagely raised the question of whether "substrate" (or indeed "superstrate") is a useful concept in creolistics. In his view, the distinction between pidgin and creole is generally not primary. Rather, what he calls a Medium for Interethnic Communication results from the successful attempts of people who have been thrown together without a common language to communicate with one another using items of vocabulary whose general meanings are recognised, agreed upon and understood by the majority of the people engaged in this intercultural communication. Such a state of affairs suggests that the early stages of a creole are similar to what Lipski describes for stage I in his model, although we have no evidence that this ever occurred in Zamboanga. When such a language has gained a body of native speakers who identify with it as their own language. it is likely to develop further as what Baker calls a Medium for Community Solidarity (MCS). In neither case and at neither stage is there a clearcut way in which the grammar, especially the inflectional morphology, of the chief lexifier can be transmitted to people developing this language. Much of the lexicon may have been transmitted, but the structure of the grammar has arisen independently. Furthermore, the same language can be both superstrate and adstrate. If Baker's view of creole genesis is correct, the nearest to "substrate languages" will be the languages of the speakers who were involved in the genesis and early evolution of this new speech form, including people whose language provided most of the lexical items, generally regarded by most creolists as a major "superstrate" contribution. We cannot be sure ofthe first languages of the various peoples who helped create MC, as we do not know what the languages of the parents of the first speakers of MC were - Spanish, Hiligaynon, Tagalog, a Manila Bay Creole, Sinama, Yakan, and Tausug are all possible first languages for some members of the founder population and there could be others. To talk about substrate influences on MC, one needs to tread carefully. Grant (2002b: 22-28) compared a number of typological features, especially syntactic features, of Zam, Mexican Spanish and Hiligaynon, in addition to paying some attention to salient typological features in other Philippine languages. Almost all the features examined for Zam could be found either in Spanish or Hiligaynon and frequently in both. The considerable
•
Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano
Philippine lexicon in MC is only part of the story. Typologically and syntactically, MC is as Philippine as itis Spanish. Recent loans into MC from Tagalog and Cebuano and from Philippine English, as well as literary borrowings from Spanish, will be adstratal forms since they entered Zam after it was established. But other forms of Spanish or Philippine origin- or the few forms which go back to Portuguese more readily than they do to Spanish - are arguably substrate forms if we assume they go back to the original set oflanguages whose interaction gave rise to M C. Substrate features discussed in this paper are mainly of Central Philippine origin, but one may note that MC TMA markers, namely habitual ta and probably also irrealis ay, have close formal and functional parallels in Manila Bay Creole TMA systems.
6.
"Substrate" Philippine features in Zam
The history ofZam, its contact with other languages, and the nature of relationships between these languages and Zam, make the concept of"substrate" a matter for debate. Yet the impact of Philippine languages on Zam and Cotabatefio is beyond debate, even if 15% or so of lexicon derived from these languages is set aside. Between Spanish, central Philippine languages and some sort of Manila Bay Creole, almost all the grammarofMC could be included as "substrate features"; I shall be selective in my choices. Frake ( 1971) gives details of many but not all these features. For instance: 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The borrowing from Philippine languages and the use with personal names of a "personal article" in singular subject form si and in plural form kanda, which can be distinguished from the definite and indefinite articles, eland un (Riego de Dios 1989), as in: si Juan 'John: kanda Juan 'John's people, el gato 'the caf, un gato 'a caf, el ma.nga. gato 'the cats~ ma.nga gato 'cats'. The marking of plural noun groups with a preposed Philippine-derived manga which may be used with or without definite articles, el manga gato 'the cats, the kinds of cats' (see discussion in Lipski & Santoro 2007: 389-390). The complexity of the personal pronominal system, which has absorbed borrowed material from Hiligaynon for most plural pronouns and makes mostly Central Philippine-type case and, in the second person, status distinctions, and a reconstrual on Central Philippine lines of the semantics of some Spanish personal pronouns (see Section 10 for more details). The use of three negators, hindi' (borrowed from a Central Philippine language), nway and no, each employed under different syntactic circumstances, as found in Philippine languages, whereas Spanish only uses no (see illustration below, taken from Frake 1971: 2 35 ). The use of many Philippine particles, both singly and in Spanish-Philippine blends: for instance, postposed emphatic gayot 'very' ( bweno gayot 'very good'), post-head lang 'only' (dos lang 'only two'), the interrogative particle ba, the emphatic pa, and the blend nway pa 'not yet' (Riego de Dios 1989). The borrowing of a sizeable proportion ( 10+%) of everyday lexicon from Central Philippine languages despite the fact that the concepts which the terms express were already adequately expressible by Spanish words (Frake 1971).
311
312
Anthony P. Grant
7.
Despite the presence of numerous derived forms of Spanish origin in these languages, the bulk of productive items of derivational morphology in MC are also of Central Philippine origin, from the reciprocal verbal affix -han (man-ayuda-han 'to help one another') to the ordinal numeral marker ika.-laka-: ika.-dos 'second'. Central Philippine languages also inspired the verbal prefix man- which does not correspond to any Philippine prefix of that form and meaning, but is used to assimilate most verbs of non-Spanish origin- including those from English: man gip-ap 'to give up' (Ing 1967)- into the creoles' pronoun and TMA markerbased verbal structures. 8. There are also transfers of pattern without transfers of fabric: for instance, the use of kon 'with' or konel, literally 'with the' to indicate direct object in the manner of a Philippinestyle object marker, a usage not restricted to human nouns as Spanish personal a is (Lipski & Santoro 2007: 390), for instance ta-m ira si Juan konel el kasa 'John sees the house'. 9. Similar remarks could be made about the greater or lesser philippinisation of the structure of numerous semantic fields, such as food namesy, kinship terms and the semantic field of time- byeho 'old, of people' versus Hiligaynon da'a.n 'old, of things: a Philippine distinction-, even if most forms in these fields are of Spanish etymological origin (Frak.e 1971:232-233). 10. The use of reduplication to express habitual or continuous action and intensity- sometimes also more attenuated states: byeho-byeho 'quite old'- reflects usages in Philippine languages (Grant 2003). Object marking is not the only feature of Philippine syntax which may sometimes be transferred. For instance, as the sentential examples in this paper show, the general constituent order in Zam is VSO, commonplace in Philippine languages and much less frequent in Spanish. Many of these features make these aspects of Zam structure more complex than that found in corresponding situations in Spanish, and make Zam structure increasingly isomorphic with those of Central Philippine languages. In Sections 7-10, I discuss a few of them: some phonological and phonetic features involving borrowed consonants, a borrowed copular construction, negation, the borrowed elements among personal pronouns, and sources of"local" lexicon in Cotabateiio.
7·
Substrata! features in segmental (and canonical) phonology
Zam segmental, and canonical, phonology is a compromise between those of a variety of Spanish with seseo (Spanish 19/ becomes Is!), but not yeismo (Spanish palatalised IV becomes /lj/ in Zam) and those of Bisayan languages and Tagalog. Words from Spanish and Central Philippine languages, usually preserve the original pronunciation; for less educated Zam speakers, Spanish /f/ becomes /p/ (fin- pin 'end'). Spanish palatal lateral and post-alveolar voiceless affricate remain, but are not found in native words in most Philippine languages. As a result we find a five-vowel system used in words from Spanish and a reduced three- or four-vowel system in words of Philippine origin (/e/ is missing from such words, and /o/ is usually replaced by /ul). These last items may also use consonant clusters such as /-'b-/ (mata'bang 'insipid'), word-final voiced and voiceless plosives, and word-final bilabial nasals, in addition to those typically Philippine sounds, glottal stop 1'1 and velar nasal /ngl. These sounds are not found
Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano
at phonemic level in the Spanish component ofMC which does however retain lei, a sound found in Hiligaynon and other Central Philippine languages only in loans from Hokkien, Spanish and English./'/ can furthermore occur before another consonant: An example would be mata'bang 'tasteless, insipid: a word of Central Philippine origin (Frake 1971: 232). We note that !b d gj in Zam are always voiced plosives, but may devoice word-finally: Hiligaynon 'anud 'to float' gives Zam man-anut. They are never pronounced as fricatives, as in many Spanish phonological environments; most Philippine languages lack voiced fricatives. Other phonological influences are clearly adstratal. Molony (1973) mentions a few sounds, such as /v, s, dZ/, borrowed from English into some Chabacano varieties, which occur primarily in English words and only secondarily, if at all, in pre-English words. The data in Ing (1967) suggest that some people say sete, dzente for others' syete, djente 'seven, tooth'. Ing (1967) notes some by-forms, beginning with /sC-I or sometimes with /sCC-/, of words of mostly Spanish origin and which, for others, begin with /esC( C)-/. This is the borrowing of a syllabic onset pattern permissible in English but not in Spanish or Philippine languages. Ing (1967) describes the increasing permissibility of complex consonantal codas - impermissible in both Spanish and Philippine languages - through borrowings from English such as kard Ikard/ 'card'.
Copulas and negation, including the copula amo
8.
The expression of the copula in Zam interacts with processes of negation and predication in ways which reflect the impact of Central Philippine languages on Zam structure. Zam handles equivalents of the verb 'to be' in a number of ways. Locative expressions involving 'be'-verbs, for example, may use talyf or talya: (1)
Na principlo amo el Palabra, y el Palabra talli junto co11 e1 Dios, wc beginning coP the word and the word be.at together with the God y el Palabra amo el Dios.
ZAM
and the word coP the God 'In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God. and the Word was God.' (Gospel ofJohn 1:1 (de Rivas (ed) 1982), or!ginalhispanising spelling preserved)
Other contexts in Zam call for other constructions, such as tyene (='have') 'there is' and its negative form nway: (2)
a
T)'ene komida. have food
b.
Nway komida.
'There is (sell. some) food' is.not food 'There is no food'
ZAM
(Frake 1971: 235) ZAM
(Frake 1971: 235)
Nway in Zam (< Spanish no hay 'there is nof) is also used to negate anterior statements, to mean 'there is not' and by extension 'there was not' and 'not to have'. Such patterns of copulas and negators correspond very closely with what is found in Hiligaynon (Spitz 2001), where the form
313
314
Anthony P. Grant
meaning 'have' is negated not by a simple negator, but by a particle wala' meaning 'there is not'. Translations of the above sentences into Hiligaynon would be as follows: (3)
a
kan'un. May There.is food 'There is food, I have food.'
b.
Wala' kan'un. Not.there.is food 'There is no food.'
HILIGAYNON
(after Spitz 200 1) HILIGAYNON
(after Spitz 200 1)
Hiligaynon has different negators for different purposes: irrealis indi means 'will not, does not' and existential wa.la.' or waay means' 'there is not' but also 'did not'. These map on closely to the semantics of M C hindi' and nway respectively. M C uses the original Spanish negator no to negate modal verbs and imperatives: (4)
No kome.
ZAM
eat 'Dori'teat!' Nl!G
(5)
No pwede yo kome. NEG can I eat 'I can't eat:
ZAM
(after Frake 1971: 235)
Notable among the 'be'-constructions is the use of the untensed copular form amo. This feature is discussed in extenso in Aoto (2002), in which the author points out its role in distinguishing the relations between grammatical and semantic subjects in Zam sentences. The form amo can be used before NPs and in pseudo-cleft sentences such as (6), but not before adjectives; it negates with nway: (6)
Esos dos amo el que
fa
destrosa el
buen Imagen dedi atun
Mayor
ZAM
those two be he who PRES destroy the good image of of 1PL Mayor 'those two are the people who are destroying the good Image of our Mayor' (Aoto 2002; the Spanish-based orthography of the original is retained) The form amo derives from a Bisayan language: It occurs in Hiligaynon with the form amu while in Cebuano, its general form is mau. It was first recorded in Zam both as a discourse marker- as it is in Hiligaynon- and in the form amuya (with past reference) in the short text in Ing (1967), where it is used as a copula. Amo, now mostly construed as a copula, was in earlier times a discourse marker which could serve as a full lexical item meaning 'that's right': Forman (1972:243) lists ta-m-pa-amo-am6 as meaning 'to pretend to be correct'. The generalisation of use of amo as a copula in certain syntactic contexts in Zam texts seems to have taken place from the 1970s onwards. Its infrequency as a copula can be noted in texts before then. Furthermore, Frake (1980) does not even mention the amo construction in his discussion of Zam verbal expressions and none of his 150 sentences and phrases contains it in any of its senses. This suggests that the spread of amo as a copular form has occurred since the late 1960s and continued throughout the 1970s.
Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano
Borrowing amo as a discourse particle from a Bisayan language and regrammaticalising it by extending its range of meanings has added another way of forming one kind of copular sentences. However, the borrowed copula cannot be used in all grammatical contexts. The rise of amo as a copula brought in extra variation into Zam in a realm where less variation previously existed. By adding an optional rule to the grammar, it has made rules for copula use and non-use more complex, as one can choose not to use the copula. Note the irony that Zam syntax comes to resemble a little more those of Spanish and English by grammaticalisation and expansion of the role in Zam of a discourse particle of Bisayan origin.
9·
Personal pronouns
MC has borrowed or copied the most commonly used plural pronouns from Hiligaynon. This applies not only to the subject forms, but also to the other case forms. In fact, MC exhibits a complex, multilayered case of contact in the form of a mixed pronominal system (see Forman 1972: 107): Plurals are from Hiligaynon, singulars from Spanish. This applies also to the forms used in the oblique cases: Paradigms have been transmitted from both languages into the personal pronominal system. Possessives are special as, in the form most widely used, they incorporate a marked periphrastic Spanish construction with a Hiligaynon form, thus combining transfer of fabric with transfer of pattern. By contrast, the personal pronominal systems in Manila Bay Creoles derive exclusively from Spanish elements, although their forms are not always the same as those in Spanish (Frake 1971: 226). As Table 1 shows, most possessive forms in MC can either precede or follow their possessed noun, so that the speaker has a choice of possessor. In addition, Hiligaynon, like MC, marks three levels of politeness or formality in the second person singular pronoun. As in Philippine languages, the third person pronouns have a single form which does not mark sex-gender or indeed neuter status, unlike in Spanish. The Austronesian distinction between inclusive and exclusive first person plural is brought into M C together with the requisite sets of Hiligaynon forms.
Table 1. MC personal and possessive pronoun systems Subject
Object
Possessive
lsG
yo
2sG
tu (normal)
konmigo kont{go konbos konuste konele
(N) dimfyo (N), (N) miyo N, (di)mi N (N) ditUyo (N), (N) tUyo N, (di)tu N N dihos/debos (N) diuste (N) (N) disUyulo (N), (N) suyu stlyo (N), (di)su N (N) diilmon (N), limon N (N) diilton (N), ifto,J N (N) di'iny6 (N), 'iny6 N (N) di'ustedes (N)N dtild (N), 'ild N
3SG lPL l!XCL lPL INCL 2PL 3PL
'ebos (familiar) 'uste (formal) 'ele/-V le; siyd (Whinnom 1956:88, from Bisayan) kamt-kame kanamon kitd kandton kam6 kaniny6 'ustedes (formal) konustedes sild kanild
315
316
Anthony P. Grant
The longer possessive forms seem to be used much more frequently, especially in modern materials, and tend very much to occur after the noun, though they may also precede it The singular prenominal forms are the ones most commonly found in Spanish. The presence of kan- in the oblique forms of plural pronouns is paralleled for Hiligaynon in the other Bisayan languages. This has interacted with a use of kon-, deriving originally from Spanish 'with: to mark direct and indirect objects in MCS. Note the adoption of the forms konmfgo, kontfgo, morphologically correct from a Spanish point of view. These have been semantically reinterpreted from being as so ciatives, as they are in Spanish, to object markers. We should further note the presence in MCS of the typically Philippine usage of having three forms to express the second person singular, graded according to familiarity and politeness (Frak.e 1971:227; see also Table 1), though all the forms used in this politeness hierarchy are Spanish in origin. Furthermore, the free-choice indefinite maskin X 'any X, as in maskin kosa. 'whatever' (and also maskin 'even if) probably derives from a Lusoasian creole component (ultimately from mais que 'more than'). This component found its way into the Manila Bay Creole which provided so much material to MC. lt is also found in Philippine languages such as Tagalog maskin, while kilaya 'why?' derives from Portuguese que laia 'what kind'.
10.
Items of "local" lexicon in Cotabato Chabacano
The presence oflocallexicon from Western Mindanao languages is one of the features supposed to help set Cotabatefio apart from Zam. This section examines how far this is the case. In an attempt to see the extent of possible substrate lexical influence in Cotabatefio, I decided to examine the 38 forms (out of 530 main entries, omitting 233 subentries) starting with the letter k listed as being Klocal" in Riego de Dios (1989). k represents a sound unchanged from Proto-Austronesian *kin all the Philippine languages cited in Table 2. Non-penultimate stressed syllables are marked. The dictionaries used are the materials on Zamboanga and Cotabato Chabacano in Riego de Dios (1989), Camins (1989) for Zamboanguefio; Schlegel (1971) for Tiruray; Hassan etal. (1994) for Tausug; Sullivan (1986) for Magindanaw; and the Boka.bu.la.ryo (2005) for Yakan. Forms marked with # are also found in Tagalog, though Tagalog words are allegedly marked separately from these in Riego de Dios' dictionary. Appendix 5 lists Riego de Dios' percentages of etyma in Cotabatefio. The handful of international words is easily accounted for- one might add kasuy 'cashew nut' to this group, given its origins in Tupf acaju. Some of the other "local" words are themselves clearly loans into Zam from other languages which, in turn, borrowed them from other languages. The term karahay is a Wanderwort; note Persian and Urdu karahi, a term often found on the menus of British Indian restaurants. Kacha is also a Wanderwort, but this word derives ultimately from a North Indian language, such as Hindi, where kaccaa means 'unripe, unprocessed' of food or fabrics, and where it is the opposite of the much better known pakka, where it has lodged firmly in British English (spelt pukka). The word for 'Muslim cleric' goes back to Arabic qadi 'Muslim judge'; different pronunciations in Tausug and Zamboanga Chabacano reflect different pronunciations of the second consonant in the Arabic word - possibly filtered through Malay qazi. This is of course the same Arabic etymon which provided Spanish alcalde, Zam alkalde 'mayor'. Few
Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano
Table 2. Words oflocal origin listed under the letter k for Cotabato Chabacano in Riego de Dios (1989:99-114)* Word
kabalyas kaba'u kacha kachubt:lng kagang kagi kakal kana' kanga' karahdy karangkardng /casu)•# katingkat£ng katumbdl kawag kayumdt kinehay kingke kisame kitik kudyapi Tt.:ugd' kugita kukit kukung kulambitay kulintang kulinut kulipat kulumbat Tt.:'ulyakung kumu kunsi' kupytf kusmut kwako# kwan# kyawkydw
Meaning 'saltwater fish' 'turtle' 'unbleached muslin' 'asthma relief plant' 'germs' 'Mualim cleric' 'to extort cash' 'sweetened berries' 'bald head' 'frying pan' 'to dare' 'cashew' 'to squat' 'chilli pepper' 'to grate' 'nit' 'celery' 'wicklamp' 'ceiling' 'to tickle' 'stringed instrwnent' 'to throttle' 'octopus' 'to hook fingers' 'yoke for animals' 'to hold onto' 'Muslim gong' 'curly' 'to tweak ears' 'to huddle' 'millipede' 'to crwnple' 'to rig a game'
RiegoZam y y (ba:'u) y
'fe:i
y
'to .frown' 'tobacco pipe' 'wotsit, thingamajig' 'fuss'
y y y
Caminsf y y y y
Tausug
Tirur.
y
Magin.
Yk.
y
y y
y y y y y y y y
y y y
y y y y
y y y y y y y
y y
y
y y y y y
y y y
y y
y y
y
y y y y y
y y y
y y
y
y y y y
* In this table, primary stress is penultimate unless otherwise indicated. secondary stress is indicated with grave accents; y =word is recorded in dictionary used for language in question.
317
318
Anthony P. Grant
if any terms in this collection can be attributed safely and exclusively to Tiruray or Magindanaw, though it appears that the latter, a language whose speakers are Muslim, received more loans from Malay than that of the animist Tirurays did. The Tiruray's main source languages for loans are the Danaw languages such as Maranaw (Blust 1992). The major conclusion here, of course, is methodological rather than purely linguistic. We note the remarkable lack of overlap between the contents of the various dictionaries examined had they been completely homogeneous, many more words would be listed for many local Philippine languages- and also the questionable reliability of the linguistic labels applied to words in the Riego de Dios dictionary.
n.
Conclusions and a glimpse into the future
Superficially Zam's substrate languages are Yakan, Sinama and arguably Hiligaynon, with Philippine features reinforced by the Manila Bay Creole superstrate. Cotabatefio's substrates would be Tiruray and Magindanaw, with Zam as superstrate. What we seem to find, as far as variation within Zam and MC in general is concerned, is an increasing use and privileging of those features in MC similar to, or even isomorphic with, corresponding features in whichever non-creolised Philippine language - e.g., Cebuano or Tagalog - the MC speaker knows most fully. This does not just involve issues in typology, such as element order or the semantic range of certain morphemes, but increasingly particular morphemes. Indeed the impact of Philippine languages upon MC has to be seen in terms of the totality of all kinds of features borrowed, not just in terms of the morphemes transferred. All aspects of MC have been influenced by Philippine languages, often at several levels. Absorption of Philippine linguistic features into MC is preserving its distinctiveness from Spanish, even though the bulk of MC vocabulary is still of Spanish origin. Zam is retaining its own identity as a creole language with a mostly "creole" and certainly non-Spanish and non-Philippine predicate structural system - e.g., operating with preverbal markers and indicating tense and aspect without infixation - while privileging more and more Philippine linguistic features in syntax, morphology, phonology and lexicon insofar as these teatures are easy enough to borrow. This should not surprise us: MC has been interacting with Philippine languages for centuries - see the chronological details of the various periods of contact in Appendix 3 - and Philippine languages have themselves been changing, especially through lexical expansion, under the influence of Spanish and now English. Many of the same changes - for example, the increasing absorption of alloglot sounds and syllable canons - are affecting "Christian" languages of the Philippines across the board, whether they be of Austronesian or creole heritage. As a result, MC is becoming metatypised - that is, typologically modified through contactinduced change at various levels, including syntax- more and more in the direction of Bisayan languages (see Ross 1996 for a discussion of metatypy). There are exceptions to this openness to borrowing of features into MC. Up till now, as Nolasco (2005) points out, MC and other varieties of PCS have not developed an ergative model of syntax despite the fact that Austronesian Philippine languages, in which many MC speakers are fully bilingual, customarily use ergative syntactic models which are more complex than the Spanish and MC nominative-accusative syntax. Nor have they developed Philippine-style ligatures to be used between nominal heads
Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano
and their modifiers of the sort found in Tagalog matanda.ng bahay 'old house' (mata.nda 'old', bahay 'house'). But even that development may occur some time in the future. MC is following the same direction as the Philippine languages which influenced it, inasmuch as many have long since absorbed lots of features from Spanish and English (and vast amounts of lexicon), making them seem more homogeneous, and to MC, and to the languages which exerted such influence. Also, more speakers ofMC know Tagalog and other languages than did 60 years ago. With the post-WWII spread of Tagalog as an educational, military and national language, and the spread of English, Filipinos are becoming increasingly polyglot. MC typology is moving more closely towards Tagalog and other Central Philippine languages, with greater isomorphism and typological similarity with languages whose millions of speakers surround the Zam speech community. The small number of Cotabato Chabacano forms which originate in Tiruray or in Magindanaw give some indication of the local connections of the creole. But it is not a primordial creole which is endogenous, because it developed in situ in Cotabato from a Spanish-Magindanaw pidgin - all the linguistic evidence shows hat this was not the case. Instead it was mostly transplanted thence as a full-fledged creole from Zamboanga, where it was not primordial and home-grown (or endogenous) but, derived largely from creoles, many of whose speakers had come from Manila , with additional input at Zamboanga from Hiligaynon - as what Baker's work would style a Medium for Community Solidarity. But to see how MC developed originally, the substrata! stratum we need to examine is not any form of Philippine language; it is the slender stratum of forms which were always part of these creole languages, as they originate in dialectal Spanish or in a (non-)creolised form of Portuguese - na, ansina, gumita, kilaya and so on - which MC inherited from earlier forms of its probable sisters Cavitefio and Ermitefio on Manila Bay or from sister creoles now utterly lost.
Abbreviations COP
copula
we
locative NEG negator 1, 2, 3SG first, second, third person singular
MC MCS PCS+
Mindanao Chabacano Mindanao Creole Spanish Philippine Creole Spanish
References Aoto, S. 2002 La copula AMO del chabacano de Zamboanga. Papia 12: 84-106. Baker, P. 2001. Theories of creolization and the degree and nature of restructuring. In Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages [Creole Language library 22], I. Neumann-Holzschuh & R Schneider (eds), 41-63. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Blust, R 1991. The Greater Central Philippine hypothesis. Oceanic Linguistics 30: 73-129. Blust, R. 1992 On speech strata in Tiruray. In Papers in Austro,resian Linguistics 2, M. Ross (ed.), 1-5 2. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics A-82. Bokabularyong Yakan-Filipino-lngles. 2005. Manila: Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino.
319
320
Anthony P. Grant
Broad, H. P. 1929. Chabacano. The Philippine Magazine XXVI: 142, 160. Camins, B. 1989. Chabacano de Zamboanga Handbook and Chabacano-English-Spanish Dictionary. Zamboanga City: First United Broadcasting Company. Chambers, J., S. J. 2003. English-Chabacano dictionary, with Tagalog and Spanish Equivalents Together with a Simple Grammar and a Chabacano-English Wordlist, S. Wee (ed.). Zamboanga: Ateneo de Zamboanga University Press. De Rivas, C. (ed.). 1982. El buen noticia na Chabacano. Zamboanga City: Claretian. Do Couto, H. H. (ed.). 2002 Papia 12 (special edition on Chabacano). Fernandez, M. A. (ed. ). 200 1. Shedding light on the Chabacano language. Estudios de Sociolingi.iistica 2(2). Fernandez, M. A. (ed.). 2004. Las lenguas de Zamboanga seglln los padres jesuitas y otros observadores occidentales. Paper presented at the Cura'<8.o Creole Conference, World Trade Center, Willemstad, August 2004. Forman, M. L. 1972 Zamboanguefio Texts with Grammatical Analysis. PhD dissertation, Cornell University. Frake, C. 0. 1971. Lexical origins and semantic structures in Philippine Creole Spanish. In Pidginizatio,J and Creolization ofLanguage, D. Hymes (ed.), 223-242. Cambridge: CUP. Frake, C. 0. 1980. Zamboangueiio verbal expressions. In Language and Cultural Description: Selected .Essay.s of Charles 0. Frake, A. S. Dil (ed.), 275-310. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. Grant, A. P. 2002a. El chabacano zamboangueiio, una lengua mezclada. Papia 12: 7-40. Grant, A P. 2002b. Fabric, Pattern, shift and dl1fusion: What change in Oregon Penutian Languages can tell historical linguists. In Proceedings of the Meeting of the Hokan-Pe,Jutian Workshop, June 17-18, 2000, U. of California at Berkeley [Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, Report 11), L. Buszard-Welcher (ed.), 33-56. Berkeley CA: Department of Linguistics, University of California at Berkeley. Grant, A. P. 2003. Reduplication in Mindanao Chabacano. In TWice as Meaningfuk Reduplication in Pidgin and Creole Languages, S. Kouwenberg (ed.), 213-220. London: Battlebridge. Hassan, I. U., Seymour A., Ashley, M. & Ashley, L. 1994. Tausug-&Jglish Dictionary: Kabtangan iba,J maana, 2nd edn. Jolo: Notre Dame of Jolo College and the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Holm, J. & Patrick, P. (eds). 2007. Comparative Creole Syntax. London: Battlebridge. Ing. R. 0. 1967. A brief outline of Chabacano phonology. (in IPA). Le maitre phomltique, 3rd series, 45: 26-33. Lipski, J. M. 1987. Modern Spanish once removed in Philippine Creole Spanish: The case of Zamboanga. Language in Society 16:91-108. Lipski, J. M. 199 2 New thoughts on the origins of Zamboanguefio (Philippine Creole Spanish). Language Sciences 14: 197-231. Lipski, J. M. 200 1. The place of Chabacano in the Philippine linguistic identity. Estudios de SociolingiUstica 2: 119-163. Lipski, J. M. n.d. (post-2000). When does 'Spanish' become 'creole' and vice versa? The case of Chabacano (Philippine Creole Spanish). Ms. Lipski, J. M. & Santoro, M. 2007. Zamboangue.fio Creole Spanish. In Comparative creole syntax. J. Holm & P. Patrick (eds), 373-398. London: Battlebridge. McKaughan, H. P. 1954. Notes on Chabacano grammar. U,Jiversity of Manila Journal of East Asiatic Studies 3: 205-226. Molony, C. H. 1973. Sound changes in Chabacano. In Parangal kay Cecilia Lopez, A. B. Gonzalez (ed.), 38-50. Quezon City: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Nolasco, R. M. 2005. The Chabacano challenge to Philippine ergativity. In Linguistics and Language Education in the Philippines and Beyond: A Festschrift in Honor ofMa. Lourdes S. Bautista, D. T. Dayag & J. S. Quakenbush (eds), 401-433. Manila: De La Salle University Press. Pi, P. 1894. Letter written to Brother Francisco de A. Al6s, at Zamboanga, 8 August 1894. In Cartas de los PPs de la Compafifa de Jeslis de laMisiOn de Filipinas, Cuaderno 10. Manila: M. Perez. Reid, L.A. 1971. Philippine Minor Languages: Phonologies and Word Lists [Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications 8]. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano
Riego de Dios, M. I. 1989. A Composite Dictionary ofPhilippine Creole Spanish. Manila: Linguistic Sodety of the Philippines. Ross, M. 1996. Contact-induced change and the comparative method: Cases from Papua New Guinea. In The Comparative Method Reviewed: Regularity and Irregularity in Language Change, M. Durie & M. Ross (eds), 180-217. Oxford: OUP. Schlegel, S. F. 1971. nruray-English Dictionary. Berkcley CA: University of California Press. Smith, N. S. H. 1987 The Origin of the Creoles of Surinam. PhD dissertation, Universiteitvan Amsterdam. Smith, N. S. H. 1999. Younger languages: genetically modified? Paper from the Second International Workshop on Mixed Languages, University of Aarhus, Denmark, May 1999. Spitz, W. 2001. Hiligaytwn/flongo. Munich: Lincom. Sullivan, R 1986. A Maguindanaon Dictionary. Cotabato City: Notre Dame University. Tirona, T. 1923. An account of the Ternate dialect of Cavite, P. I. Term paper, University of the Philippines, kept as Tagalog Paper 487 in H. Otley Beyer Collection, Philippine National Library, Manila. Whinnom, K. 1956. Spanish Contact Vernaculars in the Philippines. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Zorc, RD. P. 1977. The Bisayan Dialects of the Philippines. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Appendix 1. Function words in Mindanao Chabacano (after Smith 1987)
la 1b 2 3 4 5 6
personal pronouns possessive pronouns nominal possession: NP + NP numerals other prenominal quantifiers ('all the X') quantifier nouns ('a lot of X') relative pronouns reflexives
6a
redprocals
6b 7 8 9 9a 10 lOa 11 lla llb 12 13 13a 14 14a 14b
indefinite pronouns question words 'quantifying' adverbs place adverbs deictic adverbs temporal adverbs phrasal adverbs adpositions/locational nouns adpositions of place adpositions of time dative word instrumental word 'and' conjoining NPs = 'with'? coordinators in general 'and' 'or'
Spanish in singular, Hiligaynon in plural Spanish in singular, Hiligaynon in plural NP + Spanish de(l) + NP Spanish (but ordinal morph is Tagalog) Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish (though construction 'my body' is un-Spanish and unPhilippine) Philippine verbal drcumfix used, or periphrasis 'the one with the other' with Spanish morphs in uniquely Zam pattern Creole Portuguese maskin + Spanish interrogative Spanish; 'why?' < Creole Portuguese mainly Spanish (some are Philippine) Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish, or Spanish + Philippine mixed forms (nway pa 'not yet') Spanish; core preposition na < Cr. Port. Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish (also denotes direct object) no;Hiligaynon Spanish (few are Philippine) Spanish; Hiligaynon form (13a) links NPs Spanish (borrowed into Philippine)
321
322
Anthony P. Grant
14c 15 1Sa 1Sb 1Sc 1Sd 1Se 16
'but' subordinators in general complementisers (i:haf, 'whether/if')
'if' 'because' 'in order to'
'when' (temporal) copulas
16a 'to have'
17 17a 18 18a 19 19a 19b 20
21 22 23
24
25
TMA particles modal verbs negative particles focus particle determiners definite articles demonstratives plural NP markers question particle adverbs of manner 'as' 'very X' comparison, superlation of adjectives
Spanish (borrowed into Philippine) Spanish (but Philippine kay 'because') Philippine + Spanish merger kay - ke Spanish, Creole Portuguese maskin Hiligaynon, Spanish Spanish (often borrowed into Philippine) Spanish mostly zero; Spanish forms for exposed copulas, also untensed amo from Hiligaynon Spanish Caviteiio Creole Spanish Spanish Spanish + Tagalog Hiligaynon amo; see copula Spanish Spanish, Philippine (indef. art. < Sp) Spanish Philippine Philippine Spanish Spanish Hiligaynon Spanish(= Philippine)
Appendix 2. Stratification of elements in Mindanao Creole Spanish, after Smith (1999) Mindanao Creole Spanish Basic lexicon (fabric) Peripheral lexicon (fabric) Cuhurallexicon (fabric) Derivational morphology (fabric) Function words (fabric) Inflectional morphology (fabric) Syntax (pattern) Suprasegmental phonology (pattern) Segmental phonology (pattern) Allophonic system (pattern)
Spanish, 10-15% Philippine (Hiligaynon, Tagalog) Spanish, 10-1591. Philippine Philippine (i:ninorlty from Spanish) Philippine (for the most part), Spanish Spanish, Philippine (Philippine, but TMA markers are Caviteiio) Philippine as to element and constituent order Philippine (and Spanish?) Philippine + Spanish + increasingly English Philippine
Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano
Appendix 3. Languages which influenced Zamboangueiio at various times Language
Period of influence
Manila Bay Creole Spanish Lusoasian Creole (Mexican) Spanish Tagalog Hiligaynon Samalan languages Tausug Cebuano Hokkien
pre-1719 pre-1719 (via Manila Bay Creole Spanish) 1635pre-1719 (via Manila Bay Creole Spanish), post-WWII (as national language) c. 171918th century and afterwards? after 1719? 20th century (dates uncertain; most words ofHokkien origin are also found in other Philippine languages) post-WWII
Philippine English
Appendh: 4. Lipski's model of the development of MC from Lipski (200 1: 21) "At least the following stages may be tentatively proposed, based on direct docwnentation,indirect reconstruction,
and chronological extrapolation: (mid 1700's). Z arises in the Zam boanga garrison, as the common intersection of Spanish-laden Philippine languages. STAGE II: (mid-late 1700's). Z absorbs grammatical and lexical structures from Manila Bay PCS, as the Spanish military presence in Zamboanga is consolidated. Additional migrations of civilians from Cavite have a trickle-down effect on Z STAGE III: (1800's?). llongo lexical elements are introduced into Z, possibly as the resuh of the LJSe of lloilo as a stopover for ships bound from Manila to Zamboanga. llongo grammatical forms could have been introduced at this time. STAGE IV: (most of 1800's). Increasing presence of (civilian) native Spanish speakers in Zamboanga City results in incorporation of additional Spanish items, with structural differences between Z and (Philippine) Spanish reaching their all-time low point STAGE V: (Thrn of twentieth century onward). Large-scale immigration from the central Visayan region to southwestern Mindanao makes Cebuano Visayan the de facto number two language in Zamboanga City. Spanish lexical items are increasingly replaced by Visayan items. Word order begins to shift towards Visayan. STAGE VI: (1930's onward). Increasing use of English in Zamboanga, not only in schools but even in casual conversations, results in growing incorporation of Anglicisms into Z In the last two generations, this is leading the way to an eventual relexification of Zamboanguefio away from its Hispanic lexical basis." STAGE I:
323
324
Anthony P. Grant
Appendix 5. Etymological strata of Cotabato Chabacano lexicon as presented in Riego de Dios (1989: 188) Number
Percentage
Spanish 'Local' Tagalog English Cebuano Others Hiligaynon Incomplete data
5396 318 308 164 139 85 83 49
82.49 4.86 4.7 25 212 1.3 1.27 0.72
Total
6542
99.00
Negation in Ternate Chabacano* Eeva Sippola University of Helsinki
This paper examines negation patterns in Ternate Chabacano and compares them to negation in Tagalog. Ternate Chabacano is a Spanish-lexified creole spoken in Manila Bay in the Philippines. Tagalog is its main adstrate language. The main pattern in negation is one of the features that has been attributed to the Philippine languages, but it has not been systematically compared with the adstrate language. The comparison reveals that the properties of the Tagalog negator wala in particular have influenced the use of nway in Ternate Chabacano in existential negation and in negative indefinite constructions. Also, certain features related to negation follow Tagalog patterns.
Keywords: negation, Ternate Chabacano, Tagalog
1.
Introduction
In this paper, I study negation in Ternate Chabacano and compare it to negation in its adstrate language Tagalog. Chabacano is a name used for all Philippine Creole Spanish varieties that have Malay and Philippine languages as their substrate and adstrate. On the Island of Luzon in the Northern Philippines, this includes the endangered varieties ofTernate and Cavite on the Manila Bay, and the already extinguished variety of Ermita, which was spoken until the Second World War in a central neighbourhood of Manila. On Mindanao, in the Southern Philippines, the Chabacano varieties are Chabacano of Davao, Cotabato and Zamboaguefio of Zamboanga, which is the most vital and largest speech community of all the Chabacano varieties. The varieties are mutually intelligible (Molony 1977b: 153), even though they should not be considered a uniform language because of the lexical and structural differences due to the different substrates, as well as the history of the settlements of the creole communities. Philippine Creole Spanish has been influenced by Philippine languages, particularly Tagalog in the northern part of the archipelago, and by Central Philippine languages in the south. The most evident feature is the preferred initial predicate. Many particles and syntactic structures also have a Philippine origin (see examples in Section 2). The main pattern in negation is one of the features that can clearly be attributed to the Philippine languages (Forman 1972: 235 ), even
I would like to thank Enjoe Nigoza, Enelita Pascua Lozada and Dolores J. Dlnglas for providing me with Ternate Chabacano data, information and especially for their help during my stays in Ternate.
326
Eeva Sippola
though the labels of the negative particles quite apparently have their origins in the Iberian lexifier language. However, up until now, the Chabacano negation has not been compared systematically with Tagalog. The aim of this paper is to give a precise description of the negation patterns in Ternate Chabacano and study the relation of this feature to negation in the adstrate language. This comparison could tell us to what extent negation in Chabacano is a result of relexification of the Philippine patterns and how much Tagalog has actually influenced Ternate Chabacano negation. The paper is structured as follows. Firstly, I present the current situation ofTernate Chabacano with a historical overview of its origins and a discussion on the languages present in the area during the period of the formation of Chabacano. I also present the findings of earlier research on Ternate Chabacano and its substrate and adstrate features. Secondly, I concentrate on the negation patterns and compare them with negation in the adstrate language Tagalog. The conclusion summarises the findings.
2.
The current situation and a historical overview
Ternate Chabacano is spoken by approximately 3000 persons in the central parts ofTernate, which is a small town two hours from Manila situated on the coast at the mouth of the River Maragondon.1 The speakers of Chabacano represent a traditional local speech community in the town. They generally use the name Bah,.a to reter to their language and the locality in Chabacano. However, the Chabacano speakers are a minority of the town's 20,000 inhabitants. They are bilingual in Tagalog and Chabacano, and some also speak English. Dominant social groups in the area speak English and Tagalog, but traditional local families have Chabacano as their home language inTernate. The language of the younger speakers has especially been influenced by these adstrates. Ternate Chabacano is considered the earliest surviving variety of the Philippine Creole Spanish that resulted from the contact between Spanish and a Portuguese-based pidgin spoken in the Moluccas, the present-day North Maluku province in eastern Indonesia, in the seventeenth century (Molony 1973: 39; Whinnom 1956: 17).1his is mainly based on the historical data on immigrationand the settlement of the speech community (Blair & Robertson 1909 vol. 7:174, vol. 36:237; de la Concepci6n 1788-1792: 102-103; Philippine Reports 1909; Whinnom 1956: 11-12). The linguistic evidence of the Moluccan origins in Molony (1973) and Tirana (1924) consists of only a few features, such as historical sound shifts and some lexical items derived from Portuguese, Malay and Bahasa Ternate, the languages spoken in the Moluccas in the seventeenth century. 2 The theory of the Moluccan origins ofTernate Chabacano seems very probable, but the historical
Reliable figures on the number of Chabacano spea.lrers are difficuh to obtain (see Fernandez (2001:vii) for a discussion of the problems encountered with census data in the Philippines). A conservative estimate puts the number at a few thousands for Cavlte City, Ternate, Cotabato and Davao and more than 300,000 in Zamboanga. 1.
Tlrona (19 24: 19-21) listed some 50 mardika words that are of Malay and Ternate origins. In addition, Molony (1973: 43) demonstrated bay 'uncle' and yay 'aunt' to be of Moluccan Malay origin, sakaleli 'war dance' and chub{ 'to touch someone to call his attention' to be of Bahasa Ternate origin, and buneka 'doll', bung. bong. beng 'very, too (much)' and agv.•elu 'grandfather' to be of Portuguese origin. In the Portuguese items can be included prietu 'black' and agora 'noW, which are common lexical items in Ternate Chabacano. 2.
Negation in Ternate Chabacano
linguistic analysis done so far is rather limited, and no substrate language of the Moluccan period has been attested.3 The languages that have influenced the formation of present-day Ternate Chabacano are therefore Tagalog, as the adstrate language, and Spanish, as the lexifier language (Frak.e 1971; Whinnom 1956). Unfortunately, the role of Portuguese or other languages present in the area, such as Chinese as a trade language, remains unclear, if at best probable. There is hardly any published research on Ternate Chabacano and published texts written in the language are rare as well. Up until now, the research done through fieldwork has concentrated on the lexicon (Molony 1973, 1977a, b) and brief general presentations on the Ternate Chabacano grammatical features and on the current situation (Tirona 1924; Sippola 2006; Steinkri.iger 2007). Molony (1973) lists a tew Moluccan and Portuguese terms, but at least the entries defined as mardika vocabulary items by Tirona (1924: 19-21) are currently rarely used in Ternate Chabacano (Sippola 2006). Currently, the language is changing towards a more Philippine vocabulary, including both English and Tagalog terms, especially in modern domains. Molony (1977 a, b) also discusses the Tagalog lexicon in Ternate Chabacano. In Sippola (2006: 46-48, 51) and Steinkri.iger (2007: 370, 372), some grammatical features of the Tagalog influence are briefly mentioned, such as: the nominal plural manga; the intensification of adjectives with pinaka, as in pinaka durokabesa 'very stubborn/stupid'; the reduplication of nouns, e.g., kasa kasa 'every house~ adjectives, as in gragrandi 'very bir(, and verbs, as in iskribi-iskribf 'write intensively'; the derivational affixes ika-, as in ika-tres 'third~ and ma-, as in ma-pwersa 'strong'; and the negators no, nin6, nway and ninway which will be discussed in this paper. Also, pragmatic features such as discourse markers have a strong Tagalog influence, e.g., the discourse marker raw in (1) indicates reported information- something told by someone else- and is used similarly in Tagalog (Sippola 2010). (1)
Koriy6su raw mi kdsa. beautiful ENC my house 'It's said that my house is beautiful'
TC (Slppola's field notes)
However, the Tagalog influence is only mentioned as an evident source in these works, but no comparative analysis has been made. Fortunately, there is more research on embedded Philippine features on other Chabacano varieties (see Forman 1972; Fernandez 2004, 2007b; Grant 2007; Ogiwara 2002).
3·
Negation in Temate Chabacano
I have limited my presentation to the basic ways a language has to negate a clause: standard negation, negation of non-verbal clauses and negation of existentials in Ternate Chabacano (i.e.
3· Lipski (1988:39) has shown that the connections between the Portuguese pidgin in Southeast Asia and Chabacano are not irrefutable: It is not certain that the language spoken by the Moluccan soldiers evacuated to Manila was a Portuguese or Spanish creole, nor that the number of its speakers was sufficient to transmit the language further, even though they could have brought with them some creolised constructions. Also Fernandez (2007a: 5-6) points out some weaknesses of the historical dates presented in Whinnorn (1956) and calls for a revision of the supposed continuity between Ternate Chabacano and the other Chabacano varieties.
327
328
Eeva Sippola
negation of an entire proposition).4 Following Payne (1985: 198), I identify clausal negation in more complex sentences which may permit more than one type of negation and also discuss the negative indefinites and negative adverbs. These are defined more precisely with the examples in Section 3.3. The examples in Ternate Chabacano that follow are from a corpus collected in Ternate on several occasions between 2003 and 2008, if not specified otherwise. 5 The main source for the Tagalog data is Schachter and Otanes' 1972 Tagalog Reference Grammar, as indicated in the examples. 6 I first present the Chabacano patterns of negation followed by the corresponding Tagalog entries and structures, and discuss the parallels between the languages. Negation in declarative and in imperative clauses
3.1
The common Ternate Chabacano negative particle no (or nong) is used in standard negation. By standard negation, I mean the simple negation of an entire declarative clause, as shown in (2), compared with the negative example (3). (2)
(3)
~veri yo fhu, ihu muher. want lsG child. child woman 'I want a daughte.t:'
kyerl yo kel. want 1SG that 'I dolft want that:
No
TC (Sippola's field notes)
TC
NEG
(Sippola's field notes)
The unmarked word order in Ternate Chabacano is VSO and, in verbal negation, the negator always precedes the verb. Generally. the negative particle closely precedes the TMA particles or the verb as shown in (3) and (4). However, pronouns can occur after the negator preceding the verb, as in (5) . .Ma can be placed after the negator, preceding the pronoun or the verb, thus forming noma (6) to express 'no more, not anymore. from Spanish no mas 'no more'. In other positions, noma functions also as a discourse marker meaning 'only, just' (Sippola 2010).
4· See Miestamo (2005: 3-5) for definitions on negation. According to Miestamo, negation is generally taken to be a universal category and. in terms of propositional logic, propositional negation changes the truth-value of a proposition. Miestamo considers sentential negation, which has the whole sentence in the scope of the negation, to be the linguistic counterpart of the logical concept of propositional negation. However, he considers the term to be not completely straightforward and uses a definition of standard negation instead. Standard negation refers to the basic clausal negation construction(s) in a language, i.e. the basic way(s) a language has for negating declarative verbal main clauses. 5· The spelling of my own material follows Philippine conventions used in Forman (1972) and primary stress is mar.lred. The spelling of other sources follows the original, but all glosses are mine. 6. However, as their work does not include glosses, I have glossed the Tagalog example phrases in this paper, even though the translations follow the originals.
Negation in Ternate Chabaca.no
(4)
(5)
chabakd,w.
TC
my PL chUd NEG IPFV understand chabacano 'My chUdren do not understand Chabacano:
(Sippola's field notes)
Mi ma11ga fhu
No eli ta
no ta
entendt
TC
entende.
he IPFV understand 'He doesn't understand: Nl!G
(6)
Noma
yo
(Sippola's field notes)
TC
entrd.
no.more 1sG go.in 'I didn't go (to school) anymore:
(Sippola's field notes)
The negation of non-verbal phrases is similar to that of verbal phrases. The negative particle is positioned before the topic. In example (7), lfhim is a borrowing from Tagalog, but negation follows the typical Northern Chabacano pattern with no. In Ternate Chabacano, the Tagalog borrowing hindi is used only by speakers who have heavy interference from Tagalog and the form is not considered to be Chabacano by first language speakers, even though it is commonly used in the southern variety of Mindanao Chabacano (Forman 1972: 163). In example (8), nin6 is an intensified form of no that can be used in many of the same contexts as no. (7)
TC
No ese lfhim. that secret 'That is not a secret: NEG
(8)
Mdhki kory6su
su kdra, su karakter
(Sippola's field notes)
nin6
kory6su.
even.if beautiful his face, his character INT.NEG beautiful 'Even if his face is pretty,. his character is not nice:
TC (Sippola's field notes)
In Tagalog, the standard negation is done by placing hindi before the predicate or the topic, as illustrated in (9), (10) and (11). It is the most common and versatile of the Tagalog negators (Schachter & Otanes 1972: 517-518). When the subject or the object or both are pronouns, as in example (9), they come after the negator and an optional enclitic particle. The placement of pronouns right after the negator is reflected also in Chabacano, as shown in (5) and (7) (see also Steinkriiger 2007: 372). An intensified form of hindi is hinding-hindi 'not at alL certainly nof, which occurs in most of the same contexts as hindi (Schachter & Otanes 1972: 520). This form of intensification is not used in Ternate Chabacano. (9)
Hindi raw siya para kay Gomez.
TAGALOG
for MR Gomez 'They say he isrlt for Gomez.'
(Schachter &Otanes 1972: 518)
Nl!G
(10)
l!NC 3SG
Hindi tama
!)ion.
correct that 'That isn't right'
TAGALOG
NEG
(11)
(Schachter & Otanes 1972: 517)
dumatlng ang bus.
TAGALOG
came FOC bus 'The bus didn't come:
(Schachter &Otanes 1972: 518)
Hb1di Nl!G
329
330
Eeva Sippola
The negative imperatives or prohibitive expressions in Chabacano make use of the same negative particle no, which is placed before the verb, as seen when comparing the imperative in (12) with the prohibitive in (13). Also, in the prohibitives the personal pronoun can be placed between the negative particle and the verb, as exemplified in (14). (12)
0, isplrd bo muna! Oh, walt 2SG first 'Oh, wait!'
TC
(Sippola's field notes)
(13) No habld bos, bong myedu! NBG speak 2SG, very afraid
TC
'Dorlt speak, I get so afraid!' (14)
No bo olbidd ddli el
(Sippola's field notes)
sweldu
del
pddri.
TC
NEG 2sG forget give the payment ofthe priest
'DoItt forget to give the payment for the Father:
(Stppola's field notes)
In Tagalog, the negative imperatives differ from negation with hindi and have another negator
huwag, which has the main uses of negating imperatives, as in (15), hortatives and optatives, as in (16). It also adds the meaning of negative desire to statements, including those that already have a negator. As with hindi, in addition to the pronouns, it is frequently followed by enclitic particles, as in (16) (Schachter & Otanes 1972: 523-524). (15)
Huwag mong basahin iyang liham. 2sG read that letter 'Dorlt read that letter:
TAGALOG
NBG
(16)
Huwag sana siyang pumarito. ENC 3SG come.here 'I hope he does Itt come here.'
(Schachter & Otanes 1972: 523) TAGALOG
NBG
(Schachter & Otanes 1972: 524)
The main difference between Ternate Chabacano and Tagalog negation in the prohibitive is that Temate Chabacano uses the same negator as in standard negation, while Tagalog has a different negator huwag for negative imperatives. The parallels are the possibility of placing the pronouns and enclitic particles right after the negator. There is also a small class of adjectivals in Tagalog which have verb-like meanings, but which are incapable of inflection to show variation in aspect (Schachter & Otanes 1972:261)? Ogiwara (2002) has shown that these pseudo-verbs have a connection with the use of the verbs that often occur without TMA markers in Chabacano, as in example (2). In Tagalog, the pseudo-verbs gusto, ibig and nais 'like/want' have a special negative counterpart ayaw, as in example ( 17), even though they can also be negated by hindi (Schachter & Otanes 1972: 525 ). Ternate Chabacano has no parallel to this special negative word, for the verbs without TMA markers are negated with no.
7. The Tagalog pseudo-verbs are ayaw 'doesn't like/Wllllt', kailang 'needs, ought to, must, should', dapat 'ought to, maaari 'can, may, could, mi.ghf, nais 'like, would like, want' and must, should', gusto and ibig'like, would like, puwede 'can, may, could, might' (Schachter & Otanes 1972: 261). Some Ternate Chabacano parallels are kybi 'like, want: ddbli 'must, should: pwedi 'can, may' and sdbi 'can, know'.
want:
Negation in Ternate Chabaca.no
(17)
Ayaw 11g mans1mas si Juan. NEG.like/want MR apples FOC Juan 'Juan doesn't like/want apples:
TAGALOG (Schachter & Otanes 1972: 265)
A comparison between the Chabacano negator no and the negators that have corresponding functions in Tagalog reveals that no combines the functions of various Tagalog negators and differs from the Tagalog pattern for the imperative and the pseudo-verbs, or verbs without TMA markers in Chabacano. It can be noted, however, that some related issues, such as the word order, reflect the adstrate structures.
3.2
Negation of existentials and possession
A different type of negator that connects Chabacano interestingly with its Iberian lexifier and the adstrate languages is nway. The Spanish locative existential hay 'there is' is only used in the negative derivation nway >no hay (Sp.). The corresponding affirmatives use different constructions with the existential tyeni or the locative 'ta + locative demonstrative, as demonstrated in example (18). Nway is used in the negation of existential clauses, as in (19) and (20), and the former also gives an example of the placement of the enclitic particles after the negator. (18)
Mi segUndo tak{, tyeni neg6syu, I ml buns6, ikatres, talya na Naik. TC my second be.here, have business, and my youngest, third, be.there Loc Naic 'My second (son) is here, he has a business and my youngest, the third (son), he is in NaiC: (Sippola's field notes)
(19)
Nway pa haisku:l akf na Bahra kwdndu kel. NEG ENc.yet hlgh.school here we Ternate when that 'There was no high school here in Ternate at that time:
TC (Slppola's field notes)
Similarly as for the negator no, the intensification of nway is done by placing ni before the negator, as in example (20). (20)
Ninwdy akl lrendslaid. INT.NEG.E.X here landslide 'No, there are no landslides here:
TC (Sippola's field notes)
The same negative particle nway is also used for the negation of possession, as in (21 ). The combination with the enclitic particle pa 'yet' is very common for both negators no and nway, especially in yes-no answers. 8 Affirmative possession is expressed with the verb tybti from Spanish tener 'to have, as in example (18). (21)
Nway pa yo fhu. NEG.E..."'< yet lSG child 'I do not have children yet.'
TC (Sippola's field notes)
8. E.g., 7ybJi (ba) bo ihu? 'Do you have children?' Nwdy pa. 'No (I don't yet): A yegtf ya L6let? 'Did Lolet come?' No pa. 'No, (not yet)'.
331
332
Eeva Sippola
The Philippine languages make a distinction in negative particles between standard negation, as seen above, and negation of existence. Wala is used in existential and indefinite constructions, as well as in possessive constructions, as in (22) and (23) (Schachter & Otanes 1972: 521). As in Ternate Chabacano, the positive counterpart of the existential negator is a different word. (22)
(23)
Wala ngang bahay doon. Nl!G.l!X really house there. 'There really isn't a house there: Walang pera si Mr.Ruiz. Nl!G.l!X.LK money Foe Mr. Ruiz 'Mr. Rulz doesn't have any money:
TAGALOG (Schachter & Otanes 1972: 521) TAGALOG (Schachter & Otanes 1972: 521)
The negation of existentials and possession differs from standard negation in both Ternate Chabacano and Tagalog. The languages have a specific negator for these functions, but the labels are clearly from different sources. Tagalog has only influenced the use of the negator, but not the form in Temate Chabacano.
3·3
Negative indefinite constructions
The negative indefinite terms are nominal or adverbial expressions that translate to English as 'nobodY, 'nothing, 'nowhere!, 'nevef, etc. These indefinites need not be inherently negative, but the negative sense can be contributed exclusively by a negator in the clause. In Ternate Chabacano, the negative indefinite constructions generally use the existential pattern with nway, as shown in (24). (24)
Nwdy kyb1 di minyd Icon bo. NEG.l!X who IRR bother OBJ 2SG 'Nobody will bother you:
TC
(Sippola's field notes)
The interrogative-based negative indefinite constructions are nway kyen 'nobody' as in (24), nway d6ndi 'nowhere' as in (25). A generic noun-based negative indefinite construction is for example nuay jente (nway henti in my spelling) 'nobody, no one' in (26) and nway... k6sa 'nothing (27). The word k6sa also means 'whaf, so this could also be categorised as an interrogative-based indefinite construction. Note that the negative 'even' ni can replace maski 'even' (> mas que in Sp.), as in (27). (25)
(26)
(27)
Nway d6ndi di indd. Nl!G.l!X where IRR go 'Nowhere to go.'
TC
(Sippola's field notes)
Nuay jente aqui na Bahra no ta conoce con Antonio Grande. NEG.l!X people here Loc Ternate Nl!G IPPV know OBJ Antonio Grande 'There is no one here in Ternate that doesn't know Antonio Grande.' Nway tamyen ni kOsa. Nl!G.l!X also Nl!G.even thing/what 'There was nothing (wrong).'
TC (Nigoza 2007: 39)
TC
(Sippola's field notes)
Negation in Ternate Chabaca.no
Sometimes, the negative indefinites are directly from Spanish, as nada in (28) and (29), ninguna in (30), even though they are generally combined with the pattern for existential negation, as in (29) and (30). (28)
(29)
TC
No sabe nada. NEG know nothing '(He) does not know anything?
(Sippola's field notes)
TC
Nuay
nada con eli quel cen. nothing OBJ 3SG that money 'That money was nothing to him:
NEG.EX
(30)
... nwdy
manga 6mbri, nway
••• NEG.EX PL
man.
ningt1na
(Nigoza 2007: 39)
6mbri.
TC
NEG.EX NEG.INDEF man
'... there are no men. no men at an:
(Sippola's field notes)
The Spanish negative adverb nunca 'never' can also be used independently, as in (31), but a similar negative meaning could be expressed by negating the verb in the imperfective aspect. (31)
Nunca eli ta en.ferma. never 3sG IPFV getsick 'She never gets sick.'
TC (Nigoza 2007: 39)
Regarding differences among registers, Spanish indefinites are very rare in natural speech samples in Temate Chabacano. The literary sources in written Ternate Chabacano - and in Cavite Chabacano in general - have occurrences of Spanish negative indefinites nunca, nada and ninguno!ninguna.9 More research is needed in order to investigate the frequency of use of different negative indefinite constructions and their distribution. In Tagalog, the negative indefinite expressions are formed with a negator - hindi, wala or hu.wag in the appropriate constructions, as in (32), (33) and (34)- and an indefinite adverbial construction, which can include any interrogative word other than bakit 'why' and kumusta 'how' (Schachter & Otanes 1972:506, 518, 531): (32)
Hindi siya giniglsing ng anuman. 3sG awaken MR whatsoever 'Nothing awakens him.'
TAGALOG
NEG
(33)
(34)
Huwag kang pumunta saa11ma11. NEG.IMP 2SG.LK go anywhere 'Dont go anywhere.' Walang
dumaNng kahapon. came yesterday 'No one came yesterday.'
(Schachter & Otanes 1972: 533) TAGALOG
(Schachter &Otanes 1972: 518) TAGALOG
NEG.EX.LK
(Schachter & Otanes 1972: 521)
Tagalog also has the particle ni, which together with another negator in the sentence expresses the meaning 'not even: as in (35) or, preceding each element of a coordinate construction ni ... ni ... , 9· Also, Formans work (1972: 226-228) on Zamboanga Chabaca.no presents both Spanish and Philippine forms, but makes no statements as to the frequency or style.
333
334
Eeva Sippola
expresses the equivalent of English 'neither... not: as exemplified in (36) (Schachter & Otanes 1972: 527).1his is also probably the source for Ternate Chabacano ni, as in (27) above. (35) Hindi siya nagdala ni lapis. Nl!G 3sG brought NEG.even pencil 'He did not bring even a pencil.' (36) Hindi dumating ni sl Pedro. Juan ni si Nl!G came NEG FOC Juan Nl!G FOC Pedro. 'Neither Juan nor Pedro came:
TAGALOG (Schachter & Otanes 1972: 527) TAGALOG (Schachter & Otanes 1972: 526)
Tagalog indefinite expressions in which a construction is used with an appropriate negator are reflected in the formation of Ternate Chabacano negative indefinites, which also partly make use of interrogatives or nouns with nway. There are differences, however, for the Spanish forms nu.nca, nada, ningu.no!a and the generic noun construction nway henti. In Tagalog nway henti can be expressed without a noun in the corresponding sentence, as in (34).
4·
Conclusions
We have now had a look at negation in Ternate Chabacano with a comparison to the parallel Tagalog features. A summary is as follows: The forms of the lexical entries for the negators are provided by the lexifier language and derivations of the Iberian negative particle are normally used in Ternate Chabacano negation. No is used for standard negation in declarative clauses, imperatives and non-verbal clauses. Nway is used for the negation of existential clauses and possessive clauses. Negative indefinite constructions are formed with the existential nway and an interrogative or generic noun. In addition, the rare Spanish-based negative indefinites occur following the above patterns. Intensification is formed by placing the particle ni before the negator. The same particle also has the meaning of'not even' if used independently, corresponding to the positive 'even' maski. According to Lipski (1988: 32), the general divergence between existentials and standard clausal negation patterns presented above is not paralleled among the Portuguese creole dialects of Asia or Africa, but the claim that Chabacano would closely follow received Spanish patterns cannot be sustained for Ternate Chabacano. As seen above, the lexifier language shares many features with Chabacano, especially the forms of the lexical entries for the negators. The Ternate Chabacano negator no reproduces the properties of Spanish no in declarative and imperative clauses. However, the properties of nway correspond more closely to the use of Tagalog wala. All three languages - Ternate Chabacano, Spanish and Tagalog- have a preverbal negator. In Spanish, both the predicate negation with no and negative indefinite pronouns can be used in a clause, or only a negative indefinite pronoun, but there can be only one negator before the verb. In Ternate Chabacano and Tagalog, the most common indefinites are not inherently negative, but rather constructions in which negation is expressed with an appropriate negator. Many features related to negation, such as the distribution of pronouns and enclitics after the negator and the intensification, follow Tagalog patterns. On the other hand, Tagalog has many features that are not reflected in Chabacano negation, such as the different negator huwag for
Negation in Ternate Chabaca.no
imperatives and aya.w for pseudo-verbs, which have influenced the omission of TMA markers in affirmative sentences in Ternate Chabacano. In conclusion, it can be affirmed that the main pattern of Ternate Chabacano negation follows its adstrate language Tagalog when distinguishing the standard clausal negation and the negation of existentials and possession. However, the adstrate structure has not been the only factor determining negation in Chabacano.
List of abbreviations ENC
EX FOC IMP
INDEF INT IPFV IRR LK
enclitic particle existential focus marker imperative indefinite intensifier imperfective aspect irrealis aspect linker
we MR NEG
OBJ PL SG
1 2 3
locative preposition non focus markers, oblique negator, negative object marker plural singular first person second person third person
References Blair, E. H. & Robertson, J. A. 1909. The Philippine Islands: 1493-1898. Cleveland OH: A. H. Clart. de la Concepci6n, J. 1788-1792. Historia General de Philipinas; conquistas espirituales y temporales de estos espaiwles dominios establecimientos, progresos y decadencias, Vol VII. Manila: A. de 1a Rosa y Balagtas. Philippine National Library. (Microfilm). Fernandez, M. 2001. tPor que e1 Chabaca.no? In Shedding Light on the Chahacano Language [Estudios de Sociolingillstica 2:2], M. Fernandez (ed.),i-xil. Vigo: Universidade de Vigo. Fernandez, M. 2004. Plurifuncionalidad de 1a particula na en e1 chabacano de Zamboanga. In Los criollos de base ibirica ACBLPE 2003, M. Fernandez, M. Fernandez-Ferreiro & N. Vazquez Veiga (eds), 41-60. Madrid: Iberoamericana. Fernandez, M. 2007a. Chabacano en Tayabas: Implicaciones para lahistoria de los criollos hispano-:filipinos. Paper presented at the CILPR 2007, Innsbruck.. Fernandez, M. 2007b. Sobre e1 origen de con en chabacano. Romania en interacciOn: entre historia, contacto y politica. Ensayos en homenaje a Klaus Zimmermann, M. Schrader-Kniflki. & L. Morgenthaler Garda (eds), 457-478. Madrid: Iberoamericana. Forman, M. 1972. Zamboangueiio Texts with Grammatical Analysis. A Study of Philippine Creole Spanish. PhD dissertation, Cornell University. Frake, C. 1971. Lexical origins and semantic structure in Philippine Creole Spanish. In Pidginization and Creoliza-
tion ofLanguages. Proceedings of a conference held at the University of West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, April1968, D. Hymes (ed.), 223-242. Cambridge: CUP. Grant, A. 2007. Some aspects ofNPs in Mindanao Chabacano. Structural and historical considerations. In Naun Phrases in Creole Languages: A Multi-faceted Approach [Creole Language Library 31], M. Baptista & J. Gueron (eds), 173-204. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Lipski, J. 1988. Philippine Creole Spanish: Reassessing the Portuguese element. Zeitschrift fUr romanische Philologie 104: 25-45.
335
336
Eeva Sippola
Miestarno, M. 2005. Standard Negation: The Negation ofDeclarative Verbal Main Clauses in a TYPological Perspective. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Molony, C. 1973. Sound changes in Chabacano. In Parangal Kay Cecilio Lopez, A. Gonzalez (ed.), 38-50. Quezon City: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Molony, C. 1977a. Recent relexifu:ation processes in Philippine Creole Spanish. In Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Change, B. Blout & M. Sanches (eds), 131-159. New York NY: Academic Press. Molony, C. 1977b. Semantic changes in Chabacano. In Langues en Contact -Pidgins-Creoles - Languages in Contact, J. Meisel (ed.), 153-166. 'Itibingen: Narr. Nigoza, E. 2007. Bahra: The History, Legends, Customs and 'ITaditions ofTemate, Cavite. Cavite: Cavite Historical Society. Oglwara, Y. 2002 Aparlci6n del sustrato en el predicado del caviteiio. PAPLA Revista de criollos de base iberica 12: 67-83. Payne, J. R. 1985. Negation. In Language Typology and Syntactic Descriptio,'!, T. Shopen (ed.), 197-242 Cambridge: CUP.
Philippine Reports. 1909. Reports of Cases determined in the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands from November 10, 1908 to February 13, 1909. Manila. Schachter, P. & Otanes, F. 1972. Tagalog ReferuJCe Grammar. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. Sippola, E. 2006. Hacia una descripci6n del ternateiio. &vista Intemacional de LingUfstica lberoamericana Vol IV, 1(7): 41-54. Sippola, E. 2010. Sobre los marcadores discursivos en el chabacano de Ternate. In XXVe CILPR Congres International de Linguistique et de Philologie Romanes Innsbruck, 3-8 septembre 2007, M. Iliescu, H. SillerRunggaldier & P. Danler (eds), 1-431-1-440. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter. Steinkriiger, P. 0. 2007. Notes on Ternateiio (A Philippine Spanish Creole ).Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 22(2): 367-377. Tirona, T. T. 1924. An account of the Ternate dialect (of Cavite P.I.). Tagalog Paper 487 of the Beyer's Collection, Philippine National Library. Whiimom, K 1956. Spanish Contact Vernaculars in the Philippine Islands. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions Calquing on the grammars of substrate languages* June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes Artha Wacana Christian University at Kupang I Australian National University at Canberra and SIL
Kupang Malay is a stigmatised Malay-based creole spoken in eastern Indonesia While it shares some linguistic features with other contact varieties of Malay in the region, it is also distinguished by its own contact history and unique features in its phonology, lexicon and grammar, all showing evidence of significant influence from substrate languages. One notable feature is the pervasiveness and variety of its serial verb constructions (SVC). This paper explores the forms and functions of a limited set of Kupang SVCs, showing dose parallels with similar forms and functions of SVCs in nearby substrate languages (illustrated by data from Helong, Amarasi, Dhao, and Lole). While Kupang is in a post-creole continuum with Indonesian functioning as the "high~ the Kupang SVCs described in this paper have no dose parallels in Indonesian. We condude that this presents strong evidence that Kupang is indeed a creole that has calqued at a deep level on the grammars oflocallanguages. Since the phenomena here are previously undescribed for any of the languages - and all of them are poorly documented - this paper is deliberately rich in data The examples given are not rare, were taken from computer searches of a text corpus, and have been doubled-checked for naturalness with groups of native speakers, given the inherent pitfalls of working in a post-creole continuum. Keywords: Kupang, Malay, creole, post-creole continuum, Malay-based creole, eastern Indonesian Malays, serial verb constructions, calque on grammar, contact induced change, aspect, verbal semantics, accomplishment verbs, directionality, discourse pragmatics, relexification, Helong, Amarasi, Dhao, Lole, Rote, Uab Meto
June Jacob ~M.A. applied linguistics) is a native speaker of Kupang Malay. She is also a lecturer at Artha Wacana Christian University in Kupang. Charles E. Grimes (Ph. D. linguistics) is an Adjunct Professor in Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, and a linguist with SIL International Both authors work with the Language and Culture Unit of the GMIT church synod in Kupang. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 4th International East Nusantara Linguistics Conference held in Leiden, 30 June and 1 July 2005. We are grateful to Barbara Dlx Grimes, Claire Lefebvre and Anne-Marie Brousseau for comments on earlier drafts of this paper. A number of discussions with YoungSoo Ko Cha on properties ofSVCs in Western Cham also sharpened our thinking. Comments from two anonymous referees also helped clarify the presentation of information.
338
June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes
1.
Sociolinguistic profile
In this paper, we describe aspects of serial verb constructions In Kupang Malay (Ethnologue/ISO code mkn), a Malay-based creole spoken around the western end of Timor Island In eastern Indonesia KupangMalay (bahasa Kupang) has around 200,000 native speakers and tens of thousands of second-language speakers In and around the cityofKupang (B. E Grimes 2000: 510). We have met famlhes who claim at least three generations of native speakers of Kupang Malay. There Is anecdotal evidence of native speakers at least by the early 1900s and possibly much earlier. Most people from outlying areas who have had significant schoohng or work experience In Kupang have learned It as a second (or third or fourth) language for social survival A few from western parts of Indonesia resist learning Kupang as merely "bad Indonesian" and relegate themselves as forever being outsiders. Kupang has long been the capital city of the province of Nusa Tenggara Timor, comprised of the islands of Flores, Sumba, AI or, Sabu, West Timor, Rote, Solar, and other small islands (illustrated In Map 1). Although It Is a relatively small city, Kupang Is the fastest growing regency (ktJbupaten) In eastern Indonesia It attracts migrants from all over NTT province who come to study or seek work. This hvely city had around 217,000 inhabitants In 1999 (Mayor S. K Lerrlk, pc, 1999) and has grown by over 50% since then.
Map 1. Primary Kupang Malay speaking area In eastern Indonesia
Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions
The Kupang area was traditionally inhabited by the Helong people and this continued well into the colonial period. In the seventeenth century, the Helong were pushed out by the Atoni people (speaking Uab Meto) from the nearby Sonbai kingdom to a small coastal strip at the westem tip of Timor island. Later, most of the Helong migrated to the small island of Semau, located in Kupang Bay, because of the migration to Kupang of Dutch-supported mercenaries and their families from the nearby islands of Rote and Sabu (Schulte Nordholt 1971). It is therefore not surprising that Kupang developed into "a polyglot town" (Fox 1991:249) concentrated around the Dutch fort supporting the sandalwood trade. C. Grimes et al. (1997: 1) describe the region as "... richly blessed with variety and complexity." Reid (1984), Ricklefs (1993) and Wheatley (1961) describe the broader historical and political contexts in which this all happened. Today, the different ethnic backgrounds of the citizens of Kupang bring together considerable social diversity, but they have a common identity and a common language derived from Malay, the lingua franca of trade used before and during the Dutch colonial period (Brugmans 1938; Fox 1991:249). ThisvarietyofMalay, referred to locally as "Basa Kupang': "Bahasa Kupang" or "Bahasa Melayu Kupan(, was established long before "Bahasa Indonesia" was declared to be the national language of the new Republic of Indonesia in 1945, and even before the arrival of the Europeans (Adelaar & Prentice 1996; B. D. Grimes 1991; C. Grimes 1996a; Sneddon 1996, 2003; Teeuw 1959, 1961 ). Kupang Malay now functions as a language of wider communication in the city of Kupang and the surrounding region as well as a symbol of regional identity seen in advertisements and emblazoned on local transportation. It is appearing in a few locally produced television shows. Its legitimacy and role is also increasingly debated in leading newspapers. In addition to the most common form of Kupang Malay, there is a unique dialect spoken in Air Mata and numerous subdialects associated with various ethnic group origins (C. Grimes 2001; Jacob 2001a, b). Steinhauer (1983, 1991) has described some aspects ofKupang Malay. As a living language, Kupang Malay plays important roles in the society where it is spoken. However, it has usually been ignored and often despised not only by some of its own speakers, but also by many teachers, government officials and church leaders who have a tendency to look down on it as a stigmatised language (B. D. Grimes 2005; Jacob & B. D. Grimes 2006). As is common with many stigmatised creoles in a post-creole continuum, a significant portion of its speakers have limited ability in the "high", namely standard Indonesian. Even university students attempting to target standard Indonesian are often unaware that they are mixing the two registers, resulting in repeated complaints by their lecturers. More often than not, the lecturers themselves and most school teachers, government officials and other decision-makers are completely unaware of the typical and well documented dynamics of a post-creole continuum (Adler 1977; Bickerton 1975, 1981, 1983; Fasold 1984; Ferguson 1959; Fishman 1967; Holm 1988, 1989; Mi.ihlhausler 1986; Todd 1974; Wardaugh 1992) and its impact on education (PACE; Siegel2000, 2001, 2005, 2006; UNESCO 1963, 2003; World Bank 2005). Speakers ofKupang residing elsewhere often admit they regularly go online to the Tapaleuk column written in mesolectal Kupang Malay in the Pos Kupang daily newspaper when they feel homesick. As is predictable with stigmatised creoles in a post-creole continuum, the 2007 publication of the Kupang New Testament (UBB 2007) was met with enthusiasm and appreciation by many, as well as with dismay and vocal opposition by others.
339
340
June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes
Ku pang Malay, like many creoles, developed through contact with genetically diverse types of languages. The Austronesian vernaculars spoken around Kupang are classified as Central Malaya-Polynesian (or CMP) (Blust 1978, 1993; B. F. Grimes (ed.) 2000; C. Grimes et al. 1997), however problematic that classification may be (C. Grimes 1991b, 2000, 2007; Donohue & C. Grimes 2008; Ross 1995). Malay, however, is a Western Malaya-Polynesian language whose homeland is around 3,000 km away. The Malay from which Kupang Malay developed emerged from contact with varieties of trade Malay which tended to be used in trading centres and for interethnic communication. As noted above, the people around Kupang were originally not native speakers of any form of Malay. They learned Malay imperfectly, mostly from merchants and sailors who themselves used it imperfectly. They used the Malay that they learned in limited speech domains (see also Adelaar & Prentice 1996; B. D. Grimes 1991; C. Grimes 1996a, b; Prentice 1978; Sneddon 2003). The historical roots of Indonesian, however, are in a different type of Malay. Prentice (1978 ), C. Grimes (1996a) and Sneddon (2003) note that Indonesian is based on the varieties of official la.nguage Malays of the courts, government and literature of the sultanates ofRiau and Johore (near present-day Singapore). How Indonesian developed from official language Malays into its modem form as a national language in the context of nationalism and through additional language engineering is described by Abas (1987), Alisjahbana (1956, 1971, 1974) and Moeliono (1986). Thus, Kupang Malay developed from varieties of trade Malay in the context of trade and interethnic communication by people who spoke it imperfectly. and calqued on local substrate languages with which it was in contact around the fort at Kupang- including varieties of Helong, Rote, Dhao, Sabu/Hawu, and Uab Meto/Atoni/Timorese - to develop a fuller system of communication, now functioning as a unique variety of creole Malay. The variety of standard Malay with which Kupang is now in contact in a post-creole continuum is Indonesian. ln contrast to the trade Malay from which Kupang developed, Indonesian is modelled on a fully developed official language Malay with its own literary traditions. Jacob (2001a, b) has demonstrated that Kupang Malay (KM) is: (a) a well organised linguistic system that, (b) exhibits several types of simplification in contrast to varieties of standard Malay in its phonology, morphology and grammar, 1 (c) has calqued on local languages in its lexicon and grammar, (d) has a complex community of native speakers, (e) has important roles in the home, for interethnic communication and for communicating local solidarity, ethnic identity, vitality and stability, (f) functions in a post-creole continuum, with the Indonesian variety of standard Malay functioning as the "high" or acrolect. Jacob and C. Grimes (2003) and C. Grimes and Jacob (2008) have documented in greater detail that: (g) while there is much vocabulary shared with standard Malay, there is also, (h) different phonology, (i) significant semantic shift in a number of Malay-based terms, (j) significant lexical borrowing from local languages. 2
Some of these types of simplification are shared with other regional varieties of Malay in eastern Indonesia (Adelaar & Prentice 1996).
1.
2. Lexical borrowing from local languages is far more prevalent in Kupang Malay than in Ambon Malay. For example, 10% of the entries in Jacob and C. Grimes (2003) are from varieties of Rote.
Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions
Serial verbs in Kupang Malay (general)
2.
Gleaning from the general literature on serial verb constructions (SVC), Kupang SVCs share a number of properties that have also been identified for SVCs in other languages.3 These are: (a) sequences of two or more verbs or VPs act together as a single clause without a complementiseror intervening conjunction between them (Durie 1997; Foley & Van Valin 1984); (b) the prosodic properties of serial verbs are the same as those of a single clause (Durie 1997); (c) a single SVC describes a single notional event (Aikhenvald 2006; Durie 1997); (d) a single SVC has shared aspect, mood, modality, illocutionary force and polarity values (Aikhenvald 2006; Durie 1997; Schiller 1990)- this paper describes how certain verbs internal to some Kupang SVCs can also have an aspectual function in addition to the "normal" markers of aspect-mood but, nevertheless, aspect is shared over the whole SVC, regardless of how it is marked; - (e) serial verbs share at least one core argument (Aikhenvald 2006; Durie 1997; Schiller 1990)- how this works is different for core-layer serialisation than for nuclear-layer serialisation (Foley & Van Valin 1984) -; (f) one of the verbs/VPs is not embedded within the other(s), nor does it function as an argument ofthe other(s) -complement clauses would be an example of this (Durie 1997; Foley & Van Valin 1984; Schiller 1990). In addition to features listed in Section 1, serial verbs are another feature ofKupang Malay that has calqued on local vernaculars. They show a degree of interclausal integration (Foley & Olsen 1985) that does not occur and has no structural parallel in Indonesian. In the examples below, serial verbs are underlined. The first example shows the local vernacular (Helong), then Kupang Malay to demonstrate parallels with the vernacular, and then Indonesian to provide contrast between Kupang Malay and standard Malay. It should be noted that the KM SVCs in the examples throughout this paper have all been discussed with two or more groups of Kupang speakers from a variety of ethnic origins who affirmed they were acceptable and represented good Kupang. (1)
Oen maa nakbua se
ona11 na
lam.
HE LONG
come gather PREP beach that also 'They also gathered on the beach? 3P
Dong datang kumpul di 3P
2.1
come
ltu pante ju.
KUPANG
gather Loc that beach also
Mereka berkumpul di
pantai itu juga.
3P
beach that also
REFL-gather
LOC
INDONESIAN
Case, aspect-mood and other complexities in Kupang SVCs
While this study focuses primarily on a very narrow range ofKM SVCs (in Section 3), a number of examples here illustrate the broad variety of functions that can be performed using SVCs. The
3· Aikhenvald (2006) also uses the terms "symmetric" and "asymmetric" in discussing SVCs, depending on whether the word classes involved are dosed or open. We are still investigating whether or not this is a relevant issue in Kupang SVCs, and in the SVCs of surrounding languages.
341
342
June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes
following examples show some of the case roles performed by KM SVCs. The examples in this section are drawn primarily from Jacob (1999).
Kale pikQ .IHm:a. karanjang pi (di) pasar. Father Kale carry bring basket go at market 'Father Kale carries the basket to the market'
(2)
Ama
(3)
Usi
KUPANG (locative-goal)
Di11a bekin ame kue sarabi kasi dia pung ana dong.
Aunt Dina make take pancakes give 3s Poss child PL ~nt Dina made some pancakes for her children.' (4)
Laki-laki lari turun
(dative-benefactive)
gtmung.
male run descend mountain 'The man is run.nin,g down the mountain: (5)
Dong belcin
(path)
mati tikus pake batu.
3P make=cAus die mouse use stone 'They killed the mouse with a stone:
(instrument)
The following examples illustrate some of the aspect-mood roles that can be performed by KM SVCs. A specific type of aspectual function is discussed in Section 3. (6)
Dia manyapu kasi
barisi kintal balakang.
3s sweep give=cAus dean yard back 'She SWEWt the backyard clean: (lit. sweep causing to become dean) (7)
Bemo
len
Tarus maen
pulang
bale
an~a
(cause-resulting state)
panumpang.
minibus route Tarus play=rrER go.home come. back pick up passenger 'The mini bus on the Tarus route r~ly/rEWeatedlylkeEWs goingbackandforth taking passengers home.' (iterative) (8)
Opa
nae
ame pohon paffk kalapa
dua boa.
grandfather climb take tree pick coconut two fruit 'Grandfather climbed up a coconut tree to pick two coconuts: 'Grandfather climbed up a coconut tree and picked two coconuts:
(purpose/irrealis) (result/realis)
The following example illustrates some of the structural complexities that can be found in stringing together Kupang SVCs in perfectly natural speech. (9)
Poho11 ya11g sonde kasi kaluar boa, tantu tree
REL NEG
datang poto11g ko
tukang kab6n dong
give go out fruit certain worker garden PL
lempar buang
maso Pi dalam api.
come cut IRR throw throw out enter go inside fire '(As for) trees which don't produce fruit, surely the gardeners will come and cut off (their branches) to throw them into the fire:
2.2
Transitivity issues in KM SVCs
The examples below show what happens to transitivity and argument structure in various combinations. No attempt is made to be exhaustive here, as there are many combinations that are
Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions
beyond the scope of this study. Only a tew combinations of non-active intransitive verbs (Subject= Undergoer, BE-oriented verbs) and active intransitive or active transitive verbs (Subject= Actor, DO-oriented verbs) are presented here. The terminology is adapted from the frameworks of Foley and Van Valin (1984) and Dowty (1979). Imati/ 'die' is used as a canonical non-active BE-oriented verb. Note that when unmarked for aspect, such verbs can have multiple readings. (10)
Dia mati. 3s die 'She is dying. I She is dead. I She died. I She will die?
When two non-active verbs are used in an SVC, the first indicates a resulting state, the other indicates manner. Non-active+ non-active--+- result+ manner. Note that/mati lapar/ also occurs in standard Malay, and I mati baranakl occurs in other regional varieties of Malay. (11)
mati lapar mati karfng mati barana mati tanggalam
'die ofhunger' 'die by drying up (as plants in drought)' 'die in childbirth' 'die by drowning'
(12)
takonci matl tasegel matl
'locked up /locked tight' 'sealed tight'
[literally 'die hungry'] [die dry] [die birthing] [die drown] [lit 'locked die'] [sealed die]
We use /pi/ 'go as a canonical active intransitive DO-oriented verb. 4 (13)
Dia pt 3s go 'He is going I He went I He will
go:
Active intransitive+ non-active--+ action+ purpose OR action+ result (14)
pi mati iko matl
'go to die I went and died' 'go to die (with someone) I went and died (with someone)'
[lit. 'go die'] [follow die]
Active intransitive + active intransitive --+-action + direction/path OR action+ scope. Note that
lnaik kembali/ also occurs in standard Malay. (15)
pi 11ae lari turun turunpi turun datang naekambali
'go up' 'rundown" 'descend (away from locus of discourse)' 'descend (coming toward locus of discourse)' 'come back up'
[lit 'go ascend'] [run descend] [descend go] [descend come] [ascend return]
4· In KM /pi/ 'go' functions as a simple active intransitive DO-oriented verb on the merits of the morphosyntax of the language. We are aware that elsewhere in the world its equivalent can be analysed as an unaccusative verb and, in several languages in eastern Indonesia and the Pacific, the verb 'go' is analysed as an intradirective verb which is morphologically transitive, with the Actor who is doing the verb being coreferential with the Undergoer whose location is being changed (see Pawley 1973). Neither is the case for KM.
343
344
June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes
When the first verb is a verb of motion or posture and the second is also an active (intransitive or transitive) verb, the combination is often a tightly related sequence of events in which the first functions as an inceptive (inchoative) pbase. In other words, the location of the Actor has to be moved before the second action can take place. Nevertheless, it is seen as a single notional event. The examples below are unmarked for irrealis-realis or perfective-imperfective, so they can indicate either purpose or resulting action or state. Note that the examples in (16) also occur in other eastern Indonesian Malays. (16) pidudu
pi tidor pi tenga pipasiar kambali tidor tidor kambali (17) piame
pisemba pi bawa pi badame pi taro pi urus dudu makan badiri sambayang badiri mangada
'go to sit I went and sat' 'go sleep' 'go live' 'go for a stroll' 'return to sleep (at location)' 'go back to sleep (after having awakened)'
[lit. 'go sit1 [go sleep] [go stay] [go wander soclally] [return sleep] [sleep return]
[lit. 'go take'] 'go to fetch I went and fetched' [go worship] 'go worship' 'go take' [go carry] 'go make peace I go restore right relationships' [go RECIP-peace] [go place] 'go put' 'go arrange' [go arrange/manage/handle] [sit eat] 'sit to eat I sit and eat' [stand pray] 'stand to pray I stand and pray [stand facing] 'stand to face I stand and face I stand facing'
lpapoko/'beat up' is used as a canonical active transitive DO-oriented verb. Example (18) is not an SVC; it merely illustrates a simple use of Ipapoko/. (18)
Dong~
dengpapoko orang-orang dari XX. 3P catch and beat DUP-people from (location) 'They captured and beat up various people from xx:
Like many other active transitive verbs in KM, Ipapokol uses the preposition Isang! to indicate a specific human object complement This preposition often functions to mark dative-benefactive roles, but also commonly marks direct objects.5 (19)
Dong papoko sang dia. 3P beat PREP 3s 'They beat him up:
(20)
Dong papoko sang Pe'u. 3P beat PREP Peter 'They beat up Pete.'
Active transitive+ active transitive in KM SVCs is discussed and illustrated below in Section 3 with limited focus. The widespread use of /bekinl 'make, do' and /kasi/ 'give' as paraphrastic
s.
The syntactic status of apparent core arguments marked with the preposition /sang/ in KM requires further investigation.
Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions
causatives is not discussed in this paper. Their use as paraphrastic causatives is common to most non-standard regional varieties of Malay (Adelaar & Prentice 1996).
The use of lame/ and lbuang/ in serial verb constructions
3·
The core ofthis paper focuses on the use of lame! 'take' and /bua.ngl 'throw ouf in Kupang serial verb constructions. We look at their roles as: (a) main verbs in SVCs, (b) adding directionality as a modifying verb in SVCs, (c) adding aspect as a modifYing verb in SVCs. The following examples are restricted to adjacent verbs in SVCs, looking only at nuclear-layer serialisation.
3.1
As main verbs
Kupang lame/ and I buangl can each function as simple verbs, as well as the main verb in SVCs. 3.1.1 I ame/ 'take, get, bring, fetch' lame/ can be used as a simple transitive verb. The complement clauses in examples (21) and (24)
are incidental to the present discussion. (21)
Ais ju
dia arne tana
sadiki ko taro pi pot.
so then 3s take ground little IRR put go flower pot 'So then she took a little soil to put in the flower pot: (22)
Ais do11g dua ame satu salimut,ju dong buka kasi taga11to11g di pintu. then 3P two take one blanket and 3P open cAus suspend we door 'Then the two of them fetched a blanket and opened it up hanging it across the doorway.'
(23)
Amper sadikl beta ame sang dla jadi
beta pung bini!
almost little ls take PREP 3s become ls 'I nearly took her as my wife!'
Poss wife
lame/ can be used as a main verb in SVCs. (24)
Dong ame bawa samua parampuan deng ana-ana
dari itu kampong.
3P take carry all female and DUP-child from DIST village 'They carried off (took away) all the women and children from that village.' (25)
Lu ame kambali beta pung barang-barang yang dia ada pegang. 2s take return ls POSS DUP-thi.ngs REL 3s DUR hold 'You retrieve (fetch back) my various belongings which she is keeping:
(26)
Ais dia ator
ko dong arne kasi dia pung kaka-adi dong salimut yang paling bae. then 3s arrange IRR 3P take give 3s Poss siblings PL blanket REL most good 'Then he arranged so they would ~ the best blankets for his siblings?
345
346
June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes
3.1.2 !buanw 'throw out, get rid of, dispose of' !buangl can be used as a simple transitive verb. (27)
Kalo samua su if
kasi
all
makan sampe kinyang, baru bm.mg dia pung sisa until full only then throw out 3s Poss excess
PRF eat
an}lng.
give=PREP dog 'When everyone has eaten until they are satlsfied, then (they) throw out the leftovers to the dogs: (28)
(29)
itu
pante.
boat PL come from everywhere IRR throw out anchor we 'Boats come from many places to dr!m anchor at that beach.'
Parau dong datang dari mana-ma11a ko
buang
jangkar di
DIST
beach
lkan yang su
sa!
busu dong, dla pung guna apa? Kotong buang
fish REL PRP rotten PL 3s Poss use what lPI throw out just '(As for) fish which are already rotten, what good are they! We just get rid of them!'
/buangl can be used as a main verb in SVCs. (30)
Dong papoko bekin luka
sang dia, ais
dong buang
kaluar sang dia.
3P hit make wound PREP 3s then 3P throw out go out PREP 3s 'They beat and wounded him, and then they (physically) threw him out: (31)
3.2
Ana-ana dong ra'u
ame abu, ko buang jli atas. children PL scoop take dust IRR throw out go top 'The children were scooping up dust to throw it up (into the alr).' Adding element of directionality
As a secondary verb in Kupang SVCs, Iarne/ and !buangl often add an element of directionality (energy or motion directed toward or away from the Actor) to the action or event 6 Frequency of occurrence in our text corpus is provided with some examples to show that these combinations are not rare. The directionality described above is illustrated below in Sections 3.2.1 and 3.2.2. 3.2.1 (32)
I ame/ 'toward Actor' Ais dia lari Pi di
dia pung sapi dong, ko
dia J211i
ame sapi gumuk satu.
then 3s run go we 3s Poss cow PL IRR 3s choose take cow fat one 'Then he ran to where hls cows were, to select a fat cow: (pili ame = 51 occurrences) (33) Dia sorong dia pung tangan, ko tarima ame itu burung pi dalam ruma. 3s stretch 3s Poss hand IRR receive take DIST bird go inside house 'He reached out hls hand to receive the bird into the house.' (tarima ame = 21 occurrences)
6. Adding the element of direction toward or away from speaker or Actor is also part of the grammar of other Austronesian languages, such as many Philippine-type languages (Pittman 1966) and some Sulawesi languages. The grammatical mechanisms there, however, are very different.
Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions
(34)
Dia su kumpul ame dia pung kelu
deng dia pung taman satu kaki dong di
situ.
3s PRF gather take 3s POSS family with 3s POSS close friend (ID.) PL LOC there (kumpul ame= 27 occurrences) 'She had gathered her family and her close friends there.'
Other frequently occurring examples illustrating energy or motion directed toward the Actor: (35)
3.2.2 (36)
rampas ame tangkapame kodo ame ketu arne koru ame dengarame pal6ame pegangame
[lit. 'snatch take'] [catch take] [swallow take] [pick take] [strip take] [hear take] [hug take] [hold take]
'snatch, steal (for oneselt)' 'catch, ar resf 'swallow, tngesf 'pick by breaking off (fruit, grain)' 'pick by stripping off (grain head)' 'hear something or someone' 'hug, embrace' 'touch, hold'
lbuangf 'away from Actor' Dia pung kelu
mau tola
buang
sang dla.
3s
Poss family want push away throw out PREP 3s 'His family was going to reject him.' (37)
Dia lempar buang
itu
dol
3s throw throw out msT money go inside house 'She (forcefully) threw away that money into the kiosk.' (38)
Dong ~ arne sang dia, ais
(tola buang= 37 occurrences)
Pi dalam kios.
dong ru'i buang
(lempar bua11g = 40 occurrences) dia pung baju.
3P hold take PREP 3s then 3P tear throw OUt 3s POSS shirt 'They grabbed him and then they ripped off his clothes:
Some other examples illustrating energy or motion directed away from the Actor: (39)
kabds bua11g tapisbuang kasi parsen buang jualbuang
[lit. 'brush throw away>] [winnow throw away] [give free throw away] [sell throw away]
'brushoff' 'winnowouf 'give away' '(1) sell off, (2) betray'
3.2.3 Contrasts bet·ween lame/ and I buangf The element of directionality can perhaps most clearly be illustrated with lame/ and /huang/ in contrast modifying the same verb in SVCs. There is sometimes a higher-level discourse function with Iarne/ implying ongoing usefulness or ongoing relevance in the discourse. In contrast, I huang/ imp lies the intended end of the role or relevance of the argument in question by the Actor:agent (40)
Ais dia ang!ca ame galas yang ada isi
laru.
then 3s lift take glass RilL DUR contents palm juice 'Then he picked up a glass which was filled with palm juice.' (41)
(angka ame = 17 occurrences)
Ais dia angka ame itu a11a ko dia piara sama ke dia pung ana sandiri. then 3s lift take DIST child IRR 3s care for like llke2 3s Poss child own 'So then she ad.qpted that child to raise as if it were her own: (common figurative sense)
347
348
June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes
(42)
(43)
Tukang dong su angka buang itu batu. craftsman PL PRF lift throw out DIST rock 'The craftsmen had already discarded that rock.' Te
beta pikir
elaborate ls
ini
orang
dong su
think PROX person PL
kotong pung atoran
(angka bua11g= 38 occurrences)
angka buang
PRF lift
throw out
agama.
lPI POSS regulation religion 'Cause I had been thinking that these people had rejected our religious regulations: (44)
Tempo hari beta suru potong ame dia pu11g kapala. time
day ls
order cut
take 3s Poss head
~that (previous) time I had ordered that his head be cut off: 7
(45)
Nantl raja suru orang datangpotong buang
bapa
pung kapala.
later king order person come cut throw out father Poss head 'The king is going to order people to come and cut off your head.'8
Other examples of contrasts that carry a higher-level discourse function of ongoing purpose or relevance, versus no ongoing role or relevance: (46)
maka11ame maka11 bua11g
'eat up (for strength)' 'consume wastefully'
[lit 'eat take'] [eat throw away]
(47)
galiame gall buang
'dig up (for use)' 'dig up (to get rid of)'
[dig take] [dig throw away]
(48)
sakOp ame sakOp buang
'shovel up (e.g. feces to put in a certain place)' 'shovel up and throw away'
(49)
bakarame bakar buang
'bake, roast (food)' 'burn off'
(50)
hela ame hela buang
'lead, drag (toward a goal, for a purpose)' 'drag away, pull away (to separate)'
(51)
ra'u ame ra'u buang
'scoop up (with hands, for use)' 'scoop up and throw away'
(52) pollame
pohbuang 3.2.4
'pour out (into container for use)' 'pour out (to get rid of; e.g. dirty dishwater)'
[shovel take] [shovel throw away] [burn take] [burn throw away] [pull take] [pull throw away] [scoop take] [scoop throw away] [pour take] [pour throw away]
Semantic constraints on collocational possibilities
There are restrictions on the collocational possibilities of some serial verb sets because of the "real world" semantics of the main verb clashing with the semantics of lame/ or /huang/. Some verbs which already have an inherent sense of motion or energy directed away from the Actor (or loss) built into their lexical semantics can collocate with /huang! but not lame/. Some verbs
7. Use of lame! here implies that the head is to be brought back or kept for a purpose, or has ongoing relevance in the discourse. 8. Use of lbuangl here implies that the head is to be discarded and serves no further purpose, and no ongoing relevance in the discourse.
Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions
which already have a sense of motion or energy directed toward the Actor (or acquisition) built into their lexical semantics can collocate with lame/ but not /huang!. (53)
bJpJ;l .bmmg orang pung sala sang bosong. want forget throw out person Poss wrong PREP 2P 'You(pl) don't want to forget (completely) the wrongs people have done to you.'
Bosong sonde 2P
1l1rul
NEG
Note that /lupa buangl has 33 occurrences in our text corpus, whereas !lupa ame/ has none and is rejected by most native speakers who were asked to find a context in which it could be used. Only one native speaker could find one context in which it could be considered acceptable. (54)
Dong ~ ame sang dia, ju lempar buang sang dia Pl. dalam bui. 3s catch take PREP 3s then throw throw out PREP 3s go inside jail 'They arrested him, and threw him in jail:
Note that!tangkap amel has 27 occurrences in our text corpus, whereas!tangkap huang/ has none but is considered possible given the right context 9 Similarly /lempar buangl has 40 occurrences, whereas /lempar amel has none but is considered possible. (55)
Abis dong usir buang sang dia pulang deng tangan kosong. after 3P evict throw out PREP 3s go home with hand empty 'Then they kicked him Q!!t sending him home empty-handed (=unsuccessful):
Note that lusir buangl has 15 occurrences, whereas lusir amel has none but is considered possible.
3·3
Aspect with lame/ and !huang/: Activity (imperfective)-+ Accomplishment (perfective) 10
As mentioned above, a useful distinction for KM is between active and non-active verbs. 11 Nonactive verbs are those whose syntactic Subject (i.e. the preverbal core argument) is semantically Undergoer (BE-oriented). Active verbs are those whose syntactic Subject is semantically Actor (DO-oriented). While claiming this basic division, however, it must be recognised that the semantic role structure of unmarked verbs is indicated neither by morphology nor by choice of pronoun sets. How then can we justify a claim that KM verbs make a distinction between active
9· When the verb is used as an imperative, and the direction of the action is with reference to the person being ordered rather than the speaker, the use of lame/ or !huang! can be changed to shift directionality. Much of the discussion in this section on verb typology and aspect is built on the work of Dowty (1979), Foley and Van Valin (1984) and Glv6n (1984). A similar framework has proven very useful for describing the verbal system ofBuru, a CMP language of central Malulru, eastern Indonesia (C. Grimes 199la).
10.
We prefer the terminology of "non -active/active" to that of"stative/active" as we reserve the terms "state" and "process" for interpretations within the "non-active" verbs. Giv6n (1984: 149ti) discusses a similar typology of subjectisation called active/non-active, but says the non-agent subject is marked differently from the agent subject In KM, there is no direct difference in marking agent subject (Actor) and non-agent subject (Undergoer).
11.
349
350
June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes
Table 1. Framework for Kupang verb classes
Name of basic verb class
Number of core arguments
Macrorole of subject
Dowty's verb classes
Non-Active Active transitive Active intransitive
1 2
Undergoer Actor &;:or/Undergoer
States, Processes 12 Activities (x, y), Accomplislunents Activities (x)
and non-active types? The solution lies in looking first at distinctions made when there is marking on the verb roots -for example, with prefixes ba- 'reciprocal' and ta- 'agentless passive'- and then for correlations between those patterns and the morphosyntactic behaviour of unmarked roots, patterns of interaction with the Tense-Aspect-Mood system and patterns of interaction with other verbs in SVCs. However, that task is beyond the scope of this paper. Up to this point, we have demonstrated some broad patterns of behaviour in Section 2.2 above. Basic parameters of major verb classes are laid out in Table 1. Unmarked non-active verbs are ambiguous in that they may have either a stati11e [BE] or a process [BECOME, change-of-state] interpretation. (56)
Dia mati.
'He's dead? 'He's dying?
(state-BE dead) I (process-BECOME dead)
Non-active verbs can be given an unambiguous stative [BE] interpretation with the use of the perfective preverbal/sui 'already'. The use of su here imp lies a state resulting from a process. (57)
Dia su mati.
'He's (already) dead: (resulting state)
Non-active verbs can be given an unambiguous process interpretation with the use of the duralive preverbal/ada/ '(1) exist, (2) be in process of' which has a continuous imperfective sense that something is occurring over a span of time and has internal temporal structure (see Comrie 1976: 24ff.) .13 The verb I maul 'want, desire' functions here to mark irrealis, in this case giving the aspectual sense of immediacy 'is about to' as can also be seen in example (58b ). (58)
a.
b.
Dia ada mau maN. Mau uja11.
'He's dying./ He is going to die./ He's about to die? (process) 'It's going to rain I It's about to rain.'
Active verbs in KM may have either one or two core arguments. One place core-argument active verbs are called active intransitive verbs. Two place core-argument verbs are called acti11e transitive verbs. In both cases, the core argument immediately preceding the verb is in the macrorole of Actor. Some verbs like I makanl 'eat' can be used with either transitivity. When used intransitively,
The type of functional-semantic distinction that we are labelling process is Dowty's (1979) and Foley and Van Valin's (1984) "achievement" verb type. The basic type is referred to in the general literature by the terms "process': «change-of-state~ "inchoative" or «achievement" verbs. The semantic primitive generally associated with these terms is BECOME. 12.
13. There are other mechanisms available as well, including the use of /jadi! 'be, become:
Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions
Table 2. Aspectual parallels in verbal subtypes
PERFECTIVE IMPERFECTIVE
NON-ACTIVE (S = U: BE) State Process
ACTIVE (S =A: DO) Accomplishment Activity
the Object:Undergoer is deemed irrelevant to the discourse and it is the action that is in focus. This is driven primarily by discourse pragmatics, rather than by the syntax or lexicon. Just as non-active verbs are ambiguous between a state [BE] and process [BECOME] interpretation, so are active verbs in that they may have either an activity [DO] or an accomplishment [CAUSE (to do/be/be-at/become)] interpretation. In general aspectual terms, the ambiguity is between perfective and imperfective interpretations (see Comrie 1976). This is summarised in Table 2. Similar to the non-active verbs, active verbs can be given an unambiguous activity (imperfective) interpretation with the use of the durative /ada./ and an unambiguous accomplishment (perfective) interpretation with the perfective /sui.
(activity-DO cutting) I (accomplishment-CAUSE [to become cut])
(59)
Dia poto11g kayu.
'He is cutting wood' 'He cut wood'
(60)
Dia su potong kayu.
'He (already) cut wood' (accomplishment)
(61)
Dia ada potong kayu.
'He is cutting wood'
(activity)
There are many SVCs in KM in which the aspectual functions seems to be the primary function of lame/ or /bu.ang/, whereas directionality seems to be secondary, irrelevant, bleached or backgrounded. The activity is brought to its full or intended conclusion or completion. (62)
Dia potong ame kayu.
(63)
Dia potong buang kayu. 'He cut away the wood (and discarded it)? (accomplishment)
3.3.1
'He cut up the wood (for use)?
(accomplishment)
Verb +Iame/ ~Accomplishment
In addition to the aspectual function, there is often an implication of deliberation or force on the part of the Actor, or degree of effectedness on the part of the Undergoer that is not present without the I arne/ and not accomplished with perfective I sui. (64) Activity (imperfective)
Dia pung waktu barana su
sampe. Ma dia barana susa.
time birth PRF arrive but 3s birth difficult 'Her time for giving birth had come. But she gave birth/was giyipg birth with difficulty.' 3s
(65)
Poss
Accomplishment (perfective result)
Ana-ana
yang dong barana ame tu,
beta pung cucu
samua.
DUP-children RRL 3P birth take DIST ls POSS grandchild all 'The children that they have born. are all my grandchildren?
351
352
June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes
(66) Activity
Ais dla bekin pagar kuliling. then 3s make fence surround 'Then he built/was build! ng (but did not necessarily complete) a fence around
tt:
(67) Accomplishment
Ais dong bekin ame itu
sosonggo. Dia pung model sama ke manusla.
then 3P make take DIST idol 3s Poss shape like human 'Then they made/created that idol (for traditional worship). It was shaped like a human:
Some additional examples of lame/ used to mark accomplishment verbs are given below. Directionality 'toward Actoi can still be involved, but it is often secondary to the aspectual function. (68) gigi ame
beliame tipu ame hela ame pangeame ikaame bawaame sonto ame cuciame 3.3.2
[lit. 'bite take'] [buy take] [trick take] [pull take] [call take] [tie take] [carry take] [touch take] [wash take]
'bite, bite off' 'buy up, buy off, pay off' 'deceive, trick (successfully)' 'pull out, pull away' 'call, summon' 'tie up, bind' 'carry off, take away' 'touch (successfully)' 'wash (until dean)'
Verb + !buang! ~ Accomplishment
In addition to the aspectual function, there is often an implication of deliberation or force on the part of the Actor, or degree of effectedness on the part of the Undergoer, that is not present without the lbuangl and not accomplished with perfective /sui. (69) Activity (process)
Dia pung mama
hapus kasi
karfng dla pung aer mata.
3s Poss mother wipe give=cAus dry 'Her mother was wipin,g her tears dry:
3s Poss tear
(70) Accomplishment (result)
Beta su
hapus buang
lu pung utang dong samua.
1S PRF Wipe throw OUt 2s POSS debt PL all 'I have wiped out/canceled out all of your debts: (71) Activity (process) ltu malam dlmg bakar lampu bam-banya. DIST night 3P burn lamp DUP-many 'That night they lit many lamps: (72) Accomplishment (result)
Ais dla simpan padi yang barisi dalam sokal, ma bakar buang
dia pung kotoran.
then 3s store rice REL dean inside basket but burn throw out 3s Poss dirt 'Then he stored the dean rice in a basket, but burned up the unwanted bits:
Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions
Some additional examples of /bua.ngl used to mark accomplishment verbs are given below. Directionality 'away from Actor' can still be involved, but it is often secondary to the aspectual function. (73)
ila11g buang ancor buang cerebua11g malele buang lapdsbuang ganti bua11g bongkar buang layu buang
'disappear (completely)' 'destroy (completely)' 'divorce, separate (totally)' 'leak out (completely)' 'freed. released' 'totally replace' 'tear down' 'wither away>
[lit. 'disappear throw away>]
[destroy throw away] [separate throw away] [liquify throw away] [release throw away] [replace throw away] [tear apart throw away] [wither throw away]
3·3·3 Perfective with /sui versus Perfective with I ame/ and !huang! The question naturally arises: If the use of lame/ and /huang/ makes activity verbs into accomplishment verbs by making them perfective, how are they different from using the simple "normal" preverbal perfective aspect marker /sui? We have noted several functions ofI amel and /buangl as a modifying verb in KM SVCs: (a) marking directionality, 14 (b) marking perfective aspect (the only function of canonical/sui), (c) an implication of deliberation or force on the part of the Actor, (d) degree of effected ness of the Undergoer (thoroughly, completely), (e) assumption of ongoing use or relevance in the discourse of the Undergoer with la.me/, (f) assumption of no more ongoing use or relevance in the discourse of the Undergoer with /huang/. These latter functions relate to discourse pragmatics and are almost modal in nature. The perfective aspect marker /sui does not have these discourse and modal functions. These are illustrated in the examples below. (74)
Dia makan. 'He is eating. I He ate:
Dia makan }agong bose. 'He is eating hominy.' 'He ate hominy.' (76) Dia su makan jagong bose. 'He (already) ate hominy.'
(activity-DO eating; Undergoer irrelevant)
(75)
(activity-DO eating) I (accomplishment-CAUSE [to become eaten]) (accomplishment)
(77)
Dia makan ame }agong bose. 'He ate up the hominy (for nourishment): (accomplishment)
(78)
Dia makan buang}agong bose samua. 'He ate up the hominy (all the rest of it).'
(accomplishment)
There appears to be an additional subtle distinction happening in discourse. Note that the direct object in examples (59)-(61) is glossed in English as a generic, indefinite or mass noun, but as definite in examples (62)-(63). A similar contrast is found between examples (75)-(76) and
14. The general literature has long observed that in languages like English, direction words can also mark aspect For example: eat up, beat up. finish off, shrug off, kill off, even in idioms such as pig out, fed up, and so forth.
353
354
June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes
(77)-(78). 15 All of these examples could add the definite anaphoric deictic !itu./ 'that' to the direct object. so the issue is not just about definiteness. The contrast seems to be more in the area of given and new information- examples (62)-(63) and (77)-(78) are assuming the hearer(s) are generally familiar with, knowledgeable about. or understand the situation, event or condition being referred to, whether or not they know the specific wood or hominy involved. 3·4
Frequency of functions and distribution
In our text corpus, lame/ functions as the main verb meaning 'take, get. fetch' (a simple verb or main verb in SVCs) in only 21% of occurrences (136 out of 649 occurrences in sentences). It functions as a secondary verb in SVCs modifying verbs for directionality or aspect in 79% of occurrences (513 out of 649 occurrences in sentences ). 16 Similarly, /huang/ functions as the main verb meaning 'throw away, get rid of (a simple verb or main verb in SVCs) in only 8% of occurrences (36 out of 431 occurrences in sentences). It functions as a secondary verb in SVCs modifying verbs for directionality or aspect in 91% of occurrences (395 out of 431 occurrences in sentences)P It should thus be obvious that the functions of Iarne/ and Ihuang/ adding directionality and aspect to the main verb in Kupang SVCs are a significant feature of the grammar of Kupang Malay. It is also worth noting that this feature has no close parallel in the grammar of standard Malay (Indonesian).
4·
Parallels in surrounding languages
If there is no grammatical parallel in standard Malay to the Kupang Malay feature of using Iarne/ and /huang/ to add directionality and aspect to the main verb in Kupang SVCs, then where did KM get this feature? The answer, of course, is to be found in local substrate languages with which KM has been in contact since its early development. Directionality is found widely in the grammars of the very diverse vernacular languages in the surrounding region. The use of verbs similar to KM lame/ and lbua.ngl to mark aspect and discourse pragmatic or modal features parallel to those noted for KM in Section 3 above is also
15. We are grateful to Anne-Marie Brousseau for pointing this out. 16. Our text corpus has over 10,000 sentences. They are from a daily newspaper column (74 days' worth), tran-
scripts of recorded radio broadcasts and translated material that has been carefully checked for acceptability and naturalness mth several groups of native speakers ofKM from varying ethnic backgrounds. For a discussion of the special challenges relating to obtaining reliable data in creole languages, see B. F. Grimes (1989). We feel the very presence of these SVCs in our data are an indication of naturalness and non-interference from standard Malay (Indonesian). 17. Concordance searches of our text corpus were done using Toolbox version 1.4d. (Toolbox is the program that represents the ongoing developments of Shoebox. See www.sil.org/computing!toolbox for recent versions).
Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions
Map 2. Local languages showing similar patterns in their grammars
widespread. We use four very different local languages to represent the patterns found: Helong, Amarasi, Dhao and Lole. 18 The general locations of these four languages can be seen on Map 2. 4.1
Helong
Helor~g (Ethnologue/ISO code beg) is spoken on the island of Semau in Kupang bay and in several communities on the Timor mainland. 19 The traditional landowners around the city of Kupang are Helong. The mainland dialects are endangered (C. Grimes & Cameron 2002). Very little descriptive work has been done until recently (Balle 2007: C. Grimes & Beeh 1995). Helong does not easily cluster with surrounding languages in the way that many others do. Below we look at mechanisms for directionality and aspect in Helong verbs and SVCs. The munples that follow show directionality in Helong SVCs, but do not unravel the underlying morphology, nor identify the unmetathesised forms such as Idak -daek! ,/hapu -haup/, etc.
(79)
Un pgit. ~ lui la lo. 3s return come boat DIST NEG 'He did not return to the boat~
(80)
Kon oen km. le Jr.i1 11Qkm .mgg, also 3P untie IRR hold take come 'Then they untied (the cow) to lead it back here~
[HELONG]
18. Ifwe look farther afield In eastern Indonesia at another CMP language like Buru (C. Grimes 1991a), we find It does not use SVCs to accomplish the aspectual functions discussed above, but rather uses an applicative /-kl suffix. So a parallel function Is there, but It Is accomplished by very different grammatical means.
19- Our Helong data are primarily from Pleter Pong, and Yusuf Bul Mestunl for the Semau dialect; Ever Tit!
and Rev. Salmun Ale-Holballa (deceased) for the Bolok dialect. Misrlanl Balle also checked the examples for naturalness.
3SS
356
June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes
Helong uses Ina.ll 'take' and Isolengl 'throw away' to mark perfective accomplishment verbs in much the same way KM uses lame! and!buangl in SVCs (described in Section 3). These are high frequency constructions in Helong. (81)
Mo eta ku hull
nal
dale
se
hali11 kanan nia, ...
but if 2s choose take ground Loc side right PROX 'But if you choose the land on the right side, .. :
sau nal 'bite off' daek nal 'make, create' koet nal 'accomplish' sap nal 'wed, marry' kat nal 'carry off, take away' haup nal 'hold ori kaih nal 'count thoroughly' (83) Oen hutun soleng una.
[lit. 'bite take'] = KM gigl arne [make take]= KM bekin arne [do take]= KM bekin arne [marry take]= KM kawin arne [carry take]= KM bawa arne [hold take] = KM pegang arne [count take]= KM itongarne
(82)
3P
push throw away 3s
(1) 'They pushed him away (physically): (2) 'They rejected him: (84)
4.2
(like KM pili arne)
nang so/eng nulut soleng kosesoleng pasang so/eng daitsoleng heesoleng niklt soleng
'abandon, leave behind' 'evicf 'wipe away, wipe out, erase' 'throwaway' 'cut off' '(1) sell off, (2) betray' 'lift off, get rid of'
(like KM
tola buang)
[lit. 'go throw away'] = KM jalan kasi tenga [evict throw away] = KM uslr buang [wipe throw away] = KM hap us buang [throw throw away] = KM lempar buang [cut throw away] = KM potong buang [sell throw away]= KMjual buang [lift throw away] = KM angka buang
Amarasi
Amarasi (Ethnologue/ISO code aaz) is spoken in southwest Timor.20 Linguistically, it is at one end of the camp lex Uab Meto language-dialect chain and is representative of the rest of the chain. Because it is often subsumed as part of Uab Meto, very little attention has been paid to it until recently (Middelkoop 1939 is an exception). Below, we look at mechanisms for directionality and aspect in Amarasi verbs and SVCs. In order to not skew the focus away from the purpose of this discussion, only the surface forms are given and the complex Amarasi morphology is not unraveled. (85)
Manse nmaeb on nana te, kor-kefi
nana n(ai11
neem.
[AMARASI]
sun fall like that bird-dove DIST 3-return 3s-come 'During the late afternoon the dove came back.'
20. Our Amarasi data are primarily from Heronimus Bani, Rev. Wilfred Fini Ruku, Zacharias Renati, and Nikanor Taunu. The Amarasi data are from the Kotos dialect Christian scriptures in the Amarasi language can be seen at www.e-alkitab.org.
Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions
(86)
Rari te,
ri' munif
sin Jauk
antaam neman
rna sin nllum
in
aon,
after that young men PL many 3-enter 3P-come and 3P 3-envelop 3sP body-3G
ma neik
je
nnao he ,ISuub.
and 3-take 3s0 3-go IRR 3-bury 1\fter that, several young men came in and wrapped up his body, and took it to go bury it' (87)
Nal'
Petrus nbukae nrari te, in nfeen
annao kuun.
HON-male Peter 3s-eat finish 3s 3-get up 3s-go immediate 'When Peter had finished eating, he got up and left immediately.'
Amarasi uses /neik/'take' and lnporinl 'throw away' (with their various inflections) to mark perfective accomplishment verbs in much the same way KM uses lame/ and /buangl in SVCs (described in Section 3). These are high frequency constructions in Amarasi. (88)
Onalm bi
Omi
nabaak neik In aamf ee In
then HON-female Naomi steal take 3sP father 'Then Naomi stole her fathers belongings: (89)
(90)
musiik rneik mipoo'meik nheek 11eik naitneik nnaa'neik ntoup 11eik nroi neik Usif of
naan je
baer eln.
3sP thing PL (like KM curl arne)
l.lit. 'snatch take'] = KM rampas arne [herd take]= KM bawa arne orfoo arne [catch take]= KM ta11gkap arne l.lifttake] = KM a11gka arne [hold take]= KMpega11garne [receive take]= KM tarima arne [shoulder carry take]= KMpikol bawa
'2s-retrieve' '2P-herd (flock)' '3-kidnap. snatch' '3-take' '3-hold' '3-receive, obtain' '3-carry'
naiti nporin
DI!P
na'ko
In inl,
rna nakrait
ee.
king later 3-lift 3-throw out DIST 3s0 3s-from 3sP possession and 3-destroy 3s0 'The king will exclude him from his people, and destroy him: (like KM angka buang) (91)
4·3
am1ao nporin an'ipu nporin anmate nporin maiti mporb1 mketu mporin mro'i mporin
'3-abandon' '3-break off' '3-die leaving behind s.t: '2-throw out, exclude' '2-cut off' '2-gouge out'
l.lit 'go throw away'] = KM jalan kasi te11ga [shatter throw away] = KM kasi pica buang [die throw away] = KM mati kasi te11ga l.lift throw away] = KM angka buang [cut thiow away] = KM potong buang [gouge throw away] = KM cungkil buang
Dhao
Dhao (Ethnologue/ISO code nfa) is a little described language spoken on the tiny island ofNdao, in the regency ofRote-Ndao.21 It is most closely related to Hawu (Sawu, Walker 1982), but a comparison of several subsystems shows it is a distinct language (C. Grimes, forthcoming). A sketch
21. Our Dhao data are primarily from Rev. Dr. Ayub Ranoh, Michael Sina, LazarLJS Aplugi. and LazarLJS Lusi In the practical orthography, grave accented e is schwa/~/. A stressed (penultimate)/~/ triggers phonetic lengthening of the following consonant./dh/ represents a slightly retroflexed, lightly affricated d./bh/ indicates a lightly affricated b. A consonant followed by an apostrophe indicates an implosive. A double vowel onset represents a non-glottal, slightly pharyngeal fricative onset. More details can be found in C. Grimes (forthcoming).
3S7
358
June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes
of the complex Dhao phonology is also included in C. Grimes (1999). Ranoh et al. (2000) and C. Grimes, Ranoh and Aplugi (2008) provide an introductory dictionary. Below we look at mechanisms for directionality and aspect in Dhao verbs and SVCs. (92)
Jah puru ls
madha ku
descend eye
!1!{lj, se11a ka kedhi unu ku, first come purpose ls-see self first
[DHAo]
ngaa dhu ja}l tadtngi sera, tareh, do aadb. what RBL ls hear 3P true or NEG 'I will come down so I can see for myself whether the things I have been hearing about are true or not: (like KM turun data11g) (93)
Heia na pacal?
ana-dheu emu na asa dedha jara lasl.
then 3s cAus-ascend child-spouse 3s DAT top horse go-3P 'Then he set his wife and children up on top of the horses: (94)
Rengu maso lasi
asa dara emu.
3P enter go-3P DAT inside house 'They went into the house.'
(like KM
maso p{)
Dhao uses lnarel 'take' (with its various inflections) and leele! 'away, completely'- related to !elel 'lose, disappear' - to mark perfective accomplishment verbs in much the same way KM uses lame/ and /huang/ in SVCs (in Section 3). These are high frequency constructions in Dhao. (95)
(96)
(97)
Heia 1.lJnl nare ka hua aj'u ee11a, ka na~. then pick 3s-take PRF fruit tree DIST then2 3s-eat 'Then he picked the fruit off that tree and ate it' saguru nare nat: nare hutu nare kepe nare pili nare hag!? more paramemore taokore suri tare Nengu
~
'cover over' 'eaten completely' 'wrap up' 'grab, hold' 'choose, select' '2s-select out from group' '2s-selze' 'Is-make' '!PI-write (a complete letter, book. etc.)'
eele
jaa 11eti
era
core eele bhokeeele palaho eele tule eele bhelu eele saku eele paceri eele pahie eele patabuli eele
[lit. 'cover take'] = KM tutu ame
[eattake] = KM makan ame [wrap take] = KM bungkus ame !.hold take] = KM pegang ame [select take]= KMpili ame [pick take]= KMpili ame [snatch take] = KM tangkap ame [do take]= KM bekin ame [write take] = KM tulis ame
nel?.
3s evict throw out ls 3s-from place PROX 'He kicked me out of this place: (98)
(like KM ketu ame)
'throw out, get rid of' 'open wide, completely reveal' 'totally destroy' '(1) push away, (2) rejecf 'completely forgotten' 'w.lpe away, erase completely' 'separate, divorce' '(1) sell off, (2) betray' 'free, release, liberate, save'
(like KM
usir bua11g)
[lit. 'throw away disappear'] = KM liang buang [open disappear] [destroy disappear]= KM kasi ancor buang [push disappear] = KM tola buang [forget disappear] = KM lupa buang [w.lpe disappear] = KM hapus buang [separate disappear]= KM cere buang [CAUS-sell disappear]= KMjual buang [release disappear] = KM lapds buang
Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions
4·4
Lole
Lole (Ethnologue/ISO code lle) is spoken in south-central Rote. 2Z Rote language and cultt.rre (primarily the Termanu variety) are most thoroughly described in Jonker (1915) and Fox (1977) respectively, with a sketch in Fox and C. Grimes (1995). Linguistically, Lole is near the centre of the complex Rote language-dialect chain and with regards to directionality and aspect in SVCs is representative of the rest of the chain. Below, we look at mechanisms for directionality and aspect in Lole verbs and SVCs.
Boe ma Yohanis kalua neme uma dale maL then John exit from house inside come 'Then John came out from inside the house.' (100) Hataholi ndia boe oo neni uma dale neu. person DIST also 3s-go1 house inside 3s-go2 'That person also went into the house.' (101) De ala leni matan leu. SO 3PA 3P-go1 front-3sG 3P-go2 'So (consequently) they went to face him.' (99)
[LoLl!]
Lole uses lnala/ 'take' (with its various inflections) 23 and lhenil 'throw away' to mark perfective accomplishment verbs in much the same way KM uses lame/ and !bua.ngl in SVCs (described in Section 3). These are high frequency constructions in Lole. (102) Hataholi 11dia ha'i nala ib: boak kadua, ... person DIST pick up 3s-take fish cLAss two 'That man picked up the two fish, .. : (103) nokenala to'u nala kob nala holu nala ketu lala tao lala kel?.lala mbal:l lala (1 04)
'call, summon' 'grab, hold' 'hold (child)' 'embrace' '3P-pick (fruit, grain) by breaking off' '3P-make' '3P-press out, squeeze' '3P-chisel out (fully, successfully)'
(like KM angka ame) [lit. 'call take'] = KM pange ame [hold take]= KMpegangame [hold in arms take] = KM koko ame [hug take] = KM pal6 ame [pick take] = KM ketu ame [do take]= KM bekin ame [squeeze take]= KMparesame [chisel take] = KM pahat ame
Te neu ko sambak ndia sidb:n de loo hen I tua nasu. elaborate later leaf bucket DIST break so leak throw away palm juice 'Because later the lontar leaf bucket will break and the palm juice will all leak out' (like KM malele buang)
22. Our Lole data are primarily from Albert Zacharias and Martinus Dilak. Note that the final-h on the spelling of Loleh from the Dutch-era literature has no linguistic justification in the language itself. 23. This verb lnala! must be distinguished from the noun phrase level plural enclitic /nala! which has a different function and distribution. The latter is extrametrical and does not participate in word stress.
359
3()o
June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes
(105)
do'i heni husi he11i nafalende heni tete heni lab: heni koka heni naketu heni sebhenl mbo'ihenl
'dig out, tear apart' 'evict, kick out'
l.lit. 'dismantle throw away'] = KM bongkar buang
'completely forget' 'cut off' '3P-eat up, consume' 'wjpe away, erase completely' 'breakoff' '(1) sell off, (2) betray' 'free, release, liberate, sav~
[evict throw away]= KM usir buang [forget throw away] = KM lupa buang [cut throw away]= KMpotong buang [eat throw away] = KM makan buang [wipe throw away] = KM hap us buang [break throw away] = KM pata buang [sell throw away]= KMjual buang [release throw away] = KM lapas buang
The neighbouring Termanu language on Rote is showing an interesting development in this area. The use of the verb I na.la./ is often simplified to Inaal when used as a modifying verb in SVCs. This does not happen when Inala/ is used as a main verb, perhaps indicating it is already beginning to move along the grammaticisation cycle.24 (106)
5·
Jon sao naa hataholi mate sao na. John marry take person dead spouse 3sG-DEF john married the dead man's wife.'
[TERMANU] (naa- nala) (like KM kawin ame)
Summary
In this paper, we have described: 1.
Grammatical mechanisms in Kupang Malay SVCs for indicating aspect and directionality that have no close parallels in the grammar of standard Malay (Indonesian).
We have demonstrated that: 2. There are close semantic, functional and structural parallels in the SVCs of four local vernacular (substrate) languages with which Kupang Malay has been in contact since its early development as a creole. More specifically, we have shown that: Kupang can use Iame/ 'take, get, fetch' and lbuangl 'throw out. throw away, discard' as simple transitive verbs; b. Kupang can use Iamel and Ihuang/ as the main verb in SVCs; c. Kupang can use Iame/ and /buangl as secondary or modifying verbs in SVCs; d. Kupang can use Iame/ in SVCs to indicate energy, motion, direction, or semantic orientation toward the Actor or action of a verb; e. Kupang can use /buangl in SVCs to indicate energy, motion, direction, or semantic orientation away from the Actor or action of a verb; a.
24. We are grateful for discussions with B. D. Grimes and Erasmus Zacharias that led us to see this pattern for TermanLL
Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions
Kupang can use lame/ and lbua.ngl in SVCs to indicate perfective aspect. changing an activityverb into an accomplishment verb in ways that are slightly different than the force of the normal preverbal TAM perfective marker /sui; g. Kupang can use Iamel and /buangl in SVCs to indicate an implication of deliberation or force on the part of the Actor, or degree of effected ness on the part of the Undergoer; h. Kupang can use I arne/ in SVCs to indicate ongoing usefulness or relevance in the continuing discourse; i. Kupang can use /buangl in SVCs to indicate there is no ongoing usefulness or relevance in the continuing discourse; j. Functions (a)-(i) above have close structural and functional parallels in at least four local substrate languages with which Kupang Malay has been in contact since its earliest development; functions (d)-(e) have been clearly illustrated in this paper; functions (f)-(j) are implied by the examples given and are found widely in our texts, but space prevents us from fleshing them out further here; k. Functions (c)-(i) have no structural parallels in standard Malay (Indonesian); (b) has some very limited parallels in Indonesian (Balai Pustaka 1988; Moeliono & C. Grimes 1995; Sneddon 1996); L ln the major regional varieties of Malay in eastern Indonesia, functions (d)-(i) appear to be unique to Kupang Malay.2s f.
It is striking that the equivalent lexical items, glossed 'take' and 'throw away', are used for the
same functions in SVCs both in Kupang and in the four languages exemplified in Section 4. This is an unmistakable case of relexification (Lefebvre 2001, 2004), using phonetic representation derived from the superstrate Malay, but with the same semantics and range of functions as in the substrate languages, in contrast to the semantics and functions of the equivalent words in standard Malay. Therefore we conclude that this provides unmistakable evidence of calquing on the grammars of substrate languages, lending further weight to our broader claim made here and elsewhere that Kupang Malay is a Malay-based creole that has calqued on local substrate languages not only in its phonology and lexicon, but also in significant ways in its grammar. This is contra those who claim that none of the contact varieties of Malay in eastern Indonesia are creoles because they have not seen evidence of them calquing on the grammars of substrate languages (Scott Pauw, pc, August 2007). We feel the data and analysis in this paper provide very strong evidence that Kupang shows significant contact-induced change (B. D. Grimes 2001; Thomason & Kaufinan 1988) and is a full-fledged Malay-based creole, as we have been claiming all along.
25. We are excluding Larantuka Malay (Kumanireng 1982) and Alor Malay which have been in relatively close contact with Kupang Malay. Studies of serial verbs or "verb sequences" in Ambon Malay (Tjia 1997; van Minde 1997), for example, do not document functions (d)- (i) or anything similar.
361
362
June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes
List of abbreviations (for Jacob-Grimes Kupang SVCs) 1s 1PI 2-
first person singular first person plural inclusive second person (unmarked for sg or pl) 2s second person singular 2P second person plural 3third person (unmarked for sg or pl) 3G third person genitive 3P third person plural 3PA third plural Actor 3s third person singular 3sG third singular genitive 3s0 third singular object 3sP third singular possessive CAUS causative CLASS classifier CMP Central Malayo-Polynesian DAT dative DBF definite DIST distal (deictic) DUP reduplication DUR durative GMIT Gereja Masehi l.njili di Timor HON honorific
(m.) IRR ISO ITBR KM lit.
idiom irrealis International Organization for Standardization iterative Kupang Malay literally we locative NEG negative NTT Nusa Tenggara Timur PL plural POSS possessive PRI!P preposition PRF perfective PROX proximal (deictic) RBCIP redprocal RBFL reflexive RBL relativizer S=A Subject= Actor S=U Subject= Undergoer svc serial verb construction TAM tense-aspect-mood UBB Unit Bahasa dan Budaya, GMIT VP verb phrase
References Abas, H. 1987. bulonesian as a Unifying Language of Wider Communication: A Historical and Sociolinguistic Perspective. Canberra: Padfu: linguistics D-73. Adelaar, A K. & Prentice, J. 1996. Malay: Its history, role and spread. ln Aftas of Languages ofIntercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas ['frends in Linguistics, Documentation 13], S. A Wurm, P. Miiblhii.usler & D. 'fryon (eds), 673-694. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Adler, M. K. 1977. Pidgins, Creoles and Lingua Francas. Hamburg: Helmut Buske. Aikhenvald, A Y. 2006. Serial verb constructions in typological perspective. ln Serial Verb Constructions. A Crosslinguistic 'I)pology, A. Y. Aikhenvald & R. M. W. Dixon (eds), 1-68. Oxford: OUP. Alisjahbana, S. T. 1956. Sedjarah bahasa bulonesia. Djakarta: Pustaka Rakjat. Alisjahbana, S. T. 1971. Some planning processes in the developnent of the Indonesian-Malay language. In Can Language be Planned? Sociolinguistic Theory and Practice for Develaping Nations, J. Rubin & B. H. Jernudd (eds ), 179-187. Honolulu HI: University of Hawaii Press. Alisjahbana, S. T. 1974. Language policy, language engineering and literacy in Indonesia and Malaysia. In Advances in Language Planning, J. Fishman (ed.), 391-416. The Hague: Mouton. Balai Pustaka. 1988. Tata Bahasa Baku Bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta: Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan. Balle, M. 2007. Multiple words (homonymy) or multiple senses (polysemy)? Exploring the semantics ofHelong. Paper presented at the 5th International East Nusantara Conference on Language and Culture. 1-3 August 2007. Bickerton, D. 1975. Dynamics of a Creole System. Cambridge: CUP.
Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions
Bickerton, D. 1981. Roots oflanguage. Ann Arbor Ml: Karoma. Bickerton, D. 1983. Creole languages. Scientific American 249(1): 108-115. ffiust, R. A 1978. Eastern Malayo-Polynesian; A subgrouping argument. Pacific Linguistics C-61: 181-234. ffiust, R. A 1993. Central and Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian. Oceanic Linguistics 32(2): 241-293. Brugmans, I. J. 1938. Geschiedtmis vtm het Onderwijs in Nederlandsch-lndiif. Batavia: Wolters. Comrie, B. 1976. Aspect. Cambridge: CUP. Donohue, M. & Grimes, C. E. 2008. Yet more on the position of the languages of eastern Indonesia and East Timor. Oceanic Linguistics 47(1}. 114-158. (Also online: http;//muse.jhtLedu/journals!oceanic_linguistics/toc/ o147.1.html). Dowty, D. R. 1979. Word Meaning and Montague grammar. The Semantics of Verbs and Tunes in Generative Semantics and in Montague~ PTQ. Dordrecht: D. Reidel. Durie, M. 1997. Grammatical structures in verb serialization. In Comple." Predicates, J. B. A Alisna. & P. Sells (eds), 289-354. Stanford CA: CSU. Fasold, R. 1984. The Sociolinguistics ofSociety. Oxford: Basil ffiackwelL Ferguson, C. 1959. Diglossia. Word 15: 325-340. Fishman, J. 1967. Bilingualism with and without diglossia; diglossia with and without bilingualism. Journal of Social Issues 32: 29-38. Foley, W. A & Olson, M. 1985. Clausehood and verb serialisation. In Grammar Inside and Outside the Clause, J. Nichols & A. Woodbury (eds), 17-60. Cambridge: CUP. Foley, W. A & van Valin Jr., R. D. 1984. Functional Synta:c and Universal Grammar [Cambridge Studies in IJnguistics 38]. Cambridge: CUP. Fox, J. J. 1977. Han1est of the Palm: Ecological Change in Eastern Indonesia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Fox, J. J. 1991. History and people: The flow of life in Nusa Tenggara. In East of Bali: From Lombok to Timor, D. Pickell (ed.), Berkeley CA: Periplus Editions. Fox, J. J. & Grimes, C. R 1995. Roti introduction. In Comparative Austronesian Dictionary: An Introduction to Austronesian Studies, ['frends in IJnguistics, Documentation 10, Part l, Fascicle 1], D. 'fryon (ed.), 611-622. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Glv6n, T. 1984. Syntax: A Functional-typological Introduction, Voll. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Grimes, B. D. 1991. The development and use of Ambonese Malay. Pacific Linguistics A-81: 83-123. Grimes, B. D. 200 1. A framework for understanding language change in contact situations. Paper presented at Seminar or Regional Malays. Held in Yogyakarta, 8-10 January 2001. Grimes, B. D. 2005. How Bad Indonesian becomes Good Kupang Malay: Articulating Regional Autonomy in West Timor. Paper presented at Anthropology Symposium, Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, 12-15 July 2005. Grimes, B. F. 1989. Special considerations for creole surveys. Notes on Linguistics 47: 41-63. Grimes, B. F. (ed.). 2000. Ethnologue: La'JgUllges of the World, 2 vols, 14th edn. Dallas TX: SIL International (Online: <www.ethnologue.com> ). Grimes, C. R 1991a. The Buru Language of Eastern Indonesia. PhD dissertation, Australian National University. Grimes, C. R 1991 b. Central Malayo-Polynesian: An interim evaluation. Paper presented atthe Sixth International Conference on Austronesian IJngulstics, Honolulu, May 1991. Grimes, C. R 1996a. Indonesian - the official language of a multilingual nation. In Atlas of Languages ofIntercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, a,ul the Americas ['frends in Linguistics, Documentation 13], S. A. Wurm, P. Miililhausler & D. Tryon (eds), 719-727. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Grimes, C. R 1996b. Languages used in the domain of religion in Indonesia. In Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas [Trends in IJnguistics, Documentation 13], S. A. Wurm, P. Miihlhiiusler & D. Tryon (eds), 633-635. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Grimes, C. R 1999b. Implikasi penelltian fonologis untuk cara menulis bahasa-bahasa daerah dl Kawasan Timur Indonesia (Implications from phonological research for ways of writing vernacular languages in eastern Indonesia). In PELBBA 12: Pertemuan Linguistik (Pusat Kajian) Bahasa dan Budaya Atma Jaya Kedua Belas, S. Dardjowidjojo &Y. Nasanius (eds), 173-197. Kanisius: Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
363
364
June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes
Grimes, C. E. 2000. Introduction: New information filling old gaps in eastern Indonesia. In Spices from the East: Papers in Languages of Eastern Indonesia, C. E. Grimes (ed.), 1-8. Canberra: Pacifu: Linguistics 503. Grimes, C. E. 2001. Cow's udders as a model for understanding creoles. Paper presented at Seminar on Regional Malays, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 8-10 January 2001. Grimes, C. E. 2007. Building the jigsaw puzzle: Seeing the big picture still depends on solid descriptive work for individual languages and cultures. Keynote address at the Fifth East Nusantara Conference. Universitas Nusa Cendana, Kupang, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia, August 1-3,2007. Grimes, C. E. Forthcoming. Hawu and Dhao in eastern Indonesia: Revisiting their relationship. In T}pological and Areal Analyses: Contributions from East Nusantara, M. Ewing & M. Klamer (eds). Canberra: Pacifu: Linguistics. Grimes, C. E. & Cameron, S. 2002 Dialect variation in an endangered language: The case of Helong, West Timor. Paper presented at the Ninth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics. Held at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, January 2002. Grimes, C. E. & Beeh, M 1995. Kamus Pe,'lgantar Bahasa Helo''lg (Introductory dictionary ofHelong). Kupang: Centre for Regional Studies, Universitas Kristen Artha Wacana. Grimes, C. E. & Jacob, J. 2008. Kupa"'g Malay online dictionary. Australian Society for Indigenous Languages and UBB-GMIT. <www.e-kamus2orglhtml/dictionaries_.html>. Grimes, C. E., Ranoh, A. & Aplugi., H. 2008. Lii Dhao (Ndao) online dictionar,v. Australian Sodety for Indigenous Languages and UBB-GMIT. <WWw.e-kamus2.org!html/dictionarles_.ht:ml>. Grimes, C. E., Therik. T., Grimes, B. D. & Jacob, M. 1997. A Guide to the People and LmJgUages of Nusa Tenggara [Paradigma B-1). Kupang: Artha Wacana Press. Holm, J. 1988. Pidgins and Creoles, Vol. 1. Cambridge: CUP. Holm, J. 1989. Pidgins and Creoles, Vol. 2 Cambridge: CUP. Jacob, J. 1999. Verb serialisation in Kupang Malay. Term paper. Asia SIL, Darwin, Australia. Jacob, J. 2001a. A sodolinguistic profile of Kupang Malay, a creole spoken in west Timor, eastern Indonesia. Special topic paper towards the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Linguistics, Northern Territory University. Jacob, J. 2001b. Kupang Malay Creole: The case for its use in bilingual education. Spedal topic paper towards the requirements for the degree of Masters in Applied Linguistics, Northern Territory University. Jacob, J. & Grimes, B. D. 2006. Developing a role for Kupang Malay; The contemporary politics of an eastern Indonesian creole. Paper presented by June Jacob at the lOth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics held in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines, January 2006. (Online: <www.silorg!asialphilippines/ical/papers/ Jacob-Grimes%20Kupang%20Malay.pdf>. Jacob, J. & Grimes, C. E. (comp.). 2003. Kamus pe"'gantar Bahasa KJipang, 2nd edn [Paradigma B-10]. Kupang: Artha Wacana Press. Jonker, J. C. G. 1915. Rottineesche Spraakkunst (Rote Grammar). Leiden: E.J. Brill Kumanireng, T. Y. 1982 Diglossia in Larantuka, Flores: A study about language use and language switching among the Larantuka community, Papers from the third international conference on Austonesian linguistics. Pacific Linguistics C-76: 131-136. Lefebvre, C. 2001. Relexification in creole genesis and its effects on the development ofthe creole. In Creolization and Contact [Creole Language Library 23], N. Smith & T. Veenstra (eds), 9-42. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Lefebvre, C. 2004. Issues in the Study of Pidgin and Creole Languages [Studies in Language Companion Series 70). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Middelkoop, P. 1939. Amarassische-11moreesche teksten. Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootsc.hap11oor Kunsten en Wetenschappen 74(2). Moeliono, A. 1986. LmJgUage Development m'ld Cultivation: Alternative Approaches in Language Planning. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics D-68. Moeliono, A & Grimes, C. E. 1995. Indonesian introduction. ln Comparative Austronesian Dictionary: An Introduction to Austronesian Studies [Trends in Linguistics, Documentation 10, Part 1, Fasdcle 1), D. 'fryon (ed.), 443-457. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions
Miihlhii.usler, P. 1986. Pidgin and Creole Linguistics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Pawley, A. K. 1973. Some problems in Proto-Oceanic grammar. Oceanic Linguistics 12(1-2): 103-188. PACE, Pidgins and Creoles in Education Newsletter. University of Hawai'L <www.hawaiieduJspcl03/pace/> (12 December, 2006). Pittman, R. 1966. Tagalog -um- and mag-. Pacific Linguistics A-8: 9-20. Prentice, D. J. 1978. The best chosen language. Hemisphere 22(3): 18-23; 22(4): 28-33. Ranoh, A, Aplugi, L, Sina, M. & Grimes, C. E. 2000. Kamus Pengantar Bahasa Ndao (Introductory dictionary of Ndao ), Kupang; Centre for Regional Studies, Universitas Kristen Artha Wacana. Reid, A 1984. The Islamization of Southeast Asia. In Historia; Essays in Commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of the Departmmt ofHistory, !AJiversity ofMalaya, M. Abu Bakar et aL (eds). Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya. Ricklefs, M. C. 1993. A History ofModern Indonesia Since c. 1300, 2nd edn. London: The MacMillan Press. Ross, M. 1995. Some current issues in Austronesian linguistics. In Comparative Austronesian Dictionary; An Introduction to Austronesian Studies [Trends in linguistics, Doaunentation 10, Part 1, Fascicle 1), D. Tryon (ed.), 45-120. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Schiller, E. 1990. The typology of serial verb constructions. Chicago Linguistics Society 26: 393-406. Schulte Nordholt, H. G. 1971. The Political System of the Atoni ofTinwr [Verhandelingen van bet Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 60]. The Hague: Martinus NijhofE Siegel, J. 2000. Introduction. In Processes of Language Contact: Studies from Australia and the South Pacific, J. Siegel (ed.). Montreal: Fides. Siegel, J. 2001. Pidgins, creoles and minority dialects in education. In Concise Encyclopedia ofSociolinguistics, R Mesthrle (ed.), 747-749. Oxford: Elsevier. Siegel, J. 2005. literacy in pidgin and creole languages. Current Issues in Language Planning6(3). Siegel, J. 2006. Keeping creoles out of the classroom: Is it justified? In Dialects, Englishes, Creoles, and Education, S. Nero (ed.), 39-67. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Sneddon, J. N. l996.Indonesian Reference Grammar. Brisbane; Allen & Unwin. Sneddon, J. N. 2003. The Indonesian Language: Its History and Role in Modern Societ)! Sydney: UNSW Press. Steinhauer, H. 1983. Notes on the Malay of Kupang (iunor). In Studies in Malay Dialects, Part II, J. T. Collins (ed.), NUSA: linguistic Studies in Indonesian and Languages in Indonesia, Vol17, 42-64. Jakarta: Universitas Atma Jaya. Steinhauer, H. 1991. On Malay in eastern Indonesia in the 19th century. Pacific Linguistics A-81: 197-225. Teeuw, A 1959. The history of the Malay language: A preliminary survey. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- e11 Volkenkunde 115: 138-156. Teeuw, A 1961. A Critical Survey o_fStudies on Malay and Bahasa Indonesia [Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Landen Vollrenkunde Bibliographical Series 5]. 's-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff Thomason, S. G. & Kaufman, T. 1988. Language Contact, Creolizatio,J and Genetic Linguistics. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. Tjia, J. 1997. Serial Verbs in Ambonese Malay, MA thesis, University of Oregon. Todd, L. 1974. Pidgins and Creoles. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Unit Bahasa dan Budaya. 2007. Tuhan Allah pung ]anji Baru: Bahasa Kupang. Kupang; UBB-GMIT. (New Testament in the Kupang language, online version with concordance function at <www.e-alkitab.org> ). UNESCO. 1963. The use of vernacular languages in education: Monographs on fundamental education 8. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO. 2003. The mother-tongue dilemma. Education Today6: 4-7. van Minde, D. 1997. MalayuArn bong; Phonology, Morphology, Syntax. PhD dissertation, Research School CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies, Leiden. Walker, A. T. 1982. A Grammar of Sawu. NUSA: Linguistic Studies in Indonesian and Languages in Indonesia. Vol13. Jakarta: Universitas Atma Jaya. Wardhaugh, R 1992 An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, 2nd edn. London: Blackwell
365
366
June Jacob and Charles E. Grimes
Wheatley, P. 1961. The Golden Khersonese: Studies in the Historical Geography of the Malay Peninsula before A. D. 1500. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press. World Bank. 2005. In their own language... education for all In Education Notes, June 2005. .
Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates* Umberto Ansaldo The University of Hong Kong
Sri Lanka Malay is the vernacular language of the descendants of the Malay-Javanese diaspora of Sri Lanka It is a restructured varlety of Malay, which emerged from the prolonged contact between speakers of Malay varieties and speakers of Sinhala and Tamil varletles. The grammar shows a typological shift from the Austronesian to the Lankan type, a shift that can be explained by the typological pressure that the adstrates Sinhala and Tamil - which are highly congruent- exercise in the trilingual environment. This paper discusses the prevalent grammatical patterns of Sri Lanka Malay in terms of frequency, typological congruence and trilingual admixture. I show that, for a complete understanding of Sri Lanka Malay grammar, we must approach it by taking into full consideration the typological matrix in which it has developed. which includes a Malay-based lexifier and two adstrates, namely Sinhala and Tamil. This argues against a view of Sri Lanka Malay as the product of a bilingual admixture. Keywords: Sri Lanka Malay, typology, Sinhala, Tamil, Case, Tense, Aspect, frequency, trllingualism
1.
Background
Sri Lanka Malay (SLM) is the restructured vernacular spoken by the Malays of Sri Lanka: the descendants of soldiers, political prisoners and slaves brought to Sri Lanka under Dutch and British colonial rule (in particular during the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries). Note that "Malay" is a misnomer here; the term was used during British rule to classify people who came from Java and other parts of the Indonesian archipelago. Indeed the clearest identification is usually with Java for two reasons: (1) the fact that many soldiers, prisoners and convicts were stationed at the Dutch fort in Batavia (Jakarta) before being deported, and (2) the fact that Java was a generic identification for people originating in the Indonesian archipelago (Haan 1922). The Sri Lanka Malays, like other members of the Malay diaspora such as the Cocos Malays, typically refer to their vernaculars as Ja.va (Ansaldo 2008, 2009a). This research was supported by the Volkswagen Stiftung's initiative for the docwnentation of endangered languages (DoBeS). The core argument of this paper is already put forward in Ansaldo (2005). I would li.lre to thank Christine Jourdan, Alain Kihm and Sebastian Nordhoff for their useful comments on this version.
368
Umberto Ansaldo
From the late 1800s, census data show that the Malays consistently comprised approximately 0.33 percent of the population of Sri Lanka. The largest group of people assigned a Malay origin came as soldiers from such disparate places as Bali, Java, Riau, Ambon, the Maluku Islands and peninsular Malaysia; it was a common practice for Malay and Indonesian women to accompany the soldiers (Ansaldo 2008, 2009a; Hussainmiya 1987; Schweitzer 1931). Overall, three different communities could be distinguished in the past: (1) a rather sophisticated diaspora of noblemen and their families; (2) a "Malay" garrison, which would become the Ceylon Rifle Regiment under the British (Ricklefs 1974); and (3) a group of convicts of whom little seems to be known. As far as the first two groups are concerned, contacts between them were quite frequent (Ansaldo 2008), due among other reasons to the practice of employing noblemen as officers of the troops, as well as to intermarriages (Hussainmiya 1987, 1990). The Malay diaspora was characterised as a closeknit community during colonial rule; the contacts between the different Indonesian ethnicities and different social extractions were maintained in particular through the ranks of the army as well as through common religious practices (Ricklefs 1974). Though linguistically diverse, the Malay diaspora used a Malay lingua franca as a language ofinterethnic communication; this language has been identified as a Bazaar Malay variety (Hussainmiya 1987), a type ofBatavian Malay (Haan 1922), a variety of Moluccan Malay (Adelaar 1991), or a type of Trade Malay (Paauw 2003; Smith et al. 2004). In the ecology of Sri Lanka, this Pidgin Derived Malay (PDM) variety came into contact with two adstrate 1 languages: colloquial Sinhala and Lankan Tamil. The former was, and is to this day, the dominant language of the majority of the population, the Sinhalese, who see themselves as the legitimate inhabitants of the island. The latter was the language of the largest minority group, as well as a widespread language of trade throughout Monsoon Asia (Ansaldo 2008, 2009a). The Sri Lanka Malay diaspora, 50,000 strong, is at present distributed among various communities located around the island, which vary in socioeconomic and educational status and in their linguistic repertoire and communicative practices. Although SLM appears to comprise perhaps five different varieties (Lim & Ansaldo 2006), and there is also a sense of separate identity for each of the different communities (SLM community p.c. 2003-2006), the speakers nonetheless identifY themselves as the same ethnic group and have been predominantly endogamous. The various communities show different degrees and types of multilingualism, depending on their locality and network. The population is trVquadrilingual to varying degrees of competence, or at least semi-trilingual in SLM, Sinhala or Tamil and English. Although some SLM communities are geographically quite remote, there is no linguistic isolation from the adstrates (Lim & Ansaldo 2006, 2007). This paper argues that the evolution of SLM can only be properly explained by considering the linguistic interactions that occur within a trilingual ecology, in which Malay, Sinhala and Tamil features come into contact (Ansaldo 2008, 2009a, 2009b; Ansaldo & Nordhoff 2009). The argument is structured as follows: Section 2 discusses previous scholarship and methodology.
1. The term "adstrate" is preferred to the dichotomy implied by the terms "substrate/superstrate" considering that, until independence from the British, Malay, Sinhala and Tamil existed on a par as the languages spoken by colonial subjects (Ansaldo 2008).
Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates
Section 3 offers an analysis of SLM grammar. Section 4 evaluates the data and their significance for theories of SLM genesis.
2.
Previous scholarship and methodology
The evolution of SLM has been captured in terms of (1) bilingual admixture or intertwining (Bakker 2000), (2) creolisation as well as monosubstratal genesis (Smith & Pauuw 2006; Smith et al. 2004), and (3) convergence under trilingual admixture (Ansaldo 2008). Views (1) and (2) have in common the assumption that a Malay-Tamil Moor bilingual admixture due to intermarriage was the origin of SLM grammar, based on the claim, particularly strong in (2), that no Sinhala influence is found in SLM. Both claims are seriously questioned by the analysis presented below, in which the presence of Sinhala features is obvious. In addition, claims (1) and (2) are criticised in Ansaldo (2008) for being ahistorical and methodologically weak. In relation to history, Tamil-Malay intermarriage rarely features in historical records or oral history and appears to be neither more nor less common than Sinhala-Malay intermarriage. 2 This position can be more properly evaluated after the discussion presented below, and I therefore return to previous scholarship in the conclusions (see Section 3). To be sure, it is impossible to know with certainty which Malay variety was used in the formative stages of SLM since variation was very high, documentation of contact- Malay varieties is still incomplete, and there is no accurate reconstruction available at this time. What is clear is that a PDM variety was spoken, in the sense of Adelaar and Prentice (1996) and Adelaar (2005). SLM has been shown to derive from PDM varieties (Adelaar 1991, 2005; Adelaar & Prentice 1996), and it is certain prototypical PDM features that can be most reliably used in discussing the early lingua franca of the Malay diaspora in Sri Lanka (Ansaldo 2008, 2009a). As argued in Ansaldo and Nordhoff (2009), it is also important to appreciate that, while descriptions of colloquial Sinhala are available in the literature (e.g., Gair & Paolillo 1997; Karunatillake 2004), very limited information on Sri Lankan (Muslim) Tamil is available at present. We do not have detailed intormation of these languages and we must therefore rely on descriptions of contemporary varieties, despite the great diversity of the latter (Ansaldo 2008, 2009a). Fortunately, for the sake of typological comparison, there are descriptions of Indian Tamil available, which offer just as precise - if not more accurate - comparison data as contemporary Sri Lankan Muslim Tamil; after all, the Muslim Tamil variety the Malays encountered was a 300-year-old version of the language currently spoken on the island and indeed originated in South India. Moreover, the extent and importance of dialectal variation in Sri Lankan Tamil is not known, and a reconstruction of a historic form of Sri Lankan Muslim Tamil is not available at this stage. In this paper, the focus is on the case system of SLM, which is obviously of Lankan origin, and on the Tense and Aspect categories, which emerged partly under the influence of Lankan Tense systems but retain some aspectual categories of Malay origin.
2.
The Tamil Moors were in particularly close contact with the Malays due to their shared Muslim belief.
369
370
Umberto Ansaldo
3·
SLM grammar
3.1
Case
Case systems are common and robust features of South Asian grammars and appear to spread relatively easily in intense contact situations, as shown by the development of case markers in vernacular varieties such as Diu Indo-Portuguese (Cardoso 2009), Sri Lanka Creole Portuguese (Smith 1979) and SLM. Indeed, the most striking feature of the SLM NP is a full set of post-nominal case markers; this must be considered a unique feature among restructured Malay varieties, since Malay languages are typically isolating to mildly agglutinative and do not feature nominal case morphology. We do of course find case systems in Indo-Aryan grammars, to which Sinhala belongs, as well as in Dravidian languages, to which Sri Lankan Tamil belongs. Both languages show agglutinative morphology with fusional tendencies. Note also that, because of more than a millennium of intense contact. Sinhala and Tamil grammars have converged typologically and show substantial similarities (Emeneau 1980; Masica 1976). As the rest of this section shows, SLM has developed agglutinative morphology with incipient fusional tendencies in the nominal system, which indicates a typological shift away from the isolating type, as briefly illustrated in (1) (Ansaldo 2009a; Ansaldo & Nordhoff2009): (1)
ni
aanak-nWJ
baek buku-yaiJ attu aada
This student-nAT good book-Ace one exist 'This student has a good book.'
As we can see in the example, Dative and Accusative are marked by suffixes attached to the noun. Note also the verb-final order, which follows Sinhala and Tamil (or "Lankan") typology, and not Malay/Indonesian, which is strongly verb-medial. 3.1.1
Morpheme sources
It is typical ofPDM varieties (Adelaar & Prentice 1996) to derive the lexicon primarily from material of generic Malay origin. Table 1lists the SLM case markers and their probable etymology:3 As can be seen, the lexical origin of these grammatical markers is clearly Malay (see Nordhoff 2009 for alternative etymological origins).
Table l. Etymology of case markers in SLM Case
Marker
Dative "Accusative" or definite object marker (noM) Possessive Locative Instrumental/Ablative Comitative Nominative
-nang -yang
-pe -ka
-ring -le 0
Etymology Malay ,umg 'towards'
Malay-nya [+defmarker] PDM pe [from possessive punya] Malay directional ke Jakarta bikin 'to make' (Malay de < dengan 'with')
3· Exact etymologies are difficult to obtain considering the diversity of Malay/Indonesian features involved in Bazaar Malay varieties.
Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates
Table 2. Functions of case in Sinhala, Tamil and SLM* Case Nominative Dative
Accusative Genitive-Locative Instrumental-Ablative Comitative
Sinbala Agent Experience.r GoaJ.. Beneficiary Possessor Patient Location Temporary possession Instrument/Source Association
Tamil Agent Expe.rience.r Goal Beneficiary Possessor Patient Location Path/Temporary poss. Source Association/Instrument
SLM Agent Experience.r Goal Beneficiary Possessor Patient Possession Location Instrument/Source Association
* See Ansaldo (2009a) for details.
3.1.2
Structural features of case in SLM, Sinhala and Tamil
As this section shows, the syntactic and semantic features of SLM are predominantly of the Lankan type. Table 2 illustrates the functions of case in SLM and its adstrates, Sinhala and Tamil. In comparing thematic roles in the three languages, we derive the following observations: 1. Prototypical Agents in SLM, Sinhala and Tamil are unmarked. 2. Experiencers and Goals in SLM, Sinhala and Tamil cover the same functional range: They correspond to Dative case in the adstrates and have lack of Volition or Control as the key semantic feature. 3. Accusative marking is really definite object marking in SLM and shares the feature [+definiteness] with Tamil and its optionality with Sinhala (Nordhoff 2009). 4. SLM shares the Instrumental-Ablative syncretism with Sinhala. 5. In SLM, Genitive and Locative receive different marking; SLM therefore has a specialised Possessive marker, an innovation in relation to the adstrates.
It is clear that the SLM case system is heavily influenced by Sinhala and Tamil grammatical categories; the Sinhala influence is particularly obvious in (4), and the combined influence of both adstrates is argued for below. 3.1.3
Frequency and function
While syntactically, case is realised post-nominally in SLM, congruent with Lankan grammar, semantically it has aspects that can be considered innovative. In what follows, I focus on the core cases of SLM and the grammatical relations they mark. Arguably the most prominent case in Sinhala and Tamil is Dative, which is highly versatile grammatically, as Table 2 shows. A particular feature of Dative in these languages is that it codes Experiencers, namely subjects that are not in complete control of the event predicated and therefore are not prototypical Agents. How this works is illustrated in Figure 1 below. This alignment is clearly present in the grammar of SLM: Dative case is assigned in the same way as in the adstrates Sinhala and Tamil, as shown in Table 3 and illustrated in examples (2) and (3).
371
372
Umberto Ansaldo
NOM-DAT alignment NOM< Agent [+Control]
>DAT Experlencer [-Control] Psych Vs; modal predication
F.igure 1. The Control feature Table 3. Assignment of Dative in SLM and adstrates Sinhala and Tamil Theta-role Experiencer Goal/Benefactive Possession
SLM
Sinhala
Tamil
.r .r .r
.r .r .r
.r .r
(2) go-daiJ Mr. falaldeen-yaiJ kutumun 1-DAT Mr. J-ACC see 'I see Mr. Jalaldeen.' (3)
Sir
aanak-pada-yaiJ ruma-naiJ e-luppa
teacher chlld-PL-ACC house-DAT PAST-send 'The teacher sent the chlldren home:
Note that the conflation of Experiencer, Benefactive, Goal and Possession is not peculiar or unique to South Asian languages, but can be seen as a universal tendency of Dative case marking, as clearly shown by Blake (1994: 145), who describes Dative as the main non-core case used to mark complements. When we turn to the functions of Accusative, we find that, unlike Dative, Accusative is not very versatile. In Sinhala, Accusative is only used with animate objects. Moreover, even with animate nouns, this case is very likely to be optional in Sinhala (Gair & Paolillo 1997). In Tamil, Accusative case is only obligatory for a human direct object With non-human referents, this case is only used to mark definite objects. In SLM, Animacy appears not to be widely marked, though the pronominal system shows variable case marking for Dative first and second person singular, a manifestation of the Animacy distinctions captured in Silverstein's (1976) hierarchy: While first- and second-person pronouns are marked with the DAT suffix da.ng, the rest of the paradigm receives the suffix nang: go-dang, lu-dang 'I: 'you' vs. dia-nang 's!ht!, kitang-nang 'wt!, lorangnang 'you-PL' and dera.ng-nang 'they' (see also Ansaldo 2005, 2008, 2009a; Ansaldo & Lim 2004; Nordhoff2009 presents a diverging analysis). As in Tamil, Accusative tends to mark definiteness in SLM; however, as in Sinhala, it is quite optional Moreover, Accusative marking is also used sporadically for what appears to be emphasis, an innovative trait of SI.M when compared to its adstrates: (4)
inni kendera-yaiJ bapi This chair-Ace take.go 'Take this chair away.'
Interestingly, in Colloquial Malay varieties, an emphatic marker -nya is found that closely resembles the SLM Accusative marker -yang (or -ya).
Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates
The contrast between Dative and Accusative in SLM is particularly revealing of the forces behind contact-induced change and can be conceptualised as follows. In both Sinhala and Tamil (the Lankan adstrates ), Dative covers identical functions, leading to high type frequency in the contact situation; due to its grammatical versatility, Dative markers are also very prominent in discourse, leading to high token frequency. On the contrary, the functions of Accusative do not overlap completely in the Lankan adstrates, so its type frequency is lower. Moreover, Accusative marking can be optional and is functionally restricted, so that its discourse frequency in the contact environment is lower. The picture is thus quite clear: High token and type frequency causes SLM- which is based on an ancestral language that lacks nominal morphology- to adopt identical Dative functions as in the adstrates. Low type and token frequency, on the other hand, results in the partial adoption of adstrate features, as well as innovation in SLM. Moving our analysis outside the core cases, we can make two more interesting observations. In SLM, we find InstrumenVAblative syncretism, meaning that the Instrumental case marker -ring may indicate Source: (5)
market-riiJ a is- tra baaru ilckaiJ billi bawa market-ABL ice-NEG new fish buy bring
'Get me some fresh (lit. 'not frozen, new') fish from the market:
This parallels the functions of Instrument in Sinhala, but not in Tamil in which Instrument and Ablative are clearly distinct (Ansaldo 2005, 2008; Silva 2003); clearly, in this divergence between Sinhala and Tamil, SLM seems to follow the former. However, this is not always the case: ln the realisation of Possessive, a different outcome is found. As Table 2 shows, SLM has two distinct cases for Locative and Possessive; the SLM possessive case suffix is -pe, a derived form of the Malay pu.nya 'to possess': (6)
goppe tumman go-yQIJ e-tolak I.POSS frlend 1-ACC PAST-push 'My friend pushed me:
Reduced variants of punya are well attested as distinguishing features of contact-Malay varieties (PDM) such as Bazaar Malay, Baba Malay, etc. This possessive marker is one of the most robust features of Bazaar Malay varieties (Ansaldo 2009a), which leaves little doubt that its retention in SLM must be a manifestation of the Founder Principle invoked by Mufwene (1996), whereby the influence of early settlers and features of their language varieties can have a long-lasting in.tl uence on the new language. As an archaic feature of a Malay lingua franca, it is most likely that this teature was maintained from the original vernaculars of the SLM community and its adaptation led to the development of a new case that distinguishes SLM from its adstrates. 3.1.4 Evaluation The case system ofSLM indicates that overall frequency determines selection in the typological matrix (TM) (Ansaldo 2009a). The general congruence of Sinhala and Tamil leads to the high type frequency of the Lankan grammatical features that are selected, as seen in morphology, constituent order and case marking.
373
374
Umberto Ansaldo
In the case of Dative, Tamil and Sinhala essentially show total congruence in the contact matrix of a typical South Asian Dative; moreover, Dative has very high discourse-frequency, as it is obligatory and employed in a wide range of functions. The result can be captured as follows: High type/token frequency features are likely to be replicated in the new grammar.
In the case of Accusative, however, there is less typological congruence between Sinhala and since the former is more sensitive to Animacy than Definiteness. Therefore type frequency is undermined. Moreover, Accusative appears less prominent in terms of discourse semantics, being more limited in its functional range and optional in most cases. This results in low discourse frequency, as is also revealed by its absence from other analyses of SLM case (Smith et al. 2004; see also Slomanson 2006). In this case, the SLM Accusative emerges as an adaptive innovation, which only partially combines the dominant features of the adstrates and also exhibits a novel function. We can therefore generalise as follows: Tami~
Low type/token frequency features are likely to be recombined innovatively in the new grammar.
Finally, in the non-core cases, we see two interesting patterns emerging. First, we note that, where there is a significant lack of typological congruence between the adstrates, as with the Instrument/ Ablative case, SLM patterns with the dominant language, Sinhala. This can be attributed to token frequency, confirming the general pattern in which frequent features are more robust in the evolution of grammar (Ansaldo 2009b; Bybee 2006), in this case justified by prestige and numerical majority. However, this is not always the case: A different pattern can be observed in the possessive. Here an early possessive morpheme retained from the ancestral language - one of the most robust PDM features across contact varieties of Malay -leads to the formation of a new case marking, which I have attributed to the Founder Principle. These different outcomes show that typological analysis based on frequency can explain much of what happens in the restructuring process, but not necessarily everything.
3.2
Aspect and Tense
While Malay varieties do not mark semantic roles through case, they do exhibit Tense/Mood/ Aspect (TMA) distinctions; the result is a more complex interaction between Lankan and Malay features than is observed in the case system. In both Sinhala and Tamil, Tense is a more salient semantic domain than Aspect On the other hand, Malay varieties in general do not mark Tense, but have elaborate aspectual systems. For these reasons, I focus on temporal distinctions in the adstrates rather than aspectual ones; the latter domain is optional and variable. For example, Tamil Aspect is optional and is usually marked through aspectual verbs, rather than grammatical markers; therefore, it is not fully grammaticalised (Schiffman 1999). When we look into how Tense is realised in the adstrates, we see that while Sinhala has two tense categories, Past and Non-past, Tamil has three, namely Past, Present and Future. As shown in Table 4, SLM has over
Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates
time adopted tense distinctions that follow the Sinhala pattern;4 also shown in Table 4 is the fact that aspectual distinctions still play a significant role in the marking of events in SLM. Table 4 illustrates the predominantly Malayic origin of Aspectual (and Tense) markers in SLM (Nordhoff 2009). As can be seen, all TMA markers can be etymologically identified in varieties of Malay, particularly PDM (see Adelaar 1991 for a detailed discussion): Ambonese Malay for the perfective and past markers, Moluccan, Baba and Bazaar Malay for the present/progressive, and Bazaar and Moluccan Malay for the negation marker. The only non-evident marker is the Continuous form ambe(l)dudu, illustrated in (7): (7)
Go market-naiJ
(e)pi ambe ar-dudu si-jato market-towards (PAST).go go PROG-Sit PFV-fall 'While I was going to the market I fell'
The form ambil exists in Indonesian Malay as a pre-verbal particle with identical functions (Slomanson 2006). As Table 5 shows, the resemblance between SLM and other contact Malay varieties is quite strong in terms of their aspectual systems and indicates the retention of ancestral language features. While SLM has predominantly aspectual marking, it does mark at least Past vs. Non-Past, a fact that implies a closer functional alignment with Sinhala. At the same time, Tense in general is not obligatory in SLM and Aspect marking is clearly more frequent in discourse. Considering the relatively scanty information we have on Aspect in Sinhala and especially (Lankan) Tamil, it is difficult to generalise. But the lexical and structural isomorphy with PDM categories leaves little doubt that Malay aspectual functions are reflected in SLM. Still, the fact that, morphologically, TMA in this creole is more agglutinative than isolating reveals the depth of congruence with the Lankan type in the overall grammar ofSLM. Note also that TMA morphology in SLM is pre-verbal, while it is post-verbal in Lankan typology; this yields a certain variation in the Table 4. Morpheme sources for TMA markers in SLM (Ansaldo 2009a) Function
Morpheme
Etymology
Perfective/past Past Perfect Progressive/habitual/present/non-past Future/irrealis Completive Continuous Negation
si-
PDM su(dah), (perfective) si > se > e? PDM ada 'to have' (emphatic) 5 PDM ada (progressive)
ada (post-verbal) ar(e)ati-/aiabis (post-verbal) amhe.(er)dudu.(wattu) (post-verbal) tada
M. nanti 'soon' M. habis 'finisH amhel + duduk 'take sit' PDM tar/tra 'no(t)' {M. tidak ada 'not have')
4· There appears to be some variation in SLM varieties here: Ansaldo and Nordhoff (2009) find evidence of a hybrid system in the Kandy variety, where a third tense seems to have emerged. However, the argument in favour of a clear future marker is weak: It is very infrequent and more likely to be a matter of irrealis modality (Ansaldo & Nordhoff 2009; Smith & Pauuw 2006: 168-169 ).
5· Similar functions are found in Ambonese Malay (though there it is preverbal; van Minde 1997: 191).
375
376
Umberto Ansaldo
Table 5. Aspect in PDM varieties (Ansaldo 2009a)
Function Perfective lncompletive Recentive Future Irrealis Progressive Past/habitual
Baba Malay (BM) suda belum
mo/nanti nw/nanti lagi (. . .lagi) dulu
Bazaar Malay (BZM) sudalhabis belum baru nanti mahu lagi!ada dulu
Cocos Malay (CM) (su)dah b(e)lum baru nanti maulmu lagi
constituent-order of the SLM VP which, though predominantly V-final, also allows for V-medial structures (Slomanson 2006). 6 3.2.1
Discussion
We have observed the following in the evolution of the verbal domain in SLM: 1.
2.
3.
Sinhala and Tamil do not show overall congruence in Aspect; moreover, there are PDM aspectual features in the matrix. SLM maintains Malay aspectual features due to (a) low type and token frequency of Lankan aspectual features; this is the result of the lack of typological congruence between the adstrates and the optionality of Aspect marking; and (b) vitality of the ancestral language, which can be seen as another manifestation of the Founder Principle. Sinhala and Tamil Tense categories have a relative degree of functional congruence and are salient semantic categories in discourse. This results in Tense development in SLM along Lankan lines. TMA is a less tightly organised system than case.
In relation to the third point, it must be noted that there is an important systemic difference between Case and TMA. The systemic organisation of case is tightly structured as a declension system around interdependencies ofTheta-role assignments (e.g., Haspelmath 2006), while TMA really involves different semantic domains. As aptly observed by Matras (2000, 2003), among others, in contact-induced change a whole system can be transferred from one language to the other, especially when the system has high semantic/pragmatic visibility. This type of "categorical fusion" has been documented in other contact environments, such as discourse particles in Singlish (Ansaldo & Lim 2004; Lim 2007; Lim & Ansaldo 2006). The contrast between the evolution of Case and TMA in SLM also shows that tightly organised systems are likely to be selected in toto in the restructuring process. Without such clear systemic organisation, there is less typological pressure from the Lankan adstrates on the PDM features; this pressure is also diminished by the well-developed aspectual system ofPDM varieties that are rich in aspectual categories.
6. This could be either a case of retention of Malayic V-medial order or a result of the fact that spoken Sinhala allows substantial word-order variation in the VP (Silva 2003), which may trigger selection ofVO-OV patterns from the matrix. This is a common observation in contact language formation (see Chapter 7), and perhaps a general reflection of the fact that constituent order is not always as fixed as grammatical theories like to portray it.
Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates
3.2.2
VP and NP compa.red
In terms of constituent order, the VP shows less congruence with Lankan grammar than the NP (Slomanson 2006, 2007).7 The only way to explain the contrast between the N and V domains lies in the notion of typological "gang-up" (Ansaldo 2005, 2008): It is the congruence of the two adstrates, combined with the lack of PDM marking of grammatical relations, that leads to an overall restructuring of the NP towards the Lankan type in SLM. Likewise, it is the lack of adstratal congruence, together with the presence of PDM aspectual material, that leads to limited restructuring of the VP in the SLM TM. This shows that any plausible explanation of the evolution of SLM must be derived from the observation and analysis of the trilingual situation, in which all the three languages present in the TM are given serious consideration. & we will see, this corroborates the claim that previous accounts that rely on bilingualism alone (Slomanson 2006: 156) and the overwhelming influence of Tamil (Smith & Pauuw 2006) need to be revised (see also Ansaldo 2008).
4·
Genesis of SLM and the role of the adstrates
In what follows, I retrace and critically evaluate the claims put forward to account for the genesis of SLM. Apart from the work of Slomanson (2006), who recognises the influence of Lankan languages in the evolution of SLM grammar, other accounts have taken the view that SLM resulted from bilingual contact between Tamil Moors and Malays. This view was born out of historical speculations found in the work ofHussainmiya (1987, 1990), as well as the idea that SLM might be the product of language intertwining (Bakker 2003); it has led to a problematic methodological approach in which Sinhala data are discounted from the analysis (Smith & Pauuw 2006; Smith et al. 2004). This state of affairs has been referred to as the KTamil bias"; it is summarised below (Ansaldo 2008, 2009a): 1.
2.
3.
7-
Hussainmiya (1987), the first extensive account ofSLM history, notes that the Dutch Thornbas (records of marriage kept under the Dutch) list some mixed marriages, including MalayTamil Moor, Ambonese-Malabarese and Malay-Sinhalese; he also suggests that SLM may be influenced by Sinhala, Tamil or both. 8 Hussainmiya (1990) notes frequent episodes of religious and cultural exchange between Malays and Moors that could have taken place in the mosque because of their shared Muslim faith. Based on the above tacts, Bakker (2000) argues for rapid typological convergence and admixture with Sinhala and Tamil as a recent development; he assumes that "creolisation" may account for the earlier stages of SLM's history and postulates an evolutionary path from a Malay-Tamil jargon to contemporary SLM. This argument rests on the assumption that SLM's genesis may have followed the same route as that of Sri Lankan Creole Portuguese (SLCP).
This is corroborated by the generative analysis of the SLM VP (Sloman son 2006).
8. Hussainmiya humbly adds that his Kexercise is not undertaken with any formal training in linguistic techniques..." (1987: 157-158).
377
378
Umberto Ansaldo
4.
Based on (2) and (3), Smith (2003) investigates Accusative markers in SLM in order to prove the substantial influence of Tamil. He concludes that one can only argue for a lack of Sinhala
evidence, and not for a positive Tamil influence. Smith et al (2004) present a slightly revised position, claiming a general influence of Tamil and a general Lankan influence in the evolution ofSLM. 6. Based on (3), Heine and Kuteva (2005) simply present SIMas a Tamil-Malay creole. 7. Smith and Pauuw (2006) argue for a monosubstratal (i.e., Tamil) genesis ofSLM. 8. Slomanson (2006) argues for convergence between SLM, Sinhala and Tamil (though MalayTamil bilingualism is invoked to explain some aspects of tense marking). 5.
In order to assess the original historical claims found in Hussainmiya's work, Ansaldo (2008) investigates the same marriage records referred to in the historical sources. The results show that many of the records for the period up to 1796 were damaged by water, making significant parts of the entries impossible to assess. While the most revealing information for identification here is the parties' signatures, there is hardly any information on ethnic groups, which makes it difficult to identify Malays/Indonesians and Moors, considering that both groups share the practice of adopting Arabic names. In a particularly interesting section in the Thombas dedicated to mixed marriages (Hussainmiya 1987), only five of 238 entries clearly refer to individuals of Javanese origin: Of these, two records refer to a Javanese-Moor marriage, one to a Javanese-Javanese marriage, and the remaining two are unclear. From 1796 until1919, mixed marriages were still very rare, with a majority involving Western parties, not Moors; there are two clear entries involving Malays, one married to a Eurasian (between 1867 and 1897), and one to a Burgher (1885-1897). From 1897 onwards, race is dearly specified; of 196 entries, only one is Malay. Clearly, this evidence is not adequate to support a claim ofbilingual admixture or of privileged contacts with the Moors on the part of the Malays. On the contrary, it indicates a very low degree of intermarriage, a fact that is fully corroborated by the oral history collected from 50 Malay families of Sri Lanka (Ansaldo 2008), from which it clearly emerges that endogamy was and still is widely practised in the Malay diaspora. To be fair, in steps (1) and (2) there was only a weak suggestion of a possible Tamil influence in the evolution ofSIM; however, subsequent linguistic literature has stubbornly developed this claim and turned it into a truism, notwithstanding the fact that direct attempts at proving it have basically failed. The parallel with the Portuguese Creole of Batticaloa expressed in (3) is likewise historically inaccurate. SLCP is the variety of Indo- Portuguese developed in Batticaloa, a traditionally Tamil-inhabited territory on the Eastern coast of Sri Lanka. This variety, like SLM, displays a strong influence of Sinhala/Sri Lankan Tamil typology, but may well show a stronger influence of Tamil than of Sinhala. 9 However, it cannot be assumed that what may hold true of the genesis of SLCP can be extended to the history of SLM, as the environments in which the two varieties evolved are markedly different (in fact, no two ecologies of contact are ever the same; Mufwene 2001). SLCP may have developed in a small, focused community in contact with predominantly Tamil-speaking communities, where predominantly Portuguese males would have
9· Though Bakker does not present any evidence in favour of this latter point, a historical explanation might be found if we consider that the Batticaloa area has typically been Tamil-dominated.
Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates
come into contact with Tamil speakers, though Sinhala influence has not been ruled out SLM, on the other hand, evolved in Malay-speaking communities, including women, in more diffuse settings in Sinhala- and Tamil-speaking areas of Sri Lanka. Therefore, while SLCP may be aresult of Portuguese-Tamil admixture through intermarriage, in the case of SLM, intermarriage and admixture with specifically Tamil speakers is neither attested nor historically plausible. It is crucial to consider that, although intermarriage was a common, quasi-institutionalised practice in Portuguese domains overseas (Bethencourt 2005; Chapter 7 this volume), it was clearly discouraged in SLM communities, and especially with Tamil Moors, who had low social status. Postulating development from an early jargon is likewise historically unfounded and theoretically problematic: Why would the communities of Malays, who were socially fully functional as soldiers, guards, planters and fishermen, speak a "jargon"? The most serious attempt to date to argue for Tamil as a primary "substrate" is claim (4) which, crucially, failed to find any evidence. The fact that absence of Sinhala influence is found, rather than presence of Tamil influence, is not surprising at all considering that the focus was on finding proof of Tamil not Sinhala, influence. The same methodological problem affects a more recent attempt underlying the claim of a Tamil-based TMA system (8), as only Tamil was investigated and Sinhala data are absent As this paper shows, the emergence of case in SLM is largely due to a process of typological congruence of the Lankan adstrates that imposes a new grammatical system in the emerging grammar. This is most vividly visible in the emergence of Dative, where high type and token frequency leads the SLM to develop identical functional properties to Sinhala and Tamil. While typological congruence also causes the emergence of other cases, a lower frequency of types and tokens leads to only partial adoption of Accusative functions. As shown above, there are clear functional- typological reasons why the SLM Accusative, one of whose functions is to mark definiteness, looks the way it does. It is the result of lower type/token frequency and behaves crosslinguistically like other typical Accusative cases. A direct intiuence of Sinh ala is also found in the case system, in the Ablative-Instrumental syncretism. Likewise, I have shown that the aspectual system of SLM is mostly replicated from PDM, a conclusion also reached following a different, generative approach by Slomanson (2006). Finally, the analysis of Tense presented above argues for congruence with Sinhala, not Tamil, in SLM's basic Tense categories, as confirmed for the Kandy variety ofSLM by Ansaldo and Nordhoff (2009). Considering the overwhelming linguistic and historical evidence in tavour of a trilingual admixture, it seems fair to suggest that the only way to explain the genesis of SLM is through trilingual admixture and typological pressure from the Lankan adstrates that caused a major restructuring in which a typological shift from Austronesian to Lankan grammar took place. The same thing happened to word order: Sinhala and Tamil are verb-final, while PDM varieties are V-medial; in the contact matrix, the following shift occurs: SOV + SOV + SVO = SOV (Ansaldo 2009b ). Heavy restructuring followed by typological shift is a documented development in situations where a community faces strong cultural pressure from the outside (Thomason & Kaufmann 1988). This is often the cause oflanguage death, unless the community in question shows strong ethnolinguistic vitality. This picture accounts strikingly well for the past and present situation of the Malays in Sri Lanka: A tiny minority, not officially acknowledged, has to negotiate its way between two powerful ethnicities. In fact, the Malays have traditionally been by far one of
379
380
Umberto Ansaldo
the most multilingual groups of the island, often trilingual if not quadrilingual (speaking Dutch or English as well), a skill that has allowed them to prosper as middlemen in different historical periods (Ansaldo 2008, 2009a; Lim & Ansaldo 2006, 2007). At the same time, the Malay diaspora has always been culturally prominent and keen to preserve its unique identity; this can be seen in recent attempts to revitalise SLM through the introduction of (Standard) Malay classes as well as revitalisation attempts initiated by the community. SLM is thus the result of a process of acculturation in which a minority group on the one hand accommodates to the linguistic practices of the majority while on the other hand tries to preserve its ancestral identity.
List of abbreviations ABL
BM
BZM CM DAT
DOM NBG
PDM
ablative BabaMalay Bazaar Malay Cocos Malay dative definite object marker negation Pidgin Derived Malay
PL PFV
Pass PROG
SLCP SLM TM TMA
plural perfective possessive progressive Sri Lankan Creole Portuguese Sri Lanka Malay typological matrix Tense/Mood/Aspect
References Adelaar, K. A. 1991. Some notes on the origin of Sri Lankan Malay. In Papers in Austronesian Linguistics, no. 1, H. Steinhauer (ed.),l-22. Canberra: The Australian National University. Adelaar, K. A. 2005. Structural diversity in the Malayic subgroup. In The Austronesian Languages of South East Asia and Madagascar, K. A. Adelaar & N. P. Himmelmann (eds), 202-226. London: Routledge Curzon. Adelaar, K. A. & Prentice, D. J. 1996. Malay: Its history, role and spread. In Atlas of Languages ofIntercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia and the Americas, S. A. Wurm, P. Miihlhauser & D. T. 'fryon (eds), 673-693. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Ansaldo, U. 2005. Typological admixture in Sri Lanka Malay: The case of Kirinda Java. Ms, University of Amsterdam. Ansaldo, U. 2008. Revisiting Sri Lanka Malay: Genesis and classification. In A World ofMany Voices: Lessons from Documenting Endangered Languages [Typological Studies in Language 78], K. D. Harrison, D. S. Rood & A. Dwyer (eds), 13-42. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Ansaldo, U. 2009a. Contact Languages. Ecology and Evolution in Asia. Cambridge: CUP. Ansaldo, U. 2009b. Contact language formation in evolutionary terms. In Complex Processes in New Languages [Creole Language Library 35], E. 0. Aboh & N. Smith (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Ansaldo, U. & Lim, L. 2004. Kirinda Java and the Malay creoles of Sri Lanka. Cura.;:ao Creole Conference, Cura.;:ao, Netherlands Antilles. 11-15 August 2004. Ansaldo, U. & Nordhoff; S. 2009. Complexity and the age of languages. In Complex Processes in New Languages [Creole Language Library 35], E. 0. Aboh & N. Smith (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Bakker, P. 2000. Rapid language change: Creolization, intertwining, convergence. In Tune Depth in Historical Linguistics, C. Renfrew; A. McMahon & L. 'frask (eds), 585-620. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates
Bakker, P. 2003. Mixed languages as autonomous systems. In The Mixed Language Debate: Theoretical and Empirical Advances, Y. Matras & P. Bakker (eds), 107-150. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Bethencourt, F. 2005. Low cost empire: Interaction between Portuguese and local societies in Asia. In Rivalry and Conflict: European Traders and Asian Trading Networks in the 16th and 17th Centuries, E. van Veen & L. Blusse (eds), 108-130. Leiden: CNWS Publications. Blake, B. 1994. Case. Cambridge: CUP. Bybee, J. 2006. From usage to grammar: The mind's response to repetition. Language 82: 711-733. Cardoso, H. 2009. Diu Indo-Portuguese. A Grammatical Description. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam. Emeneau, M. B. 1980. Language and Linguistic Area. Palo Alto CA: Stanford University Press. Gair, J. & Paolillo, J. 1997. Sinhala. Munich: Lincom. Haan, F. de. 1922. Oud Batavia. Gedulkboek. Batavia: Kol:fi Haspelmath, M. 2006. Against markedness (and what to replace it with). Joumal of Linguistics 42: 25-70. Heine, B. & Kuteva, T. 2005. Language Contact and Grammatical Change. Cambridge: CUP. Hussainmiya, B. A. 1987. Lost Cousins: The Malays of Sri Lanka. Kuala Lumpur: Universiti Kebangsan Malaysia. Hussainmiya, B. A. 1990. Orang Rejimen: The Malays of the Ceylon Rifle Regiment. Kuala Lumpur: Universiti Kebangsan Malaysia. Karunatillake, W. S. 2004. An Introduction to Spoken Sinhala. Colombo: Gunasena. Lim, I. 2007. Mergers and acquisitions: On the ages and origins of Singapore English particles. World Englishes 26: 446-473. Lim, L. & Ansaldo, U. 2006. Keeping Kirinda vital: The endangerment- empowerment dilemma in the documentation of Sri Lanka Malay. Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication Working Papers 1: 51-66. Lim, L. & Ansaldo, U. 2007. Identity alignment in the multilingual space: The Malays of Sri Lanka. In Linguistic lde,Jtity in Multilingual PostcolmJial Spaces, E. A. Anchim be (ed.), 218-243. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Masica, C. 1976. Defining a Linguistic Area: South Asia. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Matras, Y. 2000. Fusion and the cognitive basis for bilingual discourse markers. International Joumal of Bilingualism 4: 505-528. Matras, Y. 2003. Mixed languages: Re-examining the structural prototype. In The Mixed Language Debate: Theoretical and Empirical Advances, Y. Matras & P. Bakker (eds), 151-176. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. van Minde, D. 1997. Malayu Ambong: Phonology, Morphology, S..vntax. Leiden: CNWS. Mufwene, S. S. 1996. The founder principle in creole genesis. Diac.hronica 13: 83-134. Mufwene, S. S. 2001. The Ecology o_fLanguage Evolution. Cambridge: CUP. Nordhoff, S. 2009. A Grammar of Sri Lanka Malay. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam. Paauw, S. 2003. What is Bazaar Malay? The 5th International Symposium on Malay/Indonesian Linguistics, Nijmegen, June 2003. Ricklefs, M. C. 1974. Jogjakarta under Sultan Mangkubumi, 1749-1779: A History of the Division ofJava. London: OUP. Schi1fman, H. 1999. A Reference Grammar o_fSpoken Tamil. Cambridge: CUP. Schweitzer, C. 1931. Reise nach Java und Ceylon 1675-1682. The Hague: Nijhoff Silva, A. W. I. 2003. Teach Yourself Tamil: A Complete Course for Beginners. Kandana, Sri Lanka: Pubudu Printers. Slomanson, P. 2006. Sri Lankan Malay morphosyntax: Lankan or Malay? In Structure and Variation in Language Contact [Creole Language Library 29], A. Deumert & S. Durrleman (eds), 135-158. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Slomanson, P. 2007. The perfect construction and complexity drift in Sri Lankan Malay. Lingua 118: 1640-165 5. Smith, I. 1979. Substrata versus universals in the formation of Sri Lanka Portuguese. Papers in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics 2A-57: 183-200.
381
382
Umberto Ansaldo
Smith, I. 2003. The provenance and timing of substrate influence in Sri Lanka Malay: Definiteness, animacy and munber in accusative case marking. The South Asian Language Analysis Roundtable XXIII, Austin, Texas, 10-12 October 2003. Smith, I. & Paauw; S. 2006. Sri Lanka Malay: Creole or convert? In Structure and Variation in Language Contact [Creole Language Library 29], A. Dewnert & S. Durrleman (eds), 159-181. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Smith, I., Pauuw, S. & Hussainrniya, B. A. 2004. Sri Lanka Malay: The state of the art In Yearbook of South Asian Languages 2004, R. Singh (ed.),197-215. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Thomason, S. & Kaufman, T. 1988. Language Contact, Creolization and Genetic Linguistics. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.
Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb* Peter Slomanson University of Aarhus
The variety of Malay brought to Sri Lanka from Indonesia beginning in the mid-seventeenth century was a largely isolating SVO language, whose grammar has changed radically over time. Modern Sri Lankan Malay (SLM) remains a language of predominantly Austronesian lexical inventory. but its grammar is now highly Dravidianised. This development is plausibly accounted for by postulating the convergence of L1 and 12 varieties in the many Muslim communities in which the interaction of Malay speakers and speakers of the Dravidian language Shonam (Sri Lankan Muslim Tamil) was intensive and the communal and cultural role ofShonam in the life ofthe Malay communities significant. This infiuence is noticeable from the diffusion of a number of Dravidian morphosyntactic features into SLM, including inter alia the accretion of a threeway morphological tense contrast where none was previously present, its suppression in negated clauses, and a robust finiteness contrast that marks the divergent status of matrix and non- matrix clauses. The SLM verb phrase. conservative in linear order, nevertheless strongly reflects a Shonam morphosyntactic model. A plausible catalyst for this development is accommodation of the discourse culture associated with the Sri Lankan sprachbund, in which the most recent event must appear last and must be realised as a matrix clause dominating one or more non-finite clauses. Those non-finite [adjunct] clauses represent preceding events. Keywords: Sri Lankan Malay, Shonam, Tamil, Dravidian, verb morphosyntax
1.
Introduction
The goal of this article is to describe a subset of the linguistic effects of contact with Shonam (Sri Lankan Muslim Tamil) on the language of Malay-speaking communities in Sri Lanka, and to
This article has benefited greatly from the linguistic consultant skills of Mohamed Jaffar and Mohammed Thowfeek Mohammed Rihan, from discussions of the social and cultural history ofSLM speakers with Dr. B. A. Hussainmiya, from discussions of Malay dialectology with Scott Paauw, from friendly debates on glottogenesis and model language identification with Sebastian Nordhott: and from countless providers of naturalistic data in Sri Lankan communities, particularly in the Colombo area, Kurunegala, and Kirinda, to whom I am greatly indebted. I also wish to thank Dr. Marcel den Dikken and the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York for funding fieldwork performed in 2005, and the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies for a research fellowship that supported fieldwork performed in Sri Lanka during the academic year of 2006-2007.
384
Peter Slomanson
focus specifically on the effects of this contact on the morphosyntax of the verb in Sri Lankan Malay (henceforth SLM). 1 SLM verb morphosyntax is superficially conservative in the sense that its functional markers appear pre-verbally, rather than post-verbally. Shonam has nevertheless served as a model in the development of the SLM verb. Further more SLM has developed independent properties that constitute generalisations of phenomena found in Shonam. For example, SLM rigidly distinguishes between finite and non-finite markers of negation, with the finite marker jang usable in all non-finite contexts and no finite ones. In Shonam, there are different types of non-finite negation markers based on the status of the verb being negated. Matrix lexical verbs that would be finite in declarative contexts appear as negative infinitives. This article will introduce a subset of the morphosyntactic properties of SLM that have entered the language as a consequence of the collective modelling of the discourse structure of Shonam and of the restructuring of the syntax of vehicular Malay to accommodate the changes. This process was facilitated by widespread Malay/Shonam bilingualism in the Sri Lankan Malay communities, which was universal well into the twentieth century, and which remains universal in a small number of conservative SLM communities.
2.
Thelanguage
SLM is spoken by a population of approximately 30,000 people in small communities throughout the territory of Sri Lanka, an island nation in which the majority of individuals are native speakers ofSinhala (Indo-Aryan, SOV) and a large minority are native speakers of Tamil (Dravidian, SOV). Vehicular Malay2 (Austronesian, SVO), from which SLM draws most of its open and all of its closed class lexical inventory, is a highly analytic language. As a result of language contact. SLM has become a predominantly SOV language of Dravidian type. The development and grammaticalisation of new functional contrasts in SLM is a matter of great interest, as it involves morphological complexification to an extent that is relatively uncommon in radical contact languages. In that respect, careful descriptive research on SLM, as well as diachronic research on SLM, can serve as a valuable testing ground for theories of grammatical change and second language acquisition.
Ahhough the motivation for treating the contact with Shonam as primary will be discussed to some extent, space limitations do not permit a discussion of the entire sociohistorical case for the primacy of Shonarn influence over that of the language ofthe Sinhala majority. Similarly, discussion of the effects of contact with Shonarn on the morphosyntax of the SLM noun phrase can only be dealt with in passing. Of particular si.gnifu;ance, however, is the fact that accusative case marking, clearly a contact linguistic accretion in SLM, is obligatory in both SLM and Shonarn, at least in definite noun phrases. Conversely, accusative case marking in Sinhala is highly optional, and limited to animate noun phrases. 1.
This term first appeared in Smith et al. (2004). It refers to the morphologically levelled contact varieties of Malay historically used in Java and parts of eastern Indonesia as languages of wider communication. Based on phonological evidence (Adelaar 1991) and lexical evidence (Paauw 2004), these are the Malay varieties most likely to have been brought to Sri Lanka by Indonesians, beginning in the mid -seventeenth century. 2.
Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb
The greatest concentrations of SLM speakers reside in the larger urban areas with Sinhalaspeaking majorities (Colombo and Kandy), in a larger number of smaller municipalities with Sinhala-speaking majorities (Badulla, Kurunegala, Negombo, Hambantota, Matale, Nawalapitiya), and notably in a handful of predominantly Malay rural communities in Hambantota district, including the villages of Kirinda and Bolana. There are also Malays living in Tamilmajority areas, but most such individuals have shifted to Tamil, with the exception of those individuals who were born elsewhere and members of their families. 3 Native speakers ofSLM are of ethnically mixed Indonesian origin and of Malaysian origin; however, there has historically been considerable intermarriage with indigenous Sri Lankans, particularly with Sri Lankan Muslims, also known as Moors (Hussainmiya 1987, 1990/2008), who are overwhelmingly native speakers of Shonam. This history has not necessarily led to the abandonment of Malay by the children of such unions, and language contact within the family is likely to have been a factor in the development of SLM, as has the use of Shonam in religious process and traditional education among Malays (Slomanson & Hussainmiya in preparation).4 I will discuss selected morphosyntactic features in the complex SLM verb that reflect the influence of a Shonam model. Features attributable to Sri Lankan influence permeate the morphosyntax of SLM and are far more numerous than retentions from vehicular Malay. 2.1
SLM as a restructured Malay variety
The case of SLM brings with it a number of intriguing anomalies. In the first place, there has been relatively little research on radical contact languages that were not lexified by a European language, adding to the value of research on SLM to contact linguistics. In the second place, most of the literature that there is has dealt with pidgins and creoles specifically. In the case of SIM, profound grammatical change has gone hand in hand with a surprising degree of etymological conservatism. This had been regarded as a case of relexification, in a broad sense (rather than in the theoretically elaborated sense associated with Lefebvre and colleagues). The implication was that SLM is a morphologically less elaborated relexified Tamil variety. The relexification characterisation is not accurate, however, if a substantial proportion of modem speakers are descended from Malay speakers who continued speaking Malay in Sri Lanka. It was the grammar of Malay
3· This includes, for example, Kinniyai, a large Muslim community in Trincomalee district, where I recorded fluent familial SLM speakers in 2007. There are also at least two small and isolated eastern communities in which SLM has been maintained, including the Champa Lane community, where Romola Rassool recorded speakers in 2010. 4· Ansaldo (2008: 19-22) dismisses Hussainmiya's historical research that provides evidence for a close cultural and communal relationship between the SLM and Shonam-speaking communities, under the section heading 'The Tamil Bias'. Ansaldo's claim to have evaluated potential evidence of interethnic Muslim marriages in the tombos (Sri Lankan population registries) which he found to be lacking, is questionable. Ansaldo claims to have examined tombos associated with a period of over a century after they ceased to be kept. and in which the colonial marriage records were kept. starting in the eighteenth century in mosques. The Muslim evidence then for highly frequent Malay - «Mloaish" (Shonam-speaking) intermarriage is completely clear and unambiguous. In reality, authorities no longer recorded Muslim marriages. The total period included in Ansaldo's claim is 1678-1919.
385
386
Peter Slomanson
speakers that changed, rather than their lexical inventory. Furthermore, Tamil varieties, including Shonam, display a broader range of aspectual and other grammatical contrasts than does SLM, and those features demonstrably borrowed from Shonam have not been assimilated by the grammar of SLM in a way that could be characterised as unmodified. Another view, and one that seems most plausible, given what we know of the social history of the Sri Lankan Malay people, is that L2 speakers created restructured varieties with which native varieties merged over time, through the diffusion of grammatical features, such as tense. This has led to the creation of a new grammar, drawing heavily from Shonam sources, in ways that sometimes involve innovation.
3·
Morphosyntax
There are extensive morphosyntactic contrasts between vehicular Malay and SLM that are straightforwardly attributable, directly or indirectly, to Shonam influence. This is due on the one hand to the social history of the SLM-speak:ing population in which Shonam and its speakers played a critical role, and on the other hand to the fact that a majority of substantive changes are typologically consistent with the languages in the Sri Lankan sprachbund, and not with vehicular Malay. Sri Lankan influence on SLM morphosyntax is likely to be due to convergence with Shonam L2 Malay; however, there are numerous parallels in the grammar of Sinhala, which has also been strongly influenced by Tamil historically. None of the features described here is directly attributable to adstratal influence from Sinhala specifically, whereas some, such as asymmetrical negation, are clearly Dravidian (i.e. Shonam) and have no parallel in Sinhala. By convergence, I am reterring to the diffusion of grammatical properties and devices, including functional contrasts with associated morphology and syntax, such as tense, (non- )finiteness, and case, that are relatively resistant to borrowing across languages.
3.1
Linear order in the SLM verb phrase
A majority of clauses in SLM manifest XV string order, with the main verb following all constituents, including direct object complements, adjunct clauses, and frequently a clausal complement as well. Verb-object (and other VX) clauses do occur, however. Consequently, the verb is frequently, but by no means always, the final element in its clause. Both the predominance of this order as a canonical declarative order and the fact that the order is flexible in practice are teatures of Shonam and of the Sri Lankan sprachbund generally. They are manifestly not features of vehicular Malay, which supports the idea that OV orders are the result ofShonam influence. The extraposition of embedded complement clauses is motivated by ease of processing, rather than by a syntactic or information-structural factor. VO orders in which the object is a non-heavy NP participial adjunct clauses do not have the same motivation. They are non-motivated for most fluent speakers by the Sri Lankan sprachbu.nd generalisation that right extraposition is a focusing device. The processing need to extrapose heavy NPs has not obstructed the transition from aVO grammar to a predominantly OV grammar.
Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb
Tense and aspect
3.2
In the expression of temporal contrasts, SLM differs from vehicular Malay, which has no tense morphology. Furthermore, vehicular Malay aspect markers are not phonologically bound to lexical verbs. In SLM, bound morphology associated with lexical verbs marks tense and aspect Tense and aspect morphemes in SLM are obligatorily adjacent to associated lexical verbs, with or without phonological reduction. SLM verbs are pre-verbally tense-marked as in (1). Example (2) demonstrates pre-verbal functional marking in SLM, a residual distributional parallel with vehicular Malay, and (3) demonstrates functional and structural parallels in Shonam, specifically the phonological dependence of functional markers on the verb (contra vehicular Malay), and explidtcontrastive5 tense morphology. (1)
(2)
Farida nasi su-makan. Farida rice PST-eat 'Farida ate rice? Farida su makan nasi. Farida ASP eat
SLM
VRH. MALAY
rice
'Far ida has eaten rice? (3)
Farida Soor tin-daa.6 Farida rice eat-PsT 'Farida ate rice:
SHONAM
Shonam, and Tamil varieties generally, feature agglutinative verbs in which contrastive tense is obligatorily encoded in non-negated contexts. It is sometimes difficult to argue based on linguistic evidence alone, rather than based on sociohistorical factors, that an apparent model language property is diachronically associated with the influence ofShonam, rather than with influence from Sinhala. Tense and aspect, however, are morphologised in a manner that much more strongly reflects contact with Shonam than with Sinhala. SLM and Shonam verbs are similarly agglutinative, whereas the colloquial Sinhala verb has no future tense, marks past tense partly with ablaut and other morphophonemic alternations, rather than with affixation, and makes greater use of separable periphrastic constructions. Most significantly, Sinhala requires negated verbs to be explicitly tense-marked using elements that are phonologically independent of negation
5· The use of the term contrastive here is needed in order to distinguish between the explicit marking of three tenses and the presence of a tense feature in which no contrast between tenses is communicated. Pre-verbalmodals are only grammatical in SLM in contexts that would be contrastively tense-marked if such modals and contrastive tense morphology were permitted to co-occur. This suggests that the finite verb bears a non-visible tense feature in SLM, since infinitival verbs cannot be preceded by modal markers. The infinitival marker ma is variably deleted, so this does not seem to be the result of a stacking constraint. 6. There are several strategies for representing SLM and other Sri Lankan languages in transcription. A common strategy in Sri Lanka itself is to represent dental stops with th and dh and retroflex stops as simply t and d. In deference to linguists unfamiliar with these conventions, and likely to asswne that aspiration is intended, I have chosen to represent dental stops as simply t and d, while I have capitalised retroflex segments. CapitalS represents UJ and the doubling of vowels and consonants is an indication of length, which may or may not be contrastive.
387
388
Peter Slomanson
elements. By contrast, discrete contrastive tense morphology and negation cannot co-occur in either SLM or Shonam, a matter that will be discussed in greater detail below. Sinhala verbs also mark additional contrasts that lack an analogue in the grammar ofSLM. These include obligatory marking on the verb to indicate that an argument is in focus, as well as marking of the degree of subject agency in the performance of an action. There is no evidence of explicit Sinhala influence in the verb morphosyntax of fluent native speakers, a fact that supports the known social history of the language. Distributional differences between SLM and Shonam remain, notably including the position of verbal affixes, as demonstrated in (1) and (3). This is consistent with a reasonable expectation that a contact language, as an autonomous grammatical system, will not necessarily adopt the linear morphosyntax of its model language, although we are likely to find substantial approximations, particularly in (other) surface configurations. As shown above, there are clear parallels in the functional contrasts that are explicitly morphologised in SLM, using processes comparable or identical to those that we find in Shonam, such as inflection and agglutination, as seen in the TMA and negation systems of SLM. It is worth mentioning parenthetically that the contrast between SLM and Shonam in the distribution of the relevant functional morphemes in relation to lexical verbs is a tenacious one that permits no variation at all for the majority of fluent speakers, for whom SLM tense morphology is uniformly pre-verbal. Aspect morphology, however, as we will see, is not uniformly pre-verbal. There is no pre-verbal temporal morphology in Shonam, whose morphologically complex verbs encode a range of functional information, including tense, aspect, mood and negation, by affixation to the right of a lexical or auxiliary verb, rather than to the left of the verb stem, as in SLM. In fact, there is no pre-verbal functional morphology in Shonam at all. The fact that a functional element such as tense has not been realised as a postverbal element in SLM, whether freely or atfixally, demonstrates the incomplete convergence of the Malay verb system on the Shonam system, although the accretion of overt tense affixation 7 demonstrates functional-semantic convergence.
3·3
SLM tense morphology
Functional morphemes that mark tense on SLM verbs must be expressed in unnegated verbal matrix clauses in which the verb is not otherwise marked by a modal morpheme. They obligatorily precede the finite verb, although a number of the most common verbs may be variably
7. There are theoretically well motivated reasons for questioning the status of bound functional elements as prefixes; these have to do with the syntax of adjunction in inflected words, a matter which is beyond the scope of this article. Elsewhere I have referred to prefixation in SLM as pseudo-affixaticm, and analyse the contrast with Shonam tense suffixation as an effect of broader syntactic differences between Shonam and SLM. The morphosyntax is in this respect a compromise between the grammar of vehicular Malay, spoken natively or near-natively by part of the early SLM population, and the grammar of the model language, spoken natively by another part. This theoretical approach, in which a lesser degree of verb movement in SLM than in Shonam is proposed, has the benefit of demonstrating covert parallels between the complex verb in SLM and the complex verb in Shonam. Clearly, though, other theoretical approaches are possible. I will treat these pre-verbal elements as prefixes here, in keeping with the descriptive nature of the present account
Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb
marked. The pre-verbal surface distribution of functional morphemes in the verbal domain is typical of non-Lankan Malay varieties in which adverbial particles cognate with SLM functional elements mark aspectual contrasts. In Shonam, temporal morphemes follow the verb, mostly as affixes. SLM tense elements, such as su!si (past), nya(ng) (past), ana (past, Kandy-area dialect), e(ng) (past, southeastern dialect), ara (present), and (a)(n)ti (future), are themselves affix-like, being phonologically dependent on the left edge of a lexical verb. The vehicular Malay varieties that were brought to Sri Lanka from Indonesia also feature phonologically reduced TMA elements such as su (from sudah); however, in those varieties, no adjacency of su and verb is required. In Ambonese Malay, for example, su occurs at the left edge of a functional complex which includes negation (van Minde 1997: 227-232). SLM does not permit the stacking of functional elements at the left edge of a finite (or non-finite) verb. It is not possible to separate SLM tense morphemes from a verb. In casual prosody, these elements are never accented, and the vowel is typically reduced, so that in the case of su, the vowel nucleus is often reduced to schwa or deleted. The right edge of a finite SLM verb is frequently unmarked, as in (1). 3·4
Are they affixes?
Phonologically dependent morphemes at the left edge of a verb are affixes in the sense that they are inseparable from their lexical (i.e. not phrasal) hosts and of fixed distribution. The pertinent evidence is the fact that the lexical host cannot be elided and an ad verb or focus particle (jo) cannot intervene, even with a prosodic break. This mirrors the phonological and syntactic status of functional affixes in Shonam. Paratactic sequences of events require repetition of the prefix on each non-matrix verb, even where this is redundant In vehicular Malay and similarly analytic languages, notably including a range of creole languages, free- standing functional elements such as TMA markers do not exhibit this requirement, whereas in those languages that have phonologically dependent functional elements, repetition of those elements is obligatory. In this respect, the pre-verbal markers in SLM behave as straightforward inflections. 3·5
The Functional Stacking Constraint
The Functional Stacking Constraint (FSC) is a generalisation in SLM of the Shonam constraint that prohibits the co-occurrence of tense and negation morphology- strong evidence for Shonam influence. Neither vehicular Malay nor Sinhala displays such a constraint. Although vehicular Malay varieties mark temporal contrasts that are essentially aspectual, ma.u and its variants in vehicular Malay are future tense markers and that element freely co-occurs with modality, negation and other functional modifiers of verbs. Mau itselfhas been (re-)grammaticalised as an infinitival marker in SLM, to encode the Shonam finiteness contrast that is absent from the morphology ofvehicular Malay. The FSC in SLM constrains the co-occurrence of tense, negation, modality and the temporal subordinator kapan ('when') in the position at the left edge of a verb, to which each of these elements binds, placing them in complementary distribution. Although the left edge of the verb does not permit affixation of any kind in Shonam, note
389
390
Peter Slomanson
that similar contrasts are also associated with prefixation in Batticaloa Portuguese, another Sri Lankan contact language with a Tamil variety as its model (Smith 1979). Aspectual morpho syntax
3.6
Completive aspect The distribution of full and phonologically reduced variants of the Malay perfect marker abbis (asa, as, ai, e) depends on whether the element is expressed in a matrix clause. The non-matrix context is exemplified in (4), and the matrix context in (5).
3.6.1
(4)
se [masigit nang a(bbils-pi] ruma nang su datang. ls mosque to ASP-go house to PST come 'Having gone to the mosque, I came home:
SLM
(5)
se masigit na11g su-pi-abbis. ls mosque P PST-go-ASP 'I have finished going to the mosque.'
SLM
The linear contrast between SLM and Shonam, in which only SLM has functional prefixes, masks significant parallels. What varies across the two languages is the position of the verb relative to the functional elements that modifY it In suffixing languages such as Shonam, aspect is typically closer to the lexical verb than is tense. The tact that tense precedes the verb in finite contexts in SLM and aspect precedes the verb in non-finite contexts shows us that the development of a morphological finiteness contrast, a Shonam feature, has had a profound effect on the syntax of SLM, although the resulting agglutinative grammar is not coextensive with that of Shonam. The presence of a morphosyntactic contrast in the position of an aspect marker suggests that the position of the verb relative to its modifiers is responsive to the position of tense and finiteness in matrix clauses, features that are themselves attributable to Shonam influence, even if the resulting linear configurations obscure this.
Progressive aspect Progressive aspect in SLM is marked with a temporal subordinator. In certain aspectual constructions in SLM, the aspect-marked verb appears within a non-finite clause, and consequently needs to be supported by an auxiliary. In order to show this, in 3.6.3, I will discuss the components that make up the construction in question, and their respective analogues in Shonam.
3.6.2
Auxiliaries in periphrastic aspectual constructions Post-verbal aDa is an auxiliary verb, analogous with iru in Shonam. Those elements are etymologically existential in both languages and continue to function as existential verbs in non-auxiliary contexts. Sinhala, by contrast, has two existential verbs, a contrast that serves inter alia to distinguish between animate subjects (innawa.) and inanimate ones (tiyenawa.). An additional auxiliary in SLM, Du.uDuk (variant form: Du.uDung), encapsulates more of the nuances of the existential auxiliary in Shonam and in Sinhala, including the absence of motion, and persistence. The animacy contrast associated with the Sinhala auxiliaries is, however, lacking. Pre-verbal ada 3.6.3
Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb
(ara) in SLM, which marks tense, is the product of functional reanalysis of a progressive aspect marker in vehicular Malay. The existential verb in vehicular Malay is also ada.
3·7
Temporal properties of subordinators
3·7·1
The distribution of non-temporal left-branching subordinators
In Shonam, complementisers are left-branching, as are the majority of complementisers and subordinating elements in modern SLM. The com plementiser kata is historically a quotative particle, but it occurs more frequently as a non-quotative complementiser. It is obligatorily left-branching, as in (6). (6)
Sini ka attu teacher a-blajar-king kJta e-biila11g (aDa).
SLM
here in IND teacher PRS-study-csT QliT ASP-say (AUX) '(He) has said that a teacher teaches here: (7)
Inge oru teacher-mar paDi-pp-ikk-iranga enDu sonnaa.
SHONAM
here IND teacher-HON study-NMN-CST-AUX QUT say '(He) said that a teacher teaches here:
The complementiser subbat, as in (8), meaning 'because~ is also obligatorily left-branching. (8)
lttu sunami-na
pica
e-pi
subbat. ... sini kubaalile e-kinja kasi.
that tsunami-DAT broken ASP-go because ... this back 'Having been destroyed by the tsunami, ... they did this for
3.7.2
SLM
ASP-do BEN
us:8
The tense foature-bearing subordinator kapan
One subordinator, kapan, attaches to the left edge of a verb, although it has scope over its entire clause. The fixed pre-verbal distribution of kapan reflects the distribution of SLM tense morphemes. Kapan is a cliticised element with tense specification, meaning 'when' (as opposed to 'while'). Although the presence ofkapan as a cliticised subordinator contrasts with functionally analogous elements in both vehicular Malay and Shonam, we may regard the innovation as an artefact of the integration of tense - an obligatory morpho syntactic contrast in Shonam - into the restructured Malay grammar in Sri Lanka. ln data from Colombo, Kirinda and Kurunegala, representing the three major dialect areas, kapan is always pre-verbal in adjunct clauses, and follows an overt subject if one is present, as in (9). (9)
lnclan iSkuul attu kapan-kuttumun, go layen building attu si-kuttumun. school IND when-see ls otherbullding 'When he saw a school, I saw a different building: 3s
IND
SLM
PST-see
SLM kapan appears in the same surface position as SLM tense morphemes, and is similarly both bound and subject to phonological reduction.9 We can see this by comparing (10) and (11),
8. The reference is to a school building in Kirinda which was destroyed and later rebuih.
9· The most frequent realisation is bm(-3), conditioned by the first segment in the verb.
391
392
Peter Slomanson
which demonstrate both identical surface position and phonological reduction. The underlined pre-verbal elements in (1 0) and ( 11) are in complementary distribution. (10) lncian iskuul attu .rW:ru.-kuttumun. 3s school IND PRS-see 'He sees a school' (11)
Incia11 iskuul attu
ka~-kuttumun.
SLM
SLM
3s school IND when-see 'When he {seeslsawlwillsee} a school'
Kapa.n obeys the SLM generalisation that pre-verbal functional elements cannot stack, showing that it is responsive to the Shonam-derived FSC. Consequently. kapan cannot co-occur with a past tense marker (12), for example, although this renders the tense property in the assodated verb non-contrastive ([+/-PAST] etc.) with respect to tense sped:fication. (12)
Incia11 iskuul attu kapa11-(*si-)kuttumun ...
SLM
3s school IND when-PsT-see 'When he saw a school, .. :
As an ordinary WH-word, the position of kapan is variable and there is no constraint blocking adjacency with a tense morpheme, or with any other verbal morphology. As we have seen, this is impossible when kapan is a subordinator. (13) lncian iskuul attu kapan si-kuttumun? 3s school IND when PST -see 'When did he see a school?'
SLM
The subordinator kapan is a syntactic head, since it cannot occur with any type of phrasal material. The clitic -le in (14) is ungrammatical. Nothing can intervene between kapan and the verb to which it is bound. (14)
Incian iskuul attu kapan(*-le)-kuttumun ...
SLM
3s school IND when(-ever)-see ... 'Whenever he saw a school, .. :
It is also the case that there is no analogous subordinator prefix in vehicular Malay. On the contrary, kapan occurs at the left edge of its clause in those varieties, as in (15). (15)
kapan dia ada makan nasi, .. .
VBH.MALAY
when 3s ASP eat rice, .. . 'When s/he is eating rice, .. :
The kapan that obligatorily binds to the left edge of lexical verbs is an innovation in SLM, since its component languages do not share this particular construction; however, it can nevertheless be correlated with a Shonam feature. Shonam has clitidsed temporal subordinators, but these bind to the right edge of a verb only. In (16), we see an example of phonologically reduced kapan.
Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb
(16)
kummaren Iorang kam<~-liiyat se tar-lari. yesterday you-PoL when-see 1s NEG.PST.FIN-run 'When you saw me yesterday, I wasn't running:
KuRUNEGALA SLM
In naturalistic recordings of casual discourse in the SLM-dominant village of Kirinda, the phrase (apa) kata kam-biilang, a discourse device, appears with high frequency. (17)
a.
b.
c.
Apa kata kam-biilang, April ka jo e-datang (aDa). KIRINDA SLM what word when-say April in Foe ASP-come AU:X 'What I say to you is that it has come in ApriL' Kata kam-biilang, tliga tawon pe anak-pa-nna, layeng a-bla}ar-king. KIRINDA SLM word when-say three year Pos child-PLU-DAT different TNs-learn-csT 'I say to you, we teach three-year-olds dtlferently.' Apa kata kam-biilang, incian pe phone yang wayanam KIRINDA SLM what word when-say 3s Pos phone Ace vehicle ka luppas kinn-aDa. in leave PSV-AUX 'What I'm telling you is that his phone has been left in the vehicle.'
At least in Kirinda SLM, pre-verbal kapan is only associated with verbal predicates, suggesting that it is restricted to contexts in which there is necessarily a tense interpretation. In other contexts, kapan cannot be used to mean 'if' or 'when'. For example, with bare adjectival predicates and nominal predicates, it is necessary to use kuluung, from vehicular Malay kalo, for 'if, and this follows the predicate adjective or noun. The tense-marking of adjectives is productive in Kirinda SLM. The kapan generalization suggests that this is not actual categorial conversion of adjectives, but that tense-marked adjectives retain their categorial status. (18)
loram-pe kuutaall henDat kuluung, marl pi karang. 2P-POS friend tired if HRT go now 'If your friend is tired, let's go now?
KIRINDA SLM
Ambe(l) The post-verbal element ambe(l), which I analyse, as with kapan, as a temporal subordinating conjunction, occurs inter alia in the perfect construction, in which the completive marker appears in pre-verbal position, while ambe(l), also an aspect marker, appears in post-verbal position. We can see this in the Kirinda SLM sentence in (19), in which the gloss of ambe reflects its aspectual status, rather than its syntactic status. 3·7·3
(19)
Rikas ini ari-paDa ka baru ruma attu abbis-rikat ambe (a-DuuDuk).
KIRINDASLM
Rikas DET day-PLU in new house IND ASP-build PRG (PRS-AU:X) 'Rikas has been building a new house these days?
The vehicular Malay form sambil commonly preceded the verb in the Malay of the generation raised in the early twentieth century (Mohamed Jaffar, personal communication), although this usage has since vanished. As we will see, sambil, rather than the lexical verb ambel, meaning 'take, is the most likely etymology for the post-verbal ambe(l) discussed here. Given the otherwise consistent (morpho- )syntactic behaviour of tense markers, and of aspect markers, respectively,
393
394
Peter Slomanson
across tenses and aspects, we would expect an SLM aspect marker such as ambe(l) to appear in pre-verbal position in non-finite adjunct clauses, since this is the distribution we find for the completive marker a(bbi)s. However ambe(l) does not, which supports the claim that it is a subordinating conjunction. With respect to the distribution of ambe(l) in matrix clauses, we have seen that the tensebearing subordinator kapan appears in the same position as tense morphemes, with which it is in complementary distribution. Ambe(l), an aspectual element that lacks a tense feature, can no longer be expected to appear in this position in matrix clauses. The fact that ambe(l) never appears in pre-verbal position, unlike the completive affix abbis, supports the idea that ambe(l) is a subordinator, albeit one which perfectly replicates the linear order and function of progressive clauses in Shonam. 3·7·4
Discourse-pragmatic motivation
The potential motivation for the modern morphosyntax of ambe(l) in SLM is analogous with the probable language contact motivation for the development of a finiteness contrast in SLM. The motivation is a fact about the organisation of discourse in the Sri Lankan sprachbund. The discourse organisation favoured by the sprachbund (20) requires a series of adjunct clauses, followed by a primary clause adjoined to an auxiliary. In the perfect construction, the preceding adjunct clauses occur in temporal sequence. The construction with ambe in (21) is comparable with the syntax of the construction in (20), with the exception of the suffixal position of the aspect morpheme. In place of the temporal sequence, ambe encodes the simultaneity of a process with a matrix event (20)
(21)
The SLM perfect construction abbis baung, tee abbis miinung, Rikas idcuul nang abbis pi aDa. ASP.NPN awaken tea ASP.NPN drink Rlkas school to ASP.NPN go AUX 'Having awoken, having drunk tea, Rikas has gone to school: The SLM progressive construction tee miinu11g ambe, Rikas takslr ambe aDa. tea drink PRG RJkas think PRG AUX 'While drinking tea, Rikas is thinking.'
SLM
SLM made use of a Malay subordinator, the equivalentof'while', to mark progressive aspect. We know that am be is not a simple a spec tual affix, because it always appears to the right of a lexical verb irrespective of the finiteness status of its clause. 3·7·5
The Shonam model
The Shonam constructions exemplified in (22a) and (22b) are models for the SLM construction with ambe in (23a) and (23b ). The Malay subordinator was reassigned to a position at the right edge of the pre-auxiliary verb complex, the linear position in which both subordinators and aspect markers appear in Shonam. In Shonam, the aspect marker is a grammaticalised verb, -kiTTe, with the lexical meaning 'take: In SLM, the aspectual subordinator therefore superficially appears to be a calque, since in its present post-aphaeresis form (sambel-+ ambel), it shares the lexical meaning of the Shonam progressive marker. The progressive-marked lexical verb is similarly
Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb
independent in Shonam in non-matrix contexts (22a), and supported by an auxiliary in matrix contexts (22b ). (22)
a
b.
Rikas Soar tindu-kiTTe, ... Rlkas rice eat-PRG, ... 'Rlkas (while) eating rice, .. : Rikas Soar tindu-kiTT-iikkiyaa. Rlkas rice eat-PRG-AUX 'Rlkas is (in the process of) eating rice:
SHONAM
SHONAM
In SLM, constructions involving an auxiliary verb are biclausal, however, permitting the intrusion of an emphatic marker (23b ). The auxiliary can be deleted when it is not required to support tense or negation morphology. Deletion of the auxiliary, which is bound to the rest of the verbal complex, is ungrammatical in Shonam. (23)
a
b.
Rikas nasi makan ambe, ... Rlkas rice eat PRG 'Rlkas, while eating rice .. : Emphatic marker insertion Rikas nasi maka11 ambe jo I DuuDuk. Rlkas rice eat PRG EMPH AUX 'Rlkas is (in the process of) eating rice:
SLM
SLM
In (23c), we see that the auxiliary bears a finite negation morpheme, which is phonologically dependent on its left edge. This evidence supports the independent syntactic status of the auxiliary and the finite matrix status of its clause. Finite negation of auxiliary (23)
c.
Rikas nasi makan ambel t.mJ-DuuDuk. Rlkas rice eat PRG NEG.PIN-AUX 'Rikas was not (in the process of) eating rice:
SLM
In (23d), the auxiliary is independently tense-marked, and theretore still finite, whereas the lexical verb is negated by a non-finite negation morpheme bound to its left edge. Non-finite negation of lexical verb (23)
d.
Rikas nasi ja11g
makan ambe I si-DuuDuk.
SLM
Rlkas rice NEG.NFN eat PRG PST-AUX 'Rlkas was not (in the process of) eating rice:
In discourse, it is possible in SLM to elide the entire clause containing the lexical verb, leaving behind the inflected auxiliary. This makes it clear that we are not dealing with ordinary agglu tination in which the auxiliary is simply an affix of the lexical verb. (24)
Rikas nasi makan ambe I f3ro-DuuDuk sin? 0, f3ro-DuuDuk. PRG NEG.PIN-AUX lTG oh NEG.PIN-AUX 'Was Rikas (in the process of) eating rice. Well he wasn't.' Rlkas rice eat
SLM
395
396
Peter Slomanson
The auxiliary itself can be deleted in rapid speech, leaving what looks like a dependent clause. The presence of the auxiliary is implied. In the Kirinda SLM inchoative construction in (25), we can see that datang ('come') is grammaticalised as another type of auxiliary appearing in a matrix clause that does not contain the associated lexical verb. (25)
Incian pe
kutaali henDat jatilli ambe (io) a-datang. friend tired become PRG (l!MPH) PRS-come 'His friend ls beginning to get tired.'
SLM
3S.POL POS
This is consistent with the observation that ambe(l) has the sense of vehicular Malay sam bil and that the progressive construction has the flavour of 'Rikas is while eating rice' to mean 'Rikas is (in the act of) eating rice'. The construction involves a matrix auxiliary, whereas an adjunct clause headed by a progressive subordinator contains the lexical verb. We would expect that ambe(l), as an aspect marker, would precede the lexical verb in the underlined constructions in (26), but it does not do so. (26)
perfect aspect progressive aspect
adjunct clauses
main clauses (technically biclausal)
nasi abbis-makan nasi maka11-ambe(l)
nasi abbis-makan aDa nasi makan-ambe
Ambe(l), initially right-branching, became clause-final because it lacks a tense feature, and only elements bearing a tense feature are permissible in pre-verbal position in the present grammar. Although its current distribution is largely parallel with that of -kiTTe in Shonam, it is a subordinator rather than an auxiliary or an ordinary aspectual suffix like the SLM completive suffix abbis. This is demonstrated syntactically by the fact that ambe(l) violates the SLM-specific rule that aspect morphemes can only be realised pre-verbally in non-finite clauses. 3.8
Finiteness
The presence of contrastive tense marking correlates with explicit contrastive finiteness marking, a Shonam feature in SLM. The centrality of tense as the feature most closely related to finiteness parallels its centrality in Shonam. Shonam, historically does not have an agreement contrast 10 SLM features infinitival morphology, as does Shonam, although this is suffixal in Shonam and a prefix in SLM (27). In the vehicular Malay example in (28), the interpretation of the a.da.-marked verb can be present tense or not. but its aspect can only be durative, which is the aspect that ada explicitly marks. The ada element is separated from the verb by an adverb.
10. This is still visible in linguistically conservative communities, including such upcountry communities as Nawalapitiya and villages in Harnbantota province in the southeast These are communities in which Malays and Moors continue to live in dose proximity. This is not reflected in any normative descriptions of Tamil, or in studies dealing with colloquial varieties spoken by Hindus. It is also characteristic of the 12 use of Tamil by Malays in Kirinda, who have limited contact with native Shonam speakers outside of secular and religious instrUL"t.ion.
Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb
(27)
Farida 11asi
m<~-makan
na11g t.Jra-boole.
Farida rice NFN-eat P 'Farida cannot eat rke.' (28)
SLM
NBG.FIN-MOD
Farida ada makan nasi.
VBH. MALAY
Farida ASP eat rice 'Farida is eating rke.'
In (27), a clause containing the SLM verb in its non-finite form is the infinitival complement of a free-standing predicate modal of ability. As the predicate in the main clause, the modal is independently negated, and comma intonation can easily separate tara-boole from the rest of the sentence, a clue to its status as a phonological word. The phonological shape of the negation element. descriptively a prefix, indicates its finite status. The categorial status of the modal is ambiguous, because many SLM adjectives can be tense-marked. Finiteness does not make a consistent semantic contribution to the sentence. It is a pragmatic phenomenon that permits sequential temporal embedding, which is a Sri Lankan areal phenomenon in discourse. In common with infinitival camp lements, participial adjunct clauses are not finite. The surface relationship to aspect that the SLM verb displays shifts from postverbal to pre-verbaL when the verb is not finite. Both the sequential temporal stacking of verbs and the finiteness contrast are demonstrated in the SLM example in (29), in which the aspectmarked non-finite forms abbis-pi and abbis-blajar precede and contrast with the tense-marked finite torm su-tulis. (29)
skul
nang abbis-pi, mullm abbis-blajar, Farida nyanyi-attu su-tulis.
SLM
school P ASP-go Tamil ASP-learn Farida song-IND PST-write 'Having gone to school and leamed Tamil, Farida wrote a song (in tt):
A clause containing a verb form such as abbis-pi or abbis-blajar in (29) can be extraposed, in order to focus the event referred to in the clause.
3·9
Modality
3.9.1 Ihe MV modals A syntactic subclass of modals in SLM appears obligatorily to the left of the lexical verb in SLM. However, like tense and negation, it is obligatorily left-adjacent to the verb. I will call this SLM modal class the modal-verb (or "MV") variant, to distinguish it from the verb-modal (or "VM") variant in SLM. The terms refer to the linear orders of the respective constructions. The surface distribution of the MV variant associated with SLM (as in the (a) examples in (30) through (32)) is identical to that of tense morphemes (as in (30c)) and negation elements (as in (30d)). The left-adjacent MV modals, as a consequence of the FSC, are in complementary distribution with other pre-verbal functional morphemes (as in (31b)). The MV variant is a superficial retention from vehicular Malay by SLM speakers, since it precedes the verb, as do modal elements in vehicular Malay. This distributional fact should not obscure the fact that the modal in the MV variant is now phonologically dependent on the lexical verb and lacks independent syntactic status. The constraint does not apply to individual morphemes that happen to bear more
397
398
Peter Slomanson
than one type of feature, so that a single portmanteau element will not be blocked. The element tar(a)- is nevertheless the instantiation of both negation and finiteness .features. The phonological dependence of the MV modal on the verb, if not its surface distribution, like that of negation and tense, can nevertheless be attributed to contact influence from Shonam. The evidence for this dependence, as well as its Shonam provenance, is found in the obligatory adjacency which obtains between the MV modal and an associated verb. Modal of ability (MV variant) (30)
a
Ali Malayu boole-omong.
SLM
Ali Malay MOD-speak 1\.li can speak Malay.' Negation and modaJityll
b.
?Ali Malayu tara-boole omong.
SLM
Ali Malay NEG-MOD speak 1\.li cannot speak Malay.' Past tense c.
Ali Malayu su-omong. Ali Malay PST -speak 1\.li spoke Malay.'
SLM
Negation, tense contrast unmarked d.
Ali Malayu tar-omong.
SLM
Ali Malay NEG-speak ~i does not speak Malay.' Modal of obligation (MV variant only) (31)
a
Ali Malayu mas(ti)-omong. Ali Malay MOD-speak 1\.li must speak Malay.'
SLM
Negation and modality (ungrammatical, violates the FSC)
b.
*Ali Malayu t.lra-mas(ti)-omong.
SLM
Ali Malay NEG-MOD-speak 1\.li does not have to speak Malay.' Modal separated from left edge of lexical verb (32)
a
Ali mesti sadiki omong.
Vl!H.
MALAY
Ali MOD Dl!G speak 1\.li must speak a little.' Modal separated from left edge of lexical verb (ungrammatical)
b.
*Ali mast! sidikit omong. Ali MOD ADV speak ~i must speak a little:
SLM
11. This is possible for some speakers. It is not birnorphemic prefixation, which the FSC prohibits, since this particular modal can be adjectival, and negated as such.
Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb
The modal of obligation masti, which can be phonologically reduced to masa or mas, exhibits the same syntactic behaviour as the affix-like MV variant of boole. Finite main verbs preceded by functional elements such as MV modals may not in turn be followed by bare verbs, but are typically followed instead by an infinitival phrase. 12 The modal masti (and its variants) can only occur pre-verbally. The view that the pre-verbal distribution of the modal in the MV modal variant is a retention from vehicular Malay is supported by the typological observation in Hawkins and Gilligan ( 1988) that tense prefixation is exceedingly rare in OV languages and in languages with postpositions. Tense prefixation and modal prefixation, however, are descriptively characteristic of modern SLM. Since SLM cannot have begun as an OV language, but rather as a typical VO Malay contact vernacular, and since there is anecdotal evidence that the frequency ofVO orders declined precipitously during the previous century, it is reasonable to associate pre-verbal modality, like pre-verbal tense, with an earlier stage in which SLM was a categorical VO language. In that sense, SLM is not just mixed in terms of the component languages that contributed to its creation; it is also typologically mixed synchronically, in the sense that it is in many respects a typical OV language, although it continues to feature phonologically dependent pre-verbal functional markers, including markers of tense and modality. 3.9.2 The VM modals All of the languages in the Sri Lankan sprachbund feature a modal construction in which the infinitival lexical verb is followed by a matrix modal that is essentially a predicate adjective, which may or may not be directly modified by verbal morphology, including tense and negation elements. (33)
a.
b.
Modal of obligation (VM variant, predicate adjective) Ali [eyanyi attu ma-biilang nang] (»karang) kamauan. Ali song IND NFN-say P now MOD ~Ali must sing a song today.' Modal of obligation (separation from verb ungranunatical) Ali viiiT-ukku poo-k(a) (*ippo) oonum Ali house-DAT go-INF now MOD 1\li must not go home now.'
SLM
SHONAM
The Shonam modal in (33b) is significant. because in rapid speech, its first (vocalic) segment (oo) is deleted (V-num), leading to fusion of the modal with the infinitive. This type of phonological weakening in modals does not occur in ]affna Tamil or other non-Muslim Sri Lankan varieties and suggests a strong model for the phonological reduction and dependence of the modal prefixes in SLM on the SLM verb. The MV modal boole, for example, frequently undergoes disyllabic vowel reduction (bala-V) alternating with syllable deletion (bar-V) in pre-verbal position.
This was treated in Slomanson (2006) as a nominalisation, primarily because the way this has developed in SLM parallels the stage in the morphological cycle, as in the history of English, in which dativised verbs were used purposively, subsequently serving simply as infinitives. In Old English, there was a stage in which this construction varied with morphological infinitives (verbs bearing an infinitival suffix); however, there is no reason to believe that an earlier infinitive type existed in the history of SLM. 12.
399
400
Peter Slomanson
The MV modal construction (34)
Farida 11yanyi masti-biila11g-abbis. Farida song MOD-say-AsP 'Farida must (is required to) be finished singing the song:
SLM
Examples displaying the points of convergence and contrast between the Shonam modal construction and the MV modal construction in SLM follow: (35)
a.
b.
Farida oru puhtaham padi-kka-muDiyum. Farida IND book read-INP-MOD 'Farida can read a book.' Farida attu buk boole-baca. Farida IND book MOD-read 'Farida can read a book.'
SHONAM
SLM
SLM matrix verb constructions involving the MV modal variant, as well as tense-marked lexical verbs and negated lexical verbs, consist of marked stems, not infinitives.
3.10
Negation
3.10.1
Negation and finiteness
Negation is affected by the finiteness contrast, yielding a system which is not co-extensive with negation in vehicular Malay or Shonam, but which is the clearest linguistic evidence for specifically Shonam in.fl uence. Pre-verbal negation, the only option in non-periphrastic verbal constructions, rigidly obeys the FSC, as in Shonam, although its morphosyntactic instantiation in SLM- preverbal and affixal- differs from the Shonam facts. The negation element, tar(a)-, modifies main verbs that are interpreted as having tense, although there can be no contrastive tense morpheme when the negation morpheme is present (36). Tar( a)- is also used to negate adjectives, including modal elements with predicate adjective distribution (37). The parallel between the negation of present tense verbs in which the negation has a habitual reading is illustrated in (38) and (40). (36)
Rihan ma-Ndur
nang t<Jra-lilyat.
SLM
Rihan NPN-sleep P NEG.FIN-try 'Rlhan is not trying to sleep: (37)
Rihan ma-tidur
na11g t<Jra-boole. PRS-MOD
SLM
paDa tuma-miinung.
SLM
Rihan NPN-sleep P 'Rihan cannot sleep: (38)
Rlhan slgret
Rihan cigarette PLU Nl!G.FIN.HAB-drlnk
'Rlhan (habitually) doesn't smoke cigarettes: (39)
Rihan
ta
minung padq. rokok.
Rihan NEG drink PLU cigarette 'Rihan doesn't smoke cigarettes:
Vl!H.
MALAY
Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb
(40)
Rihan sigreT
kuDi-kka-maaTTaa.
SHONAM
Rihan cigarette drink- INF-NEG.HAB 'Rihan doesn't smoke cigarettes:
Non-finite verbs, including imperatives, verbs in non-finite nominalised clauses and verbs in participial adjunct clauses, are negated with ja.ng. Although the FSC reveals the Shonam influence on the SLM negation system, SLM is nevertheless the only language in the Sri Lankan sprachbund in which the negation system rigidly distinguishes between finite and non-finite constituents, with a single morpheme,jang, marking all non-finite verb types in the language: infinitives, participles, and imperatives. Shonam negates imperatives distinctively.B A verb that is tense-marked cannot be negated in Shonam. Rather, the infinitive itself is negated (40), in what would otherwise be a tense-marked matrix verb. Unlike SLM, no explicit finiteness contrast is marked on the negation morpheme. If the relevant negation morpheme in Shonam, illa (or as in (40), the agreement-less negative habitual morpheme ma.aTTaa.), were itself to contain a finiteness feature, we would have to account for the fact that the lexical verb that it negates bears an infinitival affix (-kka in (40) and -nna. in (41) ). The only way to do this is to treat negation as a verb. Indeed, in some approaches to Tamil morphosyntax, this negation element is analysed as an auxiliary verb. This is not an option in SLM, since there is no morphological indication oflack of finiteness on the negated SLM main verb, other than the negation prefix itself. It might be reasonable to simply treat the tense feature in Shonam as more closely associated with negation than with the verb itself. Ironically, this works better for SLM than it does for Shonam, though, because the relevant complex is spelled out at the left edge of the verb in SLM, and at the right edge of the verb in Shonam. (41)
Negation of matrix verb Farida Sattyam pa-nn(a) llla eracci tim-baa enDu.
SHONAM
Farida promise AUX-INF NI!G meat eat-FUT CMP 'Farlda did not promise to eat meat:
By contrast, there are different types of non-finite negative suffixes in Shonam, depending on the verb form (i.e. for an imperative or a conjunctive participial adjunct). The commonality is the constraint blocking tense-negation agglutination in both languages. 14
13. SLM also has an ahernative device for expressing negative imperatives: verb+ tussa. The etymology is opaque to most users. Ahhough this appears to be a Shonam-inspired construction, it is also a possible construction in vehicular Malay. Tussa is a contraction of tak usah (lit 'not necessary'). 14. In contrast with the Shonam and SLM facts, negation in Sinhala always occurs with explicit tense-marking. as in (i). The contrast between a negation strategy for verbs that have tense interpretation and those that do not is what yielded the SLM strategy, with the contrast being generalised to negative imperatives. Negation of matrix verb (i) Farida porondu une ruere I
mas ka-nna. Farida promise AUX.PST NI!G.MAT meat eat-INF 'Farida did not promise to eat meat:
SINHALA
The function of jang in vehicular Malay as a negative imperative marker has been preserved, although it has been extended to incorporate negation of all non-finite verbs.
401
402
Peter Slomanson
3.10.2
Temporal conh·asts in finite negation morphology
The functional contrast between t-negation (negation elements beginning with the segment t, which are finite) and }-negation (negation elements beginning with the segment j, which are non-finite) is not sufficient to render tense contrastive in SLM. This is significant because the FSC, which blocks the stacking of SLM functional prefixes based on the Shonam/Dravidian tense-negation constraint, renders tense contrasts invisible. Other Dravidian languages have circumvented this in various ways. SLM has also accommodated the constraint from Shonam, albeit in its own way. 3.10.3
Constraint circumvention strategies in Dravidian and SLM
The major Dravidian languages share with Shonam (42) the constraint preventing the explicit tense-marking of negated verbs. (42)
Negation ofmatrixverb (auxiliary) Farida Sattyam pa-nn(a) il1a eracci tim-baa enDu.
SHONAM
Farida promise AUX-INP NEG meat eat-PUT QUT 'Farida did not promise to eat meat:
The blocking of tense morphology in negated verbs has led to strategies across Dravidian for morphologically differentiating between tenseless forms of verbs. In Shonam, for example, the negated form of a main verb commonly bears an infinitival affix and no tense morphology (43), though the use of a participle can indicate non-past reference (44), and there is a habitual/future negative auxiliary (49). Negated infinitive as past main verb (43)
Farida koZumbu-kku poo-v-illa. Farida Colombo-DAT go-INP-NEG 'Farida did not go to Colombo:
SHONAM
Negated participle as explidtly non-past main verb (44)
Farida koZumbu-kku poo-v-atu illa. Farida Colombo-nAT go-INF-NMN NEG 'Farida doesn"t go to Colombo:
(45)
Farida koZumbu-kku poo-va maaiTaa. Farida Colombo-nAT go-INP NEG.HAB 'Farida does/would/will not go to Colombo:
SHONAM
Suppletive habitual/future negative auxiliary
SHONAM
While the negated infinitive favours past interpretation in Shonam. it indicates futurity in Malayalam (South Indian, Dravidian) (46). In Kannada (South Indian, Dravidian), the negated past involves suffixation of the negator to an infinitive (47), while both present and future are expressed with negated participles (47). Negated infinitive as future main verb (46)
Farida avane paDippikk-uka-yilla. Farida him teach-INP-NEG 'Farida will teach him:
MALAYALAM
Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb
Negated gerund as present main verb (47) Farida bar-uvud(u) illa.
KANNADA
Farida come-GBR NBG 'Farida does not come.' Negated infinitive as past main verb (48)
Farida bar-al(u) ilia.
KANNADA
Farida come-INP NBG 'Farida did not come:
It is as a member of this Dravidian linguistic area, that SLM has instantiated a past/non-past opposition, by selecting from the set of two [+finite] portmanteau t-negation elements (tra versus tum a), based on the temporal status of an associated verb. The element tum a-, as we saw in (40 ), can encode habitual meaning, and tar(a)- does not refer to unrealised events. This circumvention is necessary because in SLM, as in Shonam, explicit contrastive tense morphemes (i.e. su-/si- = 'past') and negation morphemes cannot co-occur. The FSC in SLM, referred to previously, is related to the Dravidian constraint described. The elements tra and tuma now encode both negation and temporal feature values. Their contrastive use in place of tense-negation agglutination suggests a strategy for circumventing the FSC. Non-finite SLM negation parallels finite negation by encoding both negation and finiteness features, as [+negative] and [-finite], and by occurring in complementary distribution with temporal (here aspectual) prefixes. The non-finite negation element jang is in complementary distribution with the participial/aspectual prefix abbis- and with the infinitival prefix ma-. The fact that SLM requires an independent non-finite negation marker, (jgng- tulis ='not to write'), rather than concatenating the historical Malay negator tra and the SLM infinitival marker ma- ((*tm- )matulis), is a consequence of the historical extension of the FSC to non-finite verbs (and to modal prefixes, which cannot co-occur with negation prefixes), making it stronger than the Dravidian constraint. Negation and reflexes of non-finite status co-occur unproblematically in historic Dravidian languages, including Shonam. 15
15. No analogue of the FSC is present in Sinhala, in which negated verbs bear tense morphology or morphology indicating non-finite status, as we see again in (i) through (iii). Negated non-matrix (infinitival) verb (i) Farida porondu unaa mas no-ka-t~t~a.
SINHALA
Farida promise AUX.PST meat NBG.NONMAT-eat-INF 'Farida promised not to eat meat: (ii)
Negated non-matrix (tensed) verb oyaa no-ya-n:rn•a nam honda-yi. you Nl!G.NONMAT-go-PRS if good-PRI!D '(It's) good if you don't gO:
SINHALA
Negated matrix verb (iii)
Farida porondu une na:a: mas ka-t~t~a. Farida promise AUX.PST NBG.MAT meat eat-INF 'Farida did not promise to eat meat:
SINHALA
403
404
Peter Slomanson
The communicative utility of constraint circumvention The circumventing of an areal constraint across the Dravidian languages, and more recently in SLM, suggests that certain types of morphosyntactic change are at least partly motivated by universal cross-linguistic tendencies. The relevant tendency in this case involves the communicative utility of finding a strategy for morphosyntactically encoding tense and finiteness contrasts in negated verbs, that is to say, symmetrically across verb types. This tendency can be seen in the history of the major Dravidian languages and in SLM. Constraint-circumventing strategies for the encoding of tense contrasts in negated verbs are very old in historic Dravidian languages. The fact that SLM is not an old language (it is at most 350 years old) and the fact that its discrete contrastive finite/non-finite negation affixes developed independently show that, under the influence of Shonam, SLM has responded to tendencies that are predictable in the linguistic area, only more rapidly. (Contrastive tense and finiteness morphology are available, so strategies for expressing the contrasts in multiple contexts appear over time.) The negative prefix tuma- (tama-, tamau-) can be analysed as non-past, since it occurs in future and frequently in present tense contexts as well. For Colombo SLM speakers, 16 tar(a)and tuma- may alternate in present tense reference, depending on context. This alternation is governed by the presence or absence of habitual aspectual interpretation. Non-past tuma can be described as a fused negative habitual marker, which by definition refers to unrealised events (i.e. 'I do nof, 'would nof, 'will not'). This alternation is paralleled in the -illa/maaTTaa- alternation in Shonam, in which maa TTaa- can be used for the habitual present (as in other colloquial Tamil varieties; Asher & Annamalai 2002; Schiffman 1982), and can be regarded as new linguistic evidence for SLM convergence on the grammar of that language. 17• 18• 19 The verbs in (49) and (51) are negative habitual whereas the verbs in (SO) and (52) are negative non-habitual (and non-future). Habitual forms can also be construed as emphatic. 3.10.4
Negative habitual (49)
Mtjlal tamul paDi-kka maaTTaa.
SHONAM
Mifial Tamil study-INP NEG.ASP-ls 'Mifial does.tft (generally, ever) study Tamil:
16. The statement "for Colombo SLM speakers" should be taken to mean "for the subset of Colombo SLM speakers with whom I have worked." There is considerable interfamilial variation in Colombo, since regional variants
have a tendency to be perpetuated within families there. Peripheral Malay communities such as the SLM-speaking village of Kirinda display some interfamilial variation, but to a far lesser extent, since there is relatively little inmigration there from other areas. 17. Some speakers reject the use of tw(<J)- as a negator of present tense verbs, accepting only tuma-. For those speakers, the habitual/non-habitual contrast has been lost. This is found, for example, in Kirinda SLM. 18. A lexical subclass of adjectives is ordinarily negated with tar(iJ)- by all speakers, however (Slomanson 20 06: 141), including very high-frequency items such as baia ('good'). 19. Verbs marked with tuma- are not contrastively tense-mar.lred, and tuma- cannot be suffixed to the verb in the way that aspect mar.lrers are suflixed to formally finite verbs.
Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb
Negative non-habitual (50)
Mtjlal tamul paDi-kka-lla. Mlflal TamU study-INF-NEG 'Mifial is not studying Tamil'
SHONAM
Negative habitual (51)
Mtjlal mulbar tuma-blajar. Mifial TamU NEG.ASP-study 'Mlflal doesrlt (generally, ever) study Tamil'
SLM
Negative non-habitual (52)
Mtjlal mulbar tara-blajar. Mifial TamU NEG-study 'Mlflal is not studying TamU:
SLM
The functional split between the general negation marker -(i)lla for non-habitual and non-emphatic main verbs in Shonam and the contrasting auxiliary maa.TTaa, which marks habitual and future forms of verbs, and the analogous opposition in SLM, represented by tar(a)- and tuma-, constitute another of the striking parallels between the two languages, along with the tense/negation constraint itselt~ which suggests a primary contact relationship between those two languages in the glottogenesis of SLM. It is important to emphasise that spoken Sinhala does not share the Dravidian constraint. does not morphologically encode future tense, and does not morphologically encode habitual aspect in a manner that parallels the Tamil contrast described.
3.11
Verbal properties of predicate adjectives
Negation of adjectives demonstrates an alternation between organisation based on the vehicular Malay pattern and a Shonam pattern. In the SLM pattern, which reflects the lack of rigid categorial contrasts in vehicular Malay varieties, categorial contrasts are fluid to absent. and any adjective can behave as a verb- in other words, as a predicate modified by modal and aspectual markers. Adjectives that can function as verbs take a negation prefix, which is in complementary distribution with tense and modal prefixes. (53)
ittu poTTi a-kosong. DET box PRS-empty 'That box is becoming empty.'
SLM
(54)
ittu poTTi tar<J-kosong. DET box NEG.FIN-empty 'That box is not becoming empty:
SLM
For speakers in whose grammar the preceding strategy is completely productive, 20 there is a semantic contrast between that strategy and the Shonam strategy requiring an auxiliary. The
20. Thus far, the only speakers with whom I have worked for whom the vehicular Malay strategy is completely productive are Kirinda speakers. This is unsurprising, since Kirinda was relatively isolated from developments in other parts of the country in the nineteenth century and is therefore likely to constitute a relic area for
405
406
Peter Slomanson
preceding strategy implies a change of state, as in the examples above, whereas with the auxiliary strategy, a change of state cannot be implied unless the auxiliary jaaDi ('become') is used. (55)
ittu poTTi kosong @. Dl!T box empty AUX 'That box is empty.'
SLM
(56)
ittu poTTi koso11g si-aDa. Dl!T box empty PST-AUX 'That box became empty.'
SLM
(57)
ittu poTTi kosong a-}aaDI. Dl!T box empty PRs-become 'That box is becoming empty.'
SLM
The strategy exemplified for SLM in (55) through (57) is the general strategy in the sprachbund. For speakers who only have the Shonam auxiliary strategy, the predicate adjective itself cannot be tense-marked or negated; only the associated auxiliary that follows the predicate adjective can be. The negation element then is tra, a negative auxiliary. The negative auxiliary is homophonous with the full tonic form of the negation morpheme tar(a)-. Its auxiliary status becomes clear in careful speech, in which the sequence tar-aDa is not contracted. Similarly, clauses containing non-negated adjectives in the same class are tense-marked on the auxiliary, as in (56). The generalisation is that aDa is deleted in present tense declarative contexts, but is required to support the tense and negation of adjectival predicates for adjectives that do not undergo conversion. There are speakers for whom there is no lexical contrast, and all adjectives can in principle function as verbs; however the Shonam construction is also available to those speakers. The two constructions are not semantically identical and for that reason are likely to coexist. The SLM construction conveys the meaning that the property expressed by the adjective as verb is coming into being, whereas Shonam requires an auxiliary with the literal meaning 'become' to express this aspectual nuance. SLM speakers also make use of the latter option, with the verb jaaDi, but many adjectives used as verbs can convey this meaning without the use of an auxiliary.
certain features and processes. Paradoxically, its relative isolation has also led to various types oflexical creativity which are not modelled on Shonam (or Sinhala) items, such as the reflexive and reciprocal constructions, as in (i.) and (li). (i)
dia dia pe tangan dia jo vertu a-kinja 3S 3S POS hand 3S FOC hate PRS-do 'He hates himselt'
KIRINDASLM
(ii)
derang derang pe tangan paDa jo vertu a-kinja 3P 3P POS hand PW FOC hate PRs-do 'They hate themselves:
KIRINDASLM
Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb
4·
The primacy of Shonam
A convergence model of the restructuring that took place in SLM is reasonable, given, on the one hand, a history of second language acquisition of Malay by adult Sri Lankans, and the simultaneous continued presence into the nineteenth century of traditional Malay speakers in numbers that varied relative to the number of local-born Malay speakers. This does not preclude a significant role for pragmatic accommodation of sprachbund discourse strategies on the part of Ll Malay speakers, but the extent of reanalysis and restructuring in a relatively short period of time is difficult to account for without appealing to influence from L2 grammars.21 Similarly, the cultural prestige and elevated role of Shonam as a communal and religious process language render plausible the view that SLM is a language that resulted from the convergence of a relatively traditional L1 variety and an L2 variety. While the role of adult second language acquisition was conducive to profound restructuring, it is the pidgin-like inflectional simplicity of vehicular Malay varieties, and the pragmatically compensator replication of functional devices from Shonam that account for the apparent complexification of the SLM contact grammar. By complexification, I refer to the accretion of phonologically dependent morphology, including affixes and new functional clitics. The existence of these morphological devices, particularly inflectional affixes, is surprising to observers who may subscribe to the idea that new inflectional morphology is necessarily slow to develop in contact languages- in fact, in languages generally. The morphology in question, particularly TMA, negation, and an infinitival marker on verbs, and case markers on nouns, became phonologically bound, but began as free functional materiaL The diachronic outcome in which the relevant morphological items are bound parallels the tendency of Tamil varieties to accumulate bound material through agglutination, itself a function of morphosyntactic processes which can be attributed to phrase structure factors (Slomanson 2005, 2008, 2009). Early changes were syntactic. For example, prepositions became postpositions and subsequently followed the cross-linguistic tendency of postpositions to be realised as case suffixes, a diachronic tendency that also applied, for example, in Finnish, a distant and genetically unrelated language.
21. SLM most plausibly resulted from the convergence of a native grammar and a Shonarn-influenced 12 grammar that may itself have resembled a relexified grammar. If there were no break in the intergenerational transmission of Malay and profound typological change can be attributed to the influence of aduh 12 speakers of SLM, then the grammars of native Shonarn speakers influenced the grammars ofL 1 speakers, leading to convergence of the two varieties. 12 grammars were likely to have been influential for external reasons, including the cultural prestige of native speakers of what is often referred to as Arable Tamil (Shonam written in modified Arabic script). Model language influence through second language acquisition as such is not the only source of grammatical change in SLM, since the importance of Sinhala fluency increased dramatically in the twentieth century. Well into the early part of the twentieth century, fluency in Sinhala was frequently limited in the Malay communities and interaction between members of the Sinhala- and Malay-speaking communities did not take place within the context of dense and multiplex networks. There is identifiable influence from Sinhala on SLM, although that influence is best treated as adstrataL It is likely to increase as the younger generation in urban areas has become increasingly Sinhala-dominant.
407
408
Peter Slomanson
5·
Conclusion
The model of language restructuring taken as a starting point in this article is one in which alanguage in contact, in this case Ll Malay in Sri Lanka, borrows elements in the discourse structure of a model language (Shonam, but also Shonam L2 Malay), due to interaction with successive cohorts of speakers of that variety. This leads to the adoption of associated morphological conventions, such as the finiteness contrast. The relevant discourse conventions associated with Shonam and the Sri Lankan sprachbund include, in particular, the syntactic subordination of non-matrix clauses to matrix clauses. This is not only encoded syntactically in the sprachbund, but also through the use of morphological devices such as aspectual and participial affixes. Lexical verbs can be marked as participles in non-matrix clauses, in which their non-finite morphology is an indication that they are temporally subordinate to a matrix clause. The matrix clause contains the most recent event in the temporal sequence. Additionally, the availability of non-finite morphology permits the speaker to focus an event that is temporally secondary by right-extraposing its clause, while preserving the primary status of the most recent event (which remains tensemarked and finite). I take this as a catalyst for morphosyntactic change in the SLM verb, in an approach in which discourse change precedes morphosyntactic change. We have seen that the morphosyntax of SLM substantially reflects influence from the Sri Lankan sprachbund that has resulted from a number of diachronic processes. These processes have included the reanalysis of vehicular Malay sentences and constructions, based on sprachbund discourse organisation and morphosyntax, as well as in some instances the calquing of sprachbund constructions. The status of Shonam specifically as the model for morphosyntactic change is most apparent in the FSC and its effects, since the SLM constraint blocking the co-occurrence of tense and negation morphology on verbs is a property of Tamil varieties generally, and not of Sinhala. While a small number of features and processes from vehicular Malay persist in SLM, such as the fixed pre-verbal position of those functional contrasts directly marked on lexical verbs and the categorial flexibility of adjectives, the language's morphosyntax has incorporated more features from its Shonam model language than it has retained from vehicular Malay.
List of abbreviations ACC ADV ASP
AUX BEN
CMP CST DAT Dl!G DI!T
accusative adverb aspect auxiliary verb benefactive complementiser causative dative case degree determiner
FIN FOC
FSC Gl!R HAB
HON HRT IND INF ITG
finite focus Functional Stacking Constraint gerund habitual honorific hortative indefinite infinitive interrogative
Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb 409
second language matrix MOD modal MV modal-verb NEG negative NFN non-finite NMN nominalisation NONMAT non-matrix p postposition PW plural nwnber POL polite POS possessive L2
PRI!D
MAT
PRG PRS PST
PSV QUT
s SLM TMA TNS VM
predicate progressive aspect present tense past tense passive voice quotative singular nwnber Sri Lankan Malay tense/mood/aspect tense verb-modal
References Adelaar, K. A. 1991. Some notes on the origin of Sri Lanka Malay. Papers in Austronesian Linguistics 1. The Australian National University, Research School of Pacific Studies. Ansaldo, U. 2008. Sri Lanka Malay revisited: Genesis and classification. In Lessons from Documented Endangered Languages [Typological Studies in Language 78], K. D. Harrison, D. S. Rood & A. Dwyer (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Asher, R. E. & Annamalai, E. 2002. Colloquial Tamil. London: Routledge. Hawkins, J. A. & Gilligan, G. 1988. Prefixing and suffixing universals in relation to basic word order. Lingua 74: 219-259. Hussainmiya, B. A. 1987. Lost cousins: The Malays of Sri Lanka. Dunia Melayu Occasional Paper 2. Bangi.: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Institut Bahasa, Kesusasteraan dan Kebudayaan Melayu. Hussainmiya, B. A. 1987. 1990/2008. Orang Rejimen; The Malays of the Ceylon Rifle Regiment. Bangi.: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Institut Bahasa, Kesusasteraan dan Kebudayaan Melayu. Paauw, S. 2004. A Historical Analysis of the Lexical Sources of Sri Lanka Malay. MA thesis, York University. Schiffman, H. 1982. Negation and semantic aspects. South Asian Review 6: 104-116. Slomanson, P. 2005. The Verbal Morphosyntax ofNon-Canonical Contact Languages. Malay-Derived Constraints and the Inflectional Domain in Mrikaans and Sri Lankan Malay. PhD dissertation, City University of New York Graduate Center. Slomanson, P. 2006. Sri Lankan Malay grammars: Lankan or Malay? In Structure and Variation in Contact Languages [Creole Language library 29]. A. Deumert & S. Durrleman (eds), 135-158. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Slomanson, P. 2008. The perfect construction and complexity drift in Sri Lankan Malay. Lingua 188: 1640-1655. Slomanson, P. 2009. Morphological finiteness as increased complexity in a mixed negation system. In Complex Processes in New Languages [Creole Language Library 35], E. Aboh & N. Smith (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Slomanson, P. & Hussainmiya, B. A. In preparation. Cultural fusion: The case of South and Southeast Asian communities in Sri Lanka. Smith, I. R. 1979. Convergence in South Asia: A creole example. Lingua 48: 193-222. Smith, I. R., Paauw, S. H. & Hussainmiya, B. A. 2004. Sri Lanka Malay: The state of the art Yearbook of South Asian Linguistics 2004: 197-215. van Minde, D. 1997. Malayu Amhong: Phonology, Morphology, Syntax. Lelden: Research School CNWS.
Creoles spoken in the Pacific
Papuan Malay of New Guinea Melanesian influence on verb and clause structure Mark Donohue Australian National University
0 f the Malay varieties of Southeast Asia, Papuan Malay is the most removed both geographically and linguistically from the "homeland" of Malay. While showing no more lexical differences than other Malay varieties, it represents an extreme divergence from the morphosyntax of the better-described varieties to the west. Verbs, and their place in clause structure, represent the area where this is most apparent, almost certainly representing influence from the Melanesian languages that were the native languages of the first speakers of an early variety of Papuan Malay. Keywords: Malay, lexical semantics, serial verbs, clause combining
1.
Introduction
This chapter discusses Papuan Malay, a variety of Malay spoken in the easternmost Indonesian province of Papua. The name is not unproblematic and is far from satisfactory; a more appropriate label might be "North(east) coastal Papuan Malay;' since the corpus on which this description is based comes primarily from villages on the northeast coast of the Indonesian province of Papua, in western New Guinea, and the immediate hinterland. Earlier work on varieties of Malay in New Guinea includes Clouse (2001), Roosman (1982), Silzer (1979) and Suharno (1979), but, as with the current chapter, none of these presents survey-based justification for the delimitations of the varieties described. There are in fact at least four main varieties of Malay/lndonesian spoken in New Guinea, though sociolinguistic research in this area is still in its infancy. The number of first-language speakers of any of the indigenous varieties of Malay spoken in New Guinea is not known but can be estimated at no less than a combined total of 100,000, and more likely several times this number. Papuan Malay (in the sense used here) has at least 120 years of history behind it; it was probably initiated by the sporadic arrival of "Malay" bird of paradise traders in the nineteenth century. and later reinforced, and probably altered, by the presence of large number of speakers of Ambonese Malay (Donohue & Sawaki 2007; Grimes 1991). The linguistic traces of these outsiders are limited to the lexical in most inland villages (Seiler 1983 discusses Malay loans in languages spoken on the Indonesia/Papua New Guinea border; further east, words obviously related to
414
Mark Donohue
Melayu 'Malay: such as pisau 'knife' or beras 'rice: can be found east into the Serra hills and Torricelli ranges in Papua New Guinea). On the coast, however, a new lingua franca was added to the existing multilingual milieu. Papuan Malay in Indonesia has continued to be influenced by more western varieties of the language (some examples of these changes will be mentioned below), but a few villages across the border in Papua New Guinea (including Sko Tiau and Nyao) have retained the daily use of an earliervarietyofPapuan Malay, allowing us a glimpse at a form of the language that has been less influenced by western elements in modern times. Identifying and classifying different varieties of Malay/Indonesian is no simple matter (see, e.g., Adelaar & Prentice 1996). A language recognisable as a close ancestor of the modern languages is attested in rock inscriptions from the Srivijaya empire, dated to the seventh century AD, and numerous attestations since then show that the language was both politically important, and used in some form or another across a wide area. This has led to many diverse regional varieties with separate histories, bound together by standard languages that have been modelled on earlier, approximately sixteenth-century, formal language. The sociolinguistic complexities imposed by the sometimes great differences between the colloquial and formal languages are very fluid, and are only beginning to be properly understood (e.g., Manns forthcoming). Within this broader picture, we can unequivocally place Papuan Malay in the group of ill-defined "eastern" creoles that are found between Kupang and New Guinea; more specifically, we can link it, via lexical items (e.g., sambiki 'pumpkiri, kelemarin 'yesterday'), to the varieties of Malay spoken in North Maluku and around Manado (Grimes nd; Taylor 1983; Voorhoeve 1983). Research on Papuan Malay has been slow to extend past notes oflexical differences, but there is now a respectable literature on aspects of the variety and its likely near relatives, and ongoing work that serves to define the varieties of Malay in New Guinea (Kluge forthcoming; Scott et al. 2008). In this chapter, we shall focus on two areas in which Papuan Malay is most divergent from Standard Indonesian: complexification of the verb and the use of multiple verbs in a single clause in serial verb constructions, and the means by which multiple clauses are linked together. In both
Key: 1. Standard Malay; 2. Singapore Malay and Singapore Indian Malay; 3. Riau Indonesian; 4. Jakarta Malay and Jakarta Indonesian; 5. Makasar Malay; 6. Manado Malay; 7. North Moluccan Malay; 8. Arnbonese Malay; 9. Kupang Malay; PM: Papuan Malay. Other varieties of Indonesian, and second-language use of Indonesian, can be found in most areas between 1 and PM on the map.
Map 1. Some varieties of Malay/Indonesian spoken about Southeast Asia
Papuan Malay ofNew Guinea
these areas, the influence of substrate languages is apparent, in ways that are strikingly divergent from Standard Indonesian. In this chapter, I shall examine ways in which the morphological and syntactic options available for verbs show drastic differences between Papuan Malay, at the eastern edge of the area in which Malay/Indonesian is spoken, and Standard Indonesian, which represents a more conservative variety from the west of the range. While focusing on the structures of Papuan Malay, I shall contrast them with Standard Indonesian and with a local language, Skou (Donohue forthcoming). 1
Verbal complexification: Inflectional morphology
2.
Verbal and clausal structures see the greatest concentration of non-western features in Papuan Malay, and apparently the greatest evidence of influence from a non-lexifier substrate. The verbal system of Papuan Malay is one of the areas of the language's grammar that shows the greatest divergence from the norms of western varieties of Malay, such as the homelands of the standard languages of Malaysia and Indonesia. Taking these varieties as base for comparison, examine the sentences in (1) to (4). While Standard Indonesian marks active and non-active voice on the verb by means of prefixes, Papuan Malay has no such marking (Donohue 2007a, 2007b ). Even for those speakers who do have a voice contrast, that contrast is marked analytically, as in (4), rather than morphologically. 2 (1)
Anjlng me-llhat babi. dog ACT-see pig 'The dog saw the pig:
STANDARD INDONI!SIAN
(2)
Babi di-lihat (oleh) a11jing. pig NONACT-See by dog 'The pig was seen by the dog:
STANDARD INDONESIAN
(3)
Anjlng lia babi. dog see pig 'The dog saw the pig.'
PAPUAN MALAY
(4)
Babi dapa lia denganjing. pig get see with dog 'The pig was seen by the dog:
PAPUAN MALAY
A feature that is saliently present in Papuan Malay, but absent in Standard Indonesian, is pronominal agreement The preceding examples, with third-person non-human subjects, do not show agreement on the verb, but in the following examples this is an overt feature of the clause. 1. There are descriptions of other varieties of Malay closer to Papuan Malay (e.g., Van Minde 1997 on Ambonese Malay), but Malay varieties such as this also show clearly identifiable Papuan influences in their grammar (Donohue 2007c; Donohue & Schapper 20 08).
2. Other morphological affixes that are productive in Standard Indonesian, such as ber- 'middle voice', ter- 'accidental event~ or -an 'abstract nominaliser', are at best present in lexically fossilised fonn in Papuan Malay. They are not used productively.
415
416
Mark Donohue
Example (5) shows that pronominal information is present only in the form of a free pronoun in Standard Indonesian, while the Papuan Malay translation uses a clitic form of the pronoun on the verb; an independent pronoun (kita or saya, depending on dialect) is not grammatical within the clause (see Donohue & Sawaki 2007 for arguments on the eli tic status of the bound pronouns in Papuan Malay). (5)
Saya me-lihat babi.
STANDARD INDONESIAN
lsG ACT-see pig 'I saw the pig? (6)
Sa=lia
babi.
PAPUAN MALAY
lSG=See pig 'I saw the pig:
While suffixation for subject agreement is the norm in New Guinea as a whole, subject prefixation is to be expected among the languages of the north coast. Example (7) shows translations of (6) in a selection of languages from along the northwest coast of New Guinea. While there is variation in the position of the object, some sort of prefixal agreement is very frequent Example (8), showing the same sentence in Lani from the highlands, is more generally typical of the languages of New Guinea. (7)
a
Foro j-om-i.
ToBATI
pig lsG-see-3sG b.
Pale nl=fu.
SKOU
pig lSG=See.F
c.
Y-eti
fiai.
AMBAI
lsG-see pig d.
Sa=lia
babi
PAPUAN MALAY
lsG=see pig 'I saw a pig: (8)
An wam k-eg-i-rak
LANI
lSG pig 2/3SG-see-1SG-PAST 'I saw a pig:
The full set of Papuan Malay agreement clitics and the corresponding free pronouns are shown in Table 1. The pronouns of standard Indonesian are shown in Table 2; note that most of the pronouns in Papuan Malay can be related to the Standard Indonesian pronouns, with the addition of a regular pluralising -ong on the plural pronouns, related to orang 'person'.3 Table 2 also shows the independent and bound pronouns of Skou, a language spoken close to the "core" of the Papuan Malay area. As with Papuan Malay, the bound pronouns are transparently related to the independent pronouns. Note that Papuan Malay, like Skou and many Papuan languages, does not mark the contrast between inclusive and exclusive that is so typical of Austronesian languages,
3· A similar pluralising strategy is found in most non-standard varieties of Malay. This is probably related to the use of lang 'person' as a plural suffix on pronouns in Hokkien, a Chinese language that has influenced the development of Malay.
Papuan Malay of New Guinea
Table 1. Pronominal forms in Papuan Malay
lSG
Independent
Bound
saya, kita
sa= ko= de= tong= kam= dong=
2sG
ko:
3SG
dia, de kitong, tong kam (kamo(ra),Jg) dorang, dong
lPL 2PL 3PL
Table 2. Basic pronom!nals in Standard Indonesian and Skou
lSG 2sG 3SG lPL 2PL JPL
Standard Indonesian
Skou
Independent
Independent
Bound
saya engkau dia EX: kami; IN: kita kalian mereka
ni me
ni= me=mNF: ke=k-; P: pe=pne=ne= te=t-
NF: ke;F:pe
ne e te
including Indonesian (though see Donohue & Smith 1998). On the other hand, the marking of a gender distinction in the third person, typical of northern New Guinea (Donohue 2000), is not found in Papuan Malay (though there are gender distinctions in some nouns, such as pace 'male friend~ mace 'female friend: which are not found in Standard Indonesian). Agreement for objects is also found in Papuan Malay, shown in (9), using the same set of clitics that can be used for subjects. Unlike subject agreement. which is obligatory for first or second persons and normal for (human) third persons, object agreement allows for more apparently unconditioned variation. Note that (10) is just as grammatical as (9), though it is not grammatical to have both the clitic and the free pronoun in the same clause. (9)
Babi=tu, de=lia=sa. pig=that 3so=see= lso 'That pig, it saw me.'
(10)
Babi=tu, de=lia kita. pig=that 3so=see lso 'That pig, it saw me.'
(11)
*Babi=tu, de=lia-sa kita. pig=that 3SG=See=1SG lSG 'That pig, it saw me.'
The aspectual system of standard Indonesian, involving independent aspectual words, also shows very little structural relationship to the aspectual system of Papuan Malay. While the same etyma are used in many cases, in reduced form (so < sudah, mo < mau, tra < tidak), at least two markers of aspect in Papuan Malay have no exact correspondent, in either form or semantic match,
417
418
Mark Donohue
in Standard Indonesian.4 In both cases, the use of the verbs ta.w 'know' and ada 'be' as auxiliaries parallels the similar use of these lexical items as auxiliaries in local languages of north-central New Guinea; compare (26) and (27) (note that the Skou example shows the use of two auxiliaries, 'be' and 'dO, which obligatorily co-occur in this construction). Only musti 'musf, also found in Ambonese Malay and corresponding to Standard Indonesian mesti, is a phonologically separate word that is etymologically related to auxiliaries in more western varieties of the language.5 The semantic range of musti differs from mesti, however, in that while mesti indicates obligation, mwti indicates inevitability, a sense that is not available for Standard Indonesian, as can be seen in (28) and (29). The obligation sense is not unknown in Papuan Malay, but is more likely to be expressed without the use of musti, as in (30) and (31 ). STANDARD INDONESIAN (12) Dia sudah makan. 3sG already eat 'She's already eaten.'
PAPUAN MALAY (13) De=so=makan. 3sG=already=eat 'She's already eaten.'
(14) Dia mau makan. 3SG want eat 'She wants to eat?
(15) De=mo=makan. 3sG=want=eat 'She wants to eat:
(16) Dia tidak makan. 3SG not eat 'She didrit eat:
(17)
(18)
Dia biasa makan. 3so usual eat 'She generally eats?
De=tra=makan. 3so=not=eat 'She didn't eat:
(19) De=taW=makan. 3so=know=eat 'She usually eats:
(20) Dia bisa makan. 3so able eat 'She can eat:
(21) De=taW=makan. 3so=know=eat 'She can eat:
(22) Dia masih makan. 3SG still eat 'She is still eating?
(23) De=ada=makan. 3so=be=eat 'She is eating.'
(24) Dia harus makan. 3so must eat 'She must eat:
(25) De=musti makan. 3so=must eat 'She must eat:
4· But note that ada as a marker of continuative aspect was used in earlier varieties of Malay and is attested in numerous Classical Malay texts. The verb is preserved in an auxiliary function in some western varieties, such as the following Singapore Pidgin Malay examples, but not with a continuative sense. (i)
diaolang ada bawa satu anjing... 3PL exist take one dog
SINGAPORE PIDGIN MALAY
'They had brought a dog.. :
(ii) Lu ada lenga la Kwanton a? 2SG exist hear EMPH Cantonese INTI!RROGATIVI! 'Do you understand Cantonese?'
5· It should be mentioned that, in addition to so=, suda is also found, as well as maw for mo=.
Papuan Malay of New Guinea
(26)
De=ada makan sago. 3sG=be eat sago 'She ls eating sago:
(27)
Pe hOe pe=p-ang e tue. 3SG.P sago 3SG.F=3SG.F=eat 3SG.F.be 3SG.F.do 'She ls eating sago:
(28)
Lama sakit, de=tnusti mati. long.time sick 3sG=must die 'She's been sick for a long time, she's bound to die:
(29)
~ Dia
(30)
We=musti dudo deng bai. 3sG=must sit with good 'She has to sit properly.'
PAPUAN MALAY
(31)
Lebae de=dudo deng bal. better 3sG=sit with good 'She should sit properly.'
PAPUAN MALAY
(32)
Dia mesN duduk baik-baik. 3sG must sit RED-good 'She has to sit properly.'
mesN matl.
PAPUAN MALAY
SKOU
PAPUAN MALAY
STANDARD INDONESIAN
STANDARD INDONl!SIAN
An even greater contrast between standard Indonesian and Papuan Malay is found in the use of aspect marking as a marker of clause linkage. The textual extract in (33) shows an example of tail-head linkage, a very common strategy in discourse in Melanesia. The use of potong in the first clause introduces the sequence of cutting, and the verb in the second clause is unmarked for aspect of any sort or for agreement with the subject. The third clause begins with a copy of the same verb marked with the perfective, but with no verbal agreement. Note that in this stretch of discourse the verbs are all unmarked for agreement, corresponding to the unambiguous identity of the topical subject here and its inanimacy (Donohue & Sawaki 2007). In (34), we can see a series of tail-head linkage patterns of the sort common in New Guinea (Longacre 1972, 1985) but unattested in Standard Indonesian, which owes more of its typological profile to Southeast Asian norms. (33) Pohon su=tebang, baru tong=molai=potong cabang. Potong cabang itu. tree Pl!RF=fell new lPL=start=cut branch cut branch that So=potong, ambel=de ba=pulang. Pl!RF=cut fetch=3sG carry=return 'When the tree ls felled. then we start to cut the branches. [We] cut the branches. When they're all chopped. [we] take them home: (34)
Dong=nae jalan pi sampe di pondok. Scnnpe di pondok dong=duduk isterihcJt. 3PL=ascend road go until Loc hut until we hut 3PL=sit rest Selese isterihat dong=ambe barang pikul ba=pulang di kampong. complete rest 3PL=fetch thing carry.on.shoulder carry=return we village 'They follow the road to the hut. Arriving at the hut, they sit down and rest. After resting, they take their things and carry them back to the village:
419
420 Mark Donohue
Repetition is a characteristic of discourse in other ways, as in (35), and is not unknown even in other, more standard, varieties of the language, but the use of the tail-head construction to show temporally sequential clauses is distinctive of Papuan Malay (and possibly other colloquial varieties in the east, though this has not been explicitly reported). (35)
Dong=terlma deng bal. Dong=terlma macam bal. 3PL=receive with good 3PL=receive like good 'They welcome us nicely, they welcome us well'
More marking of aspect: Serial verb constructions
3·
Additional markers of aspect unique to Papuan Malay include the perfect(ive) use of the verbs selese 'finish' and (h)abis 'be finished'. Habis is confined to main clauses, while selese is used in subordinate clauses, as shown in (36). (36)
So=lapar jad~ makan itu habis. PERF=hungry thus eat that finish 'You're hungry, so eat it (all) up.'
(37)
Selese makan itu, ambe piring ba-pi taru di sana. finish eat that take plate carry-go place Loc there ~fter eating it up, take your plate and put it over there:
While selese is not in use as a main verb in basilectal Papuan Malay, habis has both monovalent and bivalent uses (some speakers, more competent in Standard Indonesian, prefer the Standard Indonesian transitivising suffix -kan on the first use of habis as a main verb, as in (38)).
4·
(38)
De=bikin rumah habis. 3sG=make house finish 'He finished building the house.'
(39)
Kalo bagitu tara usa lae, tong=so=habis. if like.that NEG purpose any. more 1PL=PERP=finish 'If that's the case there's no point any more, we're finished.'
(40)
Dong=main bola bukamain. Dong=habis tong=pu ana habis! 3SG=play soccer amazing 3PL=finish lPL=POSS child finish 'They're amazing at soccer. They wiped our team out completely!'
(41)
Dong=so=makan habis. 3PL=PERP=eat finish 'They've already finished eating.'
Serial verb constructions
Serial verb constructions are almost a hallmark of the languages of New Guinea (Foley 1986), and are a prominent feature of Papuan Malay. It is true that examples such as (42), from Singaporean
Papuan Malay of New Guinea
Malay, attest to the use of serial verbs in western varieties of Malay, but these western varieties show nowhere near the frequency, variety and lexicalisation of serial verbs that is found in Papuan Malay. 6 Note that Standard Indonesian (or Malay) does not employ these constructions, but rather uses the applicative -kan, or the preposition untuk, as in (43) and (44). Agent Beneficiary (42)
Dia
Theme
buat aku masak nasi.
SINGAPOREAN MALAY
3sG do.for lso cook rice 'She cooked (some) rice for me.' (43)
Agent
Beneficiary Theme
Dia me-masak-kan
saya
nasi.
3SG ACT-COOk-TRANS lSG 'She cooked me (some) rice.' Agent (44)
STANDARD INDONESIAN
rice
Theme Beneficiary
Dia me-masak nasi
untuk saya.
3so ACT-cook rice for 'She cooked me (some) rice.'
lsG
We have already seen examples of serialised uses of verbs to mark aspect. Other salient uses of serial verb constructions include: adding causers, beneficiaries or instruments; describing events involving motion or transfer; describing cause-effect complex predicates. The following sections elaborate on these uses. Causers
4.1
Causation in Papuan Malay is expressed either lexically, as in such pairs as mati 'die' and bunu 'kill' (paralleling the same use in Standard Indonesian), or through the productive causativisers kasi=lkas= 'give, bikin(g) 'make, and buat 'make, do'. While the bikin(g) and buat constructions
6. It might also be noted that the use of serial verb constructions in many western Malay varieties possibly reflects the Sinitic component in the history of colloquial Malay. We note that in Singapore Indian Malay (Sasi 2007), a variety heavily influenced by SOV Tamil, a very different construction is used.
(i)
lthu pompan wa pinga pasal nasi masak. that woman 1SG MOD reason rice cook 'That lady cooked (some) rice for me:
Serial verb constructions are unknown in Standard Malay or Standard Indonesian.
SINGAPORE INDIAN MALAY
421
422
Mark Donohue
are formed with an independent verb, kas(i)= is unambiguously a bound form in this construction, though clearly historically and synchronically related to kasi 'give'. 7 Kasi may be used with any predicate, agentive or non-agentive and transitive or intransitive. Examples of the basic use of this causative are shown in (45). Compare the Papuan Malay structure with the semantically equivalent translation in Standard Indonesian in (46 ), and with an equivalent from Skou in (47); Skou is an SOV language in which the causative verb is 'dd, which cannot be contiguous with the base predicate. (45)
a
De=so=bangun.
PAPUAN MALAY
3SG=PERP=wake.up 'He woke up: b.
Tbng=kaS=bangun
dla.
lPL=CAUS=wake.up 3SG 'We woke him up.' (46)
Kami mem-bangun-kan
dia.
STANDARD INDONESIAN
lPL.l!.X ACT-wake.up-TRANS 3SG 'We woke him up: (47)
Ke
ne=tl
ke=lu
weng.
Sxou
3SG.NP lPL=lPLdO 3SG.NP=eye sleep 'We put him to sleep:
Note that, when the base predicate is transitive, there is variation in the form of the causative sentence; the semantic differences associated with the translations do not necessarily reflect the interpretations assigned to the different sentences by speakers, and the degree of variation found might well be dialectal (or idiolectal) as well as being grammatical for the same speaker. (48)
Ana=tu
de=makan papeda.
child=that 3so=eat sago.porridge 'The child is eating sago porridge: (49)
Mama de=kas=makan de=pu=ana
papeda.
mother 3SG=CAUS=eat 3SG=POSS=child sago.porridge 'That woman is feeding her child sago porridge.' (50)
Mama de=kas=makan papeda
sama de=pu=ana.
mother 3SG=CAUS=eat sago.porridge with 3SG=POSS=chlld 'That woman is feeding sago porridge to her child:
The causativiser bikin(g) is found only with intransitive bases and is particularly frequent with non-agentive bases; it might be that biJ..in(g)+V sequences are to some extent lexicalised in the grammar. An object can either appear following the CAUS+verb sequence or intrude between the two elements.
7.
Additionally, a mde range of speech verbs may be used mth causative functions, as in (i): (i)
Sa=SUTo de=jalan! lSG=command 3SG=go 'I told him to go:
Papuan Malay of New Guinea
(51)
Iangan de=bikin=takot kau. don't 3sG=make=afraid 2sG 'Dmtt let him scare you."
(52)
Iangan de=bikin kau takot. don't 3SG=make 2SG afraid 'Don't let him scare you."
Although it is more commonly associated with non-agentive bases, bikin(g) can also be found with agentive predicates: (53)
Dong=so=biklng=ker}a dia. 3PL=PERF=make=work 3SG 'They've made him work.'
For some predicates, bikin(g) is the only commonly accepted causativiser: (54)
De=so=biking=baik sa=pu=sapu. 3SG=PERF=make=good 1SG=POSS= broom 'She's fixed my broom.'
(55)
?De=so=kas=baik sa=pu=sapu. 3SG=PERF=give=good 1SG=POSS= broom 'She's fixed my broom.'
Buat is used for a less "direct" sense of causation, and only allows the causee to appear between the two verbs. Buat is not grammatical in constructions in which it is contiguous with the main verb predicate. (56)
Dong=buat de=pulang. 3PL=dO 3SG=return 'They made him return home: (e.g., because of the things they said, or because they had made him uncomfortable, etc.)
(57)
*dong=buat=pulang dia. 3PL=dO=return 3SG
Note the contrast in implicature between (58) and (59), in which the causative verb and the base predicate are non-contiguous or contiguous, respectively. (58)
Dong=kasi de=pula11g. 3PL=give 3sG=return 'They made him return home.' (e.g., they forced him, or they gave him permission)
(59)
Dong=kas(i)=pulang dia. 3PL=give=return 3sG 'They made him return home.' (they forced him)
As noted earlier, this same verb, bua.t, is used in different constructions in other varieties of Malay.
423
424
Mark Donohue
It is also highly likely that a non-specialised verb will be used to express the cause in a causeresult construction. The extent to which different collocations have been lexicalised is unknown. Some examples are shown in (60) to (62). (60)
De=kas=matl a11jing gonggong itu. 3sG=give=die dog bark 'He killed the barking dog.'
(61)
that
De=pukol=matl an}ing gonggong itu. 3SG=hit=die dog bark that 'He beat the barking dog to death.'
(62)
De=potong=matl anjing gonggong itu. 3SG=CUt=die dog bark that 'He cut the barking dog so that it died:
4.2
Beneficiaries
While Standard Indonesian has a simple preposition to indicate beneficiary roles, Papuan Malay employs either "indirect object lowering" (Croft 1985) or a serial verb construction. In the first strategy, the beneficiary is encoded as the possessor of the object of the verb; obviously, this strategy may only be used with bivalent verbs. Thus, in (63) the argument encoded as the possessor of barang baru is interpreted as the beneficiary, and not necessarily (or even primarily) as a possessor. (63)
De=ba=datang
sa=pu=barang
baru.
3SG=bring=come lSG=POSS=thing new 'He brought some new things for me.' (lit., 'He brought my new things.') (64)
Dong=pana mama pu
laolao.
3PL=shoot mother Poss wallaby 'They shot a wallaby for me.' (elder female speaking, using mama as a lsG pronoun; lit, 'They shot mother's wallaby.') (65)
Harus ko=blkin
sa=punya }alan itu.
must 2SG=make lSG=POSS road that 'You've got to build a road for us first, right.'
Alternatively, and obligatorily for a monovalent main predicate, a beneficiary may be encoded as the object of a serial verb construction. The verb used most frequently is kasi 'give!, as in (66), but buat 'do' is also heard in this role. Note that in both cases the position of the serial verb is following the main predicate. While buat is used in this same function in some non-standard varieties of Indonesian in the west, it invariably precedes the main verb (as in example (42)), a coding choice that is not available in Papuan Malay. (66)
De=ba=datang
barang baru kas(i)=sa.
3sG=brlng=come things new give=lsG 'He brought some new things for me.'
Papuan Malay of New Guinea
(67)
Dong=pana laolao
buat mama.
3PL=shoot wallaby do.for mother 'They shot a wallaby for me:
As might be expected from the different glosses given to kasi 'give' and buat 'do fof, while kasi requires that any transferable object of the main verb end up in the possession of the object of kasi this is not a necessary entailment of buat. Example (67) is thus ambiguous in interpretation between "mama" receiving the wallaby or (less pragmatically likely) the subject of the clause carrying out the shooting on her behalf. With monovalent main predicates this difference is lost; (68) and (69) are both interpretable only in terms of kitong being the beneficiary of the action. (68)
De=nyanyi kasi kitong. 3SG=Sing give lPL 'She sang for
us:
(69)
De=nyanyl buat kitong. 3sG=sing do.for lPL 'She sang for
us:
Note that there is not necessarily an entailed transfer of goods when kasi, etymologically derived from 'give~ is used. This can be seen in (70). (70)
Sa=mlnta
dia suda
banyak kall, tus
de=pl
kota kasi saya.
lsG=request 3sG already much time and.then 3sG=go city give lsG 'Itl asked her a lot of times, so in the end she went to the city for me:
As mentioned earlier, colloquial varieties of Malay spoken in the west of the language's range can also use buat to indicate a beneficiary, but in those varieties buat precedes the main predicate. This is not an option in Papuan Malay, as seen in the contrast in grammaticality between (71) and (72). (71)
Dong=ada masak nasi buat kito11g. 3PL=exlst cook rice do.for lPL 'They're cooking rice for
us:
(72)
*/?Dong buat kitong masak nasi
Local languages have constructions equivalent to those seen in Papuan Malay, though not identical. In Skou, there are a great variety of ways of encoding beneficiaries, including one involving indirect object lowering, in which the beneficiary is coded as the possessor of the theme (7 3); and a strategy in which the possessor appears postverbally, in the position in which most obliques normally appear, with the possessive suffixes that normally mark the possessum being attached directly to the possessor/beneficiary (74). (73)
Ani-ni=ne
[[ 8 BN di]
nale la11g-ke]
pe=tue.
mother-lsG.GEN=lSG.DAT father taro mashedtuber-3SG.NP.GEN 3SG.F=3SG.F.do 'Mother is making taro la11g for father:
SKou
425
426
Mark Donohue
(74)
Pe
Me pe=tue
[Bw dl-ke=ke].
3SG.F sago she=does father-3SG.NF.GEN=3SG.NF.DAT 'She's preparing sago for father?
Standard Indonesian, by contrast. encodes beneficiaries either prepositionally with u.ntuk 'for' or by means of the (applicativising) transitive morphology on the verb (or both; Cole & Son 2004 ). (75)
lbu
me-masak kue u11tuk bapak.
STANDARD INDONESIAN
mother AcT-cook cake for father 'Mother made cakes for father: (76)
Ibu
me-masak-kan
bapak kue.
mother AcT-cook-TRANS father cake 'Mother made cakes for father?
Cross-linguistically there is great variation in the encoding of beneficiaries, and it is no real surprise that Papuan Malay, which has developed as a result of the acquisition of a Malayic lexicon by speakers of languages radically different from those spoken near the Malay homeland far to the west, should have grammaticalised different means of encoding these participants.
4·3
Instruments
A serial verb construction with pake 'use' is functionally equivalent to the use of the preposition sama 'with' in introducing instruments. The preposition deng 'with', etymologically related to the Standard Indonesian dengan, is used in some areas, such as Serui (Van Velzen 1995). (77)
Sa=pake parang potong kayu.
PAPUAN MALAY
1sG=use machete cut wood 'I used a machete [to] cut wood: (78)
a b.
Sa=potong kayu sama parang. Sa=potong kayu deng parang. 1sG=cut wood with machete 'I cut wood with a machete?
(79)
Saya mem-[p]otong kayu dengan parang. 1sG ACT-cut wood with 'I cut wood with a machete.'
STANDARD INDONESIAN
machete
A parallel set of alternatives for encoding objects can be tound in local languages of the area, shown in (80) to (81). (80)
Nl=pa
hlle=ing pe=tue.
sago.stirrer=INSTR saga=the 3SG.F=3SG.F.do 'She [stirs] the sago with a sago stirrer? (81)
Nf
pe=w-e=ko
htie=ing pe=tue.
sago.stirrer 3SG.F=3SG.F-get=OBV sago=the 3SG.F=3SG.F.dO 'She [stirs] the sago with a sago stirrer:
SKOU
Papuan Malay of New Guinea
As with beneficiaries, which frequently show alternations between core argument status and otherwise (e.g., Dative Shift in English and other languages), instruments show a great deal of variation in their encoding, and the serial verb structure that is common in New Guinea, and used in Papuan Malay, is highly iconic from an event structure perspective. It is again not surprising that this structure was adapted into Papuan Malay. 4·4
Motion
The same verb pake may also be used to indicate the means of transportation, either in combination with other verbs of motion, or on its own in response to a question. (82)
Sa=pake prau dayu11g pi lau mancing ikan. lsG=use canoe paddle go sea catch fish 'I went by canoe to the sea [to] catch fish:
(83)
a
b.
Ko=pake apa pi kota? 2sG= use what go ctty 'How did you get to town?' Sa=pake motor. lsG=use motorbike 'I went by motorbike:
Other serial verb constructions used to express motion predicates involve the combination of manner-of-motion verbs with verbs of directed motion, as seen in (84) and (85). Note that the locative preposition di is not usually used in collocation with centripetal motion, though it can be used with centrifugal motion. The allative preposition of Standard Indonesian is not frequently encountered in Papuan Malay. (84)
De=lari pi skola. 3sG=run go school 'She ran to school'
(85)
Dong=jala11 datang di skola. 3PL=Walk come LOC school 'They walked to school:
(86)
Dia lari ke sekolah. 3sG run to school 'She ran to schooL'
PAPUAN MALAY
STANDARD INDONESIAN
A verb indicating motion towards a deictic centre may be found following the verb of directed motion. The templatic elaborations of the expression of a motion event are shown in their respective orders in (89). (87)
De=pigi pulang (dl) ruma. 3sG=go return we house 'She went back home:
427
428
Mark Donohue
(88) De=datang kemari. 3sG=come hither 'She came back here.' (89) [Manner-of-motion] - [Directed-motion]- [Motion-towards-centre] These constructions can be compared to similar multi-predicate motion-event constructions in Papuan languages of the area, such as Skou. (90)
4·5
Pe pe=moe w-a ta p-o te bang. 3SG.F 3SG.F=return 3SG.F-walk running 3SG.F-seawards 3SG.P.go beach 'She ran back down to the beach.'
SKOU
Transfer
Serial verb constructions are especially common when the predicate involves motion, in which case direction or means is often added in a serial verb construction. Predicates of giving, transport and communication also frequently involve expression with serial verb constructions. Common examples are shown in Table 3. Some examples of these collocations can be seen below. (91)
Sa=pu=jJace, dong=so=ambe buku ba=pi ruma. lsG=Poss=friend 3PL=PERF=fetch book carry=go house 'My friends have taken the books to their houses.'
(92)
fadi sa=pu,l)'a nenek pigi dong=terima yengan bai. andso lsG=Poss grandmother go 3PL=receive with good Tru dlmg=kasi barang-barang de=bawa pula11g. andthen 3PL=give thing-RED 3sG=carry return 'So my grandmother went [there], and they welcomed her heartUy. They gave her presents which she took back home?
For instance, corresponding to the Standard Indonesian verb ambil 'get, take, Papuan Malay uses the collocation am be ba(wa)=pergi 'get carry gd. Similarly 'bring' is expressed as am be ba=datang 'get carry=come'. (93)
De=ambe bai ba=pergi pulang di ruma. 3sG=get bucket carry=go return Loc house 'He took the bucket back home?
Table 3. Common collocations describing transfer in Papuan Malay Papuan Malay
Lexical items
ba(wa) dat~mg ba(wa)pigi ba(wa) pulang ambe(l) curi (bawa)
carry come carry go carry return take steal carry
'bring' 'take' 'bring back' 'steal'
Papuan Malay of New Guinea
(94)
Dia mem-bawa ember ke rumah. 3sG ACT-take bucket to house 'He took the bucket back home.'
STANDARD INDONESIAN
The use of a lexically decomposed composition to encode transfer actions correlates with the lack of many lexical distinctions that are present in more western varieties of Malay/ Indonesian.
Clause linkage
5·
Clause linkage in Papuan Malay differs significantly from Standard Indonesian norms. Some conjunctions from Standard Indonesian such as dan 'and: dengan 'and, with, while' and (te)tapi 'but' are used in much the same way as in Standard Indonesian, albeit with often divergent pronunciations, while other cognate words, such as terus 'continue, subsequently' and baru 'new, newly' have significant differences. Only the differences that characterise Papuan Malay will be described here. Repetition
5.1
The strategy of head-tail linkage has already been noted. Example (95) shows an example of classic head-taillinkage. The end of the first sentence encodes the mountain as goal, and the beginning of the following sentence repeats this goal, albeit in a different structure. Note also that the first clause includes repetition of the manner-of-motion verb, a common strategy used to express extent through time.8 (95)
Dong=jala11 jalan jalan, pi gu11ung. Sampe di gunung, do11g=so=capek, 3PL=walk walk walk go mountain until Loc mountain 3PL=PERF=t!red taramaw jalan lai. not.want walk again 'They went and went and went, and got to the mountain. When they got to the mountain they were tired, and didn't want to continue:
In the next example, there is no goal element coded, but simply the repetition of the last predicate. The notation [I] following a clause marks a rising intonation at the end of that clause, showing that the head of the second clause, that element which repeats the previous "tail," is set off prosodically from the rest of its sentence.
8. Similai constructions aie used in languages across much of New Guinea and in Tok Pisin, the lingua franca of Papua New Guinea. In all cases, the ve~b is repeated three times, with a rising intonation contour, followed by either a fourth instance of the ve~b or another verb, pronounced at a much loWei pitch.
429
430
Mark Donohue
(96)
Amerika pulang [/], eh, UN yang pegang. UN pegang [! ], sekarang Indone.sia masuk. ah UN REL hold
America return
UN hold
now
Indonesia enter
ltu saya lihat deng mata itu. that lsG see with eye that 'So America left [to go] back home, and the UN took over. After the UN took over, well, now Indonesia's here. This I have seen with my own eyes:
This distinct and consistent prosodic mar k.er is evidence that the head- tail linkage pattern cannot be considered to be a disfluency, but is a deliberate and conventionalised speech device.
5.2
Conjunctions
The conjoining of clauses follows different patterns from those seen in Standard Indonesian. Many clauses are conjoined by simple juxtaposition, with no overt conjunction being used. This is a pattern found in many varieties of non-standard Malay across the whole archipelago, and so should not be considered unique to Papuan Malay. One extract showing this is in (97), where an "expected" conjunction (from the perspective of Standard Indonesian) is shown with 0. (97)
Ambil hasil itu 0 saya suda fetch
finish that
de=pu=uang
lsG
habis ya [clap] kapur, suda
already finish yes
so=habis,
lime
hilang artinya
already lost
0
the.meaning
0 de=so=hilang.
3SG=POSS=money Pl!RF=finish 3SG=Pl!RF=lost 'They'll take the produce, and when my [goods] are finished. well, [clap], like the lime [for betel chewing] is finished, or the money for them is used up, they'll take off'
This can be compared to the Standard Indonesian example expressing the same meaning in (97)': (97)' Mereka meng-ambll hasil-nya, jika hasil-nya sudah habis, 3PL ACT-take result-3Gl!N, if result-3Gl!N PERF finish,
umpama-nya kapur sudah habis, ataulagi example-3GEN lime
uang
STANDARD INDONBSIAN
untuk mereka
PERF finish od.n.addition money for
3PL
sudah habis, langsung
mereka akan pergi. PERF finish straightaway 3PL Will go.
'They'll take the produce, and when the produce is all finished. for instance if the lime is all used up, or the money for them is finished. then straight away they'll go (away):
5.2.1
]adi
Jadi 'become~ which functions as an inchoative marker, is used to conjoin clauses with the same semantics as its Standard Indonesian counterpart, though the syntax is quite different. ]adi can appear in the same position as in Standard Indonesian, such as in (98). (98)
Dong=so=datang, jadi
papeda
musti slap.
3PL=PERP=come and.so sago.pudding must ready 'They'd already arrived. so the sago jelly had to be [made] ready.'
Papuan Malay of New Guinea
It is more common, however, to find jadi as a sentence-final particle indicating the reason for the
sentence. (99)
Sa=tra=ikot.
Sa=capek jadi.
1sG=NEG=accompany 1so=tlred and.so 'I'm not coming along. Ifs tos I'm tired' (100) Jadi skarang tong=bilang, [dick], kita harus minta itu orang asing. andso now 1PL=say 1so must request that person foreign 'So now were saying, yeah, I've got to ask foreigners [about it]:
Clearly there is an assumed prior proposition: Sentence (99) could not be uttered without some foregoing discussion of work that needs to be done. A second use ofjadi is as a new topic marker, often in conjunction with itu 'that'. (101)
Jadi
orang rambut lurus,
blasa
tara=taw
jalan.
andso person hair straight normally NEG= know walk 'So the Indonesians, they don't usually know how to walk [in the jungle].'
Bela11da datang itu, say masih mudah. (102) Jadi andso Holland come that 1so still young 'So when the Dutch arrived, I was still young.' 5.2.2
Baru and trus
Bam 'new(ly)' is used as a conjunction with clauses in connected speech, somewhat similar to
lalu in varieties of Indonesian further west As noted by De Vries (1989), there is a contrastive use of baru in some varieties of Papuan Malay, to indicate switch reference. While De Vries discusses certain varieties of South Papuan Malay, the same comments apply to many northern varieties as well, where it operates in opposition to the conjunction trus 'and then: sometimes reduced to tus. Trus is a commonly used connective when there is a same-subject coreference condition between clauses, and when some, but not much, time has elapsed between the events in the two clauses. The same-subject conditions on trus can be seen in the contrast between (103) and (104), in which (104) is at best barely grammatical. (103)
Sa=jJukol=de, tus sa=larl
habis.
1SG=hit=3SG new 1SG=run finish 'I hit him, and then I ran away.' (104)
?/* Sa=pukol=de, tus de=lari habis. 1so=hit=3sG new 3sG=run finish 'I hit him, and then he ran away.'
Clauses conjoined with baru show a strong preference for the opposite interpretation, with the two subjects not being coreferential. (105)
Sa==pukol=de, baru de=lari
habis.
1so=hit=3so new 3sG=run finish 'I hit him, and then he ran away.'
431
432
Mark Donohue
(106)
?/* Sa=pukol=de, baru sa=lari
habis.
1sG=hit=3sG new 1sG=run finish 'I hit him, and then I ran away.'
When two arguments of the verb are both third person, the utility of the opposition between bam and tms becomes apparent. as in the interpretations of (107) and (108). (107)
Pace=tu,
ora11g nikra
kutuk, baru de=tariak.
friend=that person sorcery curse new 3sG=yell 'My frien~. the sorcererJ cursed [him] and then he1 cried out: (108)
Pace=tu,
orang nikra
kutuk, tus
de=tariak.
friend=that person sorcery curse and.then 3sG=yell 'My friend1, the sorcerer) cursed [him] and then heJ cried out:
Both of these conjunctions can be, and frequently are, used at the beginning of a clause. In (109), we can see trus starting a clause describing what happened immediately after the graduation from school. ln (110), we see an interclausal use of baru., while in (111) baru., in conjunction with itu, appears at the start of a new sentence. Notice how the inclusive reference of the subject from the first clause with the larger subject of the second clause does not license the use of trus. (109)
De=selese
sekola. 1tus,
de=mo=cari
uang di
kota
jad~
3sG=complete school and. then 3sG=IRR=search money Loc city andso
de=so=pinda
dari sini.
3sG=PERF=move from here 'He finished schooL Then. because he wanted to make some money,. he moved away from here.' (110)
Kita so=jadi
baru de=serita tadl.
1PL PBRF=become new 3sG=story before 'When we had been born. then she'd tell us about before: (111)
Dong=terima macam bai. Itu
baru kitorang baku
kasi.
3PL=receive like good that new 1PL mutual give 'They receive [us] well So, like, we exchange gifts.'
In Skou, the equivalents oftrus and baru are the enclitics =pa and =ko, though, like Papuan Ma-
lay, Skou also allows for zero conjunction, as in (112). In (113) and (114), we can see that, with the same third-person feminine subject in Ang pe we as in (pe) pzt moe tepa, the instrumental enclitic, which marks same reference, must be used. By contrast. (115) and (116) show that when the subjects of the two clauses are not identical =ko 'obviative' must be used to link them. (112)
Hoe pe=tue,
1heo ke=k-ang.
SKOU
sago 3SG.F=3SG.F.dO Theo 3SG.NF=3SG.NF-eat 'She cooked the sago, [and] Theo ate [it]: (113)
Ang
pe=w-e=pa
pu
moe
te
pd.
dry.wood 3SG.F=3SG.F-get=INSTR 3SG.Rcarry return 3SG.Rgo house 'She collected the firewood and then carried it back home.'
Papuan Malay of New Guinea
(114)
*Ang
pe=w-e=ko
pu
moe
te
pd.
dry.wood 3sG.F=3sG.F-get=osv 3sG.F.carry return 3sG.F.go house 'She collected the firewood and then carried it back home: (115)
Hoe pe=tue=ko,
Theo ke=k-ang.
sago 3SG.F=3SG.F.do=OBV Theo 3SG.NF=3SG.NF-eat 'She cooked the sago, and then Theo ate [it].' (116)
*Hoe pe=tue=pa,
Theo ke=k-ang.
sago 3SG.F=3SG.F.do=INSTR Theo 3SG.NF=3SG.NF-eat 'She cooked the sago, and then Theo ate [it]:
The use of ba.ru and trus with implications for the coreferential identity of subjects across the two clauses that are conjoined is perhaps one of the strongest marks of the explicitly Papuan (that is, non-Austronesian) influence on Papuan Malay. This kind of clause-linkage device is unknown in Austronesian languages, except those heavily influenced by Papuan languages in New Guinea.
6.
Other clausal restructuring
A feature of Papuan Malay is the frequency with which non-subject arguments are topicalised. Topicalisation is a grammatical strategy in western varieties of Indonesian as well, but not with the frequency with which it occurs in Papuan Malay; in some texts, over half of the bivalent clauses with nominal objects have those arguments in preverbal position. (117)
Babi=tu(J sa=so=lia. pig=that 1SG=Pl!RF=See 'That pig. I've already seen.'
(118)
Tapi jalan dong=taramaw biki11. but road 3PL=not.want make 'But they wont want to make a road.'
It is more than likely that this is an adaptive strategy that allows the OV order of the substrate languages in New Guinea (see examples in (7) and (8) earlier) to surface in what is nominally a VO language, Papuan Malay.
7·
Conclusion
We have seen that. in a number of ways, Papuan Malay more closely replicates the structures of local Papuan languages than it does other varieties of Malay, representing its lexifier language( s). Table 4 summarises the material that has been discussed in this chapter. Should Papuan Malay be considered to be a language of New Guinea or a variety of Indonesian/Malay? The question of affiliations is always problematic with pidgins and creoles, but it is certainly strained to consider Papuan Malay to be a representative of an Austronesian speech tradition in any respect except the actuallexemes. The sort of complete restructuring of the clause
433
434
Mark Donohue
Table 4. Comparing Papuan Malay with superstrate and substrate languages Verbal morphology Oblique argwnents Tense/ Aspect Clause linkage
Standard Indonesian voice, derivational affixes prepositional independent words coordinating and subordinating words
Papuan Malay aspect, agreement prepositional, serial verbs verbal morphology, serial verbs tail-head linkages, switch reference
Local Papuan languages aspect, agreement postpositional, serial verbs verbal morphology, serial verbs tail-head linkages, switch reference
and sentence that we have seen evidenced in this chapter suggests that we should consider the substrate language(s), rather than the superstrate language, to more accurately represent the speech traditions that are continued in Papuan Malay.
List of abbreviations 1, 2, 3 ACT ALL
CAUS DAT EMPH EX
F GI!N IN INSTR IRR
LOC
first, second and third person active allative causative dative emphatic exclusive feminine genitive inclusive instrwnental irrealis locative
masculine modifier NEG negative NF non-feminine NONACT non-active OBV obviative Pl!RF perfective PL plural POSS possessive R1lD reduplicant RilL relative SG singular TRANS transitiviser M MOD
References Adelaar, K. A. & Prentice, D. J. 1996. Malay: Its history, role and spread. In Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, S. A. Wurm, P. Miihlhiiusler & D. T. Tryon (eds), 673-693. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Clouse, D. 2001. Has a pidgin hatched? Paper presented at the Seminar on the regional Malays of Indonesia. SIL Indonesia: Yogyak.arta, 8-10 January 2001. Cole, P. & Son, M.-J. 2004. The argwnent structure of verbs with the suffix -kan in Indonesian. Oceanic Linguistics 43: 339-364.
Croft, W. 1985. Indirect object 1oweri.ng: In Proceedings of the 11th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, M. Niepokuj, M. Van Clay, V. Niltiforidou & D. Feder (eds ), 39-51. Berkeley CA: Berkeley Linguistics Society. De Vries, L. 1989. Studies in Warn bon and Kombai Aspects of two Papuan Languages of Irian Jaya. PhD Dissertation. Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Papuan Malay of New Guinea
Donohue, M. 2000. Pronouns and gender: Exploring nominal classification systems in northern New Guinea. Oceanic Linguistics 39: 1-11. Donohue, M. 2007a. The Malay mirror of the Austronesian world. Lingua 137: 1-30. Donohue, M. 2007b. Variation in voice in Indonesian/Malay: Historical and synchronic perspectives. In Diversity in Language: Perspectives and Implicatio,IS, Y. Matswnoto, D. Y. Oshima, 0. R. Robinson & P. Sells (eds), 71-129. Stanford CA: CSLI. Donohue, M. 2007c. Word order in Austronesian: From north to south and west to east Linguistic Typology 11: 351-393. Donohue, M. Forthcoming. A grammar ofS.IroiL . Donohue, M. & Sawaki, Y. 2007. Papuan Malay pronouns: Forms and functions. Oceanic Linguistics 46: 253-276. Donohue, M. & Schapper, A 2008. Whence the Oceanic indirect possessive construction? Oceanic Linguistics 47; 316-327. Donohue, M. & Smith, J. C. 1998. What's happened to us? Some developments in the Malay pronoun system. Oceanic Linguistics 37; 65-84. Foley, W. A 1986. The Papuan Languages ofNew Guinea. Cambridge: CUP. Grimes, B. D. 1991. The development and use of Ambonese Malay. In Papers in Austro,Jesian Li1Jguistics, No. 1, H. Steinhauer (ed.), 83-123. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics A-81. Grimes, C. R nd. Ambonese Malay: A Brief Orientation. Ms. Pattimura University and Swnmer Institute of Linguistics. Kluge, A Forthcoming. Structure and Diversity in Papuan Malay. PhD dissertation, Leiden University. Longacre, R. E. 1972. Hierarchy and Uni'I~Crsality of Discourse Constituents in New Guinea Languages: Discussion. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. Longacre, R. E. 1985. Sentences as combinations of clauses. In Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Vol. II: Complex Co,IStructions, T. Shopen (ed.), 235-286. Cambridge: CUP. Manns, H. Forthcoming. Language Use in Malay, East Java. PhD dissertation, Monash University. van Minde, D. 1997. Malayu Ambong (Ambonese Malay): Phonolog)~ Morpho log)~ Syntax. Leiden: Research School for Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies Publications 61. Roosman, R. S. 1982. Pidgin Malay as spoken in Irian Jaya. The Indonesian Quarterly 10:95-104. Sasi Rekha d!o Muthiah. 2007. A Description of Singapore Indian Malay, a Pidgin's Pidgin. MA thesis, National University of Singapore. Scott, G. R., Kim, H., Rumaropen, B. R W., Scott, R L., Nussy, C. G., Ywnbi, A C. M. & Cochran, R. C. 2008. Tong pu bahasa: A Preliminary Report on Some Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Features of Papuan Malay. Ms. SIL International (Papua Regional Center). Seiler, W. 1983. The lost Malay language of Papua New Guinea. In Studies in Malay Dialects, Part II, J. T. Collins (ed.), 65-72. Jakarta: Universitas Atma Jaya. Silzer, P. 1979. Notes on Irianese Indonesian. Ms, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Sentani. Suharno, I. 1979. Some notes on the teaching of Standard Indonesian to speakers of lrianese Indonesian. Irian: Bulletin of Irian Jaya 8: 3-32. Taylor, P.M. 1983. North Moluccan Malay: Notes on a 'substandard' dialect of Indonesia. In Studies in Malay Dialects, Part II, J. T. Collins (ed.), 14-28. Jakarta: Universitas Atma Jaya. van Velzen, P. 1995. Some notes on the variety of Malay used in the vicinity ofSerui. In Tales from a Co,Jeave World: Liber AmicorumBert Voorhoeve, C. Baak,M. Bakker & D. van der Meij (eds), 311-343. Leiden: Projects Division, Department of Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia and Oceania, Leiden University. Voorhoeve, C. L 1983. Some observations on North-Moluccan Malay. In Studies in Malay Dialects, Part II, J. T. Collins (ed.), 1-13. Jakarta: Universitas Atma Jaya.
435
The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English Harold Koch Australian National University
This paper 1 examines the influence of the grammar of Australian Abortginallanguages on Central Australian Aboriginal English (CAAE). CAAE is considered to be a partially anglicised version of a former Central Australian Aboriginal Pidgin (CAAP). This CAAP was one of the local varieties of the general Australian Pidgin (AP) that developed out of New South Wales Pidgin (NSWP), the earliest of the PC varieties that developed in Australia. The paper discusses data from three areas of the grammar of CAAE and compares it with Kaytetye, one of the substrate languages. It shows how two relatively exotic grammatical categories found in Kaytetye (and other Arandic languages - dyadic" in kinship nouns and "Associated Motion" in verbs - were replicated in CAAE using formal material derived from English. The usage of CAAE prepositions, whose forms are from English, is also compared to Kaytetye case functions. We find that the organisation of the semantic "functions" of the cases is replicated in considerable detail in the use of the CAAE prepositions. Keywords: Central Australian Abortginal English, Central Australian Aboriginal Pidgin, Australian Pidgin, Kaytetye, dyadic, Associated Motion, prepositions, case, case functions
1.
Introduction
1.1
Background on CAAE
Australian Pidgin (AP) began as New South Wales Pidgin (NSWP) when a penal settlement was established at Port Jackson (Sydney), New South Wales, in 1788. This pidgin developed from efforts by the British and the original indigenous inhabitants of the Sydney region to communicate with one another (Troy 1994). As British settlement spread both along the coasts of Australia and toward the interior of the continent, this pidgin was taken along as a means of communication between Europeans and Aborigines (Miihlhausler 1996). What concerns us here is its spread
1. This paper is based largely on an earlier paper (Koch 2000). A section on personal pronouns from the earlier paper has been omitted and the section on prepositions and case has been greatly expanded. The current paper also expands the references to other literature. I am grateful to the editor and two other reviewers for helpful input.
438
Harold Koch
jargon (earlyNSWP) stable pidgin (AP) n1ended pidgin (CAAP) creole (Kriol)
-+post-pidgin (CAAE)
-+English
-+post-creole (none)
-+English
restructuring continuwn
Figure 1. Relationship between Australian linguistic varieties
(south-)westward to western New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia.z From South Australia, it spread northwards into Central Australia- the southern part of what is now the Northern Territory- in the wake of the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line in the early 1870s. Aboriginal people came into contact with Europeans (and Aborigines accompanying them from the south) at telegraph repeater stations and pastoral properties which developed in subsequent years. Markers of the South Australian source of Central Australian Aboriginal Pidgin ( CAAP) are retained in lexical items such as warli 'house~ nantu. 'horse' and muka.rta. 'haf, which have found their way into Central Australian languages via the pidgin, but are ultimately from the Adelaide language, Kaurna. It can be expected that AP in Central Australia was influenced by the structure of the local languages, which mostly belong to the Arandic subgroup of the Pama-Nyungan family (Koch 2004). It is this influence which is explored in this paper. It cannot be studied directly, however, since there has been no systematic study of early CAAP documents - if there are any to be found. The task is complicated by the fact that authentic CAAP is no longer spoken. Nevertheless, I would claim that the data I use do include many of the teatures of CAAP, and that what I call Central Australian Aboriginal English (CAAE) represents a variety of CAAP that has partially converged with colloquial English. The model of language relationships that I am using is taken from Miihlhausler ( 1979 ); it is illustrated in Figure 1, which has been adapted from Miihlhausler (1979: 44). This shows, in the vertical dimension, a developmental continuum with a gradual increase in overall complexity from a jargon to a creole. The horizontal dimension represents a restructuring continuum, that is, a sequence of systems of comparable linguistic complexity from a (stable or extended) pidgin through a post-pidgin, or from a creole through a post-creole, to English. I have added in parentheses labels for language varieties that I would interpret as illustrating the different language types. The AP that developed firstin Sydney and other parts ofNew South Wales progressed through stages of complexity from jargon to stable pidgin to extended pidgin. In the twentieth century, in some areas, most notably the Roper River district of the Northern Territory, AP became the primary language of some Aboriginal people, who did not fully learn their parents' traditional languages, and hence it came to be spoken as a creole. This variety, now widely spoken in the northern parts of the Northern Territory and in the eastern and central parts of the Kimberley district of Western Australia, is now called Kriol and is regarded by many indigenous people as
2. For New South Wales, see Amery and Miililhiiusler (1996); for Victoria, see Clark et aL (1996); for South Australia, see Foster et aL (2003).
The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English
an Aboriginal language (Hudson 1983; Sandefur 1986). In most areas of Australia where Aboriginal people have long been exposed to English and have largely given up the use of their traditional languages, AP was gradually restructured toward colloquial English in a process that can be called "depidginisation." The varieties of English along this restructuring continuum can be called "Aboriginal English" (AE), and different varieties may contain features of the earlier pidgin, to differing degrees and varying in different areas. Such varieties of Aboriginal English can be called "post-pidgins."3 Theoretically, there is a similar restructuring continuum leading from a creole via decreolisation toward English, but it is not certain whether there are genuine exam pies in Australia of such a post-creole. In the rural areas of Central Australia, most Aboriginal people continue to speak traditional Australian languages (ALs). Most of the Aborigines have also learned some variety of English. For those born before the 1950s, when schooling became part of everyone's experience, the "English" learned was CAAP. These CAAP-speakers would have been additionally exposed, to a certain extent, depending on their employment contacts, to colloquial forms of Standard English (SE). Furthermore, since many Aborigines, especially men, travelled around over considerable distances in connection with their work (e.g., as guides, camel drivers, cattle drovers, mining workers, army camp employees), there was exposure to varieties of AP spoken in regions beyond their local area. The resulting language can plausibly be assumed to consist of: features of the original AP brought to Central Australia with the advancing frontier features due to the influence oflocal Central Australian ALs features absorbed from other local varieties of AP spoken to the south and to the north of this region features taken from the (at times imperfectly learned) colloquial English that they were exposed to The language could then be described as a partially restructured (or depidginised) variety of a presumed earlier Central Australian Aboriginal Pidgin; it is for this reason that l have labelled the variety Central Australian Aboriginal English.4 I would estimate the number of speakers of CAAE (in the "heavy" form described here) to be around 1,000 - consisting of elderly (born before about 1960) people from rural Aboriginal living areas and cattle stations in Central Australia; most younger Aboriginal peoples speak a variety of English that is not very different from general colloquial Australian English. The samples of CAAE that I have seen all contain a variable mixture of AP and SE (or rather Colloquial English) features. This variability seems to be an inherent characteristic of CAAE, which is not found to the same degree in the Kriol spoken further north. It could possibly be argued that this variability reflects rather the unsuccessful attempts of CAAE-speakers to speak SE, with the CAAP features representing lapses. This would be consistent with the widespread 3· See Allridge ( 1984) for an analysis of some Queensland Aboriginal English data from this point of view. For a recent overview of Aboriginal English, see Malcolm and Grote (2007). 4· In earlier studies, I have referred to CAAE as "Central Australian Aboriginal Pidgin" (Koch 1984a), "Nonstandard English" and "Aboriginal Pidgin" (Koch 1985), and simply "Aboriginal English" (in G. Koch 1993). The term "Cattle Station English• has also been used for this variety (Harkins 1994; Miihlhli.usler 2008).
439
440
Harold Koch
sociolinguistic practice in the northern and central parts of Australia whereby Aboriginal people use the best English they are capable of in talking to European people and/or in official circumstances such as public meetings and legal proceedings (Sandefur 1986: 82). I have in fact found such accommodation to SE with respect to the stereotypical AP feature- the -em suffix on transitive verbs - in the formal speech of one of my sources in the context of giving testimony in a land claim hearing (Koch 1990b: 10, 1991: 100). In this formal context, this particular witness managed to almost completely suppress the -em feature. However, in informal speech, both five years previous to this formal setting and five years later, he used -em in about 50% of the linguistic contexts where it would be appropriate in pidgin-creole (PC) grammar. I conclude that, although accommodation to English may be made in certain contexts, this is not a characteristic of the data that I have used for the current study, but that variable use of AP and English features is an inherent characteristic of CAAE.
1.2
Previous studies of CAAE
There have been few studies of CAAE. The earliest study of what he called "Northern Territory English" (NTE) was made in 1959 by the linguist T. G. H. Strehlow, based on the speech of one man born near Alice Springs. This formed part of the legal proceedings surrounding the celebrated murder case of Rupert Max Stuart, whose first language was (Western) Arrernte. The study focused on differences between NTE and Standard English, with respect to features of grammar, vocabulary, and discourse structure (Eades 1995). The samples quoted in Dixon (1987) do not display the stereotypical AP forms such as the transitivity marker -em, the past tense marker bin, or the prepositions longa. and belonga. Strehlow concluded that the linguistic variety represented by Stuart's speech was not "pidgin;' although it contained traces of both "pidgin" and Aranda (Arrernte) (Dixon 1987:336, 349). It is a "lighter" (more English-like) variety of CAAE than the data discussed here. The English of Aboriginal children in Alice Springs has been studied by Sharpe (1977, 1979) and Harkins (1994). Sharpe's studies are largely concerned with differences from Standard English. Harkins pays particular attention to the influence of the (especially semantic) features of the children's first languages, Arrernte and Luritja. She also finds a small amount of evidence for input from what she calls "Cattle Station English"- which is basically CAAP or CAAE. The children's English in these studies is by and large second-language English rather than an anglicised pidgin. My own earlier studies (Koch 1985, 1990b and its shorter version 1991) were based on the CAAE of adults, but the focus was on differences from Standard English, and the miscommunication that could arise from an inadequate appreciation of these differences in legal proceedings concerning land rights. The speakers of the data discussed in Koch (1985) had Kaytetye or Warlpiri as their first language; the data for the later study (Koch 1990b, 1991) were based on speakers with a wider range of first languages, in tact from most of the Northern Territory. The Aboriginal English stories in G. Koch (1993), for which I provided the transcription system. the Standard
The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English
English translation, and the introductory notes "On reading Aboriginal English" (pp. x-xii), are taken from the same speakers as the current study. 5
1.3
The data for this study
The data I have used for this study come from Aboriginal people who were all native speakers of the Kaytetye language. 6 Many of these people also spoke at least one other Central Australian language, such as Alyawarr, Anmatyerr, or Warlpiri. Kaytetye belongs to the Arandic subgroup of Pama-Nyungan languages. This group, which includes Arrernte, Alyawarr and Anmatyerr, occupies much of the southern part of the Northern Territory, and can be assumed to form the substratum of CAAP and of the variety of CAAE described here. The Arandic languages are very similar to one another with respect to their grammatical properties. In what follows, I will examine how some morphosyntactic categories ofKaytetye (in particular) are expressed in CAAE, and presumably in its predecessor CAAP. I will show that. although the forms of CAAE are all derived from English, their functions reflect the semantic organisation inherent in the grammar of the Arandic languages. I discuss a nominal suffix applying to kinship terms, the verbal category of Associated Motion, and the specific usages or "functions" of CAAE prepositions. The data samples cited here all come from speakers born in the period 1920-1950, whose life was spent around the cattle stations in the vicinity of Barrow Creek, some 300 kilometres north of Alice Springs. The data come from tape recordings made between the mid-1970s and the mid1990s. Many of the samples derived from fieldwork sessions, in which the speakers were discussing Kaytetye texts, grammar, or vocabulary, helping me in my analysis of the Kaytetye language. Some samples are taken from oral history narratives delivered in Aboriginal English, which form part of the collection published in Kaytetye Country (G. Koch 1993 ), here abbreviated as KC. In the examples, highlighted words and parts of words are given in bold type. Kaytetye forms are indicated in italics. My translations, whether of Kaytetye or CAAE, are enclosed in single quotation marks. (Morpheme-by-morpheme glosses are not provided in all instances.) The source of each example is indicated in parentheses at the end of each entry, where it is identified in terms of the initials of the speaker's name plus one of the following: a short name and sentence number of the text in which it occurs, the page reference to samples published in Kaytetye Country, or the field tape number or name.
5· In an unpublished conference presentation (Koch 1984a), I discussed data from what I then called "Central Australian Aboriginal Pidgin" and argued that it represents an expanded pidgin. Attention was given to the variability between pidgin-like and English-like grammatical features, and to the structure of complex sentences. 6. For Kaytetye in general, see Koch (2006), Turpin (2000 ), Turpin (in press).
441
442
Harold Koch
Table 1. Dyadic terms in Kaytetye and CAAE
CAAEdyadic
Gloss
Kaytetye dyadic
Ksimple
Gloss
father-gether mother-gether brother-gether sister -gether cousin-gether
father and child mother and child elder brother and younger brother or sister elder sister and younger brother or sister cross-cousins, one of whom is male
arlweye-nhtmge ame-nhenge alkere-nhtmge arrere-nhtmge atnkele-,menge
arlweye arrengkwe alkere arrere atnkele
father mother elder brother elder sister cross-cousin
2.
The CAAE kin relation marker -gether
Many languages of the Northern Territory have an inflectional category manifested on kinship terms that Australianists call "dyadic."7 1he term dyadic is characterised as follows: ... by dyadic term we have in mind an expression ofthe type '(pair of) brothers' or 'father and child: in which the kinship relationship is between the two referents internal to the kin expression. (Merlan & Heath 1982: 107)
Dyadic terms thus refer to sets of kin such as 'father and child: 'mother and child', 'siblings: 'cousins: 'brothers-in-laW, etc. In Kaytetye and the other Arandic languages, these terms are formed by means of a suffix -nhenge, which is added to one of the terms that mark the kin relationship, usually the term referring to the senior relative, but sometimes to a term which is not the same as the basic kin term. In CAAE, the dyadic function is indicated by suffixing or compounding the kin term with -gether, which is presumably derived from a truncated form of English together. 8 Table 1 presents some examples of CAAE dyadic terms and the corresponding Kaytetye dyadic terms, along with the simple kin term to which each dyadic form relates. In Kaytetye, these dyadic terms can be further marked by a Dual or Plural suffix to explicitly indicate two or more people in the relationship: arlweye-nhenge-therre ('father-DYAD-DUAl.:), arlweye-nheng-ameme ('father-DYAD-PLURAr). Similarly, the CAAE terms can be pluralised by preceding numerals to produce expressions such as two father-gethers and three father-gethers. (An expression such as three father-gethers may refer either to a father and two of his children or to one person and two of their classificatory fathers.) Examples of CAAE dyadic kin terms are given in ( 1) to (4). ( 1) Aylake father-gether ... Alias arne arlweye-nhenge... Mpwelake apene weyewe. Hisfather and him. Nother one might tellem. 'We two related as father and child ... Like father and child ... You two go for meat. Father and child. Some one else might say to him.' (I'M 74/5.8)
7.
For the worldwide typology of dyadic constructions, see Evans (2006).
8. Sandefur (1979:94) describes several usages of a Kriol "reciprocal pronoun" gija, glossed as '(to) each other: This form apparently has the same origin as CAAE -gether. One ofits usages corresponds to the CAAE dyadic function: Dubala bada gija 'They are sisters to each othei. In Sandefur and Sandefur (1979: 45) -gija is called a suffix.
The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English
Table 2. Kaytetye Second-Person Dual pronouns Form
Gloss
Example kin relation
mpwele mpwelake mpwelanthe
2DU Same Moiety Same Generation
brothers, sisters father-child mother-child, uncle-nephew, cross-cousins
2nu Same Moiety 0 pposite Generation 2DU Opposite Moiety
(2) Mpwele arrere-nhenge apene anatyewe. That mean two women now, that two women now, they sister-gether, mpwele, must two sister, he tellem go for some yam, potato. 'You two sisters go for yams. That means two women - the two women are sisters - you two (related as sisters); he tells them to go for some yams, potatoes.' (TM 74/5.8) (3) Nthakenh-arrerane mpwelanthe? That mean two, might be two cousin-gether. 'What are you two doing? That means two cousins, for example:
(PH 92.2)
(4) Or elwewenhanthe, uncle-gether one another. 'Or, the two of them related as uncle and nephew [compete with] one another:
(PH 92.2)
The subject matter of examples (1) and (2) has to do with explaining the pronoun system of Kaytetye, which includes separate Dual (and Plural) forms according to whether the people referred to belong to the same (patri)moiety or the opposite moiety, and if the former, to the same generation level or the opposite generation level (see Koch 1982, 2006; Turpin in press, for further details). 9 The three forms of the Second-Person Dual pronoun are given in (1) to (3). These contrast as indicated in Table 2. These kinship-related pronominal distinctions, unlike the dyadic category, are not mirrored in the CAAE of Kaytetye speakers.
3·
Associated Motion in CAAE and Kaytetye
3.1
Verbal categories
Kaytetye verbal categories are indicated in three suffixal slots on the verb. 10 Suffixes in the outermost slot signal Negative, Mood and Tense (Tense is distinguished only within the Indicative Mood). In an earlier slot, Aspect (especially the Imperfective) may be marked. In the slot closest to the verb stem, there may be an indication of one of the subcategories of "Associated Motion." Associated Motion is a distinctive grammatical category in many languages of Central Australia (Koch 1984b, 2006; Tunbridge 1988; Wilkins 1991), and is found sporadically in other Australian languages. Verbs specify, usually by suffixes but sometimes by auxiliaries, a motion that takes place in conjunction with the main activity denoted by the verb. This motion usually involves the
9· "Same Generation" means that the referents belong either to the same generation or to a non-adjacent generation. So "Same Generation" can include a person and others of their grandparents' or grandchildren's generation. But combinations of a referent and someone from their parents' or children's generation count as "Opposite Generation.· Some scholars (e.g., Hale 1966) have used the terms "harmonic" and "disharmonic· for this distinction. 10.
Issues related to the formal structure ofKaytetye verbs are discussed in Koch (1990a).
443
444
Harold Koch
subject of the clause (although one subcategory of Arrernte and Kaytetye involves a non-subject participant). The Associated Motion subcategories may signal whether the motion is prior to, immediately subsequent to, or concurrent with the main activity. There may be distinctions as to the direction of the motion, whether toward the speaker or not, or back to a former location, etc. Although English can express both an activity and a motion by combining two verbs using either coordination (go and see, saw me and ran off) or subordination (looked while going along), it will be argued below that speakers of CAAE code motion as a specification of the verbal activity rather than as a separate event. Prior Motion
3.2
Within the domain of Prior Motion, Kaytetye makes three distinctions, shown in (5). (5)
a b.
c.
'go and VERB'I 'VERB after going' (suffix -yene-) 'come and VERB'/ 'VERB after coming' (suffix-yenye-) 'go back and VERB'I 'VERB after going back' (suffix -yalpe-).
A fourth possibility that would fill out the semantic set, 'come back and VERB: is attested in CAAE (see (14) below). These notions are expressed in CAAE by a sequence of two verbs which may or may not be joined by and- as in go (and) VERB, etc. There are examples 11 in the data, such as (6) to (8), that could be analysed- as in SE- in terms of two separate verb phrases, on the evidence of words such as there and again, which modify the motion verb and intervene before and. (6)
Angkeyenenke [tal.k-Go&-PREs]. You gotta go and talk for someone. I might go there and talk. Angkeyenewethe [talk-Go&:-PURP]. (PH Gram)
(7)
Arntarrtyeycupenke [run-GO.BACK&-PREs] when him run back Go backagainandhold'em nother man. (PH 92.2)
(8)
Di,mer-peayna11the [we] ayneyalpenherre [eat-Go.BACK&-PAST]. go back and have tucker now... go back again and have tea. (AK (Kaytetye), PH (CAAE), Helicopter 44)
Nevertheless evidence for treating the activity plus motion as a single grammatical unit in CAAE is found in examples where the verbs are separated only by a reduced form of and (9) or by no intervening material ((10)-(14)). (9)
Twofella bingo'n wait for... them bullock. Go wait longa scrub.
(PH Helicopter 96)
11. Glossing abbreviations in the examples are as follows: ALL THE.WAY 'do all the way along' Concurrent Motion, ALL Allative case, DAT Dative case, BMPH emphatic enclitic, ERG Ergative case, FUT Future tense, oo& 'go and VERB' Prior Motion, GO.BACK& 'go back and VERB' Prior Motion, IMPFV Imperfective Aspect, OBUG Obligative mood. PAST tense, POSS Possessive case, PPLSs same subject partidple, PRBS Present tense, PRIV Privative case, PROP Proprietive case, PURP Purposive mood. WHILE.COMING 'do while coming' Concurrent Motion, WHILB.GOING 'do while going along/about' Concurrent Motion.
The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English
(10) Just go gi.vittuckerlongahim. 'She would just go and give him food'
(PHKC 29)
(11)
Ya, when im go get some cattle art break-away.
(12)
Artweyamerne atye areyenewethe [men I see-Go&-PURP]. I bin say I wannago and see them artweyamenle. All the man. I wanna go see'em. (TM 74/5.8)
( 13)
Kwatheyalpenke [drinks-oo.BACK&-PRES] when he go back sit down'bout longa camp, you know?
(PH Helicopter 12)
(PH Gram) (14)
they bin come back leavem old fella longa same place again.
(PHKC 20)
The strongest evidence for treating the motion as a grammatical specification of the verb comes from sentences that include a redundant verb of motion (go ... go (and) VERB). This reflects the Kaytetye construction in which a verb denoting some activity may (redundantly) include a reference to the prior motion that has already been explicitly indicated by a previous verb. An example of this Kaytetye system is given in (15), where the -yalpe- 'after returning in the second verb recapitulates the alpe- 'return' already given in the previous clause. Similarly, in a story given in CAAE, the come back of the second verb phrase of (16) recapitulates the come back of the preceding clause. In (17), the motion go of the second clause is already implicit in the take of the first clause. Likewise, in (18), the motion of go and drink has already been specified as go down. The go ... and go fillem of (19) has a parallel structure. In (20), the go and fall down and go and stop clearly describe the action of the spear after it has travelled some distance; hence the verbal expressions mean 'fall down I stop after going, with the (prior) motion here being a subsidiary notion, but described in the final clause in its own right as travel long ground. (15)
Arrwekele-lke repe alkerarenyepe alpenherre, apmerewarle antetheneyalpenhe. 'before-then the helicopter returned, to.camp stop-oo.BACK&:-PAST' 'The helkopter went back ahead (of them) and stopped in the camp? (AK Helicopter 77)
( 16)
they bin come back and they bin come back Jeavem old fella longa same place again 'they returned and (after getting back) left the old man in the same place [where he had joined the party]? (PH KC 20)
(17)
What about we gotta take these two whitefella go and show that country... 'How about we take these two Europeans and show them the country.. :
(PH KC 20)
(18)
Nother mob go down long creek and go and drink water... kwatheyeneyayne [drink-Go&-PAST. IMPFV] elpayewarle [to.creek] (PH 92.2)
( 19)
and go across the creek and go filJem might be two or three and bringem back to station 'and [I would] go across the creek and fill two or three [buckets] and bring them back to the station' (BPR[MA] KC 86)
(20)
He go and fall down longway now. Antheyenengele arlenge-lke, errtyartepe rartepe [fall-Go&-PPLss fat:away-now, spear that']. Go and stop longway now. After he bin go, travel long ground first. Antheyenengele [fall-oo&-PPLss]. (PH 92.3)
This last type of evidence, I believe, confirms that these speakers are indeed using these English motion verbs in the manner of the Assodated Motion inflections of Kaytetye. The main difference between Kaytetye and CAAE is that the latter uses whole phrases to express what in
445
446
Harold Koch
Kaytetye is signalled by a single complex word. In fact, there is some evidence to suggest that at least some of the Associated Motion constructions in Arandic language are even synchronically analysable as phonologically complex words (if not phrases) -with the possibility of enclitics occurring between the activity and the motion parts. This is true of some complex Associated Motion forms that derive historically from a non-finite verb form followed by a motion verb. The 'go back and VERB' form -yalpe- (see (Sc) above) thus includes the motion verb alpe- 'returti An example like errkeyelkalpenke 'goes back and trims then' consists etymologically of a main verb errke- 'trim' suffixed by an erstwhile participial suffix -ye, followed by an enclitic lke 'then' (whose vowel is automatically elided before a following vowel), the whole of which is then compounded with the motion verb stem alpe- and inflected with the PRES -nke. This example not only reveals something of the etymology of the Assodated Motion form. More importantly for our purposes, it suggests that the inclusion of adverbs there, then and again within the CAAE verb complex- as in examples (6) to (8) - may actually be modelled on the organisation of the Kaytetye Associated Motion verb complex as much as on the English pattern of compounded verb phrases. 3·3
Concurrent Motion
The other As so dated Motion category that appears to be reflected in CAAE is that of Concurrent Motion. In Kaytetye, there are at least four subcategories of Concurrent Motion, shown in (21). (21)
a b. c. d.
VERB-lpeRBD- 'do once on the way' VERB-rrap(eyn)e- 'do while going along/about' VERB-vernalpe- 'do while coming' VERB-rreRBDrrenye I -leRBvlarre- 'do all the way along'
Here RED indicates a reduplication of the last (V)CV of the verb stem. The longer form of the suffix in (b) and the second form of the suffix in (d) apply to transitive verb stems. The (a) forms imply short duration of the verbal activity, undertaken with little interruption of an associated journey. Subcategories (b), (c) and (d) imply that the main action involves both temporal duration and spatial extension. There are examples of (d) in which only spatial extension, but not motion, is indicated. Category (c) differs from (b) only in the direction of the associated motion, which in (c) is toward the speaker. Category (b) formally includes the root of the verb 'go; ape-. Subcategory (a) is not directly reflected in CAAE. The others are typically rendered by the addition to the English verb of along and/or all the way (which I take to be used as a single word). We thus have the CAAE forms indicated in (22). (22)
VERB(em) along VERB(em) along alltheway VERB(em) alltheway VERB(em) alltheway along
Examples (23) to (26) show how these CAAE expressions translate the Kaytetye subcategories. In (23), we have an explanation of Kaytetye a.ngke-rrape- 'talk while going along' (subcategory (b)). In (24), we have an explanation of Kaytetye subcategory (c), where the helicopter, frightening the cattle by directing wind down towards them, drove them in the direction of the
The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English
story-teller. Likewise, (25) explains a (d) subcategory form from the same text; the Kaytetye sentence means: 'All right, we drove [the cattle] along with two vehicles and watched/guarded them all the way along.' In (26), the all the way phrases explain a Kaytetye verb arrelarrelarreyayne 'put down all the way along'; the reference is to the long row of markers a score-keeper puts down on the ground. Here it is the spatial distribution of the object- probably more than the motion of the subject- which is in focus. (23) When me'n'you walk along, keep walking, you know? Angkerraperrane11gele [talk-wmLE.GOINGIMPFV-PPr.ss]. We might talk about something, you know, tell~'bout story, you know? Me'nyou keep talking all the way along. When we walking. A11gkerraperranengele. (PH Gram) (24)
re rarrelepe atereyneyernalpenherre [.he with.wind frighten-wmLE.COMING-PAST] See that wind bin frightenem all the way along. Frightenem all the way along with the wind ... helicopter man. (AK (Kaytetye), PH (CAAE), Helicopter 93)
(25)
Alkaperte, aynanthe alpereynenye mweteke atherrelarte-rtame arntarntarelarelarrenhe-pe. [all-right we take-PAST motorcartWO-LOC-EMPH watch-ALLTHE.WAY-PAST] watchem-longall the way, them cattle, don't let'em break-away... watch'em all the way along. (AK (Kaytetye), PH (CAAE), Helicopter 40)
(26)
Mark'em all the way. This one old fella gotta look'at'em belonga nother one, put'em down all the way. (PH 92.1)
These CAAE expressions that we have interpreted in terms of Kaytetye Associated Motion subcategories are not only used in translation or commenting on Kaytetye texts. They are also used spontaneously in stories told in Aboriginal English, as illustrated in (27). (27) Camel they bin givem drink all the way along... 'They gave drinks to the camels all the way along?
3·4
(PHKC 20)
Associated Motion as a category of CAAE
I conclude from the evidence above that Kaytetye speakers are replicating in CAAE a pervasive category of their native language, Associated Motion. For Concurrent Motion, they have used adverbial material: along and a.ll the way. For Prior Motion, the SE go and VERB construction has been copied, but its redundant use in the second of two sentences to mean VERB after going shows powerfully that a grammatical pattern of their first language is being replicated. It should be noted that not all the specific subcategories of Kaytetye Associated Motion are reproduced in CAAE: Missing are instances of Subsequent Motion ('do and go off' and 'do and go back'), one subcategory of Concurrent Motion ('do once on the way'), and one subcategory of Prior Motion that involves different subjects ('do after non-subject has approached').
447
448
Harold Koch
4·
CAAE prepositions and Kaytetye case
4.1
Overview of prepositions and cases
A prominent feature of Australian PC languages is their prepositions, especially blonga and longa (and their variants). The former probably derives from English belonging to and the latter, a "multi-purpose prepositional form" in NSWP, is thought to derive from English along with (Troy 1994: 316). In Kriol of northern Australia, these plus from/burrum, gadim/garra(m) (from got' em), and for as a "light" (or anglicised) version of blonga, constitute the main repertoire of prepositions (Hudson 1983; Sandefur 1979). In Central Australian languages, as is normal in Pama-Nyungan languages, 12 the grammatical and semantic role of noun phrases in a clause is indicated by means of case suffixes on the noun (or at least on one member of the noun phrase). In English, on the other hand, such relationships are largely marked by prepositions. CAAE follows the grammar of English in using prepositions rather than case inflections. But there are certain major differences. First, fewer prepositions are used in CAAE than in SE. 13 Second, some of the forms are different from SE - especially blonga, longa, and gottem. Third (and most important for our purposes here), the meanings (or functions) they express are to a large extent modelled on those of the substrate language. To demonstrate this, it is not sufficient to compare CAAE prepositions with Kaytetye cases as wholes. The correspondences are revealed much more clearly if we distinguish the particular semantic relations that the (prepositional or case) forms may express. I shall refer to these as "functions." The particular functions of some of the Kaytetye cases will be com pared with the functions of the CAAE prepositions. The equivalence of AE or Kriol prepositions to the case categories of Aboriginal languages has been noted before. Elwell (1979: 251-260) and Harkins (1994: 66-70) make brief comparisons of the prepositional usages of second-language English children in Milingimbi and Alice Springs to their first languages, Gupapuyngu and Arrernte or Luritja, respectively. Hudson (1983) glosses the Kriol prepositions with labels that are used for cases in the local Aboriginal language Walmajarri- blanga DATIVE, Zanga LOCATlVE,fo PURPOSIVE, from ABLATIVE, and garra ASSOCIATIVE. 14 She also describes the use of prepositions in terms of Longacre's (1976) semantic roles- but only relates a few of these directly to the grammar ofWalmajarri. Sandefur (1979) discusses the "prepositional meanings" or "usages" - which correspond to our "functions" - of four Kriol prepositions but does not relate them to the grammar of substrate languages. What I call below the "specific location/goal function" of longa is described by Sandefur (1979: 146) as "prepositional phrases modified by pre-positioned adverbs" and by Hudson (1983:68) as combinations ofKriol prepositions with "locational words" that, though
12. For case in Australian languages, see
Blake (1977), Yallop (1982:78-90), and Koch (2007:31-32).
13. Hudson (1983: 68) compares the five normal prepositions of Fitzroy Valley Kriol to the 62 prepositions recognised for English by one authority. 14. See her introductory comment: in Chapter 3 I present the prepositions ofKriol and show how they function in a system which reflects the case systems ofTA ['fraditional Australian]languages" (Hudson 1983: 4).
The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English 449
Table 3. CAAE prepositions and Kaytetye cases CAAE preposition
Function
Kaytetye case name
Kaytetye form
longa longa longa longa Xlonga right up longa through longa from from from from from from blo,Jg(int)a blong(int)a for for with gottem,got (got) no
Location lnstrwnental Goal Purpose Spedfic location I goal Terminative Perlative Source Cause Comparison Material Source Prior Condition Aversive Possessive Purpose Purpose Redpient Proprietive Proprietive Privative
Locative Locative Allative Allative XN-LOC/ALL Terminative Perlative Ablative Ablative Ablative Sequentive Sequentive Aversive Possessive Allative Dative Dative Proprietive Proprietive Privative
-le, -nge15 -le, -nge -warle -warle X N -le/-nge/-warle -wartetye -angkwerre -theye -theye -theye -penhe -penhe -ketye -arenge -warle -we -we -akake -akake -wanenye
derived from English prepositions (such as behind, across, inside of, underneath, on top of), are used as in Aboriginal languages to provide specific orientation which supplements the general (e.g., locative or allative) case-like meaning of the Kriol preposition Zanga. To my knowledge, however, no one has previously made a detailed comparison of the specific functions of PC prepositions with those of an Australian substrate language. Table 3 summarises the main equivalents between CAAE and Kaytetye that I have analysed. 16 Prepositions will be discussed in the order in which they appear in Table 3. It should be noted at the outset that, although the functions of CAAE prepositions can be matched to equivalent functions of the Kaytetye cases, there are fewer prepositions in CAAE than cases in Kaytetye. In the following examples, prepositions and the corresponding Kaytetye case suffixes are in boldtace. 4.2
The preposition longa
What I am calling the location function is the indication of where in space or time an event is located. For this function English uses a variety of prepositions such as at, in and on. While these may be used in CAAE, the latter also uses the AP form longa (or long) as a marker of general
15. A complex set of factors conditions the selection of these allomorphs- see Koch (1990a). 16. For a discussion of comparable prepositions in Kriol, see Sandefur ( 1979: Ch. 6) and Hudson (1983: Ch. 3).
450
Harold Koch
location. This preposition (and variants such as langa, long and lo) occurs in all the Englishbased PC languages of Australia and Melanesia as a general-purpose preposition, whose uses always include the location and goal functions. Example (28) illustrates both variation between longa and in and the fact that longa. is the translation equivalent of the Kaytetye Locative case suffix -le (on artetye 'mulga'). (28) Nother honey, live longa mulga country, in the ground ... ~other kind of honey is [found] in mulga country, in the ground .. :
Errampe. All live longa mulga country, long artetye ... Errampe artetyele anteyane. 'Honey ants- they are in mulga country; honey ants are in mulga country.'
(TM 74/5.8)
The instrumental function (indicating the instrument by which an action is performed) is expressed in many Aboriginal languages by the Ergative case. But the Arandic languages use the Locative case instead. CAAE speakers with a Kaytetye language background accordingly use longa for this function. 17 This is in illustrated in (29). (29)
Just like you mark'em longa pencil, you know? 'Just as you would make a mark with a pencil, you know?'
(PH 92.2)
The goal function, which indicates the location at which an entity is situated at the end of an action, is expressed in Kaytetye by a separate Allative case suffix -warle. In CAAE, the same preposition longa that corresponds to the Kaytetye Locative case is also used for the functions of the Allative case (see (30)). (30) Ngwenge ayenge atyangkwerre apeyerre arnerrewarle ['tomorrow I this. way wlllgo to.rock.h.ole1. That mean I go tomorrow, that way, long that rock hole. (TM 74/5.8) 'That means: Tomorrow 111 go in that direction. to the rock. hole:
The purpose function, which in Kaytetye is normally expressed by the Dative case, may also use the Allative case, especially in a sentence involving motion. This usage is also reflected in the CAAE use of longa to express the Purpose function. This is shown in (31), which is a commentary on (32). (31) Go back.longa dinner now. '[They] went back. for dinner then: (32)
(PH Helicopter 43)
Nhartepe aynantherre dinnerwcJrle-lke alpenherre; dinner-Ike ... aynanthe aynewethe-lke... 'Then we went back for dinner; so we could eat dinner then .. :
(AK Helicopter 43)
In English more specific locations (or goals) are expressed by complex prepositions such as itt-
side, underneath, on top of, in the middle of, etc. In most Australian languages, such notions are
17. By contrast, an examination of CAAE stories by Warlpiri speakers in Read and Read (1991) revealed that the instrumental function was never expressed by longa, even though it was used for location and goal functions. Warlpiri uses the Ergative case or the Proprietive suffix for this function. The CAAE examples ofWarlpiri speakers used with or got correspondingly.
The intlrumce of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English
expressed by means of locational nominals 18 occurring beside the relevant noun phrase, which is marked by the Locative or Allative case- literally expressing 'inside at/to NP'. CAAE follows this strategy by using longa beside a fuller location-indicating word. Examples (33) and (34) illustrate this with longside and inside. Here the complexes containing longa fill a specific loca.tion function and the specific goal function respectively. (33) That mean you mighta bin comin today from Barrow Creek you bin see something, sitting longside long road. '1bat means, say, you were on your way here from Barrow Creek and you saw something sitting (PH Gram) beside the road' (34)
gettin inside longa scrub '[the cattle were] getting into the scrub'
(PH Helicopter 20)
This same strategy of using the generallocational preposition longa beside a word which indicates a more specific location is used to translate two further local cases of Kaytetye. The Terminative case means 'right up to, all the way td, and is expressed by the suffix -wartetye. The CAAE equivalent Terminative function is right up longa, shown in ( 35 ). (35) Akertewartetye throw right up long way. Right up longa end ... Akertewartetye. [He] throws [the boomerang] all the way to the end [of the oval].
(PH 92.2)
The Kaytetye Perlative case (suffix -angkwerre) expresses 'through' or 'across~ This can be called the perla.ti11e function; it is rendered in CAAE by the phrase through longa., as illustrated in (36). (36) this mob mighta bin ... kick'em right through long that oval now, alpankangkwerre-pe. 'This team may have kicked [the ball] across the oval' (PH 92.1)
4·3
The preposition from
Like longa., CAAE from (whose pronunciations may include prom or pu,.rom) is used as the translation equivalent of more than one Kaytetye case, and more than one function of a given Kaytetye case. The Kaytetye Ablative case has at least three functions, all of which may be rendered by from in CAAE. This same preposition can be used to translate the Sequentive and Aversive cases of Kaytetye as well. The source function ofboth the Kaytetye Ablative case (suffix -theye) and the CAAE prepositionftum indicates a local source, namely the place where an entity was located prior to an event which involves a movement of the entity. This is illustrated in ( 37 ). (37)
Amarletherre atyetheyarte an1perraytenye. Two girl bin run away from here. 'Two girls ran away from here:
(TM74/5.8)
18. These are called iocational qualifiers" by Dixon (1980:282-283), and in grammars written by Dixon and some ofhis students.
451
452
Harold Koch
The cause function of the Kaytetye Ablative case - expressing the cause of an action - is mirrored in the use of CAAE from in contexts where SE would use over, about or concerning. An example is (38). (38) They no fight from country. They bin only just fight from them Aboriginal women. 'They didn't fight over land They only fought over Aboriginal women.' (PH, KC 13)
CAAE from also translates the Kaytetye Ablative case in expressing the standard of a comparison, where SE uses than. An example of this comparison function is given in (39). (39) He can throw'em, might from here like that house there. Or might lilbit more farther from there. 'He can throw [a spear], say, from hereto that building. Or possibly a little farther than that: (PH 92.3)
The use offrom in relative location expressions such as (40) can presumably be understood as a reflection of this same function. (40) He had a station there. On the east side from them miners. 'He had a station there. To the east of the mines:
(PH KC 42)
The matetial source in verbs of transformation is indicated in CAAE by from, which is the translation equivalent of the Kaytetye Sequentive case (suffix -penhe). SE uses either from or out of for this function. An example is given in (41). (41)
This one rtatyertatyefrom stick. Lll whipstick... Frrtyartepe artetyepetmepe. 'This [training spear] is made from a stick, a little whlpstick... A [real] spear is made of mulga.' (PH 92.3)
A related usage of both the Kaytetye Sequentive case and the CAAE prepositionfium is to indicate the prior condition of an entity involved in an event. This CAAE usage is illustrated in (42). (42)
0 nly one Kaytetye they bin growem up there. One young fella. From little fella. 'They raised only one Kaytetye person there, a young man. [They raised him] from when he was a child: (PH KC 47)
Many Australian languages have a special case to mark an a1'ersive function (Blake 1987: 44; Dixon 1980: 299 ), which indicates an entity that is to be avoided. This is rendered in English by expressions such as to avoid, as protection against, for fear of, or from if motion is also involved (e.g., run away ftvm). In Kaytetye, the Aversive case is marked by a suffix -ketye. In CAAE, this function is indicated by the preposition from. This is illustrated in (43) and (44). (43) Him bin jump-out, that horse, he bin scared from that helicopter; that horse bin too scared 'The horse jumped; it was afraid of the helicopter; the horse was very frightened: (PH Helicopter 97) (44) Erlkwatherre that's mean you gotta have~ when you go. when you by yourself Nother mob spear, from crook man... you gotta keep that, when you go yourself 'Erlkv.,oatherre means you keep more spears with you when you travel alone, as protection against angry men who might spear you ... You keep them with you when you travel alone .. .' (PH 92.3)
The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English
4·4
The preposition blong(int)a
A preposition based on English belong or belonging to is one of the salient characteristics of the Southwest Pacific English-based PC languages. It takes various forms including belonginta, blonga, b(e)long and blo. The AP form reflected in CAAE has the form b(e)longinta. It reflects a Kaytetye Possessive case (suffix -arenge). It is used in contexts where SE uses of, ~or a possessive pronominal adjective ( (45 ), (46) ), and also in contexts where SE would rather use for, as shown in (47), (48). (45) Mangwe [cat]. That's proper Kaytetye, mangwe. That pussycat ... belonginta youfella. We callem
mangwe. 'Mangwe is a proper Kaytetye word The word "pussycat" is your [I.e., English-speakers'] word We call it mangwe.' (TM 74/5.8) (46)
Karntape [bark] kngwere [other]. Ngkalyeynengarenge [young.men-Poss]. Blong them young people. (TJ 90) 'Other bark shields, those of the young men. Those of the young men.'
(47)
Ya coolamon they callem. Well this one he's only belong water. Carry water with him. 'Yes, it [akwerre] is called a coolamon But this vessel [an arne] is only for water; it is used to carry water: (TM 74/5.8)
(48)
Ya, arrkantarengepe [fun-Poss], belonga fun, you know? Where they can get practice for that spear... Nother one belonginta weyarenge-rtame [meat-Poss-l!MPH], errtyarte [spear]. 'Yes, it [the rtartertatye] is for fun, for games to practise spear-throwing... A different one, errtyarte, is for l.killing] meat: (PH 92.3)
Belonginta may also be used for the purpose function, where it may translate the Kaytetye Allative case, which can express the purpose function as well as the more common goal function. This is illustrated in (49 ), which also demonstrates the equivalence in this function of the Allative and Possessive cases of Kaytetye. (49) Ahewarle r-apeke [fight-Au. it-perhaps]. Ahewarle-apeke. Might belonginta fight ... Ahewarle. Belonginta fight ... aharenge [fight-Poss]. Belonginta fight, them spear now. Errtyarte ngwerangkwerre [spear others]. 'Or they [the spears] are for fighting ... For fighting. They are for fighting, these spears, the other (PH 92.3) spears:
4·5
The preposition for
In Kaytetye, the purpose function is one of the main functions of the Dative case (suffix -we). This function is usually rendered in CAAE by the preposition for, as shown in (50) to (52). (50)
That mob artweyeynenge [men] aperrernenyeye [come-PuT] lthartewe [corroboree-nAT] that for corroboree. Arrkantewe [fun-DAT]. For fun Makwele [many] arelhamerne [women] aperrernenyeyerre [come-PuT] ... awelyewe [women's.ritual-DAT]. 'The men will come for a corroboree, for fun .... Many women will come for a womeris ritual: (TM74/5.8)
453
454
Harold Koch
(51) Weye [meat] arlewatyerrewe [goanna-DAT] aylanthe [we] apewerne [go-oBLIG] ... we go for goanna. 'Let's go (hunting) for goannas: (TM 74/5.8) (52) Ahewe [fight-nAT], go for fight, ahewe 'go for a fighf
(TM 74/5.8)
Another of the various functions of the Dative case in Kaytetye is to mark the recipient of the ditransitive verbs 'give' and 'show'. In CAAE, this recipient function is sometimes expressed by the preposition for, as illustrated in (53). (53) He go back that Arnerre with that - with that axe. And he show'em round the people - for his people longa Arnerre country. 'He went back to Arnerre with the axe and showed it around to his people, the people of Arnerre (PH KC 20) country.'
4.6
The preposition with in the proprietive function
Many Australian languages have a case called the Proprietive (suffix -akake), which means 'having~ It corresponds to certain meanings of English with - 'having under one's controf - and is sometimes translated by with in CAAE, as in (54). (54) Artweye [man] anharte [that] apelaperrane [go.along-PRES.IMPFV] alekamernakake [dogs-PROP] weyewarle [for meat], arlelke !.hunting]. That man he's goin. with all the dog, him go out hunting. for meat 'That man is going along with his dogs to hunt for meat? (TM 74/5.8)
4·7
The preposition gottem in the proprietive function
Another means of rendering the Proprietive case is by means of the preposition gottem (variants gotta and got), which is characteristic of Northern Territory PC languages. This form obviously continues an earlier AP transitive verb gottem 'have~ presumably derived from SE (have) got plus the transitivity marker. This AP transitive verb gottem has been reanalysed in Northern Territory AP (CAAP and the predecessor ofKriol) as a preposition, presumably under the influence of the local languages. In the languages of this area, clausal possession is indicated, not by means of a verb such as have as in English, but by a verbless clause containing as a predicate a noun phrase in the Proprietive or "having" case. Hence a clause meaning 'the man has a wife' would be rendered by 'the man (is) woman-having'. Given the equivalence between prepositions in AP/CAAE and the cases of the traditional Australian languages, it is easy to see how the AP gottem would have been interpreted as a preposition meaning 'having'. The relationships between these different interpretations of possessive clauses are illustrated by the hypothetical example of (55), where equivalent SE, AP. CAAE, and Kaytetye versions are juxtaposed.
The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English
(55)
SE AP CAAE Kaytetye
The man's got a wife. Man gottem woman. Man gottem woman.
Artweye amarl-akake.
(~got is
an auxiliary plus verb)
(gottem is a transitive verb 'have') (gottem is a preposition 'having') (-akake is a case suffix 'having')
The prepositiongottem, like the Proprietive case in traditional languages, can be used, in a verbal clause, with a noun phrase related as a secondary predicate to the subject or object; it indicates that the subject (or object) has control over (the referent of) the noun phrase. Examples are given in (56), (57) and (58). Here, examples (56) and (58) demonstrate thatgottem, or its short form got, translates Kaytetye -akake (or its short form -ake); (58) also shows variability in CAAE between with andgot(tem), both of which here translate Kaytetye -ak(ak)e. Example (59) is the original of which (58) is the translation. (56)
He can go ... rlwenthakake, gottem light ... he carry that rlwenthe too, he gottem the rlwenthe. 'He goes with a light ... he carries the light, he has the light with him.' (fM 74/5.8)
(57)
They had to go gottem horses or buggy. 'They had to go with/by horse and buggy.'
(58)
Him bin jump-out, that horse ... He ... run-away, that horse, with them two man ... That horse ... jump, got two man. 'The horses jumped and ran off carrying the two men. The horses jumped with the two men on them [i.e., sitting on their backs]: (PH Helicopter 97-98)
(59)
Nhape [then] ayleka11thake-pe [us-PROP] na11tewepe [horse] atere-rtame [frightened-EMPH] eyethaneyeJ~enhe Uumped]. Atere-pe [frightened] aylekanthakake [us-PROP] jumparre11herre Qumped].
(PHKC 31)
'Then the horses in fright jumped with us two on them. Frightened, they jumped with us on them: (AK Helicopter 97-98)
The Proprietive case in Kaytetye - and correspondingly the preposition got(tem) in CAAE - is also used to relate a noun phrase to the head of another noun phrase in a modifYing relation. This is the "adnominal" function of case, in the terminology of Deneb and Evans (1988). As in the traditional languages, the Proprietive noun phrase need not be adjacent to the noun it modifies, and in fact can occur without an overt head noun, in a meaning such as 'the one wearing red'. Examples (60) and (61) illustrate this adnominal use of the Proprietive function. (60)
(61)
... this nother fella him still tryin, this got red one, well he still tryin to beafem. 'This person wearing red (member of the red team) is still trying to beat him:
(PH 92.2)
This man gettem 'im, takem, gottem handcuff, takem him, makem walk and he gottem horse. '[The policeman would] get this man, take him wearing handcuffs, and make him walk. while he himself had a horse: (TT KC 55)
Here the first phrase, gottem ha.ndcuff, describes the object, this manl'im, and the second phrase gottem horse is a predicate describing he, the policeman.
455
456
Harold Koch
4.8
The privative function
A negative version of the Proprietive occurs in many Australian languages. It is called the Privative case and means 'not having' or 'without'. It is reflected in PC by expressions such as nomore gottem, 19 no gottem, no got, got no or no. The Kaytetye form of the Privative is -(w)anenye. The CAAE translation is no and got no, as shown in examples (62) to (64). In (63), the construction is literally: 'I saw... without a spear'. The last word is linked to the subject as a secondary predicate, as shown by the fact that it is further inflected in the Ergative case (suffix -le) in agreement with atye 'I (Ergativer 20 (62) Kwelarte-lke re enwewethe, entyanenye-lke l.hair-PRiv] ... got no hair now 'It will be dean now, with no hair? [of a game animal after its hair is singed off] (63)
Weye-pe [animal] makwele-rtame [many-EMPH] ... areynenge-pe [euro] atye [I] arenherre [saw], errtyartewanenyele [spear-PRIV-ERG]. Ah mob euro ... me, I see'em arenherre, errtyartewanenyelempele, me no spear. Got no spea.t: 'I did indeed see a lot of euros, but I didn't have a spear.'
(64)
4·9
(PH 89.1)
Sometimes we bin getting them no clothes! 'Sometimes we got people who were not wearing clothes:
(TM 74/5.8) (SRKKC 119)
Summary of prepositions and cases
The basic mapping of Kaytetye cases onto CAAE prepositions is as follows: Both Locative and Allative cases are replicated by longa. Ablative, Sequentive, and Aversive cases are all replicated by from. Possessive case is replicated by blong(int)a. Dative case is replicated by for. Proprietive case is replicated by the more pidgin-like gottem or the more English-like with. Privative case is replicated by (got) no and its variants. The finer details of semantic functions reveal more striking parallels. The coding of Instrumental function by longa replicates the Kaytetye use of the Locative case for this function. Although the normal expression of the Purpose function is Kaytetye Dative case and CAAEfor, the possibility of using longa to express purpose with motion verbs reflects the possible use of the Kaytetye Allative case in similar contexts. And the possible use of blong(int)a to express purpose matches the similar use of the Kaytetye Possessive case. The coding of specific locations and goals, which in SE is done by prepositions such as inside, in CAAE reflects the pattern of Kaytetye: The combination of words like inside with CAAE longa mirrors the collocation of Kaytetye nouns in Locative or Allative case with a locational word such as kwene 'inside'. The English-derived preposition inside is treated as a (more noun-like) locational specifier rather
19. See Sandefur (1979: 158) for nomo gadim in Northern Territory Krlol 20.
For this agreement function of cases, see Deneb and Evans (1998).
The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English
than a preposition. Similar complex expressions right up longa. and through longa are used to express Kaytetye Terminative and Perlative cases; here right up and through have also been reanalysed as locational specifiers, a word class which is characteristic of Australian languages but of not Standard English. The syncretism in the expression of the Locative and Allative by longa and the use of from to express a number of semantic functions that are distinguished in Kaytetye does not seem to indicate a simplification of the system of semantic functions so much as the lack of available lexical items in English that could be recruited for their expression. It appears that the system of semantic cases has been recreated practically in its entirety (not quite all uses of cases have been explored systematically).21 1he same cannot be said for the syntactic cases, however. The AL distinction between Ergative case for the subject of a transitive verb and Nominative for the subject of an intransitive verb (and in verbless clauses) does not correspond to anything in the CAAE prepositional system. Instead, transitivity is coded in the verb, by the suffix -em. Neither does anything in the prepositional system of CAAE correspond to the Accusative case of ALs, which is normally unmarked (like the nominative) but which in Kaytetye personal pronouns is identical to the Dative. Thus the comparison of case and prepositions shows that semantic case distinctions, but not syntactic case distinctions, are transferred from the substratum.
5·
Summary and conclusions
We have studied the influence of the grammar of Kaytetye, as a representative of the local Central Australian languages, 22 on an anglicised version of the Australian Pidgin which developed in Central Australia out of the original New South Wales Pidgin. We have found that grammatical categories of Kaytetye are replicated in the grammar of CAAE in considerable detail- including two categories that have not been reported for PC languages. The most original finding is that certain subcategories of the (relatively exotic) category of Associated Motion are reflected in CAAE by the use of expressions such as go/come/go back (and) VERB to mark Prior Motion and VERB (all the way) a. long to indicate Concurrent Motion. The former leads to un-English discourse patterns such as go... go and eat. The (equally exotic) Dyadic inflection of kin nouns has been replicated in CAAE morphologically, by the creation of a suffix -gether from a reanalysis of the English free word together, with truncation of its initial unstressed syllable. The creation of affixes in an English-lexifier PC is a rather rare event CAAE follows English grammar in its use of prepositions rather than case suffixes, but the specific functions of the prepositions that correspond to the semantic cases ofKaytetye replicate their functions in exacting detail.
Cf. the nearly wholesale recreation of the Chinese Tense-Aspect system in Singapore English, as argued for in Bao (2005). 21.
22. It remains to be seen how to what extent these findings would agree with the variants of CAAE spoken by speakers of other Centralian languages. I would expect agreement with respect to Dyadic, some minor differences in preposition usage resulting from slightly different case distinctions (see Note 17), and fewer distinctions of Assodated Motion from speakers of non-Arandic languages (Warlpiri, Warwnungu), where this category is not as fully elaborated.
4S7
458
Harold Koch
Not all of the inflectional systems of Kaytetye are transferred into CAAE, however. While personal pronouns follow the usual Australian three-number system and include an inclusive vs. exclusive distinction, the peculiarly Arandic distinctions of generational harmony and patrimoiety identity (see Table 2) are not replicated in CAAE. The unavailability of recruitable English equivalents may have been a factor in this non-transference. Some of the Associated Motion subcategories are likewise not transferred (see Section 3.4). Furthermore, the syntactic case functions -Ergative, Nominative, Accusative- are not reflected as prepositions, as the semantic cases are. Those grammatico-semantic distinctions that have been transferred into CAAE, however, give this linguistic variety a greater degree of complexity and typological distinctiveness than is considered normal for PC languages. The source of this complexity can only be explained in terms of transfer from the substratum of the speakers' primary language( s).
List of abbreviations 2nu AE AI.. ALL
AP CAAE CAAP DAT
EMPH ERG FUT
IMPFV
K KC
second-person dual Aboriginal English Australian language Allative case Australian Pidgin Central Australian Aboriginal English Central Australian Aboriginal Pidgin Dative case emphatic enclitic Ergative case Future tense Imperfective aspect Kaytetye
we NSWP NTE OBLIG
PC POSS PPLSS PRBS PRIV PROP PURP RED
SE
locative New South Wales Pidgin Northern Territory English Obligative mood pidgins and creoles Possessive case same subject partidple Present tense Privative case Proprietive case Purposive mood reduplication Standard English
Kaytetye Country
References Allridge, C. 1984. Aboriginal English as a Post-Pidgin. BA Honours thesis, Australian National University. Amery, R & Miihlhiiusler, P. 1996. Pidgin English in New South Wales. In Atlas ofLanguages ofIntercultural CommmJication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Vol. 2(1), S. Wurm, P. Miihlhausler & D. T. 'fryon (eds), 33-52. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Bao, Z. 2005. The aspectual system of Singapore English and the systemic substratist explanation. journal ofLin-
guistics 41: 237-267. Blake, B. J. 1977. Case Marking in Australian languages. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Blake, B. J. 1987. Australian Aboriginal Grammar. London: Croom Helm. Clark, 1. D., Miihlhausler, P. & Amery, R 1996. Language contacts and Pidgin English in Victoria. ln Atlas of Languages ofIntercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Vol 2(1), S. Wurm, P. Miililhausler & D. T. Tryon (eds), 53-68. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Deneb, A & Evans, N. 1988. Multiple case marking in Australian languages. Australian journal of Linguistics 8: 1-48.
The intlrumce of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English
Dixon, R M. W. 1980. The Languages of Australia. Cambridge: CUP. Dixon, T. S. 1987. The Wizard of Alice: Father Dixon and the Stuart Case. Morwell VIC/Bloomington IN: Alella Books. Eades, D. 1995. Aboriginal English on trial: The case for Stuart and Condren. In Language in Evidence: Issues Confronm~g Aboriginal and Multicultural Australia, D. Eades (ed.), 147-174. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. Elwell, V. M. R 1979. English-as-a-Second-Language in Aboriginal Australia: A Case Study ofMilingimbi. MA thesis, Australian National University. Evans, N. 2006. Dyadic constructions. In Encyclopedia ofLanguage 6- Linguistics, 2nd edn., K. Brown (ed.), 24-28. Oxford: Elsevier. Foster, R, Monaghan, P. & Miiblhli.usler, P. 2003. Early Forms ofAboriginal English in South Australia, 1840s-1920s. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Hale, K. 1966. Kinship reflections in syntax: Some Australian examples. Word 22: 318-332. Harkins, J. 1994. Bridging 1\.vo Worlds: Aboriginal English and Crosscultural Understanding. St Lucia QLD: University of Queensland Press. Hudson, J. 1983. Grammatical and SeJnantic Aspects ofFitzroy Valley Kriol [Work Papers ofSIL-AAB AS]. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Koch, G. (ed.). 1993. Kaytetye Country: An Aboriginal History of the Barrow Creek Area. Alice Springs: Institute for Aboriginal Development. Koch, H. 1982. Kinship categories in Kaytej pronouns. In Languages of Kinship in Aboriginal Australia [Oceania Linguistic Monographs 24], J. Heath, F. Merlan & A. Rumsey (eds), 64-71. Sydney: University of Sydney. Koch, H. 1984a. Pidgin English of Central Australia. Paper presented at Symposium on English-based Pidgins and Creoles in Australia and the South-West Pacific at the 54th ANZAAS Congress, 15 April1984, Canberra. Koch, H. 1984b. The category of'assodated motion' in Kaytej. Language in Central Australia 1: 23-34. Koch, H. 1985. Nonstandard English in an Aboriginal land claim. In Cross-Cultural Encounters: Communication and .Miscommunication, J. B. Pride (ed.), 176-195. Melbourne: River Seine Publications. Koch, H. 1990a. Do Australian languages really have morphemes? Issues in Kaytej morphology. In Language and History: Essays in Honour ofLuise A. Hercus, P. Austin, R M. W. Dixon, T. Dutton & I. White (eds), 193-208. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Koch, H. 1990b. Language and communication in Aboriginal land claim hearings. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, Series S, No. 5: 1-47. Koch, H. 1991. Language and communication in Aboriginal land claim hearings. In Language in Australia, S. Romaine (ed.), 94-103. Cambridge: CUP. Koch, H. 2000. Central Australian Aboriginal English: In comparison with the morphosyntactic categories ofKaytetye. Asia,J Englishes: An bJternational]ournal of the Sociolinguistics of English in Asia/Pacific 3: 32-58. Koch, H. 2004. The Arandic subgroup of Australian languages. In Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 249], C. Bowern & H. Koch (eds), 127-150. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Koch, H. 2006. Languages of the world: Kaytetye. In The Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, 2nd edn., K. Brown (ed.), 170-172. Oxford: Elsevier. Koch, H. 2007. An overview of Australian traditional languages. In The Habitat of Australia's Aboriginal Languages: Past, Present and Future, G. Leitner & I. G. Malcolm (eds), 23-56. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Longacre, R 1976. An Anatomy o_fSpeech Notions. Lisse: Peter de Ridder. Malcolm, I. G. & Grote, E. 2007. Aboriginal English: Restructured variety for cuhural maintenance. In The Habitat of Australias Aboriginal Languages: Past, Present and Future, G. Leitner & I. G. Malcolm (eds), 153-179. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Merlan, F. & Heath, J. 1982. Dyadic kinship terms. In Languages of Kinship in Aboriginal Australia [Oceania Linguistic Monographs 24], J. Heath, E Merlan & A. Rumsey (eds), 107-124. Sydney: University of Sydney. Miihlhiiusler, P. 1979. Remarks on the Pidgin and Creole situation in Australia. AJ.A.S. Newsletter 12: 41-53.
459
460
Harold Koch
Miibl.hli.usler, P. 1996. The diffusion of Pidgin English in Australia. In Atlas ofLanguages ofIntercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Vo12(1), S. Wurm, P. Miililhiiusler & D. T. TI:yon (eds), 143-146. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Miihlhiiusler, P. 2008. History of research into Australian pidgins and creoles. In Encountering Aboriginal Languages: Studies in the History of Australian Linguistics, W. B. McGregor (ed.), 437-457. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Read, P. & Read, J. 1991. Long Tune, Olden Tune: Aboriginal Accounts ofNorthern Territory History. Alice Springs: Institute for Aboriginal Development. Sandefur, J. R 1979. An Australian Creole in the Northern Territory: A Description ofNgukurr-Bamyili Dialects, Part 1 [Work Papers ofSIL-AAB B3]. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Sandefur, J. R 1986. Kriol of North Australia: A Language Coming of Age [Work Papers of SIL-AAB A 10]. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Sandefur, J. R & Sandefur, J. L. 1979. Beginnings ofa Ngukurr-Bamyili Creole Dictio,Jary [Work Papers ofSIL- AAB B4]. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Sharpe, M. C. 1977. Alice Springs Aboriginal Chlldren's English. In Language Problems and Aboriginal Education, E. Brumby & F. Vaszolyi (eds), 45-50. Mount Lawley WA: Mount Lawley College of Advanced Education. Sharpe, M. C. 1979. Alice Springs Aboriginal Children's English. In Australian Linguistic Studies, S. A. Wurrn (ed.), 733-747. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. TI:oy, J. 1994. Melaleuka: A History and Description of New South Wales Pidgin, 2 Vols. PhD dissertation, Australian National University. Tunbridge, D. 1988. Affixes of motion and direction in Adnyamathanha. In Complex Sentence Constructions in Australian Languages [Typological Studies in Language 15], P. Austin (ed.), 267-283. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Thrpin, M. 2000. A Learner's Guide to Kaytetye. Alice Springs: lAD Press. Thrpin, M. In press. Kaytetye to English Dictionary. Alice Springs: IAD Press. Wilkins, D. 1991. The semantics, pragmatics and diachronic development of'associated motion' in Mparntwe Arrernte. Buffalo Papers in LbJguistics 91: 207-257. Yallop, C. 1982. Australian Aboriginal Languages. London: Andre Deutsch.
Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol Considering semantic categories* Jennifer Munro Australian National University
Kriol, an English-lexified creole language of northern Australia, is the primary language of the Roper River region in the Northern Territory. This paper describes findings from research that examined Roper Kriol for evidence of influence from the Indigenous substrate languages of that region, namely Alawa, Marra, Ngalakgan. Nunggubuyu, Ngandi and Warndarrang. Of particular note is that, even though syntactic transfer of features, such as nominal case marking suffixes, postverbal TMA markers and verbal pronominal prefixes, did not occur, it appears that semantic categories regarding these features did transfe.t The Transfer Constraints approach used in this research calls for a comparison of the substrate languages to find shared, core features. Predictions could then be made based on the Reinforcement Principle of frequency as to the features that could be expected to have been retained during levelling of the stabilising pidgin. A description of any corresponding Kriol features plus examination of the Availability Constraints of perceptual salience and congruence in English is used to determine whether transfer to the preceding pidgin was constrained or not. There was evidence to suggest that the shared range of semantic categories in the pronominal TMA and case marking systems was transferred to the preceding pidgin, and retained during levelling, to ultimately be found in Kriol. Keywords: Kriol, Aboriginal language features in Kriol, pronouns and pronominal prefixes, tense-mood-aspect. case marking
A version of this paper was originally presented at the XVIIIth International Conference on Historical Linguistics held at the Universite du Quebec aMontreal in August 2007. This was made possible by the kind assistance of Dr Claire Lefebvre, Director of the Cognitive Science Institute and Professor in the Department of Linguistics, who also provided the feedback required to finalise this paper and to whom I offer many thanks. I would also like to thank the two reviewers for their useful suggestions for this paper. This paper has been taken from Munro, J. M. 2004. Substrate Language Influence in Kriol: The Application of Transfer Constraints to Language Contact in Northern Australia. PhD thesis, University of New England: Armidale, NSW.
462
Jennifer Munro
1.
Introduction
This paper investigates the possible transfer of the semantic categories from the Roper River substrate languages to Northern Territory (NT) Pidgin, the pidgin on which Kriol is based. I focus here on three systems: the TMA system, the case system, and the pronominal system. Within each of these, the semantic oppositions found in each category are analysed and compared in order to find those shared among the substrate languages. The substrate languages, being agglutinative and non-configurational, do not use fixed word order for the realisation of grammatical relations. In order to investigate features of grammatical subsystems, it was necessary to expand the Transfer Constraints approach by applying it to the semantic aspects of such features, which had not been done previously. The Transfer Constraints approach has been developed by Siegel (e.g., 1999, 2000, 2003) and influenced by other researchers, such as Lefebvre (1998, 2001) and Mufwene (1986, 1990), who have sought to explain and understand substrate influence in creoles. Siegel (1997, 1999) looked into research in Second Language Acquisition in order to help define the notion of "transfer", which he describes thus: "In language learning in language contact situations, structures from the target language (usually the superstrate language) may be reinterpreted according to the syntactic or semantic properties of the learners' native language (the substrate language)" (Siegel2000: 1, 2). The Transfer Constraints approach, as set out by Siegel (1999, 2000, 2003), aims to provide parameters as to potential transfer of such features from substrate languages to a creole. The Transfer Constraints are comprised of the Reintorcement Principle of frequency and the Availability Constraints of perceptual salience and congruence. The premise is that, in the early phase of pidgin development, while there are any number of potential features available for speakers to choose from, availability constraints are placed on them, such that those superstrate features which appear to sound similar and can be easily identified with the substrate featureperceptual salience - and occur in a similar structural position - congruence - would have a greater chance of transferring to the pidgin. When the pidgin begins stabilising, levelling is said to occur. Siegel (1997) extends the process oflevelling originally applied to dialect contact and koineization to the emergence of a new contact language. Siegel (2000: 3) describes this process thus: "The elimination of some variants and the retention of others is a sociolinguistic or community-level process known as levelling, which occurs during the stabilisation of a new contact variety." Those features which are shared by more languages are most likely to be used by more people and theretore used more frequently, resulting in their greater chance ofbeing reinforced. These features are predicted to be retained due to the Reinforcement Principle of frequency, whereas others will be lost during levelling. Kriol, an English-lexified creole language of northern Australia, is the primary language of the Roper River region in the Northern Territory (NT) and beyond with approximately 20,000 first language speakers. Kriol is most strongly connected to the Roper River region because Roper River Kriol emerged from there in the early to mid-1900s, prior to other varieties developing. Roper River Kriol developed out of the contact between the English spoken by early settler pastoralists, the local Aboriginal languages (Alawa, Marra, Ngalakgan, Nunggubuyu, Ngandi and Warndarrang) and New South Wales and Queensland (NSW/QLD) pidgin, which originated in
Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol
south-east Australia and spread into the NT with the pastoral expansion in the late 1800s and early 1900s (see Harris 1986; Munro 2000, 2004). Previous descriptive research on Kriol was done almost solely by Sandefur (1979) and continues to provide the only full length grammatical description of Kriol as spoken in Barunga (formerly Bamyili community) and Ngukurr. Following on from preliminary studies such as Fraser ( 1977), Hudson (1983) provides the only detailed grammatical description for Kriol as spoken in the Fitzroy River region of the Kimberleys of Western Australia. Other resources are also available in Kriol, most notably the dictionary (SIL 1986) and the lesson package on conversational Kriol (Sandefur & Sandefur 1981). The most useful source of sociohistorical information directly related to Kriol includes Harris (1986), who provides an indepth discussion on the development of NT Pidgin in Northern Australia, its possible stabilisation and aspects of the emergence of the creole. More recently, Munro (1995, 2000) discusses the spread of Kriol, comparing the emergence of creole in the Daly River region in the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region in Western Australian to the Roper River region. It is suggested that Kriol, along with NT Pidgin, may have spread throughout the Kriol speaking region, particularly through army camps and the pastoral industry. This view differs from that put forward by Sandefur (1986), Harris (1986) and Sandefur and Harris (1986) that Kriol emerged independently in various locations and later converged into one language. Munro ( 1995), however, found that the only place that creole emergence could have taken place independently appears to be Moola Bulla in the Kimberleys in Western Australia. Sharpe (1972: 9) first suggested that there was substrate influence in Kriol, referred to at the time as Pidgin English, by claiming that: "In surface structure the languages [Alawa and Pidgin English/ Kriol] are very different; in deep structure and semantically they are almost identical ( ... )".Yet it remained just that, a suggestion, because no analysis or research on the topic was carried out until Sandefur ( 1979) included a comparison of the phonological systems of the substrate languages with that of Kriol. Sandefur (1979: 48) found that"( ... ) the sound system of Creole [Kriol] is derived from a complex combination of the sounds of AL [Aboriginal Languages] of the Creole [Kriol] area and of English:' The variations in the sound system, including features of substrate influence, were more fully described by Sandefur and Harris (1986). The only research into morphological and semantic substrate influence is presented by Hudson (1983) in which Fitzroy Kriol is compared to Walmajarri, a substrate language of that region. The methodology employed first provides a description of grammatical features of the Creole, in this case the regional variety of Fitzroy Kriol. Where a Fitzroy Kriol feature differs from English and shows a similarity to the substrate language, a detailed comparison between the two is provided. The general observation that comes out of this study is that the Kriol features correspond to those found in the substrate languages. Koch (2000, this volume) also investigates substrate transfer in relation to early Australian Pidgin. He identifies the transitive marker -im and the "adjective-pela noun" construction as examples of possible substrate transfer from New South Wales languages. The data analysed in this chapter, the pronominal (Section 2), the TMA subsystem (Section 3) and the case subsystems (Section 4), reach a conclusion similar to that of the aforementioned authors, that is, the properties of the lexical items involved in the Kriol sub systems of the grammar reproduce those of the substrate languages.
463
464
Jennifer Munro
Pronouns
2.
Pronominal prefixes on the verb constitute a feature of all the substrate languages in the Roper River languages. Pronominal prefixes are not found in Kriol, however. In our analysis this is due to the constraints on transfer.
In the substrate
2.1
While the semantics of the pronominal system is the focus of this section, a discussion of the independent pronouns in the Roper River substrate languages places it in context. The independent pronouns in the substrate languages are used for emphasis or contrastive purposes (Sharpe 1972: 57; Heath 1981: 130): (1)
Nganji11i-ja da
ngina 11gayi juwi-ne-benya
wubu
what-GEN CONJ ISG NEG send.cv-3SG-d.o:TMA fire 'Why (lit. what for) didri't he send me fire:
ALAWA
(Sharpe 1972:58)
Noun class marking is encoded in the stem forms of the independent pronouns and so is not separately marked (Heath 1984:241). Independent pronouns can also carry case marking, the same as with other nominals, as (2) also shows. (2) Alako ju-yolkyolk-ka nyinyjah-yih later 2SG/3SG-tell-FUT 2SG-ERG Merwards you'll tell it.'
NGALAKGAN
(Merlan 1983:72)
These sentences also provide examples of how the substrate languages lack word order rules for indicating grammatical relations. Comparing (2) and (3), for example, shows that OVS and SVO are both possible word orders for a transitive verb. (3)
Ngina-rra rag-nga-nyl
na-na gartyl-marr
MARRA
ISG-NOM hitCV-1SG/3SG-root NC-DEF m.an-NOM1 'l hit the man.'
(Heath 1981: 130)
All pronominal forms in the substrate language distinguish singular, dual and plural in the category of number, and inclusive and exclusive in the category of person, as shown in Table 1. Table 1 shows the traditional paradigmatic arrangement of pronominal categories according to number (Singular, Dual, Plural). It is also pertinent to note that gender is marked on the third person pronouns.
Heath (1981: 81) notes that "The principal use of the Nominative case is for the intransitive subject or transitive object of a sentence (... ) . (... ) It should be en1phasised, though, that the Nominative in Mara is quite distinct, so far as transitive clauses are concerned, from the nominative (subject) category of English and other nominativeaccusative languages." 1.
Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol 465 Table 1. Shared categories of pronouns in the substrate languages
Single 1 Inclusive
1SG
1 Exclusive
Dual
Plural
1DU.IN
1PL.IN
1DU.EX
!PL. EX
2
2sG
2DU
2PL
3
3M.SG/3F.SG
3DU
3PL
Reinforcement Principle and predictions
2.2
As we saw above, all substrate languages distinguish between Singular, Dual and Plural and Inclusive and Exclusive. This leads to the following prediction: Predictions based on pronominal paradigm E FEATURE 1: Pronominal system with three number (Singular, Dual and Plural) and Inclusive/ Exclusive categories
It is expected, therefore, that if transfer of these categories within a minimal/augmented system of pronouns took place to the preceding pidgin, they would have been retained during levelling due to their high frequency as shared features of the substrate languages. In Kriol
2.3
Kriol uses independent pronouns in a SVO construction as in (4).
Y" olmen lso OBL leave-TM 2so old/respected-man 'I have to leave you old (respected) man.'
(4) Ai garra lib-um
KRIOL
(A043 1998)2
An example of a pronoun used in an intransitive verb construction follows. (5)
WoifV yundtlbala gan sbel fo
wa11 dei why 2DU INAB rest P/P one day 'Why (lit. what for) can't you two rest for one day?'
KRIOL
(S147 1998)
Kriol pronouns include three number categories (Singular, Dual and Plural), as well as Inclusive/ Exclusive categories, which are presented in Table 2. The prediction made in E Feature 1, whereby Kriol pronouns would have three number and Inclusive/Exclusive categories is therefore found to be the case in Kriol. This would suggest that transfer of the categories to the preceding pidgin occurred during expansion and that, due to their high frequency as shared features of the substrate languages, they were retained in the NT Pidgin during levelling and ultimately in Kriol.
2. Kriol examples are usually provided from data collected in 1998. The first letter of the example number indicates the name speaker and the line number in the interlinear gloss of the shoebox file, followed by the year the data was collected.
466
Jennifer Munro
Table 2. Kriol pronouns3
Singular ai/mi
1 1/2 2 3
ytt im
Dual mindubala/minbala (exclusive) yunmi (inclusive) ytmdttbala dttbala
Plural melabatlmela (exclusive) wi (inclusive) yttmOp olabat
Table 3. Perceptually salient forms
Kriol pronoun
English form
ai mi ytt yunmi
wi
I me you 'you and me' him 'me (and) two fellas' 'you (and) tw:J fellas' 'two fellas' 'me and all about' 'you mob' 'all about' we
2.4
Availability Constraints and other explanations
im
mindubala yttndubala dubala melabat yumop olabat
E Feature 1 - Pronominal system with three number (Singular, Dual and Plural) and Inclusive/ Exclusive categories - is partially found to be the most appropriate description of the system of pronouns in Kriol There is, however, one grammatical category used in the substrate languages, which is not prevalent in Kriol, and that is gender. It is expected that this loss is a result of simplification. It has been recognised that a process of simplification often takes place in the development of pronominal systems in creole languages, during which the pronominal paradigm can be simplified by stripping all categories except number and person, so that only the six core categories remain (Romaine 1988:74). While the Kriol system includes more than six categories, they are all person and number categories. The semantic transfer of all other categories, except those of a gender specific nature, was not constrained by perceptual salience. Table 3 for instance, shows there are perceptually salient forms in English on which pronouns in the preceding pidgin could be based. This list was based on another, provided by Siegel (1999:24), to describe the perceptually salient forms on which pronouns in Melanesian Pidgin are based.
3· The contrastive forms for first person singular are Nominative and Accusative forms. Those for first dual exclusive and first plural exclusive, however, are generational variants within Kriol that indicate language change in progress with mindttbala and melabat giving way to minbala and mela.
Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol
While most of these forms seem straightforward, others seem unlikely as a base for pronouns. we, for example, is an obvious choice for wi, being a common pronoun in English and, while it may appear that the form is simply adopted into Kriol from English, it is the semantic transfer of the category 'first plural inclusive' to this form that is significant ~ abouf is the pronominal base for olabat, which at first seems unlikely, but it does have ready examples in the historical literature, such as the one in (6), which proves it was used in this way in the preceding pidgin (e.g., Gunn 1908): (6)
"Me plenty savee me savey count aUabot4f' 1sG QUANT understand/know 1so understand/know count 3PL/everyone 'I know a lot ... I know how to count them/everyone:
NT PIDGIN (Gunn 1908:92)
Others, such as 'me and two fellas: are assumed constructions with no historical examples available. While such phrases seem implausible in current speech styles, the speech styles from the late 1800s to the early 1900s in the pioneering cattle industry in Queensland and the Northern Territory may have allowed greater flexibility. Indeed the necessity for communication between a lone manager and a workforce of Aboriginal employees may have required some ingenuity. Consider the following sentences, which I would posit were possibilities for use during that time. Some would indeed still be used in the industry today.
Everybody, all about camp, can help me with droving. Hey what are you mob dob1g? I want you (and) two follas to start musteri11g tomorrow. Me a11d two fellas from Brisba11e, went to tow11. You and me should help those two fellas over there. The ma11ager said, "Me and all about here will waitfor the rain to stop." It is likely that -bala had been analysed as a plural marker as part of NSW/QLD Pidgin, which influenced NT Pidgin preceding Kriol development. Keesing (1988: 112) lists five functions of the fellow teature in Melanesian Pidgin. One of those is as a suffix to pronouns and numerals to indicate plurality. Baker (1993:45) provides the first known examples of this construction in archival material: 'me fellow' 1874 in the Solomon Islands and 1886 in Queensland; 'you fellow' 1866 in Queensland; and 'he fellow' 187 4 in the Solomon Islands. It is reasonable to assume, theretore, that this feature either developed in New South Wales or Queensland itself. While fellow had been reported as early as 1882 in the Northern Territory, it was then functioning as a noun (Harris 1986: 329). The first reported instance ofjellow used on numbers and pronouns was in 1902.
First time him sleep, then him wake up. Moon longa top of sky. Him say you and me go longa Price potato. Doctor been first time yabber this. Me no been go. Then two fellow walk. By and by him come back. Him been bring 'em three fellow bag longa potato. Doctor been carry 'em two fellow bag, him ... been carry one fellow. Two fellow been sit down and tuck out 4 (Spencer 1928: 591, cited in Harris 1986:271)
4· Bold indicates number and underline indicates pronoun. Use of both indicates it could be a number or pronoun, or both.
467
468
Jennifer Munro
Table 4. Pronominal system of Melanesian Pidgin5
2 3
Singular
Dual
Plural
mi
mitufela (exclusive) yumi(tLifala) (inclusive) ytttufela tufela
mifela (exclusive) yumi (inclusive) yufela olgeta
yu
hem,hemi
The fact that the feature fellow, indicating plurality on numbers and pronouns, is evident so early in contact history, suggests that the feature was introduced to the Roper River region as part of the NSW/QLD Pidgin. It is noteworthy that the pronominal use of two fellow shown here is early evidence of the use of bala in relation to the dual category, which may have been a result of substrate influence in the Roper River region. It may then be that this pronominal system is merely a case of spread of features from the preceding NSW/QLD Pidgin. which may have also influenced Melanesian Pidgin. Table 4 provides the Melanesian Pidgin pronominal system for comparison, using Solomon Island Pijin as an example. It can be seen that, while there are many forms similar to that of the Kriol pronominal system, there are also significant differences. The dual forms in Melanesian Pidgin can all end in tufela, which appear to be equivalent to the dual category forms ending in dubala in Kriol. While the Kriol dual inclusive pronoun is the exception the Melanesian Pidgin form is not. In this way the Melanesian Pidgin pronominal system appears more clearly a dual system. Melanesian Pidgin also makes use of fela as a morphological ending for most of the plural forms, while two of the Kriol plural forms end in abat, which is not found in Melanesian Pidgin. As this shows, there were no availability constraints on this feature. There were perceptually salient forms, used with similar meanings in English, on which to base the substrate pronominal system at a previous stage of pidgin development. Transfer within the pronoun system appears to have first occurred within the NSW/QLD Pidgin. Pronominal features, such as thefellow/fela! bala ending, then spread to both Melanesia and the Northern Territory. In these environments, the contact language features would have been added to the pool of possible variants available for contact language speakers to use. In each case, whether in the Northern Territory or Melanesia, transfer based on the semantic distinctions of the substrate languages of each region could then take place.ln the case ofKriol, while the dubala ending was largely maintained as an indicator of dual category pronouns, the dual inclusive form differs. The abat endings were also introduced for two of the four plural forms in the Roper River region. & previously mentioned, these features would then have been reinforced during levelling, due to high frequency use among speakers of the substrate languages, and retained in NT Pidgin and eventually Kriol.
5· Based on Keesing (1988).
Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol
3·
TMA
It was found in Munro (2004) that no structural transfer of the postverbal TMA markers present in all substrate languages had taken place, although the process of reduplication and a unique supplementary tense suffix may have been transferred from the substrate languages. It was also found that the bulk of the Kriol TMA system is made up of preverbal periphrastic mar k.ers. This section shifts the focus to the semantic range ofTMA marking in Kriol to determine if any transfer of the semantics of oppositions within the categories of tense, mood and aspect may have taken place. 3.1
In the substrate
The features of the TMA systems discussed here are generally only those that are shared features among the substrate languages. The descriptions are therefore not exhaustive for all the languages. Based on the information to hand, all the substrate languages here distinguish between past and present in tense. In the Past tense, punctual and continuous aspects are distinguished in all the substrate languages. These categories are not clearly understood, however, and there have been suggestions that they also, and perhaps more accurately, demarcate foregrounded and backgrounded events (e.g., Merlan 1983: 105). The category of Future is analysed as a tense category in grammatical descriptions available (Sharpe 1972:88; Heath 1981: 179). However, Heath (1980: 339) describes three 'Nonpast' categories in relation to Nunggubuyu and Merlan (1983: 98) suggests that in Ngalakgan, the future category is in fact modal in nature expressing a range of meanings that include ability, obligation, intention and desire (Merlan 1983: 98). It is likely that the same would be found in the other languages with further research. A shared feature of the TMA system is the existence of a distinct 'evitative' mood used in warning speech acts, and commonly translated as 'lest'. There is also always a potential mood category. A summary of the shared TMA categories of the substrate languages is presented in Table 5, in which a tick signifies the existence of such a category in that language. This is followed by example sentences ofthese features. Marra is one of the four languages that makes use of the punctual and continuous aspect in past tense (PP and PC), as (7) and (8) show. Table 5. Summary ofTMA categories in the substrate languages
Past Punctual Past Continuous Present Future Potential Evitative
Ngal.akgan
Nunggubuyu
Alawa
,I
,I
,I
,I
,I
,I
,I
,I
,I
,I
,I
,I
,I
,I
,I
,I
,I
,I
./
./
,I
,I
,I
,I
Marra
469
470
Jennifer Munro
(7)
Dad-gu-ft
MARRA
tie.CV-3SG/3SG-dO:PP 'He tied it up.' (8)
(Heath 1981: 180)
Dad-gu-jujunyi
MARRA
tie.CV-3SG/3SG-dO:PC 'He was tying it up.'
(Heath 1981: 180)
Example (9), below, is taken from a lengthy Ngalakgan passage presented by Merlan (1983: 104105) to show how past continuous forms are used to"( ... ) describe the background or the framework of events ( ... )': particularly in narratives where the two aspects are opposed. The past punctual, in such contexts, therefore marks what is punctual or foregrounded. More research is required on this topic tor a more complete comparative analysis to be carried out. (9) 0-yinih-ganiny ju-gohje jugu-bolo-yih nu-gohje 3sG/3sG-say.cv-root:Pc Nc-that Nc-old.person-CASE Nc-that
mirparra 0-ngalh-miny
NGALAKGAN
balku 0-bak-warrh-ntiny
child 3sG-cllmb.cv-root:PP rope 3sG/3sG-oP-throw.cv-root:PP 'She told him like that, the old lady... the child climbed up, she threw him a rope.' (Merlan 1983: 105)
The present tense (PRS) is used to indicate an activity in present time in all the substrate languages, as (10) shows. (10) Gurnman1h ngunbu-bak-yom maybe 3PL/1 SG-OP-gossip:PRS 'Maybe they're gossiping about me.'
NGALAKGAN (Merlan 1983:99)
The future (FUT) indicates activities that will happen in future time and may involve a sense of "( ... )desire or intention of the agent of the verb( ... ) to carry out whatever is expressed by it" (Merlan 1983: 100). (11) Burrgu-marninyh-nya warlamanh-yih rerre-borre golkol matji burru-yarrh NGALAKGAN 3PL/Nc-make-FUT many-ERG camp-POSS new indeed 3PL-ma.ny 'Many want to build a new camp, because they're (too) many.' (Merlan 1983: 100)
The potential mood (POT) is found in all the substrate languages. Examples from Alawa and Ngalakgan follow in (12) and (13 ), respectively. (12) Guny-nya-darr see.cv-1sG/2sG-root:POT 'I might see you.'
ALAWA (Sharpe 1972: 87)
(13) Alangga nugu-jarnrdiyah 0-yengi mun.gu-relk-gen NGALAKGAN then Nc-pandanus.mat 3sG/3sG-put:POT Nc-sliced.vegetable.food-DAT 'Then she should put down a pandanus mat for the sliced vegetable food.' (Merlan 1983: 103)
The evitative (EVIT) is used in all the four languages although in different construction types. Ngalakgan uses a prefix to the root as in (14).
Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol
(14)
Waf91ba rerre-ngini-kah 0-rabon-jih ngu-meleh-bu11 NEG camp-POSS-AU. 3SG-come-FUT:NEG 1SG/3SG-EVIT-hit:PRS 'He'd better not come to my camp (or/lest) I strike him:
NGALAKGAN (Merlan 1983: 97)
Nunggubuyu, on the other hand, can use either the evitative inflectional suffix on the root or the postposition -magi, glossed by Heath ( 1984: 45) as 'lest'. There are a number of combination possibilities but (15) provides an example where both are used. (15)
3.2
Ngirri:-dabali-19' ngawa:-ngaa-ngun-magi 2PL/1 SG-remove:BEN-P UT 1SG/Nc-bring.down- EVIT-lest (Emu said.) "Bring him out for me! Or else I will bring down the sky!"
NuNGGUBUYU (Heath 1980: 45)
Reinforcement Principle and predictions
Based on the reinforcement principle of frequency we would expect that the shared semantic features of the substrate languages' TMA systems would have the greatest chance ofbeing retained in Kriol during levelling. It must be borne in mind that further research is required within the substrate languages to more accurately determine the nature of these TMA systems. Nonetheless, the most common features derived from current understandings can be summarised in the following predictions. Predictions based on TMA categories
E FEATURE 2: Punctual and continuous distinction In past tense E FEATURE 3: A distinct evttative mood E FEATURE 4: Future and potential mood Therefore, it is expected that, if transfer of these TMA category oppositions could take place to the expanding pidgin, these features would then have been retained during levelling due to their high frequency among the substrate languages.
3·3
In Kriol
Sharpe (1972) made a prediction in regards to the Kriol TMA system some time ago: In Alawa tense-aspect-mood and case are indicated by suffixation of auxiliary stems and substantives respectively; ln PE [pidgin English, or Kriol] they are indicated by preposed words. However the contrasts distinguished are found to be in nearly all respects identical. In surface structure the languages are very different; ln deep structure and semantically they are almost identical ( ... ). (Sharpe 1972:9) No analysis has since been provided to either prove or disprove this claim, until now. As mentioned above, the Kriol TMA system consists almost entirely of periphrastic markers that precede the verb, as set out in Table 6.
471
472
Jennifer Munro
Table 6. Kriol TMA system Realis Tense
Irrealis Mood
Aspect
bin
Past Present
0
oldei stil
garra
Continuative Durative Incipient Limitational Proximal Progressive
stat onli jes
-bat
-1
mait gin
gan
--~----~~~----------yusdu Habitual
lafda
Obligatory (Future) Definite lSG Potential Abilitive Inabilitive Necessary
As this shows, Kriol distinguishes between past and present tense. Past tense (PST) is marked with bin in Kriol, as shown in (16), while present tense is unmarked, as in (17). (16)
WI
bin gu
Ia gedul
grik
KRIOL
1PL.EX PST go G/L [place name] creek 'We went to Cattle Creek.' (17)
(S0251998)
Dis du
boi bin dal-im im, gaman wi gu-dan iya la grik DBT two boy PST tell-TM 3SG come:IMP 1PLin go-DIR G/L DBM creek 'These two boys told him, "Come on, we are going down here to the ere~
KRIOL (A143-1441998)
Future is expressed through the obligatory mood (OBL) marker as shown in (18). (18)
Yu garra gu la anggul gllbet-na
KRIOL
2SG OBL go G/L uncle [personal name]-EM 'You will/must/have to go to Uncle Gilbert now.'
(COSO 1998)
The mood marker of obligation, as this example shows, can indicate a sense of obligation or intention, although always with the notion of future. It does not occur with any other tense, aspect or mood marker. Two other examples to show its semantic range are provided in (19) and (20). (19)
Det drei11 garra gam-bek
iya drekll
KRIOL
DET train OBL come-DIR DBM SOOn 'The train will come back here soon/directly.' (20)
En bos
bin dok,
wl
garra dell-1m-at
TPC boss/overseer PST talk/say 1PL.in
menlja
fit-1m
dumajl wl
(S036 1998)
OBL
dedel
KRioL
divide-TM-DIR today
nomo got-1m hel
manager feed-TM CONJ lPL.in NEG got-TM hay ~d the boss said, "We have to/must divide them out today to monitor their feeding because we (S033 1998) haven't got any hay':'
The habitual (HAB) also does not occur with any other tense, aspect or mood marker and inherently indicates something in the past as (21) shows.
Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol
(21)
En main hasben yusdu gerri-yim-ap damiyok TPC POSS husband HAB carry-TM-DIR tomahawk 1\.nd my husband used to carry/bring along a tomahawk (axe):
KRIOL (C0531998)
Table 6 also presents the aspect markers that occur in combination with both present and past tenses. Example (22) shows the use of the continuative (CONT); (23) the durative (DUR); (24) the incipient (INC); (25) the limitational (LIM); and (26) the proximal (PROX). (22)
Olda ol-bibul bin oldei len-im melabat PL RSP-people PST CONT teach-TM lPL.l!X 'The old people (respected elders) were teaching us (but not you):
(23) Medel bin stil gam na mi [personal name] PST DUB. come G/L lso 'Myrtle still came to me: (24)
Im stat luk-aran det woda-11a 3SG INC look-DIR Dl!T water-EM 'He begins/starts to look around (in) the water then:
(25)
Melabat bin onli wok-na na roubabeli PL.EX PST LIM walk-EM G/L [place name] 'We (not you) only walked to Roper Valley.'
(26)
KRIOL (D0151998)
KRIOL (C052 1998)
KRIOL (C2071998)
KRIOL (D033 1998)
Im jes rol-im swek e11 larrimgu hos en KRIOL 3SG PROX roll-TM swag CONJ letgo/loose horse CONJ gam-bek rait-bek la steishe11 COme-DIR ADV-DIR G/L station 'He just rolled his swag (up) and let his horse go/loose and came back, right back to the station: (C1821998)
The limitational and proximal aspect markers often occur in conjunction in a verb construction, the only aspect markers to do so. An example is provided in (27). (27)
Dei bin mui jes bek-im-ap ol da tings but- im la gi11U 3PL PST LIM PROX pack-TM-DIR PL things put-TM G/L canoe 'They (only) just packed up all the things and put them in the canoe:
KRIOL (C0171998)
The mood markers of Kriol never take the past tense marker nor occur in the present. As previously described, garra, can be used in a few ways, predominantly to indicate a sense of obligation as in (28). (28)
Hei ai garra lip-um yu olmen yu garra 11aja gel-na EXC lSG OBL leave-TM 2SG old/respectedman 2SG I/A INDPR girl-EM 'Hey, I have to/must leave you old man/husband as you're with another girl/wife now:
KRioL
(A0431998)
When a definite sense of the future is required with the first singular pronoun, then -l may occur on the pronoun, as in (29).
473
474
Jennifer Munro
(29)
En ai-l
deik yundubala la stok-gemp
TPC 1SG-DEF take 2DU G/L stock-camp 'I will take you two to the stock-camp:
KRIOL
(S076 1998)
Other example sentences follow of the potential (POT) in (30), the abilitive (ABL) in (31), the inabilitive (INABL) in (32) and the necessary (NEe) in (33). (30)
Im mait gaman en
ran-im-wei e11
it yunmi
3SG POT come CON} run-TM-Dffi CONJ eat 1DU.IN 'It might come and run this way and eat us (you and me).' (31)
Yundubala gin deik-im-bek hos 2DU ABL take-TM-DIR horse 'Can you two take back the horses?'
(32)
(33)
Woljb yundubala gem sbel fo wan del why 2nu INABL rest PIP one day 'Why (ltt. what for) can't you two have a rest for one day?' En dedi
bin dok, wi
lafda gu
TPC daddy PST talk 1PL.EX NEC go 1\.nd Daddy said, "We have to/must go':'
KRIOL
(C2491998) KRIOL
(S055 1998) KRIOL
(Sl471998) KRIOL
(C114 1998)
In terms of the predictions made in Section 3.3, it has been shown that there is no evidence of E Feature 3 (a distinct evitative mood). It can then be expected that E Feature 3 did not transfer at an earlier stage of pidgin development, possibility due to availability constraints. The Kriol past tense marker either occurs with a continuous aspect marker to form past continuous or without, in which case itis past punctual E Feature 2 (punctual and continuous distinction in past tense) has therefore been found in Kriol There is also future and potential mood marking in Kriol which suggests that E Feature 4 (future and potential mood) is present in Kriol. The Future marker in Kriol expresses a range of modal meanings including obligation, but always in the future. There are separate mood markers for other moods. It can be argued that E Features 2, 4 and 5 did transfer at earlier stages of development, as there were no constraints on transfer. These features were then retained during levelling due to their high frequency among the substrate languages.
3·4
Availability Constraints
E Feature 2 (punctual and continuous distinction in past tense) is a feature of the Kriol TMA system. Firstly, there is a continuous aspect marker in Kriol oldei, which is used in conjunction with the past tense marker bin to form past continuous. The form of the continuous is based on a perceptually salient form in English; consider the following sentences:
We were always fighting. The celebrations went all day. It is suggested that the form of oldei may be based on 'all daY, while the construction on which it is based involves 'always'. Alternatively, because the consonant cluster /lw/ is generally not possible in the phonotactics of the substrate languages, it may have been replaced by the voiced
Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol
stop I dl. The deletion of the final I sl thereby created alday from 'always'. In either case, these two forms in English would not be easily distinguished according to the phonologies of the substrate languages. They were perhaps taken for the same by substrate language speakers. As there is no constraint on transfer, this feature could be transferred to the preceding pidgin during expansion and retained in Kriol due to its high frequency. Secondly, there is no actual punctual marker in Kriol, which may be due to a lack of a perceptually salient form in English that has some shared function. However, there is still a distinction between past punctual and past continuous. If past continuous is marked through the use of oldei in combination with past tense bitt, it then follows that, where the past tense bitt occurs without the continuous, it is in fact past punctual. The distinction remains although no specific form for the punctual has been transferred. The distinction in past tense between punctual and continuous is expected to have transferred during expansion to the preceding pidgin. The distinction would also have been retained during levelling, due to high frequency, and ultimately found in Kriol. E Feature 3 (a distinct evitative mood) is not a feature found in Kriol. There are two perceptually salient forms on which an evitative mood marker could have been based, as it is commonly translated as 'or else' or 'lest'. These forms are not found in congruent constructions in English, although they occur in proximity to the verb, particularly following it, as they do in the substrate languages. Consider the following sentences. Keep to the track lest the monster will get you. Don't throw that ball or else you71 be in trouble.
Both these English forms are conjunctions that precede the subject. As noted in the introduction to this chapter, the role of congruence is most likely reduced in the semantic transfer of categories, although it may still influence transfer by assisting in the perception of forms as salient. This lack of congruence may explain why the seemingly perceptually salient forms in English were not transferred to act as the equivalent to the evitative mood in the expanding NT Pidgin that preceded Kriol As transfer is not expected to have occurred, the feature could not have been retained during levelling and hence is not present in Kriol E Feature 4 (future and potential mood) have been transferred to Kriol. The future is marked by the obligatory mood marker, garra, and the potential is marked by mait in Kriol They are based on the perceptually salient forms, 'got to' and 'might respectively, as shown in the following sentences: I \•e got to help at the gallery. Sally might leave him.
They also occur in direct relationship with the verb, as congruent constructions. Furthermore, and perhaps more significant, in one substrate language - and with further research, perhaps all- future is in fact expressed as a mood with a sense of 'obligation'. The English form 'got to' is likewise not directly a future tense marker, but rather a mood construction which expresses a sense of 'obligation. This semantic similarity between the substrate feature and the superstrate feature may have assisted in its transfer to the preceding pidgin. Due to its high frequency among substrate languages, the future mood feature was retained during levelling. In Kriol then, while garra can express a sense of future tense, it is not an actual future tense form itself, rather a marker
475
476
Jennifer Munro
of obligatory mood. The same is expected of the potential mood, such that the model in the substrate languages may have encouraged the transfer of the use of 'might' from English to the preceding pidgin, which was then retained during levelling due to its high frequency.
3·5
Negative TMA marking
A specific characteristic of the Roper River substrate languages' TMA system is that there are distinctive negative forms that contrast for TMA. summarised in Table 7 below. Three of the four languages use the same form to mark negative in past and present, while two of the four languages use the same form to mark negative in potential and future. We may refer to the former category, which includes past and present, as Realis, whereby the activity has or is taking place. The latter category, which includes potential and future, can be referred to as Irrealis, whereby the activity has not yet taken place. Based on the information presented so far, the following prediction can be made.
Prediction based on negative TMA categories E FEATURE 5: Negative morphology distinguished for Realis and Irrealls moods.
In Kriol, negative (NEG) TMA is marked in four ways. In Realis, there are two forms. For greater emphasis neba is used, most commonly in the past tense and the other form is nomo. Both precede the verb complex and are shown in (34) and (35) respectively. (34)
(35)
Main hasben neba bin wand! gil-im-bat enibodi POSS husband NEG PST INT hit-TM-PROG anybody 'My husband never wanted to be hitting anybody.'
KRIOL (C2061998)
Olabat nomo bin ap-um hei det daim meik-im-bat hei najing 3PL NEG PST have-TM hay DBT time make-TM-PROG hay nothing 'They didn't have hay at that time, they weren't making hay, nothing:
KRIOL (S034 1998)
The only form used to mark negative in Irrealis is gan, the inabilitive aspect marker, as in example (32), above. There is also a distinction in marking Realis and Irrealis negative TMA, which suggests that E Feature 5 (negative morphology distinguished for Realis and Irrealis moods) is tound in Kriol. E Feature 5 is present in Kriol and requires a twofold comparison to English. Firstly, the
Table 7. Negative TMA marking in the substrate languages Realis Past Present Irrealis Potential Future * NA: not available.
Ngalakgan
Nunggubuyu
Alawa
Marra
potential + -hmolk potential + koro
wa:=rri
wa:=rri
ngayi ngayi
ganagu or guganagu or gu-
evitative + - tjih/ji evitative+ - tjihljih
yagi (and Evitative) yagi
NA*
ngula (Past Potential only) ngula
Ngayi
Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol
forms of the negative markers in Kriol, neba, nomo and ga.n, have been derived from perceptually salient forms in English, included in the following sentences:
John never talked to me about it. No more dancing Is allowed. You can't leave In the morning. In relation to this last example, it should be pointed out that this Ksettler speech" is based on an English-Australian pronunciation, which is phonetically realised as [a]. It is suggested, therefore, that neba is based on 'never, nomo on 'no more' and gan on 'can't'. Secondly, there is the issue of the distinction between Realis and Irrealis negative marking, which does occur in Kriol, whereby neba and nomo only occur in the former and gan only in the latter. It appears then that transfer of E Feature 5 has occurred, yet in order for this to be a case of negative transfer, it must be shown that English does not also utilise a distinction between Realis and Irrealis negative marking. The following sentences, in combination with those above, can shed some light on this issue.
She is ,wt going to school. She did not go to school yesterday. She will not go to school tomorrow. I never go to Queensla11d. I never went to Queensland. I will never go to Queensland. You ca11't go now. *You can't went/go yesterday. You ca11't go tomorrow. As this shows, the negative markers in English 'not' and 'never' can occur in both past and present tense, the equivalent to Realis, and future tense, the equivalent to Irrealis. Furthermore, 'can't' occurs in both future and present tense. These differences in the English negative marking patterns to the substrate language model described in E Feature 5 suggest that this is in fact a case of negative transfer. It is expected, therefore, that speakers of the preceding pidgin transferred the characteristics of E Feature 5 to the pidgin. This is a case of negative transfer because English, as the superstrate language, does not have the same feature characteristics. It is further expected that during levelling the feature characteristics were retained due to their high frequency in the substrate languages and were ultimately retained in Kriol.
4·
Case
Munro (2004) has shown that Kriol does not make use of postnominal case marking, which all the substrate languages display, tavouring instead prenominal prepositions. There is no sign, therefore, of structural transfer within the nominal complex in terms of case marking. It was also shown that Kriol only marks semantic roles in this manner, rather than grammatical relations. This section examines the possible semantic transfer of semantic roles from the substrate languages to the NT Pidgin. which were ultimately retained in Kriol.
477
478
Jennifer Munro
4.1
In the substrate
The substrate languages each have their own unique case systems to mark semantic roles of nominals, but there are shared categories between them. Each language has a different number of such case suffixes, with Nunggubuyu perhaps the most complicated. The shared semantic roles that are marked by all the substrate languages are presented in Table 8. Here, the correlation between the grammatical term and the semantic role can be seen: The former will continue to be used in interlinear glosses and the latter will be used in the following text Table 8 also shows that some semantic role categories share the same case form. The semantic roles of goal and location, for example, can be represented by the same form in three of the four languages. Examples from Marra are provided below. Example (36) shows the locative (we) or location semantic role, while example (37) shows the allative (ALL) or goal semantic role, taking the same form. (36) Nya-radburr-yurr wa-wurlu NC-camp-LOC 3SG-Sit:TMA 'He sits/stays/lives ln the camp: (37)
Nga-jurra
MARRA (Heath 1981:85)
na-walba-yurr
MARRA
1SG-go:TMA NC-river-ALL 'I will go to the river:
(Heath 1981:85)
Similarly, possession and purpose are expressed with the same form in two of the four languages. In Ngalakgan, for example, the most common way of indicating purpose is to use the genitive (GEN) case suffix (Merlan 1983:45-47), as in (38) and (39): (38) Naman, mu-may-hgtm gu-rli-marrawul-me-n poor.thing Nc-food-GEN 3sG-CMP-hunger-root-TMA 'Poor thing, he's hungry for food:
NGALAKGAN (Merlan 1983: 45)
(39) Nu-gohje nu-gu-mirparra 0-runi-runiny balinyh nu-gunhbirri NC-that NC-DEF-chfld 3SG-RDP-Cty:TMA like NC-that
mirparra ju-nangari-hgin
NGALAKGAN
yinimbala
ch!ld Nc-[subsection term]-GEN just.the.same 'That ch!ld cried and cried, just like Nangari's child (lit. that child ofNangari's): (Merlan 1983: 44)
Case forms in all the substrate languages encompass a range of semantic roles, often the same sets of semantic roles. Table 8. Case systems of the substrate languages
Allative, Goal Locative, Location Ablative, Source lnstrwnental Genitive, Possession Purposive, Purpose
Nunggubuyu
Ngalakgan
Marra
Alawa
-WU)'
-gah -gah -wala
-yurr
-ruj -wala
-)'UTr
-rru -rru
-miri
-yih
-yinyung -yungguyung
-hgV,J -hgVn
-yanil-yana -0 -0 -ni
-yumt -rri
-ja -ja
Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol 479
As will be found in the following sections, it is necessary to mention the comitative or semantic role of accompaniment. Heath (1984:210) says that for Nunggubuyu: "It [the instrumental case] is specifically instrumental in sense, and in particular is not comitative. The latter category is expressed by a derivational pre.fix-anyji-in the verb ( ... )': Interestingly, an identical prefix is also used in what Heath (1984:483) describes as "one instance in Nunuggubuyu of a "having X" proprietive derivation~ although it is not common. In Alawa, Sharpe (1972:68) mentions the nominal suffix -wanji, which also appears to express a proprietive 'having X' meaning, as well as the accompaniment semantic role. In Ngalak.gan, Merlan (1983: 39) says that the barta-X-yih 'proprietive' construction, which is a means of expressing 'having also encompasses comitative and instrumental. An example of the proprietive is found in (40).
x:
(40)
Anyjl burr-rnahrna nugu-barta-gurnrdarorro-yih and 3NSG/3SG-see:PP NC-PROP-horns-PROP ~nd they saw a cow: (literally having/with horns)
NGALAKGAN
(Merlan 1983: 39)
In Marra, Heath ( 1981: 286) says the most likely way of expressing comitative is through the use of daginiyi 'having' followed by a noun with instrumental case and, although this construction is not common, it is no doubt another proprietive construction type. 4.2
Reinforcement Principle and predictions
The discussion in Section 4.1 suggests that two predictions can be made, regarding what can be expected in the representation of semantic roles in Kriol The first prediction, E Feature 6, predicts that the semantic roles that are shared by all the substrate languages and, therefore, high in frequency, would have been retained in NT Pidgin during levelling if transfer had previously taken place. The second prediction, E Feature 7, predicts that the semantic roles of goal and location would be realised by the one form and, likewise, possession and purpose would be realised by another single form in Kriol. This feature is not unanimous among the substrate languages. However, in three of the four substrate languages, one case form expresses both goal and location and, in two of the four languages, one case form expresses possession and purpose. It is further predicted that, if this feature was transferred during expansion of the NT Pidgin, then it would have been retained during levelling, due to this relatively high frequency of occurrence. The predictions follow:
Predictions based on semantic role categories E FEATURE 6: Marked semantic roles of goal, location, source, instrumental, possession and purpose E FEATURE 7: 0 ne form to express the two semantic roles of goal and location, and another form to express possession and purpose 4·3
In Kriol
Sharpe (1972:9) has previously suggested that the case system of Alawa is "almost identical" to the prepositions in Kriol in their semantic categories. No research on this point was carried out
,.So
Jennifer Munro
Table 9. Kriol prepositions Semantic categories
Form
Gloss
Goal. Location
langaor la
to, at, in, on
Source Possession, Purpose Instrument, Accompaniment
burrum or brom
from for, belongs to
blanga or bla garra
with
since on Roper Kriol, until now. Hudson ( 1983: 68-7 6) previously conducted an analysis of the semantic roles of prepositions in Fitzroy Kriol in comparison to Walmajarri, a substrate language of that region. She found correlations between the following Walmajarri case categories and Fitzroy Kriol prepositions: dative case, blanga; locative and accessory case, la.nga.; and instrumental derivational affix and locative case, garra. The semantic categories of Roper Kriol prepositions are presented in Table 9. The semantic roles of goal (G) and location (L) are expressed by the same preposition, langa or la, as (41) and (42) show, respectively: (41) Wal ai bin gu Ia denambiri11i well 1sG PST go G/L [place name] 'Well, I went to Tanumbirini' (42)
Wal ai bin bon Ia natwut well lsG PST born G/L [place name] 'Well, I was born at Nutwood Station.'
KRIOL (A0091998) KRIOL (C0011998)
Similarly the categories of possession (P) and purpose (P) are also expressed by the same preposition, blanga or bla, as (43) and (44) respectively show: (43)
Mi en main mami bin get-im det drak blanga im-na lSG CONJ POSS mummy PST get-TM DET truck P/P 3SG-EM 'My mummy and I got his truck (that truck of his) now.'
(44) Mela garra weit-na bla olgamen PL.l!X OBL wait-EM P/P old/respectedlady 'We (not you) have to wait now, for the (respected) old lady.'
KRIOL (A050 1998) KRIOL (D0161998)
Furthermore, the roles of instrumental (I) and accompaniment (A) are also expressed by the same preposition, garra, as (45) and (46) respectively show: (45)
Det medel hasben bin hit-im garra shabulsblya Dl!T [personal name] husband PST hit-TM I/A shovelspear '(That/the) Myrtle's husband hit her with a shovel-spear:
(46) Mela bin oldei gu hant garra gliyo PL.l!X PST CONT go hunt I/A (personal name] 'We (not you) always went hunting with Cleo:
An example of the use of the source (SRC) preposition is in (47):
KRIOL (C0281998) KRIOL (D015 1998)
Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol
(47)
Yu waif yu sl loda grandrimen bre11 burTU1n borralulua-wei makatha KRioL wife 2sG see QUANT country.man friend sRc [place name]-DIR [place name] '(With) your wife you see a lot of countrymen, friends (from the same place), from (in the direction (A118 1998) of) Borroloola way,. McArthur River? 2sG
As expected from E Feature 6, it was found that all the marked semantic roles of goal, location, source, instrumental, possession and purpose are expressed through the Roper Kriol prepositions. It can now further be expected that transfer of this feature was allowed during an earlier stage of development of the pidgin, before being retained during levelling due to high frequency. As expected from E Feature 7 also, Kriol expresses the semantic roles of goal and location with one form, as well as possession and purpose with one form. It can therefore be expected that transfer of this feature took place at an earlier stage of development of the pidgin, before being retained during levelling due to high frequency. 4·4
Availability Constraints and other explanations
E Feature 6 (marked semantic roles of goal, location, source, instrumental, possession and purpose) is found in Kriol. Table 10 shows the correlation between the categories of semantic roles in Kriol and those shared by the substrate languages. E Feature 7 (one form to express the two semantic roles of goal and location and another form to express possession and purpose) is also found in Kriol. Before continuing, the case of Accompaniment as a semantic role must be discussed. All the substrate languages have a means of expressing the semantic role of Accompaniment, although its form varies. In Nunggubuyu, this is a verb prefix; in Alawa, a nominal suffix; and in Ngalakgan and Marra, a nominal construction. Accompaniment is therefore not marked through a case suffix as such. The fact that Accompaniment is expressed with the same form as Instrument in Kriol is therefore unexpected. However, in all four Roper River substrate languages, the form used to express accompaniment is also used to express the proprietive 'having X' construction. There could be a case made that the NT Pidgin speakers, bilingual in the substrate languages, associated the accompaniment and proprietive constructions with the one form. Evans (2003: 139) shows how a grammaticalisation path may have developed between these two functions to the instrumental case in other Gunwinjguan languages. This suggests that it may be a general pattern either in the region or in the wider language family, known as non-Pama Nyungan languages, in general. The fact that the English preposition 'with' can also be used to realise both instrumental and accompaniment semantic roles indicates that there may be a relationship between the two, which could influence transfer to Kriol. The NT Pidgin speakers may then have extended the one form to express the two semantic roles, Instrument and Accompaniment Table 10. Overview of semantic roles Semantic categories
Kriolform
Substrate case
English source
Goal, Location Source Possession, Purpose
langa or la
Allative, Locative Ablative Purposive, Genitive lnstrwnental
'along' 'from' 'belong'
Instrwnent, Accompaniment
burrum or brom blanga or bla garra
'goti
481
482
Jennifer Munro
For all of the Kriol prepositions, perceptually salient forms must have existed in English on which to base the prepositions. Table 11 also shows the expected source words from English for the Kriol prepositions. There are numerous options in English on which to base prepositions in Kriol. We must then ask why these particular forms were chosen. First of all all bar one are hisyllabic, which increases their chance of being heard distinctly. Secondly, a strong case for their inclusion could be made if they could be used in English with similar semantic categories. To this end, consider the following sentences:
We walked along the creek. (We walked in the creek.) She came back from London. This book belongs to me. For those categories that share the one form, it is suggested that, as long as the English form can function in one of the semantic roles, then transfer could take place. The other semantic role may have been extended to this same torm due to pressure from the substrate languages. This appears to be the case with possession, which can be expressed by 'belong' in English. This form, being perceptually salient, was transferred to the contact language and the semantic role of purpose was then extended to it through substrate semantic transfer. The same can be said of the G/L preposition in Kriol, which is based on 'along, that can be expected to have been first used as the location semantic category. The semantic category of goal was later extended to it It must also be borne in mind that two of these prepositions in Kriol most likely entered the contact language in the Northern Territory via the NSW/QLD Pidgin. Harris (1986:271) provides the earliest recorded examples, presented in Table 11 below. There are some interesting conclusions that can be drawn from these examples. Firstly, examples 1 and 2 show 'along' as the precursor to langa, being used to express the semantic role of location. This is as expected and, due to the early date of attestation, we can assume this feature was part of the N SWI Q LD Pidgin on arrival, although still based on the same perceptually salient form in English. It can be assumed that the use of this preposition was extended to the semantic role of goal at a later date, due to substrate language semantic transfer. Similarly, examples 5 and 6 provide evidence of 'belong' as the precursor to blanga and show its use expressing the possession semantic role. It can be assumed that this feature entered NT Pidgin via this NSW/QLD Pidgin Table 11. Earliest examples of prepositions in the Northern Territory Pidgin Preposition
Year
Source
Example
'along' -langa or la
1882-1886
Searcy (1912: 70)
1888 1902
Kelsey (1975:76) Gunn (1905: 10)
1902
Gunn (1905:20)
1902 1902
Gunn (1905: 11) Gunn (1905:65)
1. Captain, what for you get em lost alonga bush and no take me? 2 I bin lendem tonga Timbuk, my brother. Me knock up tonga Shimmy Shirts ... Longa string ... me bin make em. 4. No more Missus. Me goodfellow; s'pose you no more make me whitefellow tonga paint 5. him bite eye belonga me 6. Missus, which way you bin put him egg belonga crocodile.
'belong' - blanga/bla
Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol
and that the preposition was extended to purpose, which was also due to substrate language semantic transfer at a later date.6 Finally, examples 3 and 4 show 'along' being used to express the instrument semantic category, which is now not evident in langa.. While this function may have been in use at the time, it has now given way to another preposition, garra. Combined with the fact that there are no early attestations of the use of garra, or 'got ~ this may be evidence that the use of this Kriol preposition developed due to semantic transfer from the substrate languages in the Roper River at a later date. The same reasoning applies to the source preposition, burrumlbrom: As there are no early attestations ofthis preposition, it may suggest that it developed as part of NT Pidgin at a later date of development and was influenced by transfer from these substrate languages.
5·
Discussion
Mufwene (1990:6) effectively challenged the substrate approach to creolistics by criticising the lack of regulating principles that had been devised for this theoretical position. Up until this point many researchers would identify features of a creole that did not occur in the su perstrate and then scour the substrate for evidence of feature transfer. However, for a theoretical approach to have significance in this field, it would also need to display some power to predict potential feature transfer. Siegel (1997, 1999, 2000) took up the challenge by developing a substrate approach that could make predictions of potential feature transfer from substrate languages to contact languages. This research aimed to test the application of this approach on Roper River Kriol. There have been seven predictions of teature transfer made in this paper, from the pronominal, TMA and case systems of the substrate languages. They are summarised along with findings in Table 12 below. Six of these predictions were proven correct. in that Kriol displays the same feature type as that predicted. The other predicted feature that was not found in Kriol is the distinct evitative mood. An explanation was presented that this may be due to the availability constraints. It was described that, while there are perceptually salient forms in English on which to base such a feature, they did not occur in congruent constructions. It was suggested, theretore, that at an earlier stage of NT Pidgin development. transfer was not possible due to this constraint of a lack of congruence. Findings such as these support the predictive capabilities of the Transfer Constraints approach. Taking into consideration NT Pidgin features that originated in the NSW/QLD Pidgin also allows for a more accurate assessment of the influence of the Roper River substrate languages. While the dubala ending on pronouns in Kriol may have originated in the NSW/QLD Pidgin, for example, their reorganisation to mark most dual pronouns may have been a result of substrate influence and semantic transfer to NT Pidgin during expansion. The same was shown in regard to the semantic categories of prepositions in Kriol. While the form and partial function of prepositions, such as langa and blanga, were shown to be derived from NSW/QLD Pidgin, their functions changed in the NT Pidgin under influence of the Roper River substrate languages. The 6. It should be noted that bilong is also used in Tok Pisin as the purposive preposition. The possible substrate language influence in that language requires further investigation.
483
484
Jennifer Munro
Table 12. Summary of findings Predictions
Findings in Kriol
E Feature 1: Pronominal system with three nwnber (Singular, Kriol has a pronominal system that includes three nwnber Dual and Plural) and Inclusive/Exclusive categories (Singular, Dual and Plural) and Inclusive/Exclusive distinctions E Feature 2: Punctual and continuous distinction in the past tense
There is continuous aspect in Kriol and a punctual/continuous distinction
EFeature3: Evitative mood
There is no Evltative mood in Kriol Constraints apply
E Feature 4: Future and potential mood
The obligatory mood in Krlol expresses future and obligation; there is also a potential mood in Kriol
EFeatureS: Negative morphology distinguished for Realis and lrrealis moods
There is a distinction in marking negative TMA in Kriol: neba and nomo are used in Realis and gan in lrrealis
EFeature6: Marked semantic roles goal, location, source, instrwnental, possession and purpose
Goal and location, Zanga; source, brom; instrwnental and accompaniment, garra; possession and purpose, blanga
E Feature7: One form to express the two semantic roles of goal and location and another form to express possession and purpose
Goal and location,langa possession and purpose, blanga
ability of langa to express both the goal and location semantic roles, and the ability of bla.nga to express both the possession and purpose semantic roles, for example, were transferred to the expanding NT Pidgin under influence of the case system of the substrate languages. The Transfer Constraints approach is not able to account for all features within a creole, however. For example, it was shown in Section 2.4, that the most appropriate explanation for the lack of gender in the pronominal system in NT Pidgin and ultimately Kriol was the contact language process of simplification. Similarly, there are numerous aspects of the features discussed in this paper that are not accounted for by using the Transfer Constraints approach, such as the complexity of the TMA system, which may highlight the limitations of this approach. It is necessary, as Mufwene (1986, 1990) has pointed out. to take other principles into account, because there are some things even broad substrate theories cannot account for. It is suggested, for example, that universal principles may best explain why creoles, such as Kituba of West Africa, are isolating even though their substrate languages are agglutinative. The same may be expected of Roper Kriol, which is an isolating language even though the substrate languages of the Roper River are all agglutinative. The intention of the Transfer Constraints approach has therefore not been to explain all features of creoles because, as these examples show, there will be features present that can only be explained by other principles.
Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol
As previously noted, the application of the Transfer Constraints approach in this study differs from that formerly used in that features of semantic categories are analysed for the effects of transfer, which has not previously been performed. This paper provides evidence that, not only is it possible for transfer of semantic categories to take place, but that the predictive nature of the Transfer Constraints approach holds. The three features discussed in this paper have previously been analysed in terms of structural transfer (Munro 2004), where there appeared to be no structural transfer of nominal case suffixes, postverbal TMA suffixes or verbal pronominal prefixes. This paper, however, shows that there is substantial semantic transfer within these systems of categories.
List of abbreviations ABL ADV ALL
BEN CMP CONJ CONT
cv DAT DEF DEM DET DIR DU DUR
E EM ERG EVIT EX
F PUT
G/L GEN I/A IMP IN INAB INC INDPR INT LIM LOC
ablative adverbial allative benefactive compassionate prefix conjunction continuative coverb dative definite demonstrative determiner directional durative dual expected emphasis ergative evitative exclusive feminine future goalllocation genitive instrwnental/acoompaniment imperative inclusive inabilitive incipient indefinite pronoun intentional limitational locative Oocation)
PRS PROG PROX
masculine non noun class necessary negative nominaliser New South Wales Northern Territory obligatory object promoting prefix object verb subject possession/purpose past continuous plural possession potential past punctual pronominal prefix present progressive proximal
PST
past
QLD
Queensland q uanti.fier reduplication respect marker
M N
(or n)
NC NEC
NEG NOM
NSW NT OBL OP
ovs PIP PC PL (or pl)
FOSS POT pp
PROP
QUANT RDP RSP SG SRC
svo TM TMA TPC
singular source subject verb object transitive marker tense mood aspect topic marker
485
486
Jennifer Munro
References Baker, P. 1993. Australian influence on Melanesian Pidgin English. Te Reo 36: 3-67. Evans, N. 2003. Binit'lj Gun-wok: A Pan-dialectal Grammar of Mayan Kunwinjku and Kune. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, ANU. Fraser, J. 1977. A Phonological Analysis of Fitzroy Crossing Children:S Pidgin. Darwin: Work papers of SIL-AAB A/1.
Gwm, J. 1905. The Little Black Princess of the Never Never. London: Hutchinson. Gwm J. 1908. We of the Never Never. London. Alexander. Harris, J. W. 1986. Northern Territory Pidgins and the Origin ofKriol Canberra: Padfic Linguistics C/89. Heath, J. 1980. Nunggubuyu Myths and Ethnographic Texts. Canberra: AIATSIS. Heath, J. 1981. Basic Materials in Mara: Grammar, Texts and Dictionary. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics C/69. Heath, J. 1984. Functional Grammar ofNunggubuyu. Canberra: AIATSIS. Hudson, J. 1983. Grammatical and Semantic Aspects of Fitzroy Valley Kriol. Darwin: Work Papers of SIL-AAB A/8. Lefebvre, C. 1998. Creole Genesis and the Acquisition of Grammar: The case ofHaitian Creole. Cam bridge: CUP. Lefebvre, C. 200 1. Relexi.fication in creole genesis and its effects on the development of the creole. In Creolization and Contact [Creole Language Library 23], N. Smith & T. Veenstra (eds), 9-42. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Keesing, R. M. 1988. Melanesian Pidgin and the Oceanic Substrate. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. Koch, H. 2000. The role of Australian Aboriginal languages in the formation of Australian Pidgin grammar: Transitive verbs and adjectives. In Processes of Language Contact: Studies from Australia and the South Pacific, J. Siegel (ed.), 13-46. Montreal: Fides. Merlan, E 1983. Ngalakgan Grammar, Texts and Vocabulary. Canberra: Padfic Linguistics B/89. Mufwene, S. S. 1986. The universalist and substrate hypotheses complement one another. In Substrate Ver.sus Universals in Creole Genesis [Creole Language Library 1], P. C. Muysken & N. Smith (eds), 129-162 Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Mufwene, S. S. 1990. Transfer and substrate hypothesis in creolistics. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 12: 1-23. Munro, J. M. 1995. Kriol on the Move: An Investigation to the Spread of a Creole Language in Northern Australia. Honours thesis, University of New England. Munro, J. M. 2000. Kriol on the move: Investigating language spread in Northern Australia. In Processes of Language Contact: Studies from Australia and the South Pacific, J. Siegel (ed.), 245-270. Montreal: Fides. Munro, J. M. 2004. Substrate Language Influence in Kriol: The Application of Transfer Constraints to Language Contact in Northern Australia. PhD dissertation, University of New England. Romaine, S. 1988. Pidgin and Creole Languages. London: Longman. Sandefur, J. 1979. An Australian Creole in the Northern Territory: A Description ofNgukurr-Bamyili Dialects, Part 1. Darwin: Work Papers ofSIL-AAB B/3. Sandefur, J. 1986. Kriol of North Australia: A Language Coming ofAge. Darwin: Work Papers of SIL-AAB AI 10. Sandefur, J. & Harris, J. 1986. Variation in Australian Kriol In The Fergusonian Impact, VoL 2, J. A. Fishman (ed.), 179-190. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Sandefur, J. & Sandefur, J. R. 1981. An Introduction to Conversational Kriol. Darwin: Work Papers of SIL-AAB B/5. Siegel, J. 1997. Mixing, levelling and pidgin/creole development. In The Structure and Status o_fPidgins and Creoles [Creole Language Library 19], A. K. Spears & D. Winford (eds), 111-149. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Siegel, J. 1999. Transfer Constraints and substrate influence in Melanesian Pidgin. Journal of PidgitJ and Creole Languages 14(1): 1-44. Siegel, J. 2000. Introduction: The processes of language contact. In Processes of Language Contact: Studies from Australia and the South Pacific, J. Siegel (ed.), 1-12. Montreal: Fides.
Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol
Siegel, J. 2003. Substrate influence in creoles and the role of transfer in second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisitio,J 25(2): 185-209. Sharpe, M. 1972. Alawa Phonology and Grammar. Canberra: AIATSIS. Spencer, B. 1928. Wanderings in Wild Australia. London: Macmillan. Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). 1986. Kriol Dictio,uzry. Darwin: SIL.
487
Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin The origin of -im and -fela Harold Koch Australian National University
This paper 1 examines the influence of the grammar of Australian Aboriginal languages on New South Wales Pidgin (NSWP). which developed from the interaction of British colonists with the Indigenous people of the Sydney region beginning in 1788. This variety eventually spread over most of Australia and exerted an influence on Melanesian Pidgin English. which is the basis for modern Solomons Pijin, Bislama of Vanuatu, and Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea. The paper shows how in NSWP English utterances were reinterpreted, on the basis of Verb-Object and Noun Phrase patterns of Australian languages (ALs), as including null constituents; the consequence was that English forms ended up as parts of verbs and adjectives as markers of transitivity (-lm/-it) and adjectival function (-feia ), respectively. In other words, zero elements from the substrate language were replicated where the superstrate had overt elements.
Keywords: New South Wales Pidgin, Australian Pidgin, transitivity marking, adjective marking, reanalysis of zero constituents
1.
Introduction
1.1
Background to the study ofNSWP
New South Wales Pidgin (NSWP) is no longer spoken but is of great importance to the history of Pacific pidgin and creole (PC) languages. This contact language, which originated in southeastern Australia and spread, with many local variations, across most of Australia in the nineteenth century, is the oldest of the South Pacific Pidgins (disregarding the language of Pitcairn Island, for the status of which see Miihlhliusler 1998a). Not only was it the ancestor of the creole of northern Australia (called Kriol); it also had a significant influence, especially via the Queensland plantations of the late nineteenth century, on early Melanesian Pidgin English (MPE), which developed into the currently spoken English-based PCs of the Southwest Pacific, namely Tok Pisin, Bislama, Solomon Island Pijin, and Torres Strait Creole- also called Broken or Yumpla Tok (Baker 1993;
1. This paper is a revised and somewhat abbreviated version of Koch (2000b ). I am grateful to the editor and two reviewers for helpful input to this version.
490
Harold Koch
Baker & Mi.ihlhausler 1996). Insofar as the features of all these PCs are traceable ultimately to an early form of a pidgin which developed for communication between British colonialists and the Indigenous people of Australia, the substratum influence of Australian Aboriginal languages persists in the Southwest Pacific PCs spoken by millions of people today.
There is undoubtedly a considerable amount of Melanesian substrate influence in MPE today. This is not in conflict with the claim that MPE derives primarily from QLD [Queensland Pidgin]. QLD is a continuation ofNSW [New South Wales Pidgin], which already included many Australian innovations that probably reflect the influence of Aboriginal languages. A thorough investigation of (Baker & Mtihlhiiusler 1996: 578) the latter is one priority for the future. This paper explores that influence. Baker (1993) and Baker and Mi.ihlhausler (1996) have investigated the relative chronology of many Southwest Pacific PC features as attested in the literary sources. Troy (1994a) has studied in detail the early development ofNSWP in the colony of New South Wales (including Victoria, which separated from NSW only in 1851), compiling copious historical documentation from the foundation of the colony in 1788 up to the middle of the nineteenth century. Dutton (1983) has documented nineteenth century Queensland Pidgin. concluding that it is a continuation ofNSWP. The influence of the traditional Australian languages (ALs) on NSWP has been described only partially. Early observers often commented on the characteristic pronunciation of"English" by Aborigines: Problems with fricatives and certain consonant clusters can be attributed to the phonemic inventories and phonotactic patterns of the ALs. NSWP vocabulary from ALs has been much discussed, in the context of studies of Australian English lexicography (Baker 1945; Morris 1898; Ramson 1966; Turner 1966). Troy (1994a) discusses AL-derived vocabulary found in the pidgin ofNSW and Victoria up to 1850. But little effort has been devoted to explaining the grammatical features of early NSWP in terms of the influence ofALs. 2 In Sections 2 and 3, I discuss two of the most characteristic grammatical features of all varieties of Southwest Pacific PCs and attempt to explain how they probably developed through the interaction of colonial English and the ALs. I focus on the so-called transitive marker -im (which has variants with other vowels) and the so-called adjective marker -fela/-pela. Although the ultimate English sources are readily apparent and have been previously recognised, I show how the very un-English-like constructions in which these forms end up developed according to natural processes of linguistic change that followed from the reanalysis by Aboriginal learners of English expressions in terms of the syntactic patterns of the ALs.
Baker (1996a) is the sole exception. For later varieties derived from NSWP, the situation is different, however: Kriol of North Australia has been described in terms of AL categories by Hudson (1983), Sharpe (1985), to some extent Sandefur (1979), and especially Munro (2004); the Aboriginal English of Alice Springs is analysed from an Arrernte and Luritja perspective by Harkins (1994); Koch (2000a) compares some grammatical features of the Aboriginal English of rural central Australia with those of Kaytetye; see also Koch (this volwne ). 2.
Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin
1.2
Sketch of the history and spread of Australian Pidgin
NSWP had its beginning with the establishment of a British penal colony at Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, in 1788 in what was called the colony of New South Wales. From here, European settlement gradually spread northward and southward along the east coast of Australia as well as inland. New expansions later took place from Hobart and Launceston in Tasmania, Brisbane in southeastern Queensland, Melbourne in Victoria, Adelaide in South Australia, and Perth in Western Australia (for the latter as a somewhat separate tradition, see Miihlhausler 1998b). European expansion was associated primarily with agriculture and pastoralism (sheep and cattle), which incorporated a considerable number of Aborigines into the labour force. With the recruitment of large numbers of Melanesians to work on plantations in coastal Queensland from the 1860s, some features of the Queensland version ofNSWP entered Melanesian Pidgin English, the ancestor of most of the island varieties of southwest Pacific P Cs.3 During the earliest period, a jargon was formed which consisted largely of English but with a significant (especially lexical) input from the Sydney language.4 With the expansion of the frontier, the developing pidgin continued to include Sydney language words, such as beyil 'nd, bu.dyeri 'good; dyin 'woman and gunya 'huf. But it also acquired vocabulary from other ALs. Probably the next most influential AL was Wiradjuri (Troy 1994a:401), which was spoken over a huge area of inland New South Wales and was encountered by Europeans as early as 1813 when settlers crossed the Blue Mountains to Bathurst in Wiradjuri territory. As the pidgin spread to new areas, early AL lexical items were sometimes replaced by terms from local ALs or from English. Thus, in Queensland gunya 'huf was replaced by humpy, possibly from Yugambeh ngumbiny (Sharpe 1998: 157). In Victoria, 'nO, 'good; '(Aboriginal) woman and 'hut' became respectively borak, men·ijig, lubra. and miamia [majamaja] (Troy 1994a: 387). 5 Kriol of the Roper River district of the Northern Territory preserves only a few lexical traces ofNSWP- gabarra 'head: binji 'stomach' and bogi 'swim' (Harris 1986:287ff.; cf. Sandefur & Sandefur 1979) -but uses English-derived terms such as no!nomore!never for the negative and goodone for 'good'. As NSWP, or Australian Pidgin (AP), as it might better be called, spread geographically with the moving frontier, it was probably influenced by the phonology, lexicon and grammar of new ALs, which were the first languages of new A P speakers. It therefore displayed minor regional variation. On the other hand, some of the variants from the early jargon stage were probably levelled out by a koineisation process (Siegel1997: 131ff.). In Australia, the pidgin was also subject to fairly constant input from colloquial English, as most Aboriginal people had to
3· For a comprehensive study of the history of Pacific PCs, see 'fryon and Charpentier (2004). For Australian pidgins and c.reoles in general, see Miililhii.usler (2008 ). For NSWP the main source is Troy (1994a), whose findings are swnmarised in Amery & Miililhii.usler (1996). 4· There is no widely accepted name of the Sydney language. The terms Iyora and Dharug have been used, the former from the early recorded word Bora for 'person' at Sydney, and the latter the name of an inland dialect or language closely related to that of the Eora. I follow 'froy (1994b) in using the label "the Sydney language." 5·
Lubra is probably from Tasmania and miamia from Western Australia (Barry Blake, pers. comm. 23.3.99).
491
492
Harold Koch
interact to some extent with Europeans who did not exclusively use AP in their communication with them. In the Roper River area of the Northern Territory, the pidgin developed into a creole by the early twentieth century. This creole is now widely spoken, with some regional variation, in northern Australia and is referred to as Kriol in the literature (Harris 1986, 1991; Munro 2000; Sandefur 1986). In most other parts of Australia, AP gradually gave way to a kind of"Aboriginal English" (AE), as Aboriginal speakers progressively replaced AP features of their language by the corresponding features of the colloquial (if not always standard) English they heard from their non-Aboriginal neighbours and colleagues. 6 Only in remote rural areas have fairly AP-like varieties continued to be spoken in the latter part of the twentieth century, for instance Western Australia (Kaldor & Malcolm 1982; Malcolm & Kaldor 1991) and Central Australia (Koch 1985, 2000a)? 1.3
Sources for the study of the substratum ofNSWP
There are certain limitations to the study of the influence of ALs on NSWP. In the first place, there is little documentation of early NSWP until the 1820s. Secondly, all the sources are written by non-Aboriginal (i.e., European) people, who may not themselves have been competent speakers of NSWP, and even if they were, may not have used NSWP in exactly the same way as the Aboriginal speakers they are reporting. Samples ofNSWP have almost certainly been anglicised to some degree. Furthermore, most of the samples are written from later memories of conversations rather than representing transcriptions of utterances.8 There are also considerable limitations with respect to the relevant ALs. The ALs that contributed the earliest input to the pidgin are poorly documented from the point of view of grammar. For the Sydney language, the notebooks of Dawes give basic information, primarily on verbs and pronouns (see Troy 1992; Steele 2005; Dawes 2009). For vocabulary, on the other hand, there is a considerable amount of information available (Troy 1993, 1994b). There are nineteenth-
6. It should be noted that the term "Aboriginal English" has also been used to refer to other kinds of English besides the post-pidgin varieties that I have just mentioned. Some linguists have used the term to describe varieties of second-language English that differ from Standard English (SE) in the direction of the primary language of its speakers. See Elwell (1979) for an AE variety spoken at Milingi.mbi on the north coast of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, and Harkins (1994) for a variety spoken in the town of Alice Springs, in the southern part of the Northern Territory. Others, in particular Eades (e.g., 1996) have described as AE a variety of English that differs very little from SE in formal structure but which is used in distinctive ways that reflect traditional Aboriginal styles of interaction. Some studies of AE (e.g., Eagleson 1982) have highlighted non-standard features of colloquial Australian English that are used by Aboriginal people as well as by other sodal groups of native English speakers. Some descriptions of AE have included samples of several of the above-mentioned types of language, including also Kriol (e.g., Kaldor & Malcolm 1982; Kaldor & Malcolm 1991). Some studies have focused on the distinctive vocabulary that reflects Aboriginal traditional or contemporary cuhure in use of the English of any type used by Australian indigenous people. Arthur (1996) is an example of this approach. See Malcolm and Grote (2007) for a recent overview of Aboriginal English. 7.
For the spread of AP across Australia, see papers and maps in Wurm et al. (1996, Vo11).
8. For some of these problems, see Simpson (1996: 182ti).
Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin
century traditional-style and hard-to-use grammars written by missionaries for the Awabakal language of the Newcastle region (Threlkeld 1834)9 and the Wiradjuri language of inland N SW (Gunther 1892; Hale 1846). These early grammars tend to give primarily morphological paradigms supplemented by a list of illustrative sentences. A much better idea of the syntax can be gained from modern grammars of a couple of inland languages. These languages, though not themselves involved in contact with NSWP so early on, are nonetheless closely related to some of the first inland languages that did probably influence NSWP. Thus, the thoroughly described Ngiyampaa (Donaldson 1980) can illuminate the grammar ofWiradjuri, which was first encountered at Bathurst from 1813, and Yuwaalaraay (Williams 1980)10 can serve in a similar relation to Gamilaraay, which was contacted when the Liverpool Plains were settled. Similarly, the (sketchy) modern grammar of Kattang (Holmer 1966)11 provides a control on the closely related Awabakal of Threlkeld (1834). Eades' (1976) grammar gives helpful information on the Dharawal and Dhurga languages of the NSW coast south of Sydney.12 All the ALs that were first encountered by the British settlers, including those of the whole east and south coasts and the adjacent inland districts (but excluding many from northern Australia), are genetically related in the Pama-Nyungan language family (in the view of most linguists) and share many typological similarities. Thus, to some extent, we can make inferences regarding the grammar of the languages in early contact with English by extrapolating from the grammar of well-described languages of a similar type from elsewhere on the continent and by applying the findings of general studies such as those by Dixon (1980), Yallop (1982), and Blake (1987). 13 (References to "ALs" in the next two sections will be restricted to languages of the south and east coasts and their hinterlands.)
9· Awabakal (or Awabagal) was actually the name of a local group of Aboriginal people living around Lake Macquarie, whose indigenous name was Awaba. The language has been called the Hunter River and Lake Macquarie language in Lissarrague (2006), which gives a consolidated account of the language. 10.
Ash et a1 (2003) is a comprehensive dictionary of this language and Gamilaraay.
11.
Amanda Lissarrague has prepared a comprehensive account of this language (Lissarrague 2010).
Jutta Besold's dissertation, in preparation at the Australian National University, includes a comprehensive description of these two languages.
12.
13. See also Koch (2007) for a summary of the typology of Australian languages.
493
494
Harold Koch
2.
Transitive marking in Australian Pidgin
2.1
Transitive marking 14 as a PC feature
One of the most characteristic features of NSWP, as well as other Southwest Pacific PCs, is the use of the "transitivity marker" -im. 15 Baker, reviewing the attestations of this suffix, and discounting the supposed parallels in the Americas (Holm 1989: 510) and in Chinese Pidgin English, concludes that "all the evidence suggests that the transitive suffix was a NSW innovation which reached MPE [Melanesian Pidgin English] via QLD [Queensland Pidgin]" (Baker 1993: 42; cf. Baker & Miihlhausler 1996: 556ff.). The -im transitive suffix is first attested in 1826 in the Dawson (1830) corpus from Port Stephens, NSW (Baker & Miihlhausler 1996: 556; Troy 1994a: 239). An alternative transitive marker -it is also found in early NSWP. This form predates -im, and is found already in the jargon/pidgin of the early Sydney colony (in fact -im appears not to occur at all in the few samples available from Sydney). Troy (1994a: 204, cf. 540, 542, 543) gives the following examples, all dating from the 1820s and attributed to the Aboriginal leader Bungaree. In each of these examples, it is clear that it is not an object pronoun, since an overt object noun phrase is present (1)
Top 'top, bail me do it that yet, 'top 'nuddagubbana come. 'Wait, I won't do it [imitate the present governor] yet; wait until the next governor arrives:
(2) Bel boodgeree kiU it pickaninny. 'It is not good to kill babies: (3)
2.2
Oh yes! my gin eatit too much white bread! 'Oh yes, my wife ate a lot of white bread!' The development of transitive markers
In accounting for this AP feature, the following questions should ideally be answered: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
What is the ultimate source of the transitivity markers - im and -it? How did they come to be verbal suffixes? How did they come to be used in the construction VERB-TM NP? How did -im come to prevail over -it? How did the TM suffix become virtually obligatory on transitive verbs? How were each of these developments influenced by the structure of ALs?
14. The terms "transitive marking" and "transitivity marker;" which have become common in Pacific PC studies, are not very apt, since the suffixes -im and -it are treated as part of the verb stem; at best, they merely reinforce the inherent transitivity of the verballexeme. 15. Meyerhoff (1996) studies its usage as a transitivity marker in five PC varieties.
Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin
In answering these questions, we will look at phonotactic, morphological, syntactic, and (in Section 2.5) deeper grammatical features of the ALs and consider how speakers of these languages would be expected to react to the English data they were being exposed to. The ultimate English sources of the transitivity markers - i m and -it are the unstressed object pronouns him and it (the h of him is often dropped in colloquial speech and is absent in some varieties of British and Australian English). The colloquial English object form em also represents the reduced third-person plural object pronoun them, in which function it continues the Old English pronoun hem. In addition, it is likely that in earlier English the masculine pronouns he/ him/his were also used more widely than today to refer to non-personal referents (see Note 24). How did em and it come to be verbal suffixes in NSWP? Since in colloquial English these forms are unstressed and enclitic to the verb, new language learners presumably reanalysed them as a part of the accompanying verballexemes. They would have learned (at least) three potential variants for each English verballexeme - VERB, VERBim, VERBit - according to the syntactic contexts in which they heard the lexeme - VERB (NP), VERB em, VERB it respectively. This reanalysis of the object enclitics as part of the verb would have been facilitated by certain expectations based on the phonotactics of their first-language ALs. First, incorporation of em and it into the verb allows the verb to be disyllabic, in conformity with the prevailing pattern of ALs, where inflected verbs contain at least two syllables. Second, treating em and it as part of the verb makes the finals of English verbs such as drink, find, send and hunt pronounceable, since ALs generally disallow consonant clusters word-finally but permit them word-internally. Third, in some ALs certain consonants do not occur word-finally. ln the Sydney language, these include, among the stops (there are no fricatives) the labials plb and possibly the palatal stop ty/dy (on the other hand, k and t do occur word-finally). Hence English verbs whose final consonants would be adapted as labial stops- such as keep, stop, gi1'e, leave- or palatal stops- such as catch- would conform to AL phonotactics better in the (longer) variant forms which incorporated em or it. The reanalysis of em or it as part of the verb may also have been facilitated by a morphological consideration. lf we can assume that the early colonists sometimes used features of foreigner talk in the English addressed to the Aborigines, the inflectional suffixes may often have been omitted. Thus, learners would have been exposed to forms such as like, like em, like it, but less frequently to likes ('em/it) or liked (em/it), and would thus have had less evidence from verb inflections for seeing the object clitic as a separate form. There remains a question as to why learners did not rather analyse em and it properly (from the point of view of English) as enclitic objects, contrasting with the other object pronouns me, you, her and us. This problem especially arises for speakers of coastal NSW languages, whose grammar (unlike those of many other Australian languages) included enclitic object pronouns. Several factors, however, serve to weaken the parallel that learners might be expected to find between their language and English. First, the object enclitics did not directly tallow the verb but were separated from it by subject enclitics (( 4)-(7)), unless the subject was third-person singular, which had zero expression (8). 16
16. The Sydney language data have been extracted from the language notes compiled by Dawes in 1790-1792, for which see 'froy (1992). The examples dted here are taken from a seminar presentation byJ. 'froy (13.4.89), but the
495
496
Harold Koch
(4)
bayi-ba=wi=nga
SYDNEY LANGUAGE
beat-FUT=3PLS=lSGO 'they will beat me' (5)
manyimunga-dya=mi=nga
SYDNEY LANGUAGE
startle-PAST=2SGS=1SGO 'you made me start' (6)
na-dya=ngala=mi
SYDNEY LANGUAGE
see-PAST= 1DUS=2SGO 'we two saw you' (7)
nguya-ba=wi=nyt~
SYDNEY LANGUAGE
give-PUT= 1SGS=2PLO "I will give" [sic, Dawes] 'I will give you (Plural)' (8)
kanga-ba=0=nya
SYDNEY LANGUAGE
wash-PUT=3SGS=2PLO '(s)he will wash you'
Second, the enclitics were not necessarily attached to the verb. Although Dawes typically presents these enclitics as part of verbal paradigms, it is likely that the Sydney language had the option of attaching them instead to the first word in the sentence, as in the language's southern neighbour Dharawal, which has the same system of subject and object marking. A Dharawal example of this marking is (9). (9) yuwin-dyu=dhan yeriwa-ng warrangan-dya
man-ERG= 1SGO throw-PUT boomerang-INST 'a man is going to throw a boomerang at me.' 17
DHARAWAL
0. Besold,pers. comm. 16.4.2008)
The most important consideration, for our purposes, is the fact that the "marker" of a definite third-person singular object (as well as subject) in the Sydney language was in fact zero (see (10)-(12)). This zero marker of third-person singular objects is also a feature ofDharawal (Eades 1976: 52), illustrated in (13), which is contrasted with (14) with a non-third-singular object. (10)
bayi-dya=mi=0
SYDNEY LANGUAGE
beat-PAST=2SGS=3SGO 'you beat her' (11) kuulbanga-ba=w=0 hold-FUT=1SGS=3SGO 'I will hold it [the petticoat] up'
SYDNEY LANGUAGE
(12) Mrs. Brown kanga-ba=0=0. Mrs. Brown wash-PUT=3sGs=3sGo 'Mrs. Brown will wash them Uacket and petticoat]:
SYDNEY LANGUAGE
interpretations are my own; translations marked in double quotation marks are as provided by Dawes; = denotes a clitic boundary and- a morpheme boundary; object clitics are in boldface. 17. Literally, 'hit-by-throwing me with a boomerang'.
Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin
(13) Bulma=nga=0=mara. strlke.FUf= 1SgS=3SgO=maybe 'I may strike him.'
DHARAWAL (Eades 1976: 65)
( 14) Bangku-luwala bulmaya=nga=dhancmg. squirrel-PLURAL strike.PAST=1SGS=3PLO 'I struck several squirrels.'
DHARAWAL (Eades 1976:64)
This marking of subjects and objects by enclitics on the verb in the Sydney language and its southern neighbours contrasts with the grammar of the Newcastle language, Awabakal, spoken to the north of Sydney, where third-person singular objects had an overt marker, which was cliticised to the first word in a sentence (not necessarily a verb), and preceded a subject clitic if there was one, as shown in the variant sentences in (15). (15)
Ngatoa b6n tura. Thra b6n bang. /Ngathuwa=bun tura./ /Thra=bun=bang./ I=him speared/
AWABAKAL
speared=him=l
"It ls I who speared him."
(Threlkeld 1834: 108)
We can therefore assume that Aboriginal learners reanalysed English sentences of the type under discussion in the manner shown in Table 1. (Here V stands for Verb as a syntactic function, and VERB for the variable phonological content of actual verbs. The forms of English and NSWP are deliberately placed on adjacent lines to highlight their phonological identity.) The English utterances are interpreted as lacking an overt object, in accordance with the grammatical pattern of the substrate language, where an identified object is assumed but is not overtly expressed. A consequence of this analysis of English utterances is that the overt object form (it or ~m) is included in the representation of the verb- a solution which is also favoured for phonotactic reasons, as argued above. Reanalysis is a well-known kind of change in historical linguistics. In contact situations which create PC languages the motivation for the changed analysis oflinguistic strings comes from the grammar of the substrate language. Viewed as a change to English (the superstrate language), the change we have just discussed involved the reassignment of the underlying structure of VERB OBJECT strings from V NP to just V. This changed analysis became manifest (or was "actualised") only when novel (un-English-lik.e) utterances were produced by the process of actualisation or extension, as will be shown in the next section. The change to VERB= it strings involved the loss of a boundary (between the verb and the enclitic pronoun object) and the absorption of an object into the stem of the verb from the point of view of English but not from the point of view of the AL learners of English. In
Table 1. Reanalysis of verb plus pronoun
English analysis English fonn NSWPform NSWP analysis
v
OBJECT
VERB VERBit
0
v
OBJECT
=it
497
498
Harold Koch
such reanalyses, the absorbed element may take on a new function- as also occurred with -it!'em, as described in Section 2.5. 18 2.3
The construction VERB-TM NP
How then do we account for the genesis of the un-English construction VERBit NP, where an overt object noun phrase is used with an NSWP verb incorporating -it? The answer is easy: Once VERBit was taken to be a verb in its own right (just a variant form of VERB), this verb could just as readily be used with as without an overt object, applying the normal V NP pattern of AL grammar. Use of the longer variant with an accompanying noun phrase object automatically resulted in the novel construction VERBit NP, and its variant form VERBim NP, as well as the English-like VERB NP. These constructions can be demonstrated from the large Dawson (1830) corpus from Port Stephens, NSW. The VERBit NP construction is exemplified in (16) and (17), the VERBim NP construction by (18), and the VERB NP construction by (19) to (21). The verbs are in bold and the object NP is underlined. ( 16) pose dat come dat take it black pellow bael dat likit ka11garoo.
'if he [the evil spirit] had come he would have taken Aborigines; he doesn't like kangaroos: (Dawson 1830: 162) ( 17) (18) ( 19) (20) (21)
dat get it plenty bark: murry tousand bark, massa. 'we'll [sic] get a lot ofbark, very much bark, boss.' Massa like him blackpellow. massa like him blackpellow. 'The boss likes [us] Aborigines, the boss likes [us] Aborigines:
(Dawson 1830:70) (Dawson 1830: 134)
Massa like black pellow: black pellow like massa: yeas, yeas. 'The boss likes Aborigines and the Aborigines like the boss, yes:
(Dawson 1830: 86)
Plenty black pellow, massa: get plenty bark. 'There are many Aboriginal people; we will get much bark.'
(Dawson 1830:60)
I been tee Cope, and Micky been tee it too. 'I saw Cope, and Micky saw him too:
(Dawson 1830: 297)
Our explanation of the genesis of a VERBit!im NP construction presupposes the existence of another un- English construction, one in which no overt object - neither a pronoun nor a full noun phrase- occurs after a transitive verb, although a definite object is understood. 19 (This differs from the superficially similar construction in English, which typically occurs with only a few verbs and only when the object is indefinite or generic, such as he drinks, I've already eaten, you 18. In Koch (1995), I give many examples of morphological reanalyses including absorption of an erstwhile formative, which are motivated by the possibility of viewing the word as containing a zero affix.
19. This null object construction is found in ALs, but it is hard to demonstrate from texts in languages from eastern NSW, since so few natural texts exist. However, nice examples can be found in Text 5.4 (page 128) of Williams' (1980) grammar ofYuwaalaraay, where a kangaroo features as object in a series of clauses, with no overt reference after the first one.
Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin 499
see.) This VERB 0 construction is illustrated in (22) to (25)- two of which come from Bennett's data from inland NSW. The slot for the expected object is marked by a blank, and the object is underlined in the translation. The absent object is typically definite, but is not restricted to thirdperson singular. (22) (23) (24) (25)
Bush dingo been paUer _when black pellow sleep. 'Wild dingoes ate .li while we Aborigines were sleeping: We tee_. massa. 'We'll see ygy. boss:
(Dawson 1830: 162) (Dawson 1830:60)
me now see what you want; you want patta _. 'Now I see what you want; you want to eat me:
(Bennett 1834: 243)
Old woman galang-galang ,10 got_. no make a noise. 'Female tree hoppers don't have them [drums], so dont make noise:
(Bennett 1834:237)
The existence of this VERB 0 construction permits us to analyse examples which contain an overt him or it in the same way, as VERBit 0 and VERBim 0. The fact that the -it/-im component does not really refer to the object, as in the look-alike English constructions, can be clearly seen from sentences where the pronoun is not the appropriate one from the point of view of English. Thus -it occurs where the object is human in (26) to (28), plural human in (29), and even second person in (30). Similarly, -im occurs where the object is inanimate in (31) and (32), plural in (33), indefinite (and female) in (34), and first-person plural in (35). (26) (27) (28) (29)
Mary no like it_. so it letwe it_. 'Mary doesn't llke him. so she left him: I been tee Cope, and Micky been tee it_ too. 'I saw Cope, and Micky saw him too:
Pose dat go In bush; I look out_; I find it_; I bring it_ back. 'Ifhe goes into the bush, I'll search for him, find him, and bring him back.'
(32) (33) ( 34) (35)
(Dawson 1830: 297) (Dawson 1830: 75)
0 lort! 0 lort, massa! murry corbo11 tupid cobrer, what for no tee it_? 'Oh Lord! Oh Lord, boss, you're such a dumb head, why can't you see them?' (Dawson 1830: 127)
(30) pose run, I choot it_ massa Goodwin. 'If you run, I'll shoot you Mr. Goodwin.' (31)
(Dawson 1830:65)
I top pear, I tee him_; I catch him_, massa. 'I'll stop the spear; I'll see it and catch .lt boss:
Black pellow tend him_ away toon, massa. 'We Aborigines will soon send .li [storm] away, boss: Bael you been see bush black, massa; what for you like him _? 'You havent seen the wild Aborigines, boss, so why do you like them?' Look out black gin good while ago; bael get him _yet. 'I've been looking for a wife for a good while, but haven't got one yet' You gib him_ corn meal, moak, tomahawk. Murry tousand tings, you know. 'You have given us cornmeal, tobacco, tomahawks- very many things?
(Dawson 1830: 30 l) (Dawson 1830:65) (Dawson 1830:220) (Dawson 1830: 173ff.) (Dawson 1830: 153) (Dawson 1830:62)
500
Harold Koch
Table 2. Transitive constructions in English and NSWP English rule
English form
NSWP form (<English)
NSWP form (new)
NSWPrule
VNP VNP
VERB pronoun VBRBNP
VERBit/im0 VERBNP
VBRB0 VERBit/im NP
V0 VNP
Table 3. Frequency of -1m and -It In Dawson (1830) corpus VERBitNP VERBimNP Total VERBit/im NP
23 11
34
VERBit0 VERBim0 VERBit/im0
43
27 70
Total VERBit Total VERBim Total VERBit/im (NP)
66
38
104
Another reason for not treating -im as marking an object 'him' is that in the Dawson corpus 'he/ him' is rendered not by he/him but by dat (from English that) - see (28) above and (36). In fact, dat in the Dawson corpus seems to be able to render any English pronoun; see ( 17) where it must be translated as 'we. (36)
Bael black pellow hurt dat. 'The Aboriginal did not hurt him.'
(Dawson 1830:85)
The NSWP examples are most plausibly analysed in terms of transitive verbs of variable form, VERBIVERBit/VERBim, followed optionally by a Noun Phrase -which can be summarised by the formula V (NP). The object may be omitted if its referent is recoverable from the context. This NSWP syntactic pattern contrasts with the English pattern V NP, where the object is obligatory, but may consist of a (possibly cliticised) pronoun. The NSWP pattern (V 0) that omits the object NP represents a transfer from the grammar of ALs. The redundant (to English ears) pattern VERBit!im NP results from the application of the full option of the V (N P) pattern using the longer variant of the verb. The truncated (to English ears) pattern VERB 0 results from the application of the short option of the V (N P) pattern using the shorter variant of the verb. Both of the un-English results follow from the reanalysis of it and 'em as part of the verb stem, with the effect of producing up to three variants of each transitive verb adopted from English. These patterns are summarised in Table 2. 2.4
Competition between variants
Let us now explore the relation between these equivalent variants in -it and -im. In the (fairly meagre) Sydney data, there are no examples of -im; the earliest usages of -im are from Dawson's data (Troy 1994a: 239). In the large Port Stephens corpus of Dawson (1830), -it is approximately twice as frequent of as -im, averaging the figures from both VERB-it!im NP and VERB-it!im 0 constructions. This can be seen from the raw figures on Table 3. In other varieties of AP that developed from the original NSWP, the proportions differ. In the Victorian data, the transitive suffix is more often -im than -it (Troy 1994a:402). In inland Queensland, the -it variants are practically absent (Dutton 1983: 107).
Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin
Table 4. Relative frequency (in percentages) of- im, -it and 0 in transitive constructions
Area Date
Dawson PtStephens 1820s
Graham Bathurst 1830s
No. of tokens % VERBitNP % VBRBit0 % VERBimNP % VBRBim0 % VERBNP %VERB0 Total VERBit Total VBRBim Total VERBit/im
169 13 25.5 6.5 16 32 7 38.5 225 61
19 21 10.5 10.5 10.5 47
0 31.5 21 525
Govett ENSW 1830s 9 11
Ran ken LachlanR 1830-1840s 18 5.5
0
0
44
55.5
11
22
33 0
0
11
55 66
17 5.5 77.5 83
Petrie Brisbane 1840s
Spencer Borroloola 1902
21
18
0 0
0 0
28 11 61
55.5 33.5 5.5 5.5
0 0
0
39 39
89 89
It might be possible to make some inferences about linguistic developments taking place within AP by comparing the relative frequency of the transitive markers- relative both to each other and to their absence- in a number of corpora that correlate with different regions and/or temporal phases of AP expansion. Table 4 presents a quantitative analysis of several such corpora. The earliest is from Dawson (1830), which was based on his own experiences of interaction with Aborigines in the Port Stephens area in the years 1826-1827 and published shortly thereafter. The latest corpus is from Spencer (1928: 590-592) and is from the record of a trial witnessed by Spencer in 1902 at Borroloola, Northern Territory. This data set is as close as we get to a transcript of Aboriginal speech and represents a sample of the mature pidgin that had spread inland from Queensland. The Petrie (1983) corpus is from Tom Petrie's reminiscences oflife in colonial Brisbane beginning from 1837, as related to his daughter for publication in 1904. The other data sets are based on the excerpts given in Troy (1994a) from Govett et al. (1977), Graham (1863), and Ranken (189 5). The Govett et al NSWP samples were written in 1836-1837 and taken largely from Argyle County southwest of Sydney (Troy 1994a: 553ff.). The data from Graham, a semibiographical work. are based on James Graham's experiences in the Bathurst district in the 1830s (Troy 1994a: 59 3ff. ). The data from Ranken are based on reminiscences, related to the author in the late 1870s, of Reginald Crawtord's life in the Lachlan River district ofNSW during the 1830s and 1840s (Troy 1994a:298ff., 618ff.). The first row of figures gives the number of examples in each corpus. All the other figures are percentages. From Table 4 one can see both the relative proportion of -im and -it and the relative use of either transitive suffix compared to the unsuffixed verb. We can observe a decline in the use of -it as the pidgin spread west and north (although -it long remained for certain verbs such as give). The percentage of (any kind of) transitive marking ranges from 39% in Brisbane (where the low figure may result somehow from the length of time between the utterances and their recording) to the nearly categorical 89% at Borroloola. This tends to support the view that its occurrence became more frequent, nearly obligatory, over time. What accounts for this prevalence of -im over -it? The answer is probably to be sought in the phonotactics of the various early substrate languages. The languages of coastal NSW (from
501
502
Harold Koch
Port Stephens to south of Sydney) are unlike most of the other languages of N SW and many of the languages of southern Queensland in permitting word-final stop consonants (except labials). Languages inland and north of this coastal strip permitted final nasals but not stops. Some early loanwords from English underwent substitution of final stops by the corresponding nasal. 20 Hence it is understandable that the -im variant of transitive verbs would have been preferable to the -it variant on the grounds of pronounceability. (An alternative strategy of adapting final it to in would have resulted in homophony with the progressive form, from English -ing in its colloquial pronunciation -in.) This applies despite the fact that in most NSW languages, coastal and inland, except for the northeastern corner, the labial nasal m did not occur finally (Dixon 1980:241, 244). The absence of final min their language did not prevent NSW Aborigines from learning English words such as rum and dump (a colonial coin), pronounced without the p (Troy 1990:119, 122, 125). Furthermore, the tact that final stops do occur in other NSWP words- such as biscuit, bla.nket - does not require us to doubt that variants ending in nasals would have been preferred by speakers whose first languages tolerated final nasals but not stops.
2.5
Why categorical transitivity marking?
How did the TM suffix become virtually obligatory on transitive verbs? In the later PCs of the Southwest Pacific, -im came to be a regular part of most transitive verb stems and even developed the ability to derive transitive verb stems from intransitive ones.21 I suggest another grammatical feature of Australian languages was a motivating factor. A characteristic feature of ALs (of the Pama-Nyungan family) is the strict categorisation of verbs into those that are transitive versus those that are intransitive. For the ALs that had input into NSWP, the following claim holds: "Every verb in an Australian language is either strictly transitive ... or strictly intransitive" (Dixon 1980: 378). This categorisation is manifested morphologically, not in the verb itself, but in the accompanying nominal arguments. Subjects of transitive verbs are marked differently from subjects of intransitive verbs, regardless of whether an overt object is present in the clause. The case that marks noun phrases functioning as subjects in transitive clauses is called the ergative case. Australian languages are famous among typologists for this ergativity (Dixon 1994). Perhaps the most striking feature ofAustralian Aboriginal languages Is the widespread use of ergative case marking for the subject of a transitive verb ... in Australia there are, or were, nearly 200 languages with this feature. including practically all the Pama-Nyungan ones. (Blake 1987: 9)
For example, naked and blanket are rendered as nhi:gin and bulaynggin respectively in Ngiyampaa (Donaldson 1980:63; 1985: 140ff); pig is bi:ng in (northern) Kattang (Hohner 1966: 13); blanket and musket are represented as bulanggi:n and margin respectively in Yuwaalaraay {Williams 1980: 149ff); pussycat, bullock and milk appear as budhigan, bulang and milang respectively in Yugarnbeh (Sharpe 1998:58, 60, 134). 20.
For the role of -im in Kriol, see Sandefur (1979: 115-119); for Tok Pisin, Mihalic (1971:24-27) and Verhaar (1995: 22-24);for Bislama, Crowley (1990:286--307).
21.
Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin
Speakers of these languages thus needed to be constantly aware of the inherent transitivity of each verb in order to get the nominal case-marking correct I suggest that ergative case-marking ofNPs is a surface manifestation of a deep lexica-grammatical principle of language organisation, namely the rigid distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs (and hence clause types). And it is this grammatical principle, ingrained in the consciousness of AL speakers, that was influential in promoting, in the developing pidgin, the polarisation in form between transitive verbs (VERBim) and intransitive verbs (VERB). The existence of a recognisable termination -im (and perhaps its minor variant -it) was exploited by native speakers of "ergative" languages to keep separate the two categories of verbs which their internalised grammars led them to expect in the pidgin they were learning, and whose distinctiveness could not otherwise be signalled. In our hypothesised scenario, we can summarise as follows the influence that Australian languages exerted on the development of transitivity marking in N SWP (and perhaps indirectly through MPE on the other PCs of the Southwest Pacific as well). The main grammatical influences of ALs came from (1) zero anaphora, which allowed for the interpretation of English enclitic object pronouns ~m and it as being irrelevant to the signalling of objects; and (2) the strict transitivity categorisation of verbs (which is manifested in ALs as morphological ergativity), which led to the preferred use of these forms as overt markers oftransitivity.22 Phonotactic considerations also played a role, in favouring disyllabic verb stems (i.e., variants that included ~m and it), and in the choice of final nasal m over the stop t. The un-English constructions VERBit/it NP and VERB 0 resulted from the application of the AL syntactic pattern V (NP), where objects are not obligatorily expressed.
3·
Adjective marking in Australian Pidgin
3.1
-fda in Pacific PCs
Some of the most characteristic features of the southwest Pacific PCs involve the various uses of a bound form -fellow/-fela/-pela/-pala. Baker (1996b) identifies five different combinations: (1) with colour adjectives to form the ethnic labellexemes blackfollow'Aborigine' and whitefellow 'European'; (2) with demonstratives that and this to form demonstratives (dispela, datpela, etc.), which may also function as third-person singular pronouns; (3) "postposed to adjectives, it has functioned as a kind of adjectival identifier (where there is an immediately following noun) and also, clause finally, as an adverbial formant" (Baker 1996b: 553 ); (4) with cardinal numerals - onepela, two-pela, etc.; (5) as a pluraliserwith personal pronouns- yupela, mipela, etc. Each of these categories (although not all individual forms) is attested first in NSWP, so it is reasonable to look for influence from traditional ALs, as Baker has noted:
Crowley proposes a similar explanation for the increasing frequency of transitivity marking in Bislama: "A preference to formally distinguish transitive and intransitive verbs evolved as a result of a strict dichotomy between transitive and intransitive in the various substrata ... ln Paamese, for example, verbs are rigidly categorized as being either transitive or intransitive· (Crowley 1990: 294). 22.
S03
504
Harold Koch
Fellow has been involved in more innovations than any other English lexeme in Pacific Pidgin English. A detailed examination of the indigenous languages, for the most part Aboriginal and Melanesian, which were in contact with Pidgin English. is needed to establish the extent to which these innovations may have been influenced by structural features of indigenous languages. (Baker 1996b: 535)
I shall concentrate on feature (3). Adjectives in Pacific PCs have three functions: attributive to a noun, predicative, and adverbial. We are concerned here with the first and to some extent the second usage.ZJ Kriol has more or less indiscriminate use of variants ADJ-bala, ADJ-wan, and AD! in attributive and predicative functions. In Tok Pisin most monosyllabic adjectives take -pela in the attributive function. Bislama appears to have introduced lexical conditioning into the choice of -fala vs. -wan and a semantic distinction into the presence vs. absence of jala on an adjective in attributive or predicative function. For -fellow in early South Australian Pidgin English, see Mtihlhliusler (1996).
3.2
ADJpela in Australian Pidgin
It is obvious that fela of the AD! fellow construction must have its origin in English noun phrases consisting of AD] plus the noun fellow. The English two-word combinations must first have been analysed as a single word AD!pela. (Since Aboriginal languages lack fricatives, f was normally copied asp.) This would have been facilitated by the fact that fellow was usually unstressed- even though it functions in English as head of the NP- and was therefore liable to be interpreted by language learners as part of the adjective word. The combination ADJpela would therefore have been learned as a single lexeme. The phonological factors favouring this analysis were supplemented by semantic factors: Fellow in fact contributes very little to the meaning of the NP. In predicative constructions, there is very little difference semantically between a predicate adjective and the corresponding noun phrase containing a generic noun such as fellow (compare (37) and (38)). (37)
1hat man is good.
(38)
1hat man is a good fellow.
Fellow is normally used in English to refer to a noun that is recoverable from the discourse; its presence in an NP is motivated by the rules of English syntax, which require a noun or a substitute such as one in the head slot of the NP. Fellow contributes a bit more semantic content than one, since it implies that the referent is human and male. In the colonial English that served as input to N SWP, however, fellow was used for a wider range of referents, 24 which would have made more contexts available for reanalysis in NSWP.
23. For the role of -pela, etc., in Kriol, see Sandefur (1979: 100-103); for Tok Pisin, Mihalic (1971: 17-19) and Verhaar (1995: 11-18); for Bislama, Crowley (1990: 275-286).
24. For example, John Gale's (1985/1903) account of an excursion to the mountains uses follow (and the pronoun he/him/his) to refer to animate creatures: a dingo (wild dog), individual trout that he caught, and some gang-gang cockatoos.
Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin
The result of these phonological and semantic considerations is that language learners probably acquired ADJpela as a single lexeme- perhaps along with variants AD/one and AD/- with an adjectival meaning. We still need to explain how the un-English construction AD/pela N was produced. To answer this question we shall look at the properties of"adjectives" in ALs. 3·3
Adjectives in Australian languages and the genesis of the AD/pela N construction
In the ALs of southeastern Australia, it can be doubted that adjectives form a word class separate from nouns. There is no inflection for degree of comparison, as in English. Adjectives as well as nouns may be inflected for case, which is a syntactic characteristic of the whole NP. Case in ALs is usually marked by a suffix either on the last member of the NP or on every member of the NP (Blake 1987: Ch. 5); in neither system does case-marking serve to distinguish adjectives from nouns. Words that are the equivalent of English adjectives can be treated as modifying "nominals." As with English expressions like stone fence, the fact that one nominal functions as a modifier of the other does not necessarily make it a member of a separate word class. Some grammars ofNSW languages (Donaldson 1980; Eades 1976) accordingly treat "adjectives" as modifying nouns. A more important grammatical fact about AL "adjectives" (i.e., nominals that typically modify other nominals) is that they can occur as the sole member of an NP -unlike in English, where a dummy form such as one or fellow is required as the head. This is illustrated in the Ngiyampaa sentences (39) and (40), where the notional adjectives (in boldface) are the sole member of their noun phrase. (39)
Ngathu wirrii-ka yana-nhi.
NGIYAMPAA
LNoM open-Loc go-PAST 'I travelled over/across open (country)? (40)
Kaliny-tyalapa.anh-thi nglyanu-na
(Donaldson 1980: 90, example 4-7)
pathtyi.
water-PRIV-CIRC We.PL-l!XC.NOM come.PAST 'We come from waterless (country):
NGIYAMPAA (Donaldson 1980: 111, example 4-74)
The privative suffix derives a nominallexeme characterised by the absence of the entity denoted by the base. Sentence (40) illustrates that an entity may be sufficiently identified by just the notional adjective: "Identification by a characteristic alone is common" (Donaldson 1980: 111). This ability of notional adjectives to occur with or without an accompanying noun provides the key to the origin of the NSWP AD/pela N construction. Once a form AD/pela. was learned and interpreted as a nominallexeme, the rules of AL syntax were applied, in which a nominal could occur either alone in an NP or in an [N N] construction, where one N(ominal) modified the other. The only difference is that the English order of Modifier Modified was followed, rather than the reverse, which is prevalent in most ALs. The possibility of zero NP heads, or headless NPs, first allowed the English NP head fellow to be interpreted as part of the adjective in NSWP, then when this was combined with an overt head, the result was the creation of the un-English-like sequence AD/pela N. Note that our explanation of the AD/pela N construction parallels that of the VERBim/it NP construction: Both result from reanalysing an English form, one with low phonological prominence and predictable semantic content, and occurring in a slot where ALs would not require any form at all, as part of the preceding word, then extending
sos
5o6
Harold Koch
the use of the resulting complex form to contexts with an overt accompanying form, in imitation of the syntactic patterns of the ALs. There remains the question of how the ADJpela forms came to predominate over the plain AD! and AD/one variants. Here phonotactic considerations may have played a role. The longer forms allow NSWP to avoid monosyllabic words and thus to conform better to the pattern of ALs, where monosyllabic nominals are rare.25 1his proposal is supported by the claim that in later varieties of Melanesian pidgins, after the middle of the nineteenth century, -fela./pela is regular only for otherwise monosyllabic adjectives (Baker 1996b: 534). 3·4
Data demonstrating the ADJpela NOUN and related constructions
It is probably impossible to prove the developmental scenario presented here from the data available. The earliest citations of AD!pela - not preceding a noun - are apparently those given as (41) and (42) (Baker 1996b: 534). (41)
You good fellow
(42) you very stupid fellow
(1824 Tasmania, speaker from NSW) (1825, NSW)
The extensive early Dawson corpus, which contains plenty of examples of ADJpela, fails to show a single unambiguous example of ADJpela preceding a noun. All uses of pellow (as Dawson spells it) are consistent with an English-like ADJ NOUN analysis, with pellow indicating usually a person, twice a spirit being, once a lizard- much like English fellow. To what extent this lack ofADJpela N examples is a reflection ofNSWP grammar vs. an artefact of the recording of NSWP by a well-educated Englishman cannot be determined. The earliest dtation for the full construction of ADJpela N is not until around 1842, from southeastern Queensland (Baker 1996b: 534, after Dutton 1983). (43)
Where big fellow water sitdown? 'Where ls the large body of water located?'
It is hard to believe that the ADJpela N construction was not in existence tor some time before this, and in New South Wales as well as Queensland. Early NSWP examples, which could possibly be argued to predate (43), can be cited, including: poor feller black 'poor Aboriginal people', big feller white 'European leader', young fellow guns 'handguns' (Troy 1994a: 588, 589, 588 respectively). A related (demonstrative) construction, that-pela N, must have a similar explanation to AD!pela. N. It appears about the same time; it is first attested about 1842 in Queensland, according to Baker and Mtihlhausler (1996: 590). NSW examples are (44) from Ranken, based on experiences in the Lachlan River district in the 1830s-1840s, and (45) from Meredith (1844), based on her visit to Bathurst in 1839.
25· Baker (1996a.: 252) gives a somewhat similar explanation, expressed in terms of -pela preventing a sequence of two stressed syllables, that of the adjective and the first syllable of the following noun.
Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin
(44)
that Jella wheel
(45)
Cabou {big) 26 rogue that fellow Hougong! 'That Hougong [personal name] was a great rogue.'
(Troy 1994a:618, from Ranken 1895: 124) (Troy 1994a: 602, from Meredith 1844: 97)
Another related construction, AD/one N, is attested by contemporary examples from Victoria: big one Governor 'head governor' from 1839 and another one black fellow 'another Aboriginaf from 1840 (Troy 1994a:647). All these examples suggest that the construction ADJpela. N was created by the 1830s in New South Wales. These constructions have in common the feature that what in English is a whole noun phrase is treated in NSWP as a single word and used as a modifier of a noun. This transformation of an English construction is not restricted to NPs containing Kdummy" heads such as fellow and one. It also applies to certain stage-of-life noun phrases such as old ma.n, old woman and youngfellaw. These (and other) human terms have been borrowed into some ALs as single lexemes; consider the Ngiyampaa terms in (46) (Donaldson 1994:27). (46)
wulman 'old man' (
Such terms can be used, like their AL equivalents, for non-human species. For instance, in Wiradjuri a 'buck possum' is called wilay bijarr, literally 'possum old-man' (McNicol & Hosking 1994:90). Early records attest to the use in NSWP of terms such as old man, old lady and old woman to refer to kangaroos, dingoes, and cicadas. The male kangaroos were called by my natives, old men, "wool-man"; and the females, young ladies, ~ungliddy." (Dawson 1830: 139)
Bennett (1834:232) reports that old lady was used of a mother dingo (wild dog) and gave the example (( 25) above) of old woman used of a female cicada or "tree-hopper." It is apparently from NSWP usages such as these that old man came into colonial Australian English in the sense ofKa fully grown male kangaroo" (Ramson 1988:445; cf. Arthur 1996:51; Moore 1997:931). In NSWP, age-sex terms could be used attributively to modify other nouns. Graham (1863) mentions the expressions gin wombach 'female wombat' and gin-bullock 'heifer' (Troy 1994a: 594, 593),gin being the Sydney language and NSWP word for 'woman'. Examples (47), (48), and (25) above demonstrate that age-sex terms derived from English noun phrases can similarly be used as modifiers of other nouns. (47)
Baal patter old woman gin; patta young woman gin. 'We dorrt eat old women, we eat young women.'
(48)
(Troy 1994a: 645)
I believe I take old man master along o' me when I yan. 'I'll take the old boss with me when I go:
(Troy 1994a:625)
26. Cabou is presumably a misreading of cabon, a Sydney language and NSWP word for 'big'. Similarly the personal name should probably be Hongong.
27. Gin is an Australian term for Aboriginal woman, from the Sydney language term for 'woman:
507
5o8
Harold Koch
This attributive use of old man in NSWP is presumably the source of a similar (but more restricted) usage in Australian English; it is attested in combinations with the creature terms kangaroo, possum, cod, crocodile, goanna, snake and wombat, where it probably derives from the 'mature male' sense (for examples, see Ramson 1988, under old man). The semantically related term youngfella (also in origin a phrase) has a similar application to animals, in NSWP but apparently not in Australian English: the common opossum of this country, (phalangista vulpina ), one a young female, and the other an old male specimen. (the "young feller" and "old feller" of the blacks). (Bennett 1834: 86)
This term is even attested as an attribute of an inanimate noun, in the sense 'small: judging from the use of youngfella guns for handguns (cited above). The NSWP use as prenominal modifiers of nominal expressions denoting age (and sex), including those derived from English AD] NOUN combinations such as old ma.n, supports our hypothesised development of the ADJpela NOUN construction. It thus appears that English adjectives were largely adopted into NSWP in the form of whole noun phrases such as old man, young fellow, big one, but reanalysed as single lexemes. Syntactically these belonged to a word class of "nominal," which could be used, as in traditional ALs, either alone, to refer to an entity - a substantival use - or with a following noun to attribute a property to an entity- an adjectival use. It is this attributive or modifYing usage of nominals derived from English whole noun phrases that was responsible for the origin oftheADJpela. NOUN construction ofNSWP and its successors.
4·
Summary and conclusions
We have studied the influence of the grammar of Australian indigenous languages ofNew South Wales on the original pidgin English that formed around Sydney in the late eighteenth century. We examined two features of NSWP that have persisted in other Southwest Pacific PCs, one verbal and one nominal. The creation of both of these features took place as a result of speakers replicating AL grammatical patterns where predicable semantic elements (third-person objects and the arguments referred to by "adjectives" alone) were formally unexpressed. As a consequence of imposing AL interpretations onto corresponding utterances, English overt grammatical forms - 'em/it and fellow- were reanalysed as part of the adjacent forms - transitive verbs and adjectives respectively- where they took on new (and redundant) functions. When Aboriginal speakers used the resulting augmented verbal and adjectival forms in conjunction with complements- according to natural syntactic patterns V (NP) and (AD]) (N) of ALs- the un-English constructions like hitt'em dog and bigfella man (which are so characteristic of the PCs of the Australia and the Southwest Pacific) were the natural outcome.
Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin 509
List of abbreviations AE
AL AP CIRC
DU ERG EXC FUT INST
MPE NOM
Aboriginal English Australian language Australian Pidgin circumstantial dual ergative exclusive future instrumental Melanesian Pidgin English nominative
NSW NSWP 0
PC PL PRIV
s
New South Wales New South Wales Pidgin object pidgins and creoles plural privative subject
SG
singular
SE TM
Standard English transitivity marker
References Amery, R & Miihlhiiusler, P. 1996. Pidgin English in New South Wales. In Atlas ofLanguages ofIntercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Vol. 2(1), S. A. Wurrn, P. Millilhli.usler & D. T. Tryon (eds), 33-52. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Arthur, J. M. 1996. Aboriginal English: A Cultural Study. Melbourne: OUP. Ash, A., Glacon, J. & llssarrague, A. (eds). 2003. Gamilaraay, Yuwaalaraay, and Yuwaalayaay Dictionary. Alice Springs: lAD Press. Baker, P. 1993. Australian influence on Melanesian Pidgin English. Te Reo 36:3-67. Baker, P. 1996a. Australian and Melanesian Pidgin English and the fellows in between. In Changing Meanings, Changing Functicms: Papers Relating to Grammaticalization in Contact Languages, P. Baker & A. Syea (eds), 243-258. London: University of Westminster Press. Baker, P. 1996b. Productive fellow. In Atlas ofLanguages ofIntercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, VoL 2(1), S. A. Wurrn, P. Millilhli.usler & D. T. 'fryon (eds), 533-536. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Baker, P. & Miihlbiusler, P. 1996. The origin and diffusion of Pidgin English in the Pacific. In Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, a,ul the Americas, Vol 2(1), S. A. Wurrn, P. Miihlhiiusler & D. T. Tryon (eds), 551-594. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Baker, S. J. 1945. The Australian Language. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. Bennett, G. 1834. Wanderings in New South Wales... during 1832, 1833, and 1834.3 Vols. London: Richard Bentley. (Reprinted 1967. Adelaide: Libraries Board ofSouth Australia). Blake, B. 1987. Australian Aboriginal Grammar. London; Croom Helm. Crowley, T. 1990. Beach-la-Mar to Bislama: The Emergence ofa National Language in Vanuatu. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Dawes, W. 2009. William Dawes' notebooks on the Aboriginal language of Sydney, 1790-1791. London: Hans Rausling Endangered Language Project and SOAS Library Spedal Collections, School of African and Oriental Studies. Dawson, R 1830. The Present State of Australia: A Description of the Country, Its Advantages and Prospects, with Reference to Emigration: And a Particular Account of the Manners, Customs, and Condition of its Aboriginal Inhabitants. London: Smith, Elder and Co., CornhilL (Reprinted 1987. Alburgh, Harleston, UK: Archival Facsimiles). Dixon, R M. W. 1980. The Languages ofAustralia. Cambridge: CUP. Dixon, R M. W. 1994. Ergativity. Cambridge: CUP. Donaldson, T. 1980. Ngiyambaa: The Language of the Wangaabuwm1. Cambridge: CUP.
510
Harold Koch
Donaldson, T. 1985. From speaking Ngiyampaa to speaking English. Aboriginal History 9: 126-147. Donaldson, T. 1994. Ngiyarnpaa. In Macquarie Aboriginal Words: A Dictionary of Words from Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages, N. Thieberger & W. McGregor (eds), 23-40. North Ryde: Macquarie library, Macquarie University. Dutton, T. 1983. The origin and spread of Aboriginal Pidgin English in Queensland: A preliminary account. Aboriginal History7: 90-122. Eades, D. K. 1976. The Dharawal and Dhurga Languages of the New South Wales South Coast. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Eades, D. K. 1996. Aboriginal English. In Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Vol 2(1), S. A. Wurm, P. Miihlhiiusler & D. T. Tryon (eds), 133-141. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Eagleson, R. D. 1982. Aboriginal English in an urban setting. In English and the Aboriginal Child, R. D. Eagleson, S. Kaldor & I. G. Malcolm (eds), 133-162. Canberra: Curriculum Development Centre. Elwell, V. M. R. 1979. English-as-a-Second-Language in Aboriginal Australia: A Case Study ofMilingimbi. MA thesis, Australian National University. Gale, J. 1985. An Alpine excursion: Notes of a trip to the mountains, rives, plains and caves of the Australian Alps. In John Gale's Brindabellas and Australian Alps, G. Barrow (ed.), 42-61. Canberra: Dagraja Press. (First published 1903 in Queanheyan Observer). Govett, W. R., Renard, G. C. & Potts, A. 1977. Sketches ofNew South Wales: Written and illustrated for the Saturday Magazine in 1836-1837... with an essay on the Saturday magazine by Gaston Renard and an account ofhis life by Annette Potts. Melbourne: Gaston Renard. Graham, Rev. J. (ed.). 1863. Lawrence Struilhy: Or, Observations and Experiences during 'IWenty-Five Years ofBush Life in Australia. London: Longman. Gii.nther, Rev. J. 1892 Grammar and vocabulary of the Aboriginal dialect called the Wirradhuri. ln An Australian Language as Spoken by the Awabakal... , L E. Threlkeld, edited with an appendix by J. Fraser, Appendix D, 56-120. Sydney: Government Printer. Hale, H. 1846. The languages of Australia. In Ethnography a,Jd Philology, 479-531. Philadelphia PA: Lee and Blanchard. (Reprinted 1968. Ridgewood NJ: Gregg Press). Harkins, J. 1994. Bridging Two Worlds: Aboriginal English and Crosscultural Understanding. St Lucia Qld: University of Queensland Press. Harris, J. W. 1986. Northern Territory Pidgins and the Origin of Kriol. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Harris, J. W. 1991. Kriol- The creation of a new language. In Language in Australia, S. Romaine (ed.), 195-203. Cambridge: CUP. Holm, J. 1989. Pidgins and Creoles. Cambridge: CUP. Holmer, N. M. 1966. An Attempt towards a Comparative Grammar of two AustralimJ Languages. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Hudson, J. 1983. Grammatical and Semantic Aspects ofFitzroy Valley Kriol [Work Papers ofSIL-AAB A8]. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics Kaldor, S. & Malcolm, I. G. 1982. Aboriginal English in country and remote areas- A Western Australian perspective. ln English and the Aboriginal Child, R. D. Eagleson, S. Kaldor & I. G. Malcolm (eds), 72-112. Canberra: Curriculum Development Centre. Koch, H. 1985. Nonstandard English in an Aboriginal land claim. ln Cross-Cultural Encounters: Communication and Miscommunication, J. B. Pride (ed.), 176-195. Melbourne: River Seine Publications. Koch, H. 1995. The creation of morphological zeroes. ln Yearbook of Morphology 1994, G. Booij & J. van Marle (eds), 31-71. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Koch, H. 2000a. Central Australian Aboriginal English: ln comparison with the morphosyntactic categories of Kaytetye. Asian Englishes: An International Journal of the Sociolinguistics ofEnglish in Asia/Pacific 3: 32-58.
Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin
Koch, H. 2000b. The role of Australian Aboriginal languages in the formation of Australian Pidgin grammar: Transitive verbs and adjectives. In Processes of Language Contact: Studies from Australia and the South Pacific, J. Siegel (ed.), 13-46. Saint-Laurent QC: Fides. Koch, H. 2007. An overview of Australian traditional languages. In The Habitat ofAustralia's Aboriginal Languages: Past, Present and Future, G. Leitner & I. G. Malcolm (eds), 23-56. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Lissarrague, A. 2006. A Salvage Grammar and Wordlist af the Language from the Hunter River and Lake Macquarie. Nambucca Heads NSW: Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Cuhure Cooperative. llssarrague, A. 20 10. A Grammar and Dictionary of Gathang: The Language of the Bi"bay, Guringay and Warnmay. Nambucca Heads, NSW: Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Cuhure Cooperative. Malcolm, I. G. & Grote, E. 2007. Aboriginal English: Restructured variety for cuhural maintenance. In The Habitat ofAustralia's Aboriginal Languages: Past, Present and Future, G. Leitner & I. G. Malcolm (eds), 153-179. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Malcolm, I. G. & Kaldor, S. 1991. Aboriginal English- an overview. In Language in Australia, S. Romaine (ed.), 67-83. Cambridge: CUP. McNicol S. & Hosking, D. 1994. WiradjurL In Macquarie Aboriginal Words: A Dictionary of Words from Australian Aboriginal and To"es Strait Islander Languages, N. Thieberger & W. McGregor (eds), 79-99. North Ryde: Macquarie Library, Macquarie University. Meredith, Mrs. C. 1844. Notes and Sketches af New South Wales during a Residence in That Colony from 1839 to 1844. London: John Murray. Meyerhoff; M. 1996. Transitive marking in contact Englishes. Australian Journal of Linguistics 16: 57-80. Mihalic, F. 1971. The jacaranda Dictionary and Grammar ofMelanesian Pidgin. Milton Qld: Jacaranda Press. Moore, B. (ed.). 1997. The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, 3rd edn. Melbourne; OUP. Morris, E. E. 1898. Austral English: A Dictionary ofAustralasian Words, Phrases and Usages. London: Macmillan. Miihlha.usler, P. 1996. A fellow's adventures in South Australia. In Changing Meanings, Changing Functions: Papers Relating to Grammaticalization in Contact Languages, P. Baker & A. Syea (eds), 259-268. London: University ofWestminster Press. Miihlha.usler, P. 1998a. How creoloid can you get? ]oumal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 13: 355-371. Miihlha.usler, P. 1998b. Pidgins, creoles and post-contact Aboriginal languages in Western Australia. In Papers in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics No.5, P. Miihlha.usler (ed.), 1-33. Canberra: Padfic Linguistics. Miihlha.usler, P. 2008. History of research into Australian pidgins and creoles. In EtJCotmtering Aboriginal Languages: Studies in the History of Australian Linguistics, W. B. McGregor (ed.), 437-457. Canberra; Padfic Linguistics. Munro, J. M. 2000. Kriol on the move: A case of language spread and shift in northern Australia. In Processes of Language Contact: Studies from Australia and the South Pacific, J. Siegel (ed.), 245-270. Saint-Laurent QC: Fides. Munro, J. M. 2004. Substrate Language Influence in Kriol: The Application of 'fransfer Constraints to Language Contact in Northern Australia. PhD dissertation, University of New England, Armidale NSW. Petrie, C. C. 1983. Tom Petries Reminiscences ofEarly Queensla,td. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. (First published in 1904). Ramson, W. S. 1966. Australian English: An Historical Study of the Vocabulary 1788-1898. Canberra: Australian National University Press. Ramson, W. S. (ed.). 1988. The Australian National Dictionary: A Dictionary of Australianisms on Historical Principles. Melbourne: OUP. Ranken, G. 1895. Windabyne: A record af By-Gone nme.s in Australia, related by Reginald Crawford, Strath-dyde, Maranoa, in 1880. London: Remington. Sandefur, J. R 1979. An Australian Creole in the Northern Territory: A Description of Nguku"-Bamyili Dialects, Part 1. [Work Papers ofSIL-AAB B3]. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Sandefur, J. R 1986. Kriol ofNorth Australia: A Language Coming of Age [Work Papers ofSIL-AAB A10]. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
511
512
Harold Koch
Sandefur, J. R. & Sandefur, J. L. 1979. Beginnings ofa Ngukurr-Bamyili Creole Dictionary [Work Papers ofSIL-AAB B4]. Darwin: Sununer Institute of Linguistics. Sharpe, M. 1985. Kriol- An Australian language resource. In Papers in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics No. 4, S. Romaine et al. (eds), 195-214. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Sharpe, M. (cornp.). 1998. Dictio,Jary ofYugambeh: bJduding Neighbouring Dialects. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Siegel, J. 1997. Mixing, levelling, and pidgin/creole development. In The Structure and Status ofPidgins and Creoles [Creole Language Library 19], A. K. Spears & D. Winford (eds), 111-149. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Simpson, J. 1996. Early language contact varieties in South Australia. Australian journal of Linguistics 16: 169207.
Spencer, Sir B. 1928. Wanderings in Wild Australia. London: Macmillan. Steele, J. M. 2005. The Aboriginal Language of Sydney: A Partial Reconstruction of the Indigenous Language of Sydney based on the Notebooks of William Dawes of1790-1791, Informed by Other Records of the Sydney and Surrounding Languages to c.1905. MA thesis, Macquarie University. Threlkcld, L. E. 1834. NJ Australian Gramnmr: Comprehending the Prim;iples and Natural Rules of the Language as Spoken by the Aborigines in the VIcinity ofHunter's River, Lake Macquarie, etc., New South Wales. Sydney. 'froy, J. 1990. Australian Aboriginal Contact with the English Language in New South Wales: 1788 to 1845. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. 'froy, J. 199 2 The Sydney language notebooks and responses to language contact in early colonial NSW. Australian journal ofLinguistics 12: 145-170. 'froy, J. 1993. The Sydney Language. Canberra: Jakelin 'froy. 'froy, J. 1994a. Melaleuka: A History and Description of New South Wales Pidgin. 2 Vols. PhD dissertation, Australian National University. 'froy, J. 1994b. The Sydney Language. In Macquarie Aboriginal Words: A Dictionary of Words from Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages, N. Thieberger & W. McGregor (eds), 61-78. North Ryde: Macquarie Library, Macquarie University. 'fryon, D. T. & Charpentier, J.-M. 2004. Pacific Pidgins and Creoles: Origins, Growth and Development. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Thmer, G. W. 1966. The &J~ish La''lgullge i1J Australia mJd New Zealand. London: Longman. Verhaar, J. W. M. 1995. Toward a Reference Grammar of Tok Pisin: An Exper»nent in Corpus Linguistics. Honolulu HI: University ofHawai'i Press. Williams, C. J. 1980. A Grammar ofYuwaalaraay. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Wurm, S. A., Miililhiiusler, P. & 'If yon, D. T. (eds ). 1996. Atlas of LmJguages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the hnericas, 3 Vols. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Yallop, C. 1982. Australian Aboriginal Languages. London: Andre Deutsch.
Limits of the substrate Substrate grammatical influence in Solomon Islands Pijin* Angela Terrill Radboud University Nijmegen
What grammatical elements of a substrate language find their way into a creole? Grammatical features of the Oceanic substrate languages have been shown to be crucial in the development of Solomon Islands Pijin and of Melanesian Pidgin as a whole (Keesing 1988), so one might expect constructions which are very stable in the Oceanic family of languages to show up as substrate influence in the creole. This paper investigates three constructions in Oceanic languages which have been stable over thousands of years and persist throughout a majority of the Oceanic languages spoken in the Solomon Islands. The paper asks whether these are the sorts of constructions which could be expected to be reflected in Solomon Islands Pijin and shows that none of these persistent constructions appears in Solomon Islands Pijin at all The absence of these constructions in Solomon Islands Pijin could be due to simplification: Creole genesis involves simplification of the substrate grammars. However, while simplification could be the explanation, it is not necessarily the case that all complex: structures become simplified. For instance Solomon Islands Pijin pronoun paradigms are more complex than those in English, but the complexity is similar to that of the substrate languages. Thus it is not the case that all areas of a creole language are necessarily simplified One must therefore look further than just simplification for an explanation of the presence or absence of stable grammatical features deriving from the substrate in creole languages. An account based on constraints in specific domains (Siegel1999) is a better predictor of the behaviour of substrate constructions in Solomon Islands Pijin Keywords: Solomon Islands Pijin, substrate, Oceanic languages, stable grammatical constructions
*
This paper was supported by a grant from the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands Organisation for Sdentific Research). I am grateful to Michael Dunn, Bethwyn Evans, Eva Undstrom, Pieter Muysken, Ger Reesink and three reviewers for comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
514
Angela Terrill
1.
Introduction
1.1
Solomon Islands Pijin and its status
Solomon Islands Pijin is a dialect of Melanesian Pidgin, a creole language with three national dialects: Tok Pisin, spoken in Papua New Guinea; Bislama, spoken in Vanuatu; and Solomon Islands Pijin (henceforth SIP) spoken in the Solomon Islands. SIP is the lingua franca of the Solomon Islands, a small and massively multilingual nation in the Southwest Pacific Ocean. Around eighty indigenous languages are spoken in the Solomon Islands, belonging to two groups: languages of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family, and Papuan languages, a residual grouping of apparent isolates (but see Dunn et al. 2005, 2008). In this highly multilingual nation, SIP plays an important role in facilitating communication between people of different indigenous language backgrounds. There are approximately 330,000 speakers of SIP and, of these, fewer than 8% are first-language speakers, while the rest are second or later-language speakers (Early 2007). SIP developed from the pidgin introduced into the Solomons in the nineteenth century by returning workers from sugar and coconut plantations in Queensland (Australia), Fiji and New Britain (Papua New Guinea). A detailed study by Keesing (1988) shows extensive substrate influence from the Oceanic languages of the Solomon Islands, in particular the languages of Malaita. Mosefs work on Tok Pisin and Tolai (also called Kuanua) is another important study demonstrating substrate influence in Tok Pisin (Mosel1980; see also Reesink 1990 ). As far as lexical expression is concerned, the vast majority of the lexicon of SIP comes from English. As such, SIP is the most English-influenced variety of Melanesian Pidgin, with Tok Pisin also having lexical influence from Tolai- and, to a lesser extent, German - and Bislama from French. SIP occupies a special role in creolist studies, in that, despite it having existed tor several generations, the majority of its speakers are not first-language speakers. The major locus of development of the creole is in towns, mostly the capital Honiara. Speakers in regional areas - who are the majority of SIP speakers- bring to SIP all the linguistic baggage that a second or laterlanguage speaker typically brings to a second or later language. Thus SIP is a fertile ground for studies both of creole genesis and language acquisition.
1.2
Previous work on substrate influence in SIP
There is a certain amount of literature on the two other dialects of Melanesian Pidgin, including work by Mosel (1980), which shows the relationship between Tok Pisin and Tolai- one of the main substrate languages ofTok Pisin -,and by Jeff Siegel. Siegel's work covers all three dialects: Siegel (1998) discusses the development of dialectal differentiation between all three dialects, within a substratist framework, and Siegel (1999) explores the way in which substrate influence may be affected by transfer constraints in Melanesian Pidgin in general. SIP is possibly the best described creole dialect with respect to description of substrate influence. Keesing's (1988) book Melanesian Pidgin and the Oceanic Substra.te is a major work showing in detail the influence of Oceanic languages, particularly the languages of Malaita, an island in the central Solomons. Keesing divides his evidence into three parts: syntax, pronouns, and subject
Limits of the substrate
referencing pronouns and the predicate marker. He shows in each case to what extent the structures found in SIP mirror those found in Oceanic, particularly Malaitan, languages.
1.3
The present study
An oft-posed question in creole genesis concerns which features of the substrate are taken over into the new language and which are not Siegel (1998) presents an account of the role of substrate influence in creole stabilisation: It seems that there are two types of substrate influence. First, substrate transfer may account for the origin of a feature simllar to that of a substrate language. Second, substrate reinforcement may account for such features and those from other sources being retained in the emerging stable contact variety. (Siegel1998: 367)
Siegefs question is "if there was substrate influence, why do some aspects of substrate grammar appear in the contact variety but others do not" (Siegel1998: 366). His answer lies, broadly, in the sociolinguistic context and in the specifics of the linguistic material under consideration. I will return to this topic below. The issue that this paper addresses is as follows: We might a priori assume that features which are stable, time-persistent and ubiquitous in the substrate languages are likely to appear in the creole. This paper explores the extent to which this is the case.
1.4
Approach
In this work, I am assuming a substratist position, which is by now well accepted in research on Melanesian Pidgin (Keesing 1988; Mosel1980; Siegel1998, 1999 among others). I am treating the substrate influence as arising from language contact through imperfect learning- and part of the same process as pidgin or creole genesis: New Guinea Pidgin is a fully developed pidgin with a generally stable structure, so that the acquisition ofNew Guinea Pidgin by speakers of other languages is more In the nature of second language acquisition than spontaneous creation of a new language. (Comrie 1981: 223, cited by Keesing 1988: 7)
This view is consonant with Jeff Siegel (1999 ), who says A distinction is made between the earlier transfer of L1 features by individuals attempting to use the substrate language as an L2 for wider communication, and the later retention of a subset of these features by the community during a process oflevelling which occurs during stabilization. (Siegel1999: 1)
Keesing makes explicit the relationship between substrate and creole: "The close correspondence between Solomons Pidgin and Southeast Solomonic languages represents in part the bending of Queensland Pidgin in a Southeast Solomonic direction" (Keesing 1988: 176). In fact Keesing talks of a continuous process of bending a lingua franca in the direction of substrate languages
SlS
516
Angela Terrill
(1988: 171-172). This notion of"bending" is particularly useful as a way of conceptualising the relationship between SIP and its Oceanic neighbours and substrates. However, bending as a process has limits. Not all of the linguistic material available in a substrate language is taken up by the creole language. This paper concerns some stable Oceanic constructions which are available to the creole and which one might expect- on the grounds of stability. ubiquity and uniformity - to be represented in SIP. However, it is not so: Of three very stable constructions, none of them appear at all in SIP. After describing each construction in turn, this paper considers why SIP has not been "bent" in the direction of any of these constructions. Of particular relevance to our discussion, Siegel (1999: 17-21) notes a number of features of the substrate languages not found in Melanesian Pidgin. They include possessive constructions and also articles, a reciprocal prefix and adjectives following nouns. He concludes that all these features are absent in Melanesian Pidgin because of a number of transfer constraints, including markedness, perceptual salience, transparency, simplicity, frequency and congruence. The most important of these is congruence (Siegel1999: 35). There needs to be a readily available, segmentable and semantically congruent stressed lexical item that can get roped in to fulfil a particular function. Thus Siegel suggests specifically that the articles were not transferred into Melanesian Pidgin because of the lack of frequency of occurrence in the substrate languages (Siegel1999: 30). He notes that with respect to the possessive constructions, there are no forms in English that could have been suffixed to nouns in the pattern of mother-me for instance, according to the Central Eastern Oceanic (CEO) pattern. Similarly, there is no preverbal form that could have been roped in for use as a reciprocal prefix. Also, English adjectives precede their nouns, so there was no template tor adjectives to follow their nouns (Siegel1999: 34-35). More generally, Siegel identifies three important factors: For transfer of features from CEO, partial or specious congruence is needed; for transfer of features from English. perceptual salience is required; and for retention of teatures, frequency of occurrence is important Congruence as a transfer constraint requires that "transfer can occur only if there is a feature in the L2 superficially similar enough to a feature in the L1 that can be misinterpreted or reanalyzed to correspond to L1 rules" (Siegel1999:31). Further, "[t]he need for congruence (... ) appears to provide the best explanation for the presence of some common substrate features in M[elanesian] P[idgin] and the absence of others" (Siegel1999: 35). More strongly, "all the CEO teatures inM[elanesian] P[idgin] are expressed with morphemes that are derived from potentially stressed free morphemes in the lexifier" (Siegel1999:24).
2.
Stable, persistent and ubiquitous Oceanic constructions
Proto Oceanic (pOe) was spoken in the Bismarck Archipelago, north of the Solomon Islands, about 3300 years ago (Lynch, Ross & Crowley 2002; Spriggs 2007). In the Solomon Islands the Oceanic languages are divided into two subfamilies: Northwest Solomonic (NWS) and Southeast Solomonic (SES). This paper discusses three constructions, or areas of linguistic expression, in Oceanic languages, each of which - among many other constructions - can be traced back to
Limits of the substrate
pOe. These areas of linguistic expression can be demonstrated to be ancient, in the sense that they derive from pOe; persistent, in the sense that most daughter languages have retained these expressions; and ubiquitous, in that all Oceanic languages in the Solomon Islands have them. Note that Oceanic languages stretch from the New Guinea mainland across the entire Pacific, but we are interested only in the Oceanic languages spoken in the Solomon Islands. The three areas of linguistic expression -locational constructions, possession and transitive constructions- will be described in turn.
Locational constructions
2.1
In this paper, some mention will be made of proto Oceanic. POe is relevant to language contact as discussed here only in the sense that the presence of a particular construction in pOe and in its daughter languages demonstrates the time-persistence and stability of that construction. This in turn is relevant to the availability of that means of expression for transfer to other languages. Of course, contact-induced language change is localised to the time and place of contact and this is not meant to imply that language contact has happened at any particular stage of pOe rather than in some post pOe varieties. There are two locational constructions in the Oceanic languages of the Solomon Islands. In Construction 1, there is a preposition governing a phrase with a local noun as its head. The local phrase can be a proper place name, a location -denoting noun or a relational, where there is a possessor and possessee, the latter being a relational noun referring to a locative part, like 'in its-inside the house' for 'in the house' (Ross 2007: 282-283). Construction 2 involves a preposition governing a normal NP. These two constructions can be traced back to pOe. In Construction 1 in pOe, preposition *i governs a local noun to form a locational phrase (Lynch et al. 2002:87). In Construction 2 in pOe, a preposition governs a common noun phrase. The prepositions have been reconstructed as follows: *pan I *tani *[ki]ni *suRi *ma[i]
benefactive ablative instrumental, refective allative comitative
(Lynch et a1. 2002: 87)
These constructions will be illustrated in Lengo (SES, Guadalcanal): Construction 1: preposition governs local phrase (1)
U-mono I Binu. 1SG.SBJ-stay PREP Binu 'I live at Binu.'
(2)
nabalu yauka ara-dea talJi some women 3sG.SBJ-go PREP sea 'Some women went to the beach.'
LENGO
(Ross 2007: 282) LENGO
(Ross 2007: 282)
517
518
Angela Terrill
(3)
atJi I
leo-na
11a
vae
LENGO
who PREP inside-3SG.POSS ART house 'Who is inside the house?' (lit.: Who is at the house's inside?)
(Ross 2007:283)
Construction 2: preposition governs common noun phrase (4)
u-dea
re
ar;ai
LENGO
lSG.SBJ-gO PREP ART house that 'I'm going to that house:
na vae
(Ross 2007:283)
Interestingly, as Ross notes, there is a direct parallel of these two constructions in English: Construction 1 has a preposition governing a local noun, often a place name or common location, whereas Construction 2 has a preposition governing a regular noun phrase, complete with article: Construction 1: at/in school, in town, at Bungendore, in Canberra Construction 2 - at/in a/the school in a/the town
(Ross 2007:283)
In SIP, however, there is only one locative construction, using preposition longo-long-lo. This is used for alllocational situations: (5)
(6)
Mifala bae stap long hom
kas-em
Krlsmas
Oourdan & Maebiru 2002: 123)
Mifala wokabaot kam longren, mifala tuwet nao.
SIP
lPL.EX walk come LOC rain lPL.EX wet 'We walked in the rain and got drenched: (7)
SIP
lPL.EX PUT stay LOC home reach-TR Christmas 1 'We will stay at home untU Christmas:
Wanfala
TOP
bikfala welfis silip kam long sanbis.
one/INDEF big whale sleep come we beach ~ big whale beached itself'
Oourdan & Maebiru 2002: 252)
SIP Oourdan & Maebiru 2002: 196)
Obviously, SIP lacks the article which is used to make the difference between the two constructions in the substrate languages. But even without this article, some other lexeme or constructional element in SIP could conceivably have been drawn in to express the distinction maintained by the two original constructions. In this case, it is not the referential system of English that fails to transfer, it is the semantic distinction of two types of locational information. This distinction could have been expressed in any way, even lexically. Longo-long-lo can also be used in constructions with certain other prepositions: (8)
buka hem andanit long rebol
SIP
book 3sG under we table 'The book is under the table:
Oourdan & Maebiru 2002: 7)
(9) put-um buka insaet long basket Ia put-TR book inside LOC basket DEIC 'Put the book inside this basket:
1.
Morpheme breaks and glosses for SIP examples are my own.
SIP Oourdan & Maebiru 2002: 79)
Limits of the substrate
(10)
buka Ia stap antap lo11g rebol book sR stay on wc table 'This book is on the table.'
SIP Oourdan & Maebiru 2002: 8)
However, a distinction in locational constructions between local nouns and NPs does not occur in SIP, unlike in the substrate languages.
2.2
Possessive constructions
Oceanic languages have two types of possessive construction, called in the Oceanic literature direct and indirect possession. In direct possession, "a possessor suffix is attached directly to the possessed noun." In indirect possession, "an uninflected possessed noun is either preceded or followed by an independent possessive constituent, which is itself marked with one of the possessor suffixes" (Lynch et al. 2002: 40). The formal distinction between directly and indirectly possessed nouns generally corresponds to a semantic distinction between inalienable and alienable possession, with direct possession expressing semantic inalienability, and indirect possession expressing alienability. The detailed semantic (Lynch et al 2002: 41) content of inalienable nouns varies from language to language.
Further, many languages in this region also have possessive classifiers, which are minimally used for expressing possession of food and/or drink items, but which, in some languages, are much more complex and elaborate. involving many different classes of possessed items (l..¥nch et al. 2002: 41) - see also Palmer and Brown (2007) for description and reanalysis of these so-called classifiers. In the discussion to follow, I use the terminology used in the particular grammars. The situation in the daughter languages derives directly from pOe. Lynch et al. (2002: 76) explain it as follows: "In the direct construction, the person and number of the possessor were marked by a possessor suffix". A full possessor noun phrase is expressed as follows: Direct possession
(11)
*a qaqe-fia na boRok ART leg-3sG ART plg 'the pig's leg'
Direct possession (12) *a qaqe=i
PROTO OcEANIC (Lynch et al 2002: 76)
X
PROTO OCEANIC
ART leg=ART X 'X's leg'
(Lynch et al 2002: 76)
In the indirect construction, they say ( 2002: 77) that the possessor suffix occurred with a possessive 'classifiet, as follows: Indirect possession (13) *a 11a-fia Rumaq
ART CL-3SG house 'her/his house'
PROTO OcEANIC (Lynch et al 2002: 77)
519
520
Angela Terrill
Indirect possession (14) *a 11a-gu Rumaq ART CL-1SG house 'my house'
PROTO OcEANIC (Lynch et a1. 2002:77)
These categories will be illustrated first in Kokota, an Oceanic language of the Northwest Solomonic (NWS) group, spoken on Santa Isabel in the Solomon Islands. Kokota has possessive constructions which express similar themes. It has three possessive constructions expressing inalienable possession, consumable alienable and general alienable possession (Palmer 2002: 505-507). Inalienable possession is expressed by markers attached to the head noun (example (15)). Consumable and general alienable are expressed by suffixes attached to possessive bases (or classifiers), as in examples (16) and (17). A further possessive construction involves a prepositional construction (example (18)). (15)
tu-mai
ana
gai
KoKOTA
child-1E.X.PL thatN WeE.X 'that child of ours' (16) fa mai-ri
ge-gu
(Palmer 1999: 122)
bia are
KoKOTA
cs come-3PLO cP-1sG.P beer thoseN 'Bring me those beers of mine.' (17)
a
frblhe ara ka
no-gu
(Palmer 1999:131)
tesenine
KoKOTA
l.SBJ work IsG LOC GP-1SG.P plantation
'I will work in my plantation.' (18)
ara n-a
nha-ni gausa
(Palmer 1999: 133)
ka
maneri
IsG REAL-1:E.X eat-3SG betelnut LOC 3PL 'I ate their betel nut:
KoKOTA (Palmer 2002: 506)
Possession in Longgu (SES, Guadalcanal) follows similar lines. The two types of possession, direct and indirect, are reflected (Hill 2002: 546). Direct possession is used for possession in some kin terms, nouns expressing inherent connection to a person, part-whole relationships, local nouns and some personal possessions e.g., 'bed: This type of possession involves the possessed noun followed by a possessor N P (example (19)). Indirect possession is used to express possession involving animals, food, personal items and some kin terms. The head noun is followed by a postposed pronoun expressing person and number of the possessor (Hill2002: 546) (example (20)). In situations of generic possession, a third, associative construction is used. The preposition ni, which elsewhere expresses purpose, separates the possessed item from the possessor (example (21)). (19)
susu-na
tla
ngaia
breastmilk-3sG mother 3sG 'her mother's breast milk' (20)
tuapasa ngaia spear 3SG 'his/her spear'
LONGGU (Hill2002: 546) LoNGGU (Hill2002: 546)
Limits of the substrate
(21) rabob ni raurau bowl PREP cabbage 'bowl of cabbage' [Le. a bowl for cabbage]
LONGGU (Hlll2002: 546)
Hoava (NWS, Western Province) is interesting as it has innovated two possessive categories, having four possessive constructions in total: inalienable, edible, exclusive (which "tends to indicate exclusive rights not shared by other people") and general (Davis 2003: 97). The general and exclusive categories are innovations, thus showing that. even though there has been innovation within the system, the direct/indirect distinction is maintained. Inalienable possession (example (22)) is marked by a suffix on the posses sum; edible possession (example (23)) is indicated by a classifier on the suffix, preceding the posses sum; exclusive possession (example (24)) is expressed by a special possessive pronoun before the possessum; and general possession (example (25)) is expressed prepositionally using preposition ta- (with pronominal marking): Inalienable possession (22) sa bele-na sa book ART:SG tail-3SG ART:SG pig 'the pig's tail'
HOAVA (Davis 2003: 98)
Edible possession (23) a-na napo sa koburu EDPOSS-3SG drink ART:3SG child 'the child's drink' Exclusive possession (24) ka-made dla tomoko NUM-four POSS:3PL war canoes 'their four war canoes' General possession (25) tavete tadi
eri
karu
work POSS:3PL ART:PL two 'the work of the two'
HOAVA (Davis 2003: 102) HOAVA (Davis 2003: 104) HOAVA (Davis 2003: 106)
By contrast, possession in SIP is very straightforward compared to these Oceanic languages. All types of possession are expressed by means of the preposition bilong (also abbreviated as blong and blo). Some examples: (26) piki11ini blong kokorako hem bone finis child POSS chicken 3SG born ASP 'The chick has hatched' (27) leg blong mi boela nao leg POSS 1SG swell TOP 'My leg is swollen.'
SIP
Oourdan& Maeblru 2002: 170) SIP
Oourdan & Maeblru 2002: 119)
521
522
Angela Terrill
(28)
2.3
Mami
blong mifala
SIP
mother POSS lso stay LOC house POSS lPLEX 'My mother lives in our house?
blong mi stap long haos
Oourdan & Maebiru 2002: 23)
Two transitive constructions
Another ubiquitous teature of Oceanic languages is transitive marking. There are typically two types of transitive marking, called in the Oceanic literature close and remote transitives. The semantic roles of objects in pOe with *-i and *-aki(ni) -close and remote respectively- are dependent on the semantic class of the verb. Thus in verbs with experiencer subjects, *-i introduces an argument with place, goal or stimulus semantic roles, whereas *-aki(ni) introduces arguments such as concomitants and causes. With agent subject verbs, *-i introduces arguments with experiencer, patient and goaVproduct roles, while *-aki(ni) introduces arguments with cause, beneficiary and instrument roles (Pawley 1973: 128). Longgu (SES, Guadalcanal) has retained these suffixes as -Ci- and -Ca'ini-, respectively. The suffix -Ci- introduces arguments with the roles of place, cause goal and experience, as well as in rare cases patient (Hil11992: 54-55). Examples of the close transitive include the following: (29)
'usu-1
e
zudu-vi-a eba-1
LoNOOU
dog-so 3SO Sit-TR-3SO mat-SO 'The dog sat on the mat: (30)
mwela-geni
e
mae-si-a
(Hill I 992: 54)
malaria-!
child-woman 3so die-TR-3so malaria-so 'The girl died of malaria: (31)
Tolo e
bere-ngl-a haka-1
LoNOGU
(Hill1992: 54) LoNGGU
name 3so see-TR-3so ship-so 'Tolo saw the ship:
(Hill1992: 55)
The semantic impact of -Ca'ini- is that "the object of the resulting verb is often one which undergoes movement as a result of the verb's action" (Hill2002: 547). For example: (32)
dau-ra'i11i-a lamui
LONGGU
hang-TR-3SO lamp 'Hang up the lamp: (33)
biti
e
(Hill 1992: 59)
poga-ta'inl-a lupilupi
volcano 3so erupt-TR-3so mud 'The volcano spewed lava'
LoNGGU
(Hill1992: 60)
A nice illustration of the contrast between the dose and remote transitive is given in the following pair of examples: (34)
mwaa-1 e
ango-1•!-a
1•anga ngala
snake-so 3so crawl-TR-3so food 'The snake crawled to/for its food:
LoNGGU
3sG (Hill1992: 60)
Limits of the substrate
(35)
mwaa e
ango-ta'i11i-ra gale
ngaia-gi
LONGGU
snake 3SG crawl-TR-3PL child 3SG-PL 'The snake crawled with its babies (on its back):
(Hlll1992:60)
The situation is similar in Arosi (SES, Makira). In Arosi, the two pOe suffixes are reflected as -Ci and -Ca'ini: "the close suffix is used with a directly affected object, while the remote one often has an instrumental use" (4mch & Haroi 2002: 568). Some examples include: (36)
baba-ti-a 'throw at it' baba-ta'ini-a 'throw with it' taho-ri-a 'pull it out' taho-ra'i-a 'take it out of'
ARos1 (Lynch & Ha10i 2002: 568)
Somewhat different semantic contrasts are exhibited by Roviana (MM, New Georgia), in which there are two transitive suffixes, *-i close and *-ni remote. (37)
seke-1-a
RoVIANA
hit-TR-3SG 'Hit it:
(Corston-Oliver 2002: 484)
The remote transitive is used tor situations in which there are "more than two entities involved in a transitive situation" (Corston-Oliver 2002:484). For example: (38) pusi-111-a iku rau sa hore tie-TR-3SG rope 1SG DEF canoe 'I tied the canoe with a rope:
RoVIANA
(Corston-Oliver 2002: 484)
SIP also obligatorily marks transitivity, but not two types. There is a transitive marker - Vm, the vowel being determined by vowel harmony. For example: (39)
(40)
Mifala kam tek-em kago blong mifala
SIP
1PL.EX come take-TR cargo POSS 1PL.EX 'We are coming to take our goods:
Oourdan & Maebiru 2002: 241)
Wuman long narasaet bon-em
pikinini blong hem long naet.
SIP
WOman LOC aciOSS deliver-TR child POSS 3SG LOC night 'The woman ac10ss the street delivered her child at night: (Jourdan & Maebiru 2002: 26)
Intransitive and transitive pairs can readily be found: (41)
Wanem nao iu
luk long hem?
what TOP 2SG look LOC 3SG 'What are you looking at?' (42)
Mifala luk-lm man ia
olketa kil-im long naet
1PL.EX look-TR man DEIC 3PL hit-TR LOC night 'We saw the man that was beaten up last night:
SIP Oourdan & Maebiru 2002: 124)
SIP Oourdan & Maebiru 2002: 124)
SIP rigorously marks transitive versus intransitive verbs, but it does not make a distinction between types oftransitives. Again, this is an example of a ubiquitous distinction in Oceanic languages, deriving from pOe, which is however not utilised in SIP.
523
524
Angela Terrill
Table 1. SIP pronoun paradigm
lind
SG
DU
PL
mi
iumitufala mitufala iutufala tufala
iumi mifala iufala olgeta
1 exd
2 3
3·
iu hem
The role of simplification
Perhaps the most obvious explanation for the lack of any reflection of these stable and ubiquitous constructions in SIP is simply due to the process of simplification. Creole formation depends on the simplification of structures tound in the substrate languages- might this not be the explanation here? At this point. it is important to note that the role of simplification is not as straightforward as might be imagined. While it is generally true that creolisation processes tend to involve simplification compared to the substrate languages, itis simply not the case that creole languages have no complex features. For instance, Clark (2007) shows that the pronominal complexity in Melanesian Pidgin existed even in the very early days, at a time when many other grammatical teatures were being simplified. Thus, while in general pidgins and creoles are simpler than their substrate languages, not all features in a creole, particularly a stable creole, are simple. Actually, across-the-board simplification does not happen and, in SIP, we can see various examples oflack of simplification, where simplification could be expected. 3.1
Pronoun paradigm
The first example is the pronoun paradigm. SIP has a more complex paradigm than English and of similar complexity to the substrate languages. The categories expressed in SIP pronouns are three (or more) degrees of number and inclusion/exclusion, just as in the substrate languages 2 (see Table 1). Indeed, some speakers who speak languages with trial forms also have a trial paradigm in their SIP as well as singular, dual and pluraL This paradigm is of parallel complexity to the Oceanic substrate languages, but more complex than English. 3.2
Obligatory transitive marking on verbs
Transitive marking on verbs is obligatory in SIP- apart from a tiny handful of verbs, e.g. kaekae 'eaf. in which there is a minimal pair with the transitive-marked form kaekaem 'bite'). This is not
2. Note that not all contact languages in the region have an inclusive/exclusive distinction: In East Nusantara, local Malay varieties do not have the distinction, while most of the indigenous languages in the region do (Klamer eta12008).
Limits of the substrate
a feature of the superstrate English, but is a feature of the substrate Oceanic languages. Compared to the superstrate, then, transitive marking is a more complex rather than less complex feature in SIP. Possibly transitive marking was thought by speakers to be so important that it had to be morphologically marked. It could be a matter of perceived communicative needs, as explained byMufwene: [T]hose model uses are not predicted by the universalist blueprint and could have been devised only to meet the communicative needs of a population that generally marks transitive verbs mor(Mufwene 1986:143, dted byKeesing 1988: 120) phologically in their native languages.
This then is another example of a more complex feature being found in SIP that does not originate in the superstrate language English, but rather only in the substrates. There is a trade-off between simplicity and expressive needs: For people used to an inclusive/exclusive distinction in their pronouns, there will be a perceived need for it, even though the distinction is not morphologically simple. So a speaker's needs have to be identified and, among these needs, simplicity is not the only factor. Note, of course, that there is no independent measure for speakers' perceived needs and thus this suggestion must remain merely inferential. Despite the foregoing, this is not to say that simplification plays no role in creolisation. Obviously it does, as is well known in the creolist literature, for example McWhorter (2001). However, simplification, like any other developmental process, is not completely straightforward. The course of any particular construction from a substrate into a creole is not predictable - some constructions which are stable and ubiquitous are not carried over into the creole, whereas others which are complex and conceptually not straightforward are indeed carried over. Note also Lefebvre (2001) in this context, who argues for the apparent simplicity but actual complexity of creole languages. She uses the example of cleft constructions in Haitian creole to show that a single sentence can have hidden complexity in its multiple semantic interpretations (Lefebvre 2001:204-205). So locative, possessive and transitive distinctions in Oceanic languages are not simple, but more importantly, are not required to fulfil speakers' needs.
Discussion: Simplification and borrowing and the Papuan evidence
4·
Of interest in this context is the fact that two of the four (probably unrelated) Papuan (i.e. nonOceanic) languages in the Solomon Islands- Bilua, spoken on Vella Lavella (Obata 2003) and Lavukaleve, spoken in the Russell Islands (Terrill2003)- also have the two locative constructions found in the surrounding Oceanic languages. In Lavukaleve, there is a choice between a locational adjunct using a locative suffix on a local noun, versus using a common noun in a postpositional phrase. Any given noun is able to function in only one of these constructions (Terrill2003: 149): (43)
taila-n house-LOC 'in the house'
LAVUKALI!VR
525
526
Angela Terrill
(44)
nganga na
a-na
LAVUKALEVB
river(M) SGM.ART 3SGM.O-in 'in the river'
In Bilua, the situation is the same: There are two classes of nouns, locational and non-locational. Local nouns can function as stand-alone local adjuncts, whereas non-local nouns must occur with a governing postposition in order to function as a local adjunct (Obata 2003: 179). For example: (45)
... se ta
ke=vae=k=ake
kiada=ma piza omadeu koi
3PL TOP 3PL=leave=3SGMO=InST all=3SGF '... they left all bones at one place' (46)
vo
ta
o=beta
papu=a toupa kale
3SGM TOP 3SGM=CONT Sit=PRBS lake in 'He was sitting in a lake.'
bone one
BILUA
place (Obata 2003: 181) BILUA (Obata 2003: 182)
The existence in Bilua and Lavukaleve of the two locative constructions could be a result ofborrowing - in fact, two independent borrowings - on the part of Bilua and Lavukaleve from one or more of the surrounding Oceanic languages. The idea that these constructions are borrowable lends credence to the idea that the two constructions are perceived as useful and thus amenable to adoption from the substrate, not only into the creole, but also into full languages. The fact that they were not adopted into the creole is interesting. Given the existence in these two Papuan languages of the two locative constructions, it is perhaps of interest to look further and ask to what extent the other constructions under discussion appear in these two languages. As far as the possessive constructions are concerned, Lavukaleve has only one possessive construction, which involves a possessor prefix attached to the possessed item. Bilua however mirrors the Oceanic languages closely in that it makes a distinction between direct and indirect possession. Direct possession, expressing inalienable possession, has the possessor marked directly on the possessed noun: (47)
... ke=mama ta
o=ta
vouv=a
3PL=father TOP 3SGM=SIT die=PRBS '...their father died'
BILUA (Obata 2003:99)
Indirect possession is used for both alienable and inalienable possessive relationships and involves a possessor NP occurring with a possessive marker, which is a third person distal demonstrative (Obata 2003: 100). (48)
vo=a
maba=ko
megora
3SGM=LIG person=3SGF child 'that man's daughter'
BILUA (Obata 2003: 101)
With respect to the transitive constructions, Lavukaleve only has a single transitive construction, involving suffix -ri which can attach to an intransitive verb to render it transitive. In this respect, it lacks the Oceanic transitive division. In Bilua. verbs can be made transitive with the addition of one of three transitive markers, a., a.i or ati (Obata 2003: 156). These have different semantic import. including beneficiary, source, or topic of quotation for a; instrument, goal, gift, topic of
Limits of the substrate
speech, name, cause/reason or experiencer for ai; and accompaniment for a.ti (Obata 2003: 163). For example: (49) a=v=a rabut=ala 1SG=3SGMO=VAL weed=RCP 'I weeded for him.'
BILUA (Obata 2003: 164)
(50) ko=v=ai saqae=k=ala ko suma 3SGP=3SGMO=VAL brush=3SGPO=RCP 3SGF doth 'She brushed (cleaned) him with a doth.' (51)
... o=k=atl
saqor=a
BILUA (Obata 2003: 168) BILUA
3SGM=3SGPO=VAL go.down=PRES '... he went down with her (he took her down)'
(Obata 2003: 171)
Thus Bilua is similar to the Oceanic languages described in having various ways of transitivising verbs, but how this is accomplished, with a choice of three markers with differing semantic import, is rather different from the Oceanic languages. As an interesting aside, a further feature that one might expect to see being maintained in SIP, based on its appearance in substrate languages, is a set of semantically useful terms that express culturally salient items. There is a set of number terms for ten specific items, in many Oceanic languages, which one might also expect to see imported into SIP. Gela (SES, Florida) has some of them: (52) Ten canoes Ten puddings, pigs, birds, fish, posswns Ten coconuts, breadfruit, crabs, shellfish Ten baskets of food Ten baskets of nuts Ten bunches ofbananas
nagobi napaga napigu na banara na mola nagalbala
GBLA
(Codrington 1885: 538)
Comparable terms occur in Oceanic languages throughout the Pacific, including Fijian. They also occur in Lavukaleve- not cognates, but counterparts: Obviously the idea has been borrowed independently of the forms - as shown below: (53) Ten dogs Tenposswns Ten pigs Ten fish Ten coconut crabs Ten bonitos Ten arm- rings
fell koku kolo lolu legom baem tafor
LAVUKALEVB
(Terr!ll2003: 56)
As these terms - or rather, the concepts behind them - are clearly available for borrowing, one might expect them to appear in SIP, but they do not Possibly the limiting factor is that, as the exact terms differ from language to language. there would not be one generally available set of lexical items which could be adopted into SIP. Once again, we can see that it is not just a matter of cultural salience, or linguistic stability and ubiquity, that determines what elements of a substrate are represented in a creole.
527
528
Angela Terrill
5·
Concluding remarks
The three construction types discussed in this paper - the locative constructions, the possessive constructions and the transitive constructions - are also subject to the constraints identified by Siegel as discussed above. In each case, there was no congruent construction or available lexical item to be brought in to express any of these distinctions. Despite the ubiquity, stability and uniformity of the locative, possessive and transitive constructions in the substrate languages, none of them appear in SIP. Thus, contrary to what one might expect, ubiquity, stability and uniformity are clearly not good predictors of linguistic transfer from a substrate into a creole.
List of abbreviations ART ASP CEO CL CONT CP
cs Dl!F Dl!IC EDPOSS EX F PUT
GP HIST INDEF LIG
we M MM N
article aspect Central Eastern Oceanic classifier continuity consumable possessive causative definite deictic edible possession exclusive feminine future general possessive base historical tense indefinite ligature locational masculine Meso-Melanesian nearby
NOM NWS 0 p
PL
pOe POSS PRJ!P PRES RCP Rl!AL
SBJ
SES SG SIP SIT
SR TOP TR VAL
nominalising Northwest Solomonic object possessor plural proto Oceanic possessive preposition present tense recent past realis subject South East Solomonic
singular Solomon Island Pijin situation change subject reference topic transitive valency increasing
References Clark, R. 2007. On the lexicon of early Melanesian Pidgin. In Language Description, History and Development: Linguistic Indulgence in Memory of Terry Crowley [Creole Language Library 30], J. Siegel, J. Lynch & D. Eades (eds), 355-368. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Codrington, R. H. 1885. Florida, Gela. In The Melanesian Languages, R. H. Codrington (ed.), 522-539. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Comrie, B. 1981. Language U,Jiversals wJd Li1Jguistic Typology. Oxford: Basil BlackwelL Corston-Oliver, S. 2002 Roviana. In The OcewJic Languages J. Lynch, M. Ross & T. Crowley (eds), 467-497. London: Curzon. Davis, K. 2003. A Grammar of the Hoava Language, Western Solomons. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics 535.
Limits of the substrate
Dunn, M., Levinson, S. C., Lindstrom, E., Reesink, G. & Terrill, A. 2008. Structural phylogeny in historical linguistics: Methodological explorations applied in Island Melanesia. Language 84:710-759. Dunn, M., Terrill, A., Reesink, G., Foley, R. A. & Levinson, S. C. 2005. Structural phylogenetics and the reconstruction of ancient language history. Science 309: 2072-2075. Early, R. 2007. Language sizes in Melanesia. In Linguistic Description, History and Development: Linguistic Indulgence in Memory of Terry Crowley [Creole Language Library 30], J. Siegel, J. Lynch & D. Eades (eds), 439-456. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Hill, D. 1992. Longgu Grammar. Canberra: Department of Linguistics, Facuhy of Arts, Australian National University. Hill, D. 2002. Longgu. In The Oceanic Languages, J. Lynch, M. Ross & T. Crowley (eds), 538-561. London: Curzon. Jourdan, C. & Maebiru. E. 2002. Pijin: A Trilingual Cultural Dictionary. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics 526. Keesing, R. M. 1988. .Melanesia,J Pidgin and the OcemJic Substrate. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. Klamer, M., Reesink, G. & van Staden, M. 2008. East Nusantara as a linguistic area. In From Linguistic Areas to Areal Linguistics [Studies in Language Companion Series 90], P. Muysken (ed.), 95-149. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Lefebvre, C. 2001. What you see is not always what you get: Apparent simplicity and hidden complexity in creole grammars. Linguistic T}pology 5: 186-213. Lynch, J. & Haroi, R. 2002. Arosi. In The Oceanic Languages, J. Lynch, M. Ross & T. Crowley (eds), 562-572. London: Curzon. Lynch, J.• Ross, M. & Crowley, T. 2002. The Oceanic Languages. London: Curzon Press. McWhorter, J. 2001. The world's simplest grammars are creole grammars. Linguistic Typology 5: 125-166. Mosel, U. 1980. Tolai mJd Tok Pisin: The Influence of the Substratum on the Development of New Guinea Pidgin. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics B-73. Mufwene, S. 1986. The universalist and substrate hypotheses complement one another. In Substrata versus Universals in Creole Genesis [Creole Language Library 1], P. Muysken & N. Smith (eds), 129-162. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Obata, K. 2003. A Grammar of Bilua: A Papuan Language of the Solomon hlands. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics 540. Palmer, B. 1999. Agrmnmar of the Kokota language, Santa Isabel, Solonwn IslmJds. Sydney: Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney. Palmer, B. 2002. Kokota. In The Oceanic Languages, J. Lynch, M. Ross & T. Crowley (eds), 498-524. London: Curzon Press. Palmer, B. & Brown, D. 2007. Heads in Oceanic indirect possession. OcemJic Linguistics 46: 199-209. Pawley, A. 1973. Some problems in proto-Oceanic grammar. OcemJic Linguistics 12: 103-188. Reesink, G. 1990. Mother tongue and Tok Pisin. In Melanesian Pidgin and Tok Pisin: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Pidgins and Creoles in Melanesia [Studies in Language Companion Series 20 ], J. W. M. Verhaar (ed.), 289-306. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Ross, M. 2007. Two kinds of locative construction in Oceanic languages: A robust distinction. In Language Description, History and Development: Linguistic Indulgence in Memory of Terry Crowley [Creole Language Library 30), J. Siegel, J. Lynch & D. Eades (eds), 281-295. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Siegel, J. 1998. Substrate reinforcement and dialectal differences in Melanesian Pidgin. Journal of Sociolinguistics 2:347-373. Siegel, J. 1999. 'fransfer constraints and substrate influence in Melanesian Pidgin. Journal of Pidgin and Creole
Languages 14: 1-44. Spriggs, M. 2007. The Neolithic and Austronesian expansion within Island Southeast Asia and into the Pacific. In
From Southeast Asia to the Pacific: Archaeological Perspectives on the Austronesian Expansion and the Lapita Cultural Comple:t, S. Chiu & C. Sand (eds), 104-140. Taipei: Academia Sinica. Terrill, A. 2003. A Grammar of Lavukaleve. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
529
Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacific Pidgin features in modern contact varieties* Jeff Siegel University of New England, Australia
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many grammatical features of Pacific Pidgin English. New South Wales Pidgin English and Chinese Pidgin English were attested in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), Solomon Islands, New Guinea Islands, Hawat'i and the Northern Territory of Australia. In the expanded pidgin or creole that later emerged in each of these locations, a different subset of these "Pan-Pacific" features was retained This chapter examines nine of these features to see whether their presence or absence in each of the five modern contact varieties can be accounted for by the presence or absence of substrate reinforcement. This occurs when a similar feature exists in the substrate language or languages that were significant when the pidgin was expanding and stabilising. The most significant substrate languages were those of speakers who were bilingual in the pidgin and who expanded it to meet greater communicative needs. Keywords: pidgin. creole, substrate, reinforcement, Bislama, Tok Pis in, Pijin, Kriol, Hawat'i Creole
1.
Introduction
In previous work., I have discussed the role of mixing and levelling in the formation of contact languages (e.g., Siegel1997, 1999, 2008). Mixing occurs when features from various sources enter the pool of variants that is used for communication in the contact environment. These sources include the lexifier, the substrate languages (via functional transfer), and pre-existing pidgins and/or creoles. Levelling occurs when some variants are eliminated while others are retained as a
* I would like to thank both the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies for their generous support while I was writing the initial and final stages of this chapter. Thanks also go to Nick Thieberger and Frank Udrtenberk for providing valuable data, and to members of audiences at earlier presentations for helpful comments (at the Max Planck Institute, at conferences of the Society for Pidgin and Creole linguistics and the Australian linguistic Society, and at a Department of linguistics seminar at the University ofHawai'i).
532
Jeff Siegel
stabilised norm begins to emerge. Availability constraints are factors that restrict which features can end up in the pool of variants, espedally via transfer. Reinforcement prindples are factors that affect which features in the pool of variants are retained rather than being levelled out. One of these principles is what I call "substrate reinforcement:' Substrate reinforcement occurs when a particular variant has a corresponding feature in a numerically or socially dominant substrate language or languages. By a corresponding feature, I mean one that occurs in the same surface syntactic position and that can be interpreted (or misinterpreted) as having the same or a closely related function. Substrate reinforcement of different variants in different geographical areas has been shown to account for the grammatical differences among the three dialects of Melanesian Pidgin: Vanuatu Bislama, Solomon Islands Pijin, and Papua New Guinea Tok Pisin (Siegel1998, 2008). In other words, the variants that were retained were the ones that had structural and semantic parallels in the substrate languages of that area. In this study, I look further at the retention of features in these three varieties, and in two other English-lexifiedcontactvarieties also spoken in the Australia/Pacific region: Hawai'i Creole and Northern Australian Kriol (including the Roper, Barunga and Fitzroy varieties). Thus, contact varieties in five geographic locations are examined: Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Hawai'i and the Northern Territory of Australia. The variants examined in this study are grammatical features found in earlier pidgins spoken in the Pacific region and Australia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Pacific Pidgin English, New South Wales Pidgin English and Chinese Pidgin English. Each of these "Pan-Pacific features" has been attested historically in all five of the locations where the modern contact varieties developed. Thus each feature was in the pool of variants used at an earlier stage in all five locations. But in the levelling that occurred separately in each location during the stabilisation of the modern contact variety, only some of the features were retained- a different subset in each variety. The main question here is: Can the retention of particular features but not others in each variety be explained by substrate reinforcement? 1 Section 2 of this chapter describes the Pan- Pacific features, how they are attested, and how the particular features examined in this study were selected. Section 3 gives an account of the substrate languages in each of the five geographic regions where the modern contact varieties developed. Section 4, the main part of the chapter, examines each of the selected Pan-Pacific features in turn - whether or not it has been retained in each contact variety. and whether or not a corresponding feature (as defined above) exists in the substrate languages.
2.
The Pan-Pacific features
The Pan-Pacific features considered here were all attested in historical sources, such as travellers' accounts, court records and government reports. Most of them were included in the detailed historical study of Australia/Pacific pidgins by Baker and Miihlhausler (1996). Two examples of PanPacific features attested in the five geograp hie locations focused on here are shown in Table 1. The
Thus, this study differs from Baker's (200 I) investigation of whether or not 24 typical pidgin features had been attested some time in the history of 16 modern contact varieties.
1.
Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacifu: Pidgin features
Table 1. Two Pan-Pacific pidgin features
a.
b.
bin (been) V (past tense] adj fellow N
VAN 1877 1871
SOL
PNG
1888 -1874-
1899 1874
HAW -1899-
NOR 1888 1883
abbreviations are as follows: VAN =Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides); SOL= Solomon Islands; PNG =Papua New Guinea (combining former German New Guinea and British Papua); HAW= Hawai'i; NOR= Northern Territory (Australia). The earliest dates of attestation are shown for each feature, as given by Baker and Miihlhliusler (1996) and following their notation with hyphens; for example, -1845 indicates "not later than 1845:' 1845- "in 1845 or later," and -1845- "in about 1845"; K-" indicates that the feature is not attested. 2 Example 1 illustrates these two features (the past tense marker bin and the adjective marker fellow) in a typical historical attestation. (1)
Ile des Pins, New Caledonia, 1877 he bin give me small fellow boles... ['he gave a small box ...1
(Giles 1877/1968: 37)
An example of feature (a) bin in one of the modem contact varieties can be seen in (2), and feature (b) follow in (3). (2)
(3)
del bin stat len-im-bat mi 3PL PST start teach-TR-PROG 1SG 'They started teaching me.'
Hemla wan olfalt~ trak. that one old.ADJ car 'That is an old car:
KRIOL (Mumo 2004: 88) BISLAMA
(Crowley 2004: 62)
However, neither of these features is examined in the present study, for the following reasons. Feature (a) bin (been) is found in all five of the modem contact varieties. Since the goal is to account for differences between the varieties, a feature tound in all five would not be diagnostic. Feature (b) fellow is not considered because it not attested in one of the locations, Hawai'i (see Table 1). Therefore, we do not know for sure whether it ever actually was a variant there. The nine features that are examined in this study are shown in Table 2. These were the only features I could find that met the selection criteria of having been attested historically in all five locations, but not retained in one or more of the modem varieties. Years in square brackets for Hawai'i come from Roberts (2005:280), and those for Northern Territory from Harris ( 1986: 272 ). Years in italics are based on attestations in the following sources: for Vanuatu, Wawn (1893/1973:143); for Solomon Islands, Coote (1882:206, quoted in Keesing 1988:44); and for Papua New Guinea, Saunders (1979: 170, quoted in Tryon & Charpentier 2004:258). Three related features are also shown (in 2, 3, 6) that were attested in some but not all locations.
A more recent study is by Baker and Huber (200 1). However, this does not distinguish the three dialects of Melanesian Pidgin or include the Northern Territory of Australia.
2.
S33
534
Jeff Siegel Table 2. Nine Pan-Padfic pidgin features attested in all five geographic locations
VAN 1871
SOL -1874-
PNG 1879
HAW
got 'have' [+ existential]
[1856]
NOR -1888-
all N (plural) altogether N (plural) altogether 'they'
-18651877 1884
1882 -1880 1886
18751885 1884
[1873]
1900
you and me 'we' (1INCL) me fellow 'we' (1EXCL)
-1900 1884
1885 1908-
1887
[1902] -1939
4.
reswnptive he (sRP)
-1865-
-1883
1875
1824
1908
5.
go V (future/irrealis)
1916
-1897
1898
1888
1888
6.
by and by (future/irrealis) (clause-initial/final) by and by (preverbal)
-1865-
-1874-
1883
1821 [1791]
1888
1.
1914
7.
savvy V (abilitative)
8.
belong (possessive)
1865
9.
V-em (transitive suffix)
1867
3·
18841874
1878
1888
1884
[1902]
[1902]
1880
1875
[1871]
1847
-1874-
1875
[1883]
1843
1880
Substrate languages
The substrate languages considered for this study are the ones that were most dominant in terms of speakers and influence when the current expanded pidgin or creole was stabilising. The speakers of these substrate languages were bilingual in the pidgin and expanded it to meet their greater communicative needs, some of them eventually shifting to it as their primary language. The selection of substrate languages was also constrained by the availability of data. In the case of Melanesian Pidgin, the relevant substrate languages for the three varieties all belong to the Central Eastern Ocean group of Austronesian languages, but to different subgroups. These were the North/Central Vanuatu languages for Bislama, the Southeast Solomonic languages for Pijin, and the Meso-Melanesian languages for Tok Pisin, especially those of New Ireland and the Rabaul area of East New Britain (Lynch 1998; Siegel1998). With regard to Hawai'i Creole, the most important substrate languages when the preceding pidgin expanded and stabilised were those of the first locally born generation of indentured immigrant labourers: Cantonese and Portuguese (Siegel2000). The indigenous language, Hawaiian, had a large influence on vocabulary, but not so much on grammar. The major substrate languages for Northern Australian Kriol are the languages spoken around Roper River, where Kriol.first stabilised. All of these are classified as belonging to the extremely diverse non- Pama-Nyungan group of languages. 3 The particular substrate languages examined in this study for each modern variety are listed with references in Table 3.
3· Note that examples from these languages are given in the unifying orthography developed at the Katherine Regional Language Centre, as used by Sharpe (2001) and Munro (2004).
Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacifu: Pidgin features
Table 3. Substrate languages examined for this study
Vanuatu Bislama:
Solomons Pijin:
PNG Tok Pisin:
Hawai'i Creole: Australian Kriol:
Nguna (Schiitz 1969a, 1969b) South Efitte (Thleberge.r 2006) Tangoan (Camden 1979) Paamese (Lynch 1998) Port Sandwich (Crowley 2002a) To'aba'ita (or Toqabaqita) (Lichtenberk 1984, p.c. 2008) Arosi (Fox 1978; Lynch & Horol2002) Lau (Fox 1974) Kwaio (Keesing 1985, 1988,n.d.) Kwara'ae (Deck 1934) Tolai (Franklin et a1. 1974; Mosel1980) Pala (Mosel1980) Tigak (Beaumont 1979) Siar (Ross 2002) Cantonese (Matthews & Yip 1994) Portuguese (Hutchinson & lloyd 1996; Perini 2002; Prista 1966) Alawa (Sharpe 1972,200 1) Nunggubuyu (Heath 1984) Marra (Heath 1981) Ngalakgan (Baker 2002; Merlan 1983)
The fate of the nine Pan-Pacific Pidgin features
4·
In this section, each of the nine Pan-Pacific features attested in all five geographic areas is described with regard to whether or not it has been retained in the modern contact varieties and whether or not there are parallel structures in the substrate languages.
got 'have' [+existential]
4.1
In this feature, a word deriving from got is used for both possessive and existential constructions. A historical example (showing possessive usage) is given in (4). (4)
Honolulu, Hawai'i, 1893
He only boy now, no got sense. [He's only a boy now- doesn't have sense.1
(Roberts 2005: 149)
This feature exists in modern Bislama, Tok Pisin, and Hawai'i Creole, as shown in examples (5) to (7): (5)
a b.
Manu gat tu buluk ... 'Manu has two cattle ... i gat kava long nakamal. 'There's kava at the kava bar:
BISLAMA
(Crowley 2004: 67) BISLAMA
(Crowley 2004: 119)
535
536
Jeff Siegel
(6)
a
migatwa11pela haus.
ToKPISIN
'I have a/ one house? b.
(Mosel1980: 47)
I gat planti welpik long bus.
ToKPISIN
'There are a lot of wild pigs in the bush: (7) get wan wahine shi get wan data 'there is a woman who has a daughter'
(Dutton & Thomas 1985:213) HAWAI'I CRl!OLl!
(Bickerton 1981:67)
However, this feature does not exist in Pijin or Kriol. In Pijin. the word garem is used only for possession, and existential constructions are expressed in terms of possession, as shown in (8). (8)
a
Ml garem
killong han blong mi.
PIJIN
'I have a cut on my hand: b.
(Simons & Young 1978: 48)
*i garem tin taiyo long GeorgE Wu.
PIJIN
'There's tins ofTaiyo [a brand oftinned fish] at George Wu [the name of a store]? (Gerry Beimers, p.c., April2007) c.
George Wu i garem tin taiyo.
PIJIN
'George Wu has tins ofTaiyo?
(Gerry Beimers, p.c., April2007)
In KrioL gadim (or one of the related formsgadem, garem, gade) is also used only for possession, and a different word is used for existential constructions: (9)
a
Ropa gadim tumaj miskida.
KRIOL
'Roper has swarms of mosquitoes: b.
(Sandefur 1979: 184)
Tumaj miskida jidan la Ropa.
KRIOL
'Swarms of mosquitoes exist at Roper.' = 'There are swariiiS of mosquitoes at Roper?
(Sandefur 1979: 184)
Now let us look at the substrate languages tor these varieties with regard to this teature. For Bislama, in both South Efate and Nguna, the same lexical item is used for both possessive and existential, as shown in examples (10) and (11): (10)
a.
Manu i=piatlak
kau i11ru
3sG.R1!ALIS.SUBJ=have cow two 'Manu has two cows?
SouTHEFATE
M.
b.
l=piatlak
nmalok ito
3SG.REALIS.SUBJ=have kava 'There's kava at the kava bar? (11)
a
Ero
peani natu-ta
(Nicholas Thieberger, p.c., April2007) SouTHEFATE
stay.at kavabar (Nicholas Thieberger, p.c., April2007)
na-goroi sikai.
they-two have child-their female 'They had a daughter.. .'
b.
11akamal
NGUNA
one
E peani napua tua. it have way two 'There were two ways [of arranging a marriage].'
(Schutz 1969b:23, 32) NGUNA (Schutz 1969b: 237, 242)
Similarly, for Tok Pisin, Tigak uses the same lexical item for both possessive and existential, as in (12).
Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacifu: Pidgin features
(12)
a
ga togon sakai piu he.PsT have one dog
'f.rGAK
'he has a dog'
b.
(Beaumont 1979:75)
ve ga togon sakai piu riga po kava-I lat... and SUBJ have one dog she PERF look.after-it yet rand there was a dog which she still looked after.. -1
'f.rGAK (Beaumont 1979: 127)
The situation with regard to Tolai is unclear.4 The main substrate languages for Hawai'i Creole - Cantonese and Portuguese - also both use a single word or single verb for both possessive and existential. Matthews and Yip (1994: 279) note that. in Cantonese, "yauh translates either as 'have' or as 'there is/are'. There is no clear distinction between the 'possessive' and 'existentiaf functions of ytmh ... :' This is shown in ( 13). (13)
a.
b.
Kiuihdeih yduh saam go jdL they have three eLF son 'They have three sons: Yduh (yat) ga che j6-_iyuh go cheut-hdu. Have (one) CLP car block-coNT CLP exit-mouth 'There's a car blocking the extt:
CANTONESE (Matthews & Ylp 1994: 279) CANTONESE (Matthews & Ylp 1994: 89)
In some varieties of Portuguese (especially Brazilian), the verbs ter or haver 'to have' can be used with both existential and possessive meanings: (14)
a
b.
Ele tem nem dinheiro nem trabalho. 'He has neither money nor job: Nito tem muita gente no teatro. 'There are.tft many people in the theatre:
PORTUGUESE (Hutchinson & Lloyd 1996: 86) PORTUGUESE (Prista 1966:74)
In contrast, in the substrate languages for Pijin, different forms or constructions are used for possessive and existential. For example, in Toqabaqita (formerly spelled To'aba'ita), existential is most commonly expressed with the verb nii 'exist', while possessive is expressed either with verbless constructions or with verbs that have other meanings besides 'have' such as alu' put (somebody or something somewhere)' and too 'live or stay (at a place), remain, be left over, be present: (15) a
Thqe qota qe ni=i buir-a biqu nau. ToQABAQITA One arecanut 3sG.NPUT exist=Loc behind-3sG.PERS house lsG 'There is an areca-nut (tree) behind my house.' (Frank Lichtenberk, p.c. June 2008)
4- Mosel (1980: 46-47) states: "There is no equivalent to gat 'have' in Tolai. The notion of 'having something' is expressed by possessive pronouns." However, vatur vake 'hold, retain' is used as 'have':
(a) I au vatur vake ra umana ikilik na pawpaw ka. 1 SG hold ART some little c pawpaw only 'I have only little pawpaws:
(b)
U
vaturvake ra pawpaw? hold ART pawpaw 'Do you have any pawpaw?"
ToLAI (Franklin et a11974:34)
TOLAI
2SG
It is not known, though. whether this expression can be used to express existential
(Franklin et a11974:35)
S37
538
Jeff Siegel
b.
Qa-kuqa
roo wela.
ToQABAQITA
POSS-lSG.PERS two child 'I have two cb.lldren.' (More literally: 'Of mine (there are) two children.') (Frank Lichtenberk, p.c. June 2008) c.
Wa11e e
d.
man 3SG.NFUT have-3.0BJ CLF beard 'The man has a beard.' (Frank Lichtenberk, p.c. June 2008) Qo too qana ta malefo? ToQABAQITA 2sG.NFUT be.atplace we some money 'Do you have any moneyf' (Lit: ~re you with moneyf') (Frank Lichtenberk, p.c. June 2008)
alu-a
gwa thaathate.
ToQABAQITA
Similar patterns are found in other Southeast Solomonic languages, such as Kwara'ae (Deck 1934: 54-55) and Arosi (Fox 1978: 442). The same is true with regard to Kriofs substrate languages. For example, in Alawa, possessive is indicated with the proprietive suffix, and existential with the genitive suffix, as shown in these examples (using the modem orthography): (16)
a
nglna nga-wanjurru-warr lSG 1SG-axe-with[PROPRffiTIVE] 'I have an
axe:
b.
mama-yi madi food-GEN none 'There is no food.'
ALAWA
(Sharpe 1972:73-74) ALAWA
(Sharpe 1972:73-74)
Thus, the first Pan- Pacific feature, the use of got for both possessive and existential, has been retained only in modem varieties whose relevant substrate languages similarly use one form for both functions. 4.2
all N or altogether N as plural marker
The second Pan- Pacific Pidgin feature is that all (the) or altogether is used as a prenominal plural marker. One of these is also most often the third-person pronoun. An example of a historical attestation is given in (17). (17)
Milne Bay, New Guinea, 1885
Me think aU the boy want to kill me. [1 think the boys want to kill me:]
(Wawn 1893/1973:373)
This feature has been retained in all three dialects of Melanesian Pidgin and in Kriol as shown in examples (18) to (21). (18)
a
Ol jifoli strong. 'The chiefs are tough:
b.
olgeta haos 'houses'
(19)
Ml havestem olket.J lam blong mi finis. 'I have harvested my yams:
BISLAMA
(Crowley 2004: 164) BISLAMA
(Crowley 2004: 51) PIJIN
Oourdan 2002: 155)
Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacifu: Pidgin features
(20)
ol man i wok '(the) men are working'
(21)
a b.
ToKPISIN (Mosel1980: 115)
Ai bin luk olcJbcJt boniboni. 'I saw the colts.' Orla kid bin tjak-am ston.
BARUNGA KRIOL
(Sandefur 1979: 79) FITZROY KRIOL
PL child PST throw-TR stone 'The chlldren threw stones:
c.
olda ol-bibul
bin oldei len-im
melabat
PL RSP-people PST CONT teach-TR 1PL.EXCL 'The old people were always teaching us:
(Hudson 1983: 37) ROPERKRIOL (Munro 2004: 190)
This feature is not found in Hawai'i Creole, where plural is unmarked or marked with -s as in English. With regard to the substrate, in each area where the feature has been retained in the modern contact variety, the major substrate languages have a prenominal plural marker, as shown in examples (22) to (25). (In the substrate languages for Melanesian Pidgin, it is most often related to the third-person paucal or plural pronoun.) (22)
For Btslam.a: Ira tuturani ram
bano
PL European 3PL.CONT go 'The Europeans were going: (23)
na tnwani he'u ART PL 'the stars'
b.
ira.au
c.
(Lynch & Horoi 2002: 565)
gare-na
gera iagi 3PL fish 'the fish (pl)'
For Tok Pisin: a a umana bul
ARos1
(Lynch & Horoi 2002: 565) LAU (Fox 1974:75)
a bar bulu
To LAI (Mosel1980: 116) PALA
D PL boy 'the boys'
(Mosel1980: 116)
D PL
b.
ARos1
star
3PAUCAL child- 3SG 'his children
(25)
(Crowley 2002b: 628)
For Pijin:
a.
(24)
RAGA
boy
For Kriol:
a
yil-lilmi yang jin-birr-ngadan da yil-girribu PL-man hit them-they-died CONJ PL-kangaroo 'The men killed the kangaroos:
b.
ALAWA
mij-ylwanggu
(Sharpe 1972: 64) NUNGGUBUYU
PL-oldman 'old men
(Heath 1984: 197)
S39
540
Jeff Siegel
In contrast, no preverbal plural marker occurs in the key substrate languages for Hawai'i Creole. Therefore, there was no substrate reinforcement and this may account for the fact that the feature was not retained in this variety.5
4·3
you and me (lPL.INCL)
Another Pan-Pacific pidgin feature was an inclusive-exclusive distinction in first-person plural pronouns, with you and me (inclusive) attested in all five areas, and me fellow (exclusive) in four out of five. Attestations ofboth are shown in (26). (26)
a
Llhir, New Ireland, 1844 ... they fire up along you and me. they11 fire at us:]
b.
New Hebrides, c. 1884 MefeUow keep him. rwe keep (?)]
r...
tt:
(Rannle 1912:53)
(Cromar 1935: 117)
Again, this feature occurs in all the modem contact varieties considered here, except for Hawai'i Creole, as illustrated in examples (27) to (30). (27)
Melanesian Pidgin yumi 1PL.INCL in all three dialects mifala 1PLEXCL in Bislama and Pijin mipela lPLEXCL in Tok Pisin
a b. c. (28)
a
Yunmi bin luk boniboni. 'We (you and I) saw a colt:
b.
mela
garra weit-11a bla olgamen
1PL.EXCL POT wait-EM PREP respectedlady 'We have to wait for the old lady.' 6
KRIOL
(Sandefur 1979: 85, 86) KRIOL
(Munro 2004: 87)
An inclusive/exclusive distinction also occurs in all the major substrate languages for the three dialects of Melanesian Pidgin and for Kriol (see examples (29) to (32)). (29)
For Bislam.a: nigita 1PL.INCL b. klnami 1PLEXCL
NGUNA
a
(30)
For Pijin:
a
kulu lPLINCL
b.
kamflib; lPL.EXCL
(Schutz 1969a: 46) To'ABA'ITA (Lichtenberk 1984:49)
5· For Hawai'i Creole, one may be tempted to argue that prenominal determiners in Portuguese indicate plural However, these have many different forms. and are not used consistently or speci.fically to indicate plural
6. The exclusive plural can also be melabat, as in example (21c).
Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacifu: Pidgin features
(31)
For Tok Pisin: dat 1PL.INCL b. avet 1PL.E.XCL
To LAI
a
(32)
(Mosel1980:61)
For Kriol:
a b.
Al..AWA
nyalu 1PLINCL ngalu 1PLE.XCL
(Sharpe 2001:xxv)
Again, there is no such inclusive/exclusive distinction in Portuguese or Cantonese, the major substrate languages for Hawai'i Creole. 7 4·4
Resumptive he (subject referencing pronoun)
The fourth feature was the frequent use of he as a resumptive pronoun, and with other than singular male third-person referents, as in (33). (33)
New Caledonia, 1880
No, steamer he no come - steamer he stop on a stone - all man he go saltwater - plenty man he die- steamer he finiSh. ['No, the steamer didn't come - the steamer is on a reef - men went into the sea - many men died- the steamer is finished.1 (Coote 1882: 197)
This feature is found only in the three varieties of Melanesian Pidgin, where it has become a predicate marker or subject referencing pronoun (see Crowley 2000 ), expanded in some varieties to include other forms for more specific reference (as shown in examples (34) to (36)). (34)
a
Mania
stil-im
i
mane.
BISLAMA
man DET SRP.3SG steal-TR money 'Thls man stole the money.' b.
(35)
a
kat-em taro.
(Siegel1999: 13) BISLAMA
PL woman sRP.3PL cut-TR taro 'The women cut taro.'
(Siegel1999: 13)
Ol woman oli
haos ia
i
bigfala
PIJIN
house DEI SRP.3SG big 'Thls house is big? b.
mere blo11g mi hemi
mek-em astade
wife POSS 1SG SRP.3SG dO-TR
yesterday
'My wife did it yesterday.' c.
(Keesing n.d..) PIJIN
tabeka ...
(Keesing n.d..) PIJIN
PL Amerkan sRP.3PL give-TR tobacco 'The Amerkans gave tobacco:
(Keesing 1988: 206)
Olketa Merika
olketa gifim
7. Of course, this distinction does occur in Hawaiian: kiikou 1PLINCL and makou 1PLEXCL (Elbert & Pulrui 1979: 107). However, as stated earlier, Hawaiian played a minor role compared to Cantonese and Portuguese when Hawai'i Creole was emerging. Nevertheless, there appears to be a tendency to use as gaiz (us guys) for exclusive more frequently than wi (we), but this needs to be confirmed by further research.
541
542
Jeff Siegel
(36) a
Ma11 i go.
ToKPISIN (own example) ToKPISIN (own example)
'The man went.' b,
Ol ma,li go. 'The men went:
The substrate languages for these varieties all have extensive systems of subject referencing pronouns, usually indicating person and number, as illustrated in examples (37) to (39). (37) For Bislama:
a
Manulapa e
tlrl pano.
NGUNA
M. SRP.3SG fly go 'Manulapa flew off. b.
Manulapa wanogoe go
koroi waogoe ero
M. Dl!M and girl Dl!M 'Manulapa and the girl were eating.'
(38) For Pijin: a noni a-gu ka age-na aboni wife POSS-lSG SRP.3SG do-TR yesterday 'My wife did it yesterday.' b.
too
ganlkani.
(Schiitz 1969b: 27) NGUNA
SRP.3DU PROG eat (Schiitz 1969b: 33) KWAIO
go'u.
(Keesing n.d.) KWAIO
people female sRP.3PL carry-TR taro 'The women carried taro.'
(Keesing 1988:220)
Taa
grmi
aari-a
Ia
(39) For Tok Pisin:
a
A tutuna i
vana.
D man SRP.3SG go 'The man went.'
b.
A taral dia
vana.
D men SRP.3PL go 'The men went.'
ToLAI (Mosel1980:121) ToLAI (Mosel1980: 122)
In Hawai'i, on the other hand, there was no widespread use of resumptive pronouns or subject referencing pronouns in Cantonese or Portuguese; thus there was no substrate reinforcement The situation regarding the substrate languages for Kriol is a bit more complex. A preverbal subject referencing pronoun does occur for intransitive sentences, as in (40 ). (40)
barda niw-anj--anji
gayarra
later lPL.l!XCL-CONT-sat there 'Then, later, we stayed there.'
MARRA
(Heath 1981:332)
But for transitive sentences, the preverbal pronoun references both agent and object Such prefixes can be segmentable and transparent in indicating the two arguments, as in (41): (41) yirrirn-bi-bak-wotj-ma
1PL.l!XCL-3PL-always-steal-root 'They always steal from us.
NGALAKGAN (Baker 2002: 54)
However, in their most common and complex form, pronominal prefixes are portmanteau morphemes and not segmentable, as shown in (42 ):
Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacifu: Pidgin features
(42) yini-wa,l)'h-bun
NGALAKGAN
2SG/1BXCLNSG-NEG.OBLIG-hit.PRES
'You shoulchlt hit us?
(Merlan 1983: 87)
Thus, the substrate system is very different from that of the Pan-Pacific features, and therefore no substrate reinforcement occurred. This would explain the absence of this feature in Kriol as opposed to the dialects of Melanesian Pidgin. 4·5
go V (future/irrealis)
In Pan-Pacific pidgins, go was used as a marker offuture tense or irrealis modality, as shown in (43). (43)
Honolulu, Hawai'i, 1881
Me frightened you go die. ['I'm frightened you11 die.']
(Roberts 1998:22)
This teature was retained only in Hawai'i Creole, where it is go, goin or gon, as shown in example (44). (44)
a
AI go kam tumaro.
b.
'111 come tomorroW: She gain miss da prom. 'She'll miss the prom?
HAWAI'I CREOLE
(Sakoda & Siegel2003: 64) HAWAI'I CREOLE
(Kearns 2000: 13)
The three dialects of Melanesian Pidgin use a form based on by and by for this purpose (see 4.6 below). In Kriol, garra (derived from gotta) is used, indicating obligation, not simple future, as shown in (45).8 ( 45)
det drein garra gam-bek lya drekli DI!T train OBUG come-DIR DI!M SOOn 'The train will come back here soon/directly.'
KRIOL
(Munro 2004: 132)
With regard to the substrate languages for Hawai'i Creole, Portuguese uses the verb meaning go to indicate future, thus reinforcing this feature. 9 For example, in (46), vai is a form of ir 'to gd, occurring before the verb acabar 'to end'. ( 46)
0 mundo vtri acabar dentro de tres bi/Mes de anos. 'The world wlll end ln three blllion years:
PORTUGUESE
(Perini 2002: 157)
8. Sandefur (1979: 129) reports gona as well, as in Olabat gona gaman 'They will/want to/intend to come: However, experts on Kriol that I consulted were not familiar with this usage and suggested it might be the influence of
English. 9· Portuguese also uses the Ksimple present" for future reference, especially when there is a time-denoting adjunct.
S43
544
Jeff Siegel
In contrast, nothing like this occurs in the substrate languages for Melanesian Pidgin, or for Kriol. Thus there was no substrate reinforcement and this feature was not retained in these varieties. 10
4.6
by and by (future/irrealis)
The expression by and by started off as an adverb occurring clause-initially and later became a future marker, occurring closer to the verb, as in (47). (47)
Port Essington, Northern Territory, 1882-1886
.. .by-em-by catchem crab. ['(111) catch a crab:]
(Searcy 1912:75 in Harris 1986:334)
A form of by and by as a future/irrealis marker occurs in all three dialects of Melanesian Pidgin, but not Hawai'i Creole or Kriol. Its position can still be sentence-initial but more commonly it occurs before a pronominal subject or subject referencing pronoun (if one occurs), rather than coming directly before the verb (in contrast to the position of go). See examples (48) to (SO). (48)
a.
b. (49)
a.
b. (50)
a. b.
Papa blong ml bambae I
pem yufala
father
pay
POSS
1SG FUT
SRP.3SG
BISLAMA
2PL
'My father is going to pay you.'
(Camden 1979:99)
nja bae I go. 'The teacher will go:
(Crowley 2004:94)
BISLAMA
Dianpa11i baebae hemi kam tudee Ia. Japan FUT SRP.3SG come today EM 'The Japanese are going to come today.' Bae mi lukaotem yu gudfala. 'I will really look after you.' Bambai yu go.
PIJIN
(Keesing 1988: 185) PIJIN
(Beimers 2008: 199) ToKPISIN
'You will go: Dispela man bcu I go long town.
(Mihalic 1971:30) ToKPISIN
(Dutton & Thomas 1985: 88)
'This man will go to town.'
When we examine future/irrealis markers in the substrate languages for Melanesian Pidgin, we find they occur in a similar position, either prefixed to or preceding the subject referencing pronoun or combined with it This is illustrated in examples (51) to (53). 10. However, far Alawa, one of the substrate languages far Krio1, Sharpe (1972: 145n) notes: "Evidence is accwnulating to suggest that when the verb 'go' is immediately followed by another verb phrase, the combination should be treated as one verb phrase, and can be glossed 'going to.. ~ 'intending to .. ::'
nga-winya wird karrarnu errerlikunu kita:nya. 1so-go get 1sG.3SG 1so.bring 'I will go get it, I will bring it here:
ALAWA
here (Sharpe 1972: 145-146)
But this construction is very unusual in Australian languages of the region and does not occur in the other substrate languages for KrioL Juliet Blevins (p.c. July, 2007) suggests it might be due to the influence of English on the language.
Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacifu: Pidgin features
(51) For Bislam.a:
Tama-ku i
pa
voli kamim.
father-lsG 3SG.IRR DBF.ASPECT pay 2PL 'My father is going to pay you.'
TANGOAN (Camden 1979:98 [glosses changed slightly])
(52) For Pijin:
a
ngai
te-~
age-a
KWAIO
3SG FUT-SRP do-TR/OBJ 'she will do it: b.
gila ta-la
(Keesing n.d.) KWAIO
'they will go:
(Keesing n.d.)
leka 3PL PUT-SRP go
(53) For Tok Pisin:
a
vap
1'0
rlk
paS11.l
ART people PUT SRP.3PL go 'the people will go:
T!GAK
(Beaumont 1979: 83)
In the substrate languages for Hawai'i Creole and Kriol, there is no future marker that precedes subject or subject referencing pronouns. Therefore, there was no reinforcement of by and by as a future marker. The expression remains in these languages, but as an adverb meaning 'later' or 'otherwise'.
4·7
savvy (abilitative)
The word savvy 'know' is used before a verb to mean both 'know how to (do something)' and 'have the ability to (do something)'. The historical examples in (54) show the abilitative meaning. (54) a
b.
Vila, New Hebrides, 1878 Chiefhe old man. No savey walk good. 'The chief is an old man He can't walk wen: Hawai'i, 1902
You sabe takee evelly nichol. 'You would (be able to) take nickels (from passengers):
(Wawn 1893/1973: 143)
(Roberts 2005: 157)
This feature has been retained in Bislama and Pijin, but not in Tok Pisin (as shown in example (55)), and also not in Hawai'i Creole or Kriol (55) a b. c.
Bislam.a: Pijin: Tok Pisin:
Misavewok. Mi save waka. Mi itwp/ken wok. 'I can work.'
In at least some of the key substrate languages for both Bislama and Pijin, the same word is used for 'know' and 'be able tD, as illustrated in (56) and (57).
545
546
Jeff Siegel
(56)
For Bislam.a:
a
enau na efi evlevi ... 1sa PM know read
TANGOAN
'I know how to read' b.
enau na
efi
cakau, paloku mo rucu moiso
1SG PM ABIL walk leg.my PM good COMPL 'I am able to wa]k, my leg has healed' (57)
(Camden 1979: 58-59) TANGOAN (Camden 1979: 58-59)
For Pijin:
a
ni
nau ku thaito'oma-na wane net: ki
ART lSG 1SG know-3SG 'I know these men.' b.
kaliwela
e
man DEM
thaitobma-na
little.child 3SG ABIL-3SG 'The little child can swim.'
To'ABA'ITA
PL
~ranga-laa
(Lichtenberk 1984:82) To'ABA'ITA
Swim-NOM (Lichtenberk 1984:82)
But this is not true for Tok Pisin's substrate languages, in which separate lexical items are used, as shown in (58), nor for the substrate languages of the other varieties. (58)
For Tok Pisin: iau la ta ra tinata Kuanua 1SG know PM D speaking K. 'I know how to speak Kuanua' b. dia ga nunure ra nialir 3PL TA ABIL D swimming 'They can swim?
a
4.8
ToLAI (Mosel1980: 124) ToLAI (Mosel1980: 126)
belong (possessive)
In this feature, the word belong became a genitive or possessive marker, with the order: POSSESbelong POSSESSOR, as in (59).
suM
(59)
Efate, New Hebrides, 1878 Very good you go look chief belonga me. ['It'd be good if you go see my chief?]
(Wawn 1893/1973: 143)
This feature has been retained in all three dialects of Melanesian Pidgin and not in Hawai'i Creole. The situation regarding Kriol is a bit trickier, and I will get to this later. Examples of this feature in Melanesian Pidgin are shown in (60) to (62). (60)
mane blongpapa blongyu 'your father's money'
(61)
Mami blong mi stap long haos blong mifala. 'My mother lives in our house:
(62)
merl bilong Dogare 'Dogare's wife'
BISLAMA (Crowley 1990: 255) PIJIN Oourdan 2002:23) Tox PISIN (Dutton & Thomas 1985: 38)
Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacifu: Pidgin features
A similar pattern is found in the substrate languages in indirect possession when there is a nominal possessor, with a possessive marker either as a separate word following the possessum or as a suffix on it (see examples (63) to (65)): (63)
For Bislam.a:
a
kom ni
tape.s
SouTH EFATB
comb Poss moorhen 'the moorhens comb' b.
niiang sa
(Thieberger 2006: 128) PoRT SANDWICH
vavu
water Poss grandfather 'grandfather's water' (64)
(Crowley 2002a: 655)
For Pijln:
a
fanua naa tab
geni
KWAIO
place Poss people female 'the women's village' b.
thare-~
(Keesing 1988: 220) To'ABA'ITA
bi
branch-POSS tree 'tree branch' (65)
(Lichtenberk 1984: 56)
For Tok Pisln:
a
a
aisok tana vap
'frGAK
ART WOrk POSS people 'people's work' b.
ep fun
nga-n
e
ART banana POSS-3SG ART 'John's banana'
John
(Beaumont 1979: 67) SIAR
J. (Ross 2002:419)
When the possessor is pronominal in the substrate languages, it generally occurs as a suffix on a possessive marker or possessive classifier tor categories such as tood, drink and general possession. While some substrate languages generally have the order MARKER-POSSESSOR POSSESSUM, a substantial number also have the POSSESSUM MARKER-POSSESSOR order, which would have reinforced the Pan- Pacific pidgin feature with belong as the marker. This is shown in examples (66) to (68). (66)
For Bislam.a: 11
a
telai mw-m axe POSS.GBNL-2SG 'your axe'
b.
niiang isa-11gg water POSS.1SG 'my water'
PAAMESB
(Lynch 1998: 123) PoRT SANDWICH (Crowley 2002a: 655)
11. Note that while the word order is MARKER-POSSESSOR POSSESSUM in South Efate, Nguna, and Tangoan, the POSSBSSUM MARKBR-POSSESSOR ordering is found in several substrate languages in addition to those shown below, including Southeast Ambrym, Lamen and Sa.kao (see chapters in Lynch et a1. 2002).
S47
548
Jeff Siegel
(67) For Pijin: a 'lfi a-gu house POSS-1SG 'my house' b. ruma a-mu(a) house POSS.GENL-2SG 'your house' (68)
KWAIO (Keesing n.d..) ARosi (Lynch & Horoi 2002: 567)
For Tok Pisin
a
a
b.
ART house POSS-3SG 'his house' ep fek anu-k ART axe POSS.GENL-1SG 'my axe'
lui
tata-na
T!GAK
(Beaumont 1979:62) SIAR (Ross 2002:419)
The belong possessive marker has not been retained in Hawai'i Creole, which uses English possessive marking (s) or juxtaposition, as in (69). (69)
da
kar
HAWAI'I CREOLE
ART woman new car 'the woman's new car'
wahine nu
(Sakod.a & Siegel2003: 53)
It might be argued that one of the key substrate languages for Hawai'i Creole, Portuguese, would have reinforced the Pan-Pacific feature because it has a possessive construction with do/da/dos/ das for nominal possessors which is parallel to the Pan-Pacific construction with belong, as shown in (70a). However, unlike the substrate languages for Melanesian Pidgin, Portuguese does not use a possessive marker for pronominal possessors, which normally occur as possessive pronouns preceding the possessum, as in (70b ). (70) a
b.
livro da
Manuela
ART book POSS 'Manuela's bool.<
M.
(as) minhas
malas
ART 1SG.POSS.PL suitcases 'my suitcases'
PORTUGUESE (Hutchinson & Lloyd 1996: 21) PORTUGUESE (Hutchinson & Lloyd 1996: 42)
Hawai'i Creole's other major substrate language, Cantonese, does use a possessive marker (either the possessive word ge or a classifier) for both nominal and pronominal possessors, as shown in example (71 ). But unlike the Pan- Pacific feature, where the ordering is POSSESSUM MARKER POSSESSOR, in Cantonese the ordering is POSSESSOR MARKER POSSESSUM. (71) a
b.
hohksang ge
gajeung
student POSS parents 'the student's parents' (or 'the parents of the student') ngoh gaa11 uk my eLF house 'my house'
CANTONESE (Matthews & Yip 1994: 107) CANTONESE (Matthews & Yip 1994: 107)
Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacifu: Pidgin features
Therefore, there was no substrate reinforcement of this feature in Hawai'i Creole by either Cantonese or Portuguese. Now, we go back to Kriol. The word blonga or bla, based on belong, is commonly used to indicate possession in all varieties of this language, as illustrated in (72): (72)
ola hos bla mindubala COLL horse POSS 1DU.EXCL 'all our horses'
The most common order is that found in the Pan-Pacific feature, But in Fitzroy Kriol, the order can be reversed, as shown in (73). (73) a
b.
ROPER KRIOL (Munro 2004: 181) POSSESSUM
Det sneik bla ai dei kol-am rill dipwan that snake Poss eye they call-TR really deep 'The mythical snake's eye is what they call the really deep waterhole: A_ buJ motika ~-·scar'
belong POSSESSOR. FITZROY KRIOL (Hudson 1983:71) FITZROY KRIOL (Hudson 1983: 172)
A further diversion from the Pan-Pacific pidgin feature is that in Roper Kriol, a possessive pronoun, mai or main, is most common with first-person singular possessors, as in (74): (7 4)
a b.
mai fren 'my friend' main hasben 'my husband'
RoPER KRioL (Munro 2004: 180)
This usually occurs before the possessum as in (74), but it can also occur after it, as in (75). (75) ol yu bois garra baj-im-ap hosis main-na gam-in-ap RoPER KRioL COLL 2SG men OBLIG gather-TR-DIR horses 1SG.POSS-EM come-CONT-DIR M you men have to/must round up my horses, (which) are coming up.' (Munro 2004: 181) Another strategy used in Kriol to show possession is simple juxtaposition, as in (76). (76)
a. b.
im bilige11 'his billycan' shila fotha 'Shiela's father'
RoPBR KRioL (Munro 2004: 180)
An example with all three strategies can be seen in (77). (77)
ol mai greni-mop e11 maitJ mami hanggul COLL lSG.POSS grandmother-group CONJ lSG.POSS mother uncle bin hlya en maml bitJnga im hiya-na RoPER KRioL PST here CONJ mother POSS 3SG here-EM ~11 my grannies, including my mother's uncles, were here and his/her mother was here too: (Munro 2004: 180)
In the substrate languages for Kriol, possession is generally indicated with a genitive/purposive or genitive/dative suffix on the possessor, occurring either before or after the possessum, as shown in example (78 ).
S49
sso Jeff Siegel (78)
For Kriol:
a
jalguyi-ja
ba"agarl nyurdnyurd
ALAWA
young.rn.an-GEN spear blunt 'The young marls spear is blunt? b.
n1ugu-gajah-11goji-yih ju-rna11gari-hgin yb1-mele-be
(Sharpe 1972:63) NGALAKGAN
M-dog-here-BRG F-Nangari-GBN 'Nangari's dog might bite yoU:
(Merlan 1983: 45)
liNCL.DU-BVIT-bite
Pronominal possessive suffixes also occur, as shown in (79). (79)
a
rnugu-balkiny-hgin jugu-bolohbolo-rnowi
b.
M-constable-GI!N F-woman(wife)-his 'the constable's wife' .. . bolohbolo-nwwi-yih jalgah 0-mehme worn.an(wife)-his-BRG aJl.right 3SG/3SG-get.PST.PUNC •... his wife got (something) all right:
NGALAKGAN (Merlan 1983: 45) NGALAKGAN (Merlan 1983:73)
Thus, there is no possessive construction in the substrate languages for Kriol that corresponds to the Pan- Pacific feature, POSSESSUM belong POSSESSOR. Therefore, the Pan- Pacific feature was not reinforced, But because of incomplete levelling, it still remains in the language as one of several strategies for marking possession. These include alternative strategies that were found in the earlier contact situation in the Northern Territory: the use of English possessive pronouns (such as my and mine), and the use of simple juxtaposition, which was also an earlier variable feature, as shown in (80). (80)
Port Darwin, Northern Territory, c. 1895
Him lubra have em bun-ngilla (girl). 'His wife has a girl:
(Parkhouse 1895:64l,inHarris 1986:330)
The other strategies appear to be modelled on those of the substrate languages, namely the use of belong and my or mine as suffixes on the possessor, as in examples (73) and (75) above.
4·9
V -em (transitive suffix)
In the earlier pidgins in all five geographic regions, postverbal him or ~m became adopted as a transitive marker following verbs, as in example (81). (81)
a.
Queensland, 1884
b.
.Mi see him overseer time he been hit him Gao first time. Victoria River, Northern Territory, c. 1895 No you shootem that one; me thinkem that fellow my father. ['Don't shoot that one; I thinkthafs my father?]
(Saunders 1979: 170)
(Willshire 1896:17, in Harris 1986:330)
This feature has been retained in Melanesian Pidgin and in Kriol but not Hawai'i Creole.
Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacifu: Pidgin features
In the three dialects of Melanesian Pidgin, there are pairs of intransitive- transitive verbs, distinguished by a transitive suffix, -Vm, as in examples (82) to (84). (82) BISLAMA sNl 'commit theft' kuk'cook' bon 'be burning'
stll-im 'steal [something]' kuk-t4m 'cook [something]' bon-em 'burn [something]'
(Crowley 2004: 77)
(83) PIJIN luk 'look' stil 'commit theft' dig 'dig'
luk-im 'see' stil-im 'steal [something]' dig-im siton 'dig up a stone'
(Keesing n.d..)
(84) Tox PISIN bruk 'break, be broken' bruk-im 'break, tear' kuk'cook' kuk-im 'cook [something]' wok 'work, be busy' wok-im 'to make [something], build'
(Mosel1980: 41)
Similar pairs exist in Kriol as shown in (8 5), although not as many as in Melanesian Pidgin, as the suffix does not appear to be so productive. (85)
KRIOL rid'read' kuk'cook' barn 'be burning'
(Sandefur & Sandefur 1979)
rld-im 'read [something]' kuk-t4m 'cook [something]' barn-im 'burn [something or someone]'
Examples (2), (9), (21b) and (21c) include transitive verbs ending in Vm, although there is no corresponding intransitive form of the verb without the ending. The substrate languages for Melanesian Pidgin similarly have transitive verbal suffixes, as illustrated in examples (86) to (88). (86) For Bislama: sua 'to paddle' i11U 'drink' keco 'be hanging'
sua-i 'paddle [something]' inu-mi 'drink, swallow [something]' keco-ci 'hang [something]'
(87) For Pijin: aga 1ook' beri 'commit theft' takwe 'dig'
aga-si-a 'see (it)' beri-a 'steal if takwe-a fou 'dig up a stone'
(88) For Tok Pisin: gumu 'dive, bath' tangi 'cry, weep' ngarau 'be afraid'
To LAI gumu-e 'dive for [something]' tani-e 'moum for [someone or something]' ngarau-ane 'be afraid of [someone or something]' (Mosel1980: 42-43)
TANGOAN
(Camden 1979:90) KWAIO
(Keesing n.d..)
The situation with regard to Kriofs substrate languages is not so straightforward. In Nunggubuyu, there are some verbs that have different forms for transitive and intransitive, for example in (89):
SSl
552
Jeff Siegel
(89)
(Heath 1984:418)
NuNGGUBUYU
=r.abala- 'to come out'
=r.abali- 'to take out'
But generally in the substrate languages for Kriol, verbs are normally either transitive or intransitive. Nevertheless, the substrate languages are mainly ergative-absolutive, and transitive and intransitive verbs are always distinguished by verbal prefixes -one set marking the subject of intransitive verbs and another marking the agent and object of transitive verbs (as shown in examples (41) and (42) above). For example in Ngalakgan, there is one prefix indicating secondperson singular subjects with intransitive verbs, and a set of four prefixes indicating a secondperson singular agent and the person and number of the object This is shown in (90). (90)
(Merlan 1983:88)
NGALAKGAN intransitive:
2SG SUBJECT:
transitive:
2SG AGENT:
-nglny-
+ + + +
3SG.M, F OBJECT:
junju-
1 E.XCL.NSG OBJECT:
yinl-
3NSG OBJECT:
jubu-
1SG OBJECT:
Thus, unlike the Melanesian Pidgin substrate languages, there is no structural parallel in the Kriol substrate languages to the Pan-Pacific feature of transitive marking. Therefore, by definition, we cannot say that substrate reinforcement occurred. However, it seems clear that having a marked distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs may have reinforced the use of the feature.12 Munro (2004) suggests a distinction between functional transfer and what she calls "semantic transfer." In functional transfer, the functions of a grammatical morpheme in one language are transferred to a lexical form in another language. In semantic transfer, the semantic categories or grammatical distinctions of one language are adopted by another. This distinction could also apply to substrate reinforcement. So far, we have been looking at instances where the function of a morpheme in the pidgins of the Australia/Pacific region has been reinforced by a similarly functioning congruent morpheme in the substrate languages. But there could also be semantic substrate reinforcement. Here morphemes in the pidgin that mark particular grammatical distinctions would be reinforced by the existence of the same grammatical distinctions in the substrate languages, even though they may be marked in different ways. However, if this kind of reinforcement does exist, I would prefer to keep it separate from the current notion of substrate reinforcement, which requires some surface syntactic and functional congruence.
12. It is noteworthy that this feature most likely originated in Australia and spread across the Pacific (Baker &
Milhlhiius1er 1996). Its development as the result of the transitive-intransitive distinction in Aboriginal1anguages is discussed in Koch (2000).
Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacifu: Pidgin features
Table 4. Pan- Pacific Pidgin features retained in 5 contact varieties and the existence of parallel features in key substrate languages Bislama
Pijin
got 'have' [+ existential]
~
all N (plural) 3.
you and me (liNCL)
4.
resumptive he (sRP)
5.
go V (future/irrealis)
6.
by and by (future/irrealis)
7.
savvy V (abilitative)
8.
belong (possessive)
9.
V-em (transitive suffix)
"" " " " "v "" "" "" "" " "v " " " "" " ..J
..J
~
TokPisin
1.
~
~
Hawai'i Creole
~
Kriol
~
"" ""
.J
..J
..J
.J
..J
..J
..J
..J
..J
..J
.J
..J
?
..J
..J
..J
..J
..J
?
For each contact variety: column 1: -1/ = featnre present in variety
column 2: -1/ = featnre present in key substrate language(s)
5·
Conclusion
The results of this exploratory study are summarised in Table 4. Under the name of each current variety, there are two columns. The first is concerned with whether or not the Pan-Pacific feature has been retained in the variety. If it has been, there is a tick in that column. The second column is concerned with whether or not a corresponding feature exists in the relevant substrate languages. If it does, again there is a tick. The table shows that for at least seven of the nine Pan-Pacific features, when the teature is present in the contact variety, a corresponding feature is also present in the substrate languages, and when it is absent in the contact variety, it is absent in the substrate languages. For feature 8, the belong possessive marker, there is a question about KrioL because the feature is not generally used for first- person singular possessors, it is not used consistently in the order POSSESSUM belong POSSESSOR, and it varies with simple juxtaposition. Feature 9, the transitive marker, does occur in Kriol, but without a structural parallel in the substrate languages, although there is a clear semantic one. It appears, then, that with regard to the nine Pan- Pacific Pidgin features that were attested in Melanesia, Hawai'i and Northern Australia, nearly all the ones that have been retained in the current contact varieties were those reinforced by corresponding features in the key substrate languages, whereas the ones not retained did not have corresponding substrate features. Thus, in answer to the question posed at the beginning of this chapter, the presence or absence of substrate reinforcement during levelling can account for the retention of particular features.
553
554
Jeff Siegel
List of abbreviations
2 3 ABll. ART
c CLF COLL COMPL CONJ CONT D DBF Dl!I DBM DI!T DIR DU BM
I!RG BVIT l!XCL F FUT Gl!N GBNL
HAW INCL IRR
first person second person third person abilitative article connective particle classifier collective completive conjunction continuative determinative particle definite deictic demonstrative determiner directional dual emphasis ergative evitative exclusive female future genitive general (possession) Hawai'i inclusive irrealis
LOC M NEG NFUT NOM
NOR NSG OBJ OBUG PERF PBRS PL PM
PNG POSS
POT PREP PRES PROG PST PUNC RSP SG
SOL SRP SUBJ TA TR
VAN
locative male negative non-future nominaliser Northern Territory non-singular object obligation perfect person plural predicate marker Papua New Guinea possessive potential preposition present progressive past punctual respect singular Solomon Islands subject referencing pronoun subject tense-aspect marker transitive Vanuatu
References Baker, B. J. 2002. How referential is agreement? The interpretation of polysynthetic agreement morphology in Ngalakgan. In Problems ofPolysynthesis, N. Evans & H.- J. Sasse (eds), 51-86. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. Baker, P. 2001. No c.reolisation without prior pidginisation. In Studies in Creole Linguistics in Memory of Chris Corne, 1942-1999 (Te Reo 44), T. Crowley & J. Siegel (eds), 31-50. Auckland: linguistic Society of New Zealand. Baker, P. & Huber, M. 2001. Atlantic, Pac.ifu:, and world -wide features in English-lexicon contact languages. English World- Wide 22: 157-208. Baker, P. & Miihlhiiusler, P. 1996. The origins and dl1fusion of Pidgin English in the Pacific. In Atlas ofLanguages of bJtercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia and the Americas, S. A. Wurm, P. Miihlhausler & D. T. 'fryon (eds), 551-594. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Beaumont, C. H. 1979. The Tigak Language of New Ireland [Pacific Linguistics B-58]. Canberra: Australian National University. Beimers, G. 2008. Piijin: A Grammar of Solomon Islands Pidgin. PhD dissertation, University of New England (Australia).
Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacifu: Pidgin features
Bickerton, D. 1981. Roots of Language. Ann Arbor MI: Karoma. Camden, W. G. 1979. Parallels in structure of lexicon and syntax between New Hebrides Bislama and the South Santo language as spoken at Tangoa. In Papers in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics 2 [Pacific Linguistics A-57], P. Miihlhliusler & others (eds), 51-117. Canberra: Australian National University. Coote, W. 1882. Wanderings, South and East. London: Sampson, Low, Marston. Cromar, J. 1935. Jock of the Islands: Early Days in the South Seas. London: Faber and Faber. Crowley, T. 1990. Beach-la-mar to Bislama: The Emergence of a National Language of Vanuatu. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Crowley, T. 2000. 'Predicate marking' in Bislama. In Processes of Language Contact: Studies from Australia and the South Pacific, J. Siegel (ed.), 47-74. Montreal: Fides. Crowley, T. 2002a. Port Sandwich. In The Oceanic Languages, J. Lynch, M. Ross & T. Crowley (eds), 650-659. Richmond: Curzon. Crowley, T. 2002b. Raga. In The Ocea,Jic Languages, J. Lynch, M. Ross & T. Crowley (eds), 626-637. Richmond: Curzon. Crowley, T. 2004. Bislama Reference Grammar. Honolulu HI: University ofHawai'i Press. Deck, N. C. 1934. Grammar of the Language Spoken by the KWara'ae People ofMala, British Solomo,J Islands. New Plymouth: Thomas Avery & Sons (Reprint 5 from the Journal of the Polynesian Society 42 & 43). Dutton, T. & Thomas, D. 1985. A New Course in Tok Pisin [Pacifu: Linguistics D-67]. Canberra: Australian National University. Elbert, S. H. & Pukui, M. K. 1979. Hawaiian Grammar. Honolulu HI: University of Hawaii Press. Fox, C. E. 1974. Lau Dictionary [Pacifu: Linguistics C-25]. Canberra: Australian National University. Fox, C. E. 1978. Arosi Dictionary [Pacifu: Linguistics C-57]. Canberra: Australian National University. Franklin, K. J., Kerr, H. B. & Beaumont, C. H. 1974. Tolai Language Course (Language Data). Huntington Beach CA: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Giles, W. E. 1877/1968. A Cruize in a Queensland Labour vessel to the South Seas. Canberra: Australian National University. Harris, J. W. 1986. Northern Territory Pidgins and the Origin of Kriol [Pacific Linguistics C-89]. Canberra: Australian National University. Heath, J. 1981. Basic Materials in Mara: Grammar, Texts and Dictionary [Pacifu: Linguistics C-60]. Canberra: Australian National University. Heath, J. 1984. A Functional Grammar ofNunggubuyu. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Hudson, J. 1983. Grammatical and Semantic Aspects of Fitzroy Valley Kriol [Work Papers of SIL-AAB Series A, Vol8]. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Hutchinson, A. P. & Uoyd, J. 1996. Portuguese: An Essential Grammar. London: Routledge. Jourdan, C. 2002. Pijin: A Trilingual Cultural Dictionary [Pacific Linguistics 526]. Canberra: Australian National University. Kearns, Y. 2000. Pidg Latin and How Kitty Got Her Pidgin Back. Honolulu HI: Honolulu Theater for Youth & Kumu Kahua Theater. Keesing, R. M. 1985. Kwaio Grammar [Pacific Linguistics B-88]. Canberra: Australian National University. Keesing, R. M. 1988. Melanesian Pidgin and the Oceanic Substrate. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. Keesing, R. M. n.d. Solomons Pijin and the Malaita languages: Kwaio grammar and Pijin grammar. Ms. Koch, H. 2000. The role of Australian Aboriginal languages in the formation of Australian Pidgin grammar: Transitive verbs and adjectives. In Processes of Language Contact: Studies from Australia and the South Pacific, J. Siegel (ed.), 13-46. Montreal: Fides. Lichtenberk. F. 1984. To'aba'ita Language ofMalaita, Solonwn Islands [Working Papers in Anthropology, Archaeology, Linguistics, Maori Studies No. 65]. Auckland: Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland. Lynch, J. 1998. Pacific Languages: An Introduction. Honolulu HI: University ofHawai'i Press. Lynch, J. & Horoi, R. 2002. Arosi In The Oceanic Languages, J. Lynch, M. Ross & T. Crowley (eds), 562-572. Richmond: Curzon.
555
556
Jeff Siegel
Lynch, J., Ross, M. & Crowley, T. (eels). 2002. The Oceanic Languages. Richmond: Curzon. Matthews, S. & Yip, V. 1994. Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge. Merlan, F. 1983. Ngalalam Grammar, Texts and Vocabulary [Pacific Linguistics B-89]. Canberra: Australian National University. Mihalic, F. 1971. The Jacaranda Dictionary and Grammar of Melanesian Pidgin. Milton: Jacaranda Press. Mosel, U. 1980. Tolai and Tok Pisin: The Influence af the Substratum on the Development of New Guinea Pidgin [Pacific linguistics B-73]. Canberra: Australian National University. Munro, J. M. 2004. Substrate Language Influence in Kriol; The Application of 'fransfer Constraints to Language Contact in Northern Australia. PhD dissertation, University of New England, Australia. Parkhouse, T. A. 1895. Native tribes of Port Darwin and its neighbours. Australian Association for the Advancement of Science, Brisbane Conference Report, 638-647. Perini, M. A. 2002. Modem Portuguese: A Refem~ee Grammar. New Haven CT: Yale University Press. Prista, A. R. da. 1966. Essential Portuguese Grammar. New York NY: Dover. Rannie, D. 1912. My Adventures among South Seas Cannibals. London: Seeley, Service and Co. Roberts, S. J. 1998. The role of diffusion in the genesis of Hawaiian Creole. Language 74: 1-39. Roberts, S. J. 2005. The Emergence ofHawai'i Creole English in the Early 20th Century: The Sociohistorical Context of Creole Genesis. PhD dissertation, Stanford University. Ross, M. D. 2002. Siar. In The Oceanic Languages, J. Lynch, M. Ross & T. Crowley (eds), 410-425. Richmond: Curzon. Sakoda, K. & Siegel, J. 2003. Pidgin Grammar: An Introduction to the Creole Language of Hawai'i. Honolulu HI: Bess Press. Sandefur, J. R. 1979. An Australian Creole in the Northern Territory: A Description of Ngukurr-Bamyili Dialects (Part 1) [Work Papers ofSIL-AAB Series B, Vol3]. Darwin: Swnmer Institute of linguistics. Sandefur, J. R. & Sandefur, J. L. 1979. Beginnings of a Ngukurr-Bamyili Creole Dictio,Jary [Work Papers of SIL-AAB, Series B, Vol4]. Darwin: Swnmer Institute of linguistics. Saunders, K. 1979. 'froublesome servants. Journal of Pacific History 14: 168-183. Schiitz, A. J. 1969a. Nguna Grammar. Honolulu HI: University ofHawai'i Press. Schiitz, A. J. 1969b. Nguna Texts. Honolulu HI: University of Hawai'i Press. Searcy, A. 1912. By Flood and Field: Adventures Ashore and Afloat in North Australia. London: G. Bell and Sons. Sharpe, M. C. 1972. Alawa Phonology mJd Grmnmar. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Sharpe, M. C. 2001. Alawa Nanggaya Ninganya lalanu Rugalarra: Alawa-Kriol-English Dictionary Oonger edn). Adelaide: Caitlin Press. Siegel, J. 1997. Mixing, leveling and pidgin/creole development. In The Structure and Status of Pidgins and Creoles [Creole Language Library 19], A. K. Spears & D. Winford (eels), 111-149. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Siegel, J. 1998. Dialectal differences and substrate reinforcement in Melanesian Pidgin. Journal of Socioli1Jguistics 2:347-373. Siegel, J. 1999. 'fransfer constraints and substrate influence in Melanesian Pidgin. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 14: 1-44. Siegel, J. 2000. Substrate influence in Hawai'i Creole English. La"'guage in Society 29: 197-236. Siegel, J. 2008. The Emergence of Pidgin and Creole Languages. Oxford: OUP. Simons, L & Young, H. 1978. Pijin blong Yumi: A Guide to Solo,non Islands Pijin. Honiara: Solomon Islands Christian Association. Thieberger, N. 2006. A Grammar af South Efate: An Oceanic Language of Vanuatu. Honolulu HI: University of Hawai'i Press. 'fryon, D. T. & Charpentier, J.-M. 2004. Pacific Pidg»u mJd Creoles: Origins, Growth mJd Development. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Wawn, W. T. 1893/1973. The South Sea Islanders and the Queensland Labour Trade, 1875-1891. Canberra: Australian National University. Willshire, W. H. 1896. The Land of the Dawning. Adelaide: W.K. Thomas.
The copula in Hawai'i Creole English and substrate reinforcement* Sarah J. Roberts Stanford University
This article presents comparative and diachronic evidence indicating that substratum patterns played a significant role in the development of the copula in Hawai'i Creole English. The predominantly Cantonese, Portuguese, Hawaiian, and Japanese substrate did not contribute much to the Innovation oflexical forms since HCE drew on a pre-existing pidgin. but the transference and reinforcement of semantic and syntactic properties from these languages - with the exception of Japanese - is detectlble In the copula system that arose in HCE. After a survey of the copula in modern HCE and In attestations in early texts, a detailed comparison of substrata! patterns for the creole copula follows in Section 5. The paper concludes with a discussion of bilingualism in the early phase of creole formation and how it led to the transference and selection of features.
Keywords: Hawai'i Creole English, Pidgin Hawaiian, substrate, copula, locative, possessive
1.
Introduction
Hawai'i Creole English (HCE), as the name implies, is an anglophone creole spoken in the Hawaiian Islands by native Hawaiians, current immigrants and the descendents of people who immigrated in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. According to Grimes (1996: 139), about half the population has competence in it, about 600,000 individuals. The emergence of HCE as a distinct language variety occurred relatively recently. HCE derives from a variety of Pacific Pidgin English that took shape in the port towns in the 1850s, coexisting with a pidginised form of the Hawaiian language, Pidgin Hawaiian. When massive immigration of contract labour began in 1876 to drive the nascent sugar industry, PH was established as the prevailing medium of communication on plantations. The early groups
This chapter is a revision of a paper presented on 7 August 2007 at the Workshop on Creole Genesis at the XVIIIth International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL), Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Canada. The author is indebted to Claire Lefebvre for her efforts in organising and chairing the workshop, as well as to those at the workshop who provided substantive comments and discussion, including Sarah Thomason, Brian Joseph, Stephen Matthews, V!rginia Yip, Bettina Migge, and Bao Zbiming. Three reviewers also provided helpful comments for this chapter. The author however is responsible for all the content presented herein.
558
Sarah J. Roberts
who came to the Islands - Chinese workers from the Guangdong Province in mainland China and Portuguese from the islands of Madeira and the Azores - acquired this language along with Hawai'i Pidgin English (HPE), particularly those who moved to towns like Honolulu and Hila upon the completion of their contracts. In 1885, labourers from Japan began to join the population and were numerically predominant by 1900. HPE began to displace PH in the rural context in the 1890s and, by the 1910s, a new, repidginised form of HPE had appeared on plantations. This variety reflected extensive Japanese substratum influence (Nagara 1969 ). According to Reinecke (1969) and Roberts (2005), HCE arose as a vernacularised and later nativised form of HP E between 1900 and 19 30. Sociohistorical evidence suggests that its creators were locally-born speakers bilingual in both HPE and ancestral languages (Roberts 2000), predominantly speakers of Hawaiian, Cantonese (and Hakka), Portuguese, and Japanese. lt may seem surprising that comparatively little research has been done on the role of substrate languages in the genesis of HCE. Bickerton (1981, 1984a), who took the lead in HCE research in the 1970s and 1980s, dismissed substratum transfer as a major mechanism of creole formation, largely on account of the existence of features in HCE that could not reasonably be explained as arising from the same West African languages thought to have been the source of the same features in other creoles. But a number of early researchers took a closer look on the possible role of substratum patterns in HCE's formation. Most notable among these were Kaapu (1937), who found minimal evidence of Japanese influence in HCE, and Knowlton (1967), who argued that Portuguese is the basis of various lexical and grammatical features in both H CE and Chinese Pidgin English. Nagara (1969, 1972) found that substantial Japanese influence lay not in the creole but in the pidgin spoken by Japanese immigrants, which often utilises SOV constituent order. Bickerton (1977a, 1984a) similarly observed that Japanese structures occurred in the "rudimentary" speech of his HPE informants, not in HCE spoken by locally-born speakers. More recently, Masuda (1995, 2000) argued that Japanese discourse structure can be detected in HCE, particularly the variety spoken by those of Japanese ancestry. The most important study to date is Siegel (2000), who demonstrated that the key "bioprogram" features argued by Bickerton to lack a substrate basis have, in fact, adequate analogues in Cantonese and Portuguese. A brief exploration of many of the same teatures also appeared in Roberts (2005: 253-267). This article will focus on a particular subsystem ofHCE's grammar and examine the extent to which substratum patterns can account for its linguistic properties. The copula will serve as this study's focus, because it has attracted the attention of earlier researchers, including Knowlton (1967), Bickerton (1981) and Siegel (2000). Although we shall begin with a synchronic assessment of the creole copula, extensive attestation of early HCE and its pidgin ancestor in written texts will also facilitate a reconstruction of the diachronic development of this component of the grammar. The paper will conclude with a discussion on how the processes of transference and reinforcement took place in the creole.
2.
Theoretical issues
HCE presents an interesting problem in the study of contact-induced morphosyntactic change in creoles. It shares a number of structural similarities common to the Portuguese, French and
The copula in Hawai'i Creole English and substrate reinforcement
English-lexified creoles of the Atlantic and yet it lacks the West African substrate often cited as the primary source of these structures. At the same time, it has its own substrate that can account for many of the same features. Another complication is the fact that one of the languages in its substrate- Portuguese- serves as a superstrate for some Atlantic creoles. The manner of HCE's development also differs in striking ways from what is commonly hypothesised for the creoles of the Caribbean and South America. HCE took shape in the early twentieth century in communities where education in standard English was the norm (see Singler 2006:347-348 for discussion), so its early developers had a kind of access to the prestige variety of the superstrate that was not shared by those responsible for creoles like Sranan CE or Haitian CF. At the same time, HCE drew its structure substantially from a pre-existing pidgin which, in turn, received many of its features from earlier varieties in the Atlantic and Pacific. If that were not enough, early HPE coexisted with another pidgin which, as mentioned above, was lexified by one of the substrates for HCE and which may itself have constituted a separate influence on HCE (Roberts to appear). ln the past, hypotheses on the source of HCE grammatical features tended to be simplistic and focused on single-source scenarios. Early research dealt with influence from substrate languages and Chinese Pidgin English (Knowlton 1967; Wilson 1974a, 1974b). Later Bickerton (1981, 1984a) argued that language universals were almost exclusively responsible and in response Goodman (1985) and Holm (1986) claimed that diffusion of features from Atlantic varieties - themselves indebted to West Mrican substrates - account for the existence of certain features in HCE. These explanations were also supported by sociohistorical claims that have proven to be incorrect. Bickerton excluded substrate influence by arguing that the creole arose through first language acquisition in the speech of young children who would have otherwise lacked a full native language (1976:2, 1984b: 145, 1992: 312; see also Bickerton & Muysken 1988: 302), whereas the creole was first observed as the in-group language oflocally-born bilinguals who controlled both the pidgin and their own ancestral languages (Roberts 2000). Although he acknowledged that, in fact, children in nineteenth-century Hawai'i acquired some competence in their ancestral languages (1981: 16, 1999: 55), he maintained that these vernaculars would have had very little utility tor young children in displaced communities (1977b: 57, 64, 1981: 5). Sociohistorical evidence however shows that children generally did acquire their native languages in the home and gained competence in pidgin at a later age (Roberts 2005: 220-225 ). Bickerton also argued that PH would have delayed the formation ofHPE (Bickerton 1979: 8), preventing the latter from receiving input from early nineteenth-century whaling jargons (Goodman 1985: 112), whereas both arose at the same time and coexisted in different social niches (Roberts 2005). Goodman (1985) and Holm (1986) would also require the whaling jargons to have the kind of structure they did not have at the time (Roberts 1998, 1999; see also Baker 1993: 12; Baker & Huber 2001: 178). Siegel (2000) has proposed a more nuanced account of substrate influence in the development of HCE. He concurs with earlier scholars who tound plausible parallels between structures in the Chinese, Portuguese and Hawaiian languages that comprise most of HCE's substrate, but he also allows for input via superstrate languages and diffusion from existing contact varieties, as well as for a role of universals in constraining the selection of features. He also makes a distinction between two kinds of restructuring processes involving substrate influence: substrate transfer, through which structures from substrate languages appear in the pidgin/creole at the
559
560
Sarah J. Roberts
individual level, and substrate reinforcement, which gives preference during levelling to variants that are more congruent to their substrates (Siegel1997). It is through levelling that idiosyncratic interlanguage features from L2 acquisition become integrated components of a shared community-wide grammar. Thus variants that entered into the contact variety from superstrata! sources (including the whaling jargon spoken by early nineteenth-century anglophone sailors) may be retained in part through congruence with structures shared in the substrate -just as interlanguage features that represent direct transfers of substrata! patterns may be preserved through the same reinforcement mechanism.
3·
The copula system in modern HCE
HCE utilises several forms of the copula to link the grammatical subject to verbless predicates expressing different kinds of semantic relations. These relations include identification, class membership, attribution of quality or condition, location, possession, and existence. The following survey of the basic forms (Table 1), surface position and function of the copula was largely taken from Sakoda and Siegel (2004), with additional information supplemented from Roberts (2005: 179). A few general comments are in order. The above table does not include infinitive bi, which may occur in non-finite clauses in place of iz/ waz. All copula forms may delete except for existentialget!ha.ed and copula absence is variable, conditioned by syntactic position (at least in the case of iz/waz) along similar lines as other English-lexified creoles (Inoue 2007). There is some uncertainty on whether attribution involves a verbless predicate in the case of 0 and stei, for predicate adjectives may actually be stative verbs as they are in the Hawaiian substrate, in which case stei would function as an aspect marker similar to Hawaiian ua. However the fact that 0 and stei can alternate with iz!waz suggests that these are indeed adjectival predicates, as iz/waz conforms to Table 1. The forms, positions and functions of the copula in modern HCE Forms
Sentence pattern
Function
NPsUBJ cop NP
identification, class membership
NPSUBJ cop AP
attribution
0
AP NP susr cop
attribution (w/AP focus)
stei -· 0
NPsusr cop PP/AdvPdeic, (PP/Advpd•t.") NPSUBJ cop
location
get/haev/haez haed (tense: past)
NPsusr cop NP
possession
get
cop NP SUB PP/ Advpdelc, (PP/Adv¢•i<) cop NPSUBJ
existence
iz-0 waz- 0 (tense: past) stei (non-intrinsic condition)
iz-0 waz- 0 (tense: past)
iz-0 waz- 0 (tense: past)
haed (tense: past)
The copula in Hawai'i Creole English and substrate reinforcement
the patterning of their equivalents in the prestige superstrate variety. Moreover, Sakoda and Siegel (2004:753) treatget/haed in existential sentences as subjectless verbs even though their function is only to mark existence. They also note that some attributive predicates have the AP before the subject (2004: 754), but this is an instance of presentational left dislocation, usually accompanied with prosodic emphasis. This movement operation is only possible with the null copula. In all other cases, the overt copula follows the subject except for existential sentences in which the copula occurs first In both locative and existential sentences, the PP as well as the Advpdek (e.g. hia 'here, dea 'there') can be emphasised in the clause-initial position. Finally, for each kind of predicate, the copula can optionally be tensed (waz and haed as the past tense form of iz and get respectively). The following examples illustrate the different forms and positions of the copula: (1)
a
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
L
j.
Mai sista wan bas jraiva. my sister a bus driver 'My sister is a bus driver: Hi waz wan old gai. he COP.3S an old guy 'He was an old guy? Mai sista skini. my sister skinny 'My sister is skinny.' Shi stei sik. she COP sick 'She is sick' Smat da dog. Smart the dog. 'The dog is smart: Mal slsta hia. my sister here 'My sister is here: Hi stel lnsaid da kafn. he coP inside the coffin 'He is inside the coffin.' Yu get sam mani? you have some money 'Do you have any money?' Get wan nada girl hu no kaen stei stil. exist specific another girl who NEG can stay still 'There's another girl who can't stay still: Haed dis old grin haus. existPAST this old green house 'There was this old green house:
HCJ!
(Sakoda & Siegel2004: 753)
(lbid.)l
(Ibid.: 754)
(Ibid.)
(Ibid.)
(Ibid.: 755)
(Ibid.)
(Sakoda & Siegel2003: 84)
(Sakoda & Siegel2004: 759)
(Ibid.: 753)
This sentence and several others from Sakoda and Siegel (2003, 2004) have been recast in the orthography of Odo (1977), which is used throughout the paper.
1.
561
562.
Sarah J. Roberts
Table 2. Negation of the copula in modern HCE Forms and sentence pattern NP izlwazlllJ natNPIAPIPPIAdvpd•ic NP no stei NP IPP IAdvpd•tc
Function identification, attribution, location attribution, location possession existence
NPnomoNP Nomo NP (PP I AdvPd•tc)
Moreover different forms of the negator occur in different kinds of copular predicates. Nat occurs after iz/was or with 0 in equative, attributive and locative sentences, no appears before stei wherever it occurs, and nomo usually occurs with 0 in possessive and existential sentences. Table 2 presents these patterns in slightly simplified form. According to Sak.oda and Siegel (2003: 84), other forms sometimes occur with negative possessive and existential sentences: no haed and ne11a haed in cases of explicit past tense reference and no have and neva get elsewhere. Whereas no and neva also occur with verbs and modals, nomo is restricted to possessive/existential predicates and will thus be considered a portmanteau morpheme embracing both negation and copular functions - in a similar way that neva marks both negation and tense/aspect. (2)
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Mal sista nat wan bas jraiva. my sister NEG a bus driver 'My sister is not a bus driver: Mal sista nat sklni. my sister NEG skinny 'My sister is not skinny: Shl ,10 stel sik. she NEG COP sick 'She is not sick.' Hi ,10 stei insaid da kafn. he NEG COP inside the coffin 'He is not inside the coffin: Nau wi nomo ka. now we Nl!G.have car 'Now we dori't have a Nomo kaukau in da haus. NEG.exist food in the house 'There isri't any food in the house:
car:
f.
HCE Sakoda and Siegel (2003: 84)
(Ibid.)
(Ibid.)
(Ibid.)
(Sakoda & Siege12004:757)
(Ibid.)
Each of the forms under consideration overlaps between semantic functions, as Table 3 demonstrates. The overlap of zero copula across several functions reflects the pattern in HPE, which could have 0 in equative, attributive, locative, possessive, and existential sentences (Roberts 2005: 149-152). The overlap between equative, attributive and locative in the case of iz!waz, on the other hand, reflects the English superstrate where these forms occur in all three cases. We shall consider in Section 5 whether the overlaps of stei, get!haed and nomo reflect substrata! patterns. But it is also worth noting that the semantics of stei and get/had reflect what is found
The copula in Hawai'i Creole English and substrate reinforcement
Table 3. Functional overlap of forms Identification
Attribution
Location
Possession
Existence
<--------------------------------------- 0 -----------------------------> <--------- ------------------- iz/waz- ------------------------------ ----> <------------------- stei ----------------------> <---- ------------- get/haed --------------- ----> <------------------ ,wmo --------------------->
in many Atlantic creoles. In HCE, attributive and locative stei shares its phonetic form with the preverbal progressive marker (Roberts 1999:59; Velupillai 2003:64-66, 83-94). In Atlantic CEs, the progressive marker is often a form of locative de/da and Lesser Antillean CF ka and Caboverdean CP ta similarly mark both location and progressive aspect Holm (1988: 155) points to substrata! patterns in West African languages but also notes that these are manifestations of semantic universals (1988: 177), as reflected in the locative >progressive cline of grammaticalisation that separately led to the preverbal use oflocative stap in Bislama CE and Tok Pisin (Crowley 1990: 10; Mihalic 1957: 30). The use of the same form for both possession and existence also occurs frequently in other creoles, to such an extent that Bickerton considered it a basic "bioprogram" feature (1981:66); examples include St. Kitts CE gat, Papiamentu CS tin, Morisyen CF ena, and Negerhollands CD die hab (Adone 1994: 35; Hancock 1987: 313; Holm 1988: 178). Other varieties however express location and existence by the same marker, such as Sranan CEde. Location, existence and possession are related semantically: If something exists, it must have a location, and possession involves things that exist (Martin 1975: 194).
4·
Historical development of the copula system
The above sketch of the creole copula is representative of contemporary HCE, which is rather mesolectal when compared to the varieties recorded in the middle of the twentieth century. While the present system may be due to decreolisation, it is still possible that forms characteristic of the older basilect may still survive. Mesolectal iz/waz variants also are attested throughout the history of the creole. However, to gain a more complete picture of the copula throughout the lectal continuum, one must consider the basilect of the 1930s and 1940s. According to Roberts (2004, 2005), HCE began to diverge structurally from the pidgin spoken in metropolitan contexts by 1910 and was recognised as a distinct language from HPE by the 1930s. It was during this period that the basilect undetwent development, as can be seen from the tense/aspect system. In the 1920s, the sentence 'He's walking home' would have the following equivalents in HCE: (3) Hi jg_ tiooakin hom. Hi _a wakin hom. Hi stei wakln hom.
(acrolect)
(basilect)
S63
564
Sarah J. Roberts
By the 19 30s, it was possible to give a past tense equivalent of this sentence by combining progressive stei with the tense marker bin: (4)
Hi bin
stej
wakin
hom.
HCE
he PAST PROG Walking home 'He was walking home.'
This feature contrasted with the mesolectal and acrolectal equivalent waz, drawn from the superstrate. Eventually bin and future gon would precede abilitative kaen and completive pau. as well (Roberts 2005: 190-191). In extended texts, combinations of tense/aspect markers would sometimes occur with other marked basilectal features like nominative-subject complementiser Jo. 2 Today the combination of wen (the lenitioned variant of bin) + stei is still used "in heavy Pidgin [i.e. basilectal HCE] to indicate past progressive" (Sakoda & Siegel2003:62). Samples ofbasilectal HCE from the 1920s onward differ from Table 1 in two respects. The variants iz!waz are generally absent in equational, attributive and locative predicates, where 0 and stei occur in their place. Moreover attributive/locative stei and possessive/existential get could be tensed with the preverbal marker bin (examples from Roberts 2005: 177-178): (5)
You Nnk zaza same keed been stay Kahului befo'
yea? (1924)
HCE
you think rascal same kid PAST coP K. before yeah 'Do you think the rascal is the same kid who was in Kahului before, yeah?' (6)
The girl been get
dirty 11ails. (1937)
the girl PAST have dirty nails 'The girl had dirty nails: (7)
Me I tot
(8)
Been get one
da ca been stay empty because no mo da noise. (1946) me I thought the car PAST coP empty because NEG.have the noise 'I thought the car was empty because there was no noise:
guy who newa been
stay
happy wid nuttin. (1946)
PAST exist specific man who NEG PAST COP happy with nothing 'There was a guy who wasrlt happy with anything:
This represents another extension of tense marking beyond the domain of normal verbs to positions preceding quasi-verbs like copulas and aspect/modality markers. While contemporary HCE may still mark locatives and possessives with bin/wen, Sakoda and Siegel (2003: 74) note that existential sentences accept neither tense markers nor auxiliaries in positions before get. But earlier in the twentieth century, bin stei and bin get were apparently basilectal variants of waz and haed: (9)
bin stel - waz (attribution, location) bin get- bin haev - haed (possession. existence)
2. This grammatical feature was discussed in detail in Roberts (1998, 2005). Like tense/aspect marker combinations, it was not attested in the speech of immigrants. Siegel (2000: 223- 226) finds a plausible substrata! pattern in Portuguese.
The copula in Hawai'i Creole English and substrate reinforcement
In order to assess the development of the copula system beyond its elaboration in the basilect, we need to look farther into the past to the pidgin spoken before the emergence of distinctive HCE features in the 1910s. The use of izlwaz in equative, attributive and locative sentences was not a general feature of early HPE but occurred infrequently in the speech of native Hawaiians, some of whom had greater access to English education than Asian immigrants. The usual form of the copula instead was 0, which remains variably frequent in HCE (Inoue 2007). But in HPE it occurred in locative, possessive, and existential predicates where it would not be found today (examples from Roberts 2005: 149-152): (10)
You see, I gQl wood there, plenty men here no~ job, come steal. (1895) HPE you see I have wood there, many men here NEG job come steal 'I have some wood over there but lots of people here don't have jobs and they come here to steal it'
(11)
You see, me boy _a in number two class. ( 1904) you see my boy in nwnber two class 'You see, my son is in two classes (at school):
(12)
Baby~
i,ISide the hole, you go look, you come here. (1898) baby inside the hole you go look you come here 'There's a baby inside the hole, come look. come here!'
HPE did have two overt markers for location and possession. The predominant locative verb was
stap, the same feature found in other Pacific varieties and thus likely has its origin in the early whaling jargon that diffused other features to Hawai'i (Holm 1986; Roberts 1998). It was first attested in 1866 and, according to Baker and Huber (2001:202), it was earlier attested in the Pacific in 1824 and in Sierra Leone in 1820. (13) Please you go upstairs and bring me my shawl. He mp_ on nail inside my room. (1891) please you go upstairs and bring me my shawl, it coP on nail in my room 'Please go upstairs and bring me my shawl It's on a nail in my room:
However a new locative copula had emerged in HPE by the early twentieth century: ( 14)
That Nme Sing Ping no ~ about 12 otlock Sing Ping come home. (1904) that time S. P. NEG coP, about twelve o'clock S. P. come home 'Sing Ping was not there at the time, he came home around 12 o'clock:
Although the innovation of stei preceded the development of H CE, it remained infrequent in the pidgin of immigrants. As late as the 1960s and early 1970s, the two immigrants interviewed by Nagara (1969) and Carr (1972), and Bickerton's earliest arriving pre-1920 immigrant continued to indicate location with stap. It was in HCE thatstei became the general locative copula. Possession was expressed most commonly in HPE via gat as (10) shows, where it alternates with 0. This was another widespread feature found in other anglophone varieties, attested as firr back as 1787 in Sierra Leone and 1796 in Chinese Pidgin English (Roberts 2005:98; it was first recorded in Hawai'i in 1856). Less commonly, get was used as a possessive copula in early HPE texts (earliest attestation: 1860). Neither get nor gat were used in early HPE to indicate existence. HCE has therefore adopted the less common variant for both location and possession and then extended possessive get as an existential.
S6S
566
Sarah J. Roberts
So the development of the copula system unfolded gradually in several stages. First, 0 was introduced in the earliest contacts between Hawaiians and foreigners - where it was first attested in 1791 in both attributive and possessive predicates- then, in the whaling period from 1820 to 1860, the local variety received possessive gat!get and locative stop from the wider nautical jargon. By 1900, a second locative verb stei had come into existence in HPE. When HCE began to emerge as a distinct entity in the 1910s onward, several modifications followed. Stap and gat, which were the dominant forms in H PE, became infrequent variants of stei and get in the creole. Then get was extended to the existential by the 1920s and stei was extended to non-intrinsic non-permanent attributives by the 1930s. At the same time, iz/waz (relatively infrequent in HPE) became common acrolectal and mesolectal variants by the 1920s and basilectal tense marking of stei and get with bin also emerged then.
5·
Substrata! patterns tor the creole copula
There are several ways in which the substrate can have an effect on the resultant copula pattern: (1) the phonetic and etymological form of the copula, (2) its syntactic position, (3) its semantic functionality. We have seen in Section 3 that the use of iz/waz for identification, attribution, and location reflects the superstrata! pattern, whereas the use of the same form for possessive and existential is tound in other creoles as well. In negative sentences, the same form (no mo) similarly occurs in both possessive and existential predicates. Meanwhile existential get differs from the possessive and locative copulas by occurring before the subject rather than after it. HCE also employs stei as both a locative copula and a progressive auxiliary, reflecting another universal tendency found in other creoles. Stei also occurs in attributive predicates, but only those expressing temporary or non-intrinsic conditions. In basilectal HCE, stei and get may be tensed with a preverbal auxiliary. Finally, the phonetic form of the copula may have played a role in the processes that led to the formation of the creole system. The principal substrate languages involved in the genesis ofHCE were Hawaiian, Cantonese, Hakka, Portuguese, and Japanese. These were the languages spoken by the dominant immigrant groups during the early plantation era (1876-1900). Hawaiian is an Austronesian language and the native tongue of Hawai'i's indigenous population. Hakka and Cantonese are closely related Sino-Tibetan languages first brought to Hawai'i in the whaling era. In the early phase of immigration (1877-1885), Hakka and Cantonese speakers dominated the plantation labour force. During the same period, substantial numbers of Portuguese speakers immigrated from Madeira and the Azores. Finally, speakers ofJapanese (an Altaic language) began to arrive in large numbers in 1885 and by 1900, the Japanese population (56,234) outnumbered the Chinese and Portuguese populations combined (21,741 and 7,668 respectively). But as Kaapu (1937) found, the Japanese contribution to HCE was rather minimal. This may reflect the later arrival of Japanese speakers, the majority of whom did not immigrate until the 1890s. It may also reflect a greater homogeneity of the other substrate languages in comparison to Japanese.
The copula in Hawai'i Creole English and substrate reinforcement
The use of the same form for possession and existence is a feature that is shared between Cantonese, Hakka, Portuguese, and Hawaiian. Thus Cantonese yauh, Hakka ju, Portuguese ter and haver, and Hawaiian loa'a embrace both functions in the following examples:3 (15)
a
Keuihdeih yduh saam go
jai.
CANTONESE
3P have three cuss son 'They have three sons:
b.
(16)
a
b.
(17)
a
Uulhrnih11 yduh h6u do
yah11
(Matthews & Ylp 1994: 279)
dang-gdn leih.
CANTONESE
Inside have very many people wait-PROG you 'Inside there are a lot of people waiting for yOU:
(Matthews & Ylp 1994: 286)
Man-1}in du jH. anybody all have
HAKKA
'Everybody has (it).' 1J hctn jM. sa 61 mal m6? 2s still have book want buy NEG 'Is there still a book you want to buy?'
(Hashimoto 1973: 500) HAKKA (Hashimoto 1973: 501)
Hoje houve urnjiigo de Jutebol.
PoRTUG UESB
today have.1s a game of football 'Today I have a game of football:
b.
(Ellison 1971: 372)
Hd urn livro na mesa?
PoRTUG UESB
have a book on table 'Is there a book on the table?' (18)
a
Maria tern
urna sobrlnha bonita.
M.
have.3s a parasol 'Maria has a pretty parasol:
b.
Nilo tern
(Ellison 1971: 373) PORTUGUESE
pretty (Ellison 1971 : 58)
rnuita gente no teatro.
PoRTUGUESE
NEG have.3s many people in theater 'There areri't many people in the theater: (19)
a
Ua loah
ia
makou ka hale
(Prista 1966:74)
kahlko.
be.owned OBJ/L 1P.1!XC the house old 'We have an old house:
HAWAIIAN
PRF
b.
Loah ka
he~
i
keia kakahiaka?
exist the octopus OBJ!L this morning 'Is there any octopus this morning?'
(Cleeland 1994: 323) HAWAIIAN (Hopkins 1992: 173)
In all these languages except for Hawaiian, the subject usually follows the verb for the existential but not for the possessive. It should be noted that loa 'a is also used to indicate events of'obtaining and 'receiving, as get in HCE also retains these verbal senses. But loa'a functions as a neuter verb in Hawaiian and thus takes the experiencer or patient as the grammatical subject (see Hooper 1984 for an analysis of neuter verbs in Maori). A closer parallel may be found in PH - which
3· The following grammatical abbreviations are used in the examples of Section 5: CLASS = classifier, COP = copulas of identifu:ation, attribution, and location, DP = discourse particle, INT = intensifier, NJ!G =negative, LOC = locative preposition, OBJ/L =objective/oblique case, PRP =perfective aspect, PROG =progressive aspect
S67
568
Sarah J. Roberts
prevailed in the plantation context in the 1880s and 1890s)- which employed loaa. as a transitive verb like get in HCE: (20)
a
b.
Oe klt.Hl pihi no? (1898) 2s have fish INT 'Do you have any fish?' Poakahi aole loaa hulu moa ma kela hale oe? (1906) Monday NEG exist feather chicken in the house 2s 'On Monday, were there any chicken feathers at your house?'
PIDGIN HAWAIIAN
PIDGIN HAWAIIAN
Note that in (20)a the subject precedes loaa whereas in (20)b it follows the verb. This is exactly the positional pattern that is tound in HCE. It is also worth noting that Hawaiian has an existential locative marker aia that occurs only in the sentence-initial position: (21)
Aia he hale ku'ai 11a'au kake I Kailua. exist a store sausage OBJ/L K. 'There is a sausage store in Kailua:
HAWAIIAN
(Hawkins 1982: 3, cited in Cook 1999: 60)
As for negation of possessive/existential sentences with nomo, Cantonese has a functionally similar copula m6uh, derivationally related to the general negative particle mh, hence a portmanteau morpheme similar to nomo: (22)
a
b.
Ng6h m6uh saai chfn la wo. 1s Nl!G.have all money DP DP 'I'm out of money.' M6uh yahn gaau ng6h Jungman. NEG.have person teach 1s Chinese 'There's no one to teach me Chinese:
CANTONBSJ!
(Matthews &Yip 1994:283) CANTONBSJ!
(Matthews & Yip 1994: 138)
There is also a phonetic resemblance between m6uh and nomo, such that nomo could theoretically be resegmented as no (the general preverbal negator) + m6uh. Moreover 'a'ohe in Hawaiian was used to negate possessive and existential predicates:4 (23)
a
b.
~he ka'a o ka luahlne. NEG.have car Poss the old.woman 'The old woman doesn't have a car: 1\'ohe mea 'ai I ka pahu hau. NEG.exist food OBJ/L the refrigerator 'There is no food in the refrigerator:
HAWAIIAN
(Hopkins 1992: 110) HAWAIIAN
(Hopkins 1992: 100)
a
4· Carter (1996) argued that 'a'ohe was nothing more than a phonological variant of 'ole in nineteenth-century Hawaiian. Cook (1999) has disputed Carter's overall analysis on several different grounds. As far as PH is concerned, 'aole and 'a'ohe were certainly distinct morphemes, as only the former was incorporated into the pidgin.
The copula in Hawai'i Creole English and substrate reinforcement
As for the overlap in form between the locative copula and the progressive marker, this feature is also shared by Cantonese and Portuguese.5 The following examples concern Cantonese hai!haidouh and Portuguese estar: (24)
a
Heuih vinga mh hdi Heunggong. now NEG is.at H. 'She's not in Hong Kong at the moment'
CANTONESE
3s
b.
Chah11 saang mh hdidouh wo. Chan mister NEG is.here 'Mr. Chan is not here.'
c.
(Matthews & Ylp 1994: 116) CANTONESE
DP
.Keuih hdidouh g6ng-gdn dihnwd. is.here talk-PROG telephone 'She's talking on the phone.'
(Matthews & Ylp 1994: 117) CANTONESE
3s
(25)
a
0 barco estd perto do p6rto. the boat is.at near ofthe harbor 'The boat is near the harbor:
b.
Estou
escrevendo uma carta. am.at.1s writing a letter
'I'm writing a letter.'
(Matthews & Ylp 1994: 202) PORTUGUESE
(Ellison 1971: 159) PORTUGUESE
(Prista 1966:75)
Portuguese estar is especially interesting since its phonetic form corresponds in part to stei, a resemblance widely noted in the literature since Reinecke and Tokimasa (1934). But the parallel with estar does not end there. The attributive use of stei with temporary and non-intrinsic states finds its analogue in this verb as well: (26)
a
b.
A
p2ra estd madura.
PoRTUGUESE
the pear is ripe 'The pear is ripe.'
(Wlllis 1965:75)
agua e.std Jria.
PoRTUGUESE
the water is cold 'The water is cold:
(Ellison 1971: 159)
A
Permanent and intrinsic conditions, on the other hand, typically require ser. The same substratal feature can thus explain the use of locative stei for both attributive predicates and progressive aspect. Wilson (1974b: 3) noted the similarity in word order between Hawaiian attributive predication, which involves adjectival stative verbs, and HCE sentences in which predicate adjectives precede the subject: (27)
s.
Ma'i ka'u 'i1io. sick my dog 'My dog is sick.'
HAWAIIAN
(Ibid.)
Hawaiian does have a construction in which the locative verb noho 'live, reside, sit' can precede another verb (Wilson 1974b: 10). But this is a rare and marked pattern that expresses habituality, not progressive or otherwise imperfective aspect
569
570
Sarah J. Roberts
However the HCE form is syntactically and prosodically marked whereas (27) conforms to standard Hawaiian word order, which thus would not have modelled a specific movement operation for focus. Finally, the placement of preverbal tense/aspect markers before stei and get has a direct parallel only in Hawaiian which may position perfective ua before loail: (28)
Ua loa'a ke kuawa i WaipiO. exist the guava OBJ/L W. 'There have been guavas in Waipi'o?
HAWAIIAN
PRF
(Ibid.)
Cantonese may mark the sentential verb with an aspectual suffix (see Matthews & Yip 1994: 117) and Portuguese may inflect estar and ser tor tense/aspect. but neither provides a close parallel to the pattern in (5)-(8).
6.
Discussion and conclusion
We have thus found a good degree of fit between the copula system of HCE and lexical models in Hawaiian, Cantonese and Portuguese, with Hakka patterning like Cantonese in at least one instance. But in most cases the substrates were not involved in the innovation oflexical forms. Get and nomo were forms already in use in HPE and they possibly have an origin in the same nautical jargon that was responsible for ga.t and stap. & for stei, verbs meaning 'reside, remain, live'- as stei also does in HPE and HCE- do not serve as locative copulas in the respective substrates: Compare Hawaiian noho 'reside, live' with locative/existential aia, Cantonese jyuh 'stay, live' with the preposition hai '(be) at: Hakka tch'on 'remain with tsai 'be located somewhere: Portuguese ficar, residir 'stay, reside' with estar 'be (at)'. So locative stei probably did not originate as a novel relexification of a word that has the same meaning in one or more of the substrate languages. Stei instead acquired its locative-marking function through a process of grammaticalisation that reflected the influence of stap, a verb of residency that had already acquired this function in Pacific Pidgin English. But estar as a substrate pattern presented additional functions tor the verb, and the partial phonetic resemblance between estar and stei might have contributed to the correspondence between functions of the two verbs. However it is difficult to appeal to this resemblance in explaining the selection of stei over stap in HCE since the vowel in most inflected forms of estar is closer to the latter. 6 Other factors may have been responsible for this development. such as the more frequent use of stay as a verb of residency than stop in American English - a major superstratal source of HCE, insofar as it was taught in the schools. In Siegel's framework of substrate influence, the linguistic process would have begun with the idiolectal transfer of functions - including the attribution of temporary states - in the interlanguage of Portuguese bilinguals and the correspondence between stei and estar would have then conferred further selective advantage to these patterns during levelling as a community grammar developed. One indirect sign that the Portuguese played a prominent role in stabilising stei as an attributive/locative copula and preverbal auxiliary is the observation by Smith 6. On the other hand, stap contains a coda obstruent which stei lacks.
The copula in Hawai'i Creole English and substrate reinforcement
(1939) that stei occurred most often in the speech of Portuguese and Filipino school children, and with much lower frequencies in the speech of Hawaiians and Chinese (Roberts 2005:265266).7 Since the Filipinos arrived too late to innovate structures, but soon enough to play a role in generalising and stabilising the grammar and, in fact, led in the use of most other distinctive features, the almost equal frequency of stei in the speech of Portuguese suggests that this group played an important role in the innovation and stabilisation of the feature. At the same time, it is difficult to separate the reanalysis oflocative stei as a preverbal auxiliary from the universal tendency for morphemes expressing progressive or imperfective aspect to develop from locatives. Since similar developments also occurred in contact languages with different substrates, one must leave room for universal constraints in the levelling process as well. The existential function of possessive get, meanwhile, has a straightforward analogue in PH which recruited loa.'a. from Hawaiian and altered its argument structure so that it takes the possessor as its subject The correspondence between loa'a and get suggests that Hawaiian and PH both had a prominent role in this development, but the existence of this functional overlap in Cantonese, Hakka and Portuguese indicates that the usage of get in HCE - including the word order that places the verb before the main NP -would have been reinforced by this convergence of languages. The stylistic expansion of HCE also opened up the lectal continuum in directions both convergent with, and divergent from, the prestige variety of American English spoken by whites and taught in the schools (Roberts 2004). The adoption of iz/waz from the superstrate represents an accommodation to standard English whereas the tensing of get and stei may be regarded as a further distinction from the dominant form of the language. In Section 5, we found insufficient evidence of a substrata! pattern tor this development, but this is reflective of the situation involving tense/aspect marking in general. Superstrata! influence, such as preverbal auxiliaries in varieties of English and the diffusion of been from other Pacific varieties, may well explain the morphological torm of tense/aspect marking, and the extension of auxiliaries to get and stei simply represents a generalisation of this paradigm. The evidence surveyed here thus confirms the claim made at the outset of this paper that single-source theories of creole grammar are inadequate, at least for HCE. Whatever model is devised for creole genesis should ideally integrate a multiplicity of formative factors, as Siegel's (1997) suggestion has done.
References Adone, D. 1994. The Acquisition of Mauritian Creole [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 9]. Amsterdam: John Benjarnins. Baker, P. 1993. Australian influence on Melanesian Pidgin English. Te Reo 36:3-37. Baker, P. & Huber, M. 2001. Atlantic, Pacific, and world -wide features English-lexicon contact languages. English World- Wide 22: 157-208.
7· Unfortunately, SmitHs original data was destroyed in World War II and she does not distinguish between copular and auxiliary uses of stei. Her statistical data, while suggestive. must be treated with caution.
571
572
Sarah J. Roberts
Bickerton, D. 1976. Creole tense-aspect systems and universal grammar. Paper presented at the Society for Caribbean Linguistics Meeting, Georgetown, Guyana. TI:anscript copy at Hamilton Library, University ofHawa.i'i Bickerton, D. 1977a. Change and variation in Hawaiian English, Vol 2: Creole syntax. Honolulu HI: University of Hawa.i'i, Social Science and Linguistics Institute. Bickerton, D. 1977b. Pidginization and creolization: Language acquisition and language universals. In Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, A. Valdman (ed.), 49-69. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press. Bickerton, D. 1979. Beginnings. In The Genesis ofLanguage, K. C. Hill (ed.), 1-22. Ann Arbor Ml: Karoma. Bickerton, D. 1981. Roots of Language. Ann Arbor MI: Karoma. Bickerton, D. 1984a. The language bioprogram hypothesis. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 7: 173-221. Bickerton, D. 1984b. The language bioprogram hypothesis and second language acquisition. In Language Universals and Second Language Acquisition, W. E. Rutherford (ed.), 141-165. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Bickerton, D. 1992. The sociohistorical matrix of creolization. Journal ofPidgin and Creole Languages 7: 307-318. Bickerton, D. 1999. How to acquire language without positive evidence: What acquisitionists can learn from creoles. In Language Creation and Language Change, M. DeGraff (ed.), 49-74. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. Bickerton, D. & Muysken, P. 1988. A dialog concerning the linguistic status of creole languages. In Linguistics: The Cambridge survey, Vol II, F. W. Newmeyer (ed.), 268-306. Cambridge: CUP. Carr, E. B. 1972. Da Kine Talk: From Pidgin to Standard English in Hawaii. Honolulu HI: University of Hawai'i Press. Carter, G. 1996. The Hawaiian Copula Verbs he, and ~ as Used in the Publications ofNative Writers of Hawaiian: A Study of Hawaiian Language and Literature. PhD dissertation, Department of Linguistics, University ofHawa.i'i Cleeland, H. 1994. 'Olelo ()iwi lee kahua: He puke ao ()lela Hawai'i. Hilo HI: 1\ha Piinana Leo. Cook, K. W. 1999. Hawaiian he, 'o, and i: copular verbs, prepositions, or determiners? Oceanic Linguistics 38: 43-65. Crowley, T. 1990. Beach-la-Mar to Bislama: The Emergence of a National Language in Vanuatu. New York NY: Clarendon Press. Ellison, F. P. 1971. Modern Portuguese: A Project of the Modem Language Associaticm. New York NY: Knopf. Goodman, M. 1985. Review of Bickerton (1981). International Journal of American Linguistics 51: 109-137. Grimes, B. F. 1996. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas TX: SIL Hancock, I. 1987. A preliminary classification of the anglophone Atlantic creoles, with syntactic data from thirtythree representative dialects. In Pidgin and Creole Languages: Essays in Memory of John E. Reinecke, G. G. Gilbert (ed.), 264-334. Honolulu HI: University of Hawaii Press. Hashimoto, M. J. 1973. The Hakka Dialect: A Linguistic Study of its Phonology, Syntax, and Lexicon. Cambridge; CUP. Hawkins, E. 1982 Pedagogical Grammar ofHawaiian. Honolulu HI: University of Hawa.i'i Press. Holm, J. 1986. Substrate diffusion. In Substrata versus Universals in Creole Genesis, P. Muysken & N. Smith (eds), 259-278. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Holm, J. 1988. Pidgins and Creoles, Vol I. Cambridge: CUP. Hooper, R. 1984. Neuter verbs, stative aspect, and the expression of agency in Polynesian. Journal of the Polynesian Society 93: 39-70. Hopkins, A. P. 1992. Ka lei ha'aheo. Honolulu HI: University of Hawai'i Press. Inoue, A. 2007. Copula patterns in Hawa.i'i Creole: Creole origin and decreolization. In Synchronic and Diachronic Perspecth1es on Contact Languages [Creole Language library 32], V. Velupillai & M. Huber (eds), 183-195. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Kaapu, M. K. 1937. A Study of the Influence of Japanese Syntax and Idiom upon the Spoken and Written English of a Group of Ninth Grade Pupils. MA thesis, University of Hawai'i Knowlton, E. C. 1967. Pidgin English and Portuguese. In Unit1ersity ofHong Kong Golden Jubilee Congress, September 11-16, 1961, Proceedings, F. S. Drake (ed.), 228-237. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Martin, S. 1975. A Reference Grammar of Japanese. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.
o,
The copula in Hawai'i Creole English and substrate reinforcement
Masuda, H. 199 5. verse Analysis and its Theoretical Contribution to the Study of the Genesis ofHawai'i Creole English. Honolulu HI: University of Hawai'i dissertation. Masuda, H. 2000. The Genesis of Discourse Grammar: Universals and Substrata in Guyanese, Hawaii Creole, and Japanese. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Matthews, S. & Yip, V. 1994. Canto,rese: A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge. Mihalic, F. 1957. Grammar and Dictionary of Neo-Melanesian. Techny IL: Mission Press. Nagara, S. 1969. A Bilingual Description of some Linguistic Features of Pidgin English Used by Japanese Immigrants on the Plantations of Hawaii: A Case Study in Bilingualism. PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin. Nagara, S. 1972. Japanese Pidgin English i1J Hawaii: A Bilingual Description [Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication 9]. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. Odo, C. 1977. Phonological representations in Hawaiian English. Worki1Jg Papers i1J Li1Jguistics 9: 77-85. Prista, A. R. da. 1966. Essential Portuguese Grammar. New York NY: Dover Publications. Reinecke, J. 1969. Language and Dialect in Hawaii: A Sociol»Jguistic History to 1935. Honolulu HI: University of Hawaii Press. Reinecke, J. & Tokimasa, A. 1934. The English dialect of Hawaii Alnerican Speech 9: 122-131. Roberts, S. J. 1998. The genesis of Hawaiian creole and diffusion. Language 74: 1-39. Roberts, S. J. 1999. The TMA system of Hawaiian Creole and cllifusion. In Creole Genesis, Attitudes, and Discourse: Studies Celebrating Charlene J. Sato [Creole Language Library 20], J. Rickford & S. Romaine (eds), 45-70. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Roberts, S. J. 2000. Nativization and the genesis of Hawaiian Creole. In La'JgUage Change and Language Contact in Pidgins and Creoles, J. McWhorter (ed.), 257-300. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Roberts, S. J. 2004. The role of style and identity in the development of Hawaiian Creole. In Creoles, Contact, and Language Change [Creole Language Library 27], G. &cure & A. Schwegler (eds), 333-352 Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Roberts, S. J. 2005. The Emergence ofHawai'i Creole English in the Early 20th Century: The Sodohistorical Context of Creole Genesis. PhD dissertation, Stanford University. Roberts, S. J. To appear. Pidgin Hawaiian. In Survey of Pidgin and Creole Languages, Volume 111: Pidgins, Creoles and Mixed Languages Based on La1JgUQges from Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas, S. Michaelis, P. Maurer, M. Haspelmath & M. Huber (eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sakoda, K. & Siegel, J. 2003. Pidgin Grammar: An Introduction to the Creole Language of Hawai'i. Honolulu HI: Bess Press. Sakoda, K. & Siegel, J. 2004. Hawal'i Creole: Phonology. In A Handbook of Varieties of English, Vol 2: Morphology and Syntax, B. Kortmann, K. Burridge, R. Mesthrie & E. Schneider (eds), 742-769. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Siegel, J. 1997. Mixing, leveling, and pidgin/creole development. In The Structure and Status ofPidgins and Creoles [Creole Language Library 19], A. K. Spears & D. Winford (eds), 111-150. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Siegel, J. 2000. Substrate influence in Hawai'i Creole English. Language i1J Society 29: 197-236. Singler, J. 2006. Yes, but not in the Caribbean. Journal ofPidgin and Creole Languages 21: 337-358. Smith, M. E. 1939. Some light on the problem of bilingualism as found from a study of the progress in the mastery of English among preschool children of non-American ancestry in Hawaii. Genetic Psychology Monographs 21: 119-284. Velupillal. V. 2003. Hawai'i Creole English: A typological Analysis of the Tense-Mood-Aspect System. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. Willis, R. C. 1965. An Essential Course in Modern Portuguese. London: Harrap. Wilson, W. H. 1974a. Grammatical influence of Hawaiian on Hawaiian Pidgin. Ms. Wilson, W. H. 1974b. Grammatical similarities between Hawaiian and Hawaiian Pidgin. Ms.
573
"On traduit Ia langue en fran~ais"* Substrate influence in the TMA system of Tayo Barbara Sandeman
Tayo is a French-lexified contact language spoken by the people of St-Louis, a village on the outskirts ofNownea, New Caledonia. The formation period of Tayo occurred between 1860 and 1880. Its first generation of monolingual speakers was born in the early years of the twentieth century. Some of this generation was still living in St-Louis towards the end of the twentieth century. Their speech, recorded chiefly during the late 1980s, provides evidence of early forms of the language that is relatively free of any decreoli.sing influence. Research carried out to date on Tayo indicates that many of Its structures depart radically from what has been considered a "typical" creole pattern; instead, they appear to more closely resemble structures in the substrate languages. This chapter presents a brief description of the sociohistorical background surrounding the formation ofTayo, and identifies and examines the structures that make up Tayo's tense-modality-aspect (TMA) system. The main features of the TMA systems ofTayo's major substrate languages, Cemuhi, Drubea and XArkiiiL. are then described in order to compare them with corresponding Tayo features and to identify congruent structures among the four languages. An explanation is offered for the presence of some substrate TMA features in Tayo and the absence of others. Keywords: Tayo, Oceanic languages, substrate languages, superstrate, French, verb system, TMA markers, language transfer
We translate [dour]language into French' (Ehrhart 1993: 27, my translation). Ehrhart's informantis a St-Louis elder whose ancestra11anguage is Drubea. His statement is made in the context of the St-Louisian oral history of Tayo's origins; that because there was a mixture of language groups in the village, the people expressed the traditionallanguages in French. This chapter is based on material presented in Siegel, Sandeman and Corne (2000). Thanks to Umberto Ansaldo, Anthony Grant and Claire Lefebvre for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
576
Barbara Sandeman
1.
Sociohistorical background
Tayo is a French-lexified creole spoken in the St-Louis area of New Caledonia, about 15 kilometres from Noumea. The following account of its origins is based on Corne (1994: 284-285) and on the oral history of the people of St-Louis as recorded in Ehrhart (1993). In 1843, French Catholic missionaries arrived in New Caledonia and worked among the Melanesian people of the north. The French administration granted the Church a concession to the sparsely inhabited but fertile land near Noumea- the site of present-day La Conception and St-Louis. In 1855, the Marist Brothers arrived to set up a reduction at La Conception. 1 They brought with them recent converts from their work among the Touho people of the Centre-North region of New Caledonia: four or five Melanesian families and about 60 young men and women (Ehrhart 1993: 79). In 1860, they built a mission church a little further up the river on the western bank of the Thy River and established a school. They also established a sawmill, rice paddies, cane fields and gardens. The Touho people settled on the eastern bank of the Thy opposite the Mission. Over the next few years other language groups settled nearby. but without assimilating to the Touho. These separate little settlements around the Mission gradually expanded into the village of St-Louis during the early part of the twentieth century. Even today the village retains separate quartiers reflecting the villagers' origins (Ehrhart 1993: 82 ). By 1868, about 200 people were living in or near St-Louis. This first generation of St-Louisians had among them three main languages: Cemuht spoken by the Touho people; Drubea, the language of the local Pa'ita people in the Far South region around St-Louis, who joined the settlement in rapidly increasing numbers soon after its establishment; and Xfu-il.cuu and a close dialect. Xfu-il.gure, spoken by the Thio-Canala people of the South region, many of whom came to St-Louis from 1878 onwards. Cemuhi, Drubea and Xfu-il.cuu belong to different subgroups of the New Caledonian branch of Oceanic languages and are not mutually intelligible. The command of French among the Melanesian people in the St-Louis region varied widely. French was the language of instruction at the Mission school. The young women who were educated there attained a high level of competence in it, but other Melanesians in the community had little exposure to first language (L1) varieties of French except in church. In the absence of a mutually intelligible community language, French became firmly established as the target language for the community's lingua franca. Between 1860 and 1880 or thereabouts, the villagers largely spoke a French-based pidgin as their community language and still made use of the traditional languages at home. The nativisation period of Tayo occurred with the birth of the second generation, between about 1880 and 1900. The third generation was born between 1910 and 1920 and was the first monolingual generation ofTayo speakers (Corne 1999: 19-20). They used the contact language to communicate with their parents, but often had no language in common with their grandparents, who spoke only the traditional languages. Since the 1920s, Tayo has steadily replaced the traditional languages in the community. There are now few speakers of the original Kanak languages in St-Louis. At end of the twentieth century, Tayo was spoken by approximately 2,000 people: the "core" members of the St-Louis community (about 1,000 people) who live in the village proper;
1. A reduction was a mission set up to train new converts with the intention of sending them back to their home villages to spread the gospel
"'n traduit la langue en frant;ais"
about 1,000 other St-Louisians who live away from the village; and a handful of outsiders who have regular contact with the village (Come 1999:21). It is spoken in a range of mutually intelligible varieties, which can be attributed to several factors: the quartier of the village to which the speaker belongs (based on traditional language group origins), the social position and age of the speaker, and the degree of decreolisation. Some Tayo speakers are monolingual. but most are bilingual in Tayo and French. First school and then work and other contacts outside St-Louis result in the increased influence of French on the Tayo of the villagers. The language of middleaged speakers is most likely to show the effects of decreolisation. These people claim that Tayo is spoken best by the elders and the young children of the village (Ehrhart 199 3: 32 ). The sociolinguistic situation at St-Louis from 1860 to 1900 parallels that of many of the Caribbean plantations during the slavery era. The Melanesians who worked the gardens and plantations associated with the St-Louis Mission were not slaves, but in many respects their situation was similar. In fact, one contemporary account (Simon-Mayer 1880:258) considers them to have been grossly exploited by the Marist Brothers to the extent that they were little better than slaves, being forced to work all day and receiving very little money or food in return. In any case, the social distance between the Melanesians and the L1 French speakers was considerable. In addition, the number of su perstrate speakers was small by comparison with substrate speakers and, of the substrate speakers, only a small proportion had access to a fully functional version of the superstrate.2 The Melanesian population was culturally homogeneous, but by and large the languages used within the community were not mutually intelligible. Kihm (1995) has pointed out that, although the social circumstances of the St-Louis people may have differed from those of the slaves during the plantation era, Tayo is essentially a plantation creole. Plantation creoles are held to typify Bickerton's "true creole': defined as arising "out of a prior pidgin which had not existed for more than a generation" and "in a population where not more than 20 percent were native speakers of the dominant language and where the remaining 80 percent was composed of diverse language groups" (Bickerton 1981: 4). Tayo appears to meet this definition, since: the pidgin stage did not last more than one generation; at the founding of St-Louis, speakers of Oceanic languages outnumbered French speakers - the Marist priests and the Melanesian girls educated at the Mission school - and their numbers grew rapidly after the date of settlement; and the Melanesian population was composed of diverse language groups.
2.
Research into Tayo and the substrate
A description of Tayo and several articles on specific aspects of the language have been published since 1990, based chiefly on data collected by Chris Come in 1988 and on the extensive fieldwork carried out by Sabine Ehrhart between 1989 and 1990. Ehrhart's (1993) description of Tayo includes much discussion of the sociohistorical circumstances of Tayo's origins and development, the interaction of the language groups at St-Louis and the belief of her Tayo- speaking informants that their language derives from the substrate languages. Although the sociohistorical
2.
No firm evidence has yet come to light to show how many L1 speakers of French there were during the first
phase of settlement.
S77
578
Barbara Sandeman
circumstances in which it has arisen essentially match those of Bickerton's (1981) "true" creoles, Tayo departs quite radically in some respects from the features considered characteristic of such creoles. Chaudenson ( 1994) raises the possibility of Reunion Creole influence on the early development ofTayo, a view supported by Speedy's (2007a, b) discussion of the presence of Reunion Creole in the linguistic environment at the nativisation stage ofTayo's development. Come (1995, for example) regards Reunion Creole influence as unlikely. He has written extensively on the influence of the substrate languages in specific Tayo structures to account for their failure to fit a creole typology (Corne 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999 and elsewhere). Come (1994) shows that Tayo relative clauses and focusing strategies have more in common with substrate constructions than with the superstrate or "typical" creole constructions (ct~ Bickerton 1981, 1984). Corne (1995, 1999) describes Tayo's pronominal system, noting that it has little in common with the systems of other French-lexified creoles or with French itself, but reflects congruent features of Cemuhi and Drubea, and that Tayo's subject indexing pronoun is a characteristic feature of the Oceanic languages. In his discussion ofTayo causative constructions, Come (1997) invokes Andersen's ( 198 3) Transfer to Somewhere principle, semantic transparency and congruence between Cemuhl and Drubea structures to account for the transfer of substrate features into Tayo. Kihm (1995) also makes a strong claim for substrate influence in Tayo. His study establishes that although Tayo is a "true" creole according to Bickerton's (1981) definition, its determiners, tense and aspect differ quite markedly from the systems of most plantation creoles, but have striking similarities to Drubea. Using a language contact model, Siegel et al. (2000) apply reinforcement principles and availability constraints to predict which features of the major substrate languages will be reflected in Tayo's TMA structures, with a particular focus on the linguistic processes.
3·
Tayo's TMA system
This description of the Tayo TMA system relies chiefly on data collected by Sabine Ehrhart during 1989-1990 and published in Ehrhart (1993). A small number of additional examples is drawn from Ehrhart (1992) and Come (1999) . The page numbers in brackets following the Tayo examples refer to Ehrhart (1993) except where otherwise stated. Ehrhart's orthography has been converted to an adapted version of the lortograf-linite system created by Baker and Hookoomsing (1987) for Mauritian Creole and used throughout Corne's writing on Tayo.3 The following TMA markers occur in Tayo. They are all preverbal. Tenseand modality
va
Future/potential (FUT)
ete
Past (PAST) Emphatic (EMPH)
ke ~pect
anrrande fin!, tcha
anko
3·
Progressive (PROG) Accomplished (Ace) Continuative (prolonged, persisting) (coNT)
The major differences between this system and IPA are: tch = [c]; ch =
Uh ali or am= [a]; otior om= [o].
"'n traduit la langue en fran~s"
One limitation of the available Tayo data is that there are very few occurrences of some usages. Because of insufficient data, analysis of ke and ariko remains tentative. Tense and mood
3.1
A major distinction is made in Tayo between realised events/situations and future or unrealised (potential) events/situations. Present and past tense (realised events/situations) are in most cases unmarked. Future/potential is usually marked by the preverbal marker va or, less commonly, by its variants wa or a. It may refer to a secondary event that is yet to occur in relation to the primary event and can therefore be used for a past event that has actually occurred before the speech moment This marker appears to be derived from the second and third person singular forms of the French verb aller, used in the futur proche construction. (1)
Bon la
va ra,itre
se
swar ... kan
la
va
fini
lekol.
good 3sG PUT come.home DEM evening when 3sG PUT finish school '0 K, she will come home this evening ... when she has finished school'
(Ehrhart 1993: 220)
Va is often used as in French to mark the near future: (2)
Mwa va
rakonte a usot
(139)
1SG PUT tell story to 2PL 'I am going to tell you a story.'
It is used to signal the indefinite as well as the definite future: (3)
Petet
Rok la va
arive avan e pi Maris la va
arive apre.
(220)
Perhaps Rok si PUT arrive before and Maris s1 FUT arrive after 'Perhaps Rok will arrive first, and Maryse will arrive aftel:'
Va is used for events that have not yet happened in relation to the main clause, even though they may have already happened in relation to the speech moment: (4)
Sa fe sa
se pu
war se
kwa sa Che.si va di a lesot-la.
(251)
do DEMit-is COMPL see it-is what REL Jesus PUT say to 3PL 'They did that to see what Jesus was going to (would) say to the others.' 3PL
It is also used to signal a potential event: (5)
Ta anterede
ale vit
paske
an
1•a sekede Ia
a
twa.
(179)
interest.in go quickly because NUM PUT steal LOC POSS 2SG 'You have reason to run (you should run) because someone could steal your [husband].' 2SG
Va is used in clauses where the subjunctive mood would be used in French: (6)
Non fo
pa ke
nu va
tire
ave e
no necessary NEG SUB 1PL PUT shoot with 'No, we mustn't shoot with guns.'
ART
fisi. gun
(128)
579
sso
Barbara Sandeman
and to express the countertactual: (7) Pi
si
ta fe kom sa avan epi tie rye
and if 2sG do like that before and
wa tape twa pu
PL
le war twa sola
old people sx see 2so 3PL
tye twa.
(204)
beat 2sG COMPL kill 2SG ~nd if you had done that before (in the olden days) and the elders had seen you they would have beaten you to death.' FUT
The future marker may be omitted when its function is clearly implied by the context; for example, when adverbial or other deictic phrases such as dema, se swar and taler establish the future context: (8)
Ta fini 1yan yer
ta
1yan ariko dema.
(161)
2so Ace come yesterday 2so come again tomorrow 'You came yesterday, you will come again tomorrow.'
There is generally no marked distinction between past or anterior and present in Tayo. even with nonstative verbs: (9)
Ma pa
kone si la
ryan yer.
(199)
1so NEG know if 3so come yesterday 'I don't know if she came yesterday.'
In the following example trape is clearly anterior to parti but both are unmarked: (10)
La part! dispariser taler... paske
sa trape ladeng.
(207)
3so go out dispensary just now because 3PL catch dengue fever 'She has just gone to the dispensary because they (her children) have caught dengue fever:
Past and anterior are usually unmarked, but there is increasing use by some speakers of ete or its variant te. (Ehrhart 1993: 164) notes that this marker is used by younger speakers and those speaking a more decreolised variety. It is therefore unlikely that (e)te was part of the original TMA system. Both forms can be used as a preverbal tense marker or as a realisation of past copula, which is unmarked by most older speakers. Preverbal (e)te appears to mark past, not anterior, tense: (11) Se matan ma ete che IJdi ma te ti-'ar si na pa lya laba. Dl!M morning lSG PAST place Lidfs lSG PAST see if there-be Nl!G 3SG there 'I was at Lydia's this morning, I was seeing if she was not [i.e. if she was] there? (12)
Nu te
di tata
a la-Sant- Vyerch.
(165)
(213)
1PL PAST say goodbye to Holy-Virgin 'We said goodbye to the Holy Virgin?
As there are so few examples of these forms in the available data, either as past copula or as preverbal marker of the main verb (only four in Ehrhart's 1993 data), it is not possible to judge whether (e)te is emerging as a refinement of the TMA system or whether it is evidence of decreolised usage.
"'n traduit la langue en fran~s"
A further preverbal marker with an apparent modality function exists. The particle ke is commanly used to introduce subordinate clauses, as in example (6) above, but is also used directly before the verb. Preverbal ke, or its variants ryanke and anke, is derived from French rien que 'nothing but'. Ehrhart (1993: 167) describes (ry(an))ke as expressing emphasis. In some examples, she translates it as tres 'verY, particularly before adjectives/ stative verbs, but often gives it no specific value. It is tentatively analysed here as a preverbal emphatic marker: (13)
Ma ryanlee kuri chiske
lao.
(167)
1sG [EMPH] run right-to up-there 'How I ran all the way up there!' (14)
Ma lee
fitch.
(167)
1sG [EMPH] wornout 'I am very tired.'
By contrast with the unmarked verb, ke implies some degree of subjective reality. Come (1999: 241f.) treats preverbal ke as a possible assertive marker: (15)
La lee
bruye
tet
pu
mwa.
3SG [ASS] confuse head POSS 1SG 'S/he (really) is confusing me.'
(Corne 1999:47)
Understood as an asserted reality marker, ryanke in example (13) could be taken to mean 'Ireally did run all the way up there'. The common thread in the various translations of preverbal ke appears to be the speaker's emphasis on the verb. Without further data it is not possible to decide whether ke specifically marks asserted or insisted reality, or whether it expresses both in a single marker. 3.2
Aspect
Tayo has a preverbal progressive marker and two preverbal markers for accomplished aspect. There is another particle, a.nko (and its variants ankor and ko ), which appears to function in some contexts as a continuative marker. The progressive marker a.ntratide is derived from the French prepositional phrase etre en train de 'be in the process of doing, in contrast to other French-lexified creoles with progressive markers derived from French apres. (16)
Nu antTat'ule mwa,iche chokola.
(118)
1PL PROG eat chocolate 'We are eating chocolate?
The progressive marker can occur before stative verbs but, unlike many other creoles, in Tayo it does not have an inchoative meaning: (17)
La antrande malad. 3SG PROG ill 'S/he is ill (at the moment)?
(161)
581
582
Barbara Sandeman
Nor does it express habitual aspect, which is unmarked: (18)
Le
bon myel-/a
sa abey le
it-is good honey.ART REL bees
fe.
(121)
make 'The honey that (the) bees make is good.' SI
Tayo has two markers for accomplished aspect:fini, and its variants hni or ni, and tcha or dcha: Yer kali marl pma le ralitre yesterday when husband 1sG.Poss s1 come-home ma foli aretede travaye. or ma tcha aretede travaye. 1sG Ace stop work 'Yesterday when my husband came home I stopped work.'
(19)
(163)
Ehrhart (1993: 164) reports thatfini (hni, ni) is used consistently by speakers over 50 years old, tcha and fini are used as synonyms by 20 to 50 year olds, and tcha., derived from French deja. 'already', is used almost exclusively by those under 20. Tcha therefore appears to be a more recent development. There are too few examples available at this time to further investigate the
useoftcha. Pi ni and its variants are derived from the past participle of French fin ir 'finish'. They are similar in form to the completive markers of other French-lexified creoles, such as Mauritian Creole's
fin and Haitian Creole'sfi.ni or fin. (20)
Pi ka,i sola fini labure later sola plalite mais. and when 3PL Ace plough earth 3PL plant maize 1\.nd when they had finished ploughing the earth, they planted the maize.'
(246)
However, fini appears to be used when the speaker wants to focus attention on the accomplishment of an action in relation to other events. It marks the achieved state resulting from the action rather than the action itself. It is used with stative as well as nonstative verbs. For example, it is used to express the state of being old (fini vye) and being dead (fini mor); that is, having become old and having become dead, rather than the actions of ageing and dying. Unlike completive markers,fini can be used with inchoative verbs without presenting a contradiction: (21)
Apre karl la premye lapli fini komalise to,hbe after when ART first rain Ace begin fall Mer the first rain has begun to fall .. :
(Ehrhart 1992: 152-153)
When used preverbally, anko (from French encore 'again') and its variants an kor and ko appear to mark aspect. Ehrhart (1993: 161) describes it as expressing the idea of duration or repetition. Come (1999:40-41) labels it iterative and gives it a resumptive or habitual meaning; however, as example (18) above shows, habitual aspect is usually unmarked. Anko is tentatively labelled here as continuative: (22)
La aliko
malad ill 'She is still sick.' 3SG [CONT]
(167)
"'n traduit la langue en fran~s"
(23)
Ta ko
travay pu nikel?
(163)
2sG [coNT] work
for Societe-le-Nickel 'Do you work for the Societe le Nickel?'
There are several examples of atiko preceding adjectives/stative verbs, but (23) is a rare example of anko preceding a nonstative; it is more usual to find atiko used adverbially with nonstative verbs: (24)
La wa arive petet
se
swar
mikor.
(181)
3SG PUT arrive perhaps DEM evening again 'Perhaps she will come again this evening:
While preverbal anko suggests continuative marking, it is possible that it functions primarily as an adverb that can occur before or after the verb. While its function in example (23) is continuative, it is used adverbially in example (24) to mark repetitive aspect It may be that this one marker is used to express both continuative and repetitive actions or states, but on the basis of so few data it is not possible to come to a firm conclusion about its function.
3·3
Co-occurrence of markers
In the Ehrhart ( 199 3) data, there is an example of co-occurring markers in one of the comparatively rare examples of past/anterior use, glossed here as past: (25)
La te
antronde mwanche.
(161)
eat 'She was eating [when ... happened]: 3SG PAST PROG
Elsewhere, Ehrhart gives several examples where the future and accomplished markers occur together: (26)
E pi ka,i
nu a
fini brile 11u a
labure.
and when 1PL PUT ACC burn 1PL PUT work 1\.nd when we have burnt off we will plough (the fields):
(Ehrhart 1992: 152)
and one in which the future marker co-occurs with ke: (27)
Nu a
ke
mwanche sinyam-la selman.
1PL PUT [EMPH] eat
yam-DEM only
'We will eat only yams:
(Ehrhart 1992: 155)
In the limited data available, where TMA markers co-occur, tense comes first.
4·
TMA features of the substrate languages
Tayds major substrate languages, Cemuhl, Drubea and Xfu-llcuu, belong to the New Caledonian branch of the Southern Melanesian languages in Lynch et al:s (2002) classification of the Oceanic
583
584
Barbara Sandeman
languages. In their TMA systems, each language marks only one tense: Cemuhi and Drubea mark future and xar~cuu marks past All three languages have a marker of asserted reality. Cemuhi and X~~cuu also have an insisted reality marker. They all have aspect markers for progressivity, temporal proximity and accomplished state. Complex distinctions are expressed through various combinations of markers. In Cemuh'l and Drubea, all TMA markers are preverbal. In xar~cuu, most markers are preverbal, but one may occur before or after the verb and four are postverbal.
4.1
Cemuh'l
This description of the Cemuh'l TMA system is based largely on Rivierre ( 1980 ), with some information from Rivierre (1994). The Cemuhi data used here have been transcribed from Rivierre (1980); the numbers in brackets following each example refer to this source. Markings for vowel quality have been retained, but tone markings have been omitted.4 The following TMA markers occur in Cemuhi. They are all preverbal When markers co-occur, it is generally in the order of tense-aspect-mood. Tense Modality
0
Definite future (PUT)
bo
Potential (PoT) Asserted reality (Ass) Insisted reality (INS)
te teko
Aspect
ko mu tee
bwo caa mwo
Progressive (in the process ofhappening, becoming) (PROG) Iterative (repeated or habitual) (IT BR) Continuative (prolonged, persisting) (coNT) Punctual (considered as a complete action) (PuNc) Accomplished (Ace) Temporal proximity (PRox)
Present and past tense are unmarked in Cemuht The definite future is marked by o: (28)
u
0
abe.
(101)
3PL PUT come 'They will come: (29)
0
ute.
(101)
PUT rain 'It is (certainly) going to ram:
As with Tayo, the future marker can be used in narratives to refer to events which have a past tense reference in relation to the speech moment, but which refer to the future in relation to the events being recounted (Rivierre 1980:101, n. 21).
4· AB tones are not significant to this discussion, they have been omitted in the Cemuht and Drubea examples in order to avoid complex diacritical clusters.
"'n traduit la langue en fran~s"
Uncertain future events are marked by the potential marker bo. It is in frequent use and occurs in preference to the future marker o where the speaker has no direct influence over whether or not the event will take place. (30)
Go bo too-kame mwo. 2SG POT find-1PLBXCL again 'You will find us again. (We1lsee each other again)'
(101)
( 31)
Ganye
(101)
bo pwo. 1PL.INCL POT do 'We will do it (but we don't know/can't be sure when).'
Statements that the speaker asserts to be real are marked by te: (32)
Te
wae.
(103)
ASS good 'It ls good? (33)
Le ko te penem. 3PL PROG ASS work 'They are working (at the moment).'
(109)
'Ieko, derived from the asserted marker te plus the progressive marker ko, makes a stronger claim for the reality of the situation than te alone. It is used for existential statements where there can be no doubt of the truth of the assertion or where the action of the verb is at its height: (34) U teko pwiilu. 3PL INS dance 'They are dancing (The dance is in full swing):
(103)
In combination with bo, it reasserts a definite outcome for something previously in doubt: (35)
E
bo teko uti. 3SG POT INS tell a story 'He really will tell the story (even though he has been advised not to):
(105)
(36)
Bo teko ute.
(106)
POT INS rain 'It ls going to rain (despite forecasts to the contrary):
The following examples illustrate the aspect markers: (37)
Lu
ko
pwo jekut.
(107)
3PL.DL PROG make story 'They are having a discussion?
(38)
Ko
ubwo nang.
PROG big 3SG 'He ls getting bigger (He ls becoming grown up)?
(107)
585
586
Barbara Sandeman
(39)
Ga11ye mu pii ko-n .... 1PL.INCL ITER say about-3SG 'We call it ... (It is usually called ... ).'
(100)
(40)
E
(104)
mu teko pwo pwoml.
3SG ITER INS do weaving 'She ls always busy weaving.' (41)
E
tee
mu pomwo.
(104)
3SG CONT stay house 'He has remained at the house (whereas I have come here).' (42)
u tee
ko
tete
tete
(109)
3PL CONT PROG run run ... 'They are still running, running .. : (43)
0 tee emagEi. PUT CONT break 'That will keep on breaking.'
(105)
The punctual marker bwO emphasises the currency, instantaneous nature and completeness of the entire action. It is used particularly in narratives, firstly as a tormulaic introduction: (44)
E
mu ...
bwiJ
(103)
3SG PUNC live 'Once upon a time there was .. :
or to present a series of successive events: (45)
E
pe
bwiJ
ka
e
bwiJ
ne
te-n.
(103)
3SG PUNC take and 3SG PUNC give to-3SG 'He takes it and gives it to him.'
The accomplished marker caa expresses an achieved state resulting from the completion of a process: (46)
(102)
Caa bwen.
ACC night 'It ls night (Night has fallen): (47)
u
caa
pwo.
(105)
3PL PUT ACC do 'They will soon have done it.' (48)
E
caa mele.
(102)
3SG ACC dead 'He is dead:
The temporal proximity marker mwo marks a transitory, unaccomplished state that is in process now and will end in the foreseeable future or was in process and has just ended. The focus is on the provisional nature of the state. which will change at the end of the process; the end of the process is clearly anticipated:
"'n traduit la langue en fran~s"
(49)
Ga11ye mwo mwaale.
(102)
1PL PROX rest 'Let's rest a moment (and then we'll start again): (50)
4.2
Le mwo tabuhi. 3PL PROX begin 'They have just begun.'
(102)
Drubea
This account of the Drubea TMA system is based largely on the Pa'ita and Shintani (1990) grammar of the language of the Pa'ita region, one of three dialects of Drubea. The examples have been transcribed from Pai:ta and Shintani (1990). They include the markings for vowel quality but, as for Cemuht above, omit the tone markings. The numbers in brackets following the examples refer to this source. Drubea has the following TMA markers, all preverbal. They are used in various combinations to make complex distinctions. Where markers co-occur, it is usually in the order of moodaspect-tense. Tense Modality
nre
Future (PUT)
me
yoo
Potential (PoT) Asserted (Ass) Descriptive (DEsc) Desiderative accomplished (nsm) Desiderative unaccomplished or Intentional (INT)
mwa tMnri kaa
Accomplished (Ace) Progressive (PROG) Temporal proximity (PRox)
pa te
pwe Aspect
ttl6,
Present and past tense are unmarked in Drubea. The future marker nre is used most often in combination with other markers to signal realis/irrealis distinctions in future events. When used alone, with nonstative verbs in subordinate clauses and with second person subjects, it expresses the speaker's wish or a softened imperative: (51)
Cara me kl nre ituu-re taa mwa. hurry COMPL 2SG PUT find-NONST ART house 'Hurry up and find a house:
(52) Ki nre boru mwabaa-re. 2SG PUT live long-NONST 'May you have a long life!'
(35)
(35)
The potential marker me marks the action or state as possible but by no means certain: (53) Ko me tr6M nga-re mil yuukwaa. lso POT be-able work-NONST with-you tomorrow 'I will work with you tomorrow (It is possible that I may work with you tomorrow):
(34)
S87
588
Barbara Sandeman
The asserted reality marker pa confers a subjective certainty on the action or state: (54)
Nri pa ngere-re
ye.
(27)
3PL ASS think-NONST lPL 'They think of us.'
The descriptive (unattested) marker te marks a "neutral" predicate without making any particular claim for the reality of the statement. It is generally used with nonstative verbs: (55)
Nyi te
v~-re
kangla
nrewetriire.
(26)
3SG DESC leave-NONST just-now morning 'He left this morning:
The accomplished marker m-wa refers to an accomplished process or an achieved state, or to something that will assuredly be accomplished. As opposed to te and pa above, it implies certainty: (56)
Nyi mwa bedri.
(29)
3SG ACC faint 'He has passed out (and he is still unconscious now):
Definite future is expressed by the future marker nre plus the accomplished marker mwa: (57)
Xi
mwa nre xi-re.
(37)
rain ACC FUT rain-NONST 'It is (definitely) going to rain.'
Nre is used with the asserted marker pa to mark the future when there is implied certainty: (58)
Nraa
pa nre yai-mwere-re.
(36)
3PL.DL ASS FUT arrive again-NONST 'They will come again (as they usually do):
The usual expression of indefinite future is by use of me with nre: (59)
Xi
me nre xi-re.
(36)
rain POT FUT rain- NONST 'Ifs going to rain (It looks like rain, but I'm not absolutely sure):
The desiderative accomplished marker pwe resembles mwa except that it implies desire or determination on the part of the subject in carrying out the action: (60)
Nyi pwe vi
ce-nri.
(31)
3SG DESID take spear-3SG.POSS 'He took his spear:
The desiderative unaccomplished (intentional) marker yoo expresses the subject's intention that the process must/will be achieved, although this has not yet happened:
"'n traduit la langue en fran~s"
(61) Te nrii-re me ki mi Marcelle te yoo mwarft-re kubwara kwe pee. DESC say-NONST RBL 2SG and Marcelle DESC INT plant-NONST sweet potato DIR down 'They say that you and Marcelle went down there to plant sweet potatoes:
(33)
Like Cemuht Drubea has a progressive marker, t66 or tMnri (used in free variation) and a proximity marker kaa: (62) Nyi te Md kere-re. 3SG DESC PROG eat-NONST 'He is/was eating.'
(28)
(63) Nyi kM mee1•1J-re. 3SG PROX come-NONST 'He ls just coming:
(40)
4·3
X~r~cuu
This description ofXIlr~cuu is based on Moyse- Faurie (1995) with some information from MoyseFaurie and Joredie (1989). The examples have been transcribed from Moyse-Faurie (1995); the numbers in brackets following them refer to this source. The X~cuu TMA system has both pre- and postverbal markers. In the list ofTMA markers below, the tour marked with an asterisk normally follow the verb and the one marked with a plus sign may occur before or after the verb. Tense Modality Aspect
na*
Past (PAST)
va xwa+
Asserted reality (Ass) Insisted reality (INS)
wa 11Wr6* nii ... (re) niiii ... (re) x4ni nuia ii* ra*
Accomplished (recent/imminent) (Ace) Pastaccomplished(PAcc) Progressive (PROG) Past progressive (PPRG) Habitual (HAB) Temporal proximity (PRox) Continuative (coNT) Repeated (REP)
Unlike Cemuhl and Drubea, X~citu marks only past tense. The past marker na usually comes directly after the verb, except when it is used with the preverbal habitual marker. It does not include the recent past, which is often expressed by the temporal proximity marker. (64) N4 fo ti na nii gwee. 1SG go to PAST LOC formerly 'I went there in the old days: (65) E xanina to a noo. 3SG HAB PAST arrive late 'He used to arrive late:
(126)
(119)
589
590
Barbara Sandeman
Unlike Cemuhi and Drubea, xaracilu does not have a potential marker but, like cemuhi, it has markers of asserted (undisputed) reality and insisted reality. The asserted reality marker va precedes the verb: (66)
va pile£ chaa peel. 3SG ASS look for ART book 'He is looking for a book'
E
(121)
The use of the reality marker xwa emphasises the subject of the verb or focuses on the action itself. Xwa can come before or after the verb:
n4 nii l."Wa fl re. 1SG.EMPH 1SG PROG INS leave PROG or Gu n4 nii ft re xwa. 1SG.EMPH 1SG PROG leave PROG INS 'Me, I'm leaving now:
(67)
Gu
(123)
As in Cemuhi and Drubea, Xfu-~cuu marks the accomplishment of an action or the achievement of a changed state. The marker wa. expresses recent or imminent accomplishment or, in combination with other markers, past accomplishment. In each case, a successful outcome is reported or anticipated. (68)
E
wa to a nge cheMe. 3SG ACC arrive dW'ing evening 'He arrived this evening:
(80)
(69)
Any44 w4 som4r4 nge chaa tepe x:U ri. mother Ace tell SI ART story to 3PL 'Mother is about to tell them a story.'
(89)
Wa is used in conjunction with the past tense marker na, the past progressive niiii or past accomplished m6r6 to indicate that the process has finished or begun in the past: (70)
w4 miiii na nge ntsipupu re m6. 3SG ACC snore PAST dW'ing middle ART night 'He began to snore in the middle of the night'
E
(71) Xfltichf wcl abaa mM1 child ACC be born PACC 'The child has already been born:
(122)
(123)
The past accomplished marker m6r6 signals that the action or state mar ked is in the past- not the near past or immediate future. It can be used for events that the speaker envisages as having been accomplished, as well as for real events: (72) Pv..·eni kae me xwttdou r61-\.•4 ntt Jfi mM1 if only INTERR REL WOund on 1SG heal PACC 'If only my wound would be healed!'
(120)
"'n traduit la langue en fran~s"
(73)
N4 fo ti mdrt1 Tcete nii. 1SG go to PACC place LOC 'I have already been there.'
The marker nii (or nii ... durative action: (74)
re or nii ... ri with
(120)
transitive verbs) is used to express progressive or
nil k~ re ku. 3SG PROG eat PROG yam 'He is eating yams.'
E
(118)
The preverbal marker niiii (or niiii ... re or niiii ... ri with transitive verbs) expresses progressive action in the past It is derived from past na and progressive nii: (75)
Gwee iri nllil sei ng~ nacM formerly 1PLINCL PPRG dig with wooden shovel ~t that time we were digging with wooden shovels:
(126)
Like Cemuhl: and Drubea, Xfu"ftcuu has a preverbal proximity marker: (76) N4 m44 toa. 1SG PROX arrive 'I am coming right this minute:
(121)
However, it has separate markers for habitual and continuative actions. The preverbal marker
xant expresses habitual action: (77)
Mw~e-na
xt2ni cue to nii.
(121)
uncle-1sG HAB sit at we 'My uncle often/usually sits there:
The postverbal marker ii indicates a continuing present, future or past event with no sense of accomplishment. It can follow the verb directly or it can be placed right at the end of the clause. Moyse-Faurie (1995: 119) calls it "l'iteratif"; it is labelled continuative here: (78)
Ke fo ii t1 Naamea. 2SG go CONT to Noumea 'You are always going to Noumea:
(119)
The repeated marker ra usually follows the verb, except when it is used with the progressive markers nii and niiii, in which case it follows the progressive and directly precedes the verb: (79)
N4 n44 wijo ra. 1SG want drink REP 'I need to drink again.'
(120)
(80)
N4 niiii ra n4a wijo. 1SG PPRG REP Want drink 'I was needing to drink again'
(120)
591
592
Barbara Sandeman
5·
Comparing Tayo TMA features and the substrate
Tayo and the major substrate languages show clear similarities in the categories and structures of their TMA features. The description of Tayo's TMA system, disregarding later developments, shows that it has a future tense/irrealis marker, an emphatic marker apparently expressing asserted and/or insisted reality, and markers for progressive, accomplished and continuative actions or states. The substrate TMA systems make more complex distinctions in aspect and mood, but each feature marked in Tayo is also present in two or three of the substrate languages. Tayo TMA markers are all preverbal and two of the substrate languages have exclusively preverbal TMA marking. Table 1 shows corresponding TMA categories in Tayo and the substrate. Markers are preverbal except those marked with an asterisk, which usually occur postverbally, and one that can occur in either position, which is marked with a plus sign. Table 1 shows that for each Tayo TMA category, there is a corresponding feature in at least two of the substrate languages. However, as Tayo's lack of temporal proximity marker illustrates, presence in the substrate does not guarantee representation in the creole. Siegel (1997: 142-143) proposes that certain availability "constraints" determine the likelihood of a substrate feature being transferred and therefore becoming available as a possible feature of a contact language. These constraints are concerned with the linguistic properties of both the superstrate and substrate languages. Drawing on research into transfer in second language acquisition, Siegel (1999) specifies the most important of the availability constraints as perceptual salience and congruence; that is, there must be a perceptually salient morpheme or string in the superstrate to provide "somewhere to transfer to" (Andersen 1983), and the substrate and superstrate morphemes should be syntactically congruent, at least superficially. Table 1. TMA categories in Tayo and the substrate Tayo
Cemuht
Drubea
Future/Potential
Future Potential
Future Potential
[Emphatic]
Asserted reality Insisted reality
Asserted reality
Progressive
Progressive
[Continuative]
Continuative
Descriptive Desiderative ace. Intentional Progressive
Past* Asserted reality Insisted reality+
Progressive Past progressive Continuative*
Punctual
Iterative
Accomplished
Accomplished
Accomplished
Temporal proximity
Temporal proximity
Habitual Repeated* Accomplished Past accomplished* Temporal proximity
"'n traduit la langue en fran~s"
Siegel (1999) further proposes specific reinforcement principles to govern which of the features, once transferred, are retained in the contact language. These principles relate to social and linguistic factors in the contact environment: frequency of specific linguistic features, the number of speakers of a particular language and their social status in the community. According to Mufwene's (1996) Founder Principle, the languages of the initial population, rather than of later arrivals, will have the greatest influence on a developing contact language. In the Tayo situation, the contact language had probably already begun to emerge by the time xaracuu speakers began to settle at St-Louis. Features from Cemuhl and Drubea would therefore be expected to carry more weight in the linguistic environment pertaining to Tayo's stabilisation period, in terms of both frequency and social status. In addition, structurally and functionally congruent features in the substrate languages would increase the frequency of those features in the contact environment An explanation of substrata! influence on the development of a contact language needs to take into account the interaction of all elements in the social and linguistic environment, as Siegel (2000) has shown for Hawai'i Creole English. In the case ofTayo, French grammatical structures and features play an essential role in explaining why certain features from Cemuht Drubea or Xfu"ftcuu have been retained in the creole and why some have not Corresponding features exist in all three substrate languages for the Tayo progressive and accomplished markers. Congruent structures in the substrate languages, frequency in the linguistic environment and Ksomewhere to transfer to" in the superstrate would have favoured the retention of these preverbal markers in Tayo. The future and potential categories in Cemuh'l and Drubea coincide structurally and functionally, but are not represented as separate markers in Tayo; rather, they have merged into a combined future/potential category. Likewise, Tayo emphatic does not appear to correspond exactly to the asserted reality category represented in the other three languages or to the insisted reality category present in two of them, but seems to express some elements of both. While it is generally recognised that the superstrate language undergoes simplification in contact-induced language change, Keesing (1988:91) suggests that the substrate languages may also be simplified. Siegel (2008:204-205) discusses the partial transfer of substrate features that results in contraction, with closely related grammatical categories being merged. Contraction could account for the merging of the future and potential categories in Tayo and for the possible merging of substrate asserted and insisted reality features in the Tayo emphatic marker. The final Tayo marker is tentatively analysed here as continuative. Cemuhi and Xil.racuu also have continuative marking of the verb. However, the Xil.ril.dtu marker is postverbal and, therefore, structurally incongruent. French continuative is usually expressed through the adverbs encore or toujours and, as example (24) shows, ankor is used adverbially with nonstative verbs in Tayo. However, since encore and toujours can be used directly before adjectives to indicate continuity of a state, and since adjectives are used as stative verbs in the substrate languages, encore in the superstrate may have been reanalysed as a preverbal continuative marker in Tayo. Encore also has a repetitive function in French, and Cemuh'l has a preverbal iterative marker. It is possible that anko also has a combined continuative/repetitive function. If anko does prove to be a bona fide continuative and/or repetitive marker, the Founder Principle and "somewhere to transfer to" can account for its presence in Tayo.
S93
594
Barbara Sandeman
Table 1 also shows a preverbal temporal proximity marker common to all three substrate languages, but no corresponding marker in Tayo. Although this feature must have occurred frequently in the linguistic environment, French lacks a perceptually salient preverbal string that could provide "somewhere to transfer to" The transfer and retention of a preverbal temporal proximity marker into Tayo would therefore have been inhibited - instead, Tayo expresses near past or near future with the adverb taler, derived from French tout a l'heure 'just now/in a little while'.
Conclusion The Tayo TMA system differs quite radically from that of many other creoles. It marks future rather than past (or anterior) tense, it does not mark irrealis separately, it has two (or possibly three) aspect markers, and the marking of accomplished aspect appears to have been an early feature of the emerging creole rather than a later development. A comparison of TMA marking in Tayo and its major substrate languages shows that the Tayo features reflect recognisable patterns of substrate TMA marking. A degree of uncertainty surrounds the function of two of the Tayo markers. In order to properly resolve questions about these markers, more data and further analysis are required. It is clear that the complex range ofTMA distinctions made in the major substrate languages does not occur in Tayo. In an attempt to explain why some substrate features were retained in the creole while others were not, this chapter has drawn on availability constraints, reinforcement principles and general processes oflanguage contact.
List of abbreviations ACC ART ASS
COMP CONT DEM DESC DIR DL DSID EMPH EXCL FUT HAB
INCL INS INT INTERR ITER
accomplished article asserted reality complementiser continuative demonstrative descriptive directive dual desiderative accomplished emphatic exclusive (definite) future habitual inclusive insisted reality intentional interrogative iterative
REL REP
locative negative nonstative numeral past accomplished plural possessive potential past progressive progressive temporal proximity punctual relativiser repeated
SG
singular
SI
subject indexing pronoun subordinate tense-modality-aspect
LOC NEG NONST NUM PACC PL POSS POT PPRG PROG PROX PUNC
SUB TMA
"'n traduit la langue en fran~s"
References Andersen, R. 1983. 'fransfer to somewhere. In Language Transfer in Language Learning, S. M. Gass & L. Selinker (eds.), 177-201. Rowley MA: Newbury House. Baker, P. & Hookoomsing, V. Y. 1987. Diksyoner kreol morisyefl. Paris: tHarmattan. Bickerton, D. 1981. Roots of Language. Ann Arbor MI: Karoma. Bickerton, D. 1984. The Language Bioprogram hypothesis. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 7(2): 173-222. Chaudenson, R. 1994. A propos de Sabine Ehrhart, Le creole fran~ais de St-Louis (I.e tayo) en Nouvelle-Calt\donie. Etudes creoles 17(1): 128-142. Corne, C. 1994. Relativization and thematization in Tayo and the implications for creole genesis. Journal ofPidgin and Creole Language 9(2): 283-304. Corne, C. 1995. A contact-induced and vernacularized language: how Melanesian is Tayo? In From Contact to Creole and Beyond, P. Baker (ed.), 121-148. London: University ofWestminster Press. Corne, C. 1997. Tayo causatives: the retention in a French-lexified contact-induced vernacular of transfers from New Caledonian Melanesian. Te Reo 40: 76-91. Corne, C. 1999. From French to Creole: The Development ofNew Vernaculars in the French Colonial World. London: University ofWestminster Press. Ehrhart, S. 1992. La f~te dans les traditions de la tribude Saint-Louis, Nouvelle-Caledonie: breve etude linguistique d'un recit en creole fran~s (tayo). In La flte: Actes du 4e Colloque C.O.R.A.I.L., Noumea, 1991, B. Gasser (ed.), 147-164. Noumea: CORAIL. Ehrhart, S. 1993. Le creole franfais de St-Louis (le tayo) en Nouvelle-Caledonie. Hamburg: Buske. Keesing, R. M. 1988. Melanesian Pidgin and the Oceanic Substrate. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. Kihm, A. 1995. Tayo, the strange bird from New Caledonia: Determiners and tense-aspect in Tayo and their implications for creolization theories. Journal ofPidgin and Creole Languages 10(2): 225-252. Lynch, J., Ross, M. & Crowley, T. 2002. The Oceanic Languages. Richmond: Curzon. Moyse-Faurle, C. 1995. Le xdrdl=Uu, langue de Thio-Canala (Nouvelle-Caledonie): elements de syntaxe. Paris: Peeters. Moyse-Faurie, C. & Joredie, M.-A. 1989. Dictionnaire xdrdl=Uu-franrais (Nouvelle-Caledonie), 2nd rev. edn. Noumea: Edipop. Mufwene, S. S. 1996. The Founder Principle in creole genesis. Diachronica 13(1): 83-134. Pa!ta, Y. & Shintani, T. L. A. 1990. Grammaire de Ia langue de Pmta. Noumea: Societe d'Etudes historiques de Nouvelle-Caledonie. Rivierre, J.-C. 1980. La langue de Touho: Phonologie et grammaire du cemuhf (Nouvelle-Caledonie). Paris: SELAR Rlvierre, J.-C. 1994. Dictionnaire cemuhf:franfais; Suivi d'un lexique .franfais-cemuhi. Paris: Peeters. Siegel, J. 1997. Mixing, leveling, and pidgin/creole development. In The Structure and Status of Pidgins and Creoles [Creole Language Library 19], A. K. Spears & D. Winford (eds), 111-149. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Siegel, J. 1999. 'fransfer constraints and substrate influence in Melanesian Pidgin. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 14(1): 1-44. Siegel, J. 2000. Substrate influence in Hawai'i Creole English. Language in Society 29: 197-236. Siegel, J. 2008. The Emergtmce of Pidgin and Creole Languages. Oxford: OUP. Siegel, J., Sandeman, B. & Corne, C. 2000. Predicting substrate influence: Tense-modality-aspect marking in Tayo. In Processes of Language Contact: Studies from Australia and the South Pacific, J. Siegel (ed.), 75-97. Quebec: Fides. Simon-Mayer, C. 1880. Souvenirs d'un deporte: Etapes d'unforrat politique. Paris: E. Dentu. Speedy, K. 2007a. Colons, creoles et coolies: l'Immigration reunionnaise en Nouvelle-Caledonie (XIXe siecle) et le tayo de Saint-Louis. Paris: tHarmattan. Speedy, K. 2007b. Reunion Creole in New Caledonia: What influence on Tayo? Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 22(2): 193-230.
595
Conclusion
Creoles and language typology Bernard Comrie Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology I University of California Santa Barbara
The distinct social origin of creoles, along with pidgins and mixed languages, makes them a source of interest to typologists, given their interest in the cross-linguistic distribution of structural feature values. Typologists, like creollsts before them, are interested in issues such as whether creoles have a distinct typological profile and how creoles have been shaped by the processes that led to their formation. However, typologists can also provide important tools to help creollsts in answering these questions, in particular enabling them to see properties of creole languages against the general background of cross-linguistic variation in the world. This article examines a number of phenomena in creole languages from a typological perspective, in particular issues of simplification, substrate influence. and superstrate influence.
1.
Introduction
For the typologist. creoles, along with pidgins and mixed languages, present a particularly interesting set of issues. Given that such languages necessarily involve some disruption in the natural transmission of language from parent to child, they promise to open up new possibilities that are not found in languages that are the product of normal intergenerational transmission, while conversely the fact of the absence of normal intergenerational transfer may equally, from an aprioristic perspective, be expected to lead to a narrowing of the possibilities that will be found in creoles. The following is a preliminary list ofthe major questions that typologists are likely to ask ofthe field of creole linguistics, often repeating questions that are or have been of interest to creolists, though usually with slightly different emphases. First. do creoles (and pidgins, and mixed languages- I return below to why I potentially consider all three together) constitute a structurally unified set oflanguages? If so, does this set of languages exclude other languages, or does it rather occupy a well-defined subspace within the conceptual space occupied by languages in general, a subspace that may nonetheless be occupied by some other languages? If creoles do constitute a distinct structural type. why is this so? After all, if creoles are defined primarily in sociological terms, there is no logical reason why this should have structural consequences. If creoles do share properties, where do these properties come from? Might they be attributable to universal principles of creolisation/pidginisation, such as simplification, reduction of complexity?
6oo Bernard Comrie
Second, since creoles (and pidgins, and mixed languages) reflect extreme cases of language contact, what is the role of the different languages involved in this contact in their structural properties. To what extent can properties be attributed to the substrate language(s)? To what extent to the superstrate? In the body of this article, I will attempt to answer some of these questions from a typological perspective, concentrating on simplification in Section 2 (though limited to phonology), on substrate influence in Section 3, and on superstrate influence in Section 4. Section 5 is a brief excursus on relative clauses, whose complex structure, involving the interaction of various parts of the grammar, does not fit neatly into the division used in Sections 2 through 4. In writing this article I have of course made use of the material from the present volume, written primarily from a creolist perspective, but have also availed myself of the preliminary results of another project that addresses creoles (and pidgins and mixed languages) from an explicitly typological cross-linguistic perspective, namely the Atlas of Pidgin a.nd Creole Structures (APiCS; Michaelis et al. in preparation). In particular, as a participant in a workshop related to this project and held in Leipzig in November of2009, I was privileged in having advance access to preliminary results of the project, including the geographical distribution of many of the typological variables across creole languages of the world. I should emphasise that the materials to which I had access were preliminary, so that there may be changes before the publication of the corresponding volume, although my sense is that, in general the results I discuss below will stand the test of time. Incidentally. APiCS examines data from 70 creole, pidgin, and mixed languages from across the world, and is itselfbased on the project the World Atlas ofLanguage Structures (WALS; Haspelmath et al. 2005 ), which provides a means of representing the geographical distribution of typological variables across the languages of the world as a whole and can therefore be used as a standard against which to measure the properties of creole languages. If my detailed discussion below tends at times to relate more to APiCS than to the present volume, this is in part because my reactions to the APiCS materials are the unquestionably new insights that I can bring to bear, and in part because the major typological insights of this volume are admirably summarised by Claire Lefebvre in her introduction to the volume. Although the present article, like the book as a whole, includes specifically the term "creole" in its title, I have followed APiCS, and indeed the frequent practice of the present volume, by including reference to data on pidgins and mixed languages. While the definitions of the three terms have led to a reasonable amount of consensus in recent years, with mixed languages being distinguished from creoles and pidgins in that the creators of the former had reasonable access to both (or all) of the languages involved in the creation of the new language, and creoles being distinguished from pidgins on the basis that creoles are the native languages of their community. there are particular cases that are either unclear as to their assignment to one or other of these three types - since typically what we have available are the results of the process of language contact rather than that process itself - as well as cases that call into question the unity of each of the three types. I return below to some implications of the first problem, in particular relating to mixed languages. With regard to the latter, one might note the case oflanguages like Tok Pisin that are native languages for only a relatively small minority of their users; even for those native speakers, for whom the language is thus a creole, the origin of their native language, the product of decades of stabilisation of a pidgin, is clearly rather different from that of a plantation creole
Creoles and language typology
arising rapidly without any intervening pidgin stage, certainly without any intervening stable pidgin stage. Creoles will also differ depending on the extent to which their creators had access to the superstrate language, including the extent to which changes may have taken place subsequently as a result of different degrees of subsequent access to the superstrate. In other words, for certain purposes, it is simply impossible to work with a strict trichotomy. This is not, of course, to deny the importance of the distinctions in particular cases, especially if we wish more narrowly to identify typological properties of one or other of the three types. For instance. in the APiCS materials, only one language is identified as having ergative alignment of case marking of full noun phrases, namely Gurindji Kriol (Meakins in preparation). This pattern clearly comes from the substrate language Gurindji, which like many Australian languages has ergative case alignment of full noun phrases and accusative alignment of pronouns - it turns out that Gurindji Kriol also has the latter feature. However, as in many other instances the name of the language is rather misleading, since Gurindji Kriol is in fact a mixed language, which has simply taken over from one of its inputs, Gurindji, the case marking system. We are still waiting for a clear example of a creole language that has ergative case marking alignment An example that probes the dividing line between creole and mixed language is Sri Lanka Malay, as described in some of its relevant features by Ansaldo and by Slomanson (present volume). With respect to data, they show that Sri Lanka Malay has a complex inflectional morphology, going well beyond what is found in most other varieties of Malay, in particular contact varieties, and perhaps calling into question the generalisation that creole languages never have a morphology more complex than that of their lexifier (Thomason 2001; Plag 2008). However, as Ansaldo and Slomanson go on to show, the traditional classification of Sri Lanka Malay as a creole neglects the fact that the language has had continued input from Tamil; in a sense then, Sri Lanka Malay is a mixed language, with Tamil as one of its inputs (and presumably an earlier creole as the other one.). It is nonetheless interesting that the input from Tamil relevant to the inflectional morphological system seems to have been the general type of complex morphology, rather than actual bound morphemes, which reflect rather the reduction of morphemes of Malay origin. Incidentally, in the body of this article I will continue to use the terms "substrate" and "superstrate" in their usual senses with regard to pidgins and creoles, with "lexifier" then referring to the same language as "superstrate". With regard to mixed languages, the identification of a substrate and superstrate can in principle be more difficult, although it is usually possible to identify one input language as matching the conceptof"superstrate" in terms of its social prestige, e.g. Spanish in the case of Media Lengua, with the other input language, Q uechua, then receiving the status of "substrate" in this particular example. Moreover, I will frequently refer simply to "creoles" in contexts (such as the citation of APiCS materials) where it is clear that pidgins and mixed languages might also be included.
2.
Simplification: Phonology
The whole question of simplification and creoles is a vexed one and, as noted by Lefebvre (this volume), the fact of apparent simple structure may not necessarily be a direct result of simplification in the genesis of the creole. Thus, it is undeniable that creoles at least typically have
601
602
Bernard Comrie
morphologies simpler (or at least no less simple) than their input languages, but under the Relexification hypothesis, this would result from a combination of lack of sufficient access to the bound morphology of the superstrate language, combined with relexification of bound morphemes of the substrate language as zero. In phonology. however, there may be more direct evidence of simplification, and two sets of data from APiCS point in this direction. The first concerns tone, in particular the occurrence of so-called "complex tone systems': which, following Maddieson (200Sb) in WALS, are identified as systems with at least a three-way opposition. Maddieson (2005b) shows that such systems, while relatively infrequent cross-linguistically, are certainly not rarities, being found in 88 of the 526languages in his sample (16.7%). By contrast, in APiCS complex tone systems are identified for only two languages out of70 (2.9%), and this despite the role ofWest African languages as substrates, West Africa being one of the two large areas where complex tone systems are particularly widespread (the other is Southeast Asia.). These two languages are Singlish and Sango. As noted also by Lim (this volume; Lim is incidentally co-author with Umberto Ansaldo of the APiCS chapter on Singlish), the complex tonal system ofSinglish, indeed any phonemic (including stress-independent) tone system in this language, is restricted to discourse particles. This is either a very unusual restriction in a tone system, or one suggesting that the phenomenon in question may perhaps rather be attributable to intonation, since even non-tonal languages like English can express different pragmatic values by different intonations on pragmatic particles including, for instance, tag questions. In any event, if Singlish is to be analysed as having a complex tone system, then this system is very restricted with respect to canonical complex tone systems such as those ofYoruba or Thai. The other language identified by APiCS as having a complex tone system is Sango, which arose from the interaction of a number of West African languages with complex tonal systems, with Ngbandi as the lexifier. Interestingly, Samarin (in preparation) notes that while the tonal contrast in lexical items is solid in Sango, as in its lexifier language Ngbandi, the status of grammatical tone is questionable in Sango, in this case distinguishing it from Ngbandi. If Samarin is right in saying that contemporary Sango basically lacks grammatical tone, then this would be an instance of simplification even in a creole that has retained a complex tonal system to mark lexical oppositions. Another rather consistent instance of phonological simplification in creoles is found in consonant codas. APiCS defines a complex consonant coda as any other than just a single liquid, nasal. or obstruent, or a combination of one of these followed by an obstruent. The preliminary APiCS materials available to me identify five languages out of70 as having complex syllable codas in this sense, i.e. 7.1 %. Unfortunately, the closest corresponding WALS chapter (Maddieson 2005a) is not directly comparable, since it deals with syllable structure in general and not specifically with consonant codas. However, for what it is worth, it identifies 1SO out of 485 languages, or 30.9%, as having complex syllable structure. All of this suggests that phonology may be one area where simplification can be seen as a general driving force in the formation of creoles.
Creoles and language typology 603
3·
Substrate influence
Lefebvre's introduction to this volume provides ample illustration of the relevance of substrate structure to the structure of creoles. In this section, I want simply to reinforce these observations and provide somewhat more detailed information on particular cases, drawing also on the preliminary APiCS results and on information from WALS or elsewhere on the worldwide distribution of particular features. The phenomena to be examined are inclusive/exclusive distinctions in pronouns, temporal reference ofbare verb forms, and predicate focusing. As noted by Lefebvre, pronoun systems in creoles often betray a structure that is closely reminiscent of the substrate language, even where the actual forms are from the superstrate. One area where this can be pursued is with regard to the inclusive/exclusive distinction in first person non-singular pronouns, as with Tok Pisin yumi 'we (including the addressee)' versus mipela 'we (excluding the addressee)~ In the preliminary APi CS materials, eight languages out of70 are identified as having such an inclusive/exclusive distinction, and all but one involve substrates having this distinction. Of these languages, four have an Austronesian substrate (Bislama, Tayo, Tok Pisin, Zamboanga Chabacano), two an Australian substrate (Gurindji Kriol, Kriol), and one an Algonquian substrate (Michif). The remaining language, Sranan (Plag and Winford in preparation), is unusual in that it has an optional distinction, with the English-origin first person plural pronoun wi being undifferentiated with respect to the inclusive/exclusive opposition, or inclusive if in specific contrast with Igbo-origin unu, while unu is always specifically exclusive. In the case of Sranan, the opposition seems to be an original innovation, since its Igbo etymon is not specifically exclusive. With this one exception, we can say that the presence of an inclusive/exclusive opposition in a creole reflects influence from the substrate. Under the heading of temporal reference I want to discuss one single feature that has been noted in the past as characteristic of both Afro-Caribbean creoles and West African languages, namely: the interpretation of a bare verb form as having present time reference if stative (as with the verb 'like'), but past time reference if the verb is dynamic (as with the verb 'go'); see, for instance, Welmers (1973) for West African languages. For creole languages, the preliminary APiCS materials show a near-perfect distribution of this phenomenon, restricted to Caribbean creoles ( 14 examples) and West African creole sfpidgins (12 examples). The only two creole sfpidgins falling outside this geographical distribution, and then only marginally so, are Juba Arabic and Kinubi. None of the sample languages from elsewhere in the Americas, from southern Africa, from the Indian Ocean, or from Asia and the Pacific shows this pattern of temporal reference. Unfortunately, we lack a corresponding map for non-creole languages, since this feature was not included in WALS, although as noted above, there is existing literature pointing to the widespread distribution of the pattern among West African languages. (Incidentally, the area labelled 'West Africa" here and below might more properly be identified with Gtildemann (2008b )'s KMacroSudan belf'. The typological features identified by Gilldemann for this area go a long way towards providing firmer backing for the West African areal typological features that have often been cited as parallels to, and origins of, features in Caribbean creoles, but in earlier work usually selectively rather than on the basis of typological sampling.).
604
Bernard Comrie
Predicate cleft, involving doubling of the lexical verb, as a means of focusing the predicate has long been identified as a feature shared by Afro-Caribbean creoles and West African languages, and is discussed in this context in Lefebvre's introduction to this volume. I do, however, want to make a couple of clarifications and elaborations. It is crucial for the close parallel between AfroCaribbean creoles and West African languages that the construction under consideration be an indication of focus, since other uses of predicate doubling are quite frequent across the world's language, and their inclusion can obfuscate the is sue of the parallels between these two language groups. Thus, Russian certainly has a verb doubling construction as in (1), but its function is topicalisation, not focusing, and it is therefore irrelevant to the discussion at hand. ( 1)
Citat' to cltaju, no tol'ko dlja razvlecenlja. read.INF TOP read.PRS.lso but only for entertainment ~ for reading, I read, but only for entertainment'
RussiAN
This should be contrasted with Jamaican Creole, where clefting is a general means of tocusing- as illustrated in (2b) in comparison with the pragmatically unmarked (2a), which is of course common in many languages of the world -but where the use of doubling when the verb is focused, as in (2c), is much more restricted in its cross-linguistic distribution. Note that English has no natural way of translating (2c) using a cleft construction, but must rather make do with prosodic emphasis, indicated here by means of bold face. (2)
a
b.
c.
Plita tlif di yam. Peter steal the yam 'Peter stole the yam: A di yam Piita Nif. Foe the yam Peter steal 'It's the yam that Peter stole, Peter stole the yam.' A tlif Plita tlif di yam. Foe steal Peter steal the yam 'Peter stole the yam:
JAMAICAN CRl!OLl!
For this phenomenon, we are currently in better shape as regards our knowledge of its geographical distribution for West African languages, thanks to the intormation provided in Giildemann (2008b), than we are for Afro-Caribbean creoles, since the preliminary APiCS materials that were available to me were not yet sufficiently developed to enable clear conclusions to be drawn. My own preliminary assessment of the material is that predicate cleft with doubling for focus is indeed restricted to Afro-Caribbean creoles among creoles, since the examples that have been attested over the years for other creoles all seem not to involve focus; but only the final version of APiCS will answer this question definitively. Both the temporal interpretation of bare verb forms and predicate focusing by means of verb doubling are important features that link specifically Afro-Caribbean creoles (and pidgins) to West African languages. While this is of course tar from being a new observation, the APiCS materials, in comparison with material on the distribution of these features across the languages of the world as a whole, show or promise to show precisely the geographical distribution of these constructions that one would expect if the Afro-Caribbean phenomenon is due to West African substrate. In this way, typology is providing breadth of coverage as a companion to the depth
Creoles and language typology 605
of coverage provided by descriptions and comparisons of individual languages, as illustrated in Lefebvre's introduction to this volume and, of course, by all the contributions to the volume.
4·
Superstrate influence
Rather than providing direct evidence of interesting creole structural properties deriving from the superstrate language, the APiCS materials provide interesting instances of interaction of superstrate features with other sources of input This is not to deny, however, that some assumptions about superstrate influence are borne out by the APiCS materials. For instance, it is indeed the case that most creoles with Western European lexifiers have SVO constituent order, usually as the only order, less commonly as one of two or more competing orders; the only exception is Sri Lanka Portuguese, with only SOV order, something that will also play a role in Section 5, and may reflect a status of Sri Lanka Portuguese more akin to that of a mixed language, resulting from the continuing exposure to Sinhala and Tamil, both SOV languages. The problems to be discussed in this section - identity or differentiation of nominal and locational predicates, the use of a verb meaning 'say as a complementiser in reported speech, and identity or differentiation of comitative and instrumental expressions- are all more subtle, but nonetheless intriguing, perhaps presenting more questions than they answer. Most West European languages use the same copula for both nominal predication (as in John is a. teacher) and locational predication (as in John is in the garden), with the notable exception of Spanish and Portuguese, both using ser for nominal and estar for locational predication. West African languages almost without exception have distinct constructions (Stassen 2005). One might therefore wonder whether Caribbean creoles would follow their substrate in this respect or their superstrate. The answer is surprising: English-lexifier creoles tend to make the distinction (like their substrate), while French-lexifier creoles do not (like their superstrate). This applies, incidentally, also to French-lexifier creoles of the Indian Ocean. The distinction is largely in terms of superstrate (though some English-based creoles, typically with more input from non-creolised varieties, either follow their superstrate or have a mixed pattern), although it is not clear what property of the superstrate might condition this difference. Neither English nor French provides an obvious verbal way oflexicalising the opposition, and while some English-lexifier creoles and pidgins in the Pacific use stay or stop for locational predication, Caribbean creoles rather reanalyse de, from there, as a locational predicate. There is no obvious reason why similar relexification paths were not available in French, so either the relevant factor remains to be isolated, or we are simply dealing with a chance distribution. However, yet another of the features investigated in APiCS shows a surprising difference between English- and French-lexifier creoles, namely: the use of the verb 'say' (or a form based on 'saY, possibly in conjunction with something else) as a complementiser with verbs of speaking. Of the 70 languages in the APiCS sample, fully 32 have this possibility, with ten having only this possibility, making this a rather frequent possibility among creoles. Giildemann (2008a) shows, incidentally, that in African languages, and more generally across the world, grammaticalisation of'say' as a complementiser is far less frequent than often assumed in earlier work. But while this grammaticalisation of'say' is widespread in English-lexifier creoles, it is not in those with French
6o6
Bernard Comrie
as the lexifier, although there are exceptions (e.g. Seychelles Creole has pou-dire, literally'for-say: as one possibility). Grammaticalisation of'say is also widespread in Portuguese-lexifier creoles, so more general differences between the relevant English and Romance verbs or complementisers do not seem to be the crux of the matter. Again, this must remain a task for future investigation. A somewhat different picture is given by the use of identical or distinct strategies to encode instrumental and comitative relations. First, with respect to superstrate and substrate languages: Nearly all Western European languages use the same construction, as with English with, for both relations, and this is true of the major Western European lexifier languages of creoles (cf. Dutch met, French avec, Spanish con, Portuguese com). Of the 61languages in the APiCS sample already analysed for this feature, 53 fail to show differentiation, only eight make the difference. This is in striking contrast to the worldwide distribution (Stolz et al 2005), where in the relevant WALS sample 76 languages fail to make the distinction, while 213 make it (with a further 33 being mixed). In other words, in the APiCS sample, 86.9% of languages fail to make the distinction, while in the WALS sample only 23.6% fail to do so. While Europe is the only area overwhelmingly showing identity, West Africa is very mixed, having a large number of languages of either type. Nonetheless, one might be tempted to see here an instance of significant superstrate influence. But before jumping to this conclusion, it is necessary to consider the genesis of the relevant forms in creole languages, in particular in cases where the substrate language makes the difference. More specifically, we should consider this from the perspective of Lefebvre's relexification hypothesis. Imagine a speaker of a language that has distinct instrumental and comitative markers and who is relexifying using English lexical material. The obvious English lexical equivalent for the instrumental marker will be with. The obvious English lexical equivalent for the comitative marker will also be with. The result is identity, but this is in a very real sense an accidental identity; indeed, one could imagine such a creole creator not even noticing initially that both concepts had been relexified in the same way. In other words, identity of instrumental and comitative is, in a sense, a feature of the superstrate, but is actually only a particular case of the general phenomenon that the lexicon is primarily taken from the superstrate. There is no evidence for an independent process whereby the instrumental/ comitative opposition would be lost under creolisation.
5·
Relative clauses
I have chosen to devote a separate section to relative clauses because of the complex interplay of factors, both syntactic and semantic (and, in languages with relevant morphology, morphological), that go to make up the relative clause construction; moreover, it turns out that some creole languages show particularly interesting features from a typological perspective. Two topics relating to relative clauses turn out to be of particular interest and to be well documented for creole languages, namely: the order of the relative clause with respect to its head noun, and the way in which the syntactic-semantic role of the head noun within the relative clauses is expressed (or not) within the relative clause. Of the two main constituent order possibilities for relative clauses, namely postnominal and prenominal, Dryer (2005a) shows a clear preponderance of postnominal relative clauses: 507languages to 117, 165 genera to 52 (where a genus is a group of languages with roughly the
Creoles and language typology 607
same time depth as one of the major branches of Indo-European), 63 families to 29. Interestingly, this preference for postnominal relative clauses even overrides to a substantial degree any tendency for consistent head-initial or, especially, head-final order. Dryer (2005b) investigates the possible correlation between order of relative clause and head noun on the one hand, and order of verb and object on the other; consistent head-ini tiality would group together postnominal relative clauses with VO order, while consistent head-finality would group together prenominal relative clauses with OV order. ln fact, OV languages divide roughly equally between those with prenominal and postnominal heads: 109languages to 96, 48 genera to 63, 28 families to 31; indeed, at the level of genera, OV languages with postnominal relative clauses are decidedly more frequent. VO languages almost exclusively have postnominal relative clauses, with the ratios of prenominal to postnominal being 370 languages to five, 107 genera to three, 38 families to two, one of the most marked skewings in the whole ofWALS. Of the five languages combining postnominal relative clauses with VO order, three are Sinitic, while one of the remaining five is either a Sinitic language with heavy Tibeto-Burman influence or a Tibeto-Burman language with heavy Sinitic influence (see Comrie 2008 for some further discussion of this constituent order combination). A number of creole and pidgin languages discussed in APiCS present data relevant to the issue of constituent order in relative clauses in relation to the order of verb and object within the clause. APiCS identifies three languages as having only ReiN order. One of these is Sri Lanka Portuguese (Smith in preparation), which is also given as having only OV order, so this language fits into the rather large group of languages combining ReiN and OV order, a group which of course also includes Sinhala and Tamil, the two major substrate languages, with which Sri Lanka Portuguese has also been in intense subsequent contact. Two languages are identified by APi CS as having only ReiN order but both VO and OV order, namely Chinese Russian Pidgin (Perekhvalskaya in preparation) and Sri Lanka Malay (Slomanson in preparation). Here, a direct comparison between APiCS and WALS is unfortunately impossible, since WALS operates in terms of identifying dominant constituent orders where possible and not then noting other possible variants; thus Tagalog, for instance, is identified as VO and NRel, although ReiN is also possible. (The WALS category "No dominant order" indicates not simply that alternative orders are possible, but that it was not possible to identify one of them as being dominant). APi CS operates rather in terms of identifying the range of possibilities. APi CS identifies Chinese Russian Pidgin as "VO or OV" suggesting some predominance ofVO for this language, and Sri Lanka Malay as "OV or VO" suggesting the opposite predominance. In the case of Chinese Russian Pidgin, the combination "ReiN and VO" directly reflects the cross-linguistically highly unusual combination that is nonetheless present in the substrate Sinitic language. In the case of Sri Lanka Malay, the ReiN order again reflects the substrate languages, Sinhala and Tamil (with the latter of which Sri Lanka Malay has also been in intense subsequent contact). APiCS further identifies four languages as having both ReiN and NReL of which one has only VO, namely Singapore Bazaar Malay (Aye in preparation), presumably again reflecting a Sinitic substrate. Of the other three, Korlai (Clements in preparation) and Media Lengua (Muysken in preparation) are shown as having both OV and VO, in that order, Michif (Bakker in preparation) as having VO and OV; note that both Media Lengua and Michif are clear instances of mixed languages, rather than creoles or pidgins. The possibility of ReiN and OV in
6oS
Bernard Comrie
all three cases again reflects properties of the substrate languages. So, while direct confrontation ofWALS and APiCS results is not possible, there is nonetheless rather strong evidence that the possibility or requirement of ReiN- a relatively recessive constituent order cross-linguistically- reflects influence from the substrate language. No new instance of a language combining ReiN order with VO order, in the sense ofWALS, can, however, be added to the small set of such languages identified by Dryer. Among the possibilities noted in Comrie and Kuteva (2005) for encoding the role of the head noun of a relative clause within the relative clause is the so-called "relative pronoun strategy", which has as its defining characteristics that: (a) the construction is externally headed; (b) the syntactic-semantic role of the notional head noun within the relative clause is indicated by means of a pronoun, marked for its syntactic-semantic role in the relative clause by means of case or an ad position; (c) this pronoun is necessarily initial, or part of the initial main consti tuent, of the relative clause. This can be illustrated by the literary English examples (3) and (4). With respect to the morphosyntax of relative clauses, we may note again that these are often complex constructions involving the interplay of various factors, and individual factors may of course show different degrees of influence of substrate (visible in some cases in constituent order) and superstrate (perhaps visible in some cases in the strategy for encoding the notional head within the relative clause). (3)
The man whom John saw ran away.
(4)
The woman whose dog fohn saw is happy.
In both (3) and (4) the notional head noun functions as subject of the main clause; this is irrelevant to the typology developed by Comrie and Kuteva. In (3), the notional head functions as direct object of the relative clause, and this is marked by the accusative case without a preposition on the relative pronoun whom. This relative pronoun must be initial within the relative clause, although direct objects in English normally follow their verb. In (4), the notional head noun functions as possessor (in fact, possessor of the direct object) of the relative clause, and therefore appears in the genitive case; moreover, the noun phrase containing the relative pronoun must appear initially in the relative clause. As noted by Comrie and Kuteva, the relative pronoun strategy defined in this way is relatively rare across the languages of the world, being attested primarily in European languages, especially their literary varieties. The question thus arises whether the relative pronoun strategy is found in any creole languages; if so, it would presumably reflect influence of the superstrate, European language. At the point in time at which I examined the preliminary APiCS materials on this question, they were not yet at a stage where one could in general extract reliable statistics, but there were nonetheless at least two languages that seem prima facie to meet the criteria, namely Haitian Creole (Fattier in preparation) and Angolar (Maurer in preparation), as can be seen in examples (5)-(6). (5)
a.
Moun ki pa travay p ap touche. people REL.SBJ NEG work NEG PUT get_paid 'Those who dont work won't get paid.'
HAITIAN
Creoles and language typology 609
(6)
b.
Ayiti se yon peyi
c.
Haiti HL INDF country REL lsG love much 'Haiti is a country that I like a lot? Li peye m kob li te dwe m lan. 3SG pay lSG money 3SG PST owe lSG DEF 'S/he gave me the money that s/he owed me?
a
orne sl
b.
man DET RELSBJ go fish 'the man who went fishing' orne si ma m be man DET REL I see 'the man that I have seen
ki
ke mwen remen anpil.
ba tamba
.ANGOLAR
The Haitian Creole examples distinguish between a relativiser ki used for subjects, and either the relativiser ke (as in (Sb)) or zero (as in (Sc)) used for non-subjects. The Angolar examples distinguish between a relativiser ki for subjects and a relativiser ma for non-subjects. However, before jumping to the conclusion that this is a reflection of superstrate influence, it is necessary at least to examine the constructions in somewhat more detail. In particular, note that the second criterion given above for the relative pronoun strategy requires the marking of the position relativised within the relative clause to be indicated by means of a (clause-initial) pronoun. The question therefore arises whether Haitian ki, ke, Angolar ki, ma are pronouns. In French, the subject relativiser qui is clearly a pronoun, for instance in that when expressing other syntactic-semantic roles it can be preceded by a preposition; the status of the object relativiser que is less clear, since it is identical to the complementiser 'that' and does not have obviously pronominal properties, such as occurring after prepositions. For Haitian Creole to count as a clear example of the relative pronoun strategy, at least one of kilke would have to be shown to be pronominal. The same question arises in Angolar -is at least one of ki and ma identifiable as a pronoun internally to Angolar?- but here the relation to the superstrate is at least less clear. While Portuguese does use the relative pronoun strategy, for instance in relativising objects of prepositions, it relativises both subjects and direct objects indifferently with que (pronounced [k;l] or [ki] according to variety), which is identical to the complementiser 'that'. Note that if Haitian ki!ke and Angolar ki/ma are not pronouns, then they do not satisfy the definition of the relative pronoun strategy, and would seem rather to be more global markers of subject versus non-subject relativisation, akin to the verb-marking strategies discussed in Comrie (2006), though not actually marked on the verb. These examples with relative clause markers in Haitian Creole and Angolar show that the relation between superstrate and creole/pidgin. even when items can be readily etymologised, may turn out to be quite complex. Moreover, the predse relation will depend on the detailed analysis of the construction in the creole/pidgin, as well as on adducing detailed evidence from the substrate language(s)- and also, of course, on the analysis in the superstrate language. This therefore reinforces one of the main methodological lessons repeated throughout the present volume, namely the importance of solid descriptions and analyses of the languages involved.
610
Bernard Comrie
6.
Conclusions
In Section 1 of this article, I set out a number of questions that typologists might ask of creole (and pidgin, and mixed) languages. Detailed studies such as those presented in this volume, as well as typological studies like APiCS, are starting to provide the relevant information on which answers to these questions can be based. Much work remains to be done, which is why this conclusion cannot say that the questions have been answered, but can claim that we are on the right track towards finding answers. In this article, I have also tried to show how typology can provide information to creolists in answering questions that have, after all, been issues in creole studies from long before typologists started taking an interest in them. In particular, typology can provide information on the worldwide distribution of structural features in non-creole languages, as in WALS, and can provide tools for organising the material from creole studies in a way that is comparable, as in APiCS. While the present article has selected only a handful of examples relating to simplification, substrate influence, and superstrate influence, it nonetheless tries to point the way forward towards future profitable interaction between creole studies and typology.
List of abbreviations DBF Dl!T FOC FUT
INDF INF NBG
definite determiner focus future indefinite infinitive negative
PRS PST
RBL SBJ
SG TOP
present past relative subject singular topic
References Ansaldo, U. & Lim, L. In preparation. Singlish. In Michaelis et aL Aye, Khin Khin. In preparation. Singapore Bazaar Malay. In Michaelis et aL Bakker, P. In preparation. Michii In Michaelis et aL Clements, C. In preparation. Korlai. In Michaelis et aL Comrie, B. 2006. Syntactic typology: Just how exotic ARE European-type relative clauses? In Linguistic U,Jiversals, R. Mairal & J. Gil (eds), 130-154. Cambridge: CUP. Comrie, B. 2008. Prenominal relative clauses in verb-object languages. Language and Linguistics 9: 723-733. Comrie, B. & Kuteva, T. 2005. Relativization strategies. In Haspelmath et aL, 494-50 1. Dryer, M. S. 2005a. Order of relative clause and noun. In Haspelmath et aL, 366-369. Dryer, M. S. 2005b. Relationship between the order of object and verb and the order of relative clause and noun. In Haspehnath et aL, 390-393. Fattier, D. In preparation. Haitian Creole. In Michaelis et aL Gilldemann, T. 2008a. Quotative Indexes in African LmJguages: A Synchronic and Diachronic Survey. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Creoles and language typology
Gilldemann, T. 2008b. The Macro-Sudan belt: Towards identifying a linguistic area in northern sub-Saharan Mrica. In A Linguistic Geography of Africa, B. Heine & D. Nurse (eds), 151-185. Cambridge: CUP. Haspelmath, M., Dryer, M., Gil, D. & Comrie, B. (eds). 2005. The World Atlas of Language Structures. Oxford: OUP. Maddieson, I. 2005a. Syllable structure. In Haspelmath et al, 54-57. Maddieson, I. 2005b. Tone. In Haspelmath et al, 58-61. Maurer, P. In preparation. Angolar. In Michaelis et al Meakins, F. In preparation. Gurindji Kriol In Michaelis et al Michaelis, S., Maurer, P., Haspelmath, M. & Huber, M. (eds). In preparation. The Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures. Oxford: OUP. Muysken, P. In preparation. Media Lengua. In Michaelis et al Perekhvalskaya, E. In preparation. Chinese Russian Pidgin. In Michaelis et al Plag, Ingo. 2008. Creoles as interlanguages: Inflectional morphology. Journal of Pidgin a,ul Creole Languages 23: 114-135. P1ag, I. & Winford, D. In preparation. Sranan. In Michaelis et al Samarin, W. In preparation. Sango. In Michaelis et al Slomanson, P. In preparation. Sri Lanka Malay. In Michaelis et al Smith, I. In preparation. Sri Lanka Portuguese. In Michaelis et al Stassen, L 2005. Nominal and locational predication. In Haspelmath et al, 482-485. Stolz, T., Stroh, C. & Urdze, A 2005. Comitatives and instrwnentals. In Haspelmath et al, 214-217. Thomason, S. G. 2001. Language Contact: An Introduction. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. Welmers, William R 1973. African Language Structures. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.
611
Index of authors
A Aarts, B.
255
Abas,H. 340 Aboh, E. 0. 29. 130 Acquaviva, R 89 Adam,L. 4 Adelaar, K. A. 295. 339-340> 345> 368-370, 375> j84, 414 M. K. 339
Adle~;,
Adone, D. 563 Agheyisi, R.N. 39-41. 43-44> 46-48, 51-52
Aikhenvald, A. Y. 341 Alario di Filippo, M. 234 Albe~;.B.
106
Albuquerque, L. de 62-63> 84 Alexandre, N. 38-39. 50 Alisjahbana, S. T. 340 Alleyne, M. C. 139> 144o 146, 183> 185-18;; 189, 202
Allridge, c. 439 Almeida Mendes, A. 38 Alvarez Garda, T. 134 Ameka, F. 41, 157 Amer~ R. 438, 458, 491 Andersen, R. W. 23> 26, 105-106, 114-115. 11;; 578, 592
Andre, N. 110 Annamalai, E. 404 Anon 300 Anonymous 12 Ansaldo, u. 5> 9-10, lj, 16-t;; 20, 22-2J, 25> 2;; 28, 30, 2;73. 279-280, 28J, 291, 368-379. 385> 601-602 Anson, G. 294
Aoto, S. 314 Aplugi, H. 358 Aplugi, L. 357-358, 365 Arbell, M. 230 Archibald, J. 106-10;; 122 Arends, J, uS, 157-158, 1]'0. 176, 229 Arclzola, R. 226
ArthUJ;. J. M. 507 Asod.anoe, J, 133> 152 Ash,A.
Blai~;, E. H.
Blake, B.
493
326 2o, 372,
448, 452, 491. 493>
502, 505
Ashe~;, R. E. 404 Ashley, L. 316, 320 Ashley, M. 316, 320 Atkins, B. 135 Au, C.-R 281 Awoyale, Y. 41 Aye, K. K. 6o7
Bloon1, D. 273 Blust, R. A. 305. 318, 340 Bocande, B. 87 Bodman, N.C. 257 Borrego Phi, C. 226 Bottche~;, N. 230 Boulegue, J, 63> 67-68, 84
B
BrasseUJ;. P. 109 Breen, H. H. to8 Broad, H. R 308 Broselo\\; E. 106 Brousseau, A.-M. 7-8, 13> 23- 2.4>
Boxe~;,C.R.
Baker, B. J, 535> 542 Baker, M. 41, 43> 46, 53> 55 Baker, P. 289-291. 293-294. 310, 46;; 489-490. 494. 503-504> 506,
29, 1o6, 109. 113-114. 116, 118, 129.
532-533> 552> 559. 565
Baker, S. J. 490 Bakker, P. 101, 369. 377-378. 6o7 Balle, M. 355 Bally, A.-S. 15. 129. 138, 148 Bamgbose, A. 41,194 Bao, Z. J, ;; 9. 23> 255-258, 261-264.
139.354
Brown, A. 262-263 Brown, D. 519 Brugmans, I. J, 339 Bruyn, A. 149, 15;1:. 176 Bryan, M. A. 128 Buis, R
2;73. 457
Baptista, M. 69. 92-93 Barros, M. Marques de 8;; 93 Bartens, A. 9. 20-21. 2;1:. 30. 69.
84
93-94. 96, 99-100
Burdon, J. A. 183-184 Bybee, J, 159, 162, 175. 265. 374 Byrne, F. 15. 131
205-220, 303
Bazin, H. 96 Beaumont, C. H.
c 535> 53;; 545>
547-548, 555 Beeh, M. 355
Beermann, D. 46 Beimers, G. 536, 544 Bennett, G. 499. 507-508 Bernabe, J. 22 Bethencourt, F. 379 Bibe~;, D.
262-263
Bickerton, D. 4o 128, 18;1:. 2o;; 226, 228, 230-232, 238, 339> 536, 558559. 56J, 565> 577-578 Bisang, W. 290
Cabrera, L. 235 Caldeira, A. 39 Camden, W. G. 19 535, 544-546, 551 Cameron, S. 355 Cam ins, B. 3o8, 316-317 Capo, H. B. C. 29. 108, 111. 159. 174 Cardoso, H. 370 Carr, E. B. 565 Carrington, L. D. 109-110, 115-116, 120 Carter, G.
568
Castellanos, I. 236 Chambers, J~ S. J, 308
614
Creoles, their Substrates, and Language Typology
Charpentier, J, M. 491, 533 Chataignier, A. 87 Chau.de.nson, R. 4. 109. 2.54, 578 Chen, C. C. Jr. 281 Christaller, J. G. 203-2.22. Christen, C. 183. 199 Church, E. 95 Clark. I. D. 438 Clark. R. 524 Cleeland. H. 567 Clements, J, C. 82, 85, 607 Clements, G. N. 117 Clouse, D. 413 Cochran, R. C. 414, 435 Codrington, R. H. 527 Coelho, A. 38 Cole, P. 42.6 Comrie, B. 350-351. 515. 607-609 Conrad. S. 262.-263> 266 Cook. K. W. 568 Coote, W. 533> 541 Come, C. 575-578. 581-582, 595 Correard. M.-H. 133 Corston-Oiiver, S. 523 Cortes Alonso, V. 66 Couto, H. H. do 69 Craton, M. 184 Creissels, D. 186, 195 Croft. W. 424 Cromar, J, 540 Crowley, T. 19, 502-504. 516-51;1 519-520, 529. 533> 535> 538-539. 541, 544· 546-54)1 551. 556. 56J, 58J, 595 Curno~ T. J, 279
D daSilva. A. A. 83 da Silva. M. da Gra~a Garcia Nolasco 85-86 Dahi,O. 159 Davis, K. 521 Daw Khin Khin, A. 253. 258 Dawson, R. 494> 498-501. 506-507 de Groot, S. 183 de La~ P. 107> 114, 117 Deck. N.C. 535> 538 DeGraff, M. 92 Degranpre, L 232. 242, 244-245 Del Castillo, N. 226, 22.8, 231-232, 243 den Besten, H. 43> 50 Dench, A. 456
de Rivas, C. 313 Devnnish, H. 106 De Vries, L. 431 Dieck, M. 238 Dimmendaal, G. 192, 196 Dionne, C. 138, 148 Diouf. J.-L. 72 Dittman, M. L. 2.16, 222 Dixon, R. M. W. 2o, 452. 493> 502 Dixon, T. S. 440, 451 do Couto, H. H. 308 Donaldson, T. 493> 502. 505> 507 Donewr. J.-1. 70-73> 79 Donohue, M. 10, 20, 22, 25> 149. 34o. 413> 415-41)1 419 Dowty, D. R. 343> 349-350 Dresher, E. 108 Dryer, M. S. 29;; 6o6-6o8 Dumais, D. 131, 133-135- 137 Dunn,M. 514 Durie, M. 341 Dutton, T. 490, 500, 506, 536. 544> 546 E Eades, D. ;1440, 492-493- 496-49;; 505 Eagleson, R. D. 492 Early, R. 514 Eckman, F. R. 1.22 Edwards, J. 202 Egbokhare, F. 51 Ehrhart, S. 575-583 Elbert, S. H. 541 Ellison, F. P. 56;; 569 Elugbe, B. 39 Elwell, V. M. R. 448, 492. Emeneau. M. B. 370 Engerrnan, S. 184-185 Erbaugh, M. 293 Escalante, A. 226, 228-232, 238 Escure, G. 8, 16, 2;; 182, 184. 187190, 194-196, 214. 297 Essegbey, J. 157 Evans, N. 442, 455> 456. 481
F Pal, A. 70-73 Faradas, N. 198 Farquharson, J, T. Fasold. R. 339
203
Fattier, D. 1.2, 6oS Ferguson, C. A. 254. 339 Fernandes, V. 6J, 67-68, 84 Fernandez. M. A. 306-309. 327 Ferraz. L. I. 37-4o. 55 Finegan, E. 262.-2.63> 266 Finer,D. 106 Fishman, J, 339 Fitzpatrick-Cole, J. 28o Flemer, S. F. 133 Foley, J. A. 272, 274 Foley, R. A. 514. 529 Foley, W. A. 272, 274- 34l.. 343> 349-35D, 420 Fontes, C. 38 Forman, M. L. 307-308, 314-315> 325> 327-329· 333 Foster, R. 438 Fox. C. E. 535> 538-539 Fox. J, J, 339. 359 Frajz}'Ilgier, Z. 203> 217 Frake, C. 0. 304. 3o6-3o8, 311-316 327 Franco Silva, A. 66-67 Franklin, K. J. 535, 537 Fraser, J. 463 Friedemann, N. S. De 226 Fuentes Guerra. J, 244 G Gair, J. 369. 372 Gale, J. 504 Gensler, 0. 282 Giacon, J. 493> 509 Gil, D. 282, 285 Giles, W. E. 533 Gilligan, G. 399 Gisbome, N. 5 Giv6n, T. 349 Glock, N. 133,152 Goedemans, R. 282 Good. J, 29. 279 Goodman, M. F. 4, 559 Gour}' L. 156-15;1160, 171, 175 Govett, W. R. 501 Graham, Rev. J. 501. 507 Granda. G. de 226, 2.30-232, 236, 238 Grant, A. P. 10, 11., 16, 26, 183> 18s, 308, 310, 312., 32)1335 Grant, C. H. 183 Green, K. 2.38, 240
Index of authors
Green, T. ~25-~26, 238, 240 Greenbawn, S. 255> 262, 266 Grimes, B. D. 339-340. 36o-36J.. 413 Grimes, B. F. uS, 338, 340. 354> 557 Grimes, C. E. 10, 20, 23> 149> 33934o. 349> 355> 357-359> 361. 365> 414 Grimshaw; J, 52 Grote, E. 439> 492 Grund~ V. 133 Giildemann, T. uS, 21;1:. 603-605 Gunn, J. 46:; 482 Giinther, Rev. J. 493 Giinther, W. 40-41 Gupta. A. F. 254. 273-274 Gussenhoven, C. ~79-281 Guthrie, M. 22;1:. 231. 239 Gut. U. 280
H Haan, F. de 367-368 Haboo, V. 157 Hagemeijer, T. 8, 20-21, 38-43> 45-53 Hale, H. 493 Hale, K. 443 HalL R. A. J. 3. ~94-295> 300 Ham, W.H. 29 Hancock, I. F. i1 563 Harkins, J. 439-440. 448, 490. 492 Harms, R. 243 Harris, J. 463> 46;1 482, 491-492, 533> 544> 550 Hashimoto, M. J, 567 Haspelmath, M. 20, 149. 376, 6oo, 611 Hassan, I. 316
u.
Hauck. L. C. 133 Hawkins, E. 399> 568 Hawkins, J. A. 399 Heath, J, 442,464. 469-47l.. 4784 79> 535> 539> 542, 552 Heine, B. 175> 185> 191, 20;1:. :us, 378 Helg, A. 229 Hellan, L. 46, 58 Helms, M. 184 Henrique7. M. 132 Hernandez De Alba, G. u8 Heywood, L. M. 229, 244 Higman, B. W. 184-185 Hill, D. 5~-523 Hoftmann, H. 136
Holmer, N. M. 493. 502 Holm, J. A. 23> 18:;~189. 201-202, ~04-~0j1210-~ll, ~13-218,
220-221, 243> 3Q8, 339> 4% 559> 563> 565 Ho,M.L.262 Hooper, R. 567 Hookoomsing, V. Y. 578 Hong, H. 255> 261-264 Hopkins, A. P. 567-568 Hopper, P. 265 Horoi, R. 535> 539. 548 Horwood, J, 136, 151 Hosking, D. 507 Hualde, J, I. 237 Huber, M. 533> 559> 565> 6oo, 611 Hudson, J. 305> 439, 448-449> 463. 480, 490. 539. 549 HuiLA. 109 Hussainmiya. B. A. 368-369> 374. 377-378. 382-384. 385> 409 Hutchinson, A. P. 535> 5311 548 Huttar;. G. 157 Hyltenstam, K. 107-108, 122 Hyman, L. M. 279
Ing, R. 0. 308, 312-314 Intumbo, I. 93-95> 99-100 Iskrova. I. 110
J Jacob, J, 10, 20, 23. 149. 339-340, 34~ Jacob, M. 339-340, 364 James, W. 221-2~2, 501 Jarman, B. G. 136 Johanson, S. 262-263> 266 Jonker, J, C. G. 359 Joredie, M.-A. 589 Jourdan, C. 106, 124. 518-519. 521-523> 538, 546 Juliana, E. 130
K Kaapu. M. K. 558, 566 Kaldor, S. 492 Karunatillake, W. S. 369 Kaufman, T. 16o, 176, ~54. 28o, 36!, 379
Kaye, J, 1o8 Kayne, K. S. 147
Kearns, L. 22, u9-130. 132-136, 139. 142, 144, 146 Kearns, Y. 543 Keesing, R. M. 12, 19. 23- 26, 82, 254, 467-468, 513-515> 525> 533> 535> 541-542. 544-545> 547-548, 551 Kellerman, E. 122 Kerr, H. B. 535> 5311 555 KihnJ, A. 9. 13. 15- 2;;; 30. 69. 81-82, 85> 88, 91-99. 577-578 Kim, H. 414. 435 Kirsner, R. S. 28o Klamer, M. 524 Klein, W. 85 Kluge, A. 414 Knowlton, E. C. 558-559 Koc[J, H. ;o. 10-11, 16-20, 26-28, 30. 438-439. 44Q-441, 443> 448-449> 463> 489-490, 492 Koelle, S. W. 2~0 Koopman, H. 128-132, 138-139, 145> 148 Kouwenberg, S. 15> 101, 139. 210, 279 Kumanireng, T. Y. 361 Kuteva. T. 175> 20J1215> 378 Kwan-Terry; A. 262 Kwan, W. M. S. 262, 297
L Labov, W. 129 Ladefuged, P. 119 Ladhams, J. 39 Lahiri, A. 280 Laman, K. E. 234-236, 241 Lang, J, 8-CJ, 13> 28, 66-6;7, 69-70. 74.78 Leech, G. 262-263> 266 Lefebvre, C. 4, 7-8, 13-15> 20-~1, 24-26, 30, 70, 82, 101, 106, 108109> 128-131, 133> 137-149, 163> 173> 176, 185> 18j1193-194· 254,361, 385> 462, 525. 600-601, 603-606 Uglise, I. 156 Leland, C. 290 Levinson, S. C. 514 Li, M. 289, 291-292 Lichtenberk, F. 531, 535. 537-538, 540. 546-547 Lim, L. 5> 7> 9> 29, 31. 271-275. 277-284. 368, 372o 376. 602 Lim, 283
s.
615
616
Creoles, their Substrates, and Language Typology
Lipski, J. M.
~29. 306-308, 31o-312,
323> 32;h 334
Lissarrague, A. 493> 509 Lindstrom, B. 51.4, 529 lloyd. J. 535> 53:h 548 Longacre, R. B. 419, 448 Loranger, V. 15> 138, 163 Lord, C. 4~ Lorenzino, G. 38 Lovejoy, P. 186 Lo~ B. L. 282, 373-374 luke, K. K. 281 Lumsden, J, S.
30, 70, 147
Lye, H. M. 273 Lynch, J. 516-51;; 519-5~0, 523. 534-535> 539. 547-548. 583
M Ma.ddieson, I. 115> 11;. 119. 602 Madeira Santos, M. B. 62-63 Maebiru, B. 518-519. 521-523 Maia, c. de A. 75 Malcolm, I. G. 439. 492 Manns, H. 414 Martino, B. 290-291. 293 Martin, P. 243> 245 Martin,
s.
563
Masica, c. 370 Masuda, H. 558
Mather, P.- A. 106 Matiso:fl; J. A. 255 Matos, R. C. 38 Matras, Y. 280, 376 Matthews, s. 5> 9. 13> 16, 20, 22-23> 30, 255> ~5jl; 279. 264, 274-~75> 279. 283-284. 289, 291-292, 2% 535> 53?; 548. 567-570 Maurer, P. 22, 39-41. 45> 48, 128, 130, 132, 148, 6oo, 6o8, 611
McKaughan, H. P. 308 McNicoL S. 507 McWhorter, J, H. 4. 41. 8:~, 15;;o; 215> 273> 283> 525
Meakins, F. 601 Megenney, W. W. 239 Melzian, H. J. 4o-44. 46-49. 51 Meredith, C. 506-507 Merlan, F. 442,464.469-471. 478-479. 535> 543> 550. 552
Mester, A. 52 Meyerho:fl; M. 494 Michaelis, S. 5> ~o. 149, ~39. 6oo
Middelkoop, P. 328, 356 Miestamo, M. 328 Migge, B. M. 8-9. 13. 15. ~3> 25> 28, 128, 130, 156-164, 166-171. 173> 175> 220
Mihalic, F. 504. 544, 563 Mint7. M. W. 255> 258 Moeliono, A. 340, 361 Molony, C. H. 313> 325-327 Monaghan, P. 438, 459 Mondesir, J. B. 110 Moiiino, Y. 236, 238-240, 243 Montes Giraldo, J, J, de 237 Moore, B. 507 Morin, Y.-C. 109-110 Morris, B. B. 490 Morton, T. 230, 233 MoseL U. 19. 514-515> 535-537> 539. 541-542, 546. 551
Mota, A. T. da 38, 84 Moyse-Fanrie, C. 589.591 Mufwene, S. S. ,; 25, 69, 173, 193. 254, 279. 282.-284. 373> 378· 462. 483-484. 525> 593 Miihlhii.usler, P. ;;o; 289-294. 300, 339. 437-439. 458-459. 489-492, 494. 504> 5o6, 512, 532-533> 552 Munro, J. M. 10. 12-1.4, 16-1;;o; 23. ~6-2:;;
30, 46J, 469. 47h 49o. 492,
533-534. 539-540, 543> 549. 552
Murray, B. ~10 Muysken, P. C. 4. 15> 23-~ 40. 91-92, 101. 106, 128, 148-149. 151. ~05>
254, 559. 607
N Nagara, S. 558, 565 Naro, A. J. 25> 85 Navarrete, M. C. 226, 229 Negreiros, J. A. 38 Nelson, G. 255 Nettle, D. 279 Neumann- Holzschuh, I. Ng, B.-C. 273. 277
Ngorn, F. 73 Nigoza, B. 332-333 Nikiema, B. 29. 1o6, 109 Nolasco, R. M. 26, 318 Nordho1t S. 368-372, 375> 379 Nurse, D. 185> 191-192 Nussy; C. G.
414. 435
0 Oba:ta, K. 525-527 Ochoa Franco, J. V. 231 Odo,C. 561 Ogie, 0. 8, 2o-21. 23. 41-43. 46-5o. 52-53,58
Ogiwara, Y. 32;;o; 330 Olgu_fn, M. 129, 134. 136, 138-139. 144-148
Orti7. C. 238 Otanes, F. 328-334
p Paa~
s.
368-369. 374-375> 377-
378· 382-384. 409
Palta, Y. 587 Pagliuca, W. 159. 162, 177 Pakit; A. ~58 Palmer, B. 519-520 Paolillo, J. 369. 372 Parkhouse, T. A. 550 Parkva!L M. 128, 202, 205-206, 208, 210, 221. 223>
~36-237
Pa:tiiio Roselli, C. 236 Patrick, P. L. 202, 218, 308 Pawle~ A. K. 343> 522 Payne, J. R. 328 Perdue, C. 85 Pereira, D.P. 38, 64-65> 67 Perekhvalskaya. B. 607 Perini, M. A. 535> 543 Perkins, R. 159. 162, 177 PerL M. 15;; 170 Petersen, W. G. 202 Petrie, c. c. 501 Pfleiderer, B. 233 Pickering, L. 279 Pierre, J. 110 Pinto BulL B. 84 Pi, P. 3o8 Pittman, R. 346 Plag, I. 30, 106, 11J, 601. 603 Pla:t.t. J. 254, 262. 273-274 Post. M. 41, 390 Postma, J, 128 Potts, A. 501. 510
Prentice, D. J,
~95> 339-340, 345>
369-37o. 414
Prista, A. R. 535> 53i> 56i> 569 Fukui, M. K. 541
Index of authors
Q Quint, N. Quirk. R.
69> 74 2.62
R Ramson, W. S. 490. 507-508 Ranken, G. 501,506-507 Rannie, D. 540 Ranoh, A. 357-358 Rassinou:x, J. 132 Read, J, 452 Read, P. 452 Reesink, G. 514 524. 529 Reichenbach, H. 92 Reid, A. 339 Reid, L. A. 305 Reinecke, J. 81, 289> 558, 569 Remijsen, B. 2.79 Renard, G. C. 501, 510 Rickford, A. 219 Rickford, J, R. 2.19 Ricklefs, M. C. 339> 368 Riego de Dios, M. I. 304-306, 308, 311, 316-318, 324 Rivera-Castillo, Y. 279 Rivierre, J.-C. 584 Robert, S. 72-73 Roberts, S. J, 11, 23> 533> 535> 543> 545> 558-560, 562-565> 571 Robertson, I. 187 Robertson, J. A. 326 Rogozinski, J, 108 Rojas Primus, C. 244 Romaine, S. 466 Roosrnan, R. S. 413 Ross, M. 310. 318, 340, 516-520, 529>
535· 547-548. 556. 583> 595 Rouge, J.-1. 38-39> 69-70. 84-86, 88, 95> 97 Rountree, C. 15> 133 Rowlands, E. C. 90, 93 Rurnaropen, B. E. W. 414. 435 Russell, R. 136, 151 Ryder, A. 38
s Sakoda. K. 543> 548, 561-562, 564 Salone, S. 194 Sandefur, J, L. 19> 442, 463> 491, 551
Sandefur, J, R. 19> 439-440.442, 448 -449> 456. 463> 490-492, 507. 504. 536, 539-540. 543> 551 Sandeman, B. 575> 578. 595 Sandoval, A. de 226 Santoro, M. 311-312 Santos, R. 70-73 Sapir, J, D. 93-94. 96 Saraiva, J, H. 85 Sasi Rekha dio Muthiah 421 Saunders, K. 533> 550 Sauvageot, S. 72 Sawaki, Y. 413. 416, 419 Schachter, P. 328-334 Schaefer, R. R 51 Schang, E. 38 Schapper, A. 415 Schiffman, H. 374. 404 Schiller, E. 341 SchlegeL S. F. 316 Schneider, E. W. 5> 254 Schuchardt, H. 38, 8;1; 157 Schulte Nordho\t, H. G. 339 Schiit7. A. J. 535-536, 540, 542 Schwar1z, B. 105- 107 Schwegler, A. 9> 12. 23, 225-226, 229-233> 235-242, 238, 244 Scott. E. L. 414 Scott. G. R. 414 SearC)!: A. 482, 544 Segurola. B. 132. 134 Seiler, W. 413 Selb~ A. 290-291, 294 Selby, S. 29o-291, 294 Seymour, A. 316, 320 Sharpe, M. C. 1::; 440. 46o, 463464.469-471.479-480. 49l.. 502, 534-535> 538-539> 541. 550 Shellabear, W. G. 258 Shi, D. X. 290-293- 295. 298 Shintani, T. L. A. 587 Siegel, J, ;; 11. 18-20, 23> 26-28, 30, 339> 462, 466, 483> 491, 513-516, 531-532, 534· 541. 543> 548. 558-562, 564, 570-571. 575> 578· 592-593 Silva, A. W. L. 373> 376 Silzer, P. 413 Simon-Mayer, C. 577 Simons, L. 536 Sirnpson, J. 492
Sina. M. 357-358, 365 Singler, J, V. 108, 128, 165> 194. 559 Sippola. E. 10, 16, 32.7-333 Siraj, P. 273 Slomanson, P. 5> 10, 13> 16, 2.5, 374-379> 385> 399.404. 40ft 601, 607 Smith, G. P. 9> 13> 16, 20, 22-2.3, 30. 289> 291-293> 296 Smith, I. 368-3;ro. 374-375> 377-378. 384. 390. 607 Smith, J. c. 417 Smith, M. E. 570-571 Smith, N. 4, 29> 40, 128, 15;; 205> 2.20. 254, 279> 305> 321-322 Sneddon, J, N. 339-34o. 361 Son, M.- J. 426 Soukka. M. 2.81 Souza, U. R. 69 Speed~ K. 578 Spencer, B. 46;; 501 Spit7. W. 313-314 Spriggs, M. 516 Sprouse, R. A. 105- 107 Steele, J, 106 Steinhauer, H. 339 Steinkriiger, P. 0. 32;; 329 Sterlin, M.-D. 138,140-142
Stewart. 0. T. 41, 43> 46, 51, 53> 55 Stolz, T. 6o6 Styles CarvajaL C. 136, 151 Suharno, I. 413 Sulairnan, 0. 257 Sullivan, R. 316 Svantesson, J.-0. 279 Svartvik, J, 262, 266 Swartenbroedor. P. S. J, 234 Sylvain, 4, 185
s.
T 'Thn, Y. Y. 273 Taylor, P. M. 414 TaJ M. W. J. 254. 273 Teem~ A. 339 Terrill, A. 11, 23> 26, 513-514, 525> 527 Teyssier, P. 88 Therik, T. 339-340. 364 Therrien, I. 139> 144 Thieberge~;, N. 531, 536, 547
617
618
Creoles, their Substrates, and Language Typology
Thomas, D. 536. 544. 546 Thomason. S. 158-160, 176. 203> 254. 280, 361. 379. 601
Thornton, J, K. 229. 244 Threlbld. L. E. 493> 497 Tinhorio, J, R. 85> 88 Tirona. T. T. 304. 326-327 Tjia. J, 361 Todd, L. 339 Tokimasa, A. 569 Tong, K.-S. 29o. 422 Tongue, R. K. 273 Tremblay; M. 147 TroJ J. 43~ 448, 49D-49:1o
van Minde, D. 361. 389. 415 van Staden, M. 524. 529 van Valin Jr~ R. D. 341, 343> 349-350 van Velzen. P. 426 van Zanten, E. 282 Veenstra. T. 15> 43> 50 Velupillai, V. 563 Verhaar, J, W. M. 502, 504 Veronique. D. 106 Verrips, M. 149. 151 Vidal Ortega. A. 226 Vila Vilar, E.
494-495>
185
Voorhoeve, J. 187 Voorhoeve, C. L. 414
500-50:1, 506-507
Tryon. D. 491. 533 Thnbridge, D. 443 Thrnbull, C. M. 253 Thrner, G. W. 490 Thrpin, M. 441. 443
u Uffinann. C. 1o6, 113- 157
v Valdman, A. 12., 106, no, 133-134. 160
Valkhott; M. 38 van den Berg, H. 21 van den Berg, M. 168, 175 van der Hulst. H. 279 van Dyke, P. A. 290 van Heuven. V. J, 279-280
w Walker, A. T. 357 Wallis, S. 255 Wang.L. 257 Washabaugh, W. 215 Watt Shilling, A. 220 Watters, J. R. 41 Wawn, W. T. 533> 538, 545-546 Weber, H. 273 Wee, K. S. G. 282-283 Wee, L. 255-258, 273- 275> 27h 281 Weinreich, U. 23- 101 Wellens, I. 82 Wehners, W. E. 603 Wescott. R. W. 45 Westerman, D. 128 WheatleJ P. 339
Whinnom, K.
303-307--308, 315>
326-327
White, L. 105> 107-108, 1.24 Wijnen, B. 139.144.146 Wilkins, D. 443 Williams, C. J, 493> 498, 502 Williams, W. S. 290 Williamson, Kay 41 Willis, R. C. 569 Wilson, W. A. A. 81, 84. 100 Wilson, W. H. 559. 569 Winfurd. D. 15. 156-15~ 160-162., 164. 166, 169-170. 176. 18:;o:. 190, 603
Wode,H. 1o6 Wong, I. F. H. 262 Wong, J, 0. 274 Wright. F. 183- 199 Wiirmbrand. S. 140 Wurm, S. A. 492
y Yaguello, M. 72 Yallop. C. 448, 493 Yang. B. 293 Yip, M. 255> 25;1 264. 274-275> 279-280, 294. 296. 535. 53;; 548, 567-570
Young. H.
536
Yumbi, A. C. M.
414. 435
z Zho,S.
28o
Zorc, R. D.P.
307
Index of languages and language families
A Afro-Caribbean creoles 603-604 Ajagbe 108, 155> 159. 161, 163> 167-172 Akan 128, 139, 15~ 184-185> 202, 223 Alawa 1.2.-13> 16-1~ 33> 461-464. 469-471> 476. 478-479> 481, 48;7; 535> 538-539. 541, 550. 556 Amarasi 33~ 355-357 Ambai 416 Ambonese Malay 363, 365> 375> 389. 413-414. 418,435 Angolar n 59. 6o8-609. 611 Arabic 82, 103> 182, 198, 309. 316, 378.603 Arandic languages
10, 43:h 441-442,
450 Arosi 523> 529> 535> 538-539. 548, 555 Atlantic languages 15> 69. 81, 88-91, 99
Australian languages
5>;; 10, 19-20,
26, 30. 438-439> 443> 448. 450. 452, 454> 456-459. 489-490, 495> 502-503> 505> 601 Australian Pidgin 43~ 457-458, 463> 486, 489> 491, 494· 503-504> 509. 511, 555 Austronesian languages 5> 305> 416, 433> 534 Awabakal 493> 497> 510
B Baba Malay 258, 266-26;;; 271> 274> 282-283> 286, 373> 376. 380 Balanta 15> 2,; 81, 84> 88-90, 93-95, 99-100,103 Bantu languages 9> 41, 108, 185> 191, 200, 230, 232, 235> 238, 243 Barunga Krio I 539 Bazaar Malay 253-254. 258, 266, 271-271, 280, 282-283> 295> 368, 373> 375-376. 38o-381, 6o;;; 610
Belizean Creole
5-6, 16, 181-182,
186-18:; 196-199 Benue-Congo 181-182, 185> 191-192, 194.197 Bilua 525-52~ 529 Bisayan 303-30;;; 309-310. 312, 314-316, 318,321 Bislama 5-6, 19. 31, 489. 504. 509. 514· 531-536, 538-542., 544-54l 551, 553> 555· 563> 572, 603
c Cantonese 9. 11, 22, 30. 253> 255> 264, 266, 271-272, 274-276. 280-281, 286, 289-294, 296-298, 300-301, 534-535> 53;7; 541-542, 548-549. 556-558, 566-571> 573 Caribbean creoles 15. 20, 22, 30. 65> 185-186, 196-19l 201, 603-605 Casamance Creole 6 Cebuano 303-304, 307-309. 311, 314. 318, 323-324 cem.uht 15- 575-576. 578. 583-584. 58;;; 589-593 Central Australian Aboriginal English 5> 437-439, 458-459. 510 Central Australian Aboriginal Pidgin h 437-439· 458 Central Eastern Oceanic
516, 528
Central Philippine languages
10,
303> 305> 3o8-309, 311-313> 319. 325 China Coast Pidgin 5-6, 13> 16, 2o, 22, 30. 289, 301 Chinese 6, 11, 182, 253-25;;; 259. 261-265> 26j; 271-274. 280, 283> 286, 289-292, 294. 299-301, 305> 308, 327> 494. 531-532, 558-559, 565-566, 568, 571> 6o;;; 611 Chinese Pidgin EngUsh 6, 11, 289. 300-301, 494. 531-532, 558-559. 565 Chinese Russian Pidgin
6o;;; 611
Cocos Malay 376, 380 Cotaba:tefio 303-306, 311-312, 316, 318
D Dhao 33~ 340. 355> 357-358, 364 Dharawal 493> 496-49;;; 510 Diola 271 81, 84, 88-90, 93-~ 103 Dravidian languages 370· 402-404 Drubea 15. 575-576. 578, 583-584. 58;;; 589-593 Dutch 63, 67> 101-102, 128, 151. 157-159, 175> 177> 187> 200, 243> 279, 285> 339. 367> 377> 380, 431, 6o6
E Eastern Indonesian Malays 37-57 Efik 8, 192, 197-198
33;; 344
:t!d6
Emai 51,59 English 5-12, 15> 17: 20, 22, 32-33> 58, 61, 63> 6jr, 72-73> 82, 90. 108, 120-122, 124-125> 127-130, 132-134, 136-139· 141-142, 144> 146-149. 151-153> 157-159> 17D-177> 181-187> 189-192, 194> 197-202, 205> 209210, 212-214, 217--220, 223-224. 245> 253-26;; 271-274, 279-28~ 289-291, 293> 296-29;7; 299-301, 304. 3o8-309. 311-313> 315-316, 318-324. 326-32l 332, 334· 353> 368, 380-381, 42~ 437-442, 444-450. 452-454. 456-463> 466-468, 471, 474-47l 481-483> 486, 489-495> 497-500. 502-514, 516, 518, 524525> 531-532, 539. 548. 550. 554o 556-560, 562. 565> 570-573> 593> 595> 602-606, 6o8 English-lexifier creoles 605 European languages 4. 15;;; 181, 1971 221, 6o5-6o6, 6o8 Ewe 4 108, 128, 161, 185> 220
62.o
Creoles, their Substrates, and Language Typology
F Fitzroy Kriol 463> 480, 539, 549 Fongbe 8, u-15. ~1, ~4-~5. 105. 108, 111, 114, 11:;>; l~j; U9, 131-13~ 134-15~ 155. 159> 161. 171J, 187> 193 French 3-4 8, 2~ ~ 3~-33- 61, 63> 6jr, 72, 8;;o:. 90, 10~ 105-124 127-131. 133> 135. 137-138, 14D, 142-149> 151-15~ 155-156, 184-185. 189, 193> 240, 245> 266, 514 558. 575- 579> 581-582, 593-595> 605-606, 609 French-le:xifier creoles 605
Igbo 128, 185. uo, ~23> 603 Indo-European languages 181. 197 Indonesian (standard) 266, 282~83> 285. 337-341, 344 354> 360365. 367-368, 370> 375. 381, 385. 413-42~ 424 426-431, 433-435
Jakarta Indonesian
414
Jakarta Malay 414 Jamaican Creole 185> 189-190, 198, 20:1,604 Juba Arabic 603
G Garifuna t81-182, 196-199 Gbe 8, 15. 29. 31, 82, 101, 105-106, 108-109, 111, 113-123> 1~8-129, 149> 152, 155> 157-175> 177-178,
K Kaytetye
10, 16-18, 43;;o:. 44D-45S.
490 Kikongo
9> 1~ 37-40, 157-158, 186,
185.~79
~00, ~25-~2j!. 231-~36, ~38-246,
see also Fongbe, Gengbe, Ewe, Maxigbe, Wacigbe, Xwelagbe Gela 5~7-5~8 Gengbe 108, 155. 159. 161, 163> 167: 169-lliJ, 174 German 182, 514 533 Guinea-Bissau Creole 81, 87 Gurindji 601, 603> 611 Gurindji Kriol 601, 603> 611 Guyana Patois 4 Guyanese 181, 185-18;; 189. 573
H Haitian Creole
3-5> 12-15. 21-~~ ~
~7> ~9>
31-33- So, 8~ 1~ 105. 1~ 127-131, 149. 152-153> 17ft 185. t8;;o:. 193> 200, ~66, 486, 58~ 6o8-610 Hakka 558, 566-56j!. 570-5~ Hawaiian 11, 534 555-560, 566-573 Hawai'i Creole (English) 11. 531-53~ 534-537: 539-541, 543-546, 548-550. 553> 557 Helong 33i> 339-341. 355-356, 36~
364 Hiligaynon
30, 33> So, 201. 223- 438-439. 448-449> 454> 459-469> 471-47h 479-484 486-48;; 489> 491-49~ 504> 510-5~ 531-5J6, 538-546. 549-553· 555-556. 601, 603> 611 Kriyol 5-6, 9> 13- 15. 2;;o:, 79. 81-84, 86-102 Kupang 5-6, to, 337-34~ 345-346, 350,354-355. 36D-36S. 414 Kupang Malay 5-6. 10, 337-341, 354 360-364. 414 Kwa 15. 41. 59> 88, 1o8, 128-129. 17ft 181-18~ tSs, 191, 193-194. 201, 206, 215.236 Kwaio 18-19. 535. 54~ 545> 547-548,
280, 303-305> 313> 323
8, 16, 192-193- 195. 197-199
414 Malay-based creole 5> 337-338,361 Malay(standard) 5-;;o:. 9-10, 13> 16-1;;; 20, 2~ 26, 29-30, 253-255. 257-259> 265-26:;>; 271-274, 280-286, 291. 295> 300.304.316,
318, 325-3~6, 337-341. 343> 345. 354· 360-370> 3~-394· 396-400, 403> 405. 407-409, 413-435> 601, 60ji; 610-611 Malay Papua see Papuan Malay Manado Malay 414 Mande languages 81. 148 Mandinka 16, 2j!. 61. 68-;oo, 84, 88, 90-91. 93-94, 96-9:;>; 99-100, lOJ, 195 Manjaku 2ji; 81, 84 88-90, 93-94, 96-9j!. 99-100, 102 Mankanya 27> St. 84
Marra 461-46:1, 464. 469-470> 476. 478-479. 481. 535> 542 Maxigbe 155. 159. 161, 163-165. 16:;>; 17D, 174 Maya so, 182 Media Lengua 23-24 6ot. 6o;; 611 Melanesian languages 2~ 413- 534 583 Melanesian Pidgin
Lani
6, 18-19. 26,
32-33> 8~ 1~ 266, 466-468, 486, 489> 491. 494. 509> 511, 513-516, 524. 528-529, 53:1. 534 538-541, 543-544> 546. 548, 550-55~ 555556. 571· 595 Michif 603> 6o;;o:. 610 Mindanao Chabacano 5-6, 10, 1~ 16, 26, 30J, 3o6. 319-321, 329> 335 Mindanao Creole Spanish 319, 32~ Miskito Coast Creole 186, 188-189. 198-199
551. 555
N
L 303-304. 306-316,
318-319> 3~1-324 Hoava 521, 528 Hokkien ~53> 255. ~58, 266, 271-273.
Ibibio
279 Kinubi 603 Kituba 8, 193- 197-198, 200, 484 Kokota 520, 529 Korlai 82, 102, 6o,; 610 Kriol 5-6, 10, 12-14, 16-19, 26-2;;
M Mak:asar Malay
416
Lan 535. 539> 555 Lavukaleve 525-527: 529 Lengo 517-518 Lole 33;;o:. 355> 359 Longgu 520-523-529
Ndyuka 5-6. 15~ 155-156. 159-160, 164-16j!. 170> 173> 175> 177-178 Negro-Aryan dialects 4 New South Wales Pidgin 5-6, 437: 457-458, 460, 489-490, 509> 5~ 531-532 Ngalakgan 461-46~ 464. 469-471. 476. 478-479> 481. 486, 535. 542543> 550, 55:1. 554
Index oflanguages and language families
Ngbandi
602
Ngiyampaa 493> 505> 5o;; 510 Nguna 535-536, 540, 542. 556 Nicaraguan Creole 6 Niger-Congo languages 191-192, 194 Non-native variety of English 253 Northern Territory English 440, 458 North Moluccan Malay 414 435 Northwest Solomonic 516, 520 Nunggubuyu 461-462, 469> 471, 4:;6. 478-479> 481,486, 535> 539> 551-552. 555
0 Oceanic languages 2::; 513-514 516-51:h 519> 521-523> 525-52;1:. 529> 575-578. 583
p Paanlese 535> 54 7 Pala 535> 539 Palenque(ro) I Lengua 5-6, 23-24. 224-226, 233-234. 239, 243> 246248, 601, 60;1:. 611 Pamak:a 5-6, 155-156, 159-160, 166-169> 171-175 Papiamentu 5-6, 8, 22, 32. 127-134. 136-139. 141, 144-149. 151-151., :no, 224, 279, 285> 28ji; 563 Papuan languages 5o 279. 416, 428, 433-434> 514 526 Papuan Malay 5-6, 10, 20, 21., 413-422,424-435 Philippine Creole Spanish
303>
319-321, 325-326, 335-336 Pidgin Derived Malay 368, 380 Pidgin English 6, 11, 81., 194, 198, 200, 289, 300-301. 458-460, 463> 486, 489> 491, 494· 504. 509-510, 531-532, 554> 557-559> 565> 570-573 Pidgin Hawaiian 557> 568, 573 Pijin 5-6, 11-12, 19. 26, 468, 489. 513-514 528-529, 531-532. 534-542. 544-548, 551. 553> 555-556 Port Sandwich 535> 54:0. 555 Portuguese 5o 11, 15- 22, 2::; 37-39. 45> 48, 51, 57-59> 61-65> 67-69> 74-79. 81-88, 101-102, 128, 156158, 218, 221. 230, 23:h 244-245>
279, 285> 291, 303> 30?1 309> 311, 316, 319, 321-322, 326-32;1:. 334-335> 370· 377-381,390, 534-535· 53:0. 541-543> 548-549, 555-559· 566-567> 569573> 6o5-6o:; 609> 611 Portuguese-lexifier creoles 30;1:. 6o6 Portuguese-related creoles 81 Proto Oceanic 516 Providence Island Creole 5
Q QW!chua
23-24. 33> 151., 601
R Raga 539· 555 Riau Indonesian 414 Romance 4o 128, 6o6 Roper River Kriol 462, 483 Rote 337-340. 35:0. 359-360, 364 Roviana 523> 528 Russian 604. 60;1:. 6u
s Saanlak:a see Saramaccan Saintandrewan
223
Samalan 303-305. 308, 323 San Andres Creole English 201 Sango 601., 611 Santiago Island Creole 6 Santome s-6, 8, 20, 22, 37-55> 57-58 Saramaccan 5-6, 8, 15. 21-22, 29, 31-33> 59> 127-139, 141., 144, 146. 148-149, 151-153· 155-15?; 159-160, 163> 166-16;1:. 172-175> 177-178, 18S, 224, 279> 285 Seychelles Creole 6o6 Singlish see Singapore English Siar 535> 547-548, 556 Singapore Bazaar Malay
6o;; 610
Singapore English 5o 6-;; 9> 29. 253-266, 271-274. 279-28;1:. 376. 381, 458, 602, 610 Singapore Indian Malay 414 435 Singapore Malay 414 Singapore Pidgin Malay 418 Shonam 10, 16, 383-409 Sinhala 16-1;; 30, 280, 367-379. 381, 384-390, 405> 408, 6os, 607 Sinitic ;; 9> 13> 20, 271-272, 274. 280-282, 286, 292-298, 300, 607
s.
Skou 415-419. 422,425-426, 428, 432.435 Solomon Islands Pijin
s. 11-12, 26,
513-514 532. 556 Southeast Solomonic languages
515.
534.538 South Efate 535-536. 54:0. 556 Spanish 8, 10, 22-24. 26, 33> 58, 63-64. 127-129, 131-131., 134. 136, 138-139> 142, 145-149> 151. 1.82-184, 218, 223-224. 226, 228-231. 234-240, 244-245> 248-249, 303-316, 318-328, 331, 333-336. 601, 6o5-6o6 Sranan (tongo) 5-6, 123-124.151, 155-15ji; 159-160, 162, 166, 170, 1;'3. 175> 17ft 179> 181, 185-18;; 189, 200, 245> 559> 563> 603> 611 Sri Lankan Creole Portuguese 37:h 380 Sri Lanka(n) Malay 280, 284, 367-368, 380-384> 386, 409, 601, 6o;o. 6u Sri Lanka Portuguese 381, 6os, 60;1:. 611 St. Lucian creole 6-;; 29, 105. 116 Surinamese creoles 8, 15. 33> 155. 161-163, 165-166, 168, 170-171. 175> 178-179 Swahili 8, 16, 192-193- 195. 197-198 Sydney language 491-492. 495-49;; 50ji; 512
T Tagalog
10, 16, 303-312, 316, 318-
336, 365> 607 Tamil 16, 30, 253, 265, 272, 280,
s.
367-379> 381, 383-38;1:. 390, 39;1:. 399> 401, 404-405> 407-409> 601, 6os, 607 Thngoan 18-19, 535> 545-546, 551 Tausug 303-305. 3o8-310, 316-31:; 320,323 'Thyn s-6. 11, 13- 15- 575-584, 592595> 603 Tennanu 359-360 Temate Chabacano 5-6, 10, 16, 325-330, 332-335 Thai 602 Tibeto-Burman 607 Tigak
535-53;; 545> 547-548, 554
621
62.2
Creoles, their Substrates, and Language Typology
To'aba'ita I Toqabaqita 535> 537-538 Toba:l.i 416 Tok Pisin 5-6, 19. 3~ ~91. 301, 489. 504. 512, 514. 5~9. 531-532. 534-536. 539-542. 544-548. 551, 553> 555556. 56J, 600, 603 Tolai 18-19, 32, 514. 5~9. 535> 53~ 539. 541-542., 546. 551, 555-556 Twi 9. 30. 1~8, 185> 201-223
w Wacigbe 155> 159. 161, 163> 166-16;7. 169-170, 1;'2. 174
West African creoles 603 West African languages 29,127-129. 131-13~
X Xiri.cU.u 575-576. 583-584. 589-593 Xwelagbe 155> 159. 161, 163> 166-170
y
148-1.49, 151. 15jl; 1115-186, 193> 206, 21j', 220, 23;7. 558. 56J, 602-605 West African Pidgin 198
Yoruba 128, 185-186, 194. 199-200,
Wolof 8, 15> 61, 66-75> 78-80, 84,
Zamboanga Chabacano 316, 603 Zamboanguefio 303-304. 306, 308.
87-90, 94-95
20jl; 220, 602
z 316, 320, 323> 335
Index of subjects
A accomplishment verbs 33:; 352-353> 356-359 accLISative case alignment 601 adjective marking 489. 503 adstrate 5> 10, 16, 30. 81. 303> 309310, 325-32~ 331. 368, 373 African influence 185-186, 196, 226, 23~ 244 Africanisms 225-226, 231-235> 243 APiCS 202-203- 205-222, 6oo-6o8, 610 aspect 7-S. 10, 1.4-15> 42, 48, 5o. 53> 55-5~ 73-76. 91, 93-94> 98. 155-15~ 160-163> 165-166, 168-171. 173> 175-176.188, 191-193> 195> 1~ 211. 237-238. 273> 280, 294. 298. 318. 33o. 333> 33~ 341-343> 345> 349-350. 353-356. 358-361, 369, 374-376. 380, 387-388. 390-391, 393-394. 396-397> 405> 408, 41~ 419-421, 443> 461,469. 471-474. 4 76. 484. 545> 560, 562-564, 569-571, 575> 578. 581-585> 58~ 589, 592. 594 associated motion 10, 20, 43~ 441, 443-44~ 457-460 availability constraint 26 see constraint on transfer I relabelling B Bantu inflwmce 226 bare verb form 93> 603 Belize history 181
c Calquing 23> 337 Canton trade 300 case ~ 9-11, 16-20, 26-28, 30, 44. 78. 91-92, 129, 139-143> 148-1.49, 161, 164-165> 173> 183> 190-191, 193> 203-2~ 209-211.
213> 218, 221, 294· 304. 310-311, 315-316, 341-342, 350. 361, 369-374. 376. 379-380, 385-386, 389, 392,404. 407-408, 42o, 428. 44o. 448-45~ 462-465> 468. 470-471. 474-475> 477484. 502-503> 505> 518. 524 534. 562. 5n 590-591. 593> 6oo-6036o5-6os semantic case 11, 16-18, 26, 457 syntactic case 26, 457-458 classifiers 9. 11, 13> 28, 293- 519-520 clause linkage 419. 429. clefting 42, 50. 53> 604 rode switching 101 romitative 1~ 56, 213> 222, 296, 370-371. 479. 517> 605-606 romplementisers 322, 391, 6o6 romplexification 384. 40~ 414-415 complex morphology 601 compounds 9. 291, 293 ronflation 2~ 69. 9~ 99-102, 372 congruence of substrate and superstrate 27 see constraints on transfer I relabelling conjunction of NPs 213> 222 consonants 29, 1o6, 113> 115- 117-118, 121-122, uS, 221. 292, 312, 495> 502 constituent order 82, 292, 312, 32:1. 373> 376-3~ 558. 602, 605-608 constraints on transfer I relabelling 11,26,464 see availability constraint see ronflation see congruence of substrate and superstrate see convergence of substrate and superstrate see substrate reinforcement see transfer to somewhere principle contact induced change 337
contact linguistics 248, 253-254. 273>385 convergence ofthe substrate and superstrate 9. 2~ 203> 253254. 256, 261, 265 see constraints on transfer I relabelling convergence-to-substratum 9. 253-254, 256, 261. 265 copulas ~ 9. 211, 214, 222, 294. 305> 313> 322, 564. 566, 570 counterfactual 8, 171, 181-182, 186-191, 196, 198. 580
seeTMA creolisation 8, 5~ 61, 69. 74-75. 81, 8J, 86-8~ 91, 93-94. 99> 106, 176, 21~ 23~ 369, 37~ 524-525> 599. 606
D demonstrative 57> 78. 291. 331, 506. 526,594 directionality 33~ 345-34~ 351-356, 358-360 discourse particles 274> 287> 376, 602 discourse pragmatics 33~ 351, 353 discourse structures ~ 11. 22, 28 see tail-head linkage see topic-comment distributive numerals 2o8, 222 dyadic in kinship terms 10, 437> 442-443> 45~ 459 E ergative case alignment 601 existential clauses 212, 331, 334
F focus 44> 15::; 218, 22:1. 274> 310, 322, 344 351. 356. 379. 384, 388-389, 39~ 44Q, 44~ 464 469, 490. 558. 560, 570, 578, 582, 586, 604
62.4
Creoles, their Substrates, and Language Typology
~ 233. 240, 253. 256, 258 -259> 261. 266, 280-281.
lexical semantics 82, 1o6, 348-349.
29)1333> 346, 354> 356-359> 36)1
lexicon 4, 9> 25. 29. 38-39. 55> 9o.
frequency 88,
413
238, 295> 312-313> 325-336. 375> 384. 386-389> 395> 397-409> 562. 568 nominal predication 605
371.373-374.376. 379> 393> 399> 421., 433> 461-462, 465> 468, 471,
156, 185> 189. 202, u;; 230,
474-47)1479> 481., 500-501. 516,
307-312, 316, 318, 322, 324. 32;;
0 ordinal numbers 209
571, 593
33)1 340. 351., 361. 370> 426, 491.,
ov
232-233> 235-236, 243> 279·
functional stacking constraint 389.
see also superstrate lexifier 8, 23> 82-83. 86, 88-91.,
408
G grammatical categories 10, 371. 437>
94-95> 9)199-100, 12j!. 209> 218, 221., 289> 303> 30ft 310. 326-327> 331, 334. 36ji; 415> 433> 45i> 516, 531. 601-602, 6Q5-606
45i> 593
grammaticalisation 41.. 46, 52, 55> 175> 20)1 215> 217> 315> 384. 481. 563> 57'0> 605-6o6
grammatical tone 602 grumetes 2;1 81, 86, 101
30. 386, 399> 433> 607
514. 571- 572· 606
Umits of substrate 513 see constraints on transfer I relabelling locative 16-18, 2:;>; 41, 45-46, 51,
p parameter resetting 105- 108, 122 passive voice 253 past negation 16, 181., 194 phonology 7-9, 23-24. 29, 105-1o6, 109. 201., 224-225> 22j!. 235> 23j!. 243> 281, 291-292,312,318, 322, 33j!. 340. 358. 361. 365> 48;;o:. 491, 556. 572-573> 6oo-6o2
pidgins
5> ;; 32-33. 81., 89. 194. 19;1
56, 92-9J, 147> 150, 168-169, 175>
224, 289, 291, 29J, 336. 362, 364-
H
17ft 188, 198, 212, 2J4, 313> 331., 342,
head-final 607 head- initial 39> 607
370-371. 373> 42j!. 434. 448-451.
365> 385> 433> 439> 489. 506, 524. 531-532, 543> 550. 552, 599-601., 603-605> 607
456-45)1 478. 480-481, 517-519> 525-526. 554> 55i> 561-566, 568571, 594. 605> 611
imperative
210, 294-295> 315-316,321. 332>
2;1 100, 211-212,328,
330-331. 334-335> 401, 485> 587 imperfectivity 61. 70. 73-74. 77
inclusive/exclusive 12-13. 315- 416,
M
Macro-Sudan Beh 603 markedness 107-1o8, 121-123. 280, 381,516
464-466,484. 524-525> 540-541., 603
indefinite article 206-207 inflectional morphology 310, 322, 40)1415> 601. 611
instrumental 17-18, 276, 370-371, 373> 379> 432, 434. 449-450. 456, 478-481.484. 51j!. 523, 605-606 intonation 29. 23;1 273> 27;; 280281. 39i> 429> 602
metatypy 310, 31.8 mixed languages 102, 321. 381, 573> 599-601.,607
mixing 339> 531 mood 7-8, 14-15- 27- 5;1 91, 155-15;;o:. 192, 238,341-342,350. 374. 380, 388,409, 443· 458, 461.469-476.
K
kin relation marker 442
435> 599
553> 55)1 562, 564-568, 571 10, 16-1;; 69> 120, 183>
possession
210, 212, 294.331-332, 335> 35;; 371-372, 425> 454. 478-482, 484. 51j!. 519-521. 526, 536. 54;; 549-550. 554. 560, 562-565> 567
post-creole continuum 273> 33;;o:. 339-340
225> 238, 240. 280, 291. 310, 312,
43-46. 53-55> 407: 43)1 440-441.,
373> 375> 386-389> 392.395-396. 399> 402, 404. 407-408, 415> 426, 476,484.601-602, 6o6
448-450. 454. 456-458, 47ft 479-
91., 201-202, 22ji; 238-240, 243>
levelling 8-9, 27-28, 65> 68, 461-
525-526, 528, 534-538, 546-550.
318, 322, 340. 349> 355-356, 37<»
morphosyntax 4. 9-10, 38, 82-83.
language typology 3> 28, 285. 336,
334. 370-371. 373-374. 425> 444. 449> 453-454. 456, 516, 519-521.,
predicate cleft 21-22, 43> 603-604 see also verb doubling prepositions 10, 16-18, 26, 30.
483-484. 579. 584. 58;; 592 morphology 8, 10, 16, 106, 141., 198,
isolating languages, Creoles as 484
L
pluralisation 89. 238, 240 possessive 16, 18, 27> 39. 203-204.
483> 517-518, 609
principle offeature economy 117118
processes 7-10, 16, 18, 22-23. 25-26,
381, 38J-386, 388, 390. 394. 401.,
28-30, 39· 73> 88, 9D-9lo 105-106,
408-409. 413. 6o8
121. 155-158, 160, 164, 172, 176, 266, 306, 313> 336. 362, 365> 388,
462, 465> 468,471. 474-47)1 479> 481.486, 512, 515> 531-532, 550. 553·
N
560, 570-571
negation ;;o:. 9-11, 16, 27-28, 42, 91.
407-4o8, 490. 524. 558-559· 566, 10Q-101., 181, 194-1911 211-212, 218,
578. 594. 599
Index of subjects
progressive 8, 14. 5i> 61, 70, 73-78. 92-94. 97-98. 101, 110, 115> 161, 168-171> 173> 175-176.375-376. 390-391. 394. 396. 472- 502, 563-564. 566, 569, 571> 578. 581, 584-585> 58;7, 589-594 pronominal forms 11-12., 28, 141, 417>464 pronoWI systems 315> 603 properties of verbs 7-9, 11, 20, 28,
217> 238. 340. 457> 466, 44 513. 524-525> 593> 599-602., 610 situative aspect 8, 61. 7o. 72-76, 78 280,379. 34 422., 558. 605 stress ;6. 270, 2;73. 27ft 279-280, 282., 317> 602 substrate 3-5> 7-20, 22-30, 5i>
sov
279-280
28, 9;; 391, 407-4o8, 45i>
232., 235-240. 242-244, 263. 266,
489-490· 495> 49i> 500, 504. 519. 571 see also reinterpretaton reduplication
157> 176, 198, 206, 208,
238, 273. 308, 312., J20, 327> 362., 446,469 reflexives 40, 216, 222, 321 reinforcement prindple 11, 2;; 91, 196, 461-462., 465> 471, 479. 515> 529. 531-532., 54Q, 542-545> 549. 552-553> 557-558. 560, 578. 593-594 reinterpretation 25. 70. 75. 160, 171, 175-176 see also reanalysis relabelling 24-30
second language acquisition
23.
105-106, 384. 407> 462., 515> 572- 592 segmental inventories 7-8, 105-107> 121 segmental substitution 105 serial verb constructions 8, 10, 20, 29. 31, 38.41-41. 58-59· 157>
328, 33Q-331, 374-376· 379-380, 388-389. 40;;!. 461-464, 469. 471-472- 47'4> 476. 478. 483-484,
354. 360-361, 379. 415> 433-434. 437> 448-449.461-466, 468-471> 474-484.489-490, 49:;>; 501. 511,
tones ;;!. 9. 29. 39. 221, 274. 276-277> 279.281 topic 4. 9. 12., 20, 22, 30. 129. 198,
513-516, 518-519, 524-52i> 531-532.,
236, 239-242., 258. 273. 283-284, 289, 291, 299. 310, 329. 431, 463. 470.485, 515, 526, 528. 610 topic-comment 9. 22., 2;73. 283- 289>
534-553. 557-560. 566, 57o. 575> 577-578. 583. 592-594. 599-609 substrate reinfurcement 2;; 91, 515>
291,299
529. 531-532., 540. 542-544, 549. 552-553. 556-557> 56o see reinforcement principle superstrate 3-4, 8, 14. 16, 22., 25-2ji; 30. 105-109. 127-129. 132., 134,
19ji; 253-254. 256, 261, 263> 265> 291, 310, 315> 421, 425> 428-429, 461-469. 471· 474-477> 479. 481-487> 500, 511, 514-518,
171> 1;73. 175-176. 181, 189, 191, 193. 218, 222., 303. 309-310, 318.
528-529. 531-532., 552. 558-559.
see also lexifier suprasegmental phonology see intonation, tones
svo
transfer 9· 14, 23. 25-30. 45> 5;;!. 105-10ji; 111.114-115.117-122.,
136-13:;>; 139. 142-143. 145. 147-149. 156, 158-160, 163> 168,
361, 434. 462., 475> 477> 483. 489. 497> 525> 559. 561-562, 564. 571, 575> 577-578· 592-593> 599-603. 605-606, 608-610
25-26, 254. 292., 374,
s
27-28. 30. 39. 47> 5i> 82., 91, 94-95> 99-100, 155-156, 158-160, 164, 1;73. 176-178, 186, 210, 30ji; 311-312., 322.,
575> 578. 580, 583-54 58;; 589. 592., 594 tonal system 29, 602
323. 326, 337> 361, 385, 57o. 602, 605-606 see relabelling 376-377> 379. 384. 407-408, 433> 438-439.459
443. 458. 461, 469-47:h 44 533> 543> 560-¢4, 566, 570-571> 575> 578-580, 583-54 58;; 589-590. 592., 594-595> 603 tense, mood and aspect markers I system (TMA) ,; 9-11, 13-16,
271. 273-27'4> 283. 289. 303. 306, 308-311, 316, 318. 325-32ji; 33i> 340.
see relexifica:l.ion relative clause 6o6-61o relative pronoWI 198, 6o8-6o9 relexification 23-26, 28-30, 61. 7o. 76, 82., 1;73. 18s, 193> 197> 211, 2;73.
restructuring
318. 350. 36ji; 369, 374-376, 378380, 383> 386-4o6, 408, 434. 44o.
134, 136, 139. 141-143. 145> 14i> 149. 152., 155-160, 164-168, 170. 172-173. 175-176. 1.81, 185> 194. 19;; 201-203> 205-210, 213-227> 231-
R reanalysis
191-195> 197> 211, 213. 238. 2;73. 298.
81-83. 87-91, 93-97> 99-101. 105-10ft 112., 114. 121, 127-129. 132.,
45> 56, 127-129, 137> 143. 145> 149
see verbs prosodic system
160-161, 163. 171> 1.86, 188-189.
177-178, 215-216, 29:;>; 337-338. 341, 345> 414. 420-421,427-428 sinlplification 8, 1ji; 61, 78, 209,
322
39. 161, 222., 280, 379. 383-34
57o. 575> 578· 592-594. 599
see also constraints on transfer transfer to somewhere prindple
26,
114. n;; 121, 578
see constraints on transfer I relabelling transitivity markers
11, 18-19. 26,
28,494-495 typological classification of creoles
464-465> 485> 605 sytlable structure 29. 31, 76. 111, 202, 221, 236-237> 292., 602, 611
3.;; 30 typological congruence of substrates
T
u
tail-head linkage tense
22., 419
7-8, 10, 14-16, 42, 5i> 73> 91.
94-95> 97-98. 1CJ3, 137> 141, 155-157>
27
Wiiversal grammar 363.572
8, 105. 107> 121,
625
62.6
Creoles, their Substrates, and Language Typology
v
serial verbs 7-9> u, 20. 28, 129>
verb classes
20. cq-155> 350
BODY-state verbs I eJqll"essions 8,129-131
149> 215-216, 222., 289> 297-298, 341, 413> 421. 434 weather verbs 8, 129, 131-132., 150
control verbs 8, 137 double object verbs 129, 147
verb doubling
raising verbs
vo
8, 129> 132., 150
22., 218, 222., 604
see also predicate deft 386. 399> 433> 6Ql-6o8 vowels 39, 7D, 75. 106, 109- u6, 120. 122., 23~ 490
w WALS
202.,
6oo, 602-603- 6o6-
6o8, 610
wh- interrogatives 9> 282, 299 word order ;;; 29-31., 48, 173> 280, 323> 328, 331. 379> 435> 462. 464, 569-571
see also OV, VO, SVO, SOV
Typological Studies in Language A complete list of titles in this series can be found on the pub lishers' website, www. benjamins.com 97
GIJN, Rik VIlli, Katbario.a HAUDE 1111d Pieter MUYSKEN (eds.): Subordination in Native SouthAmerican Languages. viii, 306 pp. + index Expected May 2011
96 YAP, Foong Ha, Karen GRUNOW-llARsTA and Janick WRONA (eds.): Nominalization in Asian Languages. Diachronic and typological perspectives. xvii, 792 + index. Expected May 2011 95 LEFEBVRE, Oaire (ed.): Creoles, their Substrates, and Language Typology. 2011. ix, 626 pp. 94 VAN UNDEN, An, Jean-Cbristophe VERSTRAETE and Kristin DAVIDSE (eds.): Formal Evidence in Grammaticalization Research. In collaboration with Hubert Cuyckens. 2010. viii, 344 pp. 93 AMIRIDZE, Nino, Boyd H. DAVIS and Margaret MACLAGAN (eds.): Fillers, Pauses and Plw:.eholders. 201 o. vii. 224 pp. 92 ZlllaGA,Femando and Seppo KITTILA (eds.): Benefactives and Malefactives. Typological perspectives and case studies. 2010. x. 440 pp. 91 FIEDLER, Ines and Anne SCHWARZ (eds.): The Expression of Information Structure. A documentation of its diversity across Africa. 2010. xii, 38 3 pp. 90 TRAUGOTT,Eiiubetb Closs and Gneme TROUSDALE (eds.): Gradience, Gradualness and Grammaticalization. 2010. ix, 306 pp. 89
GILDEA, Spike and Francese QUEIXALOS (eds.): Ergativity in Amazonia. 2010. v, 319 pp.
88 SCHMIDTKE-BODE,Kanten: A Typology of Purpose Clauses. 2009. xii, 229 pp. 87 CYFFER, N orbert,Erwin EBERMANN and Georg ZIEGELMEYER (eds.): Negation Patterns in West African Languages and Beyond. 2009. vi, 368 pp. 86 MAIDEU, Man:-Antoine and Nicole TERSIS (eds.): Variations on Polysynthesis. The Eskaleutlanguages. 2009. ix, 312 pp. 85 GIVON, T. and Masayosbi SHIBATANI (eds.): Synta..-tic Complexity. Diachrony, acquisition, neurocognition, evolution. 2009. vi. 553 pp. 84 NEWMAN, John (ed.): The Linguistics of Eating and Drinking. 2009. xii, 280 pp. 83 CORRIGAN, Roberta, Editb A. MORAVCSIK,Hamid OUAU a ad Katbleen M. WHEATLEY (eds.): Formulaic Language. Volume 2. Acquisition, loss, psychological reality, and functional explanations. 2009. .xxiv, 361 pp. 82 CORRIGAN,Roberta,Editb A. MORAVCSIK,Hamid OUAU and Kathleen M. WHEATLEY (eds.): Formulaic Language. Volume 1. Distribution and historical change. 2009 . .xxiv, 315 pp. 81 CORBETT, Greville G. and Michael NOONAN (eds.): Case and Grammatical Relations. Studies in honor of Bernard Comrie. 2008. ix, 290 pp. 8o LAURY, Ritva (ed.): Crosslinguistic Studies of Clause Combining. The multifunctionality of conjunctions. 2008. xiv, 253 pp. 79
ABRAHAM, Werner 1111d Elisabeth LEISS (eds.): Modality-Aspect Interfaces. Implications and typological solutions. 2008. xxiv, 422 pp.
78 HARRISON, K. David, DavidS. ROOD and Arienne DWYER (eds. ): Lessons from Documented Endangered Languages. 2008. vi, 375 pp. 77
SEOANE, Flena and Maria Jose LOPEZ-COUSO (eds.): Theoretical and Empirical Issues in Grammaticalization. In collaboration with Teresa Fanego. 2008. x. 367 pp.
76 LOPEZ-GOUSO, Maria Jose and Flena SEOANE (eds.): Rethinking Grammalicalization. New perspectives. In roUaboration with Teresa Fanego. 2008. x. 355 pp. 75 FRAJZY"NGIER, Zygmunt and Erin SHAY (eds.): Intera..-tion of Morphology and Syntax. Case studies in Afroasiatic. 2008. v. 234 pp. 7 4 KURZON, Dennis and Slvia ADLER (eds.): Ad positions. Pragmatic, semantic and syntw:tic perspectives. 2oo8. viii, 307 pp. 73 ANSALDO, Umberto, Stephen MATTHEWS and Lisa IJM (eds.): Deronstructing Creole. 2007. xii, 292 pp. 72
NJESS, Ashid: Prototypical Transitivity. 2007. x, 240 pp.
71
NEDJALKOV, Vladimir P. (ed.): Reciprocal Constructions. With the assistance of Emma S. Geniuiiene and Zlatka Guentcheva.. 2007. xxiii, 2219 pp. (5 vols. ).
70 .zthaGA, Perna ado: Deixis and Alignment Inverse systems in indigenous languages of the Americas. 2006. xii, 309 pp. ARANOVICH, Ra61 (eel.): Split Auxiliary Systems. A cross-linguistic perspective. 2007. vii. 277 pp. ABRAHAM, Werner and Larisa LEISIO (eels.): Passivization and Typology. Form and function. 2006. x. 553 PP· 67 VESEUNOVA,Ljaba N.: Suppletion in Verb Paradigms. Bits and pieces of the puzzle. 2006. xviii, 236 pp. 69 68
66 lllCKMANN, Maya and Stephane ROBERT (eels.): Space in Languages. Linguistic Systems and Cognitive Categories. 2006. x, 362 pp. 65 TSUNODA, Tasalm and Tam KAGEYAMA (eels.): Voice and Grammatical Relations. In Honor of Masayoshi Shibatani. 2006. x:viii, 342 pp. 64 VOELTZ, F. K. Erhard (ed.): Studies in African Linguistic Typology. 2006. xiv, 426 pp. 63 FIIJMONOVA,Eiena (ed.): Clusivity. Typology and case studies of the inclusive-exclusive distinction. 2005. xii, 436 pp. 62 COUPER-KUHLEN,FJiubeth a ad Cecilia E. FORD (eels.): Sound Patterns in JnteiaJ.-tion. Crosslinguistic studies from conversation. 2004 viii, 406 pp. 61 BHASKARARAO,Peri and Karumuri Venkata SUBBARAO (eels.): Non-nominative Subjects. Volume 2. 2004 xii, 319 pp. 6o BHASKARARAO,PeriandKarumuri Venkata SUBBARAO (eels.): Non-nominative Subjects. Volume 1. 2004 xii, 325 pp. 59 FISCHER, Olga, Muriel NORDE and Harry PERRIDON (eels.): Up and down the Cline -The Nature of Grammaticalization. 2004 viii, 406 pp. 58 HASPELMAm, Martill (eel.): Coordinating Constructions. 2004. xcv, 578 pp. 57 MATTISSEN, Johanna: Dependent-Head Synthesis in Nivkh. A contribution to a typology of polysynthesis. 2003. x, 350 pp. 56 SHAY, Erin and Uwe SEIBERT (eds.): Motion, Direction and Location in Languages. In honor of Zygmunt Fl:ajzyngier. 2003. xvi, 305 pp. 55 FRAJZ¥NGIER, Zygmunt and Erin SHAY: Explaining Language Structure through Systems Interaction. 2oo 3· :1:viii, 309 pp. 54 AIKHENVALD, Alex:andn Y. and R.M. W. DIXON (eels.): Studies in Evidentiality. 2003. xiv, 349 pp. 53 GIV6N, T. and Bertram F. MAILE (eds.): The Evolution of Language out of Pre-language. 2002. x, 394 pp. 52 Gtll.DEMANN, Thm and Manfred von RONCADOR (eels.): Reported Discourse. A meeting ground for different linguistic domains. 2002. xii, 425 pp. 51 NEWMAN, John (ed.): The Linguistics of Silting. Standing and Lying. 2002. xii, 409 pp. 5o FEIGENBAUM, Susanne and Dennis KURZON (eels.): Prepositions in their Syntactic, Semantic and Pragmatic Context 2002. vi, 304 pp. 49 WISCHER, Dse and Gabriele DIEWALD (eels.): New Reflections on Grammaticalization. 2002. xiv, 437 pp. 48 SHIBATANI, Masayoshi (ed.): The Grammar of Causation and Interpersonal Manipulation. 2002. xviii, 551 pp. 47 BARON, Irene, Michael HERSLUND a ad Finn S0RENSEN (eels.): Dimensions of Possession. 2001. vi, 337 PP· 46 AIKHENVALD,Aiex:andn Y.,R.M.W.DIXON and Masayuki ONISHI (eels.): Non-canonical Marlting of Subjects and Objects. 2001. xii, 364 pp.
45 BYBEE, Joan and Paul J. HOPPER (eds.): Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure. 2001. vii, 492 pp. 44 VOELTZ, F. K. Erhard and Christa KILIAN-HATZ (eels.): Jdeophones. 2001. x, 436 pp. 43 GILDEA, Spike (ed.): Reconstructing Grammar. Comparative Linguistics and Grammaticalization. 2ooo. xiv, 269 pp. 42 DIESSEL, Holger: Demonstratives. Form, function and grammaticalization. 1999. xii, 205 pp. 41 FRAJZ¥NGIER, Zygmunt and Traci WALKER (eels.): Reciprocals. Forms and functions. Volume 2. 2000. xii, 201 pp. 40 FRAJZ¥NGIER, Zygmunt and Traci WALKER (eels.): Reflexives. Forms and functions. Volume 1. 2000. xiv, 286 pp. 39 PAYNE, Doris Land Immanuel BARSill (eds.): External Possession. 1999· i.x, 573 pp. 38 SIEWIERSKA, Anna and Jae Jung SONG (eels.): Case, Typology and Grammar. In honor of Barry J. Blake. 1998. 395 pp.
37 GIACALONE-RAMAT, Aaaa a ad Paul J. HOPPER (eds.): The Limits of Grammaticalization. 1998. v~ 307 pp. 36 NEWMAN, Joho (eel.): The Linguistics of Giving. 1998. xv, 373 pp. 35 GIV6N, T. (ed.): Grammatical Relations. A functionalist perspective. 1997. viii. 350 pp. 34 GIV6N, T. (ed.): Conversation. Cognitive, communicative and social perspectives. 1997. viii, 302 pp. 33 FOX, Barbara A. (eel.): Studies in Anaphora 1996. xi~ 518 pp. 32 BYBEE, Joao aod Suzaaae FLEISCHMAN (eds.): Modality in Grammar and Discourse. 1995. viii. 575 pp. 31 GERNSBACHER, Morton ADo aod T. GIV6N (eds.): Coherence in Spontaneous Text 1995. x. 267 pp. 30 DOWNING, Pamela A. aod Michael NOONAN (eds.): Word Order in Discourse. 1995. x, 595 pp. 29 KAHREL,Peter aod Reohao dea BERG (eds.): Typological Studies in Negation. 1994- x-. 385 pp. 28 GIV6N, T. (ed.): Voice and Inversion. 1994- vii~ 402 pp. 27 FOX, Barbara A. aod Paul J. HOPPER (eds.): Voice: Form and Function. 1994. xiii, 377 pp. 26 LORD, Carol: Historical Change in Serial Verb Constructions. 1993. x, 27 3 pp. 25 SVOROU,Soteria: The Grammar of Space. 1994- xiv, 290 pp. 24 PERKINS,RelereD.: Deixis, Grammar, and Culture. 1992. x-. 245 pp. 23 KEMMER, Suzaooe: The Middle Voice. 1993. xi~ 300 pp. 22 PAYNE, Doris L (ed.): Pragmatics ofWord Order Flexibility. 1992. vii~ 320 pp. 21 DOWNING, Pamela A., Susao D. LIMA aod Michael NOONAN (eds.): The Linguistics of Literacy. 1992. xx. 334PP· 20 CROFT, WWiam, Suzaaae KEMMER aod Keith DENNING (eds.): Studies in Typology and Diacllrony. Papers presented to Joseph H. Greenberg on his 75th birthday. 1990. n:xiv, 243 pp. 19:2 TRAUGOTT, Elizabeth Closs aod Bemd HEINE (eds.): Approaches to Grammaticalization. Volume IT. Types of grammatical marlr.ers. 1991.xii, 558 pp. 19:1 TRAUGOTT, Elizabeth Closs aodBemd HEINE (eds.): Approw:hes to Grammaticalization. Volume l Theoretical and methodological issues. 1991. xii, 360 pp. 18 HAIMAN, Joho aod Sandra A. THOMPSON (eds.): Clause Combining in Grammar and Disc.ourse. 1988. xiii, 428 pp. HAMMOND, Michael, Edith A. MORAVCSIK aod Jessica WIRTH (eds.): Studies in Syntactic Typology. 1988. xiv, 380 pp. 16 SHIBATANI, Masayoshi (ed.): Passive and Voice. 1988. xi. 706 pp. 15 AUSTIN, Peter (ed.): Complex Sentence Constructions in Australian Languages. 1988. vii. 289 pp. 14 HINDS, Joho, Sboichi IWASAKI aod Seoko K. MAYNARD (eds.): Perspectives on Topicalization. The case of Japanese WA. 1987. xi, 307 pp. 13 Never published. 12 NEDJALKOV, Vladimir P. (ed.): Typology of Resu ltative Constructions. Translated from the original Russian edition (1983). Translation edited by Bernard Comrie. 1988. XX"o 573 pp. TOMLIN, Russell S.: Coherence and Grounding in Discourse. Outcome of a Symposium, Eugene, Oregon, June 1984- 1987. viii, 512 pp. 1o RANSOM,Evelyo N.: Complementation: its Meaning and Forms. 1986. xii, 226 pp. 9 BYBEE, Joao: Morphology. A Study of the Relation between Meaning and Form. 1985. xii, 235 pp. 8 SLOBIN, Dao I. aod Kad ZIMMER (eds.): Studies in Turkish Linguistics. 1986. vi, 294 pp. CRAIG, Colette G. (ed.): Noun Classes and Categorization. Proceedings of a symposium on categorization and noun classification, Eugene,Oregon,Octoben983.1986. vii,481 pp. 6 HAIMAN, Joho (eel.): !conicity in Syntax. Proceedings of a symposium on iconicity in syntax. Stanford, June 24-26. 1983. 1985. vi, 402 pp. 5 RUTHERFORD, William F. (ed.): Language Universals and Second Language Acquisition. 1984ix, 264 pp. 4 CHISHOLM, William, Louis T. MILIC aod Joho A. C. GREPPIN (eds.): Interrogativity. A coUoq uium on the grammar, typology and pragmatics of questions in seven diverse languages, Cleveland, Ohio, October 5th 1981-May 3rd 1982. 1984- v, 302 pp. GIV6N, T.: Topic Continuity in Discourse. A quantitative cross-language study.1983. vi, 492 pp. HAIMAN, Joho aod Pamela MUNRO (eds.): Switch Reference and Universal Grammar. Proceedings of a syntposium on switch reference and universalgrammar,Winnipeg, May 1981. 1983.xv, 337 pp. HOPPER, Paul J. (eel.): Tense-Aspect Between semantics&: pragmatics. 1982. x. 350 pp.