Jacobs Origins of a Creole

The History of Papiamentu and Its African Ties
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-1-61451-107-6
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 401 Seiten

Reihe: ISSN

This study embarks on the intriguing quest for the origins of the Caribbean creole language Papiamentu. In the literature on the issue, widely diverging hypotheses have been advanced, but scholars have not come close to a consensus. The present study casts new and long-lasting light on the issue, putting forward compelling interdisciplinary evidence that Papiamentu is genetically related to the Portuguese-based creoles of the Cape Verde Islands, Guinea-Bissau, and Casamance (Senegal). Following the trans-Atlantic transfer of native speakers to Curaçao in the latter half of the 17th century, the Portuguese-based proto-variety underwent a far-reaching process of relexification towards Spanish, affecting the basic vocabulary while leaving intact the original phonology, morphology, and syntax. Papiamentu is thus shown to constitute a case of 'language contact reduplicated' in that a creole underwent a second significant restructuring process (relexification). These explicit claims and their rigorous underpinning will set standards for both the study of Papiamentu and creole studies at large and will be received with great interest in the wider field of contact linguistics.

Zielgruppe

Institutional Libraries, Students and Researchers in Applied Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Language Contact, Language Change and Creole Studies

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jacobs, Bart

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Historische & Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Einzelne Sprachen & Sprachfamilien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Acknowledgements;5
2;Abbreviations;13
3;Introduction;15
3.1;Presentation of the languages considered in the present study;17
3.2;Papiamentu (PA);17
3.3;Cape Verdean Creole (CV);20
3.4;The Creole of Guinea-Bissau and Casamance (GBC);22
3.5;Hypothesis examined in the present study;23
3.6;Methodological remarks;24
3.7;Linguistic evidence;24
3.8;Negative evidence;25
3.9;Historical evidence;28
3.10;Structure of the present study;28
4;1 Critical review of the literature on the origins of Papiamentu;31
4.1;Introduction;31
4.2;1.1. From Schabel (1704) to Lenz (1928);32
4.3;1.2. Afro-Portuguese hypotheses: from Lenz (1928) to monogenesis;34
4.4;1.3. Spanish hypotheses;38
4.5;1.4. Critical discussion of the Spanish hypotheses;41
4.5.1;1.4.1. Linguistic continuity between the pre- and post-1634 period?;42
4.5.2;1.4.2. Linguistic evidence against Old Spanish in PA’s superstate;43
4.5.3;1.4.3. About the tendency to attribute the Portuguese to other Hispanic varieties;43
4.6;1.5. PA birth among the Sephardim?;44
4.6.1;1.5.1. On the linguistic profile of the early Curaçaoan Sephardim;45
4.6.2;1.5.2. Demographic arguments against a PA birth among the Sephardim;50
4.7;1.6. Where does the Portuguese come from?;53
4.7.1;1.6.1. A shared origin for all Afro-Iberian creoles in the Caribbean?;53
4.7.2;1.6.2. Goodman’s Brazilian Creole Hypothesis;57
4.7.3;1.6.3. Gulf of Guinea Portuguese-based Creole;58
4.7.4;1.6.4. Upper Guinea Portuguese-based Creole;60
4.8;1.7. Summary;62
5;2 Phonology;65
5.1;Introduction;65
5.2;2.1. Vowel features;66
5.2.1;2.1.1. Vowel raising;66
5.2.2;2.1.2. Rounding of unstressed vowels;69
5.2.3;2.1.3. Vowel harmony;70
5.2.4;2.1.4. Monophthongs;71
5.3;2.2. Consonant features;76
5.3.1;2.2.1. The voiceless palatal fricative /./ in PA and Upper Guinea PC;76
5.3.2;2.2.2. Retention of Old Portuguese voiceless affricate /t./ in PA and Upper Guinea PC;82
5.3.3;2.2.3. Rejection of voiced fricatives in PA and Upper Guinea PC;83
5.3.4;2.2.4. The lack of lambdacism (/r/ > /l/) in PA and Upper Guinea PC;86
5.3.5;2.2.5. Rhotacism (/d/ > /r/);86
5.4;2.3. Syllabic restructuring;87
5.4.1;2.3.1. Apheresis of prefixes;88
5.4.2;2.3.2. Vowel epenthesis;89
5.4.3;2.3.3. Metathesis of the /r/;90
5.4.4;2.3.4. Negative evidence: syllabic restructuring in PLQ and Gulf of Guinea PC;91
5.5;2.4. Paroxytonic verb stress in PA and SCV;92
5.5.1;2.4.1. Verb stress in GBC;94
5.5.2;2.4.2. On the diachrony of paroxytonic verb stress in PA and SCV;94
5.6;2.5. Final remarks on phonology;95
6;3 Selected parts of speech;97
6.1;Introduction;97
6.2;3.1. Personal pronouns;97
6.2.1;3.1.1. 1sg (a)mi;100
6.2.2;3.1.2. Emphatic a- subject pronouns;100
6.2.3;3.1.3. 2pl SCV nhos;102
6.2.4;3.1.4. Digression: 2sg polite pronouns in PA;103
6.2.5;3.1.5. PA nan;104
6.2.6;3.1.6. Final remarks on pronouns;109
6.3;3.2. Prepositions;109
6.3.1;3.2.1. PA / Upper Guinea PC di;111
6.3.2;3.2.2. PA / Upper Guinea PC na;112
6.3.3;3.2.3. PA / Upper Guinea PC te;113
6.3.4;3.2.4. PA / Upper Guinea PC riba (di);114
6.3.5;3.2.5. PA / Upper Guinea PC pa;115
6.3.6;3.2.6. Zero preposition with motion verb + place;117
6.3.7;3.2.7. Reanalysis of Iberian prepositions/adverbs ‘in front of’ and ‘behind’ as nouns;118
6.3.8;3.2.8. Composed prepositions;120
6.3.9;3.2.9. A reassessment of the time-depth of prepositions in PA;127
6.3.10;3.2.10. Final remarks on prepositions;128
6.4;3.3. Interrogatives;128
6.4.1;3.3.1. Equally transparent interrogative paradigms;130
6.4.2;3.3.2. PA: Portuguese rather than Spanish etyma;130
6.4.3;3.3.3. Early PA *kantu, *kal;130
6.4.4;3.3.4. PA unda, SCV unde and GBC nunde;131
6.4.5;3.3.5. PA / Upper Guinea PC ken;131
6.5;3.4. Conjunctions;132
6.5.1;3.4.1. Coordinate conjunctions;132
6.5.2;3.4.2. Subordinate conjunctions;134
6.5.3;3.4.3. Final remarks on conjunctions;143
6.6;3.5. Miscellaneous;143
6.6.1;3.5.1. Reciprocity and reflexivity;143
6.6.2;3.5.2. The deictic marker Early PA / Upper Guinea PC es;148
6.6.3;3.5.3. Negation;153
7;4 Morphology;157
7.1;Introduction;157
7.2;4.1. Derivational morphology;158
7.2.1;4.1.1. PA -mentu;158
7.2.2;4.1.2. PA -dó;159
7.2.3;4.1.3. Upper Guinea PC -mentu / -dor;159
7.2.4;4.1.4. The suffix -dadi in Early PA texts;163
7.3;4.2. Inflectional morphology;164
7.3.1;4.2.1. The diachrony of PA’s past participle morpheme -/Ø/;165
7.3.2;4.2.2. The regularization of past participle morphology in PA and Upper Guinea PC;168
7.4;4.3. Passivization in (Early) PA and Upper Guinea PC;169
7.4.1;4.3.1. Passivization in present-day PA;169
7.4.2;4.3.2. Passivization in Upper Guinea PC;170
7.4.3;4.3.3. Auxiliary-less passives in Early PA texts;171
7.4.4;4.3.4. Digression: On the reliability of Early PA evangelical texts;176
7.4.5;4.3.5. Auxiliary-less passives (/passive verbs) in present-day Papiamentu;177
7.4.6;4.3.6. On the incorporation of wòrdu and ser;180
7.4.7;4.3.7. Digression: The presumed non-nativeness of passives in PA;182
7.4.8;4.3.8. Final remarks on passivization in PA and Upper Guinea PC;182
7.5;4.4. Final remarks on morphology;183
8;5 Verbal system;185
8.1;Introduction;185
8.2;5.1. PA / Upper Guinea PC preverbal ta;186
8.2.1;5.1.1. Analyzing CV ta as a progressive aspect marker;187
8.2.2;5.1.2. Analyzing PA ta as [+imperfective], rather than [+present];200
8.2.3;5.1.3. Final remarks on PA / Upper Guinea PC preverbal ta;206
8.3;5.2. The diachrony of the PA perfective past marker a;207
8.4;5.3. Future tense marking in PA and Upper Guinea PC;211
8.4.1;5.3.1. The PA future tense marker lo vs. its absence in Upper Guinea PC;212
8.4.2;5.3.2. On the origin of PA lo;214
8.4.3;5.3.3. The diachrony of future tense marking in PA and Upper Guinea PC;217
8.4.4;5.3.4. Digression: SCV al and PA lo;221
8.5;5.4. PA / BaCV taba – tabata;222
8.5.1;5.4.1. Digression: On the diachrony of preverbal taba and postverbal -ba;225
8.6;5.5. The issue of relative versus absolute tense marking in PA;228
8.7;5.6. A comparison of stative verbs in PA and SCV;231
8.7.1;5.6.1. The stative – nonstative distinction in creoles;231
8.7.2;5.6.2. Strong vs. weak stative verbs;232
8.7.3;5.6.3. The class of strong stative verbs;233
8.7.4;5.6.4. The class of weak stative verbs;235
8.7.5;5.6.5. Contrastive analysis;237
8.7.6;5.6.6. Digression: The case of GBC;239
8.8;5.7. Auxiliary verbs;240
8.8.1;5.7.1. Modal auxiliaries;241
8.8.2;5.7.2. Copular verbs;244
8.8.3;5.7.3. Other auxiliaries;254
8.8.4;5.7.4. Final remarks on auxiliary verbs;268
8.9;5.8. Final remarks on the verbal system;269
9;6 Summary and interim analysis of the linguistic results;271
9.1;Introduction;271
9.2;6.1. Predominance of Portuguese-derived function words in PA;271
9.3;6.2. Structural overlap between PA and Upper Guinea PC;273
9.4;6.3. Negative evidence from PLQ and Gulf of Guinea PC;274
9.4.1;6.3.1. Digression: What sets PA and Upper Guinea PC apart from Gulf of Guinea PC;275
9.5;6.4. Old Portuguese features in PA and Upper Guinea PC;278
9.6;6.5. The value of historical PA and Upper Guinea PC texts;279
9.7;6.6. West-Atlantic and Mande features in PA and Upper Guinea PC;280
10;7 The historical ties between Upper Guinea and Curaçao;283
10.1;Introduction;283
10.2;7.1. On the presumed insignificance of Upper Guinea to the history of Curaçao;284
10.3;7.2. The Dutch presence in Senegambia in the 17th century;287
10.3.1;7.2.1. The Dutch in Gorée;291
10.3.2;7.2.2. The Dutch on the Petite Côte (Rufisque, Portudal and Joal);293
10.3.3;7.2.3. The loss of Gorée and the Dutch retreat from Senegambia;295
10.3.4;7.2.4. The Dutch ties with Cacheu and the Cape Verde Islands;299
10.3.5;7.2.5. Final remarks on the Dutch presence in Senegambia in the 17th century;303
10.4;7.3. Dutch slave trade from Upper Guinea to Curaçao;303
10.4.1;7.3.1. Other factors relevant to the Dutch slave trade from Upper Guinea to Curaçao;305
10.5;7.4. Sephardic Jewish networks linking Upper Guinea to Curaçao;308
10.5.1;7.4.1. Ties between the Sephardim in Upper Guinea and Amsterdam;310
10.5.2;7.4.2. Sephardim networks directly linking Upper Guinea to Curaçao;311
10.5.3;7.4.3. Partnership between the Dutch WIC and the Sephardim;313
10.6;7.5. Diffusion of Upper Guinea PC to the mainland, 16th and 17th centuries;314
10.7;7.6. Summary, conclusions, and final remarks;318
11;8 Discussion: The development from Upper Guinea PC to Papiamentu;321
11.1;Introduction;321
11.2;8.1. Sociolinguistic considerations;322
11.2.1;8.1.1. On the choice of slaves in the early period of Curaçao’s settlement;322
11.2.2;8.1.2. Sociolinguistic issues relevant to the consolidation of Upper Guinea PC on Curaçao and its diffusion among the (slave) population;326
11.3;8.2. From Upper Guinea PC to PA: a case of rapid relexification towards Spanish;333
11.3.1;8.2.1. PA, monogenesis, and the notion of relexification in creole studies;334
11.3.2;8.2.2. From Upper Guinea PC to PA: ‘relexification’ rather than ‘heavy borrowing’;336
11.3.3;8.2.3. Analyzing Papiamentu as a mixed language;341
11.3.4;8.2.4. The source(s) of the Spanish elements in PA’s basic content vocabulary;345
11.4;8.3. Summary of the discussion;349
12;9 Conclusions;351
13;Appendices;353
14;References;359
15;Index;399

Über Autor(innen)

Bart Jacobs, University of Konstanz, Germany.