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The Phonology and Morphology of Creole Languges: Simple or Complex

The Phonology and Morphology of Creole Languges: Simple or Complex. Norval Smith ACLC/Theoretical Linguistics University of Amsterdam. Structure of talk. Phonology Saramaccan consonant system & Sranan consonant system Saramaccan vowel system Morphology Definiteness and number in Sranan

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The Phonology and Morphology of Creole Languges: Simple or Complex

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  1. The Phonology and Morphology of Creole Languges: Simple or Complex Norval Smith ACLC/Theoretical Linguistics University of Amsterdam

  2. Structure of talk • Phonology • Saramaccan consonant system & Sranan consonant system • Saramaccan vowel system • Morphology • Definiteness and number in Sranan • Perfective and imperfective in Sranan

  3. Saramaccan Consonants p t tj k kwkp b d dj g gwgb  m n nj f s ? v z w l j 23-26

  4. Fon Consonants t c k kp d j g gb f s   v z   bm n    21

  5. kp vs. kw Sar 1Sar 218th c.source kpéfa kwéfa kwefa Ptg. coifa kpéi kwéi kwêri, kwêli Eng. square ahalakpákpa aherapápa ahalakpákpa Fon hlakpakpa kpan kpan Fon kpa

  6. gb vs. gw Sar 1Sar 218th c.source gbamba gwamba kwamba K. gwamba gbaniní gwaniní gwaninì gbegbé bebèh F. gbgb* gblgbl bloblo F. gbl *Sranan bebé

  7. b vs.  DutchSara. gloss blaas aási 'bladder, balloon' balk áiki 'cross-beam' brak(en) baláki 'bring up' blommetje bolómítji 'flower' N.B. obvious late borrowings from Sranan

  8. d vs.  EnglishSaramaccangloss down + go 'go down' dead 'dead' drink 'drink' (n.) dig 'dig'

  9. Sranan Consonants • Lacks the “exotic” substrate segments of Saramaccan. • Implosives appear as ordinary voiced stops • /kp, gb/ are nearly always /p, b/ • Lacks #mb, nd, ndj, ŋg clusters of Kikongo. • Why? Due presumably to the hundreds of years of contact with Dutch.

  10. Saramaccan diphthongs • In English/Portuguese vocabulary originally only morpheme-finally. Non-final English/Portuguese diphthongs reduced to monophthongs •       •   

  11. Fon Vowel sequences • In Fon vocabulary only syllable-finally • u+i > wi ui • o+i > we/wi oe/ui • +i > w/wi  • some of the patterns

  12. English noun plurals > Surinam EnglishSara. NdyukaSranangloss shoes susu susu susu shoe clothes koosu koosi krosi cloth news njunsu nyunsu nyunsu news yams njamisi nyamisi yamsi yam paths pasi pasi pasi path ears jesi yesi yesi ear ants (h)ansi ant bricks briksi brick ashes asisi asisi asisi ash(es)

  13. Egg(s) English Ndyuka Sranan gloss eggs --- eksi egg egg igi --- egg

  14. Why general plural suffix loss? Reason probably availability of more salient pre-head structures. • the boat [+def] • that boat [+def, +dem, -plur] • the boats [+def, +plur] • them boats [+def, +dem, +plur]

  15. Next stage • the boat > Ø • that boat > da boto (> a boto) • the boats > Ø • them boats > dem boto Superstrate wins out!

  16. No English past tense suffix Important: English “past tense” verbs are actually perfective. Why NO regular “past tense” form in –ed?

  17. Some irregular cases. EnglishSrananNdyukaSara.gloss broke broko booko ooko ‘break’ sunk (singi) (singi) sungu ‘sink’ lost lasi lasi lasi ‘lose, lost’

  18. Solution • Bare stem sign of perfective for most verbs in Gbe. • English “past tense” marker therefore completely redundant • This is a substrate feature.

  19. Imperfective • English has a complex form: • Cop + Num/Pers V + ing • Fon equally complex: • LocCop [(O) V ]Nom • Both come down to: • Cop V FinalElement

  20. Other Gbe imperfectives • final null form in Gun and Tofin (nominalization) • ordinary VP in Xwela • etc.

  21. Sranan imperfective • Present-day Sranan has: • ImperfMkr V [e V] • Older Sranan: • ImperfMkr V [de V]

  22. The origin • We see that the earlier form of the imperfective marker was de. • This is homonymous with the locative copula de. • Therefore we can hypothesize that the original structure was actually: LocCop V

  23. Sranan locative copula • The locative copula in Sranan (and other Surinam creoles) derives from the English word there, presumably – in its copular use – something like ‘be there (at)’. Why was this chosen rather than an actual form of the verb “be”? In fact the suppletive nature of “be” with its weak enclitic stems ‘s, ‘m, ‘re would have rendered it eminently unsuitable for this purpose.

  24. What happened to -ing • -ing was just as redundant as all the various wildly different post-verbal markers in the various Gbe lects. • It was therefore unnecessary – the locative copula was sufficient, an obvious substrate feature.

  25. Conclusion • Nothing inherently either complex or simple about creole grammar. • Most phenomena can be explained as the effects of substratal, adstratal, or superstratal influence. • In other words due to contact between languages.

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