Pidgin and Creole Languages Research Papers (original) (raw)

As stated in the Preface (IX-XII), this volume is a selection of fifteen papers presented at three meetings (2004, 2005, and 2006) held by the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics and which have been regrouped by the editors into... more

As stated in the Preface (IX-XII), this volume is a selection of fifteen papers presented at three meetings (2004, 2005, and 2006) held by the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics and which have been regrouped by the editors into three parts, devoted to phonology, synchronically oriented analyses, and diachronic studies, respectively.

The twenty-three years (1934-1957) between the end of the US Occupation and the start of the Duvalier era were a dynamic period of introspection and change in Haitian society. The relatively high degree of freedom of expression, the... more

The twenty-three years (1934-1957) between the end of the US Occupation and the start of the Duvalier era were a dynamic period of introspection and change in Haitian society. The relatively high degree of freedom of expression, the proliferation of ideologies like Marxism and Noirisme, and the "Revolution of 1946" were all linked to a transformation of Haitian politics and culture unprecedented since 1804. One clear indication of the spirit of this chapter of the country's history, which I have labeled the Haitian Sixties, was the progress made by the Kreyòl movement. After the setbacks under the US Occupation, the call for a legitimation of the popular language entered a phase of renewed vigor: it was bolstered by groundbreaking philological studies, concerted attempts to create a standard orthography, experiments in the use of the Kreyòl language as a medium of instruction, and a renaissance in Kreyòl-language literature. Yet as the movement progressed, it was hampered by new internal divisions and longstanding prejudices at different levels of Haitian society.

ABSTRACT In this paper, we study for the first time the unpublished multilingual poetry written by Sanandrean linguist Oakley Forbes. We also explore his role in the translation of Juan Ramírez Dawkins’ poems. In these two unknown aspects... more

ABSTRACT
In this paper, we study for the first time the unpublished multilingual poetry written by Sanandrean linguist Oakley Forbes. We also explore his role in
the translation of Juan Ramírez Dawkins’ poems. In these two unknown aspects of Forbes’ life, we trace the relationship between writing and translation
in his double role as translator and self-translator. This study shows that writing and translating are two spheres present both in his role as a translator
of Ramírez Dawkins’ works and as a translator of his own works. When he collaborated with Ramírez Dawkins in the translation of the latter’s works,
he had the freedom to rewrite and to adapt the text in order to re-spatialize it to the writer’s other audience. The same happened with the translation of
his own poetic work, which, being written in several languages, reflects the richness and paradoxes of the encounters of diverse cultures.
Keywords: Oakley Forbes. Collaborative Translation. Self-translation. Caribbean Poetry. Literary multilingualism.

Esperantists create a varied group of both speakers and supporters. The sociolinguistic categories often overlap and thus the movement consists of diverse examples: non-movement speakers, supporters not speaking Esperanto and finally... more

Esperantists create a varied group of both speakers and supporters. The sociolinguistic categories often overlap and thus the movement consists of diverse examples: non-movement speakers, supporters not speaking Esperanto and finally speakers actively participating in the movement and identifying themselves through the language with the values associated with the idea of an international auxiliary language, world peace, tolerance, liberty and equality. Therefore the movement’s core constitutes a dynamically interacting speech community, although of a special type.

With Haitian Creole, Albert Valdman breaks new ground in yet another outstanding publication. His many single-authored and multiple-authored books and dictionaries form one of the more influential forces in Haitian Creole and Louisiana... more

With Haitian Creole, Albert Valdman breaks new ground in yet another outstanding publication. His many single-authored and multiple-authored books and dictionaries form one of the more influential forces in Haitian Creole and Louisiana Creole linguistics. His Haitian Creole-English Bilingual Dictionary (Valdman et al., 2007) – to cite but one of the many dictionary projects he has directed – is an indispensable reference work in Haitian Creole studies. That dictionary, and now this rich analytical study of Haitian Creole, are great contributions to linguistics and Haitian Creole studies. Both works vastly raise the profile among linguists of this important Caribbean language. The latest addition is also a wonderful resource for graduate and undergraduate students in Haitian studies, provided they have completed at least a handful of courses in linguistics. I used this book on two occasions in an undergraduate introduction to Haitian Creole linguistics and found that, while advanced students grasp the discussions, it is not well suited for inexperienced undergraduates. Courses with large numbers of beginners in the field of linguistics could, however, be assigned shorter passages, a possibility the book makes fully available thanks to its meticulous organization (12 chapters preceded by an introduction).

This paper uses corpus data, primarily that from the NaijaSynCor project, but also those harvested from the Nairaland Forum, to study the composition, semantics and syntax of lightverb constructions (LVCs) in Naija, an English-lexifier... more

This paper uses corpus data, primarily that from the NaijaSynCor project, but also those harvested from the Nairaland Forum, to study the composition, semantics and syntax of lightverb constructions (LVCs) in Naija, an English-lexifier pidgincreole spoken in Nigeria. Employing
the typology and the annotation guidelines of the PARSEME project (Savary et al. 2018), we attempt to disambiguate LVCs from other multi-word expressions and provide a classification of LVCs based on their light verb component and semantic component, while also analyzing their valency and their participation in serial verbs constructions, as well as the influence of the substrates and adstrates on the same.

La Guyane est la seule région au monde où se côtoient des langues créoles à base française et des langues créoles à base anglaise. Parmi les créoles à base lexicale française présents en Guyane, on compte le créole guyanais, divers... more

La Guyane est la seule région au monde où se côtoient des langues créoles à base française et des langues créoles à base anglaise. Parmi les créoles à base lexicale française présents en Guyane, on compte le créole guyanais, divers créoles des petites Antilles (guadeloupéen, martiniquais, saint-lucien), et le créole haïtien. Parmi les créoles à base lexicale anglaise, on trouve l'aluku, le ndyuka et le pamaka (appelés aussi nenge), le saamaka (créole anglo-portugais), le sranan tongo (la langue véhiculaire du Surinam voisin) ainsi que le créole anglais du Guyana ou Guyanese Creole. Bien que les légères différences structurelles qui existent au sein des créoles d'une même base lexicale soient souvent brandies par les locuteurs pour marquer leur appartenance à un groupe (Aluku, Ndyuka, etc.), ou leur origine régionale (Martiniquais, Guyanais, etc.), l'intercompréhension en Guyane est presque totale au sein des locuteurs de créoles français, et au sein de ceux de créoles anglais (à l'exception peut-être du saamaka, dont la mixité anglo-portugaise limite l'intercompréhension avec les autres créoles anglais). Depuis une trentaine d'années, les études sur les langues créoles font reculer les préjugés qui les réduisent au rang de langues simples, sans grammaire, avec peu de vocabulaire, même si ces idées persistent encore, parfois même au sein des populations créolophones. Aujourd'hui, on considère que ces langues sont un formidable « laboratoire » d'analyse de la faculté humaine de langage (Hagège, 1987) et qu'elles ont encore beaucoup à nous apprendre en particulier sur l'évolution des langues.

The aim of this chapter is to provide a survey of the external ecology and of the internal organisation of the French-related creoles of the Indian Ocean. It provides an account of the development of Indian Ocean Creoles (IOC) and... more

The aim of this chapter is to provide a survey of the external ecology and of the internal organisation of the French-related creoles of the Indian Ocean. It provides an account of the development of Indian Ocean Creoles (IOC) and describes some of its linguistic features. The paper provides also some insights on the sociolinguistics of IOC and the language planning issues involved in their social environment.

Unserdeutsch, in der englischsprachigen Fachliteratur auch unter dem Namen Rabaul Creole German bekannt, ist die einzige deutsch relexifizierte Kreolsprache der Welt. Es ist um die Wende vom 19. zum 20. Jahrhundert unter mixed-race... more

Unserdeutsch, in der englischsprachigen Fachliteratur auch unter dem Namen Rabaul Creole German bekannt, ist die einzige deutsch relexifizierte Kreolsprache der Welt. Es ist um die Wende vom 19. zum 20. Jahrhundert unter mixed-race Kindern an der Missionsstation der Herz-Jesu-Missionare in Vunapope auf der Insel New Britain im damals vom Deutschen Reich als Kolonie verwalteten Bismarck-Archipel (Papua-Neuguinea) entstanden und wurde 1979 durch einen Zufall von Craig A. Volker für die linguistische Forschung entdeckt. Unserdeutsch wird heute nur noch von höchstens etwa 100 älteren Menschen gesprochen. Selbst die jüngsten aktiven Sprecher sind über 65, so dass die Sprache als stark gefährdet gilt und nach der zehnstufigen Gefährdungsskala von Ethnologue (Lewis et al. 2015) als nearly extinct (Stufe 8b) und nach der sechsstufigen Skala der UNESCO (Moseley 2010) als critically endangered einge-stuft werden muss. Aus diesen Gründen wird die hier beschriebene Dokumentation der Sprache in der näheren Zukunft nicht mehr möglich sein.

Ce texte propose un compte rendu de "Comparative Creole Syntax. Parallel Outlines of 18 Creole Grammar" ), édité par John Holm et Peter L. Patrick,chez Battlebridge, en 2007. L'ouvrage offre des descriptions grammaticales de dix-huit... more

Ce texte propose un compte rendu de "Comparative Creole Syntax. Parallel Outlines of 18 Creole Grammar" ), édité par John Holm et Peter L. Patrick,chez Battlebridge, en 2007. L'ouvrage offre des descriptions grammaticales de dix-huit langues créoles rattachées à des bases lexicales différentes, indo-européennes ou sémitiques, en suivant une même grille de description. L'ouvrage de Holm et Patrick réunit des descriptions du Nagamese (l'assamais restructuré), d'un créole à base arabe (le Nubi), de quatre créoles à base anglaise (Jamaican Patwa, Krio, Ndyuka et Tok Pisin), de trois créoles qui sont, au moins partiellement, à base espagnole (Palenquero, Papiamentu, Zamboagueño), de trois créoles à base française (kreyòl Ayisyen, Seselwa, kwéyol de Dominique), de quatre à cinq créoles à base portugaise (Angolar, Cabuverdianu, kriyol de Guinée-Bissau, Korlai, Papiamentu) et de deux créoles à base néerlandaise (Berbice Dutch, Negerhollands). Ces langues sont parlées dans les Caraïbes, en Amérique du Sud, dans le Pacifique, en Inde, dans l'Océan Indien et en Afrique. La plupart de ces descriptions ont été rédigées par d'éminents spécialistes, auteurs d'autres monographies sur les mêmes langues ou sur d'autres créoles apparentés. Le propos de cet ouvrage est d'abord descriptif ; il s'agit de fournir une première vision du fonctionnement grammatical d'un échantillon varié de langues créoles. Même si l'ambition typologique est certainement présente à l'esprit des concepteurs, cet ouvrage ne constitue pas une contribution directe aux débats qui animent les recherches en typologie linguistique. D'ailleurs, il manque à l'ouvrage un chapitre de synthèse qui dégagerait les divergences et les ressemblances entre les langues dites créoles pour répondre, par exemple, à la question de l'existence d'un prototype créole, question posée avec force par John Mc Whorter (Mc Whorter 1998). Les descriptions réunies abordent 97 traits morphosyntaxiques pour chacune des langues. La sphère du verbe, par exemple, est traitée à l'aide de plus de 40 propriétés.

This paper looks at perceptions of heritage language in two minority communities in Malaysia: the Aceh community at Kampung Aceh in Kedah; and the Portuguese-Eurasian community at the Portuguese Settlement in Malacca. The heritage... more

This paper looks at perceptions of heritage language in two minority communities in Malaysia: the Aceh community at Kampung Aceh in Kedah; and the Portuguese-Eurasian community at the Portuguese Settlement in Malacca.
The heritage languages of these communities—Acehnese and Malacca Portuguese Creole or Cristang—continue to be used within the multilingual and multi-ethnic makeup of Malaysia, where Malay is the national language and where English is also widely used, alongside other local languages such as Mandarin, Cantonese and Tamil. Based on interviews with selected respondents from these two locations, it was found that both communities regarded their heritage languages positively, and regarded their languages as an important part of their cultural heritage. The Acehnese community, despite being culturally similar to the Malays, still try to hold on to their heritage language. For the Portuguese Eurasians, their heritage language is one way to distinguish themselves as a cultural group with European and Asian roots.

This paper investigates changes in the dialect of a group of northern Japanese immigrants from the Tôhoku dialect speaking areas who migrated to Hawai‘i. The speakers moved to Hawai‘i as sugar plantation workers between 1899 and 1923 and... more

This paper investigates changes in the dialect of a group of northern Japanese immigrants from the Tôhoku dialect speaking areas who migrated to Hawai‘i. The speakers moved to Hawai‘i as sugar plantation workers between 1899 and 1923 and the data were recorded between 1972 and 1975. Being latecomers to the plantations as well as a linguistic minority in the Japanese community in Hawai‘i, Tôhoku immigrants experienced dialect discrimination by other Japanese immigrants. The data tell us that the traditional Tôhoku dialect forms were replaced almost completely by the non-Tôhoku dialect forms after the speakers’ immigration. This study suggests that obvious dialect stigmatization led to the Tôhoku dialect speakers’ adoption of non-Tôhoku dialect features in order to gain acceptance in the local Japanese communities. Interestingly, however, the speakers transferred their Tôhoku dialect phonology to the newly acquired non-Tôhoku dialect forms. The findings support current second dialect ...

Paper presented at 31st Annual Conference on African Linguistics
Boston University, March 3, 2000

This paper looks at perceptions of heritage language in two minority communities in Malaysia: the Aceh community at Kampung Aceh in Kedah; and the Portuguese-Eurasian community at the Portuguese Settlement in Malacca. The heritage... more

This paper looks at perceptions of heritage language in two minority communities in Malaysia: the Aceh community at Kampung Aceh in Kedah; and the Portuguese-Eurasian community at the Portuguese Settlement in Malacca. The heritage languages of these communities—Acehnese and Malacca Portuguese Creole or Cristang—continue to be used within the multilingual and multi-ethnic makeup of Malaysia, where Malay is the national language and where English is also widely used, alongside other local languages such as Mandarin, Cantonese and Tamil. Based on interviews with selected respondents from these two locations, it was found that both communities regarded their heritage languages positively, and regarded their languages as an important part of their cultural heritage. The Acehnese community, despite being culturally similar to the Malays, still try to hold on to their heritage language. For the Portuguese Eurasians, their heritage language is one way to distinguish themselves as a cultural group with European and Asian roots.

Pichi, an Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creole spoken on the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea, features four types of reiteration. Amongst them, reduplication and repetition can be distinguished on formal and semantic grounds.... more

Pichi, an Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creole spoken on the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea, features four types of reiteration. Amongst them, reduplication and repetition can be distinguished on formal and semantic grounds. Reduplication is a derivational operation consisting of self-compounding and tone deletion. It is restricted to dynamic verbs and yields iterative, dispersive and attenuative meanings. Repetition occurs with all major word classes, renders more iconic meanings and is analyzed as semi-morphological in nature. A comparison with verbal reiteration in a cross-section of West African languages and two of its sister languages in the Caribbean allows the conclusion that Pichi reduplication reflects an areal pattern. I conclude further that Pichi reduplication is not exceptionally iconic nor specifically “creole” in nature.

Chi ma nkongo (‘I am of the Congos’) is a two-volume treatise on the Lumbalu, the ritual performances carried out at funerals in Palenque, Colombia, a place of special interest to creolists for its Spanish-based creole language... more

Chi ma nkongo (‘I am of the Congos’) is a two-volume treatise on the Lumbalu, the ritual performances carried out at funerals in Palenque, Colombia, a place of special interest to creolists for its Spanish-based creole language Palenquero. Schwegler regards the Lumbalu somewhat ambiguously as a ritual of obvious African origin (p. 50), but also as a syncretism (p. 59). The language of the funerary chants of the Palenquero has in common with ritual languages preserved in other Caribbean societies the fact that the linguistic knowledge which would allow their audience, and even their singers, to fully understand their contents has been lost. On the other hand, the Lumbalu contrast with most Caribbean traditions of this kind in that the songs are only seemingly African; they contain African elements in a Palenquero and/or Spanish-based framework, whereas other Caribbean cases involve what appear to be entirely African songs, ritual expressions, and even reduced linguistic systems. This review will highlight certain aspects of the discussion in volume 1, where Schwegler briefly sketches the history of Palenque, and devotes lengthy and at times repetitive sections to the societal functions
of the Lumbalu, musical and other aspects of the songs, and the African religious basis of this tradition; he also introduces us to the women who are the master-singers of the Lumbalu, and explains the conventions used in the transcription of the texts. Volume 1, part II contains the presentation and analysis of seven Lumbalu chants which were recorded by the author. Volume 2 provides 29 Lumbalu chants, with translations and annotations.
In this review, we will comment first on the unintelligibility created by the insertion of African and “Africanizing” forms in the Lumbalu chants, then on the wider significance of the Lumbalu for Palenquero genesis.

This paper focuses on a group of geographically-disparate, but related English-based creoles - Bislama (Vanuatu), Solomons Pijin (Solomon Islands), Tok Pisin (PNG) and Kriol (Australia) - spoken in Australia and Melanesia. These languages... more

This paper focuses on a group of geographically-disparate, but related English-based creoles - Bislama (Vanuatu), Solomons Pijin (Solomon Islands), Tok Pisin (PNG) and Kriol (Australia) - spoken in Australia and Melanesia. These languages have been shown to originate ultimately in NSW Pidgin, an early lingua franca of the Sydney region which developed as the colonisation of Australia began. This paper surveys three main aspects of this work: (i) the comparison of the lexicon and grammar of Melanesian and Australian pidgins using historical samples of reported speech from the 1700-1800s; (ii) the historical documentation of the social, work and trade relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in NSW and Queensland and also between Australia and Melanesia; and (iii) the different types of substrate influences on the emerging pidgins.

Ce papier analyse l'alternance codique en créole mauricien, langue matrice, comme l'émergence d'un registre formel dans une langue dont les usages sociaux se diversifient.Ce papier montre comment l'emprunt et l'alternance codique... more

Ce papier analyse l'alternance codique en créole mauricien, langue matrice, comme l'émergence d'un registre formel dans une langue dont les usages sociaux se diversifient.Ce papier montre comment l'emprunt et l'alternance codique participe de l'élaboration du morisyen.

La notion de norme et de référence à la norme est absolument fondamentale pour qui s’intéresse aux langues humaines. Langues, dialectes, parlers et accents suivent tous des règles rigoureuses, que l’observation permet de déterminer. Il... more

La notion de norme et de référence à la norme est absolument fondamentale pour qui s’intéresse aux langues humaines. Langues, dialectes, parlers et accents suivent tous des règles rigoureuses, que l’observation permet de déterminer. Il n’y a pas de langue sans grammaire : la langue est une norme.
Cependant, les langues du monde ne jouissent pas toutes de statuts égaux. Dans certains États, le ou les idiomes parlés par la majorité de la population sont normés (pourvus d’une norme de référence) et normalisés, c’est à dire soutenus par un appareil administratif et éducatif conséquent.
À l’inverse, de nombreuses communautés linguistiques, minoritaires ou trop pauvres, sont obligées d’utiliser d’autres langues que leur langue maternelle pour avoir accès à l’enseignement ou aux services publics. La normalisation des langues vernaculaires de ces groupes laissés pour compte est souhaitable pour deux raisons : 1. la préservation de la diversité culturelle de la planète ; 2. l’établissement de systèmes éducatifs et d’information plus performants, parce qu’utilisant la langue maternelle des communautés considérées.
Fixer la norme d’une langue peu décrite est loin d’être une sinécure, comme le montre l’exemple capverdien. Et en fin de compte, cette nouvelle norme n’aura d’utilité que si les pouvoirs publics favorisent sa normalisation, à savoir sa diffusion systématique auprès des populations concernées. L’aventure de la normalisation des langues vaut cependant la peine d’être vécue, en particulier dans nombre de pays du Tiers-Monde. En normant et en normalisant, le linguiste a un rôle essentiel à jouer dans les processus de développement économique.

(Forthcoming) This paper analyses the importance of Pirate English in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through lenses of contemporary linguistic theories and retrospective research provided by studies in Creole cultures of... more

(Forthcoming) This paper analyses the importance of Pirate English in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through lenses of contemporary linguistic theories and retrospective research provided by studies in Creole cultures of Caribbean. Since, history and historiography of the Golden of the Piracy are predominantly focused on maritime, radical, military or colonial context; this works to enhance and enrich corpus of larger pirate studies with a linguistic theory analysis of a crucial element holding pirate crewmen together - Pirate English. The general expectation of this research is related to the idea that historically marginalised importance of Pirate English does not automatically discourage us from the exploration of this phenomenon from the linguistics point of views. Furthermore, Pirate English should not be overlooked by contemporary studies dealing with semiotic landscape, symbolism and communication, since it can provide us with much needed historical evidence about diverse maritime speech community and how their use of the language reflected the diversity of its members. Glossary of 17th/18th nautical terms will be provided. Pirate English and its analysis is based on contemporary sources dealing with "mediation of language" (Michael Stubbs), "semiotic landscape" (Kress & Leuwen), "communication and cognition" (Sperber & Wilson). Relevant scholars and publications related to the problematics of the Creole culture and linguistics such as John Holm or Peter Bekker will be discussed as well. Hence, the paper should produce a synthesis of contemporary linguistic concepts applied judiciously to historical records and explored through relevant socio-historical or cultural studies.

This paper investigates whether the production of social media content itself can resemiotize languages that have been marginalized in a more positive light. To that end, and based on our ongoing interest in analyzing the sociolinguistics... more

This paper investigates whether the production of social media content itself can resemiotize languages that have been marginalized in a more positive light. To that end, and based on our ongoing interest in analyzing the sociolinguistics of languages which have been devalued and stigmatized (Higgins, 2015; Higgins et al., 2012; Higgins & Furukawa, 2012), we analyzed YouTube videos about Pidgin (Hawai‘i Creole) and Konglish (Korean English) to see whether and to what degree the platform of social media might provide new affordances for representing, and even valorizing, sociolinguistic diversity by studying how video producers (dis)identify with mainstream metapragmatic messages, or ideological statements about language.

Paper presented at the Society for Pidgin and Creole Languages Conference, Washington D.C., January 9, 2016.

L'emprise de la langue française minoritaire dans l'enseignement ha"itien est un des problemes fondamentaux — sinon le probleme fondamental — d'Haiti. Quels sont, en effet, les tenants et les aboutissants de la politique linguistique... more

L'emprise de la langue française minoritaire dans l'enseignement ha"itien est un des problemes fondamentaux — sinon le probleme fondamental — d'Haiti. Quels sont, en effet, les tenants et les aboutissants de la politique linguistique haitienne ?

The present paper analyzes the earliest known text in Jamaican Creole (Devonish 2011). The authenticity of the textual evidence is fist ascertained in light of the caveats formulated by Hancock (1977) and Rickford (1986), and of the... more

The present paper analyzes the earliest known text in Jamaican Creole (Devonish 2011). The authenticity of the textual evidence is fist ascertained in light of the caveats formulated by Hancock (1977) and Rickford (1986), and of the internal and external checks suggested by Rickford (1986, 1991), and Baker and Winer (1999). A detailed analysis of the text 1781 shows that it exhibits characteristics typical of, in particular, basilectal Jamaican Creole, both in its earlier stages and at present. In spite of its inconsistency and the problems this raises (see Avram 2000), the orthography of the text reflects various phonological processes that have been mentioned in the literature on Jamaican Creole (see Cassidy 1971, Akers 1981, Lalla and D’Costa 1990, Devonish and Harry 2008). Similarly, the text is illustrative of various characteristics of the morphosyntax and the lexicon of Jamaican Creole
(Cassidy 1971, Patrick 2007). Also, several of the diagnostic features of English lexifier pidgins and creoles as proposed by Baker and Huber (2001) are found in the text. These include features fist recorded in this text, sometimes considerably earlier than the first attestation given in Baker and Huber (2001), or which are not attested in other early Jamaican Creole texts (e.g. in D’Costa and Lalla 1989), and do not figure in dictionaries such as Allsopp (1996) or Cassidy and Le Page (2009).

This dissertation explores Subject Pronoun Expression (SPE) in Cabo-Verdean Creole (CVC), a Portuguese-based language spoken in the Republic of Cabo Verde. The CVC subject domain has at least three types of nominative anaphora: a subject... more

This dissertation explores Subject Pronoun Expression (SPE) in Cabo-Verdean Creole (CVC), a Portuguese-based language spoken in the Republic of Cabo Verde. The CVC subject domain has at least three types of nominative anaphora: a subject clitic, a null subject, and a double-subject construction. This study is the first to examine the distribution of these subject categories by combining a quantitative methodology with formal syntactic theory, as well as insights from functionalist, usage-based, cognitive linguistic, and typological approaches. In so doing, it offers a new perspective on this issue that is intended to move the field past protracted theoretical debates over the morphosyntactic status and discursive functions of these grammatical elements. For instance, the formal category underlying subject clitics has been contested in CVC and cross-linguistically; some have claimed that they are independent pronouns that cliticize at the phonological level (Déprez 1994; De Cat 2005; Costa & Pratas 2013), others have identified them as inflectional affixes in the VP layer (DeGraff 1993; Baptista 1995; Culbertson 2010), while in language typology they are analyzed as ‘person markers’ that can engage in local grammatical agreement or nonlocal anaphoric agreement (Bresnan & Mchombo 1987; Zribi-Hertz & Diagne 2002; Siewierska 2004; Creissels 2005; Kari 2017). Sociolinguistic interviews and picture description narratives were collected from native speakers of CVC from the islands of Santiago and Maio. Sampled speech was transcribed prosodically (Chafe 1993; Du Bois et al. 1993; Torres Cacoullos & Travis 2019) in order to evaluate several aspects of discourse organization. Data were submitted to descriptive and inferential inspection in four analyses using R (R Core Team 2019): one was an exploratory test that served to delimit the variable context for SPE in CVC, the second involved a fixed-effects multinomial logistic regression, and the third and fourth were based on mixed-effects binomial logistic regressions. Results revealed highly significant effects for linguistic structural priming: double-subject and singleton tonic pronouns primed subsequent double-subjects, while null subjects primed additional null subjects. Lexical Determiner Phrase (DP) antecedents that were semantically referentially deficient (i.e. they bore inanimate, indefinite, or nonspecific reference) also promoted anaphoric zeros. These results lend partial support to the claims regarding the semantic properties of strong pronominals proposed under the Typology of Structural Deficiency (Cardinaletti & Starke 1994, 1999), and suggest that, as in Brazilian Portuguese, there is an “avoid referentially deficient pronoun” constraint (Kato & Duarte 2003, 2005; Duarte & Soares da Silva 2016) that is probabilistically active in CVC. The zero-to-zero priming effect and the favoring effect from referentially deficient lexical DPs were only active at short anaphoric distances, and were promoted when adjacent intonational units were prosodically linked or simultaneously prosodically and syntactically linked (Torres Cacoullos & Travis 2019). The priming effect for double-subjects obtained at longer anaphoric distances; they are promoted when their antecedent is in a non-adjacent clause. Results suggest that double-subjects function as switch-reference devices, can establish contrastive focus, and reintroduce old discourse referents. These are much the same functional and discursive values that singleton tonic pronouns have cross-linguistically (Givón 1976; 2001[1984]; 2017). The realization of zero subjects is mostly contingent on antecedent accessibility (Givón 1976; 2017, Ariel 1990), but is also modulated by the aforementioned “avoid referentially deficient pronoun” constraint. Inferring from the results for zero and double-subjects, it appears that CVC subject clitics are ‘ambiguous person agreement markers’ (Bresnan & Mchombo 1987; Siewierska 2004): like independent pronouns, they engage in nonlocal anaphoric agreement, but like inflectional affixes, they also engage in local grammatical agreement. This in-between morphosyntactic status is related to the infinitival origin of CVC verbs (Quint 2008b): the absence of bound person-number inflection is likely to have initiated grammaticalization on tonic pronouns, causing them to be eroded into subject clitics, and eventually become ambiguous person agreement markers, which are probabilistically dropped according to the properties of their controllers and the dynamics of antecedent accessibility. In line with Wratil’s (2011) ‘Null Subject Cycle’, it could be argued that CVC subject clitics are grammatical elements that have stagnated at an early stage of a grammaticalization cline, which entails the transformation of independent pronouns into clitics, and then eventually into bound affixes.

The African presence in the Indian Ocean has been grossly underestimated in terms of numbers and impact. Not just does it involve a displacement of people from the African continent eastwards, towards Asia, but it has had a significant... more

The African presence in the Indian Ocean has been grossly underestimated in terms of numbers and impact. Not just does it involve a displacement of people from the African continent eastwards, towards Asia, but it has had a significant impact on the development of peculiar communities in the Indian Ocean world. The Siddis of Uttara Kannada are one such community. This article recounts the Portuguese Indian Ocean slave trade from the 16th to the 19th centuries to the erstwhile Portuguese territories of Goa, Daman and Diu and the distinct role of the African in this region before slavery was eventually abolished throughout the Portuguese territories. The focus then shifts to how the African slaves who were transported to India, gradually, over three centuries, established themselves in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, where they now form a distinct community. The Siddis, are an example of a fascinating phenomenon; the assimilation and integration of a people, uprooted from Mozambique, into an alien society, while steadfastly clinging on to preserve and assert their distinct identity, which sets them apart from the rest of the inhabitants of the region.

The universality of language does not equally connote cultural homogeneity. Be that as it may, we cannot stay unreceptive when a language is close to total disintegration. The Cavite-based Philippine Creole Spanish, more prevalently... more

The universality of language does not equally connote cultural homogeneity. Be that as it may, we cannot stay unreceptive when a language is close to total disintegration. The Cavite-based Philippine Creole Spanish, more prevalently known as Chabacano, is one of the unique, diverse and endangered languages solely existing in the archipelago which served before as a local contact language between the natives and non-natives in the region. The objectives of the paper are to contextualize the present sociolinguistic state of Chabacano in the speech community of Ternate and Cavite City; recognize the imperative factors which led to its gradual endangerment [and regression]; and the language’s revitalization and future direction.

Between 1860 and 1920, a creole language, Tayo, emerged as the community language of Saint-Louis a former Marist mission in southern New Caledonia. This article briefly introduces the demographic history of Saint-Louis and the arrival of... more

Between 1860 and 1920, a creole language, Tayo, emerged as the community language of Saint-Louis a former Marist mission in southern New Caledonia. This article briefly introduces the demographic history of Saint-Louis and the arrival of Melanesian neophytes from different ethno-linguistic areas of the colony before discussing the influence of education on the development of Tayo, the Pacific’s only French-lexified creole language. It closely examines the role played by the mission-educated SaintLouis girls in the formation of this language of intra-village communication, exploring the teaching conditions at Saint-Louis at both the boys’ and girls’ schools and comparing these with other mission schools in New Caledonia. Highlighting the exceptional nature of the linguistic ecology of Saint-Louis, it considers the reasons why a French-based creole evolved in Saint-Louis as opposed to an indigenous language-based creole or the adoption of one of the Kanak languages spoken by the neoph...

Most postcolonial societies make use of the language(s) of the former colonial power(s) and, additionally, of one or several local or Creole languages. This article analyses the complex linguistic relationships within postcolonial... more

Most postcolonial societies make use of the language(s) of the former colonial power(s) and, additionally, of one or several local or Creole languages. This article analyses the complex linguistic relationships within postcolonial societies. As a hypothesis, we assume that the language ideologies in former colonies take a shape similar to those in Europe and we discuss the possibility that these ideologies were brought to the colonies along with the linguistic dominance of European colonialism. In particular, so-called 'standard language ideology' has had a considerable influence upon the way these societies deal with multilingualism. Following an introduction of key concepts, we discuss the individual linguistic situations in four case studies (Suriname, Cape Verde, Mauritius, ABC islands) and outline a comparison of the consequences that standard language ideology entails in the different societies.

The standard understanding of Irish is that there are three principal dialects, all rural, and all spoken on Ireland's coastal periphery. The presence of Irish-language radio stations in Dublin and Belfast, however, as well as... more

The standard understanding of Irish is that there are three principal dialects, all rural, and all spoken on Ireland's coastal periphery. The presence of Irish-language radio stations in Dublin and Belfast, however, as well as Irish-language programming on local stations in Galway and Cork, suggests that there is a significant Irish-speaking population in Ireland's cities. City speakers have often been derided as speakers of "Nua-Ghaeilge" ("New Irish") by Gaeltacht dwellers, and they very often deride themselves as speakers of "Gaeilge Lofa Líofa" ("Rotten Fluent Irish") but there has been no attention given to the type of Irish that they speak.
A detailed systematic analysis, comparing newsreaders and presenters on the Gaeltacht station Raidió na Gaeltachta and the urban stations Raidió na Life and Raidió Fáilte strongly suggests that a new dialect, perhaps more accurately described as a Pidgin, is growing among the urban Irish-language population. This dialect, using simplified phonetics and morphology, remains unstable, probably because most urban speakers do not speak Irish at home (and therefore have no native environment in which to speak the language), but also because they have little allegiance to the Gaeltacht, where Irish is still partially spoken as a community language. Because their native language is mostly English, the Irish that they speak, mostly learned at school and from friends, is prone to instability and is likely to remain so until a significant number of urban speakers choose to raise their children in the language, thus creating native speakers and a stable dialect or Creole. Notably, the urban dialect differs from many pidgins in having a comparatively sophisticated lexicon and syntax.

Onde não chegaram os portugueses com as suas caravelas? Desde Ceuta, em Marrocos, conquistada em 1415, ao Japão, alcançado por acaso em 1542 (por três mercadores de peles, Francisco Zeimoto, António da Mota e António Peixoto, que faziam... more

Onde não chegaram os portugueses com as suas caravelas?
Desde Ceuta, em Marrocos, conquistada em 1415, ao Japão, alcançado por acaso em 1542 (por três mercadores de peles, Francisco Zeimoto, António da Mota e António Peixoto, que faziam rota para a China mas sofreram naufrágio até às costas da ilha Tanega Shima – só sete anos depois a Companhia de Jesus começará a sua obra de conversão por Francisco Xavier), ao longo de apenas dois séculos e meio Portugal tocou todos os oceanos e correu verdadeiramente as sete partidas do mundo.
A Época dos Descobrimentos e das Explorações, porém, depois do seu declínio (marcado pelo surgir das potências holandesa e inglesa) continuou a sobreviver nos chamados « novos continentes ». Não quero referir-me só aos vestígios materiais deixados pela presença lusitana nas terras colonizadas – instalações civis e de marinha, fortalezas, desembarques e portos, etc. –, mas sim a um imenso património cultural e sonoro: o das línguas recém-nascidas (com respeito aos séculos dos descobrimentos) de base portuguesa – os crioulos...

It’s been 17 years since Michel DeGraff ’s seminal 2005 paper ‘Linguists’ most dangerous myth: The fallacy of Creole Exceptionalism’ appeared in Language in Society. DeGraff called out the field of Linguistics for continuing the... more

It’s been 17 years since Michel DeGraff ’s seminal 2005 paper ‘Linguists’ most dangerous myth: The fallacy of Creole Exceptionalism’ appeared in Language in Society. DeGraff called out the field of Linguistics for continuing the “postulation of exceptional and abnormal characteristics in the diachrony and/or synchrony of Creole languages as a class” (p.534) which he referred to as ‘Creole Exceptionalism’. He argued that this approach was at once rooted in the racial essentialism underpinning European colonial expansion and perpetuated the marginalisation of Creole languages and their speakers. DeGraff (2005) took exception to two pre-occupations of creolists at the time: (i) that Creoles have exceptional characteristics and can therefore be considered a separate typological class of language, most notably asserted in McWhorter’s (1998) Creole Prototype, but also earlier in Bickerton (1981); and (ii) that Creoles are created through exceptional mechanisms, the best known exemplars of this claim being Bickerton’s (1984) Bioprogram Hypothesis and Lefebvre’s (1998) Relexification Hypothesis. Both characteristics are understood to be derived fromthe assumption that only non-Creole languages are “mature languages with ancient pedigrees, deep phylogenetic histories, and full-fledged linguistic structures” (p.543). DeGraff’s (2005:534–535) thesis was that Creole Exceptionalism was embedded in a largely uncontested hegemonic discourse of (neo)colonialism, essentially the linguistic correlate of scientific racism.