The African lexical contribution to Ndyuka, Saramaccan, and other creoles: Implications for how creoles develop

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Issue Date: 
2012-04-15
Date Created: 
1968 to 2002
Extent: 
p. 215-229
Abstract: 
The paper asks four kinds of questions about substrate lexical contributions to Ndyuka, a creole language of Suriname, with some reference to Saramaccan and other creoles: 1. In what semantic domains are substrate lexemes most numerous? 2. Within a given semantic domain, which lexemes tend to come from substrate sources, and which from superstrate (and from adstrate)? 3. Comparing form classes (parts of speech) within a language, are the substrate items evenly distributed, or do they tend to predominate in, for example, nouns, while entirely absent among adpositions? 4. Of all the substrate lexemes within a given domain in a particular creole, which ones come from which substrate? Answers to these questions enhance our understand of creolization, other types of contact-induced language change, the specific historical, sociological and interlinguistic situations of particular creole-speaking communities, first and second language acquisition, and the relation between language and culture.
Publication Status: 
Published
Country: 
Suriname
Content Language: 
Work Type: 
Nature of Work: 
Is Part Of: 
Angela Bartens, Philip Baker, eds., Black through White: African words and calques which survived slavery in Creoles and transplanted European languages, Westminster Creolistics Series 11; London: Battlebridge Publications, 9781903292129
Entry Number: 
48673