%0 Journal Article %A Hackert, Stephanie %A Huber, Magnus %T Gullah in the diaspora: Historical and linguistic evidence from the Bahamas %D 2007 %J Diachronica %V 24 %N 2 %P 279-325 %@ 0176-4225 %R https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.24.2.04hac %K African American Vernacular English (AAVE) %K loyalists %K lexicostatistics %K Gullah %K historical and sociohistorical approach %K Bahamian Creole English %I John Benjamins %X The status of Gullah and Bahamian Creole English (BahCE) within the Atlantic English creoles and their historical relationship with African American Vernacular English (AAVE) have long been a matter of discussion. It was assumed that Gullah and BahCE are ‘sister’ varieties sharing an immediate ancestor in the eighteenth-century creole English spoken on plantations in the American South. We present historical and linguistic data, including a statistical analysis of 253 phonological, lexical, and grammatical features found in eight Atlantic English creoles, to show that Gullah and BahCE are indeed closely related — so closely in fact that BahCE must be considered a ‘diaspora variety’ not of AAVE but of Gullah. %U https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/dia.24.2.04hac