1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. English World-Wide
  4. Volume 40, Issue 2
  5. Article
Volume 40, Issue 2
  • ISSN 0172-8865
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9730
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

This article provides a comparative analysis of the suppletive allomorphy of two personal pronouns in the five African English-lexifier Creoles (AECs) Krio (Sierra Leone), Pichi (Equatorial Guinea), Ghanaian Pidgin English, Nigerian Pidgin, and Cameroon Pidgin. The alternation of the 3 object forms (a clitic) and (a non-clitic) is conditioned by a tonal obligatory contour principle (), a vowel height , animacy, and focus in different constellations across the five AECs. In addition, an epenthetic /r/ is recruited in four of the AECs to ensure that the is not breached. The analyses suggest that pronominal suppletion in the AECs has been fashioned by processes of change and differentiation typical of geographically extensive language families, such as migration from linguistic homelands, acquisition by non-founder populations, interlectal cross-diffusion, as well as contact and convergence with adstrate, substrate, and superstrate languages.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/eww.00028.yak
2019-06-13
2025-04-29

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/eww.00028.yak
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Ajíbóyè, Ọládiípọ̀, and Douglas Pulleyblank
    2018 “Mọ̀bà Nasal Harmony”. InGene Buckley, Thera Crane, and Jeff Good, eds.Revealing Structure: Finding Patterns in Grammars and Using Grammatical Patterns to Elucidate Language. A Festschrift to Honor Larry M. Hyman. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Akinlabi, Akinbiyi, and Mark Liberman
    2000 “The Tonal Phonology of Yoruba Clitics”. InBirgit Gerlach and Janet Grizenhout, eds.Clitics in Phonology, Morphology and Syntax. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Baker, Philip, and Magnus Huber
    2001 “Atlantic, Pacific, and World-Wide Features in English-Lexicon Contact Languages”. English World-Wide22: 157–208. 10.1075/eww.22.2.02bak
     https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.22.2.02bak [Google Scholar]
  4. Bakker, Peter, Finn Borchsenius, Carsten Levisen, and Eeva Sippola
    2017 Creole Studies – Phylogenetic Approaches. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi:  10.1075/z.211
     https://doi.org/10.1075/z.211 [Google Scholar]
  5. Berry, Jack
    1970 “A Note on the Prosodic Structure of Krio”. International Journal of American Linguistics36: 266–267. 10.1086/465120
     https://doi.org/10.1086/465120 [Google Scholar]
  6. Bickerton, Derek
    1981 Roots of Language. Ann Arbor: Karoma Publishers.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Blasi, Damián E., Susanne Maria Michaelis, and Martin Haspelmath
    2017 “Grammars are Robustly Transmitted even during the Emergence of Creole Languages”. Nature Human Behaviour1: 723–729. doi:  10.1038/s41562‑017‑0192‑4
     https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0192-4 [Google Scholar]
  8. Boersma, Paul
    1998 Functional Phonology: Formalizing the Interactions between Articulatory and Perceptual Drives. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics. fonsg3.hum.uva.nl/paul/papers/funphon.pdf (accessedApril 20, 2018).
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Bradshaw, A. T. von S.
    1966 “A List of Yoruba Words in Krio”. Sierra Leone Language Review5: 61–71.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Coomber, Ajayi
    1992 “The New Krio Orthography and Some Unresolved Problems”. InEldred D. Jones, Karl I. Sandred, and Neville Shrimpton, eds.Reading and Writing Krio. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 15–20.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Criper, Lindsay
    1971 “A Classification of Types of English in Ghana”. Journal of African Languages10: 6–17.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Criper-Friedman, Lindsay
    1990 “The Tone System of West African Coastal English”. World Englishes9: 63–77. 10.1111/j.1467‑971X.1990.tb00687.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-971X.1990.tb00687.x [Google Scholar]
  13. Dako, Kari
    2002 “Student Pidgin (SP): The Language of the Educated Male Elite”. Research Review18: 53–62.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Daval-Markussen, Aymeric, and Peter Bakker
    2011 “A Phylogenetic Networks Approach to the Classification of English-Based Atlantic Creoles”. English World-Wide32: 115–146. 10.1075/eww.32.2.01dav
     https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.32.2.01dav [Google Scholar]
  15. Daval-Markussen, Aymeric, Kristoffer Friis Bøegh, and Peter Bakker
    2017 “West African Languages and Creoles Worldwide”. InPeter Bakker, Finn Borchsenius, Carsten Levisen, and Eeva Sippola, eds.Creole Studies – Phylogenetic Approaches. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 141–174. 10.1075/z.211.07dav
     https://doi.org/10.1075/z.211.07dav [Google Scholar]
  16. Faraclas, Nicholas G.
    1996 Nigerian Pidgin. London: Routledge. 10.4324/9780203192801
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203192801 [Google Scholar]
  17. 2013 “Nigerian Pidgin”. InSusanne Michaelis, Philippe Maurer, Martin Haspelmath, and Magnus Huber, eds.The Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures: English-Based and Dutch-Based Languages. Vol.1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 176–184.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Féral, Carole de
    2001 “Sémantaxe et changement linguistique: Quelques réflexions sur la pronominalisation en pidgin-english (Cameroun et Nigeria)”. InRobert Nicolaï, ed.Leçons d’Afrique. Filiations, rupture et reconstitution de langues. Un hommage à Gabriel Manessy. Louvain: Peeters, 515–525.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Finney, Malcolm Awadajin
    2004 “Tone Assignment on Lexical Items of English and African Origin in Krio”. InGeneviève Escure, and Armin Schwegler, eds.Creoles, Contact and Language Change: Linguistics and Social Implications. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 221–236. 10.1075/cll.27.11fin
     https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.27.11fin [Google Scholar]
  20. 2013 “Krio”. InSusanne Michaelis, Philippe Maurer, Martin Haspelmath, and Magnus Huber, eds.The Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures: English-Based and Dutch-Based Languages. Vol.1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 157–166.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Fon Sing, Guillaume
    2017 “Creoles are Not Typologically Distinct from Non-Creoles”. Language Ecology1: 44–74. doi:  10.1075/le.1.1.04fon
     https://doi.org/10.1075/le.1.1.04fon [Google Scholar]
  22. François, Alexandre
    2012 “The Dynamics of Linguistic Diversity: Egalitarian Multilingualism and Power Imbalance among Northern Vanuatu Languages”. International Journal of the Sociology of Language214: 85–110. doi:  10.1515/ijsl‑2012‑0022
     https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2012-0022 [Google Scholar]
  23. Fyle, Clifford N., and Eldred Durosimi Jones
    1980 A Krio-English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Fyle, Margaret Sophia
    1998 “Yoruba Loan Words in Krio: A Study of Language and Culture Change”. MA Thesis, Ohio State University.
  25. Gussenhoven, Carlos, and Inyang Udofot
    2010 “Word Melodies vs. Pitch Accents: A Perceptual Evaluation of Terracing Contours in British and Nigerian English”. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2010 Chicago, paper 15.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Hancock, Ian F.
    1971 “A Study of the Sources and Development of the Lexicon of Sierra Leone Krio”. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of London.
  27. 1986 “The Domestic Hypothesis, Diffusion and Componentiality: An Account of Atlantic Anglophone Creole Origins”. InPieter Muysken, and Norval Smith, eds.Substrata versus Universals in Creole Genesis. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 71–102. 10.1075/cll.1.06han
     https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.1.06han [Google Scholar]
  28. 1987 “A Preliminary Classification of Anglophone Atlantic Creoles, with Syntactic Data from Thirty-Three Representative Dialects”. InGlenn G. Gilbert, ed.Pidgin and Creole Languages: Essays in Memory of John Reinecke. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 264–333.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Hualde, José Ignacio, and Pilar Prieto
    2015 “Intonational Variation in Spanish: European and American Varieties”. InSónia Frota, and Pilar Prieto, eds.Intonational Variation in Romance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 350–391. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199685332.003.0010
     https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199685332.003.0010 [Google Scholar]
  30. Huber, Magnus
    1999 Ghanaian Pidgin English in its West African Context: A Sociohistorical and Structural Analysis. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/veaw.g24
     https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g24 [Google Scholar]
  31. 2000 “Restructuring in Vitro? Evidence from Early Krio”. InIngrid Neumann-Holzschuh, and Edgar W. Schneider, eds.Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 275–307.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. 2013 “Ghanaian Pidgin English”. InSusanne Michaelis, Philippe Maurer, Martin Haspelmath, and Magnus Huber, eds.The Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures: English-Based and Dutch-Based Languages. Vol.1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 167–175.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Huber, Magnus and Manfred Görlach
    1996 “West African Pidgin English”. English World-Wide17: 239–258. 10.1075/eww.17.2.07hub
     https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.17.2.07hub [Google Scholar]
  34. Leben, William
    1973 “Suprasegmental Phonology”. Ph.D. Dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  35. Leben, William Ronald
    1999 “The Status of the ocp in the Theory of Tone”. InPaul François Amon Kotey, ed.New Dimensions in African Linguistics and Languages. Trenton and Asmara: Africa World Press, 1–14.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Lipski, John M.
    1992 “Pidgin English Usage in Equatorial Guinea (Fernando Poo)”. English World-Wide13: 33–57. 10.1075/eww.13.1.03lip
     https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.13.1.03lip [Google Scholar]
  37. 2015 “‘Toned-up’ Spanish: Stress → Pitch → Tone(?) in Equatorial Guinea”. InChristina Tortora, Marcel den Dikken, Ignacio L. Montoya, and Teresa O’Neill, eds.Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 233–256.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Lüpke, Friederike, and Mary Chambers
    2010 “Multilingualism and Language Contact in West Africa: Towards a Holistic Perspective”. Journal of Language Contact3: 1–12. 10.1163/19552629‑90000002
     https://doi.org/10.1163/19552629-90000002 [Google Scholar]
  39. McWhorter, John H.
    2005 Defining Creole. New York: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Michaelis, Susanne Maria
    2017 “Avoiding Bias in Comparative Creole Studies: Stratification by Lexifier and Substrate”. Leipzig University and Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. https://zenodo.org/record/1255790/files/Michaelis_Avoiding_bias_rev.pdf? (accessedFebruary 18, 2019).
  41. Mufwene, Salikoko S.
    1996 “The Founder Principle in Creole Genesis”. Diachronica13: 83–134. 10.1075/dia.13.1.05muf
     https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.13.1.05muf [Google Scholar]
  42. Muysken, Pieter, and Norval Smith
    eds. 2015 Surviving the Middle Passage: The West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 10.1515/9783110343977
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110343977 [Google Scholar]
  43. Myers, Scott P.
    1997 “ocp Effects in Optimality Theory”. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory15: 847–892. 10.1023/A:1005875608905
     https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005875608905 [Google Scholar]
  44. Nkengasong, Nkemngong
    2016 A Grammar of Cameroonian Pidgin. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
     [Google Scholar]
  45. Nylander, Dudley K.
    1984 “The Relation between the Middle Tone and ‘Empty Category Principle’ Violations in Krio”. Studies in African Linguistics15: 163–175.
     [Google Scholar]
  46. Orgun, Cemil Orhan
    2001 “English r-Insertion in Optimality Theory”. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory19: 737–749. 10.1023/A:1013313827798
     https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013313827798 [Google Scholar]
  47. Peter, Lothar, and Hans-Georg Wolf
    2007 “A Comparison of the Varieties of West African Pidgin English”. World Englishes26: 3–21. 10.1111/j.1467‑971X.2007.00485.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-971X.2007.00485.x [Google Scholar]
  48. Sala, Bonaventura Mbiydzenyuy, and Aloysius Ngefac
    2006 “What’s Happening to Cameroon Pidgin? The Depidginisation Process in Cameroon Pidgin English”. Philologie im Netz36: 31–43.
     [Google Scholar]
  49. Schneider, Edgar W.
    2003 “The Dynamics of New Englishes: From Identity Construction to Dialect Birth”. Language79: 233–281. 10.1353/lan.2003.0136
     https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2003.0136 [Google Scholar]
  50. 2007 Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511618901
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511618901 [Google Scholar]
  51. Schröder, Anne
    2013 “Cameroon Pidgin”. InSusanne Michaelis, Philippe Maurer, Martin Haspelmath, and Magnus Huber, eds.The Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures: English-Based and Dutch-Based Languages. Vol.1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 185–193.
     [Google Scholar]
  52. Sluijs, Robbert van, Margot van den Berg, and Pieter Muysken
    2016 “Exploring Genealogical Blends: The Surinamese Creole Cluster and the Virgin Island Dutch Creole Cluster”. Lingua178: 84–103. doi:  10.1016/j.lingua.2015.12.004
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2015.12.004 [Google Scholar]
  53. Smith, Norval
    1987 “The Genesis of the Creole Languages of Surinam”. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Amsterdam.
  54. 2015 “Ingredient X: The Shared African Lexical Element in the English-Lexifier Atlantic Creoles, and the Theory of Rapid Creolization”. InPieter Muysken, and Norval Smith, eds.Surviving the Middle Passage: The West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 67–106.
     [Google Scholar]
  55. Suzuki, Keiichiro
    1998 “A Typological Investigation of Dissimilation”. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Arizona.
  56. Traugott, Elizabeth Closs, and Graeme Trousdale
    2013 Constructionalization and Constructional Changes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199679898.001.0001
     https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199679898.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  57. Trousdale, Graeme
    2014 “On the Relationship between Grammaticalization and Constructionalization”. Folia Linguistica: Acta Societatis Linguisticae Europaeae48: 557–577. 10.1515/flin.2014.018
     https://doi.org/10.1515/flin.2014.018 [Google Scholar]
  58. Trudgill, Peter, and Jean Hannah
    2017 (6th ed.). International English: A Guide to Varieties of English Around the World. London and New York: Routledge. 10.4324/9781315192932
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315192932 [Google Scholar]
  59. Velde, Mark L. O. van de
    2008 A Grammar of Eton. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110207859
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110207859 [Google Scholar]
  60. Winford, Donald
    1993 Predication in Caribbean English Creoles. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/cll.10
     https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.10 [Google Scholar]
  61. Witzel, Michael
    1999 “Early Sources for South Asian Substrate Languages”. Mother Tongue (Special Issue): 1–70.
     [Google Scholar]
  62. Wohlgemuth, Jan
    2009 A Typology of Verbal Borrowings. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110219340
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110219340 [Google Scholar]
  63. Wyse, Akintola
    1989 The Krio of Sierra Leone: An Interpretive History. London: Hurst and The International African Institute.
     [Google Scholar]
  64. Yakpo, Kofi
    2009 “Complexity Revisited: Pichi (Equatorial Guinea) and Spanish in Contact”. InNicholas G. Faraclas, and Thomas Klein, eds.Simplicity and Complexity in Creoles and Pidgins. London: Battlebridge, 183–215.
     [Google Scholar]
  65. 2013a “Wayward Daughter: Language Contact in the Emergence of Pichi (Equatorial Guinea)”. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics34: 275–299. doi:  10.1515/jall‑2013‑0009
     https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2013-0009 [Google Scholar]
  66. 2013b “Pichi”. InSusanne Michaelis, Philippe Maurer, Martin Haspelmath, and Magnus Huber, eds.The Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures: English-Based and Dutch-Based Languages. Vol.1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 194–205.
     [Google Scholar]
  67. 2016 “‘The Only Language we Speak Really Well’. The English Creoles of Equatorial Guinea and West Africa at the Intersection of Language Ideologies and Language Policies”. InSusana Castillo-Rodríguez, and Laura Morgenthaler García, eds.International Journal of the Sociology of Language239: 211–233. doi:  10.1515/ijsl‑2016‑0010
     https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2016-0010 [Google Scholar]
  68. 2017a “Towards a Model of Language Contact and Change in the English-Lexifier Creoles of Africa and the Caribbean”. English World-Wide38: 51–77. doi:  10.1075/eww.38.1.04yak
     https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.38.1.04yak [Google Scholar]
  69. 2017b “Unity in Diversity: The Homogeneity of the Substrate and the Grammar of Space in the African and Caribbean English-Lexifier Creoles”. InCecilia Cutler, Zvjezdana Vrzic, and Philipp Angermeyer, eds.Language Contact in Africa and the African Diaspora in the Americas. In Honor of John V. Singler. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 225–250. 10.1075/cll.53.10yak
     https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.53.10yak [Google Scholar]
  70. 2018 “¿El nacimiento de una lengua afrohispana?: La influencia del español en el idioma criollo inglés de Guinea Ecuatorial”. InDorothy Odartey-Wellington, ed.Trans-afrohispanismos: Puentes culturales críticos entre África, Latinoamérica y España. Amsterdam: Brill Rodopi, 243–259. doi:  10.1163/9789004364080_015
     https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004364080_015 [Google Scholar]
  71. 2019 A grammar of Pichi (Studies in Diversity Linguistics 23). Berlin: Language Science Press. langsci-press.org/catalog/book/85 (accessedFebruary 18, 2019).
     [Google Scholar]
  72. Yakpo, Kofi, and Guri Bordal Steien
    2017 “Romancing with Tone: Prosodic Systems in Language Contact”. Paper presented at theSummer Conference of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics. University of Tampere.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/eww.00028.yak
Loading
Inheritance, contact, convergence
English World-Wide 40, 202 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.00028.yak
/content/journals/10.1075/eww.00028.yak
/content/journals/10.1075/eww.00028.yak
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Creole; epenthesis; object pronoun; obligatory contour principle; Pidgin English; Spanish; suppletion; tone-conditioned allomorphy; West Africa; Yoruba

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error