Transcript Phonology and Morphology

The Phonology and Morphology
of Creole Languges:
Simple or Complex
Norval Smith
ACLC/Theoretical Linguistics
University of Amsterdam
Structure of talk
•
Phonology
1. Saramaccan consonant system & Sranan
consonant system
2. Saramaccan vowel system
•
Morphology
1. Definiteness and number in Sranan
2. Perfective and imperfective in Sranan
Saramaccan Consonants
p
b

m
f
v
w
t
d

n
s
z
l
tj
dj
k
g
kw kp
gw gb
nj

j
?
23-26
Fon Consonants
t
c
k
d
j
g
f
s
v
z
bm
n


kp
gb


 

21
kp vs. kw
Sar 1
kpéfa
kpéi
Sar 2
kwéfa
kwéi
18th c.
kwefa
kwêri, kwêli
ahalakpákpa
aherapápa
ahalakpákpa
kpan
kpan
source
Ptg. coifa
Eng. square
Fon hlakpakpa
Fon kpa
gb vs. gw
Sar 1
Sar 2
18th c.
gbamba gwamba kwamba
gbaniní gwaniní gwaninì
source
K. gwamba
gbegbé
gbgb*
gbl
gbl
bebèh
F.
bloblo
F. gbl
*Sranan bebé
b vs. 
Dutch
blaas
balk
brak(en)
blommetje
Sara.
aási
áiki
baláki
bolómítji
gloss
'bladder, balloon'
'cross-beam'
'bring up'
'flower'
N.B. obvious late borrowings from Sranan
d vs. 
English
down + go
down'
dead
Saramaccan


'dead'
drink
(n.)
dig

'drink'

gloss
'go
'dig'
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.
Saramaccan diphthongs
• In English/Portuguese vocabulary
originally only morpheme-finally. Non-final
English/Portuguese diphthongs reduced to
monophthongs
•
•
     
  
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
English noun plurals > Surinam
English
shoes
clothes
news
yams
paths
ears
ants
bricks
ashes
Sara.
susu
koosu
njunsu
njamisi
pasi
jesi
(h)ansi
asisi
Ndyuka
susu
koosi
nyunsu
nyamisi
pasi
yesi
Sranan
susu
krosi
nyunsu
yamsi
pasi
yesi
asisi
briksi
asisi
gloss
shoe
cloth
news
yam
path
ear
ant
brick
ash(es)
Egg(s)
English
Ndyuka
Sranan
gloss
eggs
egg
--igi
eksi
---
egg
egg
Why general plural suffix loss?
Reason probably availability of more
salient pre-head structures.
1.
2.
3.
4.
the boat
that boat
the boats
them boats
[+def]
[+def, +dem, -plur]
[+def, +plur]
[+def, +dem, +plur]
Next stage
1.
2.
3.
4.
the boat
that boat
the boats
them boats
>
>
>
>
Superstrate wins out!
Ø
da boto (> a boto)
Ø
dem boto
No English past tense suffix
Important: English “past tense” verbs are
actually perfective.
Why NO regular “past tense” form in –ed?
Some irregular cases.
English
broke
sunk
lost
Sranan
broko
(singi)
lasi
Ndyuka
booko
(singi)
lasi
Sara.
gloss
ooko ‘break’
sungu
‘sink’
lasi
‘lose, lost’
Solution
1. Bare stem sign of perfective for most
verbs in Gbe.
2. English “past tense” marker therefore
completely redundant
3. This is a substrate feature.
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
Other Gbe imperfectives
1. final null form in Gun and Tofin
(nominalization)
2. ordinary VP in Xwela
3. etc.
Sranan imperfective
• Present-day Sranan has:
– ImperfMkr V
[e V]
• Older Sranan:
– ImperfMkr V
[de V]
The origin
1. We see that the earlier form of the
imperfective marker was de.
2. This is homonymous with the locative
copula de.
3. Therefore we can hypothesize that the
original structure was actually:
LocCop V
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.
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.
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.