Interuniversity Course Caribbean Studies 2017
Languages in the Caribbean
Margot van den Berg
Gracia Blanker
Contents
Language provides both the model and the
principal means for its users to sustain
functional and meaningful relationships
between themselves and their environment.
- Powerful languages and language variation
- Creole formation and plant naming practices
- New insights in the status of Sranan and Dutch
in the 18th century
A typical map of the Caribbean
Source: https://languageblag.com/2015/05/16/why-be-multilingualin-the-caribbean/
Source: http://www.scl-online.net/FAQS/caribbean.htm
Numbers of speakers and nations
“However, there is no correspondence between numbers of
speakers and numbers of nations: the majority of Caribbean
states and territories, 21 out of 31, have English as an official
language, a co-official language, and/or a language of
education, affecting up to 10.5 million people, under half the
number of Spanish speakers”
“So Spanish has the highest number of native speakers in the
Caribbean, Haitian is in second place, English Creole varieties
together would be in third place, and English is in fourth
place, in spite of its place as the official language of most
Caribbean territories”
(Ferreira 2015)
Source: https://languageblag.com/2015/05/16/why-bemultilingual-in-the-caribbean/
Languages of the Caribbean: >70
• Indigenous Amerindian languages (Carlin, Rypka)
• ‘Incoming’ languages
• Caribbean-born
–
–
–
–
Pidgins
Source: http://www.scl-online.net/FAQS/caribbean.htm
Creole Languages
Koines
Restructured or local varieties of incoming languages
Varieties of Caribbean English Creole
(Winford 1993: 4)
Guyanese Creole (Creolese/Guyanese)
JamE and JamC in Jamaica
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7trw8jsGIM
Unidimensional or multidimensional?
Source: Rickford 1987:23
Attitudes towards Creole and English
speakers in Jamaica (Jamaican Language Unit 2005: 19)
Status changes
• Since the 1980’s changes in the status of
creole languages; Haitian and Papiamento are
official languages
• Haitian and French were declared official
languages of Haiti in 1987; President Aristide
addressed the UN in Haitian in 1991 (DeGraff 2011)
• Papiamento is an official language of Aruba
since 2003, five years later in the former
Netherlands Antilles (Martinus, Dijkhoff)
Overt x covert prestige in language
• Overt prestige is associated with the speech of higherstatus speakers. It is the norm that the speaker consciously
orients to. Often talked about in terms of standardness
and/or aesthetic and/or moral evaluations
- status
• Covert prestige is associated with the variant that the
speakers unconsciously orients to. Acquired in a naturalistic
manner; used in informal and intimate styles. Can be
detected via mismatches in self-reporting on usage of
variants.
- solidarity
Multilingual language practices in Suriname
Source: http://www.brill.com/products/book/and-out-suriname
What’s in a name? West-African
retentions and innovation in plant
names from Curaçao and Suriname
Prof. Dr. Tinde van Andel Ethnobotany at Naturalis and Wageningen University
Dr. Margot van den Berg Linguistics at Utrecht University
Mireia Alcántara Rodríguez MSc. Environmeyntal Biology at Utrecht University
Ethnobotany & Linguistics
“There is a fundamental linkage between language and
traditional knowledge (TK) related to biodiversity. Local
and indigenous communities have elaborated complex
classification systems for the natural world, reflecting a
deep understanding of their local environment. This
environmental knowledge is embedded in indigenous
names, oral traditions and taxonomies, and can be lost
when a community shifts to another language.”
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endang
ered-languages/biodiversity-and-linguistic-diversity/
Research Objectives
Study of plant naming practices of nearly 11 million
enslaved Africans in the Caribbean can give insight
into
• the process of species recognition
• acquisition of new knowledge
• and replacement of African plant species with
American ones
in order to show how traditional African botanical
knowledge helped the enslaved to survive in hostile
territory
Creole Languages in the Caribbean
Suriname
• Main land of South America
• 1650 - European colonization
• Tropical climate
• Diverse vegetation: forest as
well as savannah
• Plantation economy
Curacao
• Island in the Caribbean Sea
• 1499 - European colonization
• Semi-arid to arid climate
• Vegetation: succulents
• Trading port
Sranantongo
- Europe: England and
Netherlands
- Africa: KiKongo, Akan, Gbe
Papiamentu
- Europe: Spain or Portugal
- Africa: Senegal to Liberia
Swadesh: 200 Sranantongo words
Nr. 27
Nr. 59
Nr. 32
Nr. 93
big
flower
small
to eat
bigi
bromki
pikin
nyan
< ENG big
< NL bloemetje
< Port pequeno
< West Afrika
Bron: Smith, N. (1987) The genesis of the creole languages of Surinam. Proefschrift
Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Creole formation:
retention and innovation
• Linguistics perspective: Muysken, P. C. & N. S.
H. Smith (2015) Surviving the Middle Passage:
The West Africa Surinam Sprachbund. Berlin:
De Gruyter Mouton
• Interdisciplinary perspective: Transmission of
Traditional Knowledge in the field of
ethnobotany though names and uses of plants
Plant Databases – van Andel
Suriname - NatraPlanD
Curaçao
• herbarium collections,
literature
• recent ethnobotanical
fieldwork in Suriname, Ghana,
Benin, and Gabon
• 2,058 Afro-Surinamese plant
names
• Collected by Mireia Alcantara
Rodriquez in February 2016
• Round Market at Punda in
Willemstad
• Historical and Botanical garden
Den Paradera at Seru Grandi in
Banda Ariba
• surveys and botanical garden
inventories
• 834 plants
– 749 attested in the literature
– 85 new
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
935 Sranantongo
770 Saramaccan
291 Aucan
284 Paramaccan
18 Boni
9 Matawai
19 ritual languages (Ampuku,
Wátawenú,Kromanti, and Papa)
General results
•
•
•
•
•
African
European
Amerindian
Other
Unclear
Suriname
33% (673)
65% (1,333)
17% (340)
1% (21)
8% (167)
Curaçao
12% (96)
81% (673)
20% (163)
4% (32)
8% (70)
Plant names Iberian origin (one language)
Pan di diabel: Devil’s
bread
Morinda royoc,
Rubiaceae
"Toxic fruit and the ripe
fruits smell as rotten
potatoes"
Spanish + Dutch origin
(combinations)
Barba di yònkuman
Albizia lebbek-Leguminosae
Beard of the young man
"The flowers seem the beard of a
teenager"
Results: African plant names-country of origin
Central Africa: 55
(59%)
Upper Guinea: 30
(32%)
Gold Coast: 12 (13%)
Benin: 6 (6%)
Nigeria: 8 (9%)
Niger: 1 (2%)
Mali: 1 (2%)
Togo: 1 (2%)
Results: African plant names
Correlated
sp level
Plant names
from African
origin
Retention
Correlated
genus level
Correlated
family level
Plant names
that refers
otherwise to
Africa
Innovation
Wandu Cajanus
cajan
Leguminosae in
Curaçao
Wandu, Oanda
(Kikongo) in
Angola and
Central Africa
Bosua
Zanthoxylum
schreberi in
Curaçao
Bo-sue (Kru-guere)
Bossu (Guere)
Gbossué (Grebo) in
Liberia, Ivory Coast
Z. gilletii
Yerba fini
Sporobolus
pyramidatus
in Curaçao
Findi, fini (MandingMandinka) in Senagal,
Gambia, Sierra Leone,
Digitaria spp. (Poaceae)
Puta di Luango –Stemodium maritimum, Plantaginaceae
Yerba Gueni -Panicum maximum, Poaceae
Amor di neger -Cuscuta spp., Convolvulaceae
Retention: Plant names from African origin
Palu (di) lele
(Papiamentu)
Randia aculeata
Rubiaceae
"From the wood of this
plant a wooden stick to
stir the fungi (kind of
polenta), or other Creole
dishes, can be made"
Leletí (Fon)
Mixing stick; tree
from which mixing
sticks are cut
Benin
Retention: Plant names from African origin
Kalalú (Papiamentu)
Amaranthus dubius / A. viridus
Amaranthaceae
"Eaten as spinach. Boiling the
leaves, very rich in iron"
Kalulu (Kimbundu)
Spinach, vegetable
Angola
Retention: Plant names from African origin
Kaya-kaya (Papiamentu)
Cleome viscosa
Cleomaceae
Street-street: "Very common to
find it close to the roads“
Akaya asu (Fon)
Cleome viscosa. C. gynandra,
C. ciliata
Vegetable, eaten as vegetable
Benin
Innovation: Iberian plant names linked to Africa
Amor di neger: Love of the black man
Convolvulaceae
Cuscuta americana, C. boldinghii, C. campestris
“Embraces other plants until the host die”
(parasitic sp. Hilu di diabel= Devil's thread )
• Children throw strings of this plant on a tree.
If the string sticks to it, their love was mutual
Ghana, Nigeria: Dɔme atrε (Akan-Twi),
mprabegu (Akan-Twi), Soyayya (Hausa)
• If you love me, spread; the lover will be
dropped (if it does not spread); mutual
affection. Burkill (1985)
Concluding remarks
• Our study confirms the role of Africans as significant
agents of environmental knowledge in the New World.
• Plant names that combine African, Amerindian, and
European words reflect a creolization process that
merged ethnobotanical skills from diverse geographical
and cultural sources into new Afro-American knowledge
systems.
• Retention of African plant names higher in Suriname due
to isolated living conditions that stimulated the usage
and hence preservation of the African ethnobotanical
knowledge
• ethnobotanical knowledge is influenced to a greater
extent by Amerindians and Europeans in Curaçao
Concluding remarks
• Our study confirms the role of Africans as
significant agents of environmental knowledge
in the New World.
• Plant names that combine African,
Amerindian, and European words reflect a
creolization process that merged
ethnobotanical skills from diverse
geographical and cultural sources into new
Afro-American knowledge systems.
Mi mus' singi
A newly rediscovered erotic song
Margot van den Berg
Gracia Blanker
September 2015 – Mirjam Schaap
discovered the text inventorizing
the archives of the Weeskamer
(Amsterdam City Archives)
October 2015 – transcription &
translation Mark Ponte, Margot van
den Berg, Gracia Blanker and Maikel
Groenewoud
November 2015 – presentation at the
meeting of the Surinamese
Genealogy Foundation in Amsterdam
Undated and unsigned - 18th c.
- Other documents in the
same batch are late 18th c.
- Watermark ‘Pro Patria’ is late
18th century
Contents – 1st 18th c. erotic text
• 7 strophes
• Ego perspective
• Funny events s/he and friend observed earlier
while strolling the neighbourhood
• Explicit (x-rated): two masturbating men in
section 2, man takes woman from behind in
section 3, woman calls on man’s failure to
deliver in section 4, man retaliates in section
5, woman repays in kind in section 6.
Other sources in 18th century Sranantongo:
L2 authors & issues of representativeness and validity
• Religious texts - Gospel texts and hymns
– Missionaries (Christiaan Ludwig Schumann)
– language documentation for use in religious
domain
• Language guides
– Merchants
– Language instruction for newcomers
• Official documents: Court records, Sranan
version of Saramaccan Peace Treaty (1762)
Authorship
• Unknown – text is undated and unsigned
• Van Kempen (2015): “Misschien wel van een geile
missionaris, wie weet.” http://www.kennislink.nl/publicaties/erotischliedje-in-oud-surinaams-ontdekt
Preliminary findings
• Form and contents of text suggest that it is not
likely that a horny missionary wrote this text
• Missionaries were not the only ones who could
write – education and cultural life in 18th century
Suriname -> the coloured elite (Neslo 2016)
Interesting linguistic observations
In addition to Sranan, author has Dutch in his
language repertoire: mi lange mijn Maatie
Orthography - German teachers?
• Häedie, Vo sanni hüedde
• With NP: vo - Passi vo waatra
• With VP: va - wie nu ben kan hollij va laffo
Same distinction in Schumann (1783), now fu
Now let’s sing & discuss
Thank you - Tangi
For more information on these projects and/or
language variation and change, and language genesis
in the Caribbean and West Africa, please contact me via
[email protected] or via
https://www.uu.nl/staff/MCvandenBerg1/0
Sources
http://scl-online.net/FAQS/index.htm
Plant use of the Motherland: Linking West African and
Afro-Caribbean Ethnobotany
https://osodresie.wikispaces.com/Home
Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures (APiCS):
http://apics-online.info/
Database of Early Pidgin and Creole Texts (DEPICT):
http://www.unigiessen.de/faculties/f05/engl/ling/staff/professors/mhuber/depict
References
• Andel, T.R. van, van 't Klooster, C.I.E.A., Quiroz, D., Towns, A.M.,
Ruysschaert, S. and M. van den Berg. 2014. ’Local plant names reveal that
enslaved Africans recognized substantial parts of the New World
flora’. PNAS Plus, 111 (50): E5346-E5353. Doi: 10.1073/PNAS.1418836111
• Arends, J. (2017) Language and Slavery. A social and linguistic history of
the Suriname Creoles. CCL 52. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
• Carlin, E. and J. Arends (2002). Atlas of the Languages of Suriname. Leiden
and Kingston: KITLV Press and Ian Randle
• Carlin, E. B. Migge, I. Leglise & P.B. Tjon Sie Fat (Eds.) (2015) In and Out of
Suriname - Language, Mobility and Identity. Leiden: KITLV/Brill
• Neslo, E. (2016) Een ongekende elite : De opkomst van een gekleurde elite
in koloniaal Suriname 1800-1863. Leiden: Haes Producties
• Rickford, J. (1987). Dimensions of a Creole Continuum. Stanford: Stanford
University Press
• Winford, D. (1997), Re-examining Caribbean English Creole Continua.
World Englishes, 16: 233–279. doi:10.1111/1467-971X.00061