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Saramaccan

Saramaccan. Andrew Schinkowski. Historical Background. 1651 – English settlement of Suriname c. 1665 – Sranan creolized from Caribbean Plantation English 1665 – Jewish settlers arrive from Cayenne 1667 – Suriname surrendered to the Dutch

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Saramaccan

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  1. Saramaccan Andrew Schinkowski

  2. Historical Background • 1651 – English settlement of Suriname • c. 1665 – Sranan creolized from Caribbean Plantation English • 1665 – Jewish settlers arrive from Cayenne • 1667 – Suriname surrendered to the Dutch • 1668-1675 – English population (and slaves) leave • c. 1680 – Sranan partly relexified to Portuguese • 1690 – Mass escape of slaves (Saramacca) • 1712 – Mass escape of slaves (Ndyuka)

  3. Suriname overview • Early settlers were already familiar with the plantation system (and had already developed pidgins) • Relatively small ratio of slaves to Europeans

  4. Sociolinguistic Background • 25,000 members of the Saramaccan tribe and 2,000 members of the Matawi tribe • 3 attested dialects: Upper and Lower Suriname River Dialects and Matawi dialect • Very little variation noticed between dialects and populations going as far back as 18th century missionary work

  5. Sociolinguistic Background (cont.) • Isolation continues to a fair degree even today “states within a state” • Between period of escape and peace treaty with the Dutch (1762/1767) addition of escaped slaves rare • Complex attitudes towards outsiders • Superstrates: English, Portuguse* • Substrates: Fon, Kikongo

  6. Linguistic Structure - Phonology • Consonants

  7. Linguistic Structure - Phonology • Vowels Matching set of nasal vowels as well Although Portuguese has nasal vowels, appearance is more likely from African language roots 3-way length contrast for vowels

  8. Linguistic Structure - Phonology • Tone • System of high, low and unspecified • For European-derived words a high tone will appear on the primarily accented element, with the rest unspecified • Stone sitónu • For African-derived words, a tone is specified for each element • Additionally, there are tone rules

  9. Lexicon • English – 50% • Portuguese – 35% • African/Amerindian – 15%

  10. Morphology and Syntax • SVO head initial language that allows fronting • Reduplicated Adjectives Dímiíidénákináki. ‘The child is beat up.’ Dímiíináki. ‘The child was beaten.’ • Copula system de – verbal status can only appear with PP and AP-complements TMA-marking is done with this form • da – pronominal status TMA-marking is blocked with this form

  11. Morphology and Syntax • Copula system Complements- Kone de/*dasiki-siki ‘Kone is sick.” Kone COP sick-sick TMA marking- Etnel bi de wan malenge-ma Etnel PAST COP one lazy-MA ‘Etnel was/will be a lazy guy.” *Etnel bi damalenge-ma Etnel PAST COP lazy-ma Etnel PAST/IRR COP lazy guy.

  12. Morphology and Syntax • V(P)-nominalization with ‘–ma’ hondi-ma ‘hunter’ hunt-AG bebe-daan-ma ‘drunkard’ drink-rum-AG siki-n’-en-edi-ma ‘insane person’ sick-LOC-his-head-AG tja-boto-go-a-wosu-ma ‘pilot’ carry-boat-go-LOC-house-AG

  13. Bibliography • Bakker, Peter, Smith, Norval, & Veenstra, Tonjes. (1995). Saramaccan. In J. Arends, P. Muysken, N. Smith (Ed.), Pidgins and Creoles: an introduction (pp. 165-178). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins North America. • Carlin, Eithne B., & Arends, Jacques (Ed.). (2002). Atlas of the Languages of Suriname. KoninklijkInstituutvoorTaal-, Land- en Volkenkunde: Ian Randle Publishers. • Migge, Bettina. (2003). Creole Formation as Language Contact: The Case of the Suriname Creoles. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins North America. • Price, Richard. (1975). Saramaka Social Structure: Analysis of a Maroon Society in Suriname. Rio Piedras, PR: Institute of Caribbean Studies.

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