Cover not available
Part of
Language Contact in Africa and the African Diaspora in the Americas: In honor of John V. Singler
Edited by Cecelia Cutler, Zvjezdana Vrzić and Philipp Angermeyer
[Creole Language Library 53] 2017
► pp. 251–274

Krio as the Western Maroon Creole language of Jamaica, and the /na/ isogloss

The nominal copula na appears uniquely in two sets of Atlantic English-lexifier creole languages:

  1. in what is called the Maroon Spirit Language used among the Eastern Maroons of Jamaica. Now confined to ritual use, it was formerly the daily language of the Eastern Maroons,

  2. in Krio, spoken in Sierra Leone and Fernando Po, and other places.

I will show that the contexts in which it is used are parallel in the two groups, both syntactically and semantico-pragmatically. I hypothesize that there can only be one explanation for this fact. Krio hails ultimately from the language of the Western Maroons of Jamaica who were exiled to Sierra Leone.

Keywords: Krio, Maroon, Pichi, nominal copula
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Jamaican Maroons
  • 3.The two copulas of Atlantic English-lexifier creoles
  • 4.Nominal copula construction types
  • 5.Nominal copula constructions in the circum-Caribbean zone
  • 6.Nominal copula constructions in the West African zone
  • 7.Nominal copula constructions in the Eastern Jamaican Maroon Creole (EJMC)
  • 8.Conclusions about construction types
  • 9.Semantico-pragmatics
  • 10.Syntactic and semantico-pragmatics relationships and restrictions
  • 11.Conclusion on syntax versus semantico-pragmatics
  • 12.Conclusion on the /na/ isogloss
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 12 July 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.53.11smi
References
Ayafor, M
2008 Cameroon Pidgin English (Kamtok): Morphology and Syntax. In Varieties of English, Vol. 4: Africa, South and Southeast Asia, R. Mesthrie (ed.), 428–450. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Bailey, B
1966 Jamaican Creole Syntax: A Transformational Approach. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Bilby, K
1979 Partisan Spirits: Ritual Interaction and Maroon Identity in Eastern Jamaica. MA thesis, Wesleyan University.Google Scholar
1983 How the ‘Older Heads’ Talk: A Jamaican Maroon spirit possession language and its relationship to the Creoles of Suriname and Sierra Leone. New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 57: 37–88. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1984 The treacherous feast: A Jamaican Maroon historical myth. Bijdragen tot de Taal‑, Land‑ en Volkenkunde 140: 1–31. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1992 Further observations on the Jamaican Maroon spirit language. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics , Philadelphia.
1994 Maroon culture as a distinct variant of Jamaican culture. In Maroon Heritage: Archaeological, Ethnographic and Historical Perspectives, K. Agorsah (ed.), 72–85. Kingston: Canoe Press.Google Scholar
2005 True-Born Maroons. Gainesville FL: University of Florida Press.Google Scholar
Cassidy, F. & LePage R
1967 Dictionary of Jamaican English. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Dallas, R
1803 The History of the Maroons: From their Origin to the Establishment of their Chief Tribe at Sierra Leone. London: T.M. Longman and O. Rees.Google Scholar
Declerck, R
1988 Studies on Copular Sentences, Clefts and Pseudo-Clefts. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dobson, E
1968 English Pronunciation 1500–1700, Vol. 2: Phonology. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Faraclas, N
2008 Nigerian Pidgin English: Morphology and syntax. In Varieties of English, Vol. 4: Africa, South and Southeast Asia, R. Mesthrie (ed.), 340–367. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Focke, H.C
1855 Neger-Engelsch Woordenboek. Leiden: van den Heuvel. [URL] Google Scholar
Hancock, I
1987 A preliminary classification of the Anglophone Atlantic Creoles with syntactic data from thirty-three representative dialects. In Pidgin and Creole Languages: Essays in Memory of John E. Reinecke, G. Gilbert (ed.), 264–333. Honolulu HI: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar
Harris, Col. C.L.G
1994 The true traditions of my ancestors. In Maroon Heritage: Archaeological, Ethnographic, and Historical Perspectives, K. Agorsah (ed.), 36–63. Kingston: Canoe Press.Google Scholar
n.d. The Maroons of Moore Town (a Colonel Speaks). Ms. Moore Town, Jamaica.
Huber, M
1999 Ghanaian Pidgin English in Its West African Context: A Sociohistorical and Structural Analysis [Varieties of English around the World G24]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004 The Nova Scotia-Sierra Leone connection. In Creoles, Contact, and Language Change [Creole Language Library 27], G. Escure & A. Schwegler (eds), 67–95. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jones, E
1971 Krio: An English-based language of Sierra Leone. In The English language in West Africa, J. Spencer (ed.), 66–94. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Keizer, E
1992 Reference, Predication and (In)Definiteness in Functional Grammar: A Functional Approach to English Copular Sentences. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
McWhorter, J
1995 Sisters under the Skin: A case for genetic relationship between the Atlantic English-based Creoles. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 10(2): 289–333. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
NT (Belizean) = Wycliffe Bible Translators & The Belize Kriol Project
2012 Di Nyoo Testiment eena Bileez Kriol/The New Testament in Belize Kriol. Orlando FL: Wycliff Bible Translators.Google Scholar
NT (Islander) = The Islander Creole English Bible Translation Committee
2010 Di Fos Five Buk a di Nyuu Testament/The First Five Books of the New Testament. Orlando FL: Wycliffe Bible Translators.Google Scholar
PC (Peace Corps) = Peace Corps – Sierra Leone
1985 Krio Language Manual. US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Schumann, C
1783 Neger-Englisches Wörterbuch. Editio tertia. Paramaribo. In Kramp, A. 1983. Early Creole Lexicography: A Study of C.L. Schumann’s Manuscript Dictionary of Sranan, 43–305. PhD dissertation, Leiden University.Google Scholar
Smith, N
2015 Ingredient X: The shared African lexical element in the English-lexifier Atlantic Creoles, and the theory of rapid creolization. In Surviving the Middle Passage: The West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund. P. Muysken & N. Smith (eds), 67–106. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Wullschlägel, H
1856 Deutsch-Negerenglisches Wörterbuch, nebst ein Anhang Negerenglische Sprüchwörter enthaltend. Lobau: T.U. Duroldt. [URL] Google Scholar
Yakpo, K
2009 A Grammar of Pichi. Berlin: Isimu Media.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Yakpo, Kofi
2021. Creole Prosodic Systems Are Areal, Not Simple. Frontiers in Psychology 12 DOI logo
Yakpo, Kofi
2022. Social entrenchment influences the amount of areal borrowing in contact languages. International Journal of Bilingualism 26:2 ► pp. 140 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.