Cover not available
Part of
Orality, Identity, and Resistance in Palenque (Colombia): An interdisciplinary approach
Edited by Armin Schwegler, Bryan Kirschen and Graciela Maglia
[Contact Language Library 54] 2017
► pp. 15–50

Chapter 1
Past, present, and future of Palenquero creole

This article examines the current usage of the creole language of Palenque. To properly contextualize the topic in time and space, the study presents various aspects of Palenquero language and culture, linking them with the history and language use of other Afro-Colombian communities. I present an overview of Palenque’s oral history, which is then assessed in light of colonial archival records. Thereafter, attention is turned to the genesis and composition of the creole, in an effort to demonstrate that it must be considered a Neo-Romance vernacular, regardless of its rather minor linguistic African legacy. That legacy is traceable to a single sub-Saharan language, i.e. Kikongo. An attempt is made to offer a hypothesis for the unexpected uniformity of this African substrate. The sociolinguistic description of Palenque’s creole and Spanish bilingualism is at the core of this study. An effort is made to describe Palenqueros’ self-perception of their past and current language use. I claim that today’s relatively small proportion of fluent creole speakers, and the teaching of Palenquero as an L2 in Palenque’s secondary school, are two outward signs that the prospects for the creole’s survival are slim. This I argue in spite of recent community-based efforts to revitalize the creole, which has received support from UNESCO’s declaration in 2008 of Palenque as “Masterpiece of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity.” Finally, a theoretical analysis of orality, oral literature and “orature” will lead to a proposal to revitalize the use of the creole language.

Keywords: Congo, creole languages, metalanguage, orality, Palenquero, sociolinguistics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Palenque in Colombia
  • 3.The creole language of Palenque
  • 4.Present and future of the Palenquero language
  • 5.Final considerations
  • Acknowledgments
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 19 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/coll.54.01mon
References

References

Ansari Pour, N.
2011 Human Genetic Variation, Relationships of Peoples of sub-Saharan Africa and Implications for Healthcare. PhD dissertation, University College London (Centre for Genetic Anthropology, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment). (Originally completed in 2010; slight revisions made in 2011).Google Scholar
Ansari Pour, N., Moñino, Y., Bradman, N. et al.
2016 Palenque de San Basilio in Colombia: Genetic data supports an oral history of a paternal ancestry in Congo. Proceedings of the Royal Society B (no Vol. number): 1–11. <DOI logo>Google Scholar
Arrázola, R.
1970 Palenque, primer pueblo libre de América: história de las sublevaciones de los esclavos de Cartagena. Cartagena: Hernández.Google Scholar
Bickerton, D. & Escalante, A.
1970 Palenquero: A Spanish-based creole of northern Colombia. Lingua 24: 254–267. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Borrego Plá, C.
1973 Palenques de negros en Cartagena de Indias a fines del siglo XVII. Seville: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P.
1979 La distinction. Critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Éditions de Minuit.Google Scholar
Chaudenson, R.
1992 Des îles, des hommes, des langues. Paris: l’Harmattan.Google Scholar
2003 La créolisation: Théorie, applications, implications. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
Cunin, E.
2000 Le métissage dans la ville. Apparences raciales, ancrage territorial et construction de catégories à Cartagena (Colombie). PhD dissertation, Université de Toulouse Le Mirail. (In Spanish: (2003) Identidades a flor de piel. Lo ‘negro’ entre apariencias y pertenencias: mestizaje y categorías raciales en Cartagena (Colombia). Bogotá: ifea-icanh-uniandes-Observatorio del Caribe Colombiano).Google Scholar
De Boek, P.
1904 Grammaire et vocabulaire du lingala, ou langue du Haut-Congo. Brussels: Polleunis & Ceuterick.Google Scholar
Del Castillo Mathieu, N.
1984 El léxico negro-africano de San Basilio de Palenque. Thesaurus 39: 80–169.Google Scholar
Dieck, M.
2002 Distribución y alcance de la negación en palenquero. In Moñino & Schwegler (eds), 149–167.Google Scholar
Escalante, A.
1954 Notas sobre el Palenque de San Basilio, una comunidad negra de Colombia. Divulgaciones Etnológicas 3: 207–358.Google Scholar
de Friedemann, N. & Patiño Rosselli, C.
1983 Lengua y sociedad en el Palenque de San Basilio. Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo.Google Scholar
de Granda, G.
1968 La tipología “criolla” de dos hablas del área lingüística hispánica. Thesaurus 23: 193–205.Google Scholar
Guthrie, M.
1967–1970 Comparative Bantu, 4 Vols. Farnborough: Gregg International Publishers.Google Scholar
Jacobson, A.
1978 Symbolisme des couleurs et ordre social. Le culte nkisi chez les Bakongo (Afrique centrale). In Voir et nommer les couleurs, S. Tornay (ed.), 525–551. Nanterre: Labethno-Université Paris 10.Google Scholar
Le Page, R. & Tabouret-Keller, A.
1985 Acts of Identity: Creole-based Approaches to Language and Ethnicity. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Maglia, G. & Schwegler, A.
(eds) 2012 Palenque (Colombia): oralidad, identidad y resistencia. Un enfoque interdisciplinario. Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo & Universidad Javeriana.Google Scholar
McWhorter, J. & Parkvall, M.
2002 Pas tout à fait du français: Une étude créole. Études Créoles 15(1): 179–231.Google Scholar
Moñino, Y.
1999 L’aspect en palenquero: Une sémantaxe africaine. Actances 10: 177–190.Google Scholar
2002 Las construcciones de genitivo en palenquero: ¿una semantaxe africana? In Moñino & Schwegler (eds), 227–248.Google Scholar
2003 Lengua e identidad afroamericana: el caso del criollo de Palenque de San Basilio (Colombia). In Caminos cruzados, C. Alès & J. Chiappino (eds), 517–531. Paris: IRD – Éditions & Caracas: ULA – Grial.Google Scholar
2004 Une autre conception des lumières. Sur les noms de couleur en gbaya. In Du terrain au cognitif. Linguistique, ethnolinguistique, ethnosciences, E. Motte-Florac & G. Guarisma (eds), 241–266. Paris: Peeters.Google Scholar
2005 Citation, métalangage et autonymie en gbaya ’bodoe de Centrafrique. Histoire. Épistémologie. Langage 17(1): 115–126. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007 Cruces lingüísticos iberocongoleses en palenquero: ¿integrarse a la sociedad mayoritaria o distinguirse de ella? In Lenguas en contacto en el Caribe y más allá, M. Sokol & W. Mihatsch (eds), 37–59. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
2012 Pasado, presente y futuro de la lengua de Palenque. In Maglia & Schwegler (eds), 221–255.Google Scholar
Moñino, Y. & Ortiz, C.
1999 Réévaluation de deux procédés de morphologie évaluative en palenquero. SiLeXicales 2: La morphologie des dérivés évaluatifs, 253–261. [Lille: UMR 8528 du CNRS, Université de Lille III)]Google Scholar
Moñino, Y. & Schwegler, A.
(eds) 2002 Palenque, Cartagena y Afrocaribe. Historia y lengua. Tübingen: Niemeyer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moscovici, S.
1994 Three concepts: Minority, conflict, and behavioural style. In Minority Influence, S. Moscovici, A. Mucchi-Faina & A. Maass (eds), 233–251. Chicago IL: Nelson-Hall.Google Scholar
Moscovici, S., Mugny, G. & Van Avermaet, E.
(eds) 1985 Perspectives on Minority Influence. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mufwene, S.
2001 The Ecology of Language Evolution. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008 Language Evolution. Contact, Competition and Change. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Navarrete, M. C.
2008 San Basilio de Palenque: Memoria y tradición. Surgimiento y avatares de las gestas cimarronas en el Caribe colombiano. Cali: Programa Editorial Universidad del Valle.Google Scholar
Noguera, M. C., Schwegler, A. & Gusmão, L. et al.
2014 Colombia’s population crucible: Y chromosome evidence from six admixed communities in the Department of Bolivar. Annals of Human Biology 41(5): 453–459. E-print version (11 November 2013). [URL]
Ochoa Franco, J.
1945 Palenque: un rincón de África en Colombia. Cartagena: Imprenta Departamental.Google Scholar
Perl, M.
2002 El pronombre personal en función de sujeto en palenquero, en el criollo de Santo Tomé, en el español popular caribeño y en el portugués popular de Angola. In Moñino & Schwegler (eds), 117–127.Google Scholar
Rey-Debove, J.
1967 Autonymie et métalangue. Cahiers de Lexicologie 11: 15–27.Google Scholar
de Sandoval, A.
1987 Un tratado sobre la esclavitud. Madrid: Alianza editorial. (Original edition 1627, De Instauranda Æthiopum Salute. Seville: Francisco de Lira).Google Scholar
Schwegler, A.
1993 Rasgos (afro-)portugueses en el criollo del Palenque de San Basilio (Colombia). In Homenaje a José Pérez Vidal, C. Díaz Alayón (ed.), 667–696. La Laguna, Tenerife: Litografía A. Romero S. A.Google Scholar
1996 “ Chi ma nkongo ”: lengua y rito ancestrales en El Palenque de San Basilio, 2 vols. Frankfurt: Vervuert.Google Scholar
1998 Palenquero. In América negra: panorámica actual de los estudios lingüísticos sobre variedades criollas y afrohispanas, M. Perl & A. Schwegler (eds), 220–291. Frankfurt: Vervuert & Madrid: Iberoamericana.Google Scholar
2001a The myth of decreolization: The anomalous case of Palenquero. In Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages [Creole Language Library 22], I. Neumann-Holzschuh & E. Schneider (eds), 409–436. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001b Superstrate, substrate, convergence: On the multiple origins of Palenquero yo, y-, i- ‘I’. In “Was ich noch sagen wollte”, B. Igla & T. Stolz (eds), 249–272. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2002a El vocabulario africano de Palenque. Segunda parte: compendio alfabético de palabras (con etimologías). In Moñino & Schwegler (eds), 171–226.Google Scholar
2002b On the (African) origins of Palenquero subject pronouns. Diachronica 19(2): 273–332. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 Bantu elements in Palenque (Colombia): Anthropological, archeological and linguistic evidence. In African Re-Genesis: Confronting Social Issues in the Diaspora, J. Haviser & K. C. MacDonald (eds), 204–222. London: University College London Press.Google Scholar
2010 State of the Discipline. Pidgin and creole studies: Their interface with Hispanic and Lusophone linguistics. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 3(2): 431–481. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schwegler, A. & Morton, T.
2003 Vernacular Spanish in a microcosm: Kateyano in El Palenque de San Basilio (Colombia). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana (rili) 1: 97–159.Google Scholar
Singh, P., Clanet, P., Molino, J. & Moñino, Y.
1999 Palenque de San Basilio. Pézenas: Editions Domens. With a CD. (Etchings by Singh, photos by de Clanet, music recorded by Molino, French-Spanish bilingual text by Moñino).Google Scholar
Vignaux, H.
2007 Esclavage et rébellion. La construction sociale des Noirs et des Mulâtres (Nouvelle Grenade – XVIIe siècle). Montpellier: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Parkvall, Mikael & Bart Jacobs
2020. Palenquero origins. Diachronica 37:4 ► pp. 540 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 september 2023. 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.