Chapter 6
Lost siblings
Areal forces in the divergence of Krio and Pichi
The two related English-lexifier creole languages Krio (Sierra Leone) and Pichi (Equatorial Guinea)
have diverged due to differing contact ecologies since their split in the 19th century. Krio is spoken alongside its
lexifier English as well as Atlantic and Mande adstrates. Pichi is spoken alongside Bantu adstrates and has been in
contact with its superstrate Spanish, but not with English. I analyse and compare tense, aspect, and mood categories
as well as participant marking and serial verb constructions to show that (a) Krio has become more similar to English
than Pichi to Spanish because existing overlaps between creole and lexifier forms have facilitated transfer; (b) both
Krio and Pichi have, respectively, aligned themselves with the Macro-Sudan and Bantu spread zone typological profiles
of their ecologies. I interpret the findings via the stratal-areal contact model (Yakpo 2017a) to explain the divergence of Krio and Pichi as part of the differentiation of the whole
African Caribbean English Creole cluster.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Socio-historical background and linguistic ecologies
- 3.Comparison of Krio and Pichi
- 3.1Tense-aspect-mood marking
- 3.2Expression of participant roles
- 3.3Serial verb constructions
- 3.4Summary of findings
- 4.The stratal areal contact model: Genetic divergence and areal advergence of the African Caribbean English Creole
varieties
- 4.1Contact with the lexifier superstrate (a) vs. Contact with a non-lexifier superstrate (b)
- 4.2Contact with adstrates (c) and strengthening/weakening of Macro-Sudan features (d)
- 5.Conclusion
-
Conventions for interlinear glosses and abbreviations
-
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