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Predication in African Languages
Edited by James Essegbey and Enoch O. Aboh
[Studies in Language Companion Series 235] 2024
► pp. 154–188

Chapter 6
Lost siblings

Areal forces in the divergence of Krio and Pichi

| The University of Hong Kong

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.

Keywords: Creole, Krio, Pichi, English, Spanish, Bantu, areal typology, language contact
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
  • References
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