Publications
Publication details [#48125]
Smith, Norval. 2008. The origin of the Portuguese words in Saramaccan: Implications for sociohistory. In Michaelis, Susanne, ed. Roots of Creole Structures. Weighing the contribution of substrates and superstrates. (Creole language library 33). John Benjamins. pp. 153–168.
Publication type
Article in book
Publication language
English
Keywords
Place, Publisher
John Benjamins
Annotation
The aim of this article is to try and trace the source of a phonological change that applies only in the Portuguese-derived lexicon in Saramaccan. Saramaccan is a mainly English-lexifier maroon creole language with a very substantial Portuguese element in its vocabulary. This phonological change, from /g/ to /k/, cannot have taken place in Surinam, as none of the other contributory languages to Saramaccan shows any sign of it. The change is identified as one that occurs in Kikongo-dominated or Kimbundu-dominated contexts. The study then tries to identify the particular geographical and historical context of this change.
I work back along a number of possible transfer paths: (1) Cayenne–Surinam; (2) Dutch Pernambuco–Cayenne; (3) Pre-Dutch Pernambuco–Dutch Pernambuco, and conclude that all three paths are involved in the transference of the phonological change. I try, finally, to identify Jewish individuals and families who could have been involved in both Pre-Dutch Paramaribo and Surinam, i.e., both ends of the path.