Saramaccan, a very mixed language: Systematicity in the distribution of function words?
Saramaccan is the descendant of a mixed creole language formerly spoken on Portuguese Jewish-owned plantations in Surinam, South America. Its mixed nature reveals itself in roughly equal numbers of monomorphemic English-derived and Portuguese-derived lexical items. In terms of function words, howeve...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Portuguese |
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Universidade do Porto
2012-01-01
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| Series: | Linguística |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/10745.pdf |
| _version_ | 1811229266889670656 |
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| author | Norval Smith |
| author_facet | Norval Smith |
| author_sort | Norval Smith |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Saramaccan is the descendant of a mixed creole language formerly spoken on Portuguese Jewish-owned plantations in Surinam, South America. Its mixed nature reveals itself in roughly equal numbers of monomorphemic English-derived and Portuguese-derived lexical items. In terms of function words, however, English-derived function words dominate to the proportion of 4:1. This still leaves us with a significant number of Portuguese function words. Here I make a preliminary study of spatial adpositions and question words. This reveals a strong correlation between words referring to “place” and words derived from Portuguese.I take account of the presence of Jewish-owned plantations and large-scale marronnage towards the end of the 17th century, the latter leading to formation of the Saramaccan tribe |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T10:12:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f3d004ac169e447faf564631b9f67077 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1646-6195 |
| language | Portuguese |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T10:12:54Z |
| publishDate | 2012-01-01 |
| publisher | Universidade do Porto |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Linguística |
| spelling | doaj.art-f3d004ac169e447faf564631b9f670772022-12-22T03:37:17ZporUniversidade do PortoLinguística1646-61952012-01-01789100Saramaccan, a very mixed language: Systematicity in the distribution of function words?Norval SmithSaramaccan is the descendant of a mixed creole language formerly spoken on Portuguese Jewish-owned plantations in Surinam, South America. Its mixed nature reveals itself in roughly equal numbers of monomorphemic English-derived and Portuguese-derived lexical items. In terms of function words, however, English-derived function words dominate to the proportion of 4:1. This still leaves us with a significant number of Portuguese function words. Here I make a preliminary study of spatial adpositions and question words. This reveals a strong correlation between words referring to “place” and words derived from Portuguese.I take account of the presence of Jewish-owned plantations and large-scale marronnage towards the end of the 17th century, the latter leading to formation of the Saramaccan tribehttp://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/10745.pdfSaramaccanPortuguesefunction wordsplacemaroonsslavery |
| spellingShingle | Norval Smith Saramaccan, a very mixed language: Systematicity in the distribution of function words? Linguística Saramaccan Portuguese function words place maroons slavery |
| title | Saramaccan, a very mixed language: Systematicity in the distribution of function words? |
| title_full | Saramaccan, a very mixed language: Systematicity in the distribution of function words? |
| title_fullStr | Saramaccan, a very mixed language: Systematicity in the distribution of function words? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Saramaccan, a very mixed language: Systematicity in the distribution of function words? |
| title_short | Saramaccan, a very mixed language: Systematicity in the distribution of function words? |
| title_sort | saramaccan a very mixed language systematicity in the distribution of function words |
| topic | Saramaccan Portuguese function words place maroons slavery |
| url | http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/10745.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT norvalsmith saramaccanaverymixedlanguagesystematicityinthedistributionoffunctionwords |