Continuity versus English Influence in the West African Lexicon of Gullah

This article argues that we must revisit the African vocabulary of Gullah presented by Lorenzo Turner's 1949 to uncover phonological patterns not discussed in the original source and to expand coverage to segmental, syllabic, and prosodic structure. Salikoko Mufwene has argued that English phon...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American speech 2017-05, Vol.92 (2), p.107-150
Main Author: Klein, Thomas B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African languages
American Studies
Creole languages
Dialects
English language
Lexicon
Linguistic identity
Linguistics
Personal names
Phonology
Segmentation
Sociolinguistics
Vocabularies & taxonomies
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Summary:This article argues that we must revisit the African vocabulary of Gullah presented by Lorenzo Turner's 1949 to uncover phonological patterns not discussed in the original source and to expand coverage to segmental, syllabic, and prosodic structure. Salikoko Mufwene has argued that English phonology dominates the West African personal names that comprise more than half of Turner's classic work, yet, as argued here, significant West African influences persist in Gullah, as well. Phonological patterns from Turner's West African material correspond to those of Gullah lexemes. Distribution of the palatal nasal, the absence of [ə] and [ʌ], and the inventory of syllable types occur in Gullah as unaltered Africanisms. Adjacent vocoids, nasal + obstruent sequences, labio-velar plosives, nasal vowels, and word prosody appear as partially restructured. African words used in conversation are shown to exhibit processes not found in the personal names. The high level of linguistic consciousness for personal names makes it likely that the maintenance of West African phonology is an act of sociolinguistic identity.
ISSN:0003-1283
1527-2133
DOI:10.1215/00031283-4201998