Historical and linguistic evidence in favour of the relexification theory in the formation of creoles

Three different Creoles spoken in Surinam are examined for their Creole origins. Saramaccan (SM) and Sranan (SN) are compared on basic vocabulary and other linguistic features and analyzed in conjunction with historical evidence. It is suggested that SN and SM speakers came to Surinam plantations wi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Language in society 1973-04, Vol.2 (1), p.133-145
Main Author: Voorhoeve, Jan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Comparative linguistics
Creole/Creoles
Creoles
Evidence
Formation/Formations
Historical linguistics
History/Historic/Historical
Language
Linguistic/Linguistics
Linguistics
Pidgins
Plantations
Slaves
Synonyms
Theory/Theories/Theorem/ Theorizing
Verbs
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Three different Creoles spoken in Surinam are examined for their Creole origins. Saramaccan (SM) and Sranan (SN) are compared on basic vocabulary and other linguistic features and analyzed in conjunction with historical evidence. It is suggested that SN and SM speakers came to Surinam plantations with a basic knowledge of Portuguese-Creole. SN completely relexified in the direction of English, whereas SM only partly relexified toward English. Evidence suggests that Ndjuka (ND) is not a product of relexification, but developed from an eighteenth-century English pidgin. It is concluded that both 'normal' genetic developments and relexification may have similar results and that comparative evidence alone is not a sufficient basis for historical conclusions.
ISSN:0047-4045
1469-8013
DOI:10.1017/S0047404500000099