1887
Volume 32, Issue 2
  • ISSN 0920-9034
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9870
GBP
Buy:£15.00 + Taxes

Abstract

The creoles associated with Suriname have figured prominently in research on creole languages. However, one variety, Matawai, has, to date, remained completely unresearched. This paper attempts to address this lacuna. It discusses its history and selected areas of grammar in order to assess the place of Matawai among its sister languages and its development. The linguistic analysis draws on recordings from 2013 and the 1970s. The paper provides evidence to support the view that Matawai is most closely related to Saamaka. However, there are also features that are unique to Matawai and those that appear to be due to either patterns of language contact with the other creoles of Suriname or common inheritance. The paper argues that systematic corpus-based analysis of lesser-used varieties provides new insights into existing debates.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/jpcl.32.2.02mig
2017-12-04
2024-04-16
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aboh, Enoch O. , Norval S. H. Smith & Tonjes Veenstra
    2013 Saramaccan. In Susanne M. Michaelis , Philippe Maurer , Martin Haspelmath & Magnus Huber (eds.), The survey of pidgin and creole languages: Volume I English-based languages, 27–38. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Arends, Jacques
    1986 Genesis and development of the equative copula in Sranan. In Pieter Muysken & Norval Smith (eds.), Substrata versus universals in creole genesis [Creole Language Library 1], 103–128. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/cll.1.07are
    https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.1.07are [Google Scholar]
  3. 1989 Syntactic developments in Sranan: Creolization as a gradual process. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Nijmegen.
  4. Arends, Jacques & Matthias Perl
    1995Early Suriname Creole Texts: A collection of 18th-century Sranan and Saramaccan Documents. Frankfurt am Main: Vervuert.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Beet, Chris de & Miriam Sterman
    1981People in between: The Matawai Maroons of Suriname. Meppel: Krips Repro.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. van den Berg, Margot
    2007A Grammar of Early Sranan. Zetten, NL: Drukkerij Manta.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Bickerton, Derek
    1984 The language bioprogram hypothesis. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences7(2). 173–88. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X00044149
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00044149 [Google Scholar]
  8. Bilby, Kenneth
    2002 L’aluku: un créole surinamien en territoire français. Amerindia26–27. 279–292.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Bilby, Kenneth , Bernard Delpech , Marie Fleury , & Diane Vernon
    1989L’alimentation des nois marronns du Maroni: vocabulaire, pratiques, representations. Cayenne: Institut Francais de Recherche Scientifique pour le Developpement en cooperation. Horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers09-10/010010226.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Borges, Robert
    2013 Coppename Kwinti: the influence of adstrate languages on a Surinamese creole. In Robert Borges (ed.), The life of a language: Dynamics of language contact in Suriname, 181–214. Utrecht: Lot.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Elst, Dirk van der
    1974 The Coppename Kwinti: notes on an Afro-American tribe in Suriname. Nieuwe West-Indische Gids50(1). 1–17.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Essegbey, James , Bettina Migge & Donald Winford
    (eds.) 2013 Crosslinguistic Influence in language Creation: Assessing the role of the Gbe languages. Special Issue. Lingua129(7). 1–8. doi: 10.1016/j.lingua.2013.02.005
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2013.02.005 [Google Scholar]
  13. Goury, Laurence
    2003Le Ndyuka: une language créole du Surinam et de Guyane française. Paris: L’Harmattan.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Goury, Laurence & Bettina Migge
    2003Grammaire du nengee: introduction aux langues aluku, ndyuka et pamaka. Paris: IRD Éditions.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Green, Edward C
    1974The Matawai Maroons: An acculturating Afro-American society. PhD Dissertation. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Haboo, Vinije
    . n.d. Saramakaans-Nederlands woutubuku. Unpublished manuscript. March2014 version.
  17. Hancock, Ian F
    1987 A preliminary classification of the Anglophone Atlantic Creoles. In Glenn G. Gilbert (ed.), Pidgin and Creole languages. Essays in memory of John E. Reinecke, 264–333. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Huttar, George
    1988 Notes on Kwinti: A creole of central Suriname. Society for Caribbean Linguistics Occasional Paper20.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Huttar, George L. & Mary L. Huttar
    1994Ndyuka. London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Léglise, Isabelle & Bettina Migge
    2015 Language practices and linguistic ideologies in Suriname: Results from a school survey. In Eithne Carlin , Isabelle Léglise , Bettina Migge & Paul Tjon Sie Fat (eds.), In and out of Suriname: Language, Mobility and Identity, 13–57. Leiden: Brill.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. McWhorter, John H
    1997Towards a new model of creole genesis. New York: Peter Lang.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. McWhorter, John H. & Jeff Good
    2012A grammar of Saramaccan creole. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. doi: 10.1515/9783110278262
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110278262 [Google Scholar]
  23. Migge, Bettina
    2000 The origin of the syntax and semantics of property items in the Surinamese Plantation Creole. In John H. McWhorter (ed.), Language Change and Language Contact in Pidgins and Creoles, 201–234. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/cll.21.08mig
    https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.21.08mig [Google Scholar]
  24. 2002 The origin of the copulas (d/n) a and de in the Eastern Maroon Creole. Diachronica19(1). 81–133. doi: 10.1075/dia.19.1.04mig
    https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.19.1.04mig [Google Scholar]
  25. 2015 The role of discursive information in analyzing multilingual practices. In Gerald Stell & Kofi Yakpo (eds.), Code-switching between structural and sociolinguistic perspectives, 185–206. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Migge, Bettina & Isabelle Léglise
    2013Exploring Language in a Multilingual Context: Variation, Interaction and Ideology in language documentation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. 2015 Assessing the sociolinguistic situation of the Maroon Creoles. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages30(1). 63–115. doi: 10.1075/jpcl.30.1.03mig
    https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.30.1.03mig [Google Scholar]
  28. Migge, Bettina & Norval Smith
    (eds.) 2007 Substrate influence in creole formation. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages22. 1–15. doi: 10.1075/jpcl.22.1.02mig
    https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.22.1.02mig [Google Scholar]
  29. Migge, Bettina & Donald Winford
    2009 The origin and development of possibility in the Creoles of Suriname. In Rachel Selbach , Hugo Cardoso & Margot Van den Berg (eds.), Gradual Creolisation: In Honor of Jacques Arends, 129–153. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/cll.34.12mig
    https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.34.12mig [Google Scholar]
  30. Muysken, Pieter & Norval Smith
    (eds.) 2015Surviving the middle passage: The West African-Suriname Sprachbund [Trends in Linguistics 275]. Berlin: De Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9783110343977
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110343977 [Google Scholar]
  31. Price, Richard
    1983First time: The historical visionof an Afro-American people, Baltimore. Baltimore, MA: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. 2002 Maroons in Suriname and Guyane: How many and where. New West Indian Guide76(1&2). 81–88. doi: 10.1163/13822373‑90002544
    https://doi.org/10.1163/13822373-90002544 [Google Scholar]
  33. 2013 Research Note. The Maroon Population Explosion: Suriname and Guyane. New West Indian Guide87(3&4). 323–327. doi: 10.1163/22134360‑12340110
    https://doi.org/10.1163/22134360-12340110 [Google Scholar]
  34. Shanks, Louis , D. Evert Koanting & T. Carlo Velanti
    2000A buku fu Okanisi anga Ingiisi Wowtu ( Aukan – English Dictionary and English – Aukan Index ). Paramaribo: SIL Suriname. www.sil.org/americas/suriname/Aukan/Aukan.html.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Smith, Norval
    2002 The history of the Surinamese creoles II: Origin and differentiation. In Eithne B. Carlin & Jacques Arends (eds.), Atlas of the language of Suriname, 131–152. Leiden: KITLV Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Smith, Norval & George Huttar
    1983 The development of the liquids in Kwinti. Amsterdam Creole Studies8. 21–29.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Smith, Norval & Tonjes Veenstra
    (eds.) 2001Creolization and contact. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/cll.23
    https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.23 [Google Scholar]
  38. Theije, Marjo de
    2015 Small-scale gold mining and trans-frontier Commerce on the Lawa River. In Eithne Carlin , Isabelle Léglise , Bettina Migge & Paul Tjon Sie Fat (eds.), In and out of Suriname: Language, Mobility and Identity, 58–77. Leiden: Brill.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Wilner, John
    1994Wortubuku fu Sranan Tongo ( Sranan Tongo – English Dictionary ). Paramaribo: SIL Suriname. www-01.sil.org/americas/suriname/Sranan/Sranan.html.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Winford, Donald
    1997 Property items and predication in Sranan. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages27(2). 237–302. doi: 10.1075/jpcl.12.2.04win
    https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.12.2.04win [Google Scholar]
  41. Winford, Donald & Bettina Migge
    2007 Substrate influence in the emergence of the tense and aspect system in the Creoles of Suriname. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages22(1). 73–99. doi: 10.1075/jpcl.22.1.06win
    https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.22.1.06win [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1075/jpcl.32.2.02mig
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/jpcl.32.2.02mig
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): copula; Creoles of Suriname; diachronic change; future marking; language contact; Matawai
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error