Cover not available

In:Language Contact in Africa and the African Diaspora in the Americas: In honor of John V. Singler
Edited by Cecelia Cutler, Zvjezdana Vrzić and Philipp Angermeyer
[Creole Language Library 53] 2017
► pp. 225–250

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Unity in diversity

The homogeneity of the substrate and the grammar of space in the African and Caribbean English-lexifier creoles

Published online: 12 July 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.53.10yak
John Singler’s principle of the homogeneity of the substrate can account for the shape of locative structures in the Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creoles (AECs). These are modelled on typologically highly uniform substrate and adstrate structures across a broad swath of West and Central Africa. Common to the creoles and the African languages are the scarcity of Path-incorporating prepositions, the use of general locative prepositions in static and motion events, as well as the use of pre‑ or postpositional relator nouns. At the same time, the grammars of space of individual AECs like Sranan (Suriname) and Pichi (Equatorial Guinea) have diverged from each other due to differing lengths of contact with the lexifier English, and contact with different European superstrate languages.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Towards a definition of strata: Substrate, adstrate, superstrate and lexifier
  • 3.Typology of locative constructions
  • 4.Locative constructions in Sranan and Pichi
    • 4.1Sranan (Suriname)
    • 4.2Pichi (Equatorial Guinea)
  • 5.Locative constructions in West and Central Africa
  • 6.Stratal contact as a source of unity and diversity
  • 7.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (63)
References
Alleyne, M. 1980. Comparative Afro-American: An historical-comparative study of English-based Afro-American dialects of the New World. Ann Arbor MI: Karoma.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ambouroue, O. 2007. Eléments de description de l’orungu, langue bantu du Gabon (B11b). PhD dissertation, Université Libre de Bruxelles.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ameka, F. & Essegbey, J. 2006. Elements of the grammar of space in Ewe. In Grammars of space: Explorations in Cognitive Diversity, Vol. 6, S. Levinson & D. Wilkins (eds), 359–399. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ameka, F. & Levinson, S. 2007. Introduction: The typology and semantics of locative predicates: Posturals, positionals, and other beasts. Linguistics 45(5–6): 847–871.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1964. Leçons de kikongo par des bakongo. Louvain: Eegenhoven.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Arends, J. 1996. Demographic factors in the formation of Sranan. In The Early Stages of Creolization [Creole Language Library 13], J. Arends (ed.), 233–285. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van den Berg, M. 2013. Talen in contact in Suriname en Nederland: Eenheid in Verscheidenheid? OSO, Tijdschrift voor Surinamistiek en het Caraïbisch gebied 32(1): 38–65.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. Morphology, cross-linguistic effects, and creole formation. In Surviving the Middle Passage: The West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund, P. Muysken & N. Smith (eds), 207–239. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bickerton, D. 1973. On the nature of a creole continuum. Language 49(3): 640–669. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Borges, R., Muysken, P., Villerius, S. & Yakpo, K. 2013. Tense, mood, and aspect in Suriname. In The Life of Language: Dynamics of Language Contact in Suriname, R. Borges (ed.), 115–162. Utrecht: LOT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corum, M. 2015. Substrate and Adstrate: The Origins of Spatial Semantics in West African Pidgincreoles. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Creissels, D. 2006. Encoding the distinction between location, source and destination. Space in Languages: Linguistic Systems and Cognitive Categories 66: 19–28. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DeCamp, D. 1971. Toward a generative analysis of the post-creole continuum. In Pidginization and Creolization of Languages, D. Hymes (ed.), 349–370. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Déreau, L. 1955. Cours de kikongo. Namur, Belgium: Ad Wesmael-Charlier. < [URL]> Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dixon-Fyle, M. & Cole, G. 2006. Introduction. In New Perspectives on the Sierra Leone Krio, M. Dixon-Fyle & G. Cole (eds), 1–24. Bruxelles: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dombrowsky-Hahn, K. 2012. Motion events in Bambara (Mande). Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 33(1): 37–65. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Essegbey, J. & Bruyn, A. 2002. Moving into and out of Sranantongo: Multiple Effects of Contact. Leuven: Catholic University of Leuven.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Everbroecke, R. 1985. Maloba ma lokóta lingála / Dictionnaire lingala: lingála-français, français-lingála. Kinshasa: Editions Epiphanie.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Finney, M. 2008. Universal and substrate influence on the phonotactics and syllable structure of Krio. In Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives on Contact Languages [Creole Language Library 32], M. Huber & V. Velupillai (eds), 23–42. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fyle, M. 1998. Yoruba Loan Words in Krio: A Study of Language and Culture Change. MA thesis, Ohio State University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hancock, I. 1969. A provisional comparison of the English-based Atlantic creoles. African Language Review 8: 7–72.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1971. A Study of the Sources and Development of the Lexicon of Sierra Leone Krio. PhD dissertation, University of London.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1987. A preliminary classification of Anglophone Atlantic creoles, with syntactic data from thirty-three representative dialects. In Pidgin and Creole Languages: Essays in Memory of John Reinecke, G. Gilbert (ed.), 264–333. Honolulu HI: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heine, B., Claudi, U. & Hünnemeyer, F. 1991. Grammaticalization: A Conceptual Framework. Chicago IL: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huber, M. 1996. Ghanaian Pidgin English: A preliminary consideration of its position among West African Pidgin Englishes. In Matériaux pour l’étude des classes grammaticales dans les langues créoles, D. Véronique (ed.), 285–303. Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. Restructuring in vitro? Evidence from early Krio. In Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages [Creole Language Library 22], I. Neumann-Holzschuh & E. Schneider (eds), 275–307. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huttar, G. 1981. Some Kwa-like features of Djuka syntax. Studies in African Linguistics 12(3): 291–323.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1986. Kikongo, Saramaccan and Ndjuka. In Language in Global Perspective: Papers in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1935–1985, B. Elson (ed.), 563–586. Dallas TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huttar, G., Essegbey, J. & Ameka, F. 2007. Gbe and other West African sources of Suriname creole semantic structures. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 22(1): 57–72. Special issue: Substrate Influence in Creole Formation, B. Migge & N. Smith (eds). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kari, E. 1997. Degema. Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kouwenberg, S. & Singler, J. 2008. Introduction. The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies, S. Kouwenberg & J. Singler (eds), 1–16. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lynn, M. 1984. Commerce, Christianity and the origins of the ‘Creoles’ of Fernando Po. The Journal of African History 25(3): 257–278. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martín del Molino, A. 1993. La ciudad de Clarence. Malabo: Ediciones Centro Cultural Hispano-Guineano.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moiso, B. 1983. Le lingala au Zaire: Défense et analyse grammaticale. Kisangani: Éditions de Base.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morgades Bessari, T. 2011. Los criollos (Fernandinos-Kriös) de Guinea Ecuatorial. La Gaceta de Guinea Ecuatorial. Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, No. 162 edition, sec. Misceláneas. < [URL]> (30 May 2013).
Muysken, P. & Smith, N. 2015. Surviving the Middle Passage: The West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Newman, P. 2000. The Hausa Language: An Encyclopedic Reference Grammar. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pawlak, N. 2005. Locative prepositions in Chadic: Lexical or grammatical morphemes? In Motion, Direction and Location in Languages: In Honor of Zygmunt Frajzyngier [Typological Studies in Language 56], E. Shay & U. Seibert (eds), 235–254. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rickford, J. 1987. Dimensions of a Creole Continuum: History, Texts, and Linguistic Analysis of Guyanese Creole. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Selbach, R. 2008. The superstrate is not always the lexifier: Lingua Franca in the Barbary Coast, 1530–1830. In Roots of Creole Structures: Weighing the Contribution of Substrates and Superstrates [Creole Language Library 33], S. Michaelis (ed.), 29–58. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Singler, J. 1983. The influence of African languages on pidgins and creoles. In Current Approaches to African Linguistics, Vol. 2, J. Kaye, H. Koopman, D. Sportiche & A. Dugas (eds). Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1988. The homogeneity of the substrate as a factor in pidgin/creole genesis. Language 64(1): 27–51. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith, N. 2015a. Ingredient X: The shared African lexical element in the English-lexifier Atlantic creoles, and the theory of rapid creolization. In Surviving the Middle Passage: The West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund, P. Muysken & N. Smith (eds), 67–106. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015b. A preliminary list of probable Kikongo (KiKoongo) lexical items in the Surinam creoles. In Surviving the Middle Passage: The West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund, P. Muysken & N. Smith (eds), 417–462. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith, N., Robertson, I. & Williamson, K. 1987. The Ijo Element in Berbice Dutch. Language in Society 16(1): 49–89. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Söderberg, B. & Widman, R. 1966. Kikongo, Vol. 2. Stockholm: Svenska Bokförlaget Bonniers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Talmy, L. 1978. Figure and ground in complex sentences. In Universals of Human Language, Vol. 4: Syntax, J. Greenberg, C. Ferguson & E. Moravcsik (eds), 625–649. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tavares, J. 1915. Gramática da língua do Congo (kikongo), dialecte kisikongo. Luanda: Imprensa Nacional de Angola.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van de Velde, M. 2008. A Grammar of Eton. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Waag, C. 2007. Location and motion in Fur. In Encoding Motion: Case Studies from Africa, In Memory of Ursula Droic, A. Mietzner & Y. Treis (eds), 229–240. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Winford, D. & Migge, B. 2007. Substrate influence on the emergence of the TMA systems of the Surinamese creoles. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 22(1): 73–99. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wyse, A. 1989. The Krio of Sierra Leone: An interpretive History. London: Hurst.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yakpo, K. 2009a. A Grammar of Pichi. PhD dissertation, Radboud University Nijmegen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009b. Complexity revisited: Pichi (Equatorial Guinea) and Spanish in contact. In Simplicity and Complexity in Creoles and Pidgins, N. Faraclas & T. Klein (eds), 183–215. London: Battlebridge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Wayward daughter: Language contact in the emergence of Pichi (Equatorial Guinea). Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 34(2): 275–299. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. Code-switching and social change: Convergent language mixing in a multilingual society. In Codeswitching Between Structural and Sociolinguistic Perspectives, G. Stell & K. Yakpo (eds), 259–287. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yakpo, K., van den Berg, M. & Borges, R. 2015. On the linguistic consequences of language contact in Suriname: The case of convergence. In In and Out of Suriname: Language, Mobility and Identity, E. Carlin, I. Léglise, B. Migge & P. Tjon Sie Fat (eds), 164–195. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yakpo, K. & Bruyn, A. 2015. Transatlantic patterns: The relexification of locative constructions in Sranan. In Surviving the Middle Passage: The West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund, P. Muysken & N. Smith (eds), 135–75. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (9)

Cited by nine other publications

Mufwene, Salikoko S.
2025. Creoles, Pidgins, and World Englishes. In The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of World Englishes, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Aixelà-Cabré, Yolanda
2021. To Be an African City Under an Oil Dictatorship: Conflictual Intersections Seen from Ethnicity and Race in Malabo and Bioko Island (Equatorial Guinea). In Africa and the Diaspora, ► pp. 151 ff. DOI logo
Yakpo, Kofi
2019. Inheritance, contact, convergence. English World-Wide. A Journal of Varieties of English 40:2 ► pp. 202 ff. DOI logo
Yakpo, Kofi
2021. Creole Prosodic Systems Are Areal, Not Simple. Frontiers in Psychology 12 DOI logo
Yakpo, Kofi
2022. Social entrenchment influences the amount of areal borrowing in contact languages. International Journal of Bilingualism 26:2 ► pp. 140 ff. DOI logo
Yakpo, Kofi
2023. Unidirectional multilingual convergence: typological and social factors. International Journal of Multilingualism 20:3 ► pp. 768 ff. DOI logo
Yakpo, Kofi
2024. West African Pidgin: World Language Against the Grain. Africa Spectrum 59:2 ► pp. 180 ff. DOI logo
Yakpo, Kofi
2024. Lost siblings. In Predication in African Languages [Studies in Language Companion Series, 235], ► pp. 154 ff. DOI logo
Yakpo, Kofi
2024. The indigenization of Ghanaian Pidgin English. World Englishes 43:1 ► pp. 182 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue