Cover not available

In:Dutch and Contact Linguistics: The Dutch language outside the Low Countries
Edited by Christopher Joby and Nicoline van der Sijs
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 55] 2025
► pp. 459–478

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

Chapter 14
Grammatical discontinuity between Dutch and Skepi Dutch Creole

ORCiD logo with link
Published online: 4 July 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.55.14jac
Abstract
Skepi Dutch Creole thrived during the 18th and 19th centuries as a lingua franca along the Essequibo River of what is now the Republic of Guyana. Drawing on both old and new data, this chapter aims to describe selected features from the Skepi noun and verb phrase and compare these features to the lexifier, Dutch, in order to assess the degree of grammatical (dis)continuity between the lexifier and the creole within the broader context of the debate on creole genesis.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Skepi
    • 1.2The creole genesis debate: Broken transmission versus gradual creolization
    • 1.3Structure of the chapter
  • 2.Noun phrase
    • 2.1Gender marking
    • 2.2Plural marking
    • 2.3Pronominal case distinctions
    • 2.3Articles
  • 3.Verb phrase
    • 3.1Tense and aspect marking
      • 3.1.1Past (imperfective) tense (~ anterior)
      • 3.1.2Future tense / irrealis
      • 3.1.3Present tense / imperfective aspect
      • 3.1.4Perfective past / the unmarked verb
    • 3.2Other innovative aspects of the Skepi verbal system
  • 4.Comparison with New Netherlands Dutch
  • 5.Final remarks
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • References
References (56)
References
Aboh, Enoch O. (2016): Creole distinctiveness: A dead end. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 31.2: 400–418.
Ansaldo, Umberto & Stephen Matthews (2007): Deconstructing creole: The rationale. In: Umberto Ansaldo, Stephen Matthews & Lisa Lim (eds.): Deconstructing Creole. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1–18. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bakker, Peter & van der Voort, Hein (eds. & transl.) (2008): Grammar of the Creole language as used on the three Danish Islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John in America. Compiled and written by a native of St. Thomas. In: John Holm & Susanne Michaelis (eds.), Contact languages, critical concepts in language studies, 15–48. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bakker, Peter, Aymeric Daval-Markussen, Mikael Parkvall & Ingo Plag (2011): Creoles are typologically distinct from non-creoles. Journal of Pidgin and Creole languages 26.1: 5–42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Buccini, Anthony F. (1995): The Dialectical Origins of New Netherland Dutch. In: Thomas Shannon & Johan P. Snapper (eds.): Dutch Linguistics in a Changing Europe. The Berkeley Conference on Dutch Linguistics. Lanham: University Press of America, 211–263.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Buccini, Anthony F. (1996): New Netherland Dutch, Cape Dutch, Afrikaans. Taal en Tongval 9: 35–51.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chaudenson, Robert (1992): Des îles, des hommes, des langues: essai sur la créolisation linguistique et culturelle. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coelho, Adolpho (1880–1886): Os Dialectos Románicos ou Neo-Latinos na Africa, Asia, e América. In: Jorge Monais-Barbosa (ed.) (1967): Estudos lingüísticos crioulos. Lisbon: Academia Internacional de Cultura Portuguesa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Daval-Markussen, Aymeric (2018): Reconstructing Creole. PhD thesis, University of Aarhus.
DeGraff, Michel (2001): On the origin of creoles: A Cartesian critique of neo-Darwinian linguistics. Linguistic Typology 5: 213–310.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Vogelaer, Gunther (2006): Subjectsmarkering in de Nederlandse en Friese Dialecten. PhD thesis, University of Gent.
Devos, Magda & Reinhild Vandekerckhove (2005): West-Vlaams. Tielt: Lannoo Uitgeverij.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin (2013a): Indefinite articles. In: Michaelis, Susanne Maria & Maurer, Philippe & Haspelmath, Martin & Huber, Magnus (eds.) The atlas of pidgin and creole language structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013b): Definite articles. In: Michaelis, Susanne Maria & Maurer, Philippe & Haspelmath, Martin & Huber, Magnus (eds.) The atlas of pidgin and creole language structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hesseling, Dirk Christiaan (1905): Het Negerhollands der Deense Antillen. Bijdrage tot de Geschiednis der Nederlandse Taal in Amerika. Leiden: A. W. Sijthoff.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hinskens, Frans, and Cefas Van Rossem (1995): The Negerhollands word sender in eighteenth-century manuscripts. In: Arends, Jacques (ed.): The early stages of creolization, Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 63–88.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacobs, Bart (2023): Guyanais vs. Gardiol: Broken transmission vs. grammatical continuity. Lingua 296: 103625. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacobs, Bart & Mikael Parkvall (2020): Skepi Dutch Creole: The Youd Papers. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 35.2: 360–380. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2024): Skepi Creole Dutch: The Rodschied papers. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 39.2: 394–408. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kouwenberg, Silvia (1994): A grammar of Berbice Dutch creole. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Magens, Jochum Melchior (1770): Grammatica over det Creolske sprog, som bruges paa de trende Danske Eilande, St. Croix, St. Thomas og St. Jans i Amerika. Sammenskrevet og opsat af en paa St. Thomas indföd Mand. Copenhagen: Gerhard Giese Salikath.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maurer, Philippe (2013): Nominal plural marker and third-person-plural pronoun. In: Michaelis, Susanne Maria & Maurer, Philippe & Haspelmath, Martin & Huber, Magnus (eds.) The atlas of pidgin and creole language structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McWhorter, John (1998): Identifying the Creole Prototype. Vindicating a typological class. Language 74.4: 788–818. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko (2000): Creolization is a social, not a structural, process. Creole Language Library 22: 65–84. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Noordegraaf, Jan (2008): Nederlands in Noord-Amerika. Over de studie van het Leeg Duits (Low Dutch). Trefwoord, 1–29.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014): Koloniaal Nederlands in verandering. Afrikaans versus Amerikaans Leeg Duits. In: S. Predota & J. Karpinski (eds.), Neerlandica Wratislaviensia. Wroclaw: Wydawnictwo Uniwerstetu Wroclawskiego, 64–92. Online postprint version: [URL] (accessed: 03–04–2024)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parkvall, Mikael (2000): Out of Africa. London: Battlebridge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2008): The simplicity of creoles in a cross-linguistic perspective. In: Matti Miestamo, Kaius Sinnemäki, and Fred Karlsson (eds.): Language Complexity. Typology, Contact, Change. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 265–285. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parkvall, Mikael & Bart Jacobs (2023): Why Haitian is a creole, Michif an intertwiner, and Irish English neither: a reply to Mufwene. Folia Linguistica 57.1: 217–226. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Priestly, Tom (1983): On “drift” in Indo-European Gender Systems. Journal of Indo-European Studies 11.3/4: 339–363.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prince, J. Dyneley (1910): The Jersey Dutch dialect. Dialect Notes 3: 459–484.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1913): A text in Jersey Dutch. Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsche Taal- en Letterkunde 32: 306–312.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Robertson, Ian. (1976): Dutch creole languages in Guayana. Boletín de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe 23: 61–67.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1977): Berbice Dutch: A description. PhD thesis, University of the West Indies, Trinidad.
. (1983): The Dutch linguistic legacy and the Guyana/Venezuela border question. Boletín de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe 34: 75–97.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1989): Berbice and Skepi Dutch: A Lexical Comparison. Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde 105: 3–21.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rodschied, Ernst Karl (1792): Reisebeschreibung nach Rio Essequebo in Guiana, und Nachrichten von den daßigen Krankheiten und der Naturgeschichte dieses Landes. Medicinisches und physisches Journal 28: 57–89.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1794): Fortsetzung seiner Naturhistorischen und Medicinischen Beobachtungen, aus Rio-Essequebo. Neues Magazin für Aertzte 16.2: 97–136.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1796): Medizinische und chirurgische Bemerkungen über das Klima, die Lebensweise und Krankheiten der Einwohner der hollaendischen Kolonie Rio Essequebo. Frankfurt: In Der Jaegerschen Buchhandlung.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Rossem, Cefas (2017): The Virgin Islands Dutch Creole Textual Heritage. Philological Perspectives on Authenticity and Audience Design. PhD Thesis. Nijmegen: Radboud University.
Sabino, Robin (2012): Language contact in the Danish West Indies: giving Jack his jacket. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schuchardt, Hugo (1882): Uber das Negerportugiesische von S. Thomé. Sitzungsberichte der Wienische Akademie von Wissenschaften 101.2: 889–917.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stein, Peter (ed.) (1996): Christian Georg Andreas Oldendorp: Criolisches Wörterbuch: Erster zu vermehrender und wo nöthig zu verbessernder Versuch, sowie das anonyme J.C. Kingo zugeschriebene Vestindisk Glossarium. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stolz, Thomas (1986): Gibt es das kreolische Sprachwandelmodell? Vergleichende Grammatik des Negerhöllandischen. Frankfurt am Main/Bern/New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Bakel, J. (2001): Jullie-Een dialectgeografische oefening. Handelingen van de Koninklijke Commissie voor Toponymie en Dialectologie 73.1. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van der Sijs, Nicoline (2009): Cookies, coleslaw, and stoops: The influence of Dutch on the North American languages. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(ed.) (2010): Etymologiebank, [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2021): Taalwetten maken en vinden: het ontstaan van het Standaardnederlands. Gorredijk: Sterck & De Vreese.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van der Wal, Marijke J. (2013): Contact met creooltaal: 18de-eeuws Skepi voor het thuisfront, brief van de maand December 2013. Downloaded from: [URL] (accessed: 26–02–2022)
Van Name, Addison (1869): Contributions to Creole Grammar. Transactions of the American Philological Association 1: 123–167.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Rossem, Cefas & van der Voort, Hein (eds.) (1996): Die Creol Taal: 250 years of Negerhollands texts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Sluijs, Robbert (2013a): Negerhollands. In: Michaelis, Susanne Maria & Maurer, Philippe & Haspelmath, Martin & Huber, Magnus (eds.), The survey of pidgin and creole languages. Volume 1: English-based and Dutch-based Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013b): Afrikaans. In: Michaelis, Susanne Maria & Maurer, Philippe & Haspelmath, Martin & Huber, Magnus (eds.), The survey of pidgin and creole languages. Volume 1: English-based and Dutch-based Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weerman, F. P., & Evers-Vermeul, J. (2002): Pronouns and Case. Lingua 112: 301–338. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Youd, Thomas (1833–1842): West Indies Mission: Original Papers: Letters and Papers of individual missionaries, catechists and others: Thomas B. Youd, 1833–1842. Church Missionary Society Archive: West Indian Mission Records (1819–1861), CWO 100.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue