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In:Creole Studies – Phylogenetic Approaches
Edited by Peter Bakker, Finn Borchsenius, Carsten Levisen and Eeva M. Sippola
[Not in series 211] 2017
► pp. 219–240

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Chapter 10
Dutch creoles compared with their lexifier

 | Aarhus University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

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Published online: 31 May 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/z.211.10bak
Abstract
In this chapter, we compare lexical and grammatical data from three Dutch-based creoles: Virgin Islands Creole Dutch, Berbice Creole and Skepi Dutch of Guyana. We consider the lexicons, as well as phonological and typological patterns, and both synchronic and diachronic comparisons are made. Typologically, Berbice Creole appears closer to Dutch than the other two creoles, but lexically it is the farthest from Dutch. For some of the analyses, phylogenetic software was used to visualize connections and distances between each of the creoles and the lexifier Dutch. The conclusion is that the three creoles came into being independently. From a diachronic perspective, the documented forms of Virgin Islands Creole Dutch show mostly a gradual move away from Dutch and toward a more creole-like profile in the 20th century.
Article outline
  • 10.1Introduction
  • 10.218th-Century Virgin Islands Creole Dutch and 20th-Century Virgin Islands Creole Dutch
  • 10.3Berbice Creole
  • 10.4Skepi Dutch Creole
  • 10.5The Dutch creoles: Lexical comparison
    • 10.5.1Origin of the roots
    • 10.5.2Comparison of the Dutch roots
    • 10.5.3Phonotactics of Dutch and Ijo words in Dutch creoles
  • 10.6Typological comparison
    • 10.6.1Three varieties of Virgin Islands Creole Dutch and Berbice Creole
    • 10.6.2Skepi, Berbice, and 20th-Century Virgin Islands Creole Dutch: Grammatical traits
  • 10.7Conclusions
  • Note
  • ?ack?
  • References
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