Logo
Showing all 83 publications.
cover

Inheritance versus borrowing in closely-related languages: The case of Khatri, a mixed language of India

2024

Journal Article

Inheritance versus borrowing in closely-related languages: The case of Khatri, a mixed language of India
2024
Alvares, Antonia; Yakpo, Kofi

Abstract
The Indo-Aryan language Khatri is a mixed language spoken by the Savji community in Belagavi, India. Khatri exhibits evidence of a Gujarati core and simultaneously shows extensive lexical and morphological borrowing from Hindi and Marathi. The analysis of Khatri imperatives and comparison with those of Gujarati, Hindi, and Marathi highlights the distinction between inheritance and borrowing in languages closely-related languages. Khatri shares with Gujarati the bound verbal morphology for honorific imperatives. Some of its verb stems are, however, shared with Marathi, or Hindi, but not Gujarati. This gives rise to imperative forms that combine borrowed verb stems with inherited/native bound morphology. In negative imperatives, Khatri shares one of two analytic negation markers with Marathi, but none with Gujarati, nor with Hindi. This analysis of imperatives of Khatri shows that it is possible to trace the sources of both the lexicon and the morphology, even in genetically related languages.
cover

The indigenization of Ghanaian Pidgin English

2024

Journal Article

The indigenization of Ghanaian Pidgin English
2024

DOI: 10.1111/weng.12635

Abstract
In the world Englishes literature, ‘indigenization’ is shorthand for the localization of Outer Circle Englishes in former exploitation colonies like Ghana. However, the localization of Ghanaian English has been continually reversed by ‘corrective’ realignment with world standard English through institutional regimes. By contrast, the localization of Ghanaian Pidgin English has proceeded unhampered by standardization. This article provides a first analysis of the copula system of Ghanaian Pidgin English, showing that it owes much to patterns found in Akan and other languages of southern Ghana. In this domain, Ghanaian Pidgin English has indigenized and differentiated itself from its sister languages. I propose a consistent and expansive definition of indigenization as ‘the areal alignment of a latecomer with a linguistic ecology, causing its divergence from related varieties elsewhere.’ This study of indigenization shifts the focus from standardized Englishes to contact Englishes. The latter remain unfettered by institutional intervention and are therefore better suited to illustrating the natural dynamics of indigenization than standardized Englishes.
cover

West African Pidgin: World language against the grain

2024

Journal Article

West African Pidgin: World language against the grain
2024

DOI: 10.1177/00020397241263364

Abstract
West African Pidgin (“Pidgin”) is a cluster of related, mutually intelligible, restructured Englishes with up to 140 million speakers in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, and The Gambia. Spoken by just few thousand people two centuries ago, “modernisation” and “shallow social entrenchment” have driven the transformation of Pidgin into a “super-central” world language. Demographic growth, migration, the expansion of West African cultural industries and economies, and people-to-people contacts are likely to expand Pidgin further. Already the largest language of West Africa, Pidgin may be spoken by 400 million people by 2100. The rise of Pidgin goes against the grain. World languages like English, French, Chinese, or Arabic mostly spread through colonisation, elite engineering, and state intervention. The trajectory of Pidgin, therefore, holds great potential for exploring the dynamics of large-scale natural language evolution in the twenty-first century.
cover

Reciprocal constructions: Multilingual contact favours borrowing of transparent structures

2023

Journal Article

Reciprocal constructions: Multilingual contact favours borrowing of transparent structures
2023

DOI: 10.1075/jpcl.00118.yak

Abstract
This study analyzes the borrowing of Dutch reciprocal pronouns in a corpus of primary field data of Sranan, Sarnámi, and Surinamese Javanese, three languages of Suriname. The expression of reciprocity in relevant African and Asian substrates of the languages under study is also presented and discussed. I suggest cognitive and sociolinguistic explanations for the preference of Dutch-sourced reciprocal pronouns during multilingual contact. The three languages show convergent borrowing processes favoring the dedicated Dutch reciprocal pronoun over ‘scattered’ native strategies. Further, Suriname is a hierarchical post-colonial language ecology in which borrowing proceeds mostly in one direction, either directly from Dutch, or from Dutch via Sranan. The parallel multilingual trajectory of contact-induced change in the expression of a complex notion like reciprocity showcases the attractiveness for borrowing of forms and structures with transparent relations between form and content.
cover

The indigenization of Ghanaian Pidgin English

2023

Journal Article

The indigenization of Ghanaian Pidgin English
2023

DOI: 10.1111/weng.12635

Abstract
In the world Englishes literature, ‘indigenization’ is shorthand for the localization of Outer Circle Englishes in former exploitation colonies like Ghana. However, the localization of Ghanaian English has been continually reversed by ‘corrective’ realignment with world standard English through institutional regimes. By contrast, the localization of Ghanaian Pidgin English has proceeded unhampered by standardization. This article provides a first analysis of the copula system of Ghanaian Pidgin English, showing that it owes much to patterns found in Akan and other languages of southern Ghana. In this domain, Ghanaian Pidgin English has indigenized and differentiated itself from its sister languages. I propose a consistent and expansive definition of indigenization as ‘the areal alignment of a latecomer with a linguistic ecology, causing its divergence from related varieties elsewhere.’ This study of indigenization shifts the focus from standardized Englishes to contact Englishes. The latter remain unfettered by institutional intervention and are therefore better suited to illustrating the natural dynamics of indigenization than standardized Englishes.
cover

Social entrenchment influences the amount of areal borrowing in contact languages

2022

Journal Article

Social entrenchment influences the amount of areal borrowing in contact languages
2022

DOI: 10.1177/13670069211019126

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Aims and Objectives: Social factors in language contact are not yet well understood. This study seeks to establish and explain the role of “social entrenchment” in the evolution of contact languages. It also aims to contribute to a broader perspective on areality that can account for social and linguistic factors in contact outcomes involving all languages present in multilingual ecologies. Methodology: The copula system was singled out for a detailed analysis. An existing corpus of primary data collected by the author of the three African English-lexifier contact languages Pichi, Cameroon Pidgin, Ghanaian Pidgin, their ancestor Krio, and of their African adstrates (Bube, Mokpe, Akan) and European superstrates (Spanish, English) was investigated and compared. Data and Analysis: Relevant features were selected for a dissimilarity matrix. A quantitative analysis was done with SplitsTree4. The resulting distance matrix and phylogenetic network were investigated for signals of genealogical transmission and areal diffusion and interpreted on their social background. Findings/Conclusions: The copula systems of the three contact languages carry a genealogical signal of their ancestor Krio as well as an areal signal from the adstrates and superstrates spoken in their respective ecologies. The amount of areal borrowing increases in the order Pichi < Cameroon Pidgin < Ghanaian Pidgin, reflective of the depth of social entrenchment of each variety from left to right. Originality: Previous studies do not compare the copula systems of English-lexifier contact languages at a similar level of granularity and usually focus on their emergence during creolization. This study attempts to explain their subsequent areal differentiation and links it to differences in social ecologies. Significance/Implications: Areal borrowing can lead to significant departures from genealogically inherited structures within a short time if social entrenchment is shallow. Conversely, even languages of wider communication can remain remarkably stable if social entrenchment is deep.
cover

Social entrenchment influences the amount of areal borrowing in contact languages

2021

Journal Article

Social entrenchment influences the amount of areal borrowing in contact languages
2021

DOI: 10.1177/13670069211019126

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Aims and Objectives: Social factors in language contact are not yet well understood. This study seeks to establish and explain the role of “social entrenchment” in the evolution of contact languages. It also aims to contribute to a broader perspective on areality that can account for social and linguistic factors in contact outcomes involving all languages present in multilingual ecologies. Methodology: The copula system was singled out for a detailed analysis. An existing corpus of primary data collected by the author of the three African English-lexifier contact languages Pichi, Cameroon Pidgin, Ghanaian Pidgin, their ancestor Krio, and of their African adstrates (Bube, Mokpe, Akan) and European superstrates (Spanish, English) was investigated and compared. Data and Analysis: Relevant features were selected for a dissimilarity matrix. A quantitative analysis was done with SplitsTree4. The resulting distance matrix and phylogenetic network were investigated for signals of genealogical transmission and areal diffusion and interpreted on their social background. Findings/Conclusions: The copula systems of the three contact languages carry a genealogical signal of their ancestor Krio as well as an areal signal from the adstrates and superstrates spoken in their respective ecologies. The amount of areal borrowing increases in the order Pichi < Cameroon Pidgin < Ghanaian Pidgin, reflective of the depth of social entrenchment of each variety from left to right. Originality: Previous studies do not compare the copula systems of English-lexifier contact languages at a similar level of granularity and usually focus on their emergence during creolization. This study attempts to explain their subsequent areal differentiation and links it to differences in social ecologies. Significance/Implications: Areal borrowing can lead to significant departures from genealogically inherited structures within a short time if social entrenchment is shallow. Conversely, even languages of wider communication can remain remarkably stable if social entrenchment is deep.
cover

Two types of language contact involving English Creoles: Why Krio (Sierra Leone) has evolved more towards English than its relative Pichi (Equatorial Guinea) towards Spanish

2021

Journal Article

Two types of language contact involving English Creoles: Why Krio (Sierra Leone) has evolved more towards English than its relative Pichi (Equatorial Guinea) towards Spanish
2021

DOI: 10.1017/S0266078421000146

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
The two African English-lexifier Creole languages Krio (Sierra Leone) and Pichi (Equatorial Guinea) are closely related. A close look at specific aspects of their grammar, however, shows divergence due to differing contact ecologies since their split in the 19th century. Krio has been spoken alongside its lexifier (the main lexicon-providing language) and superstrate (the socially dominant colonial language) English since its beginnings and Pichi alongside its superstrate Spanish for almost two centuries, but not alongside English. Resulting differences in contact outcomes transpire in the expression of tense, aspect, and mood, and the use of prepositions for the marking of participants. In these two areas, Krio has converged more with English than Pichi with Spanish because existing overlaps between Creole and lexifier forms have facilitated transfer from English. Creoles therefore feature different contact outcomes depending on whether they continue to be in contact with a superstrate that is simultaneously the lexifier (in this case English), or not (in this case Spanish). Since both processes of change are cross-linguistically attested, there is no need to appeal to a concept like “decreolization”.
cover

Creole prosodic systems are areal, not simple

2021

Journal Article

Creole prosodic systems are areal, not simple
2021

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.690593

Abstract
This study refutes the common idea that tone gets simplified or eliminated in creoles and contact languages. Speakers of African tone languages imposed tone systems on all Afro-European creoles spoken in the tone-dominant linguistic ecologies of Africa and the colonial Americas. African speakers of tone languages also imposed tone systems on the colonial varieties of English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese spoken in tonal Africa. A crucial mechanism involved in the emergence of the tone systems of creoles and colonial varieties is stress-to-tone mapping. A typological comparison with African non-creole languages shows that creole tone systems are no simpler than African non- creole tone systems. Demographic, linguistic, and social changes in an ecology can lead to switches from tone to stress systems and vice versa. As a result, there is an areal continuum of tone systems roughly coterminous with the presence of tone in the east (Africa) and stress in the west (Americas). Transitional systems combining features of tone and stress converge on the areal buffer zone of the Caribbean. The prosodic systems of creoles and European colonial varieties undergo regular processes of contact, typological change and areal convergence. None of these are specific to creoles. So far, creoles and colonial varieties have not featured in work on the world- wide areal clustering of prosodic systems. This study therefore aims to contribute to a broader perspective on prosodic contact beyond the narrow confines of the creole simplicity debate.
cover

Unidirectional multilingual convergence: Typological and social factors

2021

Journal Article

Unidirectional multilingual convergence: Typological and social factors
2021

DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2021.1978453

Abstract
Suriname represents an interesting case of unidirectional multilingual convergence in a linguistic area. The multilingual ecology of Suriname is hierarchical. The Germanic language Dutch exerts structural and lexical influence ‘downwards’, but other languages do not do so ‘upwards’ to the same degree. This study analyses the development of word order in the Indo-Aryan language Sarnami and the Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creole Sranan, the two largest languages of Suriname besides Dutch. The results show that Sarnami and Sranan have undergone a typological realignment in word order. Sranan has completed a shift from postpositional locative nouns to prepositions through language contact and structural borrowing from Dutch. Sarnami is acquiring SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) as a basic word order next to SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) through structural borrowing from Dutch and Sranan. Conversely, standardisation pressures prevent innovative linguistic practices and structural borrowing from the other languages of Suriname from consolidating themselves in Surinamese Dutch in a similar way. The change that spoken Dutch has undergone in Suriname through influence from Sranan and Sarnami is therefore more modest than the changes Sranan and Sarnami have incurred through Surinamese Dutch influence. This study compares changes in these three languages for the first time and highlights the role of both social and typological factors in driving or impeding areal convergence in multilingual ecologies.
cover

The Atlantic

2020

Book Section

The Atlantic
2020
Yakpo, Kofi; Smith, Norval

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Detailed studies of individual features suggest that two large linguistic areas that we term ‘Afrosphere’ and ‘Eurosphere’ converge on the Afro-European creole languages of the Atlantic. Contact with African adstrates has reinforced and expanded existing Afrosphere features in the Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creoles (AECs) spoken in Africa. In turn, the absence of contact with African adstrates has led to a weakening of Afrosphere, and a strengthening of Eurosphere features in the American AECs. The study of the creole languages of the Atlantic basin offers countless possibilities for cross-fertilization with historical, genetic and areal-typological linguistics. Future work will have to factor in the tectonic demographic shifts and far-reaching socio-economic changes underway in Africa, and their consequences for patterns of language use and contact along the Atlantic rim. In coming decades, the importance of the Atlantic will only grow as a crossroads of language contact, and a site for the emergence of new languages, speech styles, and plurilingual practices.
cover

Sociolinguistic characteristics of the English-lexifier contact languages of West Africa

2020

Book Section

Sociolinguistic characteristics of the English-lexifier contact languages of West Africa
2020

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
This chapter provides a comparison of key sociolinguistic characteristics of Nigerian Pidgin, Cameroon Pidgin, Ghanaian Pidgin English, Pichi (Equatorial Guinea) and Krio (Sierra Leone). In the past few decades, these African English-lexifier contact languages (AECs) have seen an exponential growth in speaker numbers and an expansion into domains once reserved for English and (non-creole) African languages. All AECs nevertheless still struggle with a low sociolinguistic prestige and the absence of corpus and status planning initiatives by state actors. Overall, the potential of these languages remains relatively untapped across the region for education, political participation, economic and cultural activity. The impact of the AECs on smaller languages through contact and shift to the AECs is also likely to make itself felt in coming decades.
cover

Adjectives in Likpakpaln (Konkomba): Structural and areal-typological aspects

2020

Journal Article

Adjectives in Likpakpaln (Konkomba): Structural and areal-typological aspects
2020
Bisilki, Abraham Kwesi; Yakpo, Kofi

DOI: 10.1080/10228195.2020.1746386

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Likpakpaln is a little-described Mabia (Gur) language of northern Ghana. Drawing on primary data, this first study of adjectives in Likpakpaln concludes that the language has a small, closed adjective class of about 20 members that shares grammatical properties with nouns and verbs to varying degrees. Contrary to what is the case in other Mabia languages, Likpakpaln adjectives lack inherent class markers. We identify three types of adjectives, distinguishable from nouns and verbs on morpho-syntactic and semantic grounds. Type 1 items lean towards nouns and never function as predicates of verbal clauses. Type 2 consists of one item, possibly a loan, and appears in a predicate adjective construction typical of languages with large adjective classes. Type 3 adjectives lean towards verbs and may form the predicate of verbal clauses. An understanding of Likpakpaln adjectives can contribute to refining our current knowledge of the genetic and typological position of Likpakpaln in the Mabia family.
cover

Social factors

2020

Book Section

Social factors
2020

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Demography and socio-economic stratification are two crucial factors that determine language contact outcomes in social formations ranging from small-scale societies to nation states. Creoles, koines, lingua francas, and urban sociolects are sites of particularly intense contact and change, especially in the Global South. Next to core linguistics, the study of social factors in language contact draws on methods of historical research, political economic analysis, and linguistic data sciences. Dramatic socio-economic and demographic transformations in the next decades will significantly alter our yet limited understanding of how social factors shape the processes and outcomes of language contact and change.
cover

Romancing with tone: On the outcomes of prosodic contact. Supplementary material: Sound files accompanying spectograms

2020

Journal Article

Romancing with tone: On the outcomes of prosodic contact. Supplementary material: Sound files accompanying spectograms
2020
Bordal Steien, Guri; Yakpo, Kofi

DOI: 10.1353/lan.2020.0011

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
The following audio files accompany the spectrogram and pitch contours given in Figures 2 and 3, repeated from the main article.
cover

Romancing with tone: On the outcomes of prosodic contact

2020

Journal Article

Romancing with tone: On the outcomes of prosodic contact
2020
Bordal Steien, Guri; Yakpo, Kofi

DOI: 10.1353/lan.2020.0000

Get PDF: external site

Abstract
This article presents a descriptive and theoretical framework for the analysis of prosodic systems that have emerged from contact between African tone and European intonation-only languages. A comparative study of the prosodic systems of two Romance contact varieties, Central African French and Equatorial Guinean Spanish, shows that they feature two-tone systems, fixed word tone patterns, tonal minimal pairs, the arbitrary assignment of tone in function words, and tonal processes. Evidence from further contact varieties and creole languages shows that similar systems evolved in other Afro-European contact ecologies. We conclude that tone is imposed by default on contact varieties and creoles that take shape in ecologies characterized by source language agentivity in tone languages. In doing so, we argue against claims that tone necessarily cedes to stress during language contact and creolization. Instead, contact varieties and creoles partake just like other languages in the convergence processes that lead to the areal clustering of prosodic systems.
cover

Inheritance, contact, convergence: Pronominal allomorphy in the African English-lexifier Creoles

2019

Journal Article

Inheritance, contact, convergence: Pronominal allomorphy in the African English-lexifier Creoles
2019

DOI: 10.1075/eww.00028.yak

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
This article provides a comparative analysis of the suppletive allomorphy of two personal pronouns in the five African English-lexifier Creoles (AECs) Krio (Sierra Leone), Pichi (Equatorial Guinea), Ghanaian Pidgin English, Nigerian Pidgin, and Cameroon Pidgin. The alternation of the 3SG object forms /=àm/ (a clitic) and /ín/ (a non-clitic) is conditioned by a tonal obligatory contour principle (OCP), a vowel height OCP, animacy, and focus in different constellations across the five AECs. In addition, an epenthetic /r/ is recruited in four of the AECs to ensure that the OCP is not breached. The analyses suggest that pronominal suppletion in the AECs has been fashioned by processes of change and differentiation typical of geographically extensive language families, such as migration from linguistic homelands, acquisition and (partial) shift by neighbouring populations, interlectal cross-diffusion, as well as contact and convergence with adstrate, substrate, and superstrate languages.
cover

A grammar of Pichi

2019

Book

A grammar of Pichi
2019

Get PDF: external site

Abstract
Pichi is an Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creole spoken by some 150,000 people on the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea. This first comprehensive description of Pichi is based on primary data and presents a detailed analysis of the grammar and phonology of the language. It also includes sections on pragmatics and language contact with Spanish, a collection of texts, and wordlists. Pichi is an offshoot of 19th century Krio (Sierra Leone) and shares many characteristics with its West African sister languages Aku (Gambia), Nigerian Pidgin, Cameroon Pidgin, and Ghanaian Pidgin. However, isolation from English and extensive contact with Spanish, language shift from Bube (Bantu), as well as koineization with Nigerian and Cameroon Pidgin have given the language a distinct character. There are also many structural and lexical parallels with the English-lexifier Creoles of the Caribbean including Jamaican, Creolese (Guyana), Sranan, and Ndyuka (Suriname). Pichi features a nominative-accusative alignment, SV(O) word order, adjective-noun order, prenominal determiners, and prepositions. The language has a seven-vowel system and twenty-two consonant phonemes, including two labio-velar plosives. Pichi has a two-tone system with tonal minimal pairs, morphological tone for the marking of pronominal case distinctions, and numerous tonal processes. The morphological structure of Pichi is largely isolating. However, there is some affixation, as well as tonal inflection and derivation. Pichi is an aspect-prominent language and the modal system includes an indicative-subjunctive opposition. The copula system employs various suppletive forms and is differentiated along the semantic criterion of time-stability. Like other Afro-European Creoles, Pichi shows typological blending. Most of the characteristics summarised above align Pichi with the Atlantic-Congo languages spoken in the West African littoral zone. At the same time, characteristics like the prenominal position of adjectives and determiners show a typological overlap with its lexifier English.
cover

Review of Cameroon Pidgin English: A comprehensive grammar, by Miriam Ayafor and Melanie J. Green

2019

Journal Article

Review of Cameroon Pidgin English: A comprehensive grammar, by Miriam Ayafor and Melanie J. Green
2019

DOI: 10.1353/lan.2019.0056

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Cameroon Pidgin English, by Miriam Ayafor and Melanie Green, is the latest and, as the subtitle ‘A comprehensive grammar’ suggests, most extensive work yet on the African English-lexifier creole language Cameroon Pidgin English (CPE). With two hundred and sixty-two pages of grammar and another sixteen pages of excellent texts, this book is indeed the most comprehensive treatment of the language. The core grammar sections of this book contain a wealth of information that creolists, contact linguists, and linguists working on African languages and English will be able to make ample use of. This book and the corpus on which it is based therefore constitute an important advance for the description and documentation of African (contact) languages.
cover

On Pichi (Equatorial Guinea): Sociolinguistic, typological and contact-related aspects

2019

Book Section

On Pichi (Equatorial Guinea): Sociolinguistic, typological and contact-related aspects
2019

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Pichi is an Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creole spoken on the island of Bioko (Equatorial Guinea). This paper focuses on typologically noteworthy aspects that invite comparison of Pichi with related English-lexifier contact languages of West Africa. It provides a sociohistorical overview, a typological summary, a presentation of the tone system of Pichi, and a comparison of the tense-mood-aspect systems of Pichi, Naijá, Cameroon Pidgin, and Ghanaian Pidgin English. The outcomes of language contact with Spanish on the one hand, and with Naijá and Cameroon Pidgin on the other are also covered.
cover

Neural correlates and functional connectivity of lexical tone processing in reading

2019

Journal Article

Neural correlates and functional connectivity of lexical tone processing in reading
2019
Kwok, Veronica P.Y.; Matthews, Stephen; Yakpo, Kofi; Tan, Li Hai

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2019.104662

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Lexical tone processing in speech is mediated by bilateral superior temporal and inferior prefrontal regions, but little is known concerning the neural circuitries of lexical tone phonology in reading. Using fMRI, we examined the neural systems for lexical tone in visual Chinese word recognition. We found that the extraction of lexical tone phonology in print was subserved by bilateral fronto-parietal regions. Seed-to-voxel analyses showed that functionally connected cortical regions involved right inferior frontal gyrus and SMA, right middle frontal gyrus and right inferior parietal lobule, and SMA and bilateral cingulate gyri. Our results indicate that in Chinese tone reading, a bilateral network of frontal, parietal, motor, and cingulate regions is engaged, without involvement of temporal regions crucial for tone identification in auditory domain. Although neural couplings for lexical tone processing are different in speech and reading to some degree, the motor cortex seems to be a key component independent of modality.
cover

Negation in Pichi (Equatorial Guinea): The case for areal convergence

2018

Book Section

Negation in Pichi (Equatorial Guinea): The case for areal convergence
2018

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
This chapter provides a detailed overview of negation in Pichi, the English-lexifier Creole spoken by the people of the island of Bioko (Equatorial Guinea). Pichi negation patterns align closely with areal negation patterns found across a broad swath of West Africa. Like the vast majority of genealogically diverse languages of the region, Pichi employs asymmetric negation strategies. These involve the use of subjunctive mood for the negation of imperatives, the use of suppletive portmanteau forms that combine negative polarity and aspect, and the use of an identity-equation copula that incorporates negative polarity, temporal-aspectual values, person deixis and pragmatic functions, and whose distribution is determined by complex syntactic rules. Negative concord is pragmatically determined, hence non-strict with common nouns, where it renders emphatic meanings. Negative concord is grammatically determined and strict with negative indefinite pronouns and with negative phrases fulfilling the functions of negative indefinite pronouns. I conclude that Pichi negation patterns are typically areal in character and cannot be seen to reflect a “Creole” linguistic type.
cover

¿El nacimiento de una lengua afrohispana?: La influencia del español en el idioma criollo inglés de Guinea Ecuatorial

2018

Book Section

¿El nacimiento de una lengua afrohispana?: La influencia del español en el idioma criollo inglés de Guinea Ecuatorial
2018

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
En la isla de Bioko (Guinea Ecuatorial) la mayoría de la población habla pichi, un idioma criollo de base lexical inglesa, como lengua materna y vehicular. En este capítulo se analiza la huella del español presente en los patrones léxicos, gramaticales y discursivos de los hablantes de pichi en el momento actual mediante el estudio de los patrones de cambio de código pichi-español, así como de los préstamos léxicos y estructurales procedentes del español. La influencia de este idioma en el pichi es notable, algo que ha contribuido al desarrollo de características distintivas que separan al pichi de lenguas emparentadas de África Occidental, como el krio o el pidgin nigeriano. El pichi ha sido receptivo a la hibridación con el español debido a una mezcla de factores lingüísticos y extralingüísticos propios de la ecología lingüística de Bioko. Sin embargo, este proceso no es completo, ya que existen grandes áreas de la gramática pichi que no se han visto transformadas por el contacto con el español. No obstante, el pichi, con su carácter parcialmente mestizo, supone un testimonio único de la herencia afrohispana de Guinea Ecuatorial.
cover

Review of Boundaries and Bridges: Language Contact in Multilingual Ecologies, by Kofi Yakpo and Pieter C. Muysken (eds.)

2018

Journal Article

Review of Boundaries and Bridges: Language Contact in Multilingual Ecologies, by Kofi Yakpo and Pieter C. Muysken (eds.)
2018
Gonzales, Wilkinson Daniel Wong

DOI: 10.1017/S0047404518000404

Get PDF: external site

Abstract
Boundaries and bridges offers a holistic view of language contact and language change phenomena in the multilingual ecologies of the Guianas, particularly the Suriname ‘Sprachbund’ (401). As stated by the editors, the main goal of the volume is to provide a realistic picture of multiple language contact in communities that involve typologically diverse varieties as well as constantly shifting ‘sociolinguistic configurations’ (5). The volume achieves this goal through unique case studies across the diverse multilingual communities of the Guianas by showcasing their historical and sociolinguistic backgrounds. The volume ends with two chapters that touch on the distinctive structural features of the Guianese varieties and on a framework for studying synchronic language contact. Finally, the volume con- cludes with the editors’ mindful reminders of the book’s ultimate goal. Drawing on both established and contemporary linguistic theories, the editors re-evaluate the sociolinguistic situation in the Guianas. All in all, Boundaries and bridges presents a valuable contribution to the study of multilingual language contact. Not only is this volume suitable as a complemen- tary course reader for language contact classes, it is useful as a handbook for grad- uate students and scholars who are interested in language change phenomena across the field of linguistics. In its breadth, this book showcases the multifaceted nature of the Guianas’ language ecology, going beyond bilingual and unidirectional contact, which has thus far been one of the major focuses of language contact research. Con- sequently, it provides data-driven, cutting-edge accounts of language contact and linguistic change phenomena—analyses that are much needed in the current reper- toire of scholarly works on the Atlantic creoles, as research in past decades has focused largely on pidgin and creole genesis.
cover

Interview mit Dr. Kofi Yakpo, Associate Professor an der University of Hong Kong, alias "Linguist".

2018

Journal Article

Interview mit Dr. Kofi Yakpo, Associate Professor an der University of Hong Kong, alias "Linguist".
2018

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5811727

Get PDF: external site

Abstract
Kofi Yakpo ist Insidern auch bekannt als „Linguist“ der HipHop-Formation „Advanced Chemistry“. In dieser Ausgabe von „Sprachreport“, dem Magazin des Instituts für deutsche Sprache beantwortet er Fragen zur sprachlichen Diskurswelt des HipHop. Kofi Yakpo alias „Linguist“ gründete 1987 mit Torch und Toni-L die HipHop Band „Advanced Chemistry“. Die Single „Fremd im eigenen Land“ und die B-Seite „Ich zerstöre meinen Feind“ gelten heute als Meilensteine der deutschen Musikgeschichte. Kofi Yakpo studierte in Köln und Port Vila (Vanuatu) Linguistik, Ethnologie und Politik, sowie Management und Jura in Genf und London. Er promovierte an der Universität Nijmegen (Niederlande) und forscht und lehrt heute als Professor für Linguistik an der Universität Hongkong.
cover

Unity in diversity: The homogeneity of the substrate and the grammar of space in the African and Caribbean English-lexifier Creoles

2017

Book Section

Unity in diversity: The homogeneity of the substrate and the grammar of space in the African and Caribbean English-lexifier Creoles
2017

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Locative constructions in Sranan and Pichi, two Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creoles spoken in Suriname and in Equatorial Guinea respectively, owe substantial parts of their structure to corresponding African substrate and adstrate structures. I attribute the emergence and maintenance of these structures in the creoles to the areal-typological homogeneity of locative constructions across 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 both static and motion events, as well as the use of pre- or postpositional relator nouns. The two creoles reflect a large range of the structural possibilities found in African substrate and adstrate languages while maintaining a basically “African” template. At the same time, locative constructions Sranan and Pichi both manifest the effects of contact with their lexifier English, and their respective European superstrates languages Dutch and Spanish.
cover

Towards a model of language contact and change in the English-lexifier creoles of Africa and the Caribbean

2017

Journal Article

Towards a model of language contact and change in the English-lexifier creoles of Africa and the Caribbean
2017

DOI: 10.1075/eww.38.1.04yak

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
The Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creoles (AECs) exhibit fascinating combinations of disparate typological characteristics. I present a model of post-formative (“post-creolization”) contact and change and provide a comprehensive inventory of contact constellations in Africa and the Caribbean. I conduct a comparative analysis of causative constructions in seven African and Caribbean AECs, argue for the notional separation of the traditional creolist terms “superstrate”, “lexifier”, “substrate” and “adstrate”, and account for the linguistic-structural relevance of these distinctions. The model can explain the typological diversity within and across the AECs, help elucidate the genealogical and areal differentiation of the AECs, and contribute to our understanding of the processes and outcomes of language contact and change in multilingual ecologies.
cover

Out of India: Language contact and change in Caribbean Hindustani

2017

Book Section

Out of India: Language contact and change in Caribbean Hindustani
2017

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Sarnami, spoken in Suriname, is the only variety of Caribbean Hindustani that still has a sizeable speaker community. Sarnami is the result of the koineization of several northern Indian languages during Dutch colonial rule. A comparison of Sarnami with its closest Indian relatives suggests that contact with Sranan and Dutch has led to syntactic change, with an inherited head-final order giving way to head-initial order. SVO is far more frequent in Sarnami than in the Indian control group. In relative constructions and with certain types of modal and aspectual auxiliary constructions, the transition has been made to NRel (post- posed relative clauses) and AuxV (auxiliary-verb order). However, diachronically more stable constituent orders like noun vs. adjective, noun vs. adposition and noun vs. genitive have not been affected by change. Constituent order change in Sarnami is an example of the kind of convergence that characterizes Suriname as a linguistic area, where the two dominant languages Sranan and Dutch simul- taneously exert pressure toward typological change.
cover

Multilingual ecologies in the Guianas: Overview, typology, prospects

2017

Book Section

Multilingual ecologies in the Guianas: Overview, typology, prospects
2017
Yakpo, Kofi; Muysken, Pieter

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
This book sketches the multilingual ecologies of the different language groups that have interacted in Suriname and across the Guianas. These groups have maintained a part of the boundaries demarcating their separate identities, and at the same time they show a tendency to cross bridges, metaphorically speaking, in their multilingual practices. Our initial question was which contact-induced changes occurred in the languages of Suriname and how these changes can be explained.
cover

Creole in transition: Contact with Dutch and typological change in Sranan

2017

Book Section

Creole in transition: Contact with Dutch and typological change in Sranan
2017

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Most Surinamese today acquire a heterogeneous variety of Sranan characterized by extensive admixture with Dutch. The analysis of a corpus of contemporary Sranan reveals variation in the expression of spatial relations and the realization of arguments in ditransitive constructions. Both domains feature syntactic rearrangements and semantic changes that replicate Dutch structures. Pattern replication has led to alterations in the frequency and distribution of Sranan elements and structures, as well as innovations with Sranan and Dutch borrowed elements fulfilling new, previously unattested functions. Sranan is undergoing a substantial typological shift from more substrate-oriented, Kwa-like structures to ones similar to those found in the West Germanic superstrate Dutch. Society-wide multilingualism involving Dutch, Sranan and often additional languages provides the socio-linguistic backdrop to contact-induced variation and change in Sranan.
cover

Language contact and change in the multilingual ecologies of the Guianas

2017

Book Section

Language contact and change in the multilingual ecologies of the Guianas
2017
Yakpo, Kofi; Muysken, Pieter

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
This book deals with multilingualism, language contact, language change and convergence in the Guianas of South America, with a focus on Suriname. The Guianas are a very complex region. We have named our volume Boundaries and bridges because it reflects at the same time the maintenance of ethnic and linguistic boundaries, through the languages involved, but also the numerous instances of cross-linguistic influence across these boundaries. It illustrates the point that in the complex multilingual and multi-ethnic area of the Guianas, the languages spoken have been part of an effort of groups to keep themselves apart, as boundaries, but have also undergone numerous changes in the presence of other languages, and thus form bridges. The Guianas, or any part of them, do not form a single language community, but rather a chain of interacting and intersecting communities, which have very diverse and complex relations among themselves. Hence the term multilingual ecologies in our subtitle. However, these cases of cross-linguistic influence are very diverse in nature, and involve many parts of language. They result from different contact scenarios and include maintenance, shift, and creation.
cover

The tense-mood-aspect systems of the languages of Suriname

2017

Book Section

The tense-mood-aspect systems of the languages of Suriname
2017
Borges, Robert; Muysken, Pieter; Villerius, Sophie; Yakpo, Kofi

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
This chapter deals with tense, mood, and aspect (TMA) marking in the languages of Suriname, focusing on the stability of forms, meanings, and structural patterns. Despite its prominent position in the creolization debate and occasional mentions in the literature on linguistic areas, studies on TMA in (non creolization) contact settings in Suriname are relatively few. In a relatively short period of time, Suriname has seen numerous, often radical, linguistic developments due to its many languages, pervasive multilingualism, and array of contact scenarios. We will investigate the vulnerability of features to contact induced changes in the TMA systems of the Surinamese creoles,  Surinamese Dutch, Sarnami, and Surinamese Javanese.
cover

A meta-analytic study of the neural systems for auditory processing of lexical tones

2017

Journal Article

A meta-analytic study of the neural systems for auditory processing of lexical tones
2017
Kwok, Veronica P. Y.; Dan, Guo; Yakpo, Kofi; Matthews, Stephen; Fox, Peter T.; Li, Ping; Tan, Li-Hai

DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00375

Abstract
The neural systems of lexical tone processing have been studied for many years. However, previous findings have been mixed with regard to the hemispheric specialization for the perception of linguistic pitch patterns in native speakers of tonal language. In this study, we performed two activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analyses, one on neuroimaging studies of auditory processing of lexical tones in tonal languages (17 studies), and the other on auditory processing of lexical information in non-tonal languages as a control analysis for comparison (15 studies). The lexical tone ALE analysis showed significant brain activations in bilateral inferior prefrontal regions, bilateral superior temporal regions and the right caudate. While the control ALE analysis showed significant cortical activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus and left temporo-parietal regions. However, we failed to obtain significant differences from the contrast analysis between two auditory conditions, which might be caused by the limited number of studies available for comparison. Although the current study lack evidence to argue for a lexical tone specific activation pattern, our results provide clues and directions for future investigations on this topic, more and more sophisticated methods are needed to explore this question in more depth as well.
cover

Neural systems for auditory perception of lexical tones

2016

Journal Article

Neural systems for auditory perception of lexical tones
2016
Kwok, Veronica P.Y.; Dan, Guo; Yakpo, Kofi; Matthews, Stephen; Tan, Li Hai

DOI: 10.1016/j.jneuroling.2015.08.003

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Previous neuroimaging research on cognitive processing of speech tone has generated dramatically different patterns of findings. Even at the basic perception level, brain mapping studies of lexical tones have yielded inconsistent results. Apart from the data inconsistency problem, experimental materials in past studies of tone perception carried little or minimal lexical semantics, an important dimension that should not be dispensed with because speech tones serve to distinguish lexical meanings. The present study sought to examine the neural correlates of the perception of speech tone using lexically meaningful experimental stimuli. A simple lexical tone perception task was devised in which native Mandarin speakers were asked to judge whether or not the two syllables of an auditorily presented Chinese bisyllabic word had the same tone. We selected bisyllabic words as experimental stimuli because Chinese monosyllables often convey little or very vague meanings due to rampant homophony. We found that the left inferior frontal gyrus, the right middle temporal gyrus and bilateral superior temporal gyri are responsible for basic perception of linguistic pitches. Our interpretation of the data sees the left superior temporal gyrus as engaged in primary acoustic analysis of the auditory stimuli, while the right middle superior temporal gyrus and the left inferior frontal region are involved in both tonal and semantic processing of the language stimuli.
cover

Review of Exploring Language in a Multilingual Context: Variation, Interaction and Ideology in Language Documentation, by Bettina Migge and Isabelle Léglise

2016

Journal Article

Review of Exploring Language in a Multilingual Context: Variation, Interaction and Ideology in Language Documentation, by Bettina Migge and Isabelle Léglise
2016

DOI: 10.1075/jpcl.31.2.16yak

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Bettina Migge and Isabelle Léglise’s monograph Exploring Language in a Multilingual Context sheds light onto recent developments in the English-lexified creole languages of Surinamese origin spoken in western French Guiana, i.e. Eastern Maroon (a cover term for the mutually intelligible varieties Aluku, Ndyuka, and Pamaka), Saamaka (also referred to as Saramaka/Saramaca), and Sranan Tongo. This book makes fascinating reading for linguists and social anthropologists interested in linguistic and cultural hybridization in linguistically, culturally, and socially complex (post-)colonial societies. It is also an important contribution to the study of the languages of Suriname and French Guiana. So far, most of the available linguistic literature on the latter country is in French, and often published with smaller, specialized publishers (for an overview of the linguistic situation in Guiana, see e.g. Renault-Lescure & Goury 2009; Vernaudon & Fillol 2009). The book anticipates the publication of two other works (in which the two authors are involved as editors and/or contributors) that also look at the languages of Suriname from a more multidisciplinary perspective. One spans social geography, linguistics, social anthropology and politics (Carlin et al. 2014), the other examines developments in the non-creole languages of the region in addition to the creole languages, e.g. Sarnami, Javanese, Lokono, Hakka, Dutch (Yakpo & Muysken, 2017).
cover

The only language we speak really well. The English creoles of Equatorial Guinea and West Africa at the intersection of language ideologies and language policies

2016

Journal Article

The only language we speak really well. The English creoles of Equatorial Guinea and West Africa at the intersection of language ideologies and language policies
2016

DOI: 10.1515/ijsl-2016-0010

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
This article explores the nexus between language policies and language ideologies in Equatorial Guinea and West Africa. By analyzing spoken and written discourses in Spanish and Pichi, I identify a set of ideas and beliefs about Pichi and the semiotic processes by which they have emerged. The comparison of Pichi with Krio, Nigerian Pidgin, Cameroon Pidgin and Ghanaian Pidgin English shows that Pichi is the most disadvantaged of the West African English-lexicon creoles with respect to a number of sociolinguistic characteristics. I argue that linguistic ideologies about Pichi have contributed significantly to disregarding language policy options for elevating the status and extending the uses of Pichi in Equatorial Guinea. Pichi is nevertheless expected to expand its social functions by gradually conquering additional domains of use as has been the case with the other English creoles of West Africa.
cover

O estatuto do pichi na Guiné Equatorial

2016

Journal Article

O estatuto do pichi na Guiné Equatorial
2016

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.2658844

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Este artigo explora a relação entre as políticas e as ideologias linguísticas relacionadas ao pichi, o crioulo de base lexical inglesa da Guiné Equatorial e a segunda língua nacional mais amplamente falada do país. Forneço explicações para a ausência de compromisso do Estado com o pichi, assim como a omissão do mesmo nos discursos públicos. Sugiro que as ideologias linguísticas que circundam o pichi estabelecem, em grande medida, valores negativos sobre a língua e têm contribuído para inibir as oportunidades de elevação de seu status e expansão de seu uso na Guiné Equatorial. Concluo que o pichi continuará, portanto, a ampliar suas funções sociais informalmente, pela conquista gradual de domínios adicionais de uso.
cover

Review of Dictionnaire éwé-français, by Jacques Rongier

2016

Journal Article

Review of Dictionnaire éwé-français, by Jacques Rongier
2016

Get PDF: Zenodo

cover

Neural signatures of lexical tone reading

2015

Journal Article

Neural signatures of lexical tone reading
2015
Kwok, Veronica P.Y.; Wang, Tianfu; Chen, Siping; Yakpo, Kofi; Zhu, Linlin; Fox, Peter T.; Tan, Li Hai

DOI: 10.1002/hbm.22629

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Research on how lexical tone is neuroanatomically represented in the human brain is central to our understanding of cortical regions subserving language. Past studies have exclusively focused on tone perception of the spoken language, and little is known as to the lexical tone processing in reading visual words and its associated brain mechanisms. In this study, we performed two experiments to identify neural substrates in Chinese tone reading. First, we used a tone judgment paradigm to investigate tone processing of visually presented Chinese characters. We found that, relative to baseline, tone perception of printed Chinese characters were mediated by strong brain activation in bilateral frontal regions, left inferior parietal lobule, left posterior middle/medial temporal gyrus, left inferior temporal region, bilateral visual systems, and cerebellum. Surprisingly, no activation was found in superior temporal regions, brain sites well known for speech tone processing. In activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis to combine results of relevant published studies, we attempted to elucidate whether the left temporal cortex activities identified in Experiment one is consistent with those found in previous studies of auditory lexical tone perception. ALE results showed that only the left superior temporal gyrus and putamen were critical in auditory lexical tone processing. These findings suggest that activation in the superior temporal cortex associated with lexical tone perception is modality-dependent.
cover

Code-switching between structural and sociolinguistic perspectives

2015

Book

Code-switching between structural and sociolinguistic perspectives
2015
Stell, Gerald; Yakpo, Kofi

Get PDF: external site

Abstract
This volume brings together linguistic, psycholinguistic, and sociolinguistic perspectives on code-switching. Featuring new data from five continents and languages with a large range of linguistic affiliations, the contributions all address the role of social factors in determining the forms and outcomes of code-switching. This book is a significant addition to the empirical and theoretical foundations of the study of code-switching.
cover

Transatlantic patterns: The relexification of locative constructions in Sranan

2015

Journal Article

Transatlantic patterns: The relexification of locative constructions in Sranan
2015
Yakpo, Kofi; Bruyn, Adrienne

DOI: 10.1515/9783110343977.135

Get PDF: Zenodo

cover

On the linguistic consequences of language contact in Suriname: The case of convergence

2015

Book Section

On the linguistic consequences of language contact in Suriname: The case of convergence
2015
Yakpo, Kofi; van den Berg, Margot; Borges, Robert

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Suriname is often represented as a stratified mosaic of cultures and languages. The country boasts languages from two major indigenous Amerindian families, several Afro-Caribbean English Lexifier Creoles and further dialectal varieties of Indo-European languages belonging to the Germanic cluster (English, Dutch) and the Italic cluster (French, Portuguese), and futher representatives of major linguistic families of the world, namely Indic (Sarnami), Austronesian (Javanese) and Sino-Tibetan (Hakka or Keija). In this chapter, we challenge this somewhat static view of Suriname’s cul- tural and linguistic diversity. The linguistic data that we present will show that languages in Suriname do not merely co-exist. There are ongoing changes in the distribution of languages across functional domains and new mixed codes are emerging. In this chapter, we focus on convergence, the emergence of (partial) similarities at the expense of diffferences between the languages in contact. Specifically, we look at language mixing phenomena and language change involving Surinamese Dutch, Sranan, Sarnami (Suriname Hindustani), the Maroon Creole language Ndyuka and Surinamese Javanese.
cover

Code-switching and social change: Convergent language mixing in a multilingual society

2015

Book Section

Code-switching and social change: Convergent language mixing in a multilingual society
2015

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
The majority of the population of Suriname uses elements stemming from at least two languages in everyday, informal interactions. While language contact between the languages of Suriname manifested itself chiefly through lexical borrowing in earlier times, the range of present contact phenomena also includes alternational and insertional code-switching, as well as code-mixing patterns shared across language boundaries. I analyze characteristics of the evolving mixed code that draws on Sranan and Dutch elements by looking at how it manifests itself in Sarnami, Surinamese Javanese and Sranan. I show that socio-economic changes in the past five decades with respect to urbanization, education, migration and mass media have contributed to obscuring ethno-linguistic boundaries, dramatically increased exposure to Dutch and Sranan, and driven the spread of language mixing practices into new domains. I conclude that mixing practices in Suriname are converging in a common communicative space that transcends linguistic boundaries.
cover

Language change in a multiple contact setting: The case of Sarnami (Suriname)

2014

Book Section

Language change in a multiple contact setting: The case of Sarnami (Suriname)
2014
Yakpo, Kofi; Muysken, Pieter

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
The South American nation of Suriname features a situation of multiple language contact in which speakers use various languages in changing constellations, and often simultaneously. Sarnami (Surinamese Hindustani) shows traces of koineization of various Indian languages, and the effects of multilingualism involving Sranan Tongo and Dutch, the two dominant languages of Suriname. Sarnami has undergone substantial contact-induced change in its lexicon and grammar, including the rise of SVO alongside the inherited SOV basic word order. We conclude that the ever growing influence of Sranan Tongo and Dutch may lead to more extensive restructuring with similar outcomes as “creolization”. Traditional labels are therefore not always adequate beyond the realm of the canonical creoles involving European lexifiers and (West) African substrate languages.
cover

Wayward daughter: Language contact in the emergence of Pichi (Equatorial Guinea)

2013

Journal Article

Wayward daughter: Language contact in the emergence of Pichi (Equatorial Guinea)
2013

DOI: 10.1515/jall-2013-0009

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Pichi is an Afro-Caribbean English Lexifier Creole spoken by some 150’000 people on the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea. Pichi is an offshoot of Krio (Sierra Leone) and shares many characteristics with its West African sister languages. However, insulation from English and Krio, extensive contact and hybridization with Spanish, language shift involving the Bantu language Bubi, as well as koineization through the prolonged coexistence of Pichi with closely-related languages like Nigerian Pidgin and Cameroonian Pidgin have given the language a character distinct from that of the other English Lexifier creoles of the region. The study of Pichi and its comparison with other West African AECs therefore offers fresh insights into the role that language contact has played in the differentiation of the Afro-Caribbean English lexifier Creoles.
cover

Tense, mood, and aspect in Suriname

2013

Book Section

Tense, mood, and aspect in Suriname
2013
Borges, Robert; Muysken, Pieter; Villerius, Sophie; Yakpo, Kofi

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Various proposals have been made with regards to stability, or conversely borrowability, of particular aspects of languages’ lexicons and structures. In this paper, we investigate the stability and borrowability of forms and patterns of tense, mood, and aspect systems of the Surinamese creoles, Surinamese Dutch, sarnami, and Surinamese Javanese. Our investigation reveals that Sranan and Dutch tend to be the source language in the cross-linguistic transfer of forms and patterns in the Surinamese context, and that typological distance and socio-cultural factors play a role in determining contact induce developments in the languages studied. This suggests that,although our results loosely match various stability scales, language system external considerations so far largely preclude the construction of universally applicable stability and borrowability scales.
cover

Talen in contact in Suriname en Nederland: Eenheid in Verscheidenheid?

2013

Journal Article

Talen in contact in Suriname en Nederland: Eenheid in Verscheidenheid?
2013
van den Berg, Margot; Borges, Robert; Yakpo, Kofi

Get PDF: external site

Abstract
Veel inwoners van Suriname zijn meertalig, al hoeft dat niet te betekenen dat elk individu alle talen in zijn of haar taalrepertoire even vloeiend en vaardig beheerst. Als gevolg van deze veeltaligheid op gemeenschapsniveau en meertaligheid op individueel niveau staan verschillende talen van Suriname met elkaar in contact. Na een kort algemeen overzicht van de stand van zaken met betrekking tot de talen van Suriname op het niveau van de samenleving, waar wordt stil gestaan bij een aantal recente grootschalige onderzoeken naar taalgebruik in Suriname, woorden een aantal voorbeelden van taaldata in ons corpus besproken die inzicht geven in meertaligheid op individueel niveau. Deze voorbeelden in het Sranantongo, het Aukaans en het Sarnami suggereren dat ook deze, in de Surinaamse context, grote talen niet immuun zijn voor taalverandering als gevolg van taalcontact. Er zijn voorbeelden van divergentie, maar er zijn ook voorbeelden van convergentie. De voorbeelden van convergentie zijn opmerkelijk omdat ze laten zien dat de talen van Suriname op elkaar gaan lijken. Eenheid in verscheidenheid krijgt daarmee een nieuwe betekenis.
cover

Pichi

2013

Book Section

Pichi
2013

Get PDF: external site

Abstract
Pichi is an Afro-Caribbean English-lexicon creole spoken on the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea. Pichi is an offshoot of Krio, which first arrived in Bioko, the former Fernando Po, with African settlers from Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1827 (Fyfe 1962: 165). It is the second-most widely spoken language of the capital Malabo after Spanish and is used as a primary language in a number of villages and towns along the Coast of Bioko. Pichi is also spoken as a lingua franca throughout Bioko. No official figures exist but by extrapolation from population data, there is reason to assume that Pichi is used by at least a 100,000 people of Equatorial Guinea’s population of 693,000 (UN 2009). This makes Pichi the second most widely spoken non-European language of the country behind Fang (Northwest Bantu). The following overview is based on a corpus of some 50,000 words collected in Bioko between 2003 and 2007 (cf. Yakpo 2009b).
cover

Pichi structure dataset

2013

Book Section

Pichi structure dataset
2013

Get PDF: external site

Abstract
Pichi is used as a home or vernacular language by the vast majority of the old-established population of the island of Bioko. It is most often used as a primary home language in the Equatoguinean capital Malabo (located on Bioko), as well as in Luba (the second largest agglomeration of Bioko). There are no language-specific census data on Equatorial Guinea. By extrapolation from population figures it may however be safe to assume that at least seventy percent of the population of Bioko, hence more than 150,000 people, use Pichi regularly. On one end, the lectal continuum of Pichi features a variety rather close to Sierra Leone Krio in terms of phonology, morphosyntax, lexicon and idiomatic usage. This variety tends to be characteristic of older speakers, who grew up in the centre of Malabo in the ambit of Fernandino creole culture. On the other end, we find a variety characterized by phonological and morphosyntactic innovation, the absence of older layers of Krio-derived vocabulary, some convergence with West African English lexifier creoles like Nigerian Pidgin, and considerable lexical and structural admixture from Spanish. This variety, which is the default lect documented in APiCS, tends to be spoken by the younger urban working-class population of Malabo, often with a Bubi cultural background, who have adopted Pichi as a primary language, and whose families have been accultured in more recent decades into the Pichi-speaking urban culture of Malabo. The former variety is spoken by much fewer people than the latter one and continues shrinking at the expense of the latter variety.
cover

Reiteration in Pichi: Forms, functions and areal-typological perspectives

2012

Book Section

Reiteration in Pichi: Forms, functions and areal-typological perspectives
2012

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Pichi, an Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creole spoken on the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea, features four types of reiteration. Amongst them, reduplication and repetition can be distinguished on formal and semantic grounds. Reduplication is a derivational operation consisting of self-compounding and tone deletion. It is restricted to dynamic verbs and yields iterative, dispersive and attenuative meanings. Repetition occurs with all major word classes, renders more iconic meanings and is analyzed as semi-morphological in nature. A comparison with verbal reiteration in a cross-section of West African languages and two of its sister languages in the Caribbean allows the conclusion that Pichi reduplication reflects an areal pattern. I conclude further that Pichi reduplication is not exceptionally iconic nor specifically 'creole' in nature.
cover

Betwixt and between: Causatives in the English-lexicon creoles of West Africa and the Caribbean

2012

Book Section

Betwixt and between: Causatives in the English-lexicon creoles of West Africa and the Caribbean
2012

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Causative formation in the family of Afro-Caribbean English-lexicon Creoles (AECs) can be ordered along a continuum with an “African” and a “European” pole. On one end we find biclausal structures: A causative main verb takes a clausal complement marked for subjunctive mood. These structures appear to conform to a West African areal pattern in which subjunctive mood, instantiated in a modal complementizer, appears in a range of deontic contexts, including causatives. At the other end, causative formation involves English-style “raising”, hence reduced clauses. The prevalence of either pattern strongly correlates with the contact trajectory of an individual AEC. Languages that have been in continuous contact with English generally feature a more fragmented modal system in which causative formation follows idiosyncratic strategies. AECs that have been insulated from English for a longer period, and the African AECs in general, feature more unitary modal systems in which causative constructions are formally part of a larger functional domain of deonticity.
cover

Review of L'élément africain dans la langue capverdienne (variété de Santiago), by Nicolas Quint

2011

Journal Article

Review of L'élément africain dans la langue capverdienne (variété de Santiago), by Nicolas Quint
2011

DOI: 10.1515/jall.2011.005

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
This book by Nicolas Quint, researcher at the French Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), presents a detailed treatment of African elements in the Santiago variety of the Portuguese-lexicon creole spoken in the Cape Verde Archipelago. The book is a bilingual Portuguese–French edition. Originally, it is in fact a translation from an English contribution by Quint to the volume Black through White, edited by Angela Bartens and Philip Baker, and due to appear with Battlebridge. The edition under review additionally features an informative preface written by Manuel Veiga, until recently Minister of Education of Cape Verde.
cover

Lenguas de Guinea Ecuatorial: de la documentación a la implementación

2011

Journal Article

Lenguas de Guinea Ecuatorial: de la documentación a la implementación
2011

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Este artículo pretende proporcionar una panorámica general sobre la situación actual de la documentación de las lenguas ecuatoguineanas y la implementación de políticas lingüísticas en el país, y presenta algunas ideas sobre cómo avanzar en la promoción de las lenguas africanas de Guinea Ecuatorial en la esfera pública. También proporciona un breve ejemplo de caso para la documentación en Guinea Ecuatorial, a través de mi propio trabajo descriptivo del pichi, la lengua criolla de base lexical inglesa de la isla de Bioko.
cover

Gramática del pichi

2010

Book

Gramática del pichi
2010

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
El Pichi es uno de los idiomas de la isla de Bioko, Guinea Ecuatorial. Es el idioma predominante en los barrios más populosos de Malabo, la capital y en algunos pueblos situados a lo largo de la costa de Bioko, entre los que destaca Luba, el segundo pueblo más importante de la isla. Aunque no existen cifras oficiales, podemos aseverar que el Pichi es hoy en día el segundo idioma africano más hablado en el país, solo por detrás del Fang y seguido de cerca por el Bubi, el idioma del pueblo original de Bioko. El Pichi pertenece a la rama africana de la vasta familia de idiomas criollos Afro-Caribeños de base lexical inglesa, idiomas entre los cuales se observan muchas similitudes léxicas y estructurales. El Pichi está relacionado más directamente con el Krio de Sierra Leona. Existen, además, suficientes evidencias lingüísticas e históricas para suponer que el pichi, el Krio y el Aku –su descendiente en Gambia– comparten su origen, al menos parcialmente, con los del Nigerian Pidgin, el Cameroonian Pidgin, y el Ghanaian Pidgin English.
cover

Complexity revisited: Pichi (Equatorial Guinea) and Spanish in contact

2009

Book Section

Complexity revisited: Pichi (Equatorial Guinea) and Spanish in contact
2009

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Recent attempts to prove the simplicity of Creoles with respect to non-Creoles have, like preceding ones concentrated on describing the assumed paucity of selected surfacephenomena in quantitative terms. None of these accounts has taken into consideration that typically, Creoles are languages in contact. In the multilingual speech communities of West Africa but equally so in other regions, Creoles and Pidgins are in contact with lexifier superstrates, with historically unrelated non-lexifier superstrates and with a host of adstrate and substrate languages. This paper attempts to provide answers to two questions. (1) Can we reconcile the complexity of the mixed grammar and lexicon of a language like Pichi withthe notion of simplicity given that code-mixing of the type presented here forms an integral partof the linguistic system of the language? (2) Can we reconcile the restructuring (or “elaboration”in terms of the simplicity hypothesis) of Pichi grammar and lexicon through code-mixing within the short time-span of a hundred and seventy years with the notion that the youth of Creoles makes them simpler than non-Creoles?
cover

A grammar of Pichi

2009

Book

A grammar of Pichi
2009

Get PDF: Zenodo

cover

Food & and Agriculture Organization (FAO), The Right To Food - Putting it into practice

2007

Journal Article

Food & and Agriculture Organization (FAO), The Right To Food - Putting it into practice
2007

cover

Fremd im eigenen Land: Die verbale Gewalt des Rassismus, das Wort als Waffe und Rap auf Deutsch

2006

Book Section

Fremd im eigenen Land: Die verbale Gewalt des Rassismus, das Wort als Waffe und Rap auf Deutsch
2006

Get PDF: external site

Abstract
Linguist, das bin ich. Sprache ist meine Leidenschaft, mein Daseins- zweck. Meine Begegnung mit Hiphop fand über Sprache statt. Meine Arbeit als Sprachwissenschaftler und Autor ist ganz stark durch meine Erfahrung als Wortkünstler geprägt. In meiner Arbeit als Menschen- rechtsaktivist führe ich das Wort als Waffe. In Verhandlungen mit stör- rischen Regierungsbeamten, schmierigen Weltbankvertretern oder bös- artigen Landbesitzern, die mittellosen Bauern das Land wegnehmen. Ich bin fasziniert von Reimen, von der Beziehung zwischen Beat, In- tonation, der Silbe, dem Phonem. Sprache und Rhythmus sind miteinan- der aufs Intimste verquickt. Physikalisch und physiologisch. Und zwar seitdem der Homo sapiens sprechen gelernt hat. Die Wahl des Namens hat sich als eine vom Himmel gesandte Inspiration gewissermaßen von allein ergeben. Ein Merkmal der Hiphop-Kultur in Deutschland ist, dass man sich seinen Namen selbst ausdenken kann. In den USA waren das immer die Community, die Homies, das Umfeld, das einem als Güte- siegel einen Namen verliehen hat. Oft geschah dies während oder nach einem wichtigen Battle, auf dem der Künstler seine Skills unter Beweis gestellt hatte.
cover

The Millenium Development Goals set targets on hunger

2005

Journal Article

The Millenium Development Goals set targets on hunger
2005

cover

A framework law on the right to food: An international and South African perspective

2004

Journal Article

A framework law on the right to food: An international and South African perspective
2004
Coomans, Fons; Yakpo, Kofi

Get PDF: external site

Abstract
It is a well-known fact that millions of people all over the world do not have access to food on a daily basis or face hunger, malnutrition and starvation, despite the fact that their governments have ratified international treaties in which the right to food takes a prominent place. There is thus a big gap between rhetoric and reality, between theoretically having the right to food and enjoying it in practice. The present contribution deals with ways in which to realise the right to adequate food. It suggests the adoption of a framework law as a means of strengthening the implementation of the right to food at the domestic level. In the first part, the article discusses the right to adequate food from an international human rights perspective. It deals, amongst others, with the background, aim and contents of a national framework law on the right to food. In the second part, attention is given to the role of civil society in the promotion of a framework law. This is illustrated by using the example of South Africa, where the lack of availability and accessibility of food to the poor would justify the adoption of a framework law.
cover

Ich hab' geträumt (dass sie alle nicht umsonst starben)

2004

Book Section

Ich hab' geträumt (dass sie alle nicht umsonst starben)
2004

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
This song is a tribute to people murdered in Germany by individuals, groups, and state institutions for the colour of their skin, their origin, or their contribution to the struggle against racism. To download and read the corresponding spoken word poem, click on the link under "Related identifiers" on the right. This song and the corresponding poem won the 3rd prize of the May Ayim Award for Black literature, 2004.
cover

Love of convenience

2004

Book Section

Love of convenience
2004

Get PDF: Zenodo

cover

Language, music and loving to learn

2004

Journal Article

Language, music and loving to learn
2004

Get PDF: external site

Abstract
As my body twitches in eighth-notes in front of the drum composer in full enjoyment of my new track, my ecstatic joy is dampened by the sudden realisation that I might be trying to achieve the impossible. I am using a musical phrase of Malian origin on top of which I have dropped a hybrid Hip Hop-UK Garage beat, and I intend to rap over it in German. My new track is called “ allein” , “alone” in English. It is a classical lament of lost loves. The rap in it is undoubtedly tight, I know that. More than ten years ago, when self- styled rappers were still rapping in ungrammatical school English, I was amongst the very first in Germany to rap in German, and my rap style back then has influenced generations of German MCs. Still, the lyrics of “allein” are not easily digestible. There is more than the usual cliche of “I let them all go, and now I am alone”. Woven into the words is a macabre strain, the masochism of a man who enjoys his solitude because it nurtures his weltschmerz . Am I not going too far in transcending musical, geographical and lyrical boundaries?
cover

Denn ich bin kein Einzelfall, sondern einer von vielen: Afro-deutsche Rapkünstler in der Hip-Hop Gründerzeit

2004

Book Section

Denn ich bin kein Einzelfall, sondern einer von vielen: Afro-deutsche Rapkünstler in der Hip-Hop Gründerzeit
2004

Abstract
Welche Rolle haben Afros in der Entstehungsgeschichte von Rap-Musik in Deutschland gespielt? Existierte für sie so etwas wie ein Gruppenbewusstsein? Kann man überhaupt von Afros als Akteure in der Hip-Hop-Szene sprechen?
cover

Parallel reporting on the right to food at the United Nations

2004

Journal Article

Parallel reporting on the right to food at the United Nations
2004

cover

International council of FIAN elects a new international executive council

2004

Journal Article

International council of FIAN elects a new international executive council
2004

cover

Making rights real

2004

Journal Article

Making rights real
2004

cover

Pap und steinige Böden

2003

Journal Article

Pap und steinige Böden
2003

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
In Südafrika kämpft die Gumbu-Gemeinschaft um ihr land - mit bescheidenem Erfolg. Staat und Militär halten an ihrem land fest, das mächtige Militär will keinen Präzedenzfall schaffen. Erst durch durch eine Öffentfichkeitskampagne von nationalen wie internationalen Landrechte-Organisationen scheint Bewegung in die Frage der Landrückgabe zu kommen.
cover

From legislative framework to framework legislation: A strategy for implementing the right to food

2003

Journal Article

From legislative framework to framework legislation: A strategy for implementing the right to food
2003
Künnemann, Rolf; Pabst, Sabine; Yakpo, Kofi

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
The implementation of the human right to food is a complex task that requires political measures, laws and programmes in a number of areas, such as social, agrarian and economic policies. A framework law can guide the process of filling these gaps and provide a time table for the process leading to the full realization of the human right to food.
cover

The ABC of fact-finding missions

2003

Journal Article

The ABC of fact-finding missions
2003

cover

Trockener Maisbrei und steinige Böden. In Südafrika kämpft die Gumbu Gemeinschaft um ihr Land - mit Erfolg [Dry maize pap and stony soil - In South Africa, the Gumbu community is struggling for its land]

2003

Journal Article

Trockener Maisbrei und steinige Böden. In Südafrika kämpft die Gumbu Gemeinschaft um ihr Land - mit Erfolg [Dry maize pap and stony soil - In South Africa, the Gumbu community is struggling for its land]
2003

Abstract
In Südafrika kämpft die Gumbu-Gemeinschaft um ihr land - mit bescheidenem Erfolg. Staat und Militär halten an ihrem land fest, das mächtige Militär will keinen Präzedenzfall schaffen. Erst durch durch eine Öffentfichkeitskampagne von nationalen wie internationalen Landrechte-Organisationen scheint Bewegung in die Frage der Landrückgabe zu kommen.
cover

When trade produces hunger. The World Trade Organization meets in Cancún, Mexico

2003

Journal Article

When trade produces hunger. The World Trade Organization meets in Cancún, Mexico
2003

cover

Welcher Pfad führt zur Geschichte?

2002

Book Section

Welcher Pfad führt zur Geschichte?
2002

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
Als Mitbegründer von Advanced Chemistry hat Linguist in Deutschland HipHop-Geschichte geschrieben. Der Song „Fremd im eigenen Land" machte AC zu Beginn der Neunzigerjahre in der europäischen HipHop-Szene zu Idolen. Wie keine andere Gruppe haben Advanced Chemistry die frühen Jahre der HipHop-Kultur in Deutschland und in Europa beeinflusst. Im Gespräch mit Linguist bekamen wir spannende Details und weit greifende Analysen über den Aufstieg von Deutschrap und den Zusammenbruch der paneuropäischen HipHop-Szene zu hören. Linguist hat all das selbst erlebt und dennoch eine kritische Distanz zu dieser Geschichte entwickelt.
cover

Conselho internacional de FIAN. Encontro de delegados da organizaçāo na capital italiana [International Council of FIAN. Meeting of delegates in the Italian capital]

2002

Journal Article

Conselho internacional de FIAN. Encontro de delegados da organizaçāo na capital italiana [International Council of FIAN. Meeting of delegates in the Italian capital]
2002

cover

So far, women are reluctant to claim their rights (Interview with Gloria Ratshitanga, land reform activist)

2002

Journal Article

So far, women are reluctant to claim their rights (Interview with Gloria Ratshitanga, land reform activist)
2002

cover

Subcontinental challenges (Interview with Sabine Pabst, Right to Food activist)

2002

Journal Article

Subcontinental challenges (Interview with Sabine Pabst, Right to Food activist)
2002

cover

A reforma agrária em África do Sul. Observações da viagem de missão de investigação de FIAN e de La Via Campesina [Agrarian reform in South Africa. Observations from a fact-finding mission by FIAN and La Via Campesina]

2002

Journal Article

A reforma agrária em África do Sul. Observações da viagem de missão de investigação de FIAN e de La Via Campesina [Agrarian reform in South Africa. Observations from a fact-finding mission by FIAN and La Via Campesina]
2002

cover

Den Hunger an den Wurzeln packen. Ein Porträt der internationalen Menschenrechtsorganisation FIAN [Eradicating hunger. A profile of the human rights organization FIAN]

2001

Journal Article

Den Hunger an den Wurzeln packen. Ein Porträt der internationalen Menschenrechtsorganisation FIAN [Eradicating hunger. A profile of the human rights organization FIAN]
2001

cover

FIAN fact-finding mission to Guatemala

2001

Journal Article

FIAN fact-finding mission to Guatemala
2001

cover

FIAN and partners launch campaign for new mining legislation in Ghana

2001

Journal Article

FIAN and partners launch campaign for new mining legislation in Ghana
2001

cover

Indígenas make up a large part of the peasant population and have suffered most from evictions and expropriations in the past (Interview with Anja Kristina Wiese, human rights lawyer)

2001

Journal Article

Indígenas make up a large part of the peasant population and have suffered most from evictions and expropriations in the past (Interview with Anja Kristina Wiese, human rights lawyer)
2001

cover

La meilleure musique du monde

1996

Book Section

La meilleure musique du monde
1996

Get PDF: Zenodo

Abstract
La musique africaine n'est pas plus rebelle ni plus révolutionnaire que la musique occidentale. Si la musique populaire peut sembler bruyante, spectaculaire ou inconvenante. elle ne cherche pas pour autant à provoquer des bouleversements radicaux. On peut dire plutôt qu'elle est une conséquence de ceux-ci et qu'elle traduit souvent d'une manière très aigue les preoccupations et aspirations de chaque socleté. Les paroles illustrent les conditions de vie et la culture de chaque artiste. Ceci s'applique tout specialement à, l'Afrique, où les musIciens sont confrontés beaucoup plus directement aux réalités de la vie des masses que les musiciens occidentaux. Si les musIciens africains peuvent acceder parfois à une certaine richesse, Ils ne peuvent se soustraire aisement au reseau complexe des relations sociales qui prevaut en Afrique. Les sanctions sociales seraient alors implacables. Toute sa vie, le musicien africain reste donc une partie integrante de son "quartier".
cover

Advanced Chemistry, Hip Hop pur aus Heidelberg: Ein Interview mit Linguist

1993

Journal Article

Advanced Chemistry, Hip Hop pur aus Heidelberg: Ein Interview mit Linguist
1993

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5811779

Abstract
Brennpunkte: Wir konnen davon ausgehen, dass die grosse Mehzahl der Leserlnnen unserer Zeitung wenig mit dem Begriff Hip Hop anfangen können. Könntest Du vielleicht zunachst einmal darstellen, was die Hip Hop-Kultur überhaupt ist? Linguist: Hip Hop ist eine Kultur, nicht nur eine Musikrichtung alleine: sie setzt sich aus verschiedenen Elementen zusammen und begründet eine Lebensart. Die Leute leben Hip Hop oder sind Hip Hop. Es gibt einerseits die Sparte rappen, dann den Breakdance, drittens Sprühen, Graffiti, und als viertes die ganze DJ-Kultur, also der Umgang mit Plattenspielern. Viele Gruppen gerade in Deutschland neigen n zur Selbstdarstellung und vergessen dabei, dass die Wurzeln des Hip Hop nicht in Deutschland hegen. In der afro-amerikanischen Kultur ist der Hip Hop verwu­rzelt und ich flnde es wichtig, diesen Ursprung den Leuten immer wieder klar zu machen.