Comparative Creole Syntax

Parallel Outlines of 18 Creole Grammars

edited by

John Holm & Peter L Patrick

~

BATTLEBRIDCE Pu.uc:ATtON•

2007

·~

BA'I'TLEBRIDG£ PueUCATIONa

United Kingdom and Sri Lanka www.battlebridge.com [email protected]

Westminster Creolistics Series ISSN 1470-3750 1. From contact to Creole and beyond (Philip Baker, ed.) 2. Changing meanings, changing functions (Philip Baker & Anand Syea, eds)

3. Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (revised, expanded edn) (Peter Miihlh:iusler) 4. St Kitts and the Atlantic Creoles (Philip Baker & Adrienne Bruyl\ eds) 5. From French to Creole (Chris Corne) 6. Spreading the word (Magnus Huber & Mikael Parkvall, eds) 7. Comparative Creole Syntax (John Holm & Peter L Patrick, eds) 8. Twice as meaningful (Silvia Kouwenberg, ed.)

Copyright Battlebridge Publications holds copyright for the volume as a whole but copyright of individual articles belongs to their named authors

Cataloguing data Title: Comparative Creole Syntax. Parallel Outlines of 18 Creole Grammars. Editors: John A Holm and Peter L Patrlck Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-903292-01-3 1. Creole languages- Grammar. 2. Creole languages- History.

Cover An initial design for the cover was made by Yasir Mohieldeen in 2001 but all copies of this were destroyed in the tsunami of 2004. The present cover, designed by Jeehoon Kim, includes features remembered from the 2001 version.

Printing Latimer Trend and Company Ltd, Estover Rd, Plymouth PL6 7PY, UK

ii

Contents

iv v

List of abbreviations Introduction

John Holm

1

AN

2

BD

1

Gerardo A Lorenzino

3

cv

4

GB

5

DM

6

HA

7

JC

8

Angolar (Creole Portuguese), or Lunga Ngola

KL

25

Berbice Dutch (Creole Dutch)

Silvia Kouwenberg Cape Verdean, or Kabuverdianu, and Guinea-Bissau, or I
53 83 101 127

Peter L Patrick Korlai (Creole Portuguese), or N:> Lil]

153

J Clancy Clements

9

KR

10 NB

I
175

N ubi (Creole Arabic)

199

Jonathan Owens & Cornelia Khamis

11 ND

217

Ndyuka (Creole English)

MaryHuttar

12 NG

Nagamese (Restructured Assamese)

237

Dwijen Bhattacharjya

13 NH

255

Negerhollands (Creole Dutch)

Christa de Kleine

14 PL

273

Palenquero (Creole Spanish)

Armin Schwegler & Kate Green

15 pp 16

sc

17 TP

Papiamentu (Creole Spanish/Portuguese)

307

Silvia Kouwenberg with Abigail Ramos-Michel Seychcllois (Creole French), or Seselwa Daniel Chapuis

333

Tok Pisin (Pidgin/ Creole English)

355

Nicholas Faraclas

18 ZM

Zamboangueiio (Creole Spanish)

373

John Lipski & Maurizio Santoro

399

Index

iii

List of Abbreviations A AAVE ACC AD] ADP AN ANT As

AS BD B&E BVP CA CAs CD CE CF

CH COMP COND COP CP

cs

CTF

cv

0 DCE OCT DEF OEM DET DIM DJE OM DRV E EMPH EXC F FEM

F&P FOC FUT

G GB GC GU HA HAB HH

Arabic African American Vernacular English accusative case adjective pre- or post-position AngolarCP anterior marker Assamese Armin Schwegler BerbiceCD Bickerton & Escalante Brazilian Vernacular Portuguese Creole Arabic Creole Assamese Creole Dutch Creole English Creole French Chabacano completive marker; complementizer; comparative marker conditional copula Creole Portuguese Creole Spanish counterfactual Cape Verdean CP Dutch Dominican CE

Die Creol Taal definite article demonstrative determiner diminutive

Dictionary ofJamaican English Dominican CF derivational affix English emphatic exclusive French feminine Friedemann & Patino focus marker future marker German Guinea-Bissau CP GuyaneseCE GullahCE HaitianCF habitual marker Huttar & Huttar

HL IDEO IMP IMPF INC IND INF INT IP IPA IRR JC KL KR LOC MASC MC MOD MP N NB ND NEG NG NH

NM NOM NP OBJ p PASS PAST pc PCS PERF PFV PL pi PLUR PN PNG POL POSS pp PRES PRO PROG proP PROX PT QUOf

highlighter ideophone impersonal imperfective inclusive indefinite infinitive marker interjection immediate past marker International Phonetic Alphabet irrealis marker Jamaican Patwa CE KorlaiCP KrioCE locative masculine Mauritian CF modal Melanesian Pidgin noun NubiCA NdyukaCE negator Nagamese CAs Negerhollands CD Neile Martinez nominative case noun phrase object Portuguese; pidgin passive past tense marker personal communication Philippine Creole Spanish perfect perfective Palenquero CS plural (=PL in gloss text) plural marker pronoun Papua New Guinea polite possessive Papiamentu CS present (tense) pronoun; pronominalizing suffuc progressive marker pro-predicate proximal future participle quotation complementizer

iv

QM QW REL REAL REC REFL RES RP

s

sc sg SIL SJE

SK SOV SPEC SR SRP ST SUBJ

svo

T TAG

TMA TP TR

US(A)

v VP WWII ZM ls

2s 3s lp 2p 3p < ()

question marker question word; interrogative relative, relativizer real is reciprocal reflexive resultative relative pronoun Spanish Seychellois CF singular Summer Institute of Linguistics Standard Jamaican English Silvia Kouwenberg subject-object-verb specific SrananCE subject referencing pronoun S!otomense CP subject subject-verb-object trace (original position of an element) sentential tag element tense-mood-aspect marker(s) Tok Pisin PE/ CE transitivizer United States (of America) verb verb phrase Second World War Zamboanguei'l.o CS first person singular second person singular third person singular first person plural second person plural third person plural derive from optional

In Rating Tables: R

+ 0 1

rare presence attested absence attested presence unknown

KR

Krio (Creole English)1 Sorie M Yillah & Chris Corcoran Introduction1 Krio is spoken in the Gambia and Sierra Leone. In the Gambia, there are between 4,386 (Sidibe & Galloway 1975, dted in Bowcock 1985:89) and 6,600 speakers (Vanderaa 1991, cited in Grimes 1999); these estimates do not reflect population growth or the recent influx of Sierra Leonean refugees. In Banjul where the Krio population is concentrated, Wolof serves as a lingua franca (Bowcock 1985: 90). In Sierra Leone, Krio is a major lingua franca throughout the country and a first language for many residents in major towns and in the Western Area. However, as Shrimpton (1995:217) notes, estimates of native speakers vary widely from 500,000 (Holm 1988: 412; Grimes 1999) to 120,000 (Hancock 1971: 517; Sengova 1987: 523) to 64,400 (Johnson 1992: 22). Apart from other practiCal issues of census taking, gathering these figures is complicated by the use of 'native' and the identification of the Krio language with Krio people. Those who speak Krio as a frrst and primary language but who are not Krios are not consistently identified as 'native' speakers (Jones 1971: 67; Johnson 1992: 22-23).3 The ancestors of the Krio community are traditionally identified as the Black Poor, the Nova Scotians, the Maroons, and the liberated Africans. The settlement which later became Freetown and the Sierra Leone colony was first established in 1787 by freedmen coming from London known as the Black Poor (Asiegbu 1969: 2; Peterson 1969: 18); however, in 1791 an agent of the Sierra Leone Company (established in 1790) only managed to gather 64 heads of households back into the settlement (Peterson 1969: 27). Firmly establishing the colony population were the Nova Scotian and Jamaican Maroon settlers. The Nova Scotians were so called because the British relocated them in Nova Scotia after they had fought for the British in the American revolutionary war. They lobbied London for better arrangements and subsequently 1,030 arrived in Sierra Leone in 1792 (Fyfe 1962: 31-70; Peterson 1969: 28). The Jamaican Maroons were sent to Nova Scotia after signing a treaty with the British, and eventually sent to Sierra Leone when the Nova Scotian and Jamaican governments were unable to agree on which government was responsible for their support (Fyfe 1962, Campbell 1993). 550 Maroons accompanied by 45 soldiers of His Majesty's 24th Regiment arrived in 1800 (Peterson 1969:34). The third group, and the numerically most significant, is the liberated Africans, also called recaptives. After 1808, when the slave trade had been abolished by Britain, the Royal Navy captured slave ships in the Atlantic and forced them to land. Between 1808 and 1861, 94,329 slaves were liberated (Asiegbu 1969: 191-214; Curtin 1975: 244 and Wyse 1989: 2 give lower estimates). Krios have also had their ranks increased by Sierra Leoneans from the protectorate who integrated into Krio society after migration and residence in Krio villages or through early residence in the Freetown area (Spitzer 1975: 12-13). The designation 'Creole' was initially used to refer to children born in the Sierra Leone colony located on the northern end of the Sierra Leone peninsula (Spitzer 1975:12-13). Sometimes European observers used 'Creole' to distinguish the children of Settlers from Liberated Africans (Clarke 1843: 33), and sometimes vice versa (Spitzer 1975: 12). Generally Krio has been considered the Sierra 1 2

3

'.Krio' or 'Sierra Leone Krio' are the designations used most often in the linguistics literature and by other scholars of Sierra Leone. 'Aku' is also used in the Gambia generally, and in Sierra Leone, to refer to the descendants of liberated Africans who were Yoruba Muslims living in the East End of Freetown (Fyle & Jones 1980:x; Wyse 1989:.9). The introduction is by Ouis Corcoran. The firSt version of this chapter was by Sorie Yillah; it was revised by Corcoran. E.g.,. Giv6n (1980:376, fn 8) notes that his data are from Sorie YiUah and that "'some speakers of standard Krio contend that Mc.Yilla[h]'s dialect is a non-standard variant spoken by non-native speakers". Although Yillah's variety is not standard and he may not be a I
175

5 M Yillah & C Corcoran

Leonean pronunciation of 'Creole'; however, there has been controversy regarding the exact origins of the term. For the history of Creole society, see Porter (1960), Spitzer (1975) and Wyse (1989) and for sociolinguistic work on these issues, Sawyerr (1992) and Cameron (1996). For the use of the term 'Creole' in the context of Sierra Leone and the origins of 'Krio,' see Skinner & Harrell-Bond (1977), Wyse (1979), Fyfe (1980), Fyle & Jones (1980), Hancock (1993b, 1995), and Allsopp (1994). This history has been central in the question of genesis since nearly every scholar who mentions Krio maintains it is the result of a transplanted Jamaican Creole or some combination of Nova Scotian and Maroon varieties- from Schuchardt (1893: 16, cited in Gilbert 1985) to McWhorter (1997: 141).4 Although E Jones (1956, 1962, 1971) devotes some space to the question of genesis, Hancock (1969, 1971, 1976, 1986, 1987, 1993a) represents the greatest body of work on genesis and Krio's relationship to the other Atlantic Creoles. Hancock maintains that the direct ancestor of Krio predates varieties of the Western Atlantic and the arrival of the Nova Scotians and Maroons. Some recent work which is in line with Hancock's proposals addresses Krio's relationship to other West African varieties (Njeuma 1995) and Gullah (Thomas 1998). There is still controversy, however. Recently Huber (1996, 1998a, 1998b, 1999, 2004) has begun a more involved sociohistorical examination as well as lexical comparison in the first lengthy defence of the New World origins hypothesis. However, Corcoran (1998) argues on sociohistorical grounds that the Nova Scotians and Maroons were not numerically significant enough or politically, geographically, and socially situated to have had either of their varieties adopted as the vernacular of the Sierra Leone colony. Since these different positions locate genesis in different areas and at different times, potential substrate languages include the pre-colonial coastal languages (e.g. Bullom, which was previously spoken along the northern coast of the Sierra Leone River, Temne, and Sherbro- all identified as Mel languages by Dalby 1965) as well as the languages of the liberated Africans. When Koelle interviewed colony residents for his Polyglotta Africana (1854), he recorded more than 100 languages. The slaves had been bought at ports as far south as Angola, but the majority of them were from the Bight of Biafra (Curtin 1975 [1969]:292);' thus accounting for the large number of Yoruba words in Krio (Bradshaw1966; Hancock 1978; Fyle & Jones 1980). Dalphinis (1980) discusses African language influence on Gambian Krio. The orthography used for the chapter is the official orthography with the recommendations adopted at the Orthographies Workshop held in Freetown in April1984, summarised in Coomber (1992). The IPA phonetic symbols /f;/ and /:J/ are used for the open mid vowels and are the only special characters. Word-final nasals are realized as homorganic with the place of articulation of following stop consonants; elsewhere the consonant is absent, and nasality is realized only in the preceding vowel. Thus the orthography generally uses 'n' in these contexts. There are two exceptions in this chapter: am 3s to distinguish it from an ~hand', and kam 6 'come', which was conventionalized before any official spelling recommendation and is used in the Krio-English Dictionary (Fyle & Jones 1980). Originally the official orthography also employed an engma IIJI, as does the Dictionary, but the new recommendations have dropped its use, opting for 'ng' for the velar nasal as well as instances where the velar nasal is followed by a voiced velar stop [g). Although in pronunciation there are many instances where the nasal is realised as nasality on the preceding vowel, the consonant is used in the orthography. Alternatively the alternation that occurs between words like f:/f:~r, wan/want, and da/dat when followed by a vowel-initial word are written without the linking consonant, regardless of context. Krio has been described as a tone language with two distinctive levels (Sawyerr 1940, Coomber 1969, Fyle 1971, Johnson 1974, Coker 1977, Nylander 1979, 1983, Carter 1989, Finney 2004). The orthography uses 'for high tone and .. for low, but they are used in the following pages only when tonal distinctions are discussed. Where published data do not use the official orthography (e.g., Bennett & March 1989), we have reproduced sentences as they appear in the text. These conventions are used in the Krio-English Dictionary and enjoy some measure of use in publications: UmeA Krio Publications Series (Sandred et al1982-89), People's Educational Association of Sierra Leone series (Hinzen & Tamu 1985-86), and K:mz:Jjade (Fitzjohn 1986). However, since this orthography requires two special characters, its adoption has been somewhat vexed. Not so long ago, there were only two typewriters in the country with /r:/ and /:>/and one was damaged in a fire 4 5 6

See Hancock (1986:73) for a list of twelve citations on this position. In the 1848 census of recaptives, 64% were Yoruba speaking while the second largest group, Igbo, only made up 9% (Parliamentary Papers 1849:xxiv [C1126):304-{)5, cited in Curtin 1975 (1969):245). Coomber (1992::20) recommends spelling it kan, but he violates this himself on page 19.

176

Krio (Creole English)

(E. Johnson 1992: SS-56). Alternatives have been proposed by Hancock (1972) and Thomas Decker, whose system is used by a number of playwrights active in Freetown. Spencer (1992: 46) has suggested that since theatre artists in general are among those most literate in Krio, a successful orthography would be designed with their input. (See Corcoran 1993 for some Krio theatre statistics.) For more discussion of the issues, see C Fyle (1976), Johnson (1985), Shrimpton & Sulayman (1990), Jones, Sandred, & Shrimpton {1992), C M Fyle (1994), and Shrimpton (1995). The Krio data in this chapter are principally from Yillah's own speech. Yillah is a Sierra Leonean who grew up in a multilingual setting in which Soso (a Mande language), Temne and Krio were spoken. Some of his Soso ancestors migrated to Freetown just after it was settled, and their descendants are now considered Krios: they speak only Krio and their only surviving link with the Soso people is their family names.7

1

Unmarked verbs

The interpretation of unmarked verbs is determined principally by their position in a narrative context. What Giv6n (1982) says regarding Hawaiian Creole English is also true for Krio: unmarked verbs are used in clauses that carry the backbone of the narrative action. As a result, lengthy narratives often have many unmarked verbs. For example, in a 45 minute conversation between two people containing 1125 clauses, 987 clauses or 88% were unmarked.8 The stative/non-stative distinction described by Bickerton is still relevant for the interpretation of unmarked clauses, however. When context and adverbials do not provide information on the interpretation, then statives signal present and non-statives signal past.

1.1 Statives with non-past reference Without narrative context or time adverbials, a stative verb has a present interpretation (1). (On the choice of relative marker, see §17.9.) (1)

I l£k di os wo Olu mek f:J am 3s like DEF house REL 0 make for 3s

'(S)He likes the house which Olu built for him/her'

1.2 Statives with past reference An unmarked stative verb can also have past interpretation in the appropriate context (2). Note the anterior marker bin is optional in the first clause because the past tense reading required for our example can either be the result of bin's use in the first clause or the discourse context. What is important for the example is that the context of the second clause be established as past. See §2 for an explanation of past tense interpretation with the anterior marker. (2)

Wo Olu (bin) sm:Jl, i fat REL 0 ANT small 3s fat

'When Olu was young, he was fat'

1.3 Non-statives with past reference Without narrative context or time adverbials, a nonstative verb typically has a past interpretation (3). (3)

Olu it in pctctc 0 eat POSS potato

'Olu ate his potato'

1.4 Non-statives with non-past reference Unmarked non-stative verbs can also have present interpretation in the appropriate context when reporting is presented as simultaneous with the events reported, as in the practice of game-calling. (4)

7 8

Olu kik di b:Jl 0 kick DEF ball

•otu kicks the ball'

Yillah's work has benefited from discussions with these relatives and other Krios. especially Junior Yillah, Eldred Hughes, Tunde Deen, Augusta Jones. and Gabriel Coker. He would like to express his gratitude to aU of them here. This analysis from Corcoran (1996) represents only preliminary work. A comparison with a written text produced interesting results however. Bennett & March (1989). the longest non-literary text published, has 236 clauses total and only 55% were unmarked. It would be profitable to compare these figures to the Ume! J
177

S M Yillah & C Corcoran 1 1.1

1.2 1.3 1.4

Unmarked verbs: summary for Krio Statives with non-past reference Statives with past reference Non-statives with past reference Non-statives with non-past reference

+ +

+ +

2 Anterior (or past) tense Bin is the anterior marker and is therefore used to situate an event or period as anterior to another event or period.9 If the two events or periods in question both occur before the event of speaking, then bin can be described as marking a past-before-past. If one of the two events in question is, in fact, the speech event, then an English translation would require a simple past to mark a situation where the event or period being marked is anterior to the speech event. However, as noted above, once the relationship of the events or periods in question have been established in the discourse, clauses often remain unmarked. See F Jones (1990) for an argument that bin does not mark anterior.

2.1 Statives with past reference When bin is used with a stative verb, the state is interpreted as having obtained at some time anterior to the speech event (5). In (6) bin is optional in both clauses because in this example bin is marking the period of youth and fatness as anterior to the speech event. In this example bin is not marking the relationship between these two states, since the states are simultaneous and anterior to some period that includes the time of speaking, that is, the period of adulthood of the speaker. Bin can also mark a state as anterior to another state in the past, i.e. past-before-past. In (7) bin marks the desire to go to college as anterior to knowing how to read. Olu bin taya 0 ANTtired (6) We a (bin) sm:)l, a (bin) fat (5)

'Olu was tired'

REL ls ANT

(7)

smallls ANT fat 'When I was young, I was fat' Bifo a sabi rid sift a bin wan go k~l£j before ls know read eve~ ls ANT want go college 'Before I even knew how to read, I wanted to go to college'

2.2 Non-statives with (past-before-) past reference With non-stative verbs, bin may refer either to the simple past (8) or past-before-past (9), depending on whether the event marked by bin is anterior to the speech event, or to another event or time period in the past. In (9) bin is used to indicate that the event in the second clause occurred before the event of the first clause. bin kam '(S)he came' ANT come (9) We wi mit, a bin de kam b:Js Savul Strit REL 1p meet ls ANT PROG come10 enterS St 'When we met, I was about to enter Sackville Street' (tO) A sabi wan bobo we bin kiss Baby K bifo i bin sik wit dis AIDS (Bennett & March 1989:3) ls know IND boy REL ANT kiss Baby K before 3s ANT sick with OEM AIDS 'I know a boy who kissed Baby K before she got sick with AIDS' (11) Di ala we i bin ala bin wek ~Iman (Nylander 1985a: 327, ex.16) DEF holler REL 3s ANT holler ANT wake everyone 'His shouting awoke everyone' (8) I

3s

Possible counter-examples to the anterior analysis of bin are (10) and (11). One explanation may be that the relationship between the kiss and being sick in (10), and the shouting and subsequent waking in (11), are more complicated than the sequencing that bin provides. In (10) there is a 9 10

Krio also has an Emphatic anterior marker dfd. Fyle &. Jones (1980) list it as an auxiliary. We are not aware of any work that addresses its function or distribution explicitly. This instance of bm is marking ingressive aspect

178

Krio (Creole English)

proposed transmission of disease, and in (11) there is a causal relationship between the shouting and the waking. Perhaps bin is not used for marking the relationship between the two past events because the order of events matches the sequence of clauses. Oearly this merits more examination and explanation than can be presented here. 2.3 Anterior (or past) = counterfactual Bin is used with/~ or go to produce counterfactual conditionals, §8.3. 11 (12) If Olu bin f:J go na t:Jng, i bin f:J si am if 0 ANT IRR go to town 3s ANT IRR see 3s

'If Olu had gone to town, he would have seen him/her'

(13) A bin go kuk res ls ANT IRR cook rice

(Dennis 1984: 59)

'I would have cooked rice'

2.4 Anterior (or past) with adjective Anterior bin freely occurs with adjectives, preceding them, as with verbs (14). (14) Di arata bin yala DEF rat

ANT

yellow

'The mouse was yellow'

2.5 Anterior (or past) with locative The locative copula is de, which appears to be derived from E there. It can take preverbal bin (16). (15) Zainab de (na) Salon

Z

'Zainab is in Sierra Leone'

in Sierra Leone

LOC

(16) Zainab bin de (na) Salon ANT LOC in Sierra Leone

Z 2

2.1 2.2

2.3 2.4 2.5

'Zainab was in Sierra Leone'

Anterior (or past) tense: summary for Krio Statives with past reference Non-statives with (past-before-) past referenre Anterior= counterfactual Anterior with adjective Anterior with locative

+ + + + +

3 Progressive aspect The progressive aspect marker has a similar segmental form to the locative copula (§2.5}; however, the progressive de has low tone. Dl is a dialect variant of the progressive (Fyle & Jones 1980: 70).

3.1 Indicating progressive Preverbal de marks progressive (17}, future (17}, and habitual (22; §4.2}. Krio also has a form of the locative copula de used with pan 'at, on' (
0

kam

(PROG/RJT) come

'Olu is coming/Olu will come'

(18) Olu dl pan kam

0

PROG

come

'Olu is coming (right now)'

(19) A dl pan am

1s PROG 3s

11

'I'm on it'

Yillah's variety of Krio only pennits the use of bin f:J in this function.

179

5 M Yillah & C Corcoran

3.2 Indicating future Progressive de can also indicate future; (17) is ambiguous, also having the reading 'Olu will come.'

3.3 Anterior plus progressive Progressive de may freely combine with anterior bin in the order progressive as well as anterior habitual, §4.4. (20) Olu bin

0

de

ANT

+

PROG

to indicate past

kam 'Oiu was coming'

ANI' PROG come

3.4 Progressive with adjective= inchoative Progressive de can also be used with adjectival predicates, giving an inchoative reading. (21) Olu de

0

stawt 'Oiu is getting fat'

PROGstout

3 3.1 3.2 3.3

3.4

Progressive aspect: summary for Krio Indicating progressive Indicating future Anterior + progressive Progressive with adjective= inchoative

+ + + +

4 Habitual aspect Habitual aspect is indicated by the preverbal marker kin. There is also a modal kin meaning 'can, able to'. Habitual kin combines with other aspectual markers in the same position as anterior bin, but cannot co-occur with the latter, §4.4.

4.1 Zero marker for habitual A generic reading is possible with stative verbs and adjectival predicates.

4.2 Progressive marker for habitual In Yillah's variety kin is the exclusive marker of habitual. For others however, de can also be used to mark habitual (22), although the two forms can co-occur for both sets of speakers (23). As suggested by Devonish (1978) and Mufwene (1984b:219) for Guyanese and Jamaican, the progressive 'stativizes' a non-stative predicate. This explains the present generic reading when de appears with a nonstative verb. (22) Olu de

it fish 'Oiu eats fish'

0 HAB eat fish (23) Olu kin (de) kam 0 HAB (PROG) come

'Olu comes frequently'

4.3 Marker for habitual only Although it is homophonous with the modal auxiliary 'can', §6, the preverbal marker kin is exclusively a marker of the habitual.

4.4 Anterior plus habitual The anterior bin and habitual kin never co-occur. Habitual aspect in the past is expressed by blant (24). For some speakers blant is an emphatic habitual and does not mark anteriority. For these speakers there is a contrast between kin as a usual activity (25) and blant as something done without exception (26). For such speakers, however, bin does not co-occur with either kin or blant. 12 For both sets of speakers, bin de can be used to express anterior habitual, with an appropriate adverbial (27). 12

Dennis (1984:64) does list the potential canbinations of bin blan t but he does not disruss it in the text.

180

Krio (Creole English) (24) Kabba blant bun

'Kabba used to come'

K HAD come (25) Olu kin go und:m fo Krism£s 0 HAD go L for Christmas

'Olu often goes to London for Christmas'

(26) Olu blant go Lond:m fo Krism£'s 0 EMPH·HAD go L for Chrisbnas (27) Olu bin de swim &Drlde 0 ANT HAB swim everyday

4 4.1 4.2

4.3 4.4

'Olu always goes to London for Christmas' 'Olu used to swim everyday'

Habitual aspect: summary for Krio

+ + + +

Zero marker for habitual Progressive marker for habitual Marker for habitual only Anterior+ habitual

5 Completive aspect 5.1 Completive only (before/after V) Completive aspect is marked by d:m, either in pre-V or post·V position, or in both. Unlike bin, de, go, and kin, d:m has a high tone whether used preverbally, as a main verb, or post-verbally, as do monosyllabic main verbs. Completive don may ro-occur with the verb don 'fmish,' so there is a distinction between aspectual don and main verb don (28). Don may also follow the main verb (29); it is difficult to discern what the semantic consequences are of analysing don as an aspectual marker or a main verb in that position. Often don appears within a series of preverbal markers (30-32). (28) Di kopo don don DEF money COMP finish

'The money has been consumed'

(29) Olu don it don 0 COMP eat (COMP/ finish)

'Olu has finished eating completely' (Jones 1968: 87) 'I will have been writing' (Jones 1968: 87) 'I should (::ought to] have been writing' (Jones 1968: 87) 'I would have been writing'

(30) A go don de

rait 1s IRR COMP PR(X; write (31) A bin fo don de rait ls ANT MOD COMP PROG write (32) A bin go don de rait ls ANTIRRCOMPPROGwrite

5.2 Completive plus adjective Adjectives, like verbs, can take the preverbal completive marker (33). (33) Ting d:m

tranga thing COMP be-hard

'Times have gotten hard'

5.3 Anterior (or other pre-verbal markers) plus completive In Yillah's variety, anterior bin and completive don can be combined in either order (34a, b). In standard varieties, bin must precede d~n (34a). (34a)Ting bin d:m

fTanga (don) thing ANT COMP be-hard finish (34b)Ting don bin tranga (d:m) thing COMP ANT be-hard finish

'Times had really gotten hard'

181

S M Yillah & C Corcoran

Completive aspect: summary for Krio Completive only (before/after V) Completive +adjective Anterior (or other markers) +completive

5

5.1 5.2 5.3

+ + +

6 Irrealis mode Krio has three irrealis modal markers: go, kin, and f:J. Go marks subjective prediction, probability and volition; {:1 marks objective probability, advisability, and normative obligation, §8.3; and kin marks generic possibility, ability and permission, §4.2 (Dennis 1964: 56). Although Nordlander (1997: 158) says the irrealis marker and full verb go are homophonous, in fact, the irrealis marker is low-tone go and the full verb is high-tone g6. In context, the distinction can be quite striking (35, 36). (35) Foday go kfl am F IRR ki113s

'Foday will kill him/her'

(36) Foday go kfl am

F

go kill3s

'Foday's left to go kill him/her'

6.1 Future (=progressive marker) Future is more usually indicated by the irrealis marker go, but the progressive marker de can also indicate the future, §32. (37) Olu go kam

0

IRRcome

'Olu will·come'

6.2 Anterior plus irrealis = conditional This construction marks counterfactual conditionals in Krio, §2.3.

6.3 Anterior plus irrealis = future in the past Krio has no structure that distinguishes between counterfactual conditional and future-in-the-past.

6.4 Anterior plus irrealis = future perfect The futtire perfect is formed by the combination of irrealis plus completive (IRR + COMP). (38) Olu go d:m

0 6

6.1

6.2 6.3 6.4

7

kam

IRR COMP come

'Olu will have come'

Irrealis mode: summary for Krio Future(= progressive marker) Anterior + irrealis =conditional Anterior + irrealis = future in the past Anterior + irrealis = future perfect

+ + ? 0

Other combinations of verbal markers

7.1 Irrealis plus progressive Irrealis go can combine with progressive de in the order IRR + PROG: (39) Olu go de

kam naw. Olu IRR PROG come now

'Olu should be coming now'

7.2 Anterior plus irrealis plus progressive For Yillah, anterior bin and irrealis go do not co-occur. It remains unclear whether varieties which allow the combination permit the sequence with de; however, bin combines with modal/~, §8.3, and progressive de.

182

Krio (Creole English) (40) Ifi n:J

bin j:J de kam ••• if 3s NEG ANT IRR PROG come...

'If (s)he were not coming...'

7.3 Other auxilliary-like elements Krio has a number of auxiliary-like items: g&t 1~ (41), indicating obligation (like E have to); m~s (< E must, 42) indicating necessity or obligation; b&tc (< E Orad) better), in (43); ebul (< E able) in (44), and kam (9). See Dennis's (1984) dissertation on aspect in Krio for a lengthy discussion of aspectual markers as well as the combinatory possibilities of all of the TMA markers. (41) Olug&tf:J kam

0

get for come du-ya, m:Js kam 0, man please must come (43) Olu b&t& kam 0 better come (44) Olu ebul kam 0 able come

'Olu should/must come'

(42) Olu, bo

7 7.1

7.2 7.3

8

'Olu, please man, come' 'Olu should/ must come' 'Olu can come'

Other combinations of verbal markers: summary for Krio Irrealis + progressive Anterior + irrealis + progressive Other auxiliary-like elements

+ + +

Complementizers

Krio has both overt complementizers 1~ and se, as well as a zero complementizer. For more details on Krio complementation, see Larimore (1976), Williams (1976), and Giv6n (1980).

8.1 Zero infinitive marker There are only a handful of Krio verbs which take sentential complements that require an overt complementizer. This is related to Krio's status as a serial verb language. F~ may optionally appear as a complementizer when followed by a verb (45). F~ is obligatory if the complement of mek contains a subject different from the matrix clause subject (Larimore 1976:70). (45) Olu wan (j:J) kam

0

want (INF) come

'Olu wants to come'

(46) Olu g6 (/~) bay tr3sis

0

go (INF) buy trousers

'Olu went to buy trousers'

8.2 For' as infinitive marker 1

F~ is optional as an infinitive marker

in (45-46) above, and obligatory with the modal use of g&t (47).

(47) Olugd f:J

0

kam have INF come

'Olu has to come'

8.3 For' as a (quasi-) modal 1

In addition to being a complementizer, 1~ is also an irrealis modal (48), §6. (48) Olu t£1 mi se a f:J go 0 tells COMP ts MOD go

'Oiu told me that I should go'

8.4 1 For' introducing a tensed clause The complementizer 1~ does not introduce finite clauses.

183

S M Yillah & C Corcoran

8.5 Subordinator from superstrate 1 that' Krio has no complementizer derived from E that. Krio uses se (< E say) where English uses that as a complementizer. In (49) se is optional, but in (50) it is obligatory. Yillah's variety also has the complementizer m£k (< E make) (51). Giv6n's (1980) analysis uses data from Yillah. i y£ri (se) a f:J kam 0 tel me (COMP)3s hear (COMP) ls IRR come (50) Olu t:Jk se a f:J kam 0 talk COMP ls IRR come (51) A mek m£k Elm k:Jt mi hiya ls make COMP H cut my hair (49) Olu t£1 mi (se)

'Olu told me that he heard that I would come' 'Olu said that I should come' 'I had Helen cut my hair'

8.6 Distinct subordinator after verb of speaking Se is the complementizer used with verbs of speaking and cognition, though as a complementizer it retains some of its verbal qualities (Nylander 1985b, 1985c,) and cannot be used with the verb se (54).

a f:J kam 0 talk COMP ls MOD come (53) Olu t£1 mise a f:J kam 0 tellls COMPls MOD come (54) •oru se se yu f:J kam 0 say COMP 2s MOD come (52) Olu t:Jk se

'Olu said that I should come' 'Olu told me that I should come' 'Olu said that you should come'

8.7 Zero subordinator Certain verbs permit a zero complementizer and, in fact, se does not allow an overt complementizer. (55) Olu se yu /:J

0

8 8.1

8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6

8.7

kam say 2s MOD come

'Olu said you should come'

Complementizers: summary for Krio Zero infmitive marker 'For' as infinitive marker 'For' as a (quasi-) modal 'For' introducing a tensed clause Subordinator from superstrate 'that' Distinct subordinator after verb of speaking Zero subordinator

+ + + 0 0

+ +

9 Dependent clauses 9.1 Subordinate clauses (non-embedded) Non-embedded subordinate clauses can precede or follow a main clause: (56) Wo

ren kam, i go sok when rain come, it IRR soak

'When it rains, it will get wet'

9.2 Subordinate clauses (embedded) Subordinate clauses may also be embedded. (57) Yu mama (bin

de) go na yu rum we yu bin de slip f:J go kis yu gud nayt 2s mother (ANT PROG) go LOC POSS room when 2s ANT PROC sleep INF go kiss 2s good night 'Your mother went in your room when you were sleeping to kiss you good night'

184

Krio (Creole English)

9.3 Relative clauses (relative pronoun= sub jed) A subject NP is obligatorily relativized by wo/we, which is situated immediately after it. Yillah's variety uses wo where other Krio varieties use we, §17.9. {58) Di man wo tif di granat d~n go DEF man REL steal DEF groundnut COMP go

'The man who stole the peanuts has gone'

9.4 Relative clauses (relative pronoun =direct object) The same relative pronoun used for subjects is used for direct objects. Here also, the relative follows the object NP, but for objects it is optional. {59) A si di granat (wo) di man tif ls see DEF groundnut {REL) DEF man steal

'I saw the peanuts {that) the man stole'

9.5 Relative clauses (relative pronoun= objed of a preposition) In basilectal Krio, relative pronouns do not ordinarily occur with prepositions. Instead, there is a construction involving an instrumental serial verb and two options: the preposition is retained, but the direct object is omitted (60); or the preposition is omitted but the direct object is retained (61) (Williams 1975: 285-86). (60) Di an

wo a tek it wit

DEF hand REL ls take eat with

d~ti

'The hand which I [use to] eat with is dirty'

dirty

(61) Di an wo a tek it di bif d~ti DEF hand REL ls take eat DEF meat dirty

'The hand which I [use to] eat the meat is dirty'

9.6 Relative clauses (zero relative pronoun) Relative pronouns can be omitted if they are objects, §9.4. Dependent clauses: summary for Krio Subordinate clauses (non-embedded) Subordinate clauses (embedded) Relative clauses (relative pronoun=subject) Relative clauses (relative pronoun=direct object) Relative clauses (relative pronoun=obj. of prep.) Relative clauses (zero relative pronoun)

9 9.1

9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5

9.6

+ + + + + +

10 Negation An action or an adjectival verb is negated with n~to, either as a copula or a focus marker, §13P

n~ (62).

However, the negative equivalent of na is

(62) Mi n~to tifman ls NEG thief

(63)

N~to

it a de

'I am (certainly) not a thief

it

NEG eat ls PROG eat

'I am not really eating'

10.1 Single negation (verbal) The negator n~ occurs immediately before a verb, auxiliary or adjective. (64) Olu n:~ t~k se i yt:ri motoka de kam 0 NEG talk CO:MP 3s hear car PROG come

(65) Ren n:~ de kam rain NEG PROG come 13

'Olu did not say that he heard a car coming' 'It is not raining'

The use of two distinct negators may be an example of substrate influen~ in Tanne, the negator yc is used with verbs and thenegator ta is used elsewhere (Yillah 1992).

185

S M Yillah & C Corcoran (66) Olu n~ lili 0 NEG little

'Olu is not little'

10.2 Discontinuous double negation This structure does not occur in Krio.

10.3 Negative concord Negative concord is allowed. (67) Natin n~ de du yu Nothing NEG PROG hann you

'No ill will befall you'

(68) N:1to natin de hapin NEG nothing PROG happen

10 10.1 10.2 10.3

'Nothing is happening'

Negation: summary for Krio Single negation (verbal) Discontinuous double negation Negative concord

+ 0

+

11 Passive 11.1 Passive construction Krio has no passive construction.

11.2 Passive equivalent The passive equivalent in Krio is the same strategy used in non-standard English, i.e. the use of the third person plural pronoun as an indefinite subject. (69) Den sak am

3p sack 3s 11 11.1 11.2

'(S)He was sacked'

Passive: summary for Krio Passive construction Passive equivalent

0

+

12 Adjectives: verbs? Although adjectives freely combine with preverbal markers and exhibit some of the same behaviours as stative verbs, there is still justification for keeping the categories separate. Stative verbs do not partidpate in modifying nouns as adjedives do.

12.1 Preverbal markers before adjectives Adjectival predicates combine with preverbal markers; §2.4, §3.4, §5.2. 12.2 Preverbal markers before nouns Preverbal markers are not generally permitted before nouns. However, in equative copula constructions bin obligatorily follows na, so bin is positioned before a noun, §13.1. (70) Olu na bin ticha 0 COP ANT teacher

'Oiu used to be a teacher'

12.3 Preverbal markers before locatives Preverbal markers are allowed before the locative copula de (71). (71) Olu bin de na os 0 ANr COP LOC house

'Olu was at home'

186

Krio (Creole English)

124 Predicate clefting: adjectives or adjectival verbs Krio has the kind of predicate clefting found throughout the Atlantic Creoles (Bynoe-Andriolo & Yillah 1975). Adjectival verbs are fronted, introduced by the highlighter na, §13.4, and then repeated in their original position. Mufwene (1987) argues that the deft-focused constituent is not a predicate. (72) Na p~yl di res d~n p::tyl so HL spoil DEF rice COMP spoil EMPH

'The rice is really spoiled'

125 Predicate clefting: other verbs Other verbs can also undergo predicate defting: (73) Na it a de HL

it eat ls PROG eat

'I am definitely eating'

126 Comparison with 'pass' Adjectives (74) and other kinds of verbs (75) are compared in a serial verb construction with pas 'pass; surpass', parallel to comparative constructions in substrate languages Temne and Soso (76, 77). (74) Olu big pas in

padi 0 big pass POSS friend (75) Olu bin it pas in padi 0 ANT eat pass POSS friend {76} Min i b~li i tasi k~ FOC ls tall ls pass 3s (77) N-kuya n dcngi a- ra ls-tall ls pass 3s-ACC

'Oiu is bigger than his friend' 'Oiu ate more than his friend' (Temne) 'I am taller than he (is)' (Soso)

'I am taller than he (is)'

127 Comparison as in superstrate The comparative construction in Krio is unlike that of its superstrate, §12.6.

12 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 12.7

Adjectives: verbs? summary for Krio Preverbal markers before adjectives Preverbal markers before nouns Preverbal markers before locatives Predicate clefting: adj. or adjectival verbs Predicate clefting: other verbs Comparison with 'pass' Comparison as in superstrate

+ 0

+ + + + 0

·13 The copula Like other Atlantic Creole and many African languages, Krio has two distinct morphemes (na, de) corresponding to the English copula 'be', and a zero fonn with adjectival predicates (Holm 1988: 175).

13.1 Equative copula (with NP) In equative sentences ('NP = NP'), the copula is na. Na is exceptional because unlike other verbs, bin obligatorily follows na. Krio also has a set of contrastive pronouns which are obligatorily used with both equative na and the focus marker na, namely: m(, yu, {n, w(, una, dtn, §17.1. (78) In na di d~kta wo i si 3s COP DEF doctor REL 3s see

'{S)He was the doctor whom he saw'

{79) Strasa na bin president 5 COP ANT president

'Strasser used to be the president'

187

S M Yillah & C Corcoran

13.2 Locative copula (with expression of place) Locative predicates require de. (80) Di b~ta de biyen di milk DEF butter COP behind DEF milk

'The butter is behind the milk'

13.3 Zero copula with adjective Adjectival predicates do not take a copula. {81) In POSS

tit baku lck grama skul winda teeth 0 many like grammar school window 'His teeth are as plentiful as the windows in the Grammar School'

13.4 Highlighter with question words The highlighter or focus marker is homophonous with the equative copula na. One of its functions is to introduce fronted elements like question words. (82) Na wetin? FOC what

'\\'hat is it?'

13.5 Highlighter with other structures The highlighter precedes the fronted constituent.14 (83) Na {n was di kalbas FOC 3s wash DEF calabash

'Him/her, (s)he's the one that washed the calabash'

(84) Na m( was di lealbas FOC 1s wash DEF calabash

'Me, I'm the one that washed the calabash'

(85) Na tumara Olu go was di blbas FOC tomorrow 0 FUT wash DEF calabash

'Tomo"ow Olu will wash the clabash'

13.6 Existential ('have'= 'there is') The existential construction is expressed with locative copula de, not with the verb for possession. (86) s~l de salt COP

13 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6

'There is salt'

The copula: summary for Krio Equative copula (with NP) Locative copula (with expression of place) Zero copula with adjective Highlighter with question words Highlighter with other structures Existential ('have'= 'there is')

+ + + + + 0

14 Serial verbs Krio has serial verb constructions like many West African languages. Williams (1971) discusses the variety of Krio serial verb constructions.

14.1 Directional with 'go' The verb go may be used in a serial construction following another verb of motion, to indicate movement away from the speaker. (87) Den k£ri den slev go 3p carry OEM slave go

14

'They took the slaves away'

The morphEme na in Soso appears in the same position, na l£ri, literally 'that time'.

188

Krio (Creole English)

14.2 Directional with 'come' Likewise, a Krio motion verb may also be used with kam to denote movement toward the speaker. (88) Den bring den kam

3p bring 3p come

'They brought them back'

14.3 Serial'give' meaning 'to, for' The verb gi can be used in serial verb constructions with dative or benefactive meaning. (89) Olu s£1 di kamwud gi

am sell DEF camwood give 3s

0

'Olu sold the camwood to him/her'

14.4 Serial'say' meaning 'that' Se is also a complementizer that retains some of its verbal qualities, §8.6 (Nylander 1985b, 1985c). (90) A ycri se Olu de fes di buk kam ls hear COMP 0 PROG fetch DEF book come

'I heard that Olu is bringing the book along'

14.5 Serial'pass' meaning 'more than' The comparative verb pas 'more than', §12.6, can also mean 'better than' (91). (91) Olu sabi swim pas mi

0

know swim pass ls

'Olu can swim better than I can'

14.6 Three serial verb constructions Serial verb constructions with three verbs are common (92). (92) Olu grap

luk ala get-up look holler

0

'Olu got up, looked, and hollered'

14.7 Serial verb constructions with 4 or more verbs Serial verb constructions with four or more verbs are also found in Krio. (93) Agn€s r~n bm~tgo lcf

A

14 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 14.6 14.7

in mama na makit run leave go leave POSS mother LOC market 'Agnes rushed out to drop her mother off at the market'

Serial verbs: summary for Krio Directional with 'go' Directional with 'come' Serial'give' meaning 'to, for' Serial'say' meaning 'that' Serial'pass' meaning 'more than' 3 serial verb constructions Construction with 4 or more serial verbs

+ + + + + + +

15 Noun phrase All nominal specifiers precede the noun except plural marker dt:n, §15.4.

15.1 Bare nouns (generic, definite) Bare nouns have either indefinite or generic reference. (94) A wan it banana

lswanteatbanana

'I want to eat a banana'

(95) Banana fayn 1~

it banana fine COMP eat

'Bananas are good to eat'

189

S M Yillah & C Corcoran

15.2 Indefinite article As in other Atlantic Creoles, wan is the indefmite article. Bare nouns may also have indefinite interpretation. Giv6n (1984) and Wright & Giv6n (1987) argue that wan marks pragmatically important indefinites rather than simply semantically referential ones. That (96) is a common opening formula for folktales supports their point. (96) Wan man bin de IND man ANf COP

'There was a man'

15.3 Definite article (from superstrate deictic) The Krio definite article di is probably from the superstrate this, although there may also be convergence with the emphatic pronunciation of E the. (97) A si di

man 1s see OEF man

'I saw the man'

15.4 Plural marker(= 'they') The plural marker dar, homophonous with the 3p pronoun (88, §17.6), follows the modified noun. (98) di man d£n themanPLUR

'the men'

15.5 Personal noun plus plural marker The plural marker following a person's name denotes the aggregate of that person and his or her associate(s). (99) Oludt:n 0 PLUR

'Olu and his associates'

15.6 Demonstrative The singular demonstratives are proximal dis(•••ya) 'this (here)' and distal dat(••• de) 'that (there)'. The plural forms are dcn(•••ya) 'these (here)' and dm(...de) 'those (there).' The pronoun and plural marker are low tone; demonstrative dEn is high tone. Coomber (1978) is a detailed analysis of dOt. (100) Dis man (ya) l£k d£n OEM

tr~sis

(dt)

man (here) like OEM trousers (there)

'This man likes those trousers'

15.7 Demonstrative plus definite or plural The plural demonstrative can be used with the plural marker, but not with a definite article. (101) dE:n d~g den OEM dog PLUR

'Those dogs'

15.8 Relative clause followed by definite or plural marker A relative clause cannot be followed by the definite article or by the plural marker.

15.9 Prenominal adjective Within the noun phrase, adjectives invariably precede the noun. (102) di lili os na di pr£Ti OEF little house LOC OEF prairie

'the little house on the prairie'

15.10 Postnominal adjective Adjectives are never postnominal, unless they are predicates (and are thus outside the noun phrase). (103) Di

OS

lili 'The house is little'

OEF house little

190

Krio (Creole English)

15.11 Gender agreement Krio has no grammatical gender, and thus has no gender agreement. When necessary, natural sex can be indicated by compound constructions with (w)uman 'female' or man 'male'. (104) man b:>d

man bird

15 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10 15.11

'male bird'

Noun phrase: summary for Krio Bare nouns (generic, definite) Indefinite article Definite article (from superstrate deictic) Plural marker(= 'they') Personal noun plus plural marker Demonstrative Demonstrative plus definite or plural Relative clause followed by definite or plural marker Prenominal adjective Postnominal adjective Gender agreement

+ + + + + +

0/+ 0

+ 0 0

16 Possession 16.1 Nouns: juxtaposition [possessor+ possessed] Nylander (1998) discusses the generic reading of constructions of _the juxtaposed type (105) versus those of the possessive adjective type (106) as well as structural differences between the two. (105) l:>ya wok lawyer-work

(Nylander 1998: 163) 'lawyer's work'

16.2 Nouns: preposition [possessed (of) possessor] This is not a productive strategy for forming possessives. The construction appears only in idioms.

16.3 Nouns: possessive adjective [possessor HIS possessed] Any noun which follows another in the scheme [NP in/ dt:n _] is possessed; the possessive adjective in 'his, her, its' (sg) or dm 'their' (pl) agrees in number with the possessor (Nylander 1998: 163). (106) mi mama in bya ross mother ross lawyer (107) di man den os DEF man ross house

'my mother's lawyer' 'the men's house'

16.4 Possessive adjectives: prenominal Possessive adjectives always precede the possessed NP. They are not distinct in form from the relevant personal pronouns, §17.1-6. (108) mi

ol os

ross old house

'my old house'

16.5 Possessive pronouns: distinct Possessive pronouns are formed by adding yon 'own' to possessive adjectives. (109) Dis na mi yon OEM COP ross own

'This is mine'

191

S M Yillah & C Corcoran

16.6 Possessive pronoun as emphatic possessive adjective Possessive pronouns can also be used as emphatic possessive adjectives: (110) Na di

man in

yon os

HL DEF man POSS own house

16 16.1 162 163 16.4 16.5 16.6

'It's the man's house'

Possession: summary for Krio Nouns: juxtaposition [possessor+ possessed] Nouns: preposition [possessed (of) possessor] Nouns: possessive adjective [possessor HIS possessed] Possessive adjectives: prenominal Possessive pronouns: distinct Possessive pronoun as emphatic possessive adjective

+ 0

+ + + +

17 Pronouns: case distinctions Case distinctions are only made in first and third person singular, and for some speakers in second plural. The set of contrastive pronouns m(, yu, fn, w(, una, dtn, which occur obligatorily with equative na and focus marker na, §13.1, do not make any case distinctions (Fyle & Jones 1980: xxi). 17.1 Personal pronouns: first person singular (111)a

mi

'I' 'me, my'

17.2 Personal pronouns: second person singular (112) yu

'you, your'

17.3 Personal pronouns: third person singular (113) i 'he, she, it' am 'him, her, it' in 'his, her, its'

17.4 Personal pronouns: first person plural (114) wi 'we, us, our' 17.5 Personal pronouns: second person plural Yillah and some older speakers have a distinction between unu/wuna (subj) and wuna (obj). For other speakers, una is the second person plural pronoun for both subject and object. This is the same set of speakers who have only we (rather than an alternation with wo) for relative marker, §17.9. (115) una/unu

wuna

'you (pl subj)' 'you (pl subj or obj)'

17.6 Personal pronouns: third person plural (116) den

'they, them, their'

17.7 Reflexive pronouns: distinct form Reflexive pronouns are formed by adding sif to the personal pronouns. was miscf 1s wash ls self

(111) A

'I bathed'

17.8 Interrogative pronouns: some bimorphemic Krio interrogative pronouns are typically bimorphemic (118). The same group of speakers who have the variants wo, §17.9, and wuna, §17.5, also have wudat, and wusay.

192

Krio (Creole English) (118) u-dat

who +that which+man which+one which+kind who +side what+ thing how +much

us-man us-wan us-kayn u-say we-tin awm3s

'who, whom' 'who, whom' 'which one' 'what sort' 'where' 'what' 'how much'

17.9 Relative pronouns The Krio relative pronoun we differs in form from the interrogative pronouns; it is not marked for case. Yillah's variety distinguishes wo 'who' from we 'which', but other Krio speakers use we in both cases, §9.4; see e.g. Fyle & Jones {1980), Charley (1983), and Fitzjohn (1986). (119) di man wo kam

'the man who came'

DEF man REL come

(120) di

ting we i bring DEF thing RE.. 3s bring

17 17.1

17.2 17.3 17.4

17.5 17.6 17.7

17.8 17.9

'the thing that (s)he brought'

Pronoun case distinctions: summary for Krio Personal pronouns: first person singular Personal pronouns: second person singular Personal pronouns: third person singular Personal pronouns: first person plural Personal pronouns: second person plural Personal pronouns: third person plural Reflexive pronoun: distinct form Interrogative pronouns: some bimorphemic Relative pronouns

+ 0

+ 0

+ 0

+

+ +

18 Coordinating conjunctions The Krio conjunction meaning 'and' is t:n; although its form derives from E and, its syntax and semantics are different, perhaps due to substrate influence.

18.1 1 And' joining sentences The conjunction t:n can join clauses. (121) A si

di man en wi go na t3ng ls see DEF man and 1p go LOC town

'I saw the man and we went to town'

18.2 1 And' joining sentence parts: distinct A conjunction of the same form is used to join words and phrases (122). Unlike English, Yillah's variety of Krio can conjoin an NP and the question word 'who' (123). It is also possible to strand a conjunction at the end (124). In many West African languages, there is a single word for 'and' and 'with' (P Schachter, p c; Holm 1988:206). The stranding of the conjunction suggests that Krio may have reanalyzed 'with' as m, then calqued it on theE structure Who did I see John with? (122) A go na t3ng en it 1s go LOC town and eat

'I went to town and ate'

(123) Wudat en Olu a si?

who

and 0

ls see

'Who was that I saw Olu with?'

(124) Wudat a si Olu en?

who

18 18.1

18.2

ls see 0

and

'Who was that I saw Olu with?'

Coordinating conjunctions: summary for Krio

'And' joining sentences 'And' joining sentence parts: distinct 193

+ +

5 M Yillah & C Corcoran

19 Prepositions 19.1 General locative preposition (or postposition) Krio na is the locative preposition meaning 'to, from, at, in' (125, 126). The locative preposition pan 'on, at' (< E upon) can be used with the copula de, §3.1. When its meaning is purely locative, it is sometimes followed by tap 'top.' de na t~ng COP in town (126) I go na t~ng 3sgoin town (127) I de pan (tap) di tebul 3s COP on (top) DEF table (125) I

3s

'(S)He is in town' '{S)He went to town' 'It is on the table'

19.2 Zero preposition with motion verb plus place The preposition na may be deleted before a noun referring to a place, after either a motion verb or a locative copula. (128) I de

(na) t:mg 3s COP (ux:) town (129) I go (na) t~ng 3s go (LOC) town

19 19.1

19.2

'(S)He is in town' '(S)He went to town'

Prepositions: summary for Krio General locative preposition (or postposition) Zero preposition after motion verb + place

+ +

20 Miscellaneous 20.1 Word order: questions SVO Krio is SVO; yes/no questions are distinguished from statements only by intonation, i.e. the word order does not change. (130) Yu de it bif tide? 2s PROG eat beef today

'Are you eating beef today?'

20.2 Sentence-final-a Sentences often end with the particle -o, which is used when the speaker expects or wants a reaction from the hearer. The speaker uses it to assure the hearer of the speaker's present ability and intent to perform the action of the verb, or his confidence in the content of the message. By using it, the speaker solicits the hearer's comments or reaction. Younger Krio speakers alternate sentence final-o with-e, perhaps influenced by Temne which also has an emphatic marker -e in final position (132); Soso also has a final emphatic -de (133). (131) A de kam -o 1s PROG come EMPH

'I am coming for sure'

(132) I k~m: e 1sgo EMPH

'I am about to leave'

(133) N siga de lsgo EMPH

'I am about to leave'

20 20.1

20.2

Miscellaneous: summary for Krio Word order: questions SVO Sentence-final-o

194

+ +

Krio (Creole English)

21 Conclusion This overview of Krio syntax, with references to both superstrate and substrate sources for particular structures, shows that the language has many of the Atlantic Creole features discussed in Holm (1988). Krio does not appear to be in any hurry to decreolize. The two major groups of Krio speakers - descendants of settlers and of recaptured slaves, respectively, - continue to resist each other's efforts (and the efforts of the rest of the population of Sierra Leone) to steer the language in one direction or another. The descendants of the settlers, the "pure" Krios, tend to introduce structures from standard and vernacular English, the "mother tongue". On the other hand, the descendants of recaptured slaves, including the Fourah Bays or Okus, tend to incorporate more and more structures from West African languages (particularly Yoruba). In addition, those descended from the indigenous peoples of Sierra Leone undoubtedly also let their first languages influence their Krio. With all these conflicting tendencies, the result is largely stasis: although Krio is gradually changing like any other language, this change is neither notably towards nor away from English. Its stability and continuity is undoubtedly bolstered by the fact that it remains the one language in which all Sierra Leoneans can communicate with one another.

References Allsopp, Richard 1994 On the origin of the name Krio. The Carrier Pidgin 22 (2&3): 1-2. Asiegbu, Johnson U J 1969 Slavery and the politics of liberation 1787-1861. New York: Mricana. Bennett, Diane, & March, Catherine with Demby, A, Koroma, P, Barnes, J & Blango, J 1989 So na AIDS Baby K bin get? (pamphlet) National AIDS Committee. Berry, Jack 1975 Marking the tone in the Krio dictionary. Abu-Lughod, Ibrahim (ed.) African Themes. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 227-30. Bowco~ Dianne Carroll 1985 Educational language planning in the Gambia. PhD dissertatio~ University of Wisconsin at Madison. Bradshaw, AT von S 1966 A list of Yoruba words in Krio. Sierra Leone Language Review 5: 61-71. Bynoe-Andriola, E & Yillah, M S 1975 Predicate clefting in Afro-European Creoles. Herbert, R (ed.) Proceedings of the 6th conference on African linguistics. Columbus: Ohio State University, 234-39. Cameron, Barbara Ann 1996 An attitude survey of Sierra Leone Krio (nativeness, educational level). PhD dissertation, University of Texas at Arlington. Campbell, Mavis 1993 Back to Africa. George Ross and the Maroons: From Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Carter, J Hazel 1989 Three Creole pitch systems. Haik, Isabelle & Tuller, Laurice (eds) Current approaches to African linguistics, VI. Dordrecht: Foris, 27-44. Charley, Dele 1983 Fatmata Ume!, Sweden: Ume4 University (Krio Publication Series, vol. 2). Clarke, Robert B 1843 Sierra Leone. London: J Ridgway. Coker, E 1977 Etudes linguistiques sur le creole de Ia Sierra-Leone. Th~se de doctorat de troisi~me cycle, Universite de Montpellier-111. Conton, William F 1966 West Africa in history since 1800. London: George Allen & Unwin. Coomber, Ajayi M E 1969 A descriptive study of Krio phonology. MS thesis, Georgetown University. - - 1978 Form, distributio~ and function/meaning of the Krio particle den. Africana Research Bulletin 8 (2&3): 45-54. - - 1992 The new Krio orthography and some unresolved problems. Jones, E, et al. (eds),15-20. Corcoran, Chris 1993 Theatre in Sierra Leone from the 1940s to the late 1980s. Conference paper to Symposium on African theatre & film, University of Toronto, April28-May 2. - - 1996 Periphrastic markers and TMA in Sierra Leone Krio. Paper to seminar on PhonologyMorphology Interface, University of Chicago. - - 1998 The place of Guinea Coast Creole English and Sierra Leone Krio in the Afro-genesis debate. Paper to Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, New York City, 9-10 January 1998. Curtin, Philip D 1975 (1969) The Atlantic slave trade. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Dalby, David 1965 The Mel languages: A reclassification of Southern West Atlantic. African Language Studies 6: 1-17.

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Dalphinis, Morgan 1980 African language influences in Creoles lexically based on Portuguese, English and French, with special reference to Casamance Kriul, Gambian Krio and St Lucian Patwa. PhD dissertation, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Dennis, James P L 1984 A semantic study of aspect in Krio. PhD dissertation, University of Michigan. Devonish, Herbert St L 1978 Selection and codification of a widely understood and publicly useable language variety in Guyana, to be used as a vehicle of national development. PhD dissertation, University of York. Finney, Malcolm 2004 A substrata! influence on the morphosyntactic properties of Krio. Linguistic Discovery 2.2: 58-81. Fitzjohn, Johnathan (ed) 1986 Kohmohjadey: A SLAWI Krio publication. Freetown: Sierra Leone Association of Writers and Illustrators. Fyfe, Christopher 1962 A short history of Sierra Leone. Oxford: Oxford University Press. - - 1980 The term 'Creole': A footnote to a footnote. Africa 50:420. Fyle, Clifford N 1971 The relationship of emphasis and tone in Krio. Actes du huitieme congres international de linguistique africaine, Abidjan 24-28 mars 1969. Abidjan: University of Abidjan, and the West African Linguistic Society, 323-33. - - 1976 The use of the mother tongue in education in Sierra Leone. Bamgbose, A yo (ed.) Mother tongue education: The West African experience. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 43-62. Fyle, Clifford N & Jones, Eldred D 1980 A Krio-English dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Fyle, C Magbaily 1994 Official and unofficial attitudes and policy towards Krio as the main language of Sierra Leone. Fardon, Richard (ed.) African languages, development and the state. London: Routledge, 44-54. Gilbert, Glenn 1985 Hugo Schuchardt and the Atlantic Creoles: a newly discovered manuscript 'On the Negro English of West Africa. American Speech 60: 31-63. Giv6n, Talmy 1980 The binding hierarchy and the typology of complements. Studies in Language 4: 333-77. - - 1982 Tense-aspect-modality: The Creole prototype and beyond. Hopper, Paul (ed.) Tenseaspect: Between semantics and pragmatics. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 115-63. - - 1984 The Krio numeral'one' and the pragmatics of reference. African Studies Review 43:171-85. Grimes, Barbara F (ed.) 1999 (1996) Ethnologue: Languages of the world, 13th Edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL international. Hancock, Ian F 1969 A provisional comparison of the English-based Atlantic Creoles. African Languages Review 8: 7-72. - - 1971 West Mrica and the Atlantic Creoles. Spencer, John (ed.) The English language in West Africa. London: Longman, 113-22. (ed) 1972 The Journal of the Krio literary Sodety 1 (1). - - 1976 Nautical sources of I
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- - 1998b On the origin and diffusion of Atlantic English Creoles: First attestations from Krio. Baker, Philip & Bruyn, Adrienne (eds) Sf Kitts and the Atlantic Creoles: The texts of Samuel Augustus Mathews in Perspective. London: University of Westminster Press, 365-78. - - 1999 Ghanaian Pidgin English in its West African context: A sociohistorical and structural analysis. Amsterdam: Benjamins. - - 2004 The Nova Scotia-Sierra Leone connection. Escure, Genevi~ve & Schwegler, Armin (eds) Creoles, contact and language change. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 67-95. Johnson, Alex C 1974 A linguistic study of tones in Sierra Leone Krio. MA thesis, Leeds University. - - 1985 National language policy and the Sierra Leone languages in education. Williamson, Kay (ed.) West African languages in education: Papers from the 15th West African languages congress, 5579. - - 1992 Varieties of Krio and standard Krio. Jones, E et al., 21-30. Johnson, Eric 1992 Problems relating to the publication of Krio materials. Jones, E et al., 55-60. Jones, E M K 1985 Dialect and other varieties of Sierra Leone Krio. MA thesis, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone. Jones, Eldred D 1956 Some aspects of the Sierra Leone patois or Krio. Sierra Leone Studies 6: 96-109. - - 1962 Mid 19th century evidences of a Sierra Leone patois. Sierra Leone Language Review 1: 19-26. - - 1968 Some Tense, Mode and Aspect Markers in Krio. African Language Review 7: 86-89. - - 1971 Krio: An English-based language of Sierra Leone. In Spencer, John (ed) The English language in West Africa. London: Longman, 66-94. Jones, E D, Sandred, K I, & Shrimpton, N (eds) 1992 Reading and writing Krio. Uppsala: Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia, 77. Jones, Frederick 1972 Aspects of Krio pronunciation. MA thesis, Leeds University. - - 1984 Aspects of the morphology of English-derived words in Sierra Leonean Krio. York Papers in Linguistics 11:181-90. - - 1990 The grammatical items bin, f:J, and m:Js in Sierra Leone Krio. linguistics 28: 845-66. Koelle, Sigismund W 1963 (1854) Polyglotta Africana. Dalby, David & Hair, P E H {eds) Graz: Akademische Dru~ Verlagsanstalt/Freetown: Fourah Bay Coiiege, University of Sierra Leone. Larimore, Nancy Kaufman 1976 A comparison of predicate complementation in Krio and English. PhD dissertation, Northwestern University. McWhorter, John H 1997 Towards a new model of Creole genesis. New York: Peter Lang. Mufwene, Salikoko 1984 Observations on time reference in Jamaican and Guyanese Creoles. English World-Wide 4: 199-229. - - 1987 An issue on predicate-clefting: Evidence from Atlantic Creoles and Mrican languages. Maurer, Philippe & Stolz, Thomas (eds) Varia Creolica. Bochum: Brockmeyer, 71-89. - - 1989 Equivocal structures in some Gullah complex sentences. American Speech 64: 305-26. Njeuma, Bernadette J 1995 Structural similarities between 2 West African anglophone pidgins and Sierra Leone Krio: A case for common origin. PhD dissertation, University of South Carolina. Nord lander, Johan 1997 Towards a semantics of linguistic time: Exploring some basic time concepts with special reference to English and Krio. Uppsala: UmeA University (Swedish Science Press). Nylander, Dudley K 1979 Aspects of Krio tonology and their implications for lexicography. Paper presented at the New York State Council on Linguistics, SUNY, Buffalo, November 1979. - - 1983 Etude descriptive du Krio (langue creole de Ia Sierra-Leone): phonologie et syntaxe. Th~se de doctorat de troisi~me cycle, Universit~ de Grenoble-III. - - 1985a Factivity, presupposition and the relativised predicate in Krio. Studies in African Linguistics 16:323-36. - - 198Sb Serial verbs and the empty category principle in Krio. Canadian Journal of linguistics 30 (1): 15-32. - - 1985c ECP effects in Krio. Linguistic Inquiry 16: 152-55. - - 1998 Genitival structures in Krio. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Linguistics 13:163-66. Peterson, John 1969 Province offreedom: A history of Sierra Leone 1787-1870. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. Porter, Arthur Thomas 1960 The development of the Creole society of Freetown, Sierra Leone. PhD dissertation, Boston University. Sandred, Karl I, Shrimpton, Neville, & Sulayman, Njie (eds) 1982-89 Krio Publications Series. UmeA, Sweden: Department of English, University of UmeA. Sawyerr, Elizabeth Morohundiya 1992 Perceptions of and attitudes toward Krio and its use in various domains. PhD dissertation, Howard University.

197

5 M Yillah & C Corcoran

Sawyerr, Harry A Ebun 1940 The Sierra Leone patois: A study of its growth and structure with special reference to teaching of English in Sierra Leone. Masters thesis, University of Durham. Schuchardt, Hugo 1893 see Gilbert 1985. Sengova, Joko 1987 The national languages of Sierra Leone: A decade of policy experimentation. Africa 57: 519-29. Shrimpton, Neville 1995 Standardizing the Krio language. Baker, Philip (ed.) From contact to creole and beyond. University of Westminster Press,217-28. Shrimpton, Neville & Sulayman, Njie 1990 Editing Krio Texts. Granquist, Raoul (ed) Signs and signals: Popular culture in Africa. Stockholm: Ume! University, 51-65. Sidibe, B K & Galloway, Winifred 1975 The peoples of the Gambia. Occasional paper, Oral History Division, Bradt Travel. Skinner, David & Harrell-Bond, Barbara 1977 On misunderstandings arising from the use of the term 'Creole' in the literature on Sierra Leone. Africa 47:305-18. Spencer, Julius S 1992 Factors militating against the easy reading and writing of Krio in the theatre. E Jones et al., 41-47. Spitzer, Leo 1975 The Creoles of Sierra Leone. Ile-He, Nigeria: University of lfe Press. Thomas, Patrick M K 1998 Some syntactic affinities between Krio and Gullah. PhD dissertation, Hertford College. Turner, Lorenzo D, with Okrafosmart, William C & Decker, Thomas 1963 An anthology of Krio folklore and literature with notes and interlinear translation in English. Chicago: Roosevelt University. Vanderaa, Larry 1991 A survey for Christian Refonned World Missions of missions and churches in West Africa. Grand Rapids: Christian Reformed World Missions. Williams, Wayne R 1971 Serial verb construction in Krio. Studies in African Linguistics, Supplement 2:47-65. - - 1975 Variation in the Krio speech community. Herbert, Robert (ed.) Proceedings of the 6th conference on African linguistics. Columbus: Dept of Linguistics, Ohio State University, 279-93. - - 1976 Linguistic change in the syntax and semantics of Sierra Leone Krio. PhD dissertation, Indiana University. Wright, S & Giv6n, Talmy 1987 The pragmatics of indefinite reference: Quantified text-based studies. Studies in Language 11:1-33. Wyse, Akintola 1979 On misunderstandings arising from the use of the term 'Creole' in the literature on Sierra Leone: A rejoinder. Africa 49:408-16. - - 1989 The Krio of Sierra Leone: An interpretative history. London & Paris: C Hurst & Company in association with the International African Institute. YiiJah, M Sorie 1992 Temne phonology and morphology. PhD dissertation, City University of New York.

Chris Corcoran learned to speak Krio when she was a student at Fourah Bay College and in Sierra Leone doing research on Krio Theatre. She is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Chicago. [email protected] Sorie Yillah, a Sierra Leonean linguist, wrote his PhD at CUNY on Temne. His Soso ancestors migrated to Freetown shortly after it was sef!led; their descendants are now considered Krios, and he grew up m a multilingual setting where Temne and Krio were also spoken. [email protected] 198

Comparative Creole Syntax

Certain verbs permit a zero complementizer and, in fact, se does not allow an overt complementizer. (55) Olu se yu /:J kam. 0 say 2s MOD come. 8. 8.1. 8.2. 8.3. 8.4. 8.5. 8.6. 8.7. Complementizers: summary for Krio .... 'His teeth are as plentiful as the windows in the Grammar School'. 13.4 Highlighter with question words.

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