Berbice Dutch Creole
Native toGuyana
RegionBerbice River
Extinct2010
Creole
  • Berbice Dutch Creole
Language codes
ISO 639-3
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Berbice Dutch Creole (BDC) is a now extinct Dutch-based creole language.[1] It had a lexicon partly based on a dialect of the West African language Ijaw, perhaps the ancestor of the modern Kalabari language.[2][3] In contrast to the widely known Negerhollands Dutch creole spoken in the Virgin Islands, Berbice Creole Dutch and its relative Skepi Creole Dutch were almost unknown to the outside world until Ian Robertson first reported on the two languages in 1975. Dutch linguist Silvia Kouwenberg subsequently investigated the creole language, publishing its grammar in 1993.[3]

History

edit

The Berbice region was settled in 1627 by the Dutchman Abraham van Peere. A few years later, Suriname was settled by Englishmen Lord Willoughby and Lawrence Hyde under a grant from the English King, Charles II. In the beginning, therefore, Suriname was a British and Berbice a Dutch possession.

On 22 April 1796 the British occupied the territory. On 27 March 1802 Berbice was restored to the Batavian Republic (the then-current name of the Netherlands). In September 1803 the British occupied the territory again. On 13 August 1814 Berbice became a British colony. The colony was formally ceded to Britain by the Netherlands on 20 November 1815.

The Berbice slaves kept speaking a Dutch-based creole among themselves, until the language came in decay in the 20th century. As of 1993 there were some 4 or 5 elderly speakers of the language, although other sources report tens of speakers.[citation needed]

Berbice Creole Dutch was, just as Negerhollands and Skepi Creole Dutch <>, not based on Hollandic dialect of Dutch (the dialect that is closest to the modern standard of the Dutch Language Union), but on Zeelandic.

The last speakers of this language were found in the 1970s by Professor Ian Robertson of the University of the West Indies. These speakers were living on the upper reaches of the Berbice Riverin and around the area of the Wiruni Creek. The last known Berbice Dutch Creole speaker is Bertha Bell, who was 103 years old when last interviewed by Ian Robertson and a UWI linguistics research team in March 2004.

In February 2010, the language was declared officially extinct, according to an article in the upcoming March issue of the Dutch edition of National Geographic magazine. In the 80's there was still a small number of Berbice speakers in Guyana but, since was discovered that the last speaker died in 2005, the authoritative international language database Ethnologue had declared it extinct.[4]

BDC survived on the upper reaches of the Berbice River, the areas around which the old Dutch colony of Berbice was concentrated prior to a shift to the coast in the late 18th century. One-third of the basic words in Berbice Dutch Creole, including words for 'eat', 'know', 'speak' are of Niger–Congo origin in West Africa, from a single language-cluster, the Eastern Ijaw languages.[citation needed]

Phonology

edit

Vowels

edit

Berbice Dutch Creole has six vowels. /e/ and /ɛ/ are almost in complementary distribution, and were probably allophones at an earlier stage of the language.[3]: 277 

Front Back
High i u
Mid e o
ɛ
Low a

[the above chart is from the original wiki page; LMK & I determined it's better to keep the original instead of the one I made]


There is a large degree of free variation in the vowels, with the range of realizations of the phonemes overlapping.

Consonants

edit

Berbice Dutch Creole has fourteen consonants. Though included on the chart, the consonants in parenthesis have various explanations for not being considered part of the consonant inventory:[3]: 283–284 

  • /v/ and /z/ occur only in loanwords from Guyanese Creole.
  • /ç/ and /x/ exist only in the first person plural form of the Wiruni Creek dialect. For speakers of the Wiruni creek dialect, [ç] and [x] are considered allophones of /ʃ/.
  • [w] and [j] are allophones of /u/ and /i/.
  • [ʃ] is usually in complementary distribution with [s], occurring only before /i/, but there are a handful of exceptions.[citation needed]


Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Palato-alveolar Velar Glottal
Plosive Voiceless p t k
Voiced b d ɡ
Nasal m n
Fricative Voiceless f s (ʃ) h
Voiced (v) (z)
Approximant Central ɹ
Lateral l


[the consonant chart is also from the original wiki page]


Stress

edit

There are some stress patterns in BDC, although not many.

Non-derived words

edit

For monomorphemic non-derived words, stress falls on the penultimate syllable. Stress is assigned to every other syllable in polysyllabic words, and most exceptions to this rule occur within trisyllabic words. For example, many three-syllable words have stress on the first syllable, such as opropo (pig), or potoko (mud). All three-syllable words ending in /ingi/ have stress on the first syllable, including palinggi (eel), and stelinggi (landing).[3]: 289 

Syllable Structure

edit

Syllables in Berbice Dutch Creole can have onsets and codas, but they are not required. While codas cannot have more than one consonant, onset may have up to two. Syllables can also have CVV construction.[3]: 293–294 

Syllable type Example Translation
V o he/she[3]: 313 
CV di "the"[3]: 312 
CCV bwa foot/leg[3]: 540 
CVV gui "throw"[3]: 293 

Morphology

edit

As most creole languages, Berbice Dutch Creole makes heavy use of reduplication and category conversion, instead of derivational and affixational morphology.[3]: 229 

Category Conversion

edit

Nominalization

edit

The nominalizing - acts as a suffix, and can apply to adjectives or nouns.

Somtiti

Perhaps 

di

the

doto-jɛ

dead-NOM

bif-tɛ

speak-PF

mɛtɛ

with

di

the

lefu-jɛ

 life-NOM

Somtiti di doto-jɛ bif-tɛ mɛtɛ di lefu-jɛ

Perhaps  the dead-NOM speak-PF with the  life-NOM

"Perhaps the dead one has spoken with the living one..." [3]: 235 

In the above example, "dead" is nominalized to mean "dead one," and "life" is nominalized to mean "living one."

Pluralization

edit

The pluralizing suffix -apu can be added to nouns or pronouns, alone or with other affixes.

Musu

Many

kɛnapo

person-PL

dotɛ

die-PF

lahanteni

leave-PF=3pl

kalkali

small-small

bebjapu

baby-PL

Musu kɛnapo dotɛ lahanteni kalkali bebjapu

Many person-PL die-PF leave-PF=3pl small-small baby-PL

"Many people died (and) left their little babies." [3]: 158 


o

3sg

mɛrɛ

more

gu

big

dɛn

than

djap

this-PL

o mɛrɛ gu dɛn djap

3sg more big than this-PL

"She is older than these." [3]: 238 


Içi

1pl

wa

PAST

justu

PASTHAB

tama..

pick

gugujapu

big-big-NOM-PL

Içi wa justu tama.. gugujapu

1pl PAST PASTHAB pick big-big-NOM-PL

"We used to pick up big ones." [3]: 238 

Didap

That-PL

da

be

di

the

kalijapjɛ

small-NOM-PL-NOM

Didap da di kalijapjɛ

That-PL be the small-NOM-PL-NOM

"Those are the small ones'." ("those are the ones that belong to the small ones.") [3]: 237 


Reduplication

edit

Reduplication is used to several ends in verbs, adverbs, and adjectives in Berbice Dutch Creole, but rarely used in nouns.[3]: 240–245 

Adjectives

edit

Adjectives in BDC can receive various types of reduplication, including:

  • Intensifying reduplication

if

ɛkə

1sg

leʃa

read-IPF

di

the

wotap

word-PL

draitɛ

turnPF

sa

so

kalkali

small-small

fi

for

ɛkɛ

1sg

aʃ ɛkə leʃa di wotap draitɛ sa kalkali fi ɛkɛ

if 1sg read-IPF the word-PL turnPF so small-small for 1sg

"When I am reading, the words become so tiny for me." [3]: 241 


  • Emphatic reduplication

da

be

ɛkɛ

1sg

eʃti,

first

eʃti-eʃti

first-first

mantoko

man=child

dida

that

da ɛkɛ eʃti, eʃti-eʃti mantoko dida

be 1sg first first-first man=child that

"(He) is my first, very first son, that one." [3]: 241 


  • Distribution reduplication (distributing “old” across all the people it describes; only relevant for PL nouns.)

The

potɛpotɛ

old-old

kɛnap

person-PL

alma

all

dototɛ...

die-PF

Də potɛpotɛ kɛnap alma dototɛ...

The old-old person-PL all die-PF

"The old people all died..." [3]: 241 


Reduplication of verbs can receive the following types of reduplication:

  • Iteration (something carried out habitually)

tito

time+3sg

kikt..

see-PF

ɛkuma

1sg=come-IPF

hiso

here=so=3sg

das,

HAB

das

HAB

mumu

go-go

andrə

other

plɛk

place

tito kikt.. ɛkuma hiso das, das mumu andrə plɛk

time+3sg see-PF 1sg=come-IPF here=so=3sg HAB HAB go-go other place

"When he sees me coming here he goes somewhere else." [3]: 242 


  • Aimless repetition


o

3sg

kapkaptɛ

cut-cut-PF

di

the

tuku,

root

pinapinətɛ

peel-peel-PF

di

the

tuku

root

o kapkaptɛ di tuku, pinapinətɛ di tuku

3sg cut-cut-PF the root peel-peel-PF the root

"He cut the roots (here and there), peeled the roots (here and there)." [3]: 242 


  • Repeated small steps (“the activity is iterated until some final stage is reached”)


wɛl

well

ju

2sg

mumu

go-go

tut

until

á:lma

all

di

the

fals

falls

famatɛ

finish-PF

wɛl ju mumu tut á:lma di fals famatɛ

well 2sg go-go until all the falls finish-PF

"You keep go-go(ing) until all the waterfalls have finished.” [3]: 243 


  • Repetition of the same activity with different objects. For example,

Alma

All

di

the

pakitapu,

pocket-PL

en..

3pl

findifinten

open-open-PF=3pl

Alma di pakitapu, en.. findifinten

All the pocket-PL 3pl open-open-PF=3pl

"All the pockets, they opened each of them." [3]: 243 


Adverbs[4]

edit

Reduplication is used in adverbs for intensification. For example,

di

the

kɛnap

person-PL

wat

what

jɛnda

be=there

farfarə

far-far

di kɛnap wat jɛnda farfarə

the person-PL what be=there far-far

"...the people that were living far away..." [3]: 245 

On occasion, nouns are pluralized by reduplication instead of by receiving the pluralizing -apu suffix. This form tends to be used while describing reoccurring instances of an event.

Idri

Every

daka

day

ɛk

1sg

justu

PASTHAB

kriki

get

skelingskelings

cent-cent

Idri daka ɛk justu kriki skelingskelings

Every day 1sg PASTHAB get cent-cent

"Every day I would get an 8 cents piece." [3]: 245 

Cliticization

edit

In BDC, cliticization is rare and non-mandatory. Among its various uses, cliticization is sometimes used to distinguish the locative case (the only grammatical case used in BDC). For example, in

Di

The

dakta

doctor

kumtɛ

come-PF

di

the

bedjanga

bed=LOC

Di dakta kumtɛ di bedjanga

The doctor come-PF the bed=LOC

"The doctor came to my bed" [3]: 303 

The word "bed" (bedi) is combined with the locative postposition (angga).

Syntax

edit

Word Order

edit

The basic word order of Berbice Dutch Creole is SVO, as seen below:[4]

di

the

tokap

child-PL

furfurtɛk

steal-steal-PF=1sg

buku

book

di tokap furfurtɛk buku

the child-PL steal-steal-PF=1sg book

"The children stole my books." [3]: 63 

Headedness

edit

In general, BDC favors head-initial constructions.[5] For example, the head-initial pair of "the" and "man":

Di

The

man

man

mosi

must

a

PAST

jɛnda

be=there

kandid

side

an

and

kiktɛ.

see-PF

Di man mosi a jɛnda kandid an kiktɛ.

The man must PAST be=there side and see-PF

"the man must have been near and watching (him)." [3]: 204 

Adpositions can be either prepositions or postpositions in BDC.[3]: 192–227  Adpositions with, from, of, until, before, for, without, after, and about) are prepositions:[3]: 193 

Ɛkɛ

1sg

na

not

pam 

tell

bo

about

di

the

boki

money

ka.

NEG

Ɛkɛ na pam  bo di boki ka.

1sg not tell about the money NEG

I didn’t tell (them) about the money," [3]: 201 

The most notable exception to BDC's head-initialness is found in BDC's use of postpositions.[6] The adpositions behind, in, on, in front of, near, over, under, and between are postpositions.[3]: 204 

In

3pl

jɛn

be

di

the

goli

 gully

benjap

inside-PL

In jɛn di goli benjap

3pl be the  gully inside-PL

"They live inside the gullies." [3]: 214 

  1. ^ "Berbice Creole Dutch". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
  2. ^ "Berbice Dutch Creole - Afropedea". www.afropedea.org. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah Kouwenberg, Silvia 1960- (1994). A grammar of Berbice Dutch Creole. Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110885705. OCLC 853244249.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ a b c d Kouwenberg, Silvia (1994-01-31). A Grammar of Berbice Dutch Creole. Berlin, New York: DE GRUYTER MOUTON. ISBN 9783110885705.
  5. ^ Kouwenberg, Silvia (1992). "From OV to VO linguistic negotiation in the development of Berbice Dutch creole". Lingua. 88 (3–4): 263–299. doi:10.1016/0024-3841(92)90044-j. ISSN 0024-3841.
  6. ^ Zeijlstra, Hedde; Goddard, Denice (2017-03). "On Berbice Dutch VO status". Language Sciences. 60: 120–132. doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2016.11.001. ISSN 0388-0001. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)