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At 11:49 AM 12/26/2000 -0800, Jordan Rich wrote:<br>
<br>
>A direct link to the continent of Africa exist in the Sea Islands of
the<br>
>United States. <font size=4>(...) [Gullah]</font><font size=3> is
directly related to the African<br>
>traditional cultures of the people of Windward or Rice Coast of
West<br>
>Africa. Due to isolation on islands off the coast, the African people
there<br>
>did not have too much contact with people of other races except
Native<br>
>Americans. Thus, they were able to </font><font size=4>maintain
</font><font size=3>their culture, language, and<br>
>traditions unlike African people that were living on the
"mainland." <br>
<br>
</font><font size=4>None of the sources you have recommended
(consistently) advocates the extremely strong position you are
propagating here. Lorenzo Turner (1949:254) is very cautious in his
conclusion: "Gullah is indebted to African sources." He leaves
room for miscegenation, and certainly for non-African linguistic
influences where language is concerned. Certainly the origins of Gullah's
structural features (which is a different story from 'influences on the
development of the language variety') are not primarily nor predominantly
African (whatever you want to make of linguistic heteroregeneity in
Africa). Yes, African languages played a role in the development of
Gullah, but apparently not in the way your statements suggest.<br>
<br>
Sali.<br>
<br>
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Salikoko S.
Mufwene
</font><font color="#800080">s-mufwene@uchicago.edu<br>
</font><font color="#800000">University of
Chicago
</font><font color="#800080">773-702-8531; FAX 773-834-0924<br>
</font><font color="#800000">Department of Linguistics<br>
1010 East 59th Street<br>
Chicago, IL 60637<br>
</font><font color="#000000"><a href="http://humanities.uchicago.edu/humanities/linguistics/faculty/mufwene.html" eudora="autourl">http://humanities.uchicago.edu/humanities/linguistics/faculty/mufwene.html</a><br>
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