LL-L "Language varieties" 2002.12.06 (06) [A/E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 06.DEC.2002 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
 L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic
               V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Ole Stig Andersen <osa at olestig.dk>
Subject: Language varieties - Negerhollands

> From: Marcel Bas <mrbas_26 at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Information needed
>
> my field of interest on the
> linguistic field is Afrikaans, Dutch, Dutch creoles, creole languages ...

> somebody mention facts about the Dutch Creole languages

> This is truly an interesting subject!

Sure is!

In the beginning of the 1800s Denmark was still a multiethnic (minor)
empire.

It was comprised of indigenous subjects speaking - besides Danish (plus
"Jutish" and "Bornholmsk", for those of us who believe in the Ethnologue) -
Norwegian, Lappish, Faroese, Icelandic, Greenlandic, German, Platt and
Frisian. (And a spatter of Bengali, Tamil and Akan in Denmark's minuscule
Asian and African trade colonies. All sold by 1850).

AND Negerhollands, a "Dutch Creole" in Denmark's American colony.

After the "loss" of Norway, in the 1830s Charlotte Amalie (still the main
city in the Virgin Islands) was the second largest city of the Danish
Empire. English (and Danish too, I suppose) were the high status languages.

But the colonialists' children were brought up by Black slaves, thus
probably making their Creole, Negerhollands, the mother tongue of even the
white upper class of the largest city in Denmark outside Copenhagen!

There are not many traces - and almost no awareness, academic or elsewhere -
left of this amazing historical peculiarity. The population and their
islands were sold "en gros" to the US in 1917.  Negerhollands itself went
extinct in 1987 with the passing away of Ms. Alice Stevens. This aspect of
Denmark's language history has not been studied very much, to put it mildly.

For the 80th anniversary of the sale of the islands I produced a broadcast
in Danish public radio about Negerhollands.

The basis of the broadcast was an interview with the Danish-speaking
co-author of "Die Creol Taal", Hein van der Voort. Excerpts of the
translated introduction might interest Lowlands aficionados:

" [sound bite] It is now 10 years ago Miss Alice Stevens, whom you just
heard, died, 90 years old. With her, the language which you just heard, also
died. It was called Negerhollands. It was spoken in the Danish West Indies,
the 3 islands of St. Thomas, St Croix and St John.

Precisely today it is 80 years ago Denmark sold the islands to the USA,
without asking the population, ignoring their protests.

At the time of the sale in 1917 the local Danes, most of whom were of West
African ancestry, spoke mainly English Creole. But during most of the
Danish colonial period, the islanders spoke neither English nor Danish, but
Negerhollands, which as mentioned died with Miss Alice Stevens 10 years
ago.

The Great Discoveries and Slavery created a number of new Mixed languages,
called Creole languages, all around the West Indian region, and in fact all
around the world. There are several hundreds such languages.
     The vocabularies of Creole languages are in most cases of European
origin, but the grammar is quite different. Negerhollands is one of those
Creoles which came into being in the West Indies around the year 1700.

Negerhollands looks of course like Dutch [and Zeelandic], from which it got
the major part of its words, but not the grammar. Creoles are often taken to
be a simplification, or even a collapse [lit. breaking on the torture wheel]
of both grammar and pronunciation. That is why Creoles are often seen as an
degraded, inferior, backwards, primitive version of the source language,
just like the slaves, whose language it was, were seen as inferior humans.

But the Creole also became the mother tongue for many of the Whites, since
they were brought up and taken care of by African women. In the middle of
the 1800's the capital of the island, Charlotte Amalie, was the second
biggest town of Denmark, but it was not Danish which was the dominant
language.

There are traits in Creoles that do not originate from ANY of the original
contact languages. This is why one cannot just regard Creole languages as
defective varieties of the source languages. This fact was pointed out
already by the Danish linguist Rasmus Rask at the beginning of the 1800's.
[Rask was the discoverer of what was later to be labelled "Grimm's Law"]

Creoles occupy a special position among the world's languages: We know when
they emerged, namely at contact. One cannot similarly date the emergence of
Danish, eg.g. Creoles therefore give an outstanding possibility to study how
languages are born.
     Thus the study of Creole languages, creolistics, can contribute to our
knowledge about how the human brain functions. From where do Creoles get
their neologisms? What are the minimum requirements of  grammar in order for
a language to function satisfactory?

Negerhollands occupies a special position for several reasons.
- It was the first language about which the word "Creole" was used.
- The world's first Creole grammar was published in Copenhagen in
1770, J.M. Magens Grammatica [etc.].
- A remarkably large collection of literature in the language has been
preserved. [almost all of it religious, of course. I e ]

 It is a selection from this literature which the two Dutch creolists van
Rossem and van der Voort published from Amsterdam University Press [1997].
The book consists of an introduction of about 50 pages and some 200 pages of
texts in Negerhollands, translated into English, analysed and commented.

The texts owe their existence to the missionaries' wish to convert the
Africans to Christianity. That should happen in a language they could
understand. So hymns, prayer books, the lesser catechism, NT and parts of OT
were translated into Negerhollands. Grammars and dictionaries were made, and
ABCs, primers and textbooks.

In 1732  the Brethren's Congregation [Herrnhut] decided to mission on the
Islands. Some years later, their leader, count Zinzendorf visited the
islands, and at his departure he ordered a farewell letter to be written,
which is the oldest Negerhollands text in existence.[sound bite]

Later a Lutheran mission also arrived, and the competition between the two
certainly contributed to the productivity in Negerhollands literature.

But in the middle of the 1800's, Negerhollands begins to yield to English
Creole. So the missionaries also shift languages and Negerhollands begins to
be regarded as a dying language.

The Last Speaker of Negerhollands was Miss Alice Stevens.
She was an old lady, she managed to live for 90 years.
Her language, Negerhollands, a Lowlands lg of World Cultural Heritage
stature,  died in the crib. It only managed to live for 250 years.
[sound bite].

Ole Stig Andersen
http://www.olestig.dk/scotland
http://www.tjetjenien.dk/chechnya

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From: Elsie Zinsser ezinsser at simpross.co.za
Subject: Dutch creoles and Afrikaans

Haai almal,

Ek het Marcel gevra on Afrikaanse verlies aan labialisering effens toe
te lig:

>>In Afrikaans rond die sprekers die _uu_ nie, waardeur dit amper klink
soos 'n _ie_ (die tong se stand is dalk anders as >>wanneer jy 'n egte
_ie_ produseer, maar in die foneemapparaat van 'n Nederlander klink dit
maar die einste). So is die >>werkwoord _sturen_ in Nederlands:
/styr@(n)/ Negerhollands /sti/ Afrikaans /sti:r/

Ek dink jy verwar Afrikaanse streekvariasies (Kaaps; Griekwa-Afrikaans)
met Standaard Afrikaans. Ander voorbeelde is:
soontoe > syntoe
muur > mier

As jy na Radiosondergrense luister sal die meeste aankondigers, wat
standaardsprekers is, wel duidelik labialiseer.

>>werkwoordelike verbuigings tot die stam: daar is nie 'n verskil tussen
die hele infinitiewe werkwoord en die 'verbo ' >>werkwoord, soos in
Afrikaans, in teenstelling tot in Nederlands.

Maar is dit tipies van kreolisering? Het dit nie ook in moderne Engels
plaasgevind nie?

>>En die middelste /g/ en /x/ kry 'n apokopee (is 'apokopee' regte
Afrikaans?): in Ned. 'tegen' is die middelste /x/ nog >>teenwoordig,
terwyl hy in Afrikaans verdwyn het. Soms spreek mense in Afrikaans die
telwoord _nege_ uit as /ni at g@/, >>pleks van /ni at x@/. Hier lyk dit vir my
dat die /g/ >>sal verdwyn in Afrikaans, indien dit nog nie so ver is by
party sprekers >>nie. Dalk is die /g/ 'n oorgangsvorm van /x/ na
volledige verdwyning.

Die apokopee is die verlies in die middel van 'n woord. Ek dink jy
verwys na sinkopee.

Terwyl sekere vorme wel heelemal verdwyn het (tegen > teen; regen >
reën; bogen> boog; ogen > oog + oë (pl) ens.)
is die teenoorgestelde waar ten opsigte van telwoorde. Bv: neëntig in
plaas van negentig. Die eerste is geaffekteerd en kenmerkend van 'hogere
geleerdheid'.

>>So het ons in Afrikaans berg (mountain) - berge (mountains) - BÃ RE (to
store), wat almal van die Ned. stam _berg-_ af >>kom, maar uiteindelik
al[le] drie verskillende realiserings van die /x/ het: /bErx/ - /bErg@/
- /bEr@/.
>>Morgen - môre is vergelykbaar; /g/ raak in die /r/ geassimileer.

Maar is dit nie 'n tipies Germaanse verskuiwing eerder as tiperend van
kreolisering nie?  Jou voorbeeld morgen>môre is ook te sien in
Plautdietch morjes.

Groete,
Elsie Zinsser

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