10. A first step towards the analysis of tone in Santomense
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Philippe Maurer
Abstract
Santomense originated on the island of São Tomé (Gulf of Guinea) at the beginning of the 16th century out of the contact between Portuguese and West African languages, especially from Nigeria and Angola. Contrarily to what has been claimed until now, I believe that Santomense is a tonal language with two tones, H and L, whereby some low tones might be better defined as neutral. In Santomense, tone is used for lexical distinctions, but also for grammatical purposes, especially for the distinction between nouns and verbs. As all of the known substrate languages of Santomense are tonal, there is no doubt that the origin of the tonal system of Santomense lies in the substrate languages. However, more research is needed in order to find out how Santomense’s tonal system functions and how this system is related to the system of one or more of its substrate languages.
Abstract
Santomense originated on the island of São Tomé (Gulf of Guinea) at the beginning of the 16th century out of the contact between Portuguese and West African languages, especially from Nigeria and Angola. Contrarily to what has been claimed until now, I believe that Santomense is a tonal language with two tones, H and L, whereby some low tones might be better defined as neutral. In Santomense, tone is used for lexical distinctions, but also for grammatical purposes, especially for the distinction between nouns and verbs. As all of the known substrate languages of Santomense are tonal, there is no doubt that the origin of the tonal system of Santomense lies in the substrate languages. However, more research is needed in order to find out how Santomense’s tonal system functions and how this system is related to the system of one or more of its substrate languages.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- List of standard abbreviations ix
- Preface xi
- 1. The problem of multiple substrates: The case of Jamaican Creole 1
- 2. The superstrate is not always the lexifier: Lingua Franca in the Barbary Coast 1530-1830 29
- 3. In praise of the cafeteria principle: Language mixing in Hawai'i Creole 59
- 4. Tense marking and inflectional morphology in Indo-Portuguese creoles 83
- 5. Vowel epenthesis and creole syllable structure 123
- 6. The origin of the Portuguese words in Saramaccan: Implications for sociohistory 153
- 7. Encoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri: Problems of language contact 169
- 8. On the principled nature of the respective contributions of substrate and superstrate languages to a creole's lexicon 197
- 9. Valency patterns in Seychelles Creole: Where do they come from? 225
- 10. A first step towards the analysis of tone in Santomense 253
- 11. Balanta, Guiné-Bissau Creole Portuguese and Portuguese: A comparison of the noun phrase 263
- 12. Zamboangueño Chavacano and the potentive mode 279
- 13. Between contact and internal development: Towards a multi-layered explanation for the development of the TMA system in the creoles of Suriname 301
- 14. The formation of deverbal nouns in Vincentian Creole: Morpho-phonological and morpho-syntactic processes 333
- 15. A la recherche du "superstrat" : What North American French can and cannot tell us about the input to creolization 357
- Personal name index 385
- Language index 391
- Places and Peoples index 405
- Subject index 411
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- List of standard abbreviations ix
- Preface xi
- 1. The problem of multiple substrates: The case of Jamaican Creole 1
- 2. The superstrate is not always the lexifier: Lingua Franca in the Barbary Coast 1530-1830 29
- 3. In praise of the cafeteria principle: Language mixing in Hawai'i Creole 59
- 4. Tense marking and inflectional morphology in Indo-Portuguese creoles 83
- 5. Vowel epenthesis and creole syllable structure 123
- 6. The origin of the Portuguese words in Saramaccan: Implications for sociohistory 153
- 7. Encoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri: Problems of language contact 169
- 8. On the principled nature of the respective contributions of substrate and superstrate languages to a creole's lexicon 197
- 9. Valency patterns in Seychelles Creole: Where do they come from? 225
- 10. A first step towards the analysis of tone in Santomense 253
- 11. Balanta, Guiné-Bissau Creole Portuguese and Portuguese: A comparison of the noun phrase 263
- 12. Zamboangueño Chavacano and the potentive mode 279
- 13. Between contact and internal development: Towards a multi-layered explanation for the development of the TMA system in the creoles of Suriname 301
- 14. The formation of deverbal nouns in Vincentian Creole: Morpho-phonological and morpho-syntactic processes 333
- 15. A la recherche du "superstrat" : What North American French can and cannot tell us about the input to creolization 357
- Personal name index 385
- Language index 391
- Places and Peoples index 405
- Subject index 411
