“On traduit la langue en français”
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Barbara Sandeman
Abstract
Tayo is a French-lexified contact language spoken by the people of St-Louis, a village on the outskirts of Nouméa, New Caledonia. The formation period of Tayo occurred between 1860 and 1880. Its first generation of monolingual speakers was born in the early years of the twentieth century. Some of this generation was still living in St-Louis towards the end of the twentieth century. Their speech, recorded chiefly during the late 1980s, provides evidence of early forms of the language that is relatively free of any decreolising influence. Research carried out to date on Tayo indicates that many of its structures depart radically from what has been considered a “typical” creole pattern; instead, they appear to more closely resemble structures in the substrate languages. This chapter presents a brief description of the sociohistorical background surrounding the formation of Tayo, and identifies and examines the structures that make up Tayo’s tense-modality-aspect (TMA) system. The main features of the TMA systems of Tayo’s major substrate languages, Cèmuhî, Drubéa and Xârâcùù, are then described in order to compare them with corresponding Tayo features and to identify congruent structures among the four languages. An explanation is offered for the presence of some substrate TMA features in Tayo and the absence of others.
Abstract
Tayo is a French-lexified contact language spoken by the people of St-Louis, a village on the outskirts of Nouméa, New Caledonia. The formation period of Tayo occurred between 1860 and 1880. Its first generation of monolingual speakers was born in the early years of the twentieth century. Some of this generation was still living in St-Louis towards the end of the twentieth century. Their speech, recorded chiefly during the late 1980s, provides evidence of early forms of the language that is relatively free of any decreolising influence. Research carried out to date on Tayo indicates that many of its structures depart radically from what has been considered a “typical” creole pattern; instead, they appear to more closely resemble structures in the substrate languages. This chapter presents a brief description of the sociohistorical background surrounding the formation of Tayo, and identifies and examines the structures that make up Tayo’s tense-modality-aspect (TMA) system. The main features of the TMA systems of Tayo’s major substrate languages, Cèmuhî, Drubéa and Xârâcùù, are then described in order to compare them with corresponding Tayo features and to identify congruent structures among the four languages. An explanation is offered for the presence of some substrate TMA features in Tayo and the absence of others.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface ix
-
Introduction
- The problem of the typological classification of creoles 3
-
Creoles spoken in Africa and in the Caribbean
- Èdó influence on Santome 37
- A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Portuguese Creole of Santiago Island (Cape Verde) 61
- Substrate influences in Kriyol 81
- One substrate, two creoles 105
- Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles 127
- Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the formation and development of the creoles of Suriname 155
- African substratal influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole 181
- Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andrés Creole Englishes 201
- Palenque(ro) 225
-
Creoles spoken in Asia
- Convergence-to-substratum and the passives in Singapore English 253
- Tone in Singlish 271
- The Cantonese substrate in China Coast Pidgin 289
- Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano 303
- Negation in Ternate Chabacano 325
- Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions 337
- Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates 367
- Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb 383
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Creoles spoken in the Pacific
- Papuan Malay of New Guinea 413
- The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English 437
- Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol 461
- Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin 489
- Limits of the substrate 513
- Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacific Pidgin features in modern contact varieties 531
- The copula in Hawai‘i Creole English and substrate reinforcement 557
- “On traduit la langue en français” 575
-
Conclusion
- Creoles and language typology 599
- Index of authors 613
- Index of languages and language families 619
- Index of subjects 623
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface ix
-
Introduction
- The problem of the typological classification of creoles 3
-
Creoles spoken in Africa and in the Caribbean
- Èdó influence on Santome 37
- A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Portuguese Creole of Santiago Island (Cape Verde) 61
- Substrate influences in Kriyol 81
- One substrate, two creoles 105
- Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles 127
- Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the formation and development of the creoles of Suriname 155
- African substratal influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole 181
- Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andrés Creole Englishes 201
- Palenque(ro) 225
-
Creoles spoken in Asia
- Convergence-to-substratum and the passives in Singapore English 253
- Tone in Singlish 271
- The Cantonese substrate in China Coast Pidgin 289
- Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano 303
- Negation in Ternate Chabacano 325
- Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions 337
- Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates 367
- Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb 383
-
Creoles spoken in the Pacific
- Papuan Malay of New Guinea 413
- The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English 437
- Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol 461
- Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin 489
- Limits of the substrate 513
- Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacific Pidgin features in modern contact varieties 531
- The copula in Hawai‘i Creole English and substrate reinforcement 557
- “On traduit la langue en français” 575
-
Conclusion
- Creoles and language typology 599
- Index of authors 613
- Index of languages and language families 619
- Index of subjects 623
