LINGUIST List 10.1259

Mon Aug 30 1999

Disc: Re: Amazing Coincidences

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Paul Johnston, Re: 10.1245, Disc: Amazing coincidences

Message 1: Re: 10.1245, Disc: Amazing coincidences

Jamaican and several other English-based creole varieties contain
downgliding diphthongs often written <uo, ie> in Beryl Bailey'as script,
e. g. kuot = coat, niem= name. Similar diphthongs exist in all kinds of
English, and, if Ellis's records are accurate in this respect, were much
more common in earlier periods, particularly in both Northern and Southern
variety. However, does any West African language whose speakers were part
of the African slave pool in thje Americas allow TAUTOSYLLABIC diphthongs
of this type? I can think of several where disyllabic clusters like [ie,
uo] are fine, but none offhand where the diphthongs can occur in the same
syllable.
					Thanks,
						Paul Johnston
						Western Michigan
University