LINGUIST List 11.1846

Thu Aug 31 2000

Books: Pidgin & Creoles, Language Shift, Germanic Lang

Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomilinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. LINCOM EUROPA, Pidgin & Creoles: The Angolar Creole Portuguese of Sco Tomi, Lorenzino
2. LINCOM EUROPA, Language Shift: The Loss of German in Upper Silesia after 1945,Engerer
3. LINCOM EUROPA, Germanic Languages: Old Saxon, J.E. Cathey

The Angolar Creole Portuguese of S�o Tom�:
Its Grammar and Sociolinguistic History

GERARDO A. LORENZINO
Yale University

The primary goal of this dissertation is to explore the question of the
genesis and development of the Angolar Creole Portuguese of S�o Tom� and
Pr�ncipe (Gulf of Guinea), off the coast of West Africa. Angolar is the
language spoken by descendants of maroon slaves who escaped from
Portuguese plantations on S�o Tom� beginning in the mid-sixteenth
century (1535-1550).

Due to the isolation of these maroon communities, their language kept
the general structure of Santomense Creole Portuguese, the majority
creole spoken on the plantations. Communication between the Portuguese
and slaves, and among the slaves themselves, must have been
constrained by factors such as first languages (Portuguese as well as
Kwa and Bantu languages), exposure to some form of contact Portuguese
prior to their arrival of S�o Tom� (e.g. West African Pidgin
Portuguese), their length of stay on the island and their social
status (free Afro-Portuguese, houseslaves). Modern divergences between
Angolar and Santomense are the outcome of the lexical expansion and
further restructuring which Santomense underwent as the result of its
closer contact with Portuguese spoken on the plantations as opposed to
differences in grammar and pronunciation which Angolar retained from
early Santomense.

On the other hand, Angolar is the result of the partial relexification
that Santomense underwent due to the later influence of
Kimbundu-speaking Maroons. In this respect, the Angolares' existence
away from the plantations was more likely to have favored the
maintenance of African languages than remaining on the plantations,
where exposure to Portuguese and the increasing role of Santomense as
the medium of communication among slaves forced Africans to give up
their native languages faster. Furthermore, the rise of the mulatto
society fostered the establishment of Santomense as the common
vernacular for both slaves and non-slaves. Against this setting, one
may understand Angolar as the linguistic result of the Maroons' need
to develo a communicative behavior which would act as an in-group
boundary maintenance mechanism, providing a symbolic value for the
Angular community and, at the same time, making their language
incomprehensible to outsiders, i.e. a secret language.

The second chapter of the book gives an overview on the phonology,
morphology and syntax of the Angolar Creole Portuguese (ca. 80 pp).


ISBN 3 89586 545 1. 
LINCOM Studies in Pidgin & Creole Linguistics 01.
Ca. 290 pp. USD 69 / DM 120 / � 43. 2nd printing




 
Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no.
/ expiry date. Please don't send checks in advance. Prices in this
information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for
this series is available with special discounts offered to individual
subscribers. 

Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 22 (10/2000) & 23 (11/2000) are
available from LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany; 
FAX +49 89 62269404; 
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

The Loss of German in Upper Silesia after 1945

VOLKMAR ENGERER
Statsbiblioteket Aarhus 

In the first part of the study, an overview over Upper Silesia and the
numerous historical language shifts in this area is given. With at least
five language shifts and three phases of complete language loss, Upper
Silesia constitutes quite an illustrative case for loss and maintenance
in a region. In part two, a conceptualisation of language shift is
presented. Two approaches to language shift are then developed, the
processual and the correlative. The latter emphasises the competence
dimension, divided into an analysis of one language only, German, and an
analysis of languages as components of multilingual profiles. Part three
presents examples of analyses of isolated German, using the correlative
approach. The results in both domains show that German is tied to an
urban milieu and has a dominant function as a professional language with
high prestige. Part 4 demonstrates the use of multilingual profiles, now
from a processual perspective. The analyses show a clear consolidation
of Polish with an as yet undecided competition between Upper Silesian
and German as second languages. The tendency in the direction of the
trilingual profile German/Polish/Upper Silesian seems to have a future
if the domains of use stabilise.

ISBN 3 89586 663 6. 
Languages of the World 20. 
Ca. 24pp. USD 9 / DM 18 / � 6. 


Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no.
/ expiry date. Please don't send checks in advance. Prices in this
information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for
this series is available with special discounts offered to individual
subscribers. 

Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 22 (10/2000) & 23 (11/2000) are
available from LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany; 
FAX +49 89 62269404; 
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

Old Saxon

JAMES E. CATHEY
University of Massachusetts / Amherst

Old Saxon, spoken between approximately the 6th and 11th centuries by an
unknown number of speakers likely in the tens of thousands using several
dialects, is a member of the Western group of Germanic also including
Old Frisian and Old English that was characterized inter alia by a
unified pres. pl. marker and no High German sound shift. Saxon territory
was bounded roughly by the sea coast in the north, where not occupied by
Frisian speakers, and the rivers Rhein and Ysel in the west, Elbe and
Saale in the east, and Lippe and Ruhr in the south. Old Saxon and Old
English were close enough that Anglo-Saxon missionaries seem to have
been able communicate easily on Saxon territory. The language is best
attested by documents from the 9th C, most prominently by the so-called
H�liand, a story of Christ in 5983 alliterating lines, and the Old Saxon
Genesis in 337 lines. The H�liand, which also shows influence from East
Franconian, is of particular interest as a proselytizing document which,
while being theologically correct, is couched in terms acceptable to a
pre-Christian sensibility of traditional poetics. The Genesis, of which
only a fragment exists, was translated into an Old English version of
some 700 surviving lines. Beyond these there are smaller attestations,
including: the so-called Heberollen, which are lists of tithes to
churches or monasteries; blessings; a confession of faith; a
renunciation of the devil; single words in manuscripts written in Latin;
and personal and place names.


ISBN 3 89586 514 1.
Languages of the World/ Materials 252
Ca. 60 pp. USD 32.50 / DM 49.80 / � 19.90

 

Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no.
/ expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by
airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special
discounts offered to individual subscribers. 

Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 22 (10/2000) & 23 (11/2000) are
available from LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany; 
FAX +49 89 62269404; 
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.