THE ENGLISH CREOLE OF ARUBA: A COMMUNITY-BASED DESCRIPTION OF THE SAN NICOLAS VARIETY

THE ENGLISH CREOLE OF ARUBA: A COMMUNITY-BASED DESCRIPTION OF THE SAN NICOLAS VARIETY WORKING DRAFT #1 (6TH JULY, 2016) 1 Background to the Language situation (Do a graphic of all the language influences) The Sociolinguistic situation Aruban English Creole owes its existence to the early 20th century migration of English Creole speakers from countries in the Caribbean region where English Lexicon Creoles were in general use. These immigrants to Aruba arrived to service industrial operations, belonging United States based companies, and to a lesser extent Dutch and British ones. These immigrant workers were recruited from their particular home territories as a result of their profile as English Creole speakers coming from territories where English was generally the official language. There were, therefore, perceived by their prospective English-speaking employers as potentially having a much better grasp of written and spoken English than the Papiamento speaking local population of early 20th century Aruba. The immigrants, therefore, owed their privileged occupational status relative to the local population, to the fa t that they ere ie ed y their ai ly E glish speaki g e ployers as E glish speaki g , or at least so e hat E glish speaki g . This fa t is e oded i the so ioli guisti DNA of the E glish reole 2 speaking population of Aruba. It was against this background that the speech forms which we group under the label the E glish Creole of Aru a ECA have their presence in Aruba. The existence of these varieties is tied to English in the minds of members of the ECA-speaking community. This link is reinforced by the ongoing movement of migrants and their descendants between Aruba and the original home countries in which English continues to be the official language and sole language of education. In addition, the continuing inflow into the ECA community of Aruba of educated people, notably teachers and clergy, represents a continuing link with standard varieties of Caribbean English used within educated contexts in the officially English speaking Caribbean. 3 English Creole speakers of Aruba are in the ambiguous position of wanting to assert their identity as speakers of ECA varieties, even while aspiring to be speakers of more standard varieties of English. This ambivalence was frequently expressed by members of the community, with whom the two members of this visiting team interacted for purposes of this research. Some speakers asserted quite strongly that neither they, nor members of their household and extended family speak varieties of the English Creole of Aruba(ECA). This they claimed, using language features which were clearly characteristic of ECA. This was also contradicted by our observations of the speech of members of the extended family. 4 This work represents the outcome of a one week experiment involving a team of two, from the Jamaican Language Unit, at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. The team, at the invitation of collaborators in Aruba, engaged in English Creole Language data collection in the San Nicolas community of Aruba for three days. It then spent the remaining three days transcribing snippets of the data collected and converting these into the beginnings of a community-based grammar of ECA. The first deliverable, in the form of an initial working draft to be presented to the community at the end the week is what this present work represents. It designed to give a sense of what a full description of the language would be like. However, given the constraints of time and the immediate needs of the community, the focus will be on areas of ECA that significantly deviate from standard varieties of International English. 5 In the presentation of this description, we try address the ambivalence of the ECA community as already discussed, by helping community members to develop clear sense of characteristics of their ECA speech which marks it off from standard varieties of English used within the Caribbean and internationally. The presentation will highlight the forms of EC which are most traditional and distinct from English. This facilitates another goal, that of identifying the relationship between ECA and its sister language varieties spoken across the Caribbean and more generally in the Atlantic area. Another feature of the presentation will be AEC forms which show varying degrees of influence from English. The forms most distinct from English are the ones which members of the ECA community, under the influence of a subconscious desire to identify with English, would be most likely to reject as not being part of ECA. The presentation of ALL the forms we have come across in our research is intended to confront the San Nicolas community with facts about its own linguistic behaviour. The resulting interaction and dialogue will, it is hoped, lead to corrections and improvements to the ECA language description. 6 The final and complete description would hopefully in the presentation of this 1st draft of this description, we try to combat the ambivalence already referred to by giving community members a clear sense of characteristics of their language which mark it off from standard varieties of English used within the Caribbean and internationally. The presentation will show the forms of AEC which are most traditional and distinct from English. This aspect of the presentation will identify the relationship between AEC and its sister language varieties, spoken across the Caribbean and more generally in the Atlantic area. Another feature of the presentation will be AEC forms which show varying degrees of influence from English. It is worth noting that the forms most distinct from English are the ones which members of the community, under the influence of a subconscious desire to identify with English would be most 7 The presentation of ALL the forms we have come across in our research is intended to confront the San Nicolas community with facts of their linguistic behaviour. This would form the basis of informed decisions being made by the AEC speaking community about their language, its use and its future. form an input into decisions by the ECA speaking community about their language, its use and its future. 8 PROPOSED ORTHOGRAPHY • In order to properly represent the speech forms of the English Creole of Aruba (ECA), one needs an orthography which represents the pronunciation patterns of speakers. If we were to use English orthography, already highly idiosyncratic and inconsistent, for a distinct set of language varieties, will confuse. What will be laid out in the following sections are (1) the vowel representations and 2) the consonant representations. In each case, the material presented in slant brackets represents the letters or combination of letters, to be used in the orthography. In every case, the letter or combination of letters always represents the same sound in ECA and that particular sound is 9 always represented by that letter or combination of letters. these draft proposals would have to be discussed by the members of the VOWELS • PRELIMINARY PROPOSED WRITING SYSTEM FOR ARUBAN ENGLISH CREOLE /i/ as in /sik/ 'sick' /ii/ " " /biit/ 'beat' /e/ " " /bet/ "bet" /ee/ " " /steesha/ 'statia ~ st eustatius' /a/ " " /rat/ 'rat' /aa/ " " /paas/ 'pass' /o/. " " /kop/ ' cup' /oo/ " " /kool/ 'cold' /u/ " " /buk/ 'book' /uu/ " " /fuul/ 'fool' /oh/ " " /ohl/ 'all' /ai/ " " /ai/ 'light' /oi/ " " /boi/ 'boy' /ou/ " " /shout/ 'shout' 10 CONSONANTS PRELIMINARY PROPOSED WRITING SYSTEM FOR ARUBAN ENGLISH CREOLE ECA Orthography Example English /b/ /bil/ 'build‘ /ch/ /d/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /j/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /p/ /r/ /s/ /chrai/ /dat/ /faiya/ /gud/ /hou/ /joj/ /kuk/ /lai/ /muuv/ /nais/ /paip/ /rof/ /san/ ‘try’ 'that' 'fire' 'good' 'how' 'judge' 'cook' 'lie' 'move' 'nice' 'pipe' 'rough' 'sand‘ /sh/ /t/ /v/ /w/ /y/ /z/ /shoo/ /tii/ /veks/ /wai/ /yong/ /zip/ ‘show’ 'tea' 'vexed' 'why' 'young' 'zip' 11 GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES • What follows is examples of the grammatical structures use in the English creole of Aruba (ECA) as it is used in and around San nicolas. All examples are presented in the proposed orthography for ECA and then in an English orthography and finally in English translation. In the printed version of this will appear comments on the actual structures and forms identified. The focus is on those areas of ECA which differ significantly from standard international english usage. 12 PERSONAL PRONOUNS What follows is a presentation of examples of some aspects of the personal pronoun system of the English Creole of Aruba (ECA). Typically, a single pronoun form is used for subject, object and possessive, as in /hii sii mii/ ‘he saw me’, /yu sii hii/ ‘you saw him, and /dis iz hii buk/ ‘this is his book’, where /hii/ is used in all three contexts. The forms we select for attention here are those which require a bit of extra comment. 13 1ST PERSON SINGULAR SUBJECT • Mi naa go dong de. Me not going down there. ‘I am not going down there.’ [The use of /mi/ in the subject, as well as in the object and possessive marks off the form of ECA which is most different from English. In subject position, it can be replaced, in more English like varieties with /ai/ or /a/. 14 3RD PERSON SINGULAR (MASCULINE) • Dee kaal hii jos nou They call him just now ‘They called him a short while ago.’ [The most Creole form would be /dem/ as the subject but this is a sentence showing some English influence.] 15 1ST PERSON PLURAL Ohwii doz yuuz dat word All-we does use that word. ‘We use that word’. [This and similar forms such as /aawii/ are part of the English Creoles stretching from Antigua to Guyana, excluding Barbados. It has as its 2nd person counterpart, /alyu/ or variants. 16 2ND PERSON PLURAL (1) • Yoohl in smail. Yoohl siiryos You-all ain’t smile. You-all serious ‘You (plural) did not smile. You (plural) were serious’ [This is a more English-like equivalent of /alyu/, just reversing the order of ‘all’ and ‘you’. It ensures that even those speakers who are shifting to forms close to Standard International English can still be able to distinguish between ‘you, singular’ and ‘you, plural’, not possible in ‘proper’ English.] 17 2ND PERSON PLURAL (2) • Ohyu doohn ondastan wa wii spiikin. All-you don’t understand what we speaking. ‘You (plural) don’t understand what we’re speaking.’ [This is the original Creole form for ‘you, 18 3RD PERSON PLURAL • Dem from di tong spiik difrent. Them from the town speak different ‘Those from the town speak differently.’ /dem/ often varies with a form like /dee/ in more English-like forms of ECA. /Dem/ occurs in subject, object and possessive. 19 NOUN PHRASES • Noun phrases are phrases which have nouns at their centre, like ‘di big maan’, where ‘maan’ is the foundation of the phrase with ‘di’ and ‘big’ just giving information about ‘maan’. In the following examples, we will look at some of the features of noun phrases which make the English Creole of Aruba (ECA) distinct from English. None of those features, however, is unique to ECA and they can all be found in other creoles such as those of St Vincent, Antigua, Guyana, etc. 20 GENERIC • Chrinidadyan doz livin dong heer Trinidadian does living down here ‘Trinidadians live here.’ [When an entire, undifferentiated class is being signalled, ECA uses the plain noun. This is the generic. English uses the plural marker ‘s’ on nouns to signal the same idea.] 21 INDEFINITE ARTICLE • A sii wohn man dee I see one man there. ‘I saw a man there.’ [This example still needs to be checked. If it does occur in ECA, it would pattern the other English Creoles of the region, in which a word meaning the numeral ‘one’, is used as the indefinite article which in English is ‘a’. 22 DEFINITE ARTICLE • Di paati woz a mash-op The party was a mash up ‘The party was very good.’ [The typical way of marking a noun that the speaker expects the listener to know about is with /di/. This is the definite article in ECA. Definiteness is important in ECA since only definite noun phrases can be marked for plural.] 23 PLURAL (DEFINITE) • Kot di wudz dem di seem saiz. Cut the wood them the same size. ‘Cut the pieces of wood the same size.’ [This example shows the use of the third person pronoun, /dem/, to mark a definite noun phrase, here shown as definite by /di/, as plural. Only definite noun phrases can be so marked in ECA and similar language varieties. In the above example, /dem/ co-occurs with the English plural form, /z/, at the end of the noun. 24 ASSOCIATIVE PLURAL • Mi faada dem iz katolik. My father them is Catholic. ‘My father and his associates are Catholics.’ [In the above example, we get a special case of pluralisation involving a definite noun phrase. The speaker, by using the possessive, identifies ‘father’ as known and definite, but then, even though he/she only has one father, nevertheless pluralises with /dem/. This is to signal the associative plural, my father and those associated with him, perhaps on his side of the family, are the ones who are Catholic.] 25 VERB PHRASES • Verb phrases have verbs as the centre around which the phrase is organised. Thus, in a sentence such as /mii eehn go go/ ‘I will not go/be going’, the negative form /eehn/ and the future form /go/ both operate to add meaning to the final word in the sentence, the verb /go/. that final /go/ is the foundation of this particular verb phrase, with the other bits relying on it for their existence in the sentence. In the following, we will cover some of the features of the verb phrase which mark Aruban English creole (eca) as a distinct language form from standard international english. As with noun phrases, most of these features are also present in the other Englishlexicon creoles of the Caribbean and the broader Atlantic area. 26 COMPLETION (WITH ‘DONE’) • A don taak wid hii bout da aredi A done talk with he about that already ‘I have already spoken with him about that.’ [This involves the use of /don/ ‘done’ before the verb to signal in an emphatic way that the action is complete.] 27 COMPLETION (WITH 0) • A fiks op dis Alvo an Charmeen. A fix up this Alvo and Charmaine. ‘I fixed up Alvo with Charmaine.’ [This involves the use of the unmarked form of the verb to signal, in a non-emphatic way, that the action referred to, is complete and done at the time the speaker is making the statement.] 28 PROGRESSIVE • A bizi. A kukn. A busy. A cooking. ‘I am busy. I am cooking.’ [The speaker uses a suffix, /n/ to the verb to signal that the action, rather than being complete if she had said /a kuk/, was still in process at the time of speaking.] 29 PAST (WHEN) • Ai no wen plee domino, ai wen plee kaadz. I no ‘wen’ play dominoes. I ‘wen’ play cards. ‘I didn’t use to play dominoes. I used to play cards.’ 30 [The /wen/ here is a reflex of /bin/, /ben/, PAST (USE TO) • Mamii did laik tu plee kaadz Mami did like to play cards ‘Mami use to like to play cards.’ [/did/ occurs, like /wen/, to signal some action remote from speech time. Like its counterpart, it tends to imply that since the time of the remote action, some other action has intervened. However, not only in this sentence is the action it signals past but it is an action that was regular, one that used to happen on an ongoing basis.] 31 PAST (DID) • If ai did noo wat did hapn ai wudn a go If I did know what did happen I wouldn’t a go. ‘If I had known what had happened I wouldn’t have gone.’ [This is a case of the use of /did/ to 32 PAST (WAS) • Shi wor marid tu a steeshan fela. She were married to a Statian fella ‘She was married to a Statian man.’ 33 IMMEDIATE PAST (JUST) • A dos chrip an fohl A just trip and fall. ‘I just (this minute) tripped and fell.’ 34 FUTURE • A doohn noo if bai tonait dee wohn hav it. A don’t know if by tonight they ‘won’ have it. it.’ ‘I do not know if by tonight they will have 35 FUTURE (GO) • Hii go bii laik aal shai, tu taak He go be like all shy to talk ‘He is going to be like very shy to talk.’ [This involves the use of the verb /go/ which has the normal meaning of ‘go’, before a verb to signal that the message contained in the verb is expected to be true at some time in the future. ECA has a series of related forms, including /wohn/, /eehn/, which also signal future. We will have to investigate, from context, if the /go/ future marking is different in meaning from that of the other future markers.] 36 FUTURE (GO) • Rifainerii oopnin. A gaahn sii was hapnin. Refinery opening. A going see was happening ‘The refinery will be opening. I am going to see what is happening.’ [The context on this one has to be 37 /BIN/ AS VERB OF MOTION • Ai een bin greneeda an dem pleesiz. A biin sin kits I haven’t been Grenada and them places. A been St Kitts. ‘I have not been to Grenada and other such places. I have been to St Kitts.’ 38 [Typically, when /bin/ is used as a verb of HABITUAL • Aal man doz yuuz di word ‘cholo’ All man does use the word cholo ‘Everyone uses the word cholo.’ [One of the outstanding characteristics of most Eastern Caribbean varieties of English Creole is the use of /doz/ as an habitual marker. It precedes the verb, and is sometimes represented by a reduced form such as /iz/. It signals that the verb is regularly or habitually applicable to the subject.] 39 NEGATIVE • A no noo noting bout dat. A no know nothing about that ‘I do not know anything about that.’ [The use of /no/ at the start of a verb phrase is the most Creole way of marking negation, as denying the truth value of the verb phrase. There are other competing forms which operate in a similar way, such as /eehn/.] 40 ADJECTIVE TYPE VERBS • Ai blak. I black ‘I am black.’ [In ECA like other English Creoles, so-called adjectives like /blak/ ‘black’, /yong/ ‘young’, etc. function as verbs, able to be marked for tense and other features associated with verbs. That is why, even though in English, a sentence like this would require a form of the verb ‘to be’ to link the subject with the adjective, in ECA and similar varieties, /blak/ is a verb and needs no linking word. 41 LINKING - TO NOUNS • Yu a fu mi faamilii You a for me family. ‘You are my relative.’ [The linking word when a Noun Phrase subject is linked to another Noun Phrase with the meaning, Noun Phrase 1 = Noun Phrase 2, the form /a/ is used as the linking word. In the above, Noun Phrase 1, /yu/, is linked to Noun Phrase 2, /fu mi faamili/, by the linking word, /a/. This is the typical linking word for this construction across most of the English Creoles of the Caribbean. Interesting in the above example is the use of /fu mi/ to express possession. This is a very traditional English Creole construction involving the placing before a possessing noun or pronoun of the preposition /fu/ ‘for’. This construction typically signals an emphatic form of the possessive. 42 LINKING - TO LOCATION • Si mi hya and mi dya tu See me here and me there too ‘You will see me here and I am there also.’ [In this construction, the place or location adverb, /dya/ ‘there’ is treated in the same way as adjective-type verbs, as a verb of location needing no linking word. Thus we get /mi dya/ which is literally ‘I there’. Even though this construction is both possible and common in other English Creoles, what is interesting so far is the seeming absence in ECA of /de/ or /dya/ as a linking verb, which could produce, /mi dya dya tu/, with the first /dya/ being the linking locational verb and the second the place adverb. This last type of construction is common across the other English Creoles.] 43 EXISTENCE • It hav a lot a inchrestin tingz. There are a lot of interesting things ‘There are a lot of interesting things.’ [This is just one of a variety of constructions involving verbs of having or getting which are used to propose existence of some Noun Phrase. Thus, in the above, the subject of /hav/, /it/, is empty and is there just to combine with /hav/ to indicate that interesting things exist. Versions of this in ECA, include /yu hav/, /yu get/, /it get/ etc. all used to propose the existence of some meaning expressed by a Noun Phrase.] 44 PASSIVE • Dee freed de ge biit op? They afraid they get beat up? up.’ ‘Are they afraid they will get beaten 45 TOPIC MARKING • Iz di bohl hii kick Is the ball he kick ‘It is the ball that he kicked.’ 46 QUESTIONS YES/NO • Yu fain San Nikolas chroo bak? You find San Nicolas throwback? ‘Do you find San Nicolas backward?’ [Yes/No questions are asked in ECA by merely changing the intonation of a sentence from that of a statement to that of a question. No change in word order takes place, marking ECA as distinct from Standard International English in this area.] 47 QUESTION WORD QUESTIONS • We yu bi? • We di buks iz? Where you be? Where the books is? ‘Where are you?’ [In questions such as this one, using question words such as/we/, the answer to the question might be /mi hya/. ‘Where are the books?’ However, the question word /we/ which substitutes for /hya/ comes at the beginning of the sentence. This leaves the sentence with a hole in the end position which is filled by /bii/ or /iz/.] 48 PLACE NOUNS • Wai wii fran SN kan go tong en wai dee kanot kom op hya Why we from SN can go town and why they cannot come up here ‘Why are we who are from SN able to go to town and those in town cannot come down here to SN.’ [Place nouns in ECA and similar Creoles treat 49 WORD REPEATING • Wen wi had stiil ban fos fos … When we had steel band first first ‘When we had steel band at the very beginning.’ [One characteristic of the ECA and similar such speech forms is the repetition of word for emphasis, to produce a meaning equivalent to ‘very’. The repetition of /fos/ signals that the speaker is talking about what happened at the very beginning.] 50 ‘SELF’ AS ‘AT ALL’ • A doohn sii yu, self. Yu chroo mi ohf. A don’t see you. You throw me off ‘I have not seen you at all. You have forgotten about me’. [This use of /self/ with an emphatic meaning is common to the English Creoles of the Caribbean. However, there may be a slight difference in its usage relative to these, perhaps influenced by the use of /mes/ ‘self’ in Papiamentu, with a similar meaning. Some more investigation is required here.] 51 MAKE • (FOR AGE) Shi jos mek siksti faiv She just make sixty five. ‘She would be 65 (if she were alive).’ [The meaning range of the word /mek/ ‘make’ in ECA is somewhat wider than its English equivalent. It is possible to ‘make’ an age, and ‘make’ a baby in ECA, not possible in Standard International English usage.] 52 MAKE (GIVE BIRTH ) • Hoh dohta mek twinz Her daughter make twins ‘Her daughter gave birth to twins.’ The use of ‘make’ to refer to giving birth is typical, not just of ECA but other English-lexicon Creoles of the Caribbean. It is, however, not normal usage in standard varieties of English. 53 LEN (FOR BORROW) • Ai len it from hoh. I lend it from her ‘I borrowed it from her’ [The use of /len/ to mean ‘borrow’ reflects a meaning range which is more extended than in the English equivalent. The use of /laan/ to mean both ‘learn’ and ‘teach’, is common across the English Creoles of the Caribbean. It is worth investigating how common the /len/ for ‘lend’ and ‘borrow’ is, and its possible sources.] 54 55 56