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Suriname folk-lore (1936)

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Titelpagina van Suriname folk-lore
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© zie Auteursrecht en gebruiksvoorwaarden.

Suriname folk-lore

(1936)–Melville J. Herskovits, Frances S. Herskovits–rechtenstatus Auteursrecht onbekend

Vorige Volgende

3. Linguistic Notes

As indicated, the language spoken in Paramaribo is taki-taki, or Negro-English, that of the Saramacca people is the Saramaka tɔ̨ŋgo, or Negro-Portuguese and English. In rendering the translations of the texts we collected we have retained as much of the idiom and sentence structure as would not do too much violence to simple English constructions. A literal translation was impossible, since it would have rendered the tales unintelligible.Ga naar voetnoot1 An analysis of some of the texts raised the question as to what cultural mechanisms operated to produce the linguistic elements that recur with such regularity, for even a first reading of the material made evident that we were dealing with an inner structure that was the result of something other than the blind groping of

[pagina 118]
[p. 118]

minds too primitive for expression in modes of speech beyond their capabilities.Ga naar voetnoot1

We may name some of the characteristics that stand out as forms foreign to the idiom of European languages, but which occur with a consistency that characterises grammatical forms.Ga naar voetnoot2 Among these may be noted the absence of sex-gender in pronouns, and the failure to utilise any methods of indicating sex except by employing as prefix the word for ‘man’ or ‘woman’, or the use of relationship terms, like ‘father’, ‘mother’, ‘brother’, ‘sister’Ga naar voetnoot3; the manner of indicating the possessive;Ga naar voetnoot4 of expressing comparison;Ga naar voetnoot5 of employing nouns for prepositions of place.Ga naar voetnoot6 The use of a series of verbs to express a single action,Ga naar voetnoot7 or the use of verbs to indicate habitualGa naar voetnoot8 and completedGa naar voetnoot9 action also characterises this speech, as does the employment of the verb ‘to give’ as a preposition,Ga naar voetnoot10 the use of ‘to say’ to introduce objective clauses, making the only English translation possible the word ‘that’,Ga naar voetnoot11 the use of ‘make’ in the sense of ‘let’,Ga naar voetnoot12 of ‘back’ to mean ‘again’, ‘behind’, ‘in

[pagina 119]
[p. 119]

back’, and ‘after’.Ga naar voetnoot1 Repetition of words for emphasis is a regularly employed mechanism,Ga naar voetnoot2 and this form is also used to indicate a more intense degree of the action,Ga naar voetnoot3 or to change a verb into a noun,Ga naar voetnoot4 while the verb ‘to go’ often carries the significance of ‘will’.Ga naar voetnoot5 Stylistic traits that appear regularly are the opening of many sentences with the word ‘then’,Ga naar voetnoot6 the change to the future tense to mark an explanatory interval between two actions which are separated from each other in time,Ga naar voetnoot7 and the use of the adverb tɛ to express emphatic distance, or effort, or emotion, or degree. Phonetically, also, deviations from the pronunciation of European words are quite regular, as, for example, the interchange of ‘r’ and ‘l’; the degree of nasalisation, about which we have already commented; or the insertion of a ‘y’ after ‘c’ in such words as ‘car’ and ‘carry’ and ‘can't’; or the tendency to end all words with a vowel,Ga naar voetnoot8 so that ‘call’ becomes kari or kali, ‘look’ becomes luku, ‘must’ changes to musu; the use of elision and the dropping of final syllables.

It soon became apparent that the characteristics which could be singled out in the Negro-English of Paramaribo were also manifested in other regions of the New World where Negroes speak English. Our first comparison was made with the speech of Jamaica, and in the following list we give some of the correspondences to Suriname speech we found:Ga naar voetnoot9

[pagina 120]
[p. 120]

one great hungry time (p. 1) wąn bɩgi pina tɛm
take out the fishes, one one (p. 1) puru na fɩsi wąn-wąn
mak I bu'n you (p. 4) mek' mi brɔ̨n yu
belly full (p. 4) bɛre furu
I will carry you go (p. 5) mi sɑ tyari yu go
eat done (p. 11) nyąm kaba
Tiger study fe him (p. 11) Tigri prakseri fō hɛm
knockey han' (p. 15) naki hanu
mak we wring de neck t'row, 'way in de bag (p. 16) mɛk' wi broko na nɛki trowɛ na ɩ̨ni na saka
hungry tak him (p. 22) hɔ̨ŋgri tek' hɛm
so-so dog-head (p. 22) soso dagu-hɛde
carry the cow come (p. 27) tyari na kau̯ kɔm
it spoil (p. 33) a pɔri
he wanted to eat him one (p. 37) a wąni nyąm hɛm wąwąn
tell him mus' tak out piece of meat gi' him (p. 38) taki a mus' tek' wąn pis' meti gi 'ɛm
but me have one cock a yard fe me wife (p. 39) ma mi habi wąn kaka na dyari fō mi wei̯fi
when dem ketch a pass (p. 44) te den kɩsi 'a pasi
see one little stone a river-side deh (p. 51) si wą' pikin sitǫ a libasei̯ dɛ
me nyam-nyam taya (p. 54) mi nyąm-nyąm tai̯a
run go (p. 55) lɔ' go
roll in filth today-today (p. 56) lolo na dɔti tide-tide
so after de eat an' drink done (p. 57) so tɛ den nyąm ɛ̨n drɩ̨ŋgi kaba
at door-mout' (p. 75) na dɔ̨ro mɔfo
an' went away to ground (p. 93) ɛn gowe na grɔ̨
kyar' me go sell (p. 153) tya' mi go sɛri
catch half-way (p. 169) kɩsi 'af-pasi
night catch him on de way (p. 180) nei̯ti kɩsi hɛm na pasi

In addition, we found correspondences in such pronunciations as ‘bwoy’ (p. 2), for ‘boy’, of ‘kyan't’ (p. 2), for ‘can't’, ‘kyan-crow’ for ‘carrion-crow’ (p. 80, Suriname yankoro), of ‘busha’ for ‘overseer’ (p. 80, Suriname basha or bassia), while the words ‘nyam’ for ‘eat’, ‘Buckra’ for Bakra, ‘white person’ (p. 22), ‘oonoo’ for ‘you’ (p. 40, Suriname ųn, or unu), as well as the exclamation ‘Cho!’ which is often heard in Suriname, were further indications of linguistic similarity between the two regions.

However, these correspondences in speech were true not alone of the idiom and pronunciation of Jamaica where resemblances could be explained on definite historical grounds,Ga naar voetnoot1 for in our next com-

[pagina 121]
[p. 121]

parison with the speech recorded by Parsons of the Andros Islanders in the Bahamas,Ga naar voetnoot1 we found the following correspondences:

says to Boukee, says (p. 1) taki a...Ga naar voetnoot2 taki
day clear (p. 3) dei̯ krɩ̨
dat sweet (p. 6) dɑti sui̯ti
but b'o' Boukee was beeg eye (p. 9) ma ba... 'abi bɩgi ai̯Ga naar voetnoot3
Vwhen he reach in de half way (p. 10) te a kɩsi na 'af pasi
an' he went, an' he meet no rabbit yet (p. 11) ɛn a go, ɛn a no miti kɔn-kɔni yɛte
de han' fasten (p. 13) na hanu fasi
gal, you love me so till (p. 14) umą, yu lɔbi mi so tɛ...
brer, loose me (p. 16) ba, lusu mi
next day evening (p. 19) tra dei̯ nei̯ti
finish eat (p. 24) kaba nyąm
Two-Yeye (p. 28) tu yeyeGa naar voetnoot4
I sick bad (p. 30) mi sɩki ɔgri
bathed his skin (p. 37) wasi hɛm sɩkinGa naar voetnoot5
... an killed two thousand men dead one time (p. 38) ɛn kiri tu dui̯sen suma dɛdɛ wą trǫ
eat her bellyful (p. 39) nyąm hɛm bɛri furu
time he hear dat, he get up an' call Lizabet, say.. (p. 44) te a yere dɑti, a opo kari Lizbet, taki..
they fry fowl egg, many cake, give him (p. 53) den bɔriGa naar voetnoot6 foru ɛksi, furu kuku, gi 'ɛm
yer only goin' meet poppaone.. (p. 60) yu go miti papa wą...Ga naar voetnoot7
torectlyGa naar voetnoot8 Rabby cry... (p. 85) no mo Kɔnkɔni bari...
...va you dere gwine? (p. 114) pɛ yu dɛ go?
show you macaseeGa naar voetnoot9 (p. 141) sɔri yu, mek a si

As in Jamaica, there were also correspondences to Suriname pronunciation. Many of these have been given above, but others are ‘kyarry’ (p. 3, Suriname tyari) for ‘carry’, ‘kyarridge’ for ‘carriage’ (p. 28), ‘ooman’ (p. 115) for ‘woman’, or ‘kyamp’ for ‘camp’ (p. 148).

[pagina 122]
[p. 122]

Yet another comparison was had when we analysed the language of the tales recorded by ParsonsGa naar voetnoot1 in the Sea Islands. Some of the correspondences to Suriname Negro speech we found in this collection are as follows:

Rabbit tell Fox, said (p. 9) Kɔnkɔni taki...Ga naar voetnoot2 taki.
an' dat make Ber Rabbit have short tail ... (p. 18) ɛn dɑti meki Ba Kɔnkɔni habi pikin tɛre...
... an' de tail come fo' white 'til to-day (p. 19) ...ɛn na tɛre kɔ̨' fō wei̯ti tɛ tide.
she was too happy nowGa naar voetnoot3 (p. 24) ɛ̨ŋ bɛn tumusi breiti nō
tell de gyirl fo' love him (p. 25) taki na umą fō lɔbi 'ɛm.
... de han' fasten (p. 26) ...na hanu fasi
day clean (p. 28) dei̯ krį
man, don't you see all dis fresh meatGa naar voetnoot4 standin' in dis lot? (p. 32) man, yu no si ala dɩsi meti tenapu na dyari?
Rabbit lie in de sun on his so' skin (p. 44) Kɔnkɔni didǫ' na sɔ̨n na hɛm soso sɩkin.
an' all her people died out an' leave her oneGa naar voetnoot5 (p. 46) ɛn hɛm heri famiri go dɛdɛ ɛn libi hɛm wąwą
so he study... (p. 78) so a prakseri...
... your rice too much better (p. 104) ...na alei̯si fō yu tumusi bɛtre.
... people tell, say... (p. 140) ...suma piki taki...

Some of the phonetic correspondences are ‘yeddy’ (p. 1, Suriname yere) for ‘hear’, ‘kyart’ for ‘cart’, ‘kyarry’ for ‘carry’, ‘kyan't’ for ‘can't’ (p. 1), and ‘shum’ for ‘see him (or them)’ (p. 18). Similar phrases and phonetic shiftsGa naar voetnoot6 are to be found in the speech of the islands as reported by Peterkin, Gonzales, Stoney and Shelby, and Johnson.Ga naar voetnoot7

Correspondences of this character made it clear that, whatever the provenience of these phrases and phonetic parallels, they were

[pagina 123]
[p. 123]

common to Negro-English in the New World. This suggested that it would be profitable to investigate pidgin English as spoken in the region of Africa from whence came the Negroes who laid down the fundamentals of New World Negro culture.Ga naar voetnoot1 As only few data on pidgin are available,Ga naar voetnoot2 it was necessary to go into the field to obtain the requisite material for such an investigation, and a field-trip to West Africa made this possible. During a short stay in Nigeria a small collection of tales in pidgin was made,Ga naar voetnoot3 and though these numbered but seven, the following significant phrases occurred in them:

chop no de' (p. 448) nyąm no dɛ
my neck is pain me too much (p. 448) mi nɛki 'ati mi tumusi
I be good man, true (p. 449) mi wą bǭ' mąn, tru
... all de white man, dey fit to make men by demself..(p. 455) ...ala Bakra suma, dę fɩti fō meki suma den srɛfi...
w'en Adjapa reach inside de bird... (p. 451) tɛ Adjapa kɩsi na ɩni fō na foru...
an' her mother took one give to her pikin (p. 456) ɛn na mama teki wą gi na ɛ̨ŋ pikin
he run come from inside de hole. (p. 458) a lɔ̨ kɔmōto na ɩ̨ni na ɔro
... took de man fo' dey house ...(p. 458) ...teki na mąn fō na 'oso...
...if I salute you two more time... (p. 461) ...ɛfu mi piki yu tu trǫ mɔro...

In Africa, as in the New World, we found the phonetics of Negro speech producing such changes in English pronunciation as ‘cyap’ for ‘cap’, ‘dyah’ for ‘jar’, ‘hyar’ for ‘hear’.

The tales told us in Nigeria, however, were given by informants who had had some degree of schooling, and whose pidgin English was therefore modified by what teaching they had received. The extracts from historical tales of Dahomey which follow were told us, however, by an informant who had learned his English entirely ‘by ear’. This man, a son of former King Behanzin,Ga naar voetnoot4 had left Dahomey and had lived in the coastal and interior regions of Nigeria for more than ten years, where, in the course of his everyday life, he had learned what English he knew.

[pagina 124]
[p. 124]
Dis princess, she palaver too much. If he marry dis man today, tomorrow he go way leave 'um. He suffer everybody. He vex he fadder too much, so he sell 'um go 'way. He no can kill he own daughter, so he sell go 'way. When he never see he daughter no mo', he sorry now. He say, ‘Who find daughter, I give dash plenty,’ say, ‘I give everyt'ing.’ Now dey bring him come. Now he start make lau again. He fadder say, ‘You be my proper blood,’ say, ‘I like you too much when you be quiet.’ But he make too much trouble. Sell 'em again to Portuguese. White man take him go. Dey de' fo' Whydah. Dey no go fo' sea yet... Dis princess he was ploud. He was fine too much. He fine pass all woman. Dere was hole in Allada, nobody mus' go. Princess he steal he fadder sandal at night. Nex' day ol' woman see someone was in hole, come tell king. Everybody go for look, see king foot. King vex, say, he no go. Princess he laugh, say, ‘Who go? Look, you foot.’... He (Hwegbadja) give dem order again say, if be somebody go put faiah to anode' man house fo' burn anode' man house, if sometime he no like 'em, he burn house, if he see, kill 'um, bring him head come, show, say, ‘Dat man burn house.’ I see, I kill 'um. Den if he tell dem so, den man have enemy, take man who do not'ing, cut head and bring, den if he fin' man lie, he go kill 'um de same. Den he say, if take small small gyal (girl) no be big 'nough, if somebody spoil 'um dey go kill 'um. Make nobody see people dey pass wit' load, go sell 'um. If somebody do so, he go find out, he kill 'um... Den de people who de' fo' odde' king country de' lon com' fo' Hwegbadja, say, ‘If my fadde' die, you go bury fo' me. To put fo' stick no good.’... So people like it too much.

Many of the idioms and phonetic shifts of Suriname speech, the West Indies, and the United States appear in these excerpts: ‘too much’ for ‘very much’, ‘sell go 'way’ for ‘sell and send away’, ‘bring him come’ for ‘bring him (her)’, ‘take him go’ for ‘take away’, ‘dey de' fo' Whydah’ for ‘they are at Whydah’, ‘dey no go fo' sea yet’, literal translation of the Suriname den no go fō si yɛte, ‘ploud’ for ‘proud’, ‘he fine pass all women’, the African comparative that finds its Suriname equivalentin a moi̯ mɔro ala umą, ‘gyal’ for ‘girl’, ‘if somebody spoil 'em’, the Suriname equivalent of pɔri in the significance of ‘deflower’, ‘make nobody see people dey pass...’, mek' nową si suma den pasa, ‘lon com’ for lɔ̨ kɔm, and, finally, the use of the term ‘stick’ to mean ‘tree’, a usage which has its equivalent in the Saramacca use of the term pau̯, also ‘stick’, for ‘tree’.

In Dahomey, a possession of France, this was the only English we heard. French has little pidgin, yet occasionally, in contact with a native who had not been educated in the schools, we would hear

[pagina 125]
[p. 125]

une fois, the French equivalent of the Suriname wą trɔ̨, used exactly as the people of the Sea Islands employ ‘one time’. We would hear a native telling another to go doucement, doucement, - safri, safri, as the Suriname Negro has it, - while phonetic shifts which cause the White man to eat ‘flied potatoes’ in Nigeria and in Suriname, make him eat pommes flites in the French territory of Dahomey, or cause a native to point out a young woman walking along the road with the remark ‘C'est mon flere, là. C'est femme, eh?’Ga naar voetnoot1

Still pursuing the subject of correspondences between New World and West African Negro English, we collected more tales in pidgin among the Ashanti of the British territory of the Gold Coast, - among some of these very people to whom the Suriname Negroes, in their folk-lore, owe their trickster-hero, Anansi. We give here some of the correspondences in phraseology which are to be found in these stories:Ga naar voetnoot2

if Kwaku Anansi chop dat co'n he go die... ɛf' Kwaku Anąnsi nyąm dɑti karu, a go dɛdɛ...
hunger go kill me hɔ̨ŋgri go kiri mi
hungry kill him too much hɔ̨ŋgri go kiri ɛ̨ŋ tumusi
w'y you big man sabi war, you no wan' go war, sen' pikin go? sąn 'ɛdɛ yu bɩgi mąn sabi feti, yu no wąn' go feti, sɛn' pikin go?
go kill' em one time go kiri ɛ̨ŋ wantɛ
in de mawnin' time... na mamɛ̨ntɛ̨m...
w'en you go, don' go small, small like t'ief tɛ 'i go, no go pikin pikin lei̯ki fufurumą
he run-go and cut it a lɔ̨-go, kɔti ɛm
sasabonsam fin' dat he tail no de s....feni dati ɛ̨ŋ tɛre no dɛ
you must call my sheep come yu muso kari mi skapu kɔ̨
W'en Kwaku Anansi he come de, he no sabi, say, ‘Tiger sleep for de sheep place.’ Te Kwaku Anąnsi a kɔm dapɛ, a no sabi, taki, ‘Tigri sribi fō na skapu-presi’.

[pagina 126]
[p. 126]

He tell he husband, say, ‘I finish’. A taki ɛ̨ŋ mąn, taki, ‘Mi kaba’.
den he fear too much. dą' hɛm fredi tumusi
den he sen' all him pikin one, one dąn a seni ala hɛm pikin wąwą
Den himse'f say, make he go see 'em. Dąn ɛ̨ŋ sʾrɛfi taki, mek' a go shi'm.
dey laugh, laugh, laugh te ... make small dey all two... den lafu, lafu, lafu tɛ... meki pikin den ala tu...
dey run long te... he no catch Aduwa. den lɔ̨ʾ tɛ... a no kɩsi Aduwa.
he go cover hi'self someplaceGa naar voetnoot1 a go kɩbri hɛm s'rɛfi na wą presi
two weeks catch tu wiki kɩsi
Some small, small man say, wan' go bush. W'en he go, he meeti some big wate' in bush de. Wą pikin, pikin mąn taki, wani go na busi. Tɛ a go, a miti wą bɩgi watra na busi dɛ.
Den he sta't to heah talk fo everyt'ing in de worl'. Dąn a bɩgin fō yɛre na taki fō ala sani na grɔ̨n-tapu.

While with the Ashanti, we were also able to obtain some characteristic expressions from a member of the Mossi people from the northern territories of the Gold Coast, whose pidgin was as untutored and as rich in flow as any we heard in West Africa.

de chief hask dem say... na gramą ɑksi hɛm taki...
So you be chief pikin. Make you sing, make me see. W'en you be chief pikin, me go know. So yu gramą pikin. Mek yu sɩ̨ŋgi, meki mi si. Tɛ yu na gramą pikin, dą' mi go sabi.
he cover he sikinGa naar voetnoot2 all a kɩbri hɛm heri s'kin
w'en dey get up fo' dance, now dance go 'bout six ya'ds tɛ den tenapu fō dąnsi, den dąnsi go sɩksi...Ga naar voetnoot3
he run go bush wit' pikin a lɔ̨-go busi nąŋga pikin
dis firs' time he de' fo' town dɩsi fɔsi tɛm a dɛ fō foto
rabbits den chop all bush meatGa naar voetnoot4 kɔnkɔni den nyąm ala busi meti
so he cali a house again, say... so a kari na hoso agɛn, taki...
rabbit he pass all sense for play trick kɔnkɔni, a kɔni mɔro ala fō prei̯ trɩki

Still other examples are to be found in Cronise and Ward's Temne tales. These are rendered in pidgin, and beside the idiomatic

[pagina 127]
[p. 127]

expressions and constructions cited by the authors in their ‘Introduction’Ga naar voetnoot1, the following may be also found; under each of the expressions we place the taki-taki equivalent:

One ooman get girl-pickin (pickaninny), (p. 49)
Wąn umą kɩ̨si umą-pikin

He go inside one big forest whey all de beef duh pass. (p. 41)
A go na ɩni wąn bɩgi busi pɛ ala dę' meti dɛ pasa

Spider take de hammer soffle (softly), he hit Lion one tem... (p. 43)
Anąnsi teki na mɔkro safri, a naki Leō wąn tɛm

De ooman ax de man: ‘Nar true?’ (p. 47)
Na umą aksi 'a mąn: ‘Na tru?’

Spider go nah puttah-puttah, he look sotay (until)... (p. 48)
Anąnsi go na ...,Ga naar voetnoot2 a luku so tɛ...

‘Na play I duh play’ (p. 48)
Na prei̯ mi dɛ prei̯

One day me bin say Bowman long pass dis tick... (p. 48)
Wąn dei̯ mi bɛn taki Aboma ląŋga mɔro dɩs' tɩki...

One net big rain fa' down (p. 55)
Wan net' bɩgi alei̯n fadǫ'

Dat make tay (until) today... (p. 63)
Dat' meki tɛ tidɛ...

...en I mus' kare dis fiah go home (p. 64)
...ɛn mi mus' tyar' dɩs' fai̯ah go na hoso

Dey all tow, dey duh sleep (p. 66)
Den ala tu, den dɛ sribi

...all run go (p. 70)
...ala lɔ̨ go

...'tan' up nah de do'-(door) mout' (p. 70)
...tɛnapu na dɔro mɔfo

[pagina 128]
[p. 128]

Make I tie um 'roun yo' mout', make I hole
Meki mi tai̯ ɛ̨ŋ lɔntō yu mɔfo, meki mi hɔri

um, so w'en I duh shake, shake, make I no fa' down. (p. 72)
ɛ̨ŋ, so tɛ mi dɛ sɛk-sɛki, mɛk' mi no fadǫ

I done bring Trorkey come (p. 75)
Mi dɛ tyar' Sɛkrepatu kɔm

Dem beef all come, dey try, dey no ableGa naar voetnoot1 (p. 83)
Den meti ala kɔm, den proberi, den no mąŋ

...he no bin 'tan' lek today... (p. 93)
...a no bɛn tą' lɛk' tide...

Hungri tem (famine) done ketch dis Africa (p. 117)
Hąŋgri tɛm bɛn kɩsi dɩs' AfrikaGa naar voetnoot2

De two beef no' know say... (p. 120)
Den tu meti no sabi taki...

...he drag dem nah sho'... (p. 121)
...a hari (haul) dem na shɔro...

...make we come go; ef no so, ef he meet yo',
...mɛk' wi kɔm go, ɛf' no so, ɛf' a miti yu,

he go kill yo' (p. 185)
a go kɩri yu.

Spider he smart man fo' true, true (p. 213)
Anąnsi a kɔni mąn fō tru tru

W'en 'fraid ketch Lepped... (p. 225)
Tɛ frede kɩsi Tigri

...I go mi one (alone), (p. 234)
...mi go mi wąn

Make yo' kare mi nah yard (p. 247)
Mek' yu tyar' mi na dyari

De grabe 'plit mo' (p. 272)
Na grebi priti mo

[pagina 129]
[p. 129]

Story done (p. 278)
Tɔri kaba

He see white clo'es, no mo' (p. 294)
A si weti krosi, nō mō

Well, de debble pull one sing (p. 182)
Wɛ, na die̯bi puru wąn sɩ̨ŋgi

The correspondences between the speech of New World Negroes in idiomatic expression and the pidgin English of West Africa suggested a further inquiry. It seemed logical to investigate whether there might not be some underlying similarity in aboriginal speech that could account for the large number of parallels between New World and African Negro English. To this end we drew up a list of taki-taki idioms, and asked our interpreterGa naar voetnoot1 to give us the corresponding Twi phrases for these, being careful, however, to state them to him in the English, rather than taki-taki manner of expressing the ideas contained in them. The following list gives some of the resultant Twi idioms, with their literal meaning expressed in English words:

Bring fá bra,Ga naar voetnoot2 (take come)
Take (away) fá kɔ' (take go)
Run away djua̯ne kɔ' (run go)
I am hungry ɔḱɔm di mî (hunger eat me) or ɔḱɔm okų́ mî (hunger kill me)
Give birth to a child wa nyá abɔfrá, (he catch child)
Let us go ma yɛ ųŋḱɔ' (make we go)
I traveled for a long time m(i) anan ti, anan ti, anan ti, (I walked, walked, walked)
I went to look for something
I did not find it
mi kɔ' hwí hwê, m(i) ąn hų́n
(I go look for find, I no see)
Early in the morning anɔpa tútú, (morning early)
All of you, mǭ́ nyį̀na‧, (you all)
She is very nice, no hǫ́ŋ yɛ fɛ' dodo', (he skin is nice much-much).
Do it at once yɛ no prɛ̂‧ko (do it time one)
That is why aśɛm nútî, (case head)
He told me ɔką́ŋ tchiŕɛ mísê (he tell show me say)
A thing done one at a time nkorǫ́ (n)koro, (one, one)
Little by little kakrá kàkra, (small, small)
Bigger esų́ŋ sɩne no', (big pass it)

[pagina 130]
[p. 130]

Edge of the road kwán hɔ̨́, (road-skin)
I am angry m(i) akúmâ' ehuru',Ga naar voetnoot1 (my heart burns)
In the road mi wɔ kwanemu, (I am road inside)
He came to a stream ɔba túwô esúyó bí, (he-came met river some)
Add one to it fa kóró toso, (take one put top)
After this yei̯ ɛchíri, (this back)
To calm a person djōdjō n(a) akómâ máno, (cool he heart give him)
‘Meat’ (for animal) o kokúm nám, (he go kill meat)
Wild animal wirɛm nam, (forest meat, = bush meat)
He is very foolish ɔyɛ kwasi á dodo', (he is fool too much)
He is very strong ́ɛyɛ dɩŋ dodo', (it is strong too much)
The tale is very nice aśɛm' no yɛ dɛ dodo', (story it is sweet too much)
I am afraid súró kâ mè, (fear touched me) or súró chíre mî, (fear catch me)
He walked a short way ɛnantî kakrá, (he walked small)
Do you understand English? wó tê brɔfô, (you hear English)
He brought it to me to see ɔfá brá mi hẃɛ, (he took come me see)

The above list shows that many of the idioms peculiar to Paramaribo, Jamaica, Andros Islands, and the Sea Islands are literal translations of Twi. The presence of similar idiomatic expressions in Yoruba, Fɔ̨, Ewe and Hausa speech, and as reported by Cronise and Ward and others, leads to the further hypothesis that these idioms are basic to many, if not all, of the West African tongues.

Though this establishes the provenience of a large proportion of the idioms, explanation of the non-European constructions remained to be made. In earlier studies of taki-taki and other New World Negro speech, there had been several attempts to trace the provenience of vocabulary,Ga naar voetnoot2 but not of morphology. ParsonsGa naar voetnoot3 makes some cogent observations on prevalent grammatical forms, and offers as a possibility that these may derive from African usage. Available grammars of West African languages throw considerable

[pagina 131]
[p. 131]

light on these perplexing constructions, and, though it is not possible here to give a complete discussion, a few examples will make the point that in this, as in the instance of many of the idioms whose literal translation we have given, the peculiarities of Negro speech are primarily due to the fact that the Negroes have been using words from European languages to render literally the underlying morphological patterns of West African tongues.

Let us consider first the tendency of New World Negroes to use the verb ‘to give’ for the English preposition ‘for’. In EweGa naar voetnoot1 na, ‘to give’ is used in just this manner, and we read that

‘...what one does to another is done for him and is, as it were, given to him, e.g.,... he said a word (and) gave (it) to the person, i.e., he said a word to the person; he bought a horse (and) gave (it) to me, i.e., he bought me a horse.’

In rendering Ashanti tales, it is explained that ma, which is translated by the preposition ‘for’ is really the verb ‘to give’.Ga naar voetnoot2 In Gą, ha, ‘to give’, is used as we would use ‘for’ in English, when employed with persons.Ga naar voetnoot3 The Fante-Akan language utilises the verb ma, ‘to give’ as an equivalent of the English preposition ‘for’;Ga naar voetnoot4 while, turning to a Yoruba text we find a phrase which, literally translated, reads

‘Ils prennent vont donnent au roi’, and has the meaning of ‘They bring to the king.’Ga naar voetnoot5

In the matter of gender, we find in grammars of West African languages the explanation of the seeming lack of differentiation of sex in the use of pronouns. We have noted how ‘he’ and ‘she’ are interchanged in West Africa and Suriname; how, in the West Indies and the Gulla Islands, ‘he’ is employed to indicate both a man and a woman. Ewe, we find, ‘has no grammatical gender’.Ga naar voetnoot6 Do the Ewe, then, fail to distinguish persons who differ in sex? Not at all; they must, however, employ nouns, such as ‘man’, ‘woman’, ‘youth’, ‘maiden’, ‘father’, ‘mother’, or they must add either -su, ‘male’, or -nɔ, ‘female’ to a given word as a suffix. Yet this latter method is that of New World Negro English, as, for example, when the Suriname Negro speaks of a man-pikin, - a boy, - as against an umą-pikin, a girl. In Gą,Ga naar voetnoot7 as in Ewe, gender is designated by a prefixing or a suffixing of an element, in this case, yo for woman and nu for man, though there are a few differ-

[pagina 132]
[p. 132]

entiating words such as ‘husband’, ‘wife’, ‘father’, ‘mother’, and the like. Similarly, in the related Fante-Akan speech,Ga naar voetnoot1 it is by affixing particles or utilising different words, that the difference of sex is indicated. Of Yoruba we read that

‘The Yoruba language being non-inflective, genders cannot be distinguished by their terminal syllables, but by prefixing the words ako, male, and abo, female, to the common term;...’Ga naar voetnoot2

Perhaps no other element in taki-taki proved more difficult to translate than those expressions containing what Westermann terms ‘substantives of place.’ While taki-taki does not have all the connotations given for each of the words listed in his Ewe grammar,Ga naar voetnoot3 all the words he cites in this connection have their taki-taki equivalents, and many of these equivalents have retained several of their meanings in Ewe. Thus, in taki-taki as in Ewe, na mɩ̨ndri, (the Ewe dome) not only means ‘a place between’, but is also used with the meaning of ‘between’, ‘among’, ‘in the midst of’. Tapu, (Ewe dzi), means not only ‘top’ but also ‘the sky’, and ‘over’, ‘on’, and ‘above’. Inisei̯ in Suriname (Ewe me), as in Africa, carries the significance not only of ‘inside’ but also of ‘the context of a word of speech’. Na baka is difficult to translate into English until its equivalence to the Ewe megbe is perceived, when it becomes clear that it not only signifies ‘the back’ but also ‘behind’ and ‘after’ and ‘again’. A last example (though this does not exhaust the list) shows the derivation of the numerous curious uses of the taki-taki word hɛdɛ, ‘head’. The Ewe equivalent, ta, besides its initial significance, means ‘point’ or ‘peak’, ‘on account of’, ‘because’, ‘therefore’, and ‘for that reason’, the last being the exact translation of the Suriname word in such a phrase as fō dɑti ɛdɛ. For Gą we find similar constructions reported.Ga naar voetnoot4 Thus, the Gą people say, ‘he looked at his face’ for ‘he looked in front of him’; ‘my garden is at the house's back’ for ‘my garden is behind the house’; ‘he went to their middle’ for ‘he went among them’; ‘walk my back’ for ‘walk behind me’. In Fante the same construction is found.Ga naar voetnoot5

If one wishes to know the grammatical bases of such usage as the reflexive pronoun, den fɔm den s'rɛfi; the order in which those in a compound subject involving the speaker are named, mi nąŋga yu; the cohortive form, which expresses an invitation, as mɛk' wi go for ‘let us go’; forms like mi dɛ go, mi bɛn go; the use of a separate term (like the taki-taki kaba) to denote completed action; the use of the word ‘to say’, a taki, to introduce objective phrases; the use

[pagina 133]
[p. 133]

of the term ‘more’ (‘surpass’)Ga naar voetnoot1 to make the comparative form of the adjective, he will find all these discussed in grammars of West African languages. Let us here only indicate, from Westermann, some other rules of Ewe that, as for other West African tongues, still are operative for taki-taki. When one says ‘he is four years old’,Ga naar voetnoot2 he says ‘he has received four years’ - the Suriname a kɩsi fo yari kaba; if one wishes to say ‘I know something’, he says ‘I have come to know something’,Ga naar voetnoot3 - taki-taki mi dɛ kɔm sabi wą sani. In Ewe, for ‘tell the Governor’, one says, ‘say it give Governor say’, our taki gi Gramą taki;Ga naar voetnoot4 the Ewe use of the double verb occurs also in taki-taki as krɔi̯pi a krɔi̯pi.Ga naar voetnoot5

In our examples, we have cited the language of the Negroes of Paramaribo. Except, however, for the greater presence of both African and Portuguese words in the Saramaka tɔ̨ŋgo,Ga naar voetnoot6 a greater use of elision, and the omission of the r, this language follows in idiom and structure that of the town, as the several Saramacca proverbs with the equivalents in taki-taki, and the interlinear English translation serve to illustrate.Ga naar voetnoot7

It may be well to restate the conclusions arrived at on the basis of comparing taki-taki with Negro English in the New World, pidgin English in Africa, Ashanti idioms, and West African grammatical forms as illustrated in Yoruba, Ewe, Fɔ̨, Gą, Twi, Mende, Hausa and other West African languages.Ga naar voetnoot8

1. Parallels to taki-taki were found in Jamaican speech, in the Bahamas, and in the Sea Islands of the United States.

2. Similar parallels were also found in pidgin English as spoken in Nigeria and on the Gold Coast, as well as in such specimens of Negro-French spoken by natives with no schooling as were available.

3. Phonetic peculiarities which Negro speech exhibits in the New

[pagina 134]
[p. 134]

World were met with in African pidgin, and it was possible to trace them to African speech.Ga naar voetnoot1

Therefore, it must be concluded that not only taki-taki, but the speech of the other regions of the New World we have cited, and the West African pidgin dialects, are all languages exhibiting, in varying degrees of intensity, similar African constructions and idioms, though employing vocabulary that is predominantly European.

We have thus far made no mention of the element of tone in taki-taki. Tone is to be found in Paramaribo Negro speech, as it is in Africa, but whereas in Africa tone is ‘significant’, in Paramaribo we have come across no example where tone entered into the determination of grammatical form. An extended study is necessary to determine definitely whether all significant tone has been lost in the New World. It can be assumed, however, that relatively little tone of grammatical importance has held over in taki-taki, though in Saramaka tɔ̨ŋgo it has been possible to isolate tonal configurations of significance.

One point has yet to be touched upon, and concerns the European elements, other than vocabulary, that have entered into the organisation of taki-taki. It must be evident that with the loss of tone certain Europeanisms had to be introduced to meet the linguistic needs of the Negroes in their new environment. It need not be stressed here that this involves no implication that the recognition of such a need is a conscious one. That acculturation was not limited to vocabulary, but made for the introduction of morphological characteristics of European origin as well, is to be seen in the position of the adjective in the sentence, for example, where the modifier most frequently appears before the word it modifies, instead of after the word, as in African usage.

Finally we must call attention to the fact that just as English words had in earlier times replaced Portuguese, as is evidenced by the difference in the speech of the bush and town Negroes, and as African words for non-ritual phenomena are tending to disappear, to be replaced by English, or Dutch ones, so Dutch is today replacing many of the English words. Instead of boi̯ we often hear yųŋgu, instead of umą-pikin we hear mei̯shɛ, instead of umą we hear fro, and we hear the words drei̯ for ‘turn’, and wardɛ for ‘worthy’, dax for ‘howdo’ (odi), and hemɛl for ‘sky’. One encounters nōtu for ‘need’, rɛkfardig for ‘just’, ferstąn for ‘understand’, fertro for ‘trust’, xolōku for ‘luck’, sipotu for ‘ridicule’, frandra for ‘change’, mɛshandɛl for ‘abuse’, beina for ‘almost’, ɔndrosuku for ‘examine’, gɛbɔro for ‘born’, regɛl for ‘rule’, stɔfu for ‘stewed’, strafu for ‘punishment’, skotu for ‘fence’, sontu for ‘healthy’. Still other words are sufficiently similar, both in English and Dutch,

[pagina 135]
[p. 135]

to make difficult the determination from which of the two languages they stem. What is significant is that, whether English or Dutch, these words are spoken in sentences which adhere to the rules of grammar we have described.

voetnoot1
This is readily seen from a glance at the word-for-word translation of the fragment from Van Cappelle given above.
voetnoot1
This hypothesis is the one most commonly met with in discussions of Negro pidgin dialects, and of Negro speech variants.
voetnoot2
In giving examples, we cite only one or two instances of each point; similar forms occur repeatedly in the texts.
voetnoot3
Wᾳ' m'ma bɛn dɛ di 'ab dri umᾳ-p'kin - ‘There was a mother who had three daughters (lit. women-children).’ (Tale No. 99).
voetnoot4
Dᾳ' Tigri mama bɛn dɛ libi na wᾳn presi di 'ɛ̨ kari Sotwatrasei̯. ‘Then Tiger's mother (lit. Tiger mother) was living at a place which was called Saltwaterside.’ (Tale No. 3), or Ma di den hari den tɛtɛɩ kɔm na dɔro, na kau̯ fō Anᾳnsi bɛn mᾳŋgri, ‘But when they pulled out the cords, Anansi's cow (lit., the cow for Anansi) was lean.’ (Tale No. 34).
voetnoot5
Na karu fō yu moi̯, ma di fō mi mɔro moi̯ - ‘Your corn is nice, but mine is nicer (lit., the corn for you nice, but that for me more nice).’ (Tale No. 19).
voetnoot6
Lɛti na Konum stupu tapu si wan Sɛkrepatu bɛn dɛ... ‘Even on the King's stoop there was a Tortoise... (lit., Right the King stoop top see one Tortoise was there...)’ (Tale No. 25; see also p. 132, note 3).
voetnoot7
Anᾳnsi hati-brɔ̨n. A naki na godo broko. ‘Anansi was angry. He smashed the gourd (lit., he knocked the gourd broke).’ (Tale No. 65) Dᾳn tyari na foru nɛki kɔ̨ gi Konum. ‘Then he brought the bird's neck to the King, (lit., then carry the fowl neck come give King).’ (Tale No. 67).
voetnoot8
Anᾳnsi bɛn go fufuru na Konu 'oso. ‘Anansi was robbing (i.e., was in the habit of robbing) the King's house.’ (Tale No. 9).
voetnoot9
... dᾳn tɛ yu pɔti na nyam na ɩni na patu kaba, dᾳ' yu prei̯ nᾳŋga na pat tapu ʾᾳŋga na tɩki, ‘Then when you finish putting the food into the pot, then you play with these sticks on top of the pot. (lit., then time you put food the inside the pot finish...)’ (Tale No. 117).
voetnoot10
Na Satra fɔs' Anᾳnsi go prek na tyerki, a tai̯gi ɛ̨ŋ fro taki mek' a 'ᾳŋga blaka pak' gi' ɛ̨ŋ... ‘The Saturday before Anansi was going to preach he said to his wife said, let her hang up his black suit for him... (lit. make her hang black suit give him...)’ (Tale No. 88).
voetnoot11
Ma Kaimᾳn bɛn sabi taki na so Anᾳnsi bɛn kiri den tra meti - ‘But Alligator knew that it was so that Anansi had killed the other animals’, (lit., But Alligator was know say...) (Tale No. 29). Rattray (V), p. 51, says: ‘se. This word has lost its association with its original root se, and becomes exactly the equivalent of the English “that”.’
voetnoot12
Mek' wi go na Papa, go puru nanyᾳm, - ‘Let us go to the Papa, and gather food (lit., make we go).’ (Tale No. 48).
voetnoot1
Di a waka so tɛ... a miti tu pikin boi̯ baka, - ‘As he walked so till... he met two boys again (lit., met two boys back).’ (Tale No. 104). So a tɛnapu na baka wᾳn bom, - ‘So he stood behind a tree (at the back of one tree).’ (Tale No. 104).
voetnoot2
Tru-tru, mᾳn dɛ mɔro lei̯ki mi, - ‘There are indeed men who are more than I am.’ (Tale No. 105).
voetnoot3
Ma nō, Sɛkrepatu no mᾳŋ waka, ma krɔi̯pi a dɛ krɔi̯pi, - ‘But now Tortoise could not walk, but creeping he crept along.’ Sɛkrepatu pina-pina gowɛ, - ‘Tortoise mournfully went away.’ (Tale No. 17).
voetnoot4
Konum habi wᾳn grɔ̨', a habi furu nanyᾳm, - ‘King had a field, he had many crops.’ (nyᾳm as a verb means ‘to eat’; nanyᾳm is contracted from nyᾳm-nyᾳm). (Tale No. 8).
voetnoot5
Yu dɛnk' te yu dɛ mek' so mi n'e go tyari ya na Konu hoso? - ‘Do you think if you carry on so I won't take you to the King's house?’ (Tale No. 31). G. Merrick in ‘Notes on Hausa and Pidgin English’, pp. 304-5, says: ‘Intention is expressed by the idea of motion. Example “I will do” by “I go do”... The above remarks though probably applicable to other African languages, have been written with speech reference to Hausa.’
voetnoot6
As in Tale No. 22; also Balmer and Grant p. 38, ‘The past tense may also be indicated by placing nna (then)... before the present.’
voetnoot7
As in Tale No. 7, the third paragraph. Parsons (II), p. 41, has a similar example, and interestingly enough this is one of the stories written by the informant.
voetnoot8
de Gaye and Beecroft, p. 6. state ‘Without any exception all Yoruba verbs end in a vowel, or in the nasal n.’
voetnoot9
We take our examples from Beckwith (II), and the page numbers in parenthesis after each quoted phrase refers to this work. In this, as in the lists that follow, only the first occurrence of a given idiom is referred to, though all those we cite are quite common. Following the example, we give the corresponding taki-taki equivalent.
voetnoot1
Johnston (I), p. 112, note 2, indicates some of the historical currents that connect Jamaica and Suriname.
voetnoot1
Parsons (III).
voetnoot2
Taki-taki has no ‘Boukee’; it is the idiom to which we wish to call attention.
voetnoot3
In both Suriname and the Bahamas, the meaning of a ‘big eye’ is greedy.
voetnoot4
That is, ‘two eyes’.
voetnoot5
In both regions, ‘skin’ is used for ‘body’.
voetnoot6
We know of no taki-taki word for ‘fry’.
voetnoot7
Parsons, in a footnote, explains that ‘poppaone’ means ‘poppa by himself’, which corresponds to the Suriname and Jamaican usage already illustrated.
voetnoot8
‘directly’ or ‘at once’.
voetnoot9
‘macasee’ here is evidently a coalescing of the phrase ‘make a (him) see’, found in taki-taki for ‘let him see’.
voetnoot1
Parsons, (II).
voetnoot2
Taki-taki has no word for ‘fox’ that we know of.
voetnoot3
The footnoted explanation of ‘too’ as ‘a characteristic use for “very”’ exactly corresponds to the way Suriname Negroes employ tumusi.
voetnoot4
Note the use of the word ‘meat’ with the meaning of ‘live animal’ in both instances.
voetnoot5
Once again the use of ‘one’ for ‘alone’ is to be remarked.
voetnoot6
Tribute must be paid to the insight with which Schuchardt, pp. ix-xiv, discerned the resemblances between the speech of various groups of Negroes in the New World and taki-taki, on the basis of a vastly smaller amount of data than is available today.
voetnoot7
This is not the place for an analysis of the provenience of the speech of the Gulla Islanders and of American Negroes in general. However, sufficient data are in hand to make it evident that it is in this matter of idiom, rather than in vocabulary (as Johnson, I, attempts to show), that an explanation of its peculiarities and provenience is to be sought.
voetnoot1
Herskovits, (III).
voetnoot2
There are the tales of Cronise and Ward, and it is worthy of remark that several students of New World Negro dialect have noticed correspondences between the speech recorded in these tales and that of the Negroes which those students have investigated. The paper by Merrick is perhaps the only study extant of West African pidgin as such.
voetnoot3
Herskovits, M. and F. (II).
voetnoot4
François Behanzin. The tales from which these excerpts are taken were recorded in Abomey, Dahomey.
voetnoot1
Not enough data in Negro-French were available when this section was written to make the sort of comparisons we make here between Negro-English in Africa and in the New World. Our experience with Negro-French in Dahomey, however, compared with the few examples of Haitian French were able to find in the literature, and with the sketch of (Louisiana) Creole grammar by Fortier (II, pp. 125-147), convinced us that study would show a unity of Negro-French wherever spoken that would be akin to that of Negro-English and, more, that a basic similarity in idiom between Negro-French and Negro-English would also be found to exist. These assumptions have been more than validated by the texts published by Parsons (VII), which appeared while this work was in press, by her unpublished manuscripts of Haitian tales, which we have been privileged to examine, and by the findings of our own field-work in Haiti during the summer of 1934.
voetnoot2
Herskovits, M. & F., (III). These tales being in manuscript, no page references can, of course, be given here.
voetnoot1
The use of the word ‘cover’ having the sense of ‘hide’ is to be remarked.
voetnoot2
Again one finds the use of ‘skin’ for ‘body’. One morning our steward-boy, after receiving a message from the chief of Asokore for us, translated as follows: ‘De chief he sen' hask how you sikin be tiday.’ It was a formal inquiry about our health.
voetnoot3
In Suriname the unit used for measuring is the ell and not the yard.
voetnoot4
‘Bush-meat’, i.e., wild animals.
voetnoot1
pp. 32-34.
voetnoot2
This word does not exist in taki-taki.
voetnoot1
This simple sentence illustrates admirably the manner in which taki-taki has incorporated words from many sources into a grammatical form common to African languages. Thus meti, ‘meat’, for animal, kɔm, for ‘come’, no for ‘not’ are from English, ala, ‘all’ is from English or Dutch, proberi, ‘try’, is from Dutch, while mąŋ, ‘to be able’ is from Ewe.
voetnoot2
In Suriname they would say Nɛ̨ŋgrɛ kɔ̨ndre, ‘Negro land’, for ‘Africa’.
voetnoot1
It is a pleasure to record our indebtedness to our interpreter, Charles Donkoh, for the assistance he gave us while among the Ashanti.
voetnoot2
In transcribing Twi, the same phonetic system employed for taki-taki has been used except that an apostrophe here stands for a glottal stop, and that tonal marks (á = high, a = middle, à = low, â = middle to low, ǎ = middle to high, â = high to low) are employed.
voetnoot1
Ehuru' means ‘something that is put on the fire and cooks’.
voetnoot2
Cf. Ortiz, (II), passim, for Cuba, Guy Johnson, Ch. I, for the Sea Islands, and, outstandingly for taki-taki and Saramaka tongo, with full bibliography, Schuchardt, op. cit., passim.
voetnoot3
Parsons, (II), p. xx. On p. xvii, note 5, similarities in idiom between the Sea Island speech and that of Sierra Leone, as recorded by Cronise and Ward, are cited.
voetnoot1
Westermann (Ia), p. 50. The examples cited for Ewe also apply in the case of Fɔ̨, the related language of Dahomey, as can be seen by referring to Delafosse's Manuel, passim.
voetnoot2
Rattray (III), p. 28.
voetnoot3
Wilkie, p. 30.
voetnoot4
Balmer & Grant, p. 24.
voetnoot5
Bouche, (I), cols, 129-30. Other Yoruba examples may be found in de Gaye and Beecroft, passim.
voetnoot6
Westermann, (Ia), p. 43.
voetnoot7
Wilkie, p. 7.
voetnoot1
Balmer and Grant, pp. 62-64.
voetnoot2
S. Johnson, p. xxxvi; Gaye and Beecroft, p. 8.
voetnoot3
Westermann, (Ia), pp. 52ff.
voetnoot4
Wilkie, p. 29.
voetnoot5
Balmer & Grant, ch. xi.
voetnoot1
Thus King, p. 196, states of Hausa, ‘The absence of any proper comparative is one of the weakest spots in the language. The English... “too many”, “too good”, etc., can only be rendered by the use of the verb fi - “to pass or excell”... “He is cleverer than you” - Ya fika nankali (lit., “He surpasses you as to sense”)...’
voetnoot2
p. 116.
voetnoot3
p. 119.
voetnoot4
pp. 126-7.
voetnoot5
p. 129.
voetnoot6
Cf. Schuchardt, pp. 46ff., and Herskovits (I).
voetnoot7
A somewhat more detailed consideration of Saramaka tɔ̨ŋgo must be reserved for inclusion in a projected analysis of the culture of the Saramacca tribe of Bush Negroes.
voetnoot8
We have not mentioned influences of the languages of the Indians of Suriname in our discussion because these influences lie mainly in the field of vocabulary, which we have not considered, and also because Indian influences, compared to European and African, have been slight. We have also not mentioned the languages of the Congo in our consideration of African tongues, but only because grammars of these languages were not available to us.
voetnoot1
Cf., for example, Balmer & Grant, p. 14, sections 12 and 13, for their remarks on the ‘glide’ in Fante.

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