Abstract
Recent commercial developments in the South-eastern Sea Islands threaten the survival of African American communities known as Geechee or Gullah. Descended from slaves brought to the southeast United States between the early 17th and mid-19th centuries, the Gullah-Geechee of South Carolina and Georgia in the United States, have developed distinctive, culturally-expressive Creole communities. The African-American people who were brought to the New World during the time of the Slave Trade are descendants of the tribesmen. They live in this area and still speak variations of the original Creole language known as Geechee. They have customised what they have heard from their English Masters and coordinated their speech muscles. Geechee is not poor or broken English. It is not a dialect of any other language, neither is it Black English. Geechee possesses every element necessary for it to qualify as a language in its own right. This paper investigates Geechee in light of some of the discussions that have been revolving around it; such as the nature of Geechee, its history, the linguistic situation, and the typical features. The phonology and syntax is also discussed in light of its features.
Origin
The Gullah people are direct descendants of Central and West African slaves who lived and still live on the coasts of Carolina, Georgia and northern Florida plantations i.e. the coast of the south eastern United States, from the St. John's River in Florida to the Cape Fear River in North Carolina.
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Their geographic isolation from inland communities’ helped them retain a culture and a language that are distinct from those of other African American populations. On the Georgia Sea Islands, it is called Geechee and in South Carolina, the word Geechee is used to describe white natives of the Sea Islands, many of whom speak with a similar pronunciation.
Gullah or Geechee is a concoction of English (spoken by planters), Scottish (spoken by overseers) and African (spoken by slaves from the Rice Coast of West Africa, Angola, Calabar, Congo, and the Gold Coast).
- Geechee /ˈgi tʃi / (noun) (from the name of the Ogeechee River, in Georgia, US.)
- Noun: Geechee; Plural noun: Geechees
- Adjective: Geechee (comparative more Geechee, superlative most Geechee)
Definition
Gullah/Geechee is a dialect containing English words and words of African origin spoken chiefly by the descendants of African-American slaves settled on the Ogeechee River in Georgia.
History
The origin and history of the Gullah/Geechee people began on African soil. They were descendants of African slaves that were brought to Charleston in the late 1500’s. The slaves were then placed in prison cells along the West African coast line. It was here, the slaves were introduced to Africans from different tribes and regions. Ultimately, this was the beginning of the Gullah/Geechee people; the intermingling of the variety of African backgrounds as well as the different dialects spoken created a new space for the slaves to come together as they customised what they have heard from their English Masters and coordinated their speech muscles.
Language
The Gullah/Geechee language is what linguists call an English-based Creole language i.e., any language that began as a pidgin but was later adopted as the mother tongue by the people in place of the original mother tongue or tongues. This language stems from African roots. In fact, many Gullah words can be traced to specific African groups and tribes. For example, the use of only two pronouns (‘e which means he, she, and it and onna which stands for you, us, and them) as well as the absence of the verb “to be” and the absence of t sounds on the ends of words derive from African linguistics. Basically, creole languages come about when people from different backgrounds come together in situations such as slavery, and a form of communication is needed in order for these diverse groups to speak with one another. It makes sense that the many African dialects have influenced the formation of the Gullah language, but where does English come in?
The Gullah/Geechee dialect, spoken now by only a few hundred people, is a mixture of 17th and 18th century English and of a number of West African languages (among them Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba). There are approximately 3,938 Gullah words that originated from these languages, (Spivey, 2000). These are the few Gullah words taken from The Black Border by Ambrose E. Gonzales:
- Gullah
- Standard English
- Ax’um
- Asked him
- Baa’buh
- Barber
- Baig
- Beg
- Bawn
- Born
- Bin
- Been
- Dat
- That
- Dem
- Them
- Een
- In
- Gran’mammy
- Grandmother
- Hab
- have
Contrary to the opinion still held by some, Gullah/Geechee is not poor or broken English. It is not a dialect of any other language, neither is it Black English but, Gullah possesses every element necessary for it to qualify as a language in its own right. Which means that, English is the target language of Gullah/Geechee, i.e., the language of the people in power. Therefore, because the plantation owners were dominant in power over the black slaves, English became the main thread of Gullah/Geechee speech. Though the African substrate languages have influenced the grammar, sentence structure, pronunciation, and some vocabulary of the Gullah/Geechee language, it has its own grammar, phonological systems, idiomatic expressions, and an extensive vocabulary. Basically, Gullah/Geechee is a customised language between English and African languages from the slaves’ homeland. Since this language was never intended to be written, there are no hard and fast rules governing its orthography. Some African words in Gullah have entered American English, including goober ('peanut'), gumbo ('okra'), and voodoo ('witchcraft').
Here are a few Gullah/Geechee words with African origins. The language or country of origin is listed in parentheses whenever possible: [Taken from 'The Water Brought Us,' by Muriel Miller Branch]
- A'min - Amen (Wolof)
- dash away - to get rid of a bad habit
- eh - yes (Igbo)
- nana - elderly woman, grandmother (Twi)
- shut mout' - secretive or withdrawn
- tata - father (Kongo)
Customizing English with the African Roots – Geechee…
To explain the language, Gullah is spoken delicately, with a rising and falling rhythm. Since this language is English-based, it sounds like English, but there is a tinge of the West African coast in its intonation and stress. The vocabulary of Gullah/Geechee is mostly English with only a few words from African languages significant of its pidgin stage.
Conclusion
Language is so much more than just what we humans write and speak. It is a cultural marker that categorizes the human experience. The Gullah/Geechee people seem to recognize the fact that there is concern for the possible erosion of their language and culture but a brief study of Gullah history reveals that Gullah language and culture will continue to survive in the years ahead. It is to be noted that this Gullah/Geechee language and culture has survived amidst persecution and racism because many Gullah speaking families have passed down their many gifts from generation to generation. These people are proud of who they are, where they came from, and where they are going. This flexible and ingenious group has customised a language, a unique culture, and has found ways to cope with slavery as their life is based on an abiding faith and spirituality. It is mandatory to point out the fact that the Gullah/Geechee language has been rescued from possible oblivion by Lorenzo Dow Turner, an African American linguist. He listened to and recorded not only spirituals but also the local songs that had been passed down from generation to generation in America, which had their origins in West Africa. These are even available today in the Lorenzo Dow Turner Collection of Audio Recordings, available in the Hog Hammock Public Library, Sapelo Island, Georgia.
Works Cited
- Turner, L. D. (1974). Africanisms in the Gullah dialect. Ann Arbor, Mich: The University of Michigan Press.
- Turner, Lorenzo D. (1949). Africanisms in the Gullah dialect. University of Chicago Press.
- Bennett, John (1908). Gullah: A Negro patois. South Atlantic Quarterly 7.4, pp. 332-347.
- Cassidy, Frederic (1983). Sources of the African element in Gullah. In Lawrence Carrington
- (ed.): Studies in Caribbean language. Society for Caribbean Linguistics, pp. 75-81.
- Mufwene, Salikoko (1985). The linguistic significance of African proper names in Gullah.
- New West Indian Guide 59, pp. 149-166.
- Smith, Reed (1926). Gullah. University of South Carolina Press.
- Troike, Rudolph C. (2003). The earliest Gullah/AAVE texts: A case of 19th-century mesolectal variation. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Linguistics 18 (2): 159-229.
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