Language in Exile: Three Hundred Years of Jamaican Creole

3. Reconstructing the Sound System

3 Reconstructing the Sound System So yuh a de man me hear bout! Ah yuh dem seh dah teck Whole heap a English oat seh dat Yuh gwine kill dialed Meck me get it straight, Mas Charlie, For me no quite understanYou gwine kill all English dialec Or jus Jamaica one? Louise Bennett, "Bans a Killin" The phonological structure of early Jamaican Creole can be inferred only after detailed orthographical analysis. Such analysis is complicated by the problems that writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries would have encountered in their efforts to set down an oral, nonstandard language that partially overlapped with their own. Early texts show that different writers made very different attempts at spelling the creole. The differing strategies of monolinguals, of native bilinguals, and of nonnative bilinguals in writing down a language, reflect the orthographical problems caused by differing language backgrounds. Differences in social class and regional origin must have affected the writers' interpretation and representation of the creole they heard. 1 The creole they encountered was uncodified, unlike contemporary written English, which had acquired fixed conventions by the late eighteenth century. Then as now, however, English spelling allowed many alternative symbols for single sounds (e.g., "ie," "ea," "ee" in grief, beat, and sleep). Such variety does not help an English writer attempting to record JC. Unsurprisingly, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century texts abound with spelling variants that mayor may not represent differences in pronunciation. The difficulties can be clearly observed by a glance at the 47 48 Early Jamaican Creole range of forms possible for JC equivalents to English "negro." No less than thirteen forms occur: nego, neger, negor, negur, neegor, neogo, nigger, niggo, niggor, niggoh, nogo, noygor, nogur. Modern JC commonly uses [niega] or [nega], and DJE notes that the "influence of Sp negro, Fr negre, Du neger in the Caribbean area may have contributed to the retention of this older sound." In using such variants the recorders may have unwittingly represented etymologically distinct forms. Not only do different writers represent the sound patterns ofJC in varying ways, but even within the work of a single author inexplicable shifts occur. A lack of understanding of JC structure, intrusion of English features , and simple carelessness born of contempt all affected spelling and must be taken into account in order to reconstruct phonological patterns. The writer's origin, education, grasp of languages and dialects, social class, and associated social dialect may affect his or her orthographical representation ofJC. Besides, the actual ability to write the oral language systematically seems highly variable. One writer includes only a few local words and characteristic grammatical structures; another attempts a more precise rendition that indicates consonant changes like [9] > [t] and [v] > [b]; yet another goes farther still to reflect details of vocalic pronunciation in weoste and soort. Some appear to achieve a systematic relationship between JC sounds and written symbols; others appear to make arbitrary and rather inconsistent choices of representation. In either case the writer 's involvement with educated English almost certainly intrudes. Such intrusions may be conscious or unconscious. It is clear that the writer cannot avoid using English conventions in spelling English-based words. The orthography of the official language is a nonlinguistic factor that influences the spelling of creole words (Hall 1966: 45-48; cf. Hancock 1977). It is not unreasonable for English orthographical practices to influence the spelling ofJC, of course. Had eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury writers attempted to avoid Standard English spelling, they could only have alienated their readers, most of whom would have been unfamiliar with JC. On the other hand, some writers capitalized on the distinctiveness ofJC from familiar English forms to develop setting and characterization and to heighten humor, sensationalism, and mood. As motives for recording the creole vary, so does its representation. Different genres (and, within them, different registers) plainly elicited different orthographical effects. Dialogues sometimes display persistent hypercorrection because of Massa's presence. Tales may preserve highly deviant forms in the speech ofa few select protagonists. Songs may reveal unusual patterns of hyphenation (for instance), in order to indicate their meter. Each shifting glimpse allows further insight into the phonological system ofJe. Reconstructing the Sound System 49 All of these problems in interpretation arise from the very real difficulties inherent in representing an oral, creole language. A phonemic orthography, providing a distinct sign for each significant sound, is frequently the practical and scientific choice for providing a...