Gullah

Gullah (also known as Geechee) is an important Creole developed in the coastline and islands from the Carolinas, Georgia and northeastern Florida. Gullah language was developed in the XVIII century by the reunion of slaves from West Indies, Irish and Scottish settlers.

Most of the vocabulary is based on English and the grammatical structures are derived from the West African languages. According to the African American Registry, the gestures, rolling rhythm, variations in tone and strong storytelling practices are important characteristics of Gullah language and culture.  

In the XIX and most part of the XX century, Gullah was a target of prejudice, but the language survived because the geographic isolation of the african-american speakers community, called “Gullah Nation”.

Since the decade of 1980, the interest in Gullah language and culture grew higher and, nowadays, the Gullah Nation has a leader with the title of Queen Quet which participates in United Nations forums.

Even so, the construction of vacation homes and golf courses in the south coastline are threats to traditional spaces and practices of the Gullah Culture in the XXI century.

Jeff Stevens, from University of Washington, in his article “Gullah”  described some gullah language characteristics.

As the phonology:

and the syntax:

The Gullah Tours has a glossary of Gullah words as:

Noura F. Abdou, from University of Regensburg, made a very interesting analysis of Gullah and made a comparison between a English text from the Bible and the equivalent part in Gullah language:

Storytelling is a important aspect of Gullah culture. Bellow, a video of the Charleston Museum about the Gullah story Foot too Crooked.

More materials about Gullah Language:

Jeff Stevens article describe Gullah language principal structures: http://faculty.washington.edu/wassink/gullah.pdf)

Noura F. Abdou present a complete article about Gullah language with historical background, demographic setup and language description: http://www.hrpub.org/download/20140105/LLS3-19301860.pdf  

Gullah Tours has a interesting material as a glossary and recordings in Gullah Language:   http://gullahtours.com/gullah/gullah-words

In this video, from National Geographic, the Gullah storyteller Theresa Jenkins Hilliard testify about the Gullah language formation in the slaves communities and the difficult life in XVIII and XIX century plantations. Images and songs are important part of the reconstruction of the Gullah past. http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/magazine/141015-ngm-ace-basin-gullah

The Gullah speaking territory are considered a national heritage area, a space for cultural and historical conservation and development. The Gullah Geechee Corridor website offers information about the gullah language, culture and relevant visiting sites.

http://www.gullahgeecheecorridor.org/?Itemid=113

Joseph A. Opala offers as historical review about the Gullah language and the studies about it. Also, he offers a interesting connection between Gullah and african languages as krio from Sierra Leone:

http://glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Gullah%20Language.pdf

Language Prejudice

One important aspect to think about when studying Creoles is the prejudice question. In the interaction between two different speech communities (one of them using a Creole) is a common thing to the language of one of them (the Creole) be classified as a “broken” variety of the other.

Gullah language is an example of Creole that is classified as “broken English” by the English speaking communities that enters in contact with individuals from Gullah Nation.

The language prejudice generally became a cultural one too. The video, from Ted ex Charleston, present the cultural preservasionits Ron Daise speaking about his relation to his Gullah-Geechee heritage.

This video is a fine way to understand more cultural aspects of Gullah language and culture as the importance of intonation and musicality.