Kumanti in Contact: Creation of a Ritual Vernacular

–Robert Borges. Kumanti in contact: creation of a ritual vernacular Da Tano Losa in his Kumanti shrine in Mainsi, Februari 2008. (photo, Thoden van Velzen) Saturday, December 13, 2014 –Robert Borges. Kumanti in contact: creation of a ritual vernacular Da Tano Losa in his Kumanti shrine in Mainsi, Februari 2008. (photo, Thoden van Velzen) Saturday, December 13, 2014 Outline: 1. What is Kumanti? General introduction Part I: The African Retention Hypothesis (ARH) 2. Maroon ritual languages & the ARH 3. Ndyuka Kumanti 3.1. data collection 3.2. linguistic structures 3.3. composition of the lexicon 4. Conclusion Part I. Kumanti, a mixed language 4.1. comparison with Akan Saturday, December 13, 2014 Outline: Part II: Maroon interactions in the spirit realm 5. contact: runaways, medicine, and war 6. comparison of Kumanti “ethnolects” 7. conclusion: so, where does Kumanti really come from? Saturday, December 13, 2014 1.What is Kumanti? Saturday, December 13, 2014 What is Kumanti? • Kumanti is one of several spiritual societies with an associated secret/ritual language spoken among Afro-Caribbean populations. •Attested among Surinamese and Jamaican Maroons Saturday, December 13, 2014 Maroons in Suriname Saramaccan Matawai Kwinti Ndyuka Paramaccan Aluku (map adapted from Smith 1987) Saturday, December 13, 2014 What is Kumanti? Kumanti – “een groep van krachten (obia) waarvoor somige roofdieren en roofvogels model staan. De mediums van deze geesten vormen een genotschap dat in de vorige eeuw nog regelmatig bijeenkomsten kende. In de Lonten, de Aluku-oorlog (1792-93) en de Binnenlandse oorlog (1986-1992) vormden deze mediums de elite van de strijders” (Thoden van Velzen & Hoogbergen 2011:336; van Wetering & Thoden van Velzen 2013:324). Saturday, December 13, 2014 What is Kumanti? Kumantitongo – “De taal van een Kumantiman of Kumantimedium. Naast de gewone, alledaagse ‘profane’ taal, gebruiken Maroons sacrale talen, behoren bij bepaalde rituelen. Van die talen zijn het Papa, het Kumanti, en het Ampuku de bekendste. De kennis van zo’n sacrale taal is voorbehouden aan een aantal specialisten , die deze gebruiken binnen het medischereligieuze complex voor bijstand en genezing bij ziekte en ongeluk” (van Wetering & Thoden van Velzen 2013:324). Saturday, December 13, 2014 • Ritual languages have been presented as preserved West African Languages •Kumanti ≈ Akan The Hypotheses: Shrine to the "rst Runaways and their African ancestors in Benanu, 1978 (photo, W. van Wetering). Saturday, December 13, 2014 Akan Languages Source: http://img.modernghana.com/ images/content/k52rj77ihd_akanmap.gif Saturday, December 13, 2014 hypotheses • 17thC Africa can be found in the bush of Suriname (Herskovits & Herskovits 1934). • Morton Kahn. 1939. Africa’s Lost Tribes in South America: An On-the Spot Account of BloodChilling Rites of 200 years ago Preserved Intact in the Jungles of South America by a Tribe of Runaway Slaves. Natural History. 43: 209-214, 231-232. Saturday, December 13, 2014 hypotheses • Konadu (2010) - Akan in!uence all over all over the Americas and the Caribbean, incl. Suriname ritual languages. Evidence: short wordlist, questionable (IMO) form correspondences • Devonish (2005) - JA Kramanti “is an Akan language”. Evidence: lexical. • Harvey (2011) - attempts to link JA Kramanti phonologically to various Akan languages. Evidence: lexical. Saturday, December 13, 2014 hypotheses Ndyuka chief Gazon Matodja greets Ashanti king Otunfuo Opoku Ware II in Kumanti, stimulating a short conversation. Saturday, December 13, 2014 hypotheses Captain André Pakosie and a komfo from Kokofu. After making an o#ering at the komfo’s shrine in which Captain Pakosie spoke Surinamese Loango, the komfo was surprised to learn that Pakosie was not Ghanian since he could understand everything which was said. Saturday, December 13, 2014 hypotheses Film: Katibo Yeye - Fantie speaker taken to Saramacca, reportedly conversing in Kumanti Saturday, December 13, 2014 The Hypotheses: 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 1650-1679 1680-1689 1690-1699 1700-1709 1710-1719 1720-1729 1730-1739 1740-1749 1750-1759 1760-1769 1770-1779 1780-1789 1790-1803 Slave imports to Suriname from the Gold Coast (Akan). red = Gold Coast, blue = rest of slave imports records of Spoken Akan in Suriname in 1773 (v.d. Berg 2013 Voyages Database 2009 Saturday, December 13, 2014 3. Ndyuka Kumanti Saturday, December 13, 2014 3.1. data collection •Recordings from the past decate or so of various upriver Ndyuka from Thoden van Velzen’s & van Wetering’s anthropological "eld work. •Data collection in 2010 & 2010 upriver Tapanahony villages (Diitabiki, Mainsi, Godo-olo) and Cottica (south of Moengo) •translation tasks, isolating words and phrases, getting ‘lessons’ •“take what you gett approach”, puzzle analysis (cf. Price 1983, 2008; Bilby 2008; Thoden van Velzen & van Wetering 2004) Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Phonology •Stress is not "xed. •tone plays a limited role = Ndy (n)á NEG (n)a COP / LOC / 3SG bóbo ‘child’, bobó ‘vagina’, bobo ‘broken’ Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Nouns •Nouns are characterized by relative time stability, a vestigial noun class system, co-occurrence with determiners, special honori"cs, and modi"cation from adjectives and numerals. Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Nouns (class) •An overwhelming majority of nouns begin with a or o / ô, mirroring the vestigial Kwa like noun class system (Aboh 2007:81). These are not used consistently, i.e. both pre"xes can occur with the same lexeme, or they can be dropped from the lexeme altogether. atyuwa / ôtyuwa ‘dog’ aminto / minto ‘stool’ ôkôkôlô / kôkôlô ‘chicken’ Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Nouns (DET) •determiners are cognate to Ndyuka & precede N •Inde"nite wan duampõ ‘a boat’ DET boat •de"nite a nen ‘the name’ DET name den bifo pipli ‘the ancestors’ DET bifore people Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Nouns (HON) •Some (mostly animate) nouns and gods are preceded with an honori"c title: tata ‘father’, mama ‘mother’ or basi ‘boss’. Only people and gods in Ndyuka. tata kobua ‘drum’ tata otyuwa ‘dog’ tata ôkôkôlô ‘rooster’ mama Akwapoba ‘Ms. Akwapoba’ tata Înzilidankwi ‘Mr. Înzilidankwi’ basi nana ‘God’ Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Adjectives •Adj = small (closed?) class. Attributive adjective in the NP: DET ADJ N. Adjectives of quantity before quality. No honori"cs occur with adjectives. ablowa mama ‘old mother’ old mother iniiwan pipli ‘each person’ each person iniiwan dompo tata ‘every old man’ each old father Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Numerals •Kumanti numerals are the same as Ndyuka numerals plus ten. In the following example, the Kumanti numeral tinafo ‘four’ is the same as Ndyuka ‘fourteen’. No ordinal numbers occur in the data. Tata ôtyuwa hankaa tinafo osònu. HON dog COP four foot ‘The dog has four feet.’ Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Pronouns •Subject pronouns mi#1SG#wi / u#1PL yu / i#2SG#u#2PL a#3SG#den#3PL# ibiiwan#‘everyone’ •Only 1SG possessive pronouns attested, no object pronouns - 3rd person should be di$erent if whole pronoun system is parallel to Ndyuka. Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Posession •Possession strategies are like Ndyuka - Juxtaposition or possessed + fu + possessor. mi kôtôkoiboi fu mi dômpo tata anga 1SG descendent FU 1SG old father and mi dômpo mama 1SG old mother ‘I am my father’s and mother’s descendent.’ Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Nominal Predication •No verb or copula is necessary for present reference - ungrammatical in Ndyuka mi kôtôkoiboi 1sg descendent ‘I’m a descendent.’ •However verb or copular element is the norm in predication. Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Constituent Order •mostly Sneg.aux.VO - But there is some variability within the word order, some clauses are verb final. basi nana akrobi mintua îniba hon god son earth come ‘God’s son came to earth.’ Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Coordination •Coordination in Kumanti is accomplished with a number of elements cognate to those in the other Surinamese creoles. Noun phrases are coordinated with the conjunction (n)anga ‘and’. At the clause level, da ‘then’ and ma ‘but’. mintawô hankra adankagri nanga ôkumudya earth COP confusion and evil ‘There is confusion and evil in the world.’ Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Coordination te bronsikin abongai mintua abeenkuma when sun meet earth dusk da troki kaba then talk finish ‘When the sun sets, then (we) finish talking.’ tata otyuwa hankaa tinafo osònu ma hon dog COP four foot but a nái dablamaningete tinafo amainsa 3SG NEG.IPFV walk four path ‘The dog has four feet but doesn’t walk four paths.’ Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Locatives •Like Ndyuka, locative phrases are introduced with a general location preposition (Huttar and Huttar 1994:185) na. Unlike Ndyuka, however Kumanti PPs do not include a post NP “location word” to specify the relation between the figure and ground. u hankala gini na basi nana grin ponu 1PL COP here LOC HON god green earth ‘We’re here on God’s green earth.’ a buku de na tafaa tapu (Ndyuka) DET book COP LOC table top ‘The book is on the table.’ Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Adverbs •Several types of adverbial phrases are attested in the data: interrogative, temporal, and, locational. •The temporal adverb te ‘when’ is cognate in Ndyuka te bronsikin abongai mintua abeenkuma when sun meet earth dusk ‘When the sun sets...’ Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Adverbs •Locationa gini ‘here’ is not cognate among the creoles. mi o sêêmba gini 1SG FUT leave here ‘I will leave here’ •Interrogative hofasi ‘how’ is an older variant in the Surinamese creoles (van den Berg 2007:253), though it is no longer used in Sranan or the maroon creoles. hofasi hankaa how cop ‘How are you?’ Saturday, December 13, 2014 Kumanti Derivation saafuboi ‘youngster’ < saafu ‘soft’+ boi ‘boy’ (also for female) mlekuboi ‘baby’ - mleku ‘milk’ + boi “boy” Atekelebutiki ‘paddle’ - Atekelebu ‘back and forth motion’ + tiki ‘stick’ badyabadya ‘quickly’ < Twi bagya ‘four legged animal’ afladunuplasi fu bêmpêni ‘granman’s area’ < afladu ‘trustworthy person’ + plasi ‘place’ osinaweiduampo ‘sailboat’ < osinawei ‘wind’ + duampo ‘boat Saturday, December 13, 2014 3.3. composition of lexicon •The lexicon has multiple origins: West African (Akan, Gbe, kiKongo) (cf Price 2007), Surinamese creoles (Ndyuka, Old Sranan, Saramaccan), Dutch, innovation. •tendency for functional vocabulary to be of Ndyuka origin. Saturday, December 13, 2014 4. Conclusion Part I: A Mixed Language Saturday, December 13, 2014 Constituent / Structure distrib. type of element nouns verbs function lexemes structures nonNdyuka yes yes minimal minimal Ndyuka no minimal yes yes Kumanti: a mixed language Saturday, December 13, 2014 5. contact: runaways, medicine, and war Saturday, December 13, 2014 Language Creation •The social motivation: •new identity —>language mixing —> new language “of our own” (Bakker 1997, etc) •performing said identity (cf. Berliner 2012) •language attitude’s role in the speed of language change (cf. Rickford 1985, Roberts 2000) •Perceived need for secrecy – anti-language cum guild language (Kiessling & Mous 2004, Borges 2013) Saturday, December 13, 2014 Language Contact •Human interaction: •Kumanti “present on the slave ships” (Thoden van Velzen and Hoogbergen 2011) •Prominent among the runaways (Ndyuka) •Continued in!ux - Kumanti knowledge not limited to the original runaways Saturday, December 13, 2014 Language Contact •...Human interaction: •mid 18thC - Ndyuka delegation to Aluku to trade obia with Kwadyani (Kumanti teacher of Boni) (Thoden van Velzen & Hoogbergen 2011:238-9) •1830s-40s Ndyuka and Aluku Kumanti men worked together “like colleagues”. Flow of knoledge and material (oral history accounts; van Wetering & Thoden van Velzen 2013:103-106) Saturday, December 13, 2014 Language Contact •...Human interaction: •1860s, exchange of ‘obia’ between Ndyuka and Saamaka. Establishment of Ndyuka’s Gaan Gadu movement by Da Saka in Saamaka - winning followers by the hundreds (van Wetering & Thoden van Velzen 2008: 123-6, Price 2008:138-39). Saturday, December 13, 2014 Language Contact •...Human interaction: •1930s, Wensi possessed by ‘new’ Kumanti, caused a split among Ndyuka Kumanti practitioners between Amanfu and old Kumanti (Amanfu already known among city Creoles & Aluku); shift in power relations within the spirit realm (Kumanti subjugates Ampuku) felt all over the Maroon world (Thoden van Velzen & van Wetering 2004, van Wetering and Thoden van Velzen 2013:197-200, Green 1974, de Beet and Sterman 1981, etc.) Saturday, December 13, 2014 Language Contact •...Human interaction: •Civil war (binnenlandse oorlog 1986-1992) - Bodoo (Pamaka) aquired Kumanti obia from Boni (Aluku) & utilized this among Jungle comandos (Ndyuka, Pamaka) •Aluku Gaaman provided Kumanti training to Jungle commandos (van Wetering and Thoden van Velzen 2013:305-307) Saturday, December 13, 2014 Language Contact •...Human interaction: •recently - Kumanti training not limited to Maroons, city Creoles, Hindoestani and Javanese taking part in Kumanti training Saturday, December 13, 2014 6. Kumanti ‘ethnolects’ Saturday, December 13, 2014 ‘ethnolects’ •Hurault (1983) short description (1 page) and wordlist (2 pages) of Kumanti as spoken by Aluku “La langue Kumenti ne paraît pa comporter une véritable grammaire, elle se construit sur le schéma de la langue ordinaire, avec les mêmes pronoms et les mêmes pré"xes marquant le tems des verbes, mais elle paraît comporter un vocavulair très éntendu, dont nous n’avons pu recueillier qu’une faible partie.”pp.38 Saturday, December 13, 2014 Acknowledgements •Funding: ERC advanced grant to the Traces of Contact Project #230310; Fund for Endangered Languages •Supervisors: Pieter Muysken & Margot van den Berg •Collaborators: H.U.E. Thoden van Velzen & Inneke van Wetering† •Consultants and friends in Suriname. Saturday, December 13, 2014 Thanks! (Reference list on request) [email protected]om Saturday, December 13, 2014