Vocabulary
Introduction
Below follows a listing of all the BD words which surfaced in my fieldwork. They are
listed in alphabetical order. The symbol ε follows e, while \ follows s. The choice to
include items which are more properly described as GCE rather than as BD was
determined by (1) frequency of use; (2) the availability of an original BD item to
express the same concept. Thus, a GCE word such as anti 'aunt' is much more
frequently used than BD tanti, which sane speakers don't even know, and there is no
BD equivalent for GCE hospital 'hospital'.
Each item is listed with—minimally—information on its source language,
grammatical class and gloss. As much as possible, examples of its use follow. The
format of the entries may be summarized as follows:
Berbice Dutch word (source language) [stress pattern] grammatical class gloss
Berbice Dutch example free translation
Source language:
If known, the source language is mentioned here. The abbreviations listed in 1.3.3. are
used. In the case of compounds, I assume etymology to be irrelevant; this is indicated
as (--) instead of the source language.
I would like to thank the following persons for their assistance in establishing the
source language of BD items: Kay Williamson for Eastern-Ijo, and J. van Donselaar
and Peter van Baarle for Arawak.
There are many words which refer to flora or fauna which may be assumed to be
of Arawak derivation, although the known sources do not contain such a word. In those
cases, the source language is given as (AR?). Some words are of ultimately West-
African origin, but may be assumed to have entered BD vocabulary through GCE. For
instanceganda 'yard' of Bantu origin, which is shared with GCE (Ian Robertson p.c.).
This is indicated as (Bantu via GCE).
The grammatical class:
This is given in abbreviated form in bold print, e.g. ν for 'verb'; see 1.3.3. for
abbreviations. An exception is made for function words which do not correspond to any
of the major word classes: for instance, the aspectual suffix -are is listed with the
information imperfective aspect marker.
If a word may appear in more than one grammatical class, all are listed in
alphabetical order unless one may be assumed to be the base category; in that case, the
base category is listed first. If necessary, different grammatical classes are numbered.
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550
The gloss:
The glosss is a Standard English gloss, in italic print. If there are several glosses, these
are listed in alphabetical order. In some cases, one gloss is obviously basic, whereas
others are derived. In that case, the basic gloss is mentioned first, while the derived
ones are given as 'also' glosses. If a word is used with different meanings which have
to be kept apart—for instance, because they correspond to different example
sentences—these are numbered.
A number of words which refer to flora or fauna and derive from Arawak are listed
with their Latin description. The source of most of these is Fanshawe (1949). In
addition, I am indebted to J. van Donselaar for providing me with the proper
description for quite a few of these items.
Stress pattern:
Only if the item follows an irregular stress pattern, is the stress pattern is given in
square brackets.
Examples:
As much as possible, examples of use follow. If grammatical class and/or glosses are
numbered, corresponding examples are preceded by that number. The item in question
is bold printed in the example.
Additional information:
- Some glosses are idiosyncratic, i.e. used only by a certain speaker. In that case, the
speaker is indicated by her/his initials in parentheses following the gloss.
- Information on different forms of a word is given only if unpredictable, dialectal,
or idiosyncratic; in the latter case, the speaker which uses this form is mentioned
by her/his initials in parentheses.
- An entry may include reference to words of the same meaning, or, in the case of
compounds, of its parts, and of other compounds of similar make-up.
- If an example contains suffixed words, compounds, clitic forms, or reduced forms
which are difficult to understand, a morpheme analysis of these follows the free
translation in parentheses.
- If a free translation differs considerably from a literal translation, the literal
translation is mentioned following the free translation, as (lit. '...').
- Most of the BD words contained in Ian E. Robertson's publications (in particular
Robertson 1979) will be found in the same form or approximating the same form
in the word lists. A few words were not confirmed by speakers I worked with.
Those are listed, followed by 'from IER*.
There are some homophonous words which may be assumed to be unrelated because
of derivation from different languages or because of unrelated meaning. Thus juku
'itch' and juku 'louse' derive from EI and D, respectively, whereas a\i ' i f , a\i 'ashes',
and aji 'bait' derive from different D etyma, and have unrelated meanings. Such
homophonous words are of course listed separately.
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551
An example of a fairly simple entry is that for ama below: the source language is
Eastem-Jjo (EI). It is a noun (n). It corresponds in meaning to Standard English
'home, residence' but also to 'settlement', and there is no obvious hierarchy among
these closely related meanings. A somewhat idiomatic example follows; note that ama
is bold printed in the example. Since the free translation Ί will go home again' is not
transparently derived from its literal translation Ί will take home again', the relevant
part of the literal translation is also given (lit. 'take home').
ama (EI) η home, residence, settlement
ek ma dek ama were I will go home again (lit. 'take home')
Reduced forms of many words are not easily recognized, and of some words, the
reduced forms are used so very frequently, that they are listed in the vocabulary with
a reference to the full form. An example is kumu 'come', frequently reduced to Icon;
the latter form is included in the appropriate place in the alphabetical list, follwed by
'see kumu'.
There are some words which show variation between different forms, of which it
is not possible to determine a base form. For instance, metathesis results in variation
between initial fur- ~ fru-, as in furstan - frustan 'understand*. Both are listed, but the
forms which comes later in the alphabetical list is merely listed with a reference to the
form which comes first.
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Download Date | 8/6/12 1:08 AM
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Authenticated | 172.16.1.226
Download Date | 8/6/12 1:08 AM
