RESUMO
Creole languages are formed in conditions where speakers from distinct languages are brought together without a shared first language, typically under the domination of speakers from one of the languages and particularly in the context of the transatlantic slave trade and European colonialism. One such Creole in Suriname, Sranan, developed around the mid-seventeenth century, primarily out of contact between varieties of English from England, spoken by the dominant group, and multiple West African languages. The vast majority of the basic words in Sranan come from the language of the dominant group, English. Here, we compare linguistic features of modern-day Sranan with those of English as spoken in 313 localities across England. By way of testing proposed hypotheses for the origin of English words in Sranan, we find that 80% of the studied features of Sranan can be explained by similarity to regional dialect features at two distinct input locations within England, a cluster of locations near the port of Bristol and another cluster near Essex in eastern England. Our new hypothesis is supported by the geographical distribution of specific regional dialect features, such as post-vocalic rhoticity and word-initial 'h', and by phylogenetic analysis of these features, which shows evidence favouring input from at least two English dialects in the formation of Sranan. In addition to explicating the dialect features most prominent in the linguistic evolution of Sranan, our historical analyses also provide supporting evidence for two distinct hypotheses about the likely geographical origins of the English speakers whose language was an input to Sranan. The emergence as a likely input to Sranan of the speech forms of a cluster near Bristol is consistent with historical records, indicating that most of the indentured servants going to the Americas between 1654 and 1666 were from Bristol and nearby counties, and that of the cluster near Essex is consistent with documents showing that many of the governors and important planters came from the southeast of England (including London) (Smith 1987 The Genesis of the Creole Languages of Surinam; Smith 2009 In The handbook of pidgin and creole studies, pp. 98-129).This article is part of the theme issue 'Bridging cultural gaps: interdisciplinary studies in human cultural evolution'.
Assuntos
Evolução Cultural , Idioma , Linguística , Inglaterra , Humanos , Filogenia , SurinameRESUMO
Literature on laterality emphasises the importance of implementing a comprehensive investigation of humans' and non-humans' laterality for both non-communication and communication functions. Adopting a global approach should enhance our understanding of the mechanistic drivers of human brain functional lateralisation and help to explore further the nature of the left-hemispheric systems for both functions. This study investigated human laterality for both functions by taking, for the first time, numerous behaviours and multiple potential influential factors into consideration. We analysed replies to the Rennes Laterality Questionnaire that takes into account simultaneously: participants' behavioural, demographic and social characteristics as well as their genetic/social learning components and collateral factors such as health problems. We collected and analysed a large data set including 450,220 item responses (317,594 items related to behavioural laterality and 132,626 items related to personal information) by 5904 participants. The majority of participants were right-lateralised for nine behavioural categories. The laterality of right-lateralised individuals for the behaviours considered varied very little between behavioural categories, contrary to the laterality of ambiguously- and left-lateralised individuals. This is the first evidence of the stability of right-lateralised individuals and the relative flexibility of ambiguously- and left-lateralised individuals with regards to behavioural laterality related to 60 everyday activities. Moreover, the laterality patterns of our study population were linked in particular to the following individual-related factors: demographic characteristics (current continent of residence), social characteristics (socio-professional group and study level), and collateral factors (writing hand, forced right-hand use, guiding eye, and health problems related to ear and back). We discuss our findings in relation to the evolutionary roots of human brain lateralisation for non-communication and communication functions.