[Rhodes22-list] Gullah

[M. Abdullah]

Slim,

I'm with you I always thought Gullah was a dialect too. But some of the 
pointy headed linguist that I've been hanging out with insist that its a 
seperate language for technical reasons. Gullah is mostly a mixture of 
West African languages and English. Below are some quotes on Gullah. My 
mother told be that the language changed every 20 mile or so. She coul 
actually tell which island in SC or GA that somebody was from. There is 
a Gullah festival every year at St. Helena Island Beaufort Co., SC. A 
great sailing area but tides can be tricky. The last time I went was 5 
or so years ago. Everybody is welcome.

*The Gullah language, a Creole blend of Elizabethan English and African 
languages, was born of necessity on Africa's slave coast, and developed 
in the slave communities of the isolated plantations of the coastal South.

**Gullah is a language of cadence and accents, words and intonations. 
The Gullah "shout" is a rhythmic translation of forbidden drums and the 
oldest of plantation melodies. Old spirituals and songs spoke of storms 
and other events in the lives of the slaves and were used as codes for 
meeting times and places and as messages for freedom.
*

>Mike,
>
>Wow...very interesting.  Thank you.  I didn't know the Gullah had its own
>language.  I thought it was more of a dialect.  Is it east Africa based?
>
>Slim
>  
>