Indigenous languages shaped Caribbean Creole – linguist

Indigenous languages played a role in the development of Caribbean Creole languages, with evidence of their influence dating back to the period before European plantation societies were established, Professor Silvia Kouwenberg said on Wednesday.

Kouwenberg made the observation during a University of Guyana (UG) lecture held to mark International Creole Day. She participated in the lecture via Zoom and examined the links between the pre-plantation period and the emergence of Creole languages on plantations.
She traced the history to the final decades of the 16th century, when Dutch traders established trading posts along what was then known as the Wild Coast, stretching from the Orinoco to the Amazon.
“We begin in the last decades of the 16th century, when Dutch trading posts were established in the Guianas, what was referred to as the Wild Coast,” Kouwenberg said.
She explained that the Dutch initially explored trade opportunities with Amerindian communities, learning about local products and establishing trading posts and channels of communication.
Citing historical accounts by Leo Hulsman, Kouwenberg said Spanish sources recorded Dutch ships trading in the region as early as the 1570s.
“Individual Amerindians acted as interpreters and guides, that some among them had spent time in Europe, and the Dutch showed no preference for trade with any particular Amerindian group,” she said.
According to Kouwenberg, reports from the early Dutch explorations generated interest among merchants, who subsequently invested in developing a trading network. However, the network consisted largely of small trading posts.
“A trading post might be a single dwelling with few occupants in the vicinity of Amerindian villages,” she explained.
She said the range of goods obtained through trade gradually narrowed to precious woods, tobacco and annatto. Because of the small size of the trading posts, the Dutch traders stationed there relied heavily on relationships with Amerindian communities.
Kouwenberg said the traders were typically young, single Dutchmen who depended on the goodwill of the local population.
The relationship between Dutch traders and Amerindian chiefs and interpreters was particularly important, as trade was conducted through them.
Those relationships, however, were not always stable. Kouwenberg pointed to an incident recorded by Hulsman involving the deaths of several Dutch traders on the Marowijne River in Suriname between 1615 and 1616, following earlier attacks in which Dutch traders had killed several Amerindians.
By about 40 years later, Kouwenberg said, the colony had developed into a plantation economy, with sugar emerging as its main product.
However, she noted that annatto, known as oriana, remained an important export.
Citing the account of Dutch visitor Adriaan van Berkel, who was in the region during the 1670s, she said about 100 barrels of annatto were reportedly exported in a particular year.
Kouwenberg said evidence of the continued presence of Arawak speakers in the plantation environment can be found in Berbice Dutch.
“We know that Arawak speakers were definitely present in the plantation environment,” she said, noting that Berbice Dutch contains Arawak forms associated with the planting and processing of plantation crops.
The evidence, she suggested, highlights the linguistic connections between the pre-plantation period of interaction between Dutch traders and Indigenous communities and the later development of Creole languages in plantation societies.