investigating the history of pidgin english
TRANSCRIPT
Did not I say, "Search me?" Early Highlife recordings from Ghana
Sebastian Schmidt & Magnus Huber
SPCL Accra, 3-6 August 2011
2
Structure
1. Introduction - Motivation of study - Pidgin in Ghana - Previous studies
2. Highlife in Ghana - Brief history - Archives
3. Pidgin in early Ghanaian Highlife 4. Conclusion
- Problems with data - Outlook
outlines from a macro-sociolinguistic perspective • fewer detailled investigations of structural evolution
– language specific, e.g. Bruyn (1995) – cross-linguistic, e.g. Baker (1987)
• based on written texts. Problems: – most texts only 2nd hand via non-native speakers – often written down in retrospect
• very few studies based on actual language recordings: AAE ex-slave, hoodoo recordings
• early recordings of PCs rare. Pilot study: opening up a new source of historical spoken data 3
• Pidgin dey! • GhPE part of West African PC dialect cluster
– used by smaller section of society – functional domain more restricted – more stigmatized than in Nigeria, Cameroon
Pidgin in Ghana: quick facts
• popular belief: Pidgin in Ghana not homegrown but imported from Nigeria (cf. e.g. Amoako 1992: 48)
Previous studies using song lyrics
comparatively few studies, including • Trudgill (1983)
British pop-song pronunciation • Kreyer & Mukherjee (2007)
style, corpus-linguistic approach • Brato & Jansen (2008)
accents in British (indie) rock • Miethaner (2005)
blues lyrics as historical corpus data Existing transcripts + author’s additions
• Coester (1998) Nigerian PE in Fela Kuti’s songs
5
2. Highlife in Ghana
• Popular dance music from West Africa • Term: late 19th century, coined in 1920s • English speaking West African countries Ghana,
Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone • African – Western fusion style (cf. Collins 1989:
221) • Early days: palm-wine / guitar band highlife • Palm-wine Highlife associated with (Pidgin)
English
6
7
• Golden age of Highlife 1950s • Recordings: London – Accra, Ghana • Languages: Twi, Ga, Ewe, Hausa, Pidgin, English
etc.
Mensah (1919-96) • 1947: Mensah joins
Tempos Band • 1940s and 50s:
Popularization of Highlife
• West African Audience
Archive. Mainz, Germany (Hauke Dorsch) • Centre for World Music. Hildesheim, Germany
(Wolfgang Bender)
Music Archives Foundation. Near Accra, Ghana (John Collins)
• Gramophone Records Museum and Research Centre of Ghana. Cape Coast, Ghana (K. Sarpong)
http://www.gbcghana.com/ gramophone/aboutus.html
• focus on classic Highlife, 1950s/60s • sociolinguistic distribution StE-PE • StE in topics from public, political formal sphere:
– Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Ghana King Bruce & Black Beats “The Queen's Visit”
This is the day five million Ghanaians will go gay Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip will be here that
special day We’ll drink and dance the whole day And put on kente fine On that Thursday twelfth November 1959
10
Highlife
29.283466
- 15+EB81856A58EEB34E17CF2D3F896D81F8+870673
• StE in topics in the public sphere (ctd.): – the achievements of Kwame Nkrumah
E.T. Mensah “Ghana Freedom” – Pan-Africanism
E.T. Mensah “Ghana, Guinea, Mali” – inflation
E.T. Mensah “Inflation Calypso” – socialism
Ramblers Dance Band “Work and Happiness”
11
• PE in topics from private, informal sphere: – love and marriage, marital problems
The Red Spots Band “Coffee and Tea” I don't want any coffee tea Coffee tea go hot me belly I don't want any big mama Big mama go beat me like that I don't want any pretty girl Pretty girl go around chop money
– troubles with children/alcoholism E.T. Mensah “Day by Day”
• sociolinguistic distribution: PE only used by male singers
12
15.072578
The structure of 1950s GhPE • modern GhPE has a reduced TMA system
as compared to other WAPEs – no past/anterior bin – no completive/perfective dn
• 1950s/60s GhPE: bin, dn absent That time I return back from business My wife run away (E.T. Mensah “Don’t Mind your Wife”)
• WAPE/Krio na (focus particle, equ. cop) – marginal to absent from contemporary GhPE
(Huber 1999:235) 13
– na not found in 1970’s 3rd Generation Band “Because of Money” - equative copula = be: • money be something • money be nothing • money be human power
– but found in E.T. Mensah’s “Day by day” • Na her friend go be na boy o • If you born pikin na girl • And the beer them both na take o
(na take them dey take the beer o)
• problem of teasing Pidgin apart from StE: – StE-Pidgin continuum – some structures are the same in StE and PE – code-switching, borrowing make it difficult to
establish where StE ends and PE begins I give my money to my wife For make me chop (x3) That time I return back from business My wife run away Don't mind your wife (x3) You can get more chop from bar
4. Conclusion: Problems and potentials
Don't Mind Your Wife
1998
World
26.070332
• for phonological analyses – quality of records, overlap music/chorus
• biography of singers which variety of Pidgin? • dates of composition, recording, publication • discography recordings in Ghana or abroad? • influence of other varieties: SLKrio, NigPE, etc. • not spontaneous speech but written to be sung,
restricted by rhyme and metre • lyrics = short texts, not large corpus Potentials and outlook • acoustic, phonological analyses also possible • more songs? 16
References
Amoako, Joe K.Y.N. 1992. "Ghanaian Pidgin English: in search of synchronic, diachronic, and sociolinguistic evidence". Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Florida at Gainsville.
Baker, Philip. 1987. “Historical developments in Chinese Pidgin English and the nature of the relationships between the various Pidgin Englishes of the Pacific region”. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 2: 163-207.
Brato, Thorsten & Sandra Jansen. 2008. “‘You used to gerri’ in yer fishnets, now you only gerri’ in yer nightdress’: Regional and supraregional accents in English rock songs”. Presentation at The Thirteenth International Conference on Methods in Dialectology. Leeds, 04. August 2008.
Bruyn, Adrienne. 1995. Grammaticalization in creoles: the development of determiners and relative clauses in Sranan. Amsterdam: Institute for Functional Research into Language and Language Research.
Coester, Markus. 1998. “Language as a product of cultural contact”. ntama. Journal of African Music and Popular Culture. www.uni- hildesheim.de/ntama (2011-07-31). 17
References Collins, John. 1986. E.T. Mensah: King of Highlife. London: Off the
Record Press. Collins, John. 1989. “The early history of West African highlife music”.
Popular Music. Vol. 8, No. 3. 221-230. Huber, Magnus. 1999. Ghanaian Pidgin English in its West African
context: a sociohistorical and structural analysis. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Kreyer, Rolf & Joybrato Mukherjee. 2007. “The style of pop song lyrics: a corpus-linguistic pilot study”. Anglia. 125 (1). 31-58.
Miethaner, Ulrich. 2005. I can look through muddy water: Analyzing Earlier African American English in Blues Lyrics (BLUR). Frankfurt am Main: Lang.
Trudgill, Peter. 1983. “Acts of conflicting identity: The sociolinguistics of British pop-song pronunciation”. In: Peter Trudgill (ed.). On dialect: Social and geographical perspectives. Oxford: Blackwell. 141-160.
18
Investigating the history of Pidgin EnglishEarly Highlife recordings from Ghana Sebastian Schmidt & Magnus HuberSPCL Accra, 3-6 August 2011
Structure
2. Highlife in Ghana
Highlife Archives
Foliennummer 11
Foliennummer 12
Foliennummer 14
Foliennummer 16
SPCL Accra, 3-6 August 2011
2
Structure
1. Introduction - Motivation of study - Pidgin in Ghana - Previous studies
2. Highlife in Ghana - Brief history - Archives
3. Pidgin in early Ghanaian Highlife 4. Conclusion
- Problems with data - Outlook
outlines from a macro-sociolinguistic perspective • fewer detailled investigations of structural evolution
– language specific, e.g. Bruyn (1995) – cross-linguistic, e.g. Baker (1987)
• based on written texts. Problems: – most texts only 2nd hand via non-native speakers – often written down in retrospect
• very few studies based on actual language recordings: AAE ex-slave, hoodoo recordings
• early recordings of PCs rare. Pilot study: opening up a new source of historical spoken data 3
• Pidgin dey! • GhPE part of West African PC dialect cluster
– used by smaller section of society – functional domain more restricted – more stigmatized than in Nigeria, Cameroon
Pidgin in Ghana: quick facts
• popular belief: Pidgin in Ghana not homegrown but imported from Nigeria (cf. e.g. Amoako 1992: 48)
Previous studies using song lyrics
comparatively few studies, including • Trudgill (1983)
British pop-song pronunciation • Kreyer & Mukherjee (2007)
style, corpus-linguistic approach • Brato & Jansen (2008)
accents in British (indie) rock • Miethaner (2005)
blues lyrics as historical corpus data Existing transcripts + author’s additions
• Coester (1998) Nigerian PE in Fela Kuti’s songs
5
2. Highlife in Ghana
• Popular dance music from West Africa • Term: late 19th century, coined in 1920s • English speaking West African countries Ghana,
Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone • African – Western fusion style (cf. Collins 1989:
221) • Early days: palm-wine / guitar band highlife • Palm-wine Highlife associated with (Pidgin)
English
6
7
• Golden age of Highlife 1950s • Recordings: London – Accra, Ghana • Languages: Twi, Ga, Ewe, Hausa, Pidgin, English
etc.
Mensah (1919-96) • 1947: Mensah joins
Tempos Band • 1940s and 50s:
Popularization of Highlife
• West African Audience
Archive. Mainz, Germany (Hauke Dorsch) • Centre for World Music. Hildesheim, Germany
(Wolfgang Bender)
Music Archives Foundation. Near Accra, Ghana (John Collins)
• Gramophone Records Museum and Research Centre of Ghana. Cape Coast, Ghana (K. Sarpong)
http://www.gbcghana.com/ gramophone/aboutus.html
• focus on classic Highlife, 1950s/60s • sociolinguistic distribution StE-PE • StE in topics from public, political formal sphere:
– Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Ghana King Bruce & Black Beats “The Queen's Visit”
This is the day five million Ghanaians will go gay Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip will be here that
special day We’ll drink and dance the whole day And put on kente fine On that Thursday twelfth November 1959
10
Highlife
29.283466
- 15+EB81856A58EEB34E17CF2D3F896D81F8+870673
• StE in topics in the public sphere (ctd.): – the achievements of Kwame Nkrumah
E.T. Mensah “Ghana Freedom” – Pan-Africanism
E.T. Mensah “Ghana, Guinea, Mali” – inflation
E.T. Mensah “Inflation Calypso” – socialism
Ramblers Dance Band “Work and Happiness”
11
• PE in topics from private, informal sphere: – love and marriage, marital problems
The Red Spots Band “Coffee and Tea” I don't want any coffee tea Coffee tea go hot me belly I don't want any big mama Big mama go beat me like that I don't want any pretty girl Pretty girl go around chop money
– troubles with children/alcoholism E.T. Mensah “Day by Day”
• sociolinguistic distribution: PE only used by male singers
12
15.072578
The structure of 1950s GhPE • modern GhPE has a reduced TMA system
as compared to other WAPEs – no past/anterior bin – no completive/perfective dn
• 1950s/60s GhPE: bin, dn absent That time I return back from business My wife run away (E.T. Mensah “Don’t Mind your Wife”)
• WAPE/Krio na (focus particle, equ. cop) – marginal to absent from contemporary GhPE
(Huber 1999:235) 13
– na not found in 1970’s 3rd Generation Band “Because of Money” - equative copula = be: • money be something • money be nothing • money be human power
– but found in E.T. Mensah’s “Day by day” • Na her friend go be na boy o • If you born pikin na girl • And the beer them both na take o
(na take them dey take the beer o)
• problem of teasing Pidgin apart from StE: – StE-Pidgin continuum – some structures are the same in StE and PE – code-switching, borrowing make it difficult to
establish where StE ends and PE begins I give my money to my wife For make me chop (x3) That time I return back from business My wife run away Don't mind your wife (x3) You can get more chop from bar
4. Conclusion: Problems and potentials
Don't Mind Your Wife
1998
World
26.070332
• for phonological analyses – quality of records, overlap music/chorus
• biography of singers which variety of Pidgin? • dates of composition, recording, publication • discography recordings in Ghana or abroad? • influence of other varieties: SLKrio, NigPE, etc. • not spontaneous speech but written to be sung,
restricted by rhyme and metre • lyrics = short texts, not large corpus Potentials and outlook • acoustic, phonological analyses also possible • more songs? 16
References
Amoako, Joe K.Y.N. 1992. "Ghanaian Pidgin English: in search of synchronic, diachronic, and sociolinguistic evidence". Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Florida at Gainsville.
Baker, Philip. 1987. “Historical developments in Chinese Pidgin English and the nature of the relationships between the various Pidgin Englishes of the Pacific region”. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 2: 163-207.
Brato, Thorsten & Sandra Jansen. 2008. “‘You used to gerri’ in yer fishnets, now you only gerri’ in yer nightdress’: Regional and supraregional accents in English rock songs”. Presentation at The Thirteenth International Conference on Methods in Dialectology. Leeds, 04. August 2008.
Bruyn, Adrienne. 1995. Grammaticalization in creoles: the development of determiners and relative clauses in Sranan. Amsterdam: Institute for Functional Research into Language and Language Research.
Coester, Markus. 1998. “Language as a product of cultural contact”. ntama. Journal of African Music and Popular Culture. www.uni- hildesheim.de/ntama (2011-07-31). 17
References Collins, John. 1986. E.T. Mensah: King of Highlife. London: Off the
Record Press. Collins, John. 1989. “The early history of West African highlife music”.
Popular Music. Vol. 8, No. 3. 221-230. Huber, Magnus. 1999. Ghanaian Pidgin English in its West African
context: a sociohistorical and structural analysis. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Kreyer, Rolf & Joybrato Mukherjee. 2007. “The style of pop song lyrics: a corpus-linguistic pilot study”. Anglia. 125 (1). 31-58.
Miethaner, Ulrich. 2005. I can look through muddy water: Analyzing Earlier African American English in Blues Lyrics (BLUR). Frankfurt am Main: Lang.
Trudgill, Peter. 1983. “Acts of conflicting identity: The sociolinguistics of British pop-song pronunciation”. In: Peter Trudgill (ed.). On dialect: Social and geographical perspectives. Oxford: Blackwell. 141-160.
18
Investigating the history of Pidgin EnglishEarly Highlife recordings from Ghana Sebastian Schmidt & Magnus HuberSPCL Accra, 3-6 August 2011
Structure
2. Highlife in Ghana
Highlife Archives
Foliennummer 11
Foliennummer 12
Foliennummer 14
Foliennummer 16