Berbice Creole Dutch

Conjugate Verbs

Facts

  • Language: Berbice Creole Dutch
  • Alternate names:
  • Language code: brc
  • Language family: Indo-European, Classical Indo-European, Germanic, Northwest Germanic, West Germanic, Macro-Dutch, Middle-Modern Dutch, Modern Dutch, Southwestern Dutch, Zeeuwic
  • Creole language
  • Number of speakers: extinct
  • Vulnerability: Dormant [Read more...]
  • Script:

More information:

    Introduction

    Speakers claim it is not inherently intelligible with Skepi or Rupununi. About 1/3 of the basic lexicon and, most of the productive morphology is from Eastern Ijo in Nigeria; most of the rest of the lexicon is from Dutch, 10% loans from Arawak and Guyanese Creole English. Speakers are bilingual in Guyanese, which has influenced Berbice considerably. Grammar. SVO. Nearly extinct.

    The Berbice Creole Dutch Verb

    TMA category Form Position Source
    Tense Past wa preverbal derived from Dutch auxiliary was ‘was’
    Anterior wa -tɛ preverbal + suffix language-internal: Past + Perfective
    Mood Irrealis ma preverbal language-internal: < mu-a [go-IPFV]
    Future-in-the-Past, Counterfactual wa ma preverbal language-internal: Past + Irrealis
    Improbable sa preverbal derived from Dutch auxiliary zal ‘shall’
    Past Improbable, Counterfactual wa sa preverbal language-internal: Past + Improbable
    Aspect Perfective -tɛ suffixed retained Eastern Ijo perfective suffix
    Imperfective -a(rɛ) suffixed retained Eastern Ijo imperfective suffix
    Past Imperfective wa -a(rɛ) preverbal + suffix language-internal: Past + Imperfective
    Habitual das preverbal borrowed from Creolese
    Past Habitual justu preverbal borrowed from Creolese

    Verblist

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