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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