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Mervyn C. Alleyne
Mervyn Coleridge Alleyne (Trinidad and Tobago, 13 June 1933 - 23 November 2016) was a sociolinguist, creolist and dialectologist whose work focused on the creole languages of the Caribbean. He attended Queen's Royal College in Port-of-Spain and later won a scholarship to the fledgling University College of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica which he entered in 1953. After graduating from Mona, Alleyne obtained a PhD from the University of Strasbourg, France. He returned to the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona as a lecturer in 1959, and was made Professor of Sociolinguistics in 1982. He returned to his homeland for a brief spell and lectured at the St Augustine campus of the UWI. He was a visiting professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. Upon retirement from The University of the West Indies, Mona, the title of Professor emeritus was conferred on him. He was president of the Society for Caribbean Linguistics (SCL) from 1990 to 1992 and was made an honorary mem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sociolinguist
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies under the influence of assorted cultural norms, expectations, and contexts. Sociolinguistics combines the older field of dialectology with the social sciences in order to identify regional dialects, sociolects, ethnolects, and other sub-varieties and styles within a language, as well as the distinctions and variations inside each of these. A major branch of linguistics since the second half of the 20th century, sociolinguistics is closely related to and can partly overlap with pragmatics, linguistic anthropology, and sociology of language, the latter focusing on the effect of language back on society. Sociolinguistics' historical interrelation with anthropology can be observed in studies of how language varieties differ between groups separ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cave Hill, Saint Michael, Barbados
Cave Hill, St. Michael, is a suburban area situated in the parish of Saint Michael, Barbados. It is located about 4 km north-west of the capital city Bridgetown, along the west coast of Barbados. The University of the West Indies at Cave Hill, one of the general campuses of the University of the West Indies (UWI) system, is located here. University of the West Indies at Cave Hill The Cave Hill Campus overlooks the island’s capital, Bridgetown, five miles away. Despite its expansion in recent years, the campus maintains much of its original architecture of simple, low-rise buildings. The scenic attractiveness and relatively small size of the university community creates an inviting, intimate and friendly atmosphere. Since 2004, the Cave Hill campus is the site of the West Indies Federal Archives Centre The West Indies Federal Archives Centre is the official depository of records from the defunct West Indies Federation. The centre was opened in 2004, and is part of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trinidad And Tobago Sociologists
Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean. With an area of , it is also the fifth-largest in the Caribbean. Name The original name for the island in the Arawakan languages was which meant "Land of the Hummingbird". Christopher Columbus renamed it ('The Island of the Trinity'), fulfilling a vow he had made before setting out on his third voyage. This has since been shortened to ''Trinidad''. Indo-Trinidadians called the island चीनीदत्त , 𑂒𑂲𑂢𑂲𑂠𑂞𑂹𑂞 , , ''Chinidat'' or ''Chinidad'' in Trinidadian Hindustani which translated to the land of sugar. The usage of the term goes back to the 19th century when recruiters from India would call the island ''Chinidat'' as a way of luring workers into indentureship. On Tuesday, 31 July 1498 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Culture Of Africa
The Culture of Africa is varied and manifold, consisting of a mixture of countries with various peoples depicting their unique characteristic and trait from the continent of Africa. It is a product of the diverse populations that inhabit the continent of Africa and the African diaspora. Generally, Culture can be defined as a collective mass of distinctive qualities belonging to a certain group of people. These qualities include laws, morals, beliefs, knowledge, art, customs, and any other attributes belonging to a member of that society. Culture is the way of life of a group of people. Africa has numerous ethnic nationalities all with varying qualities such as language, dishes, greetings, dressing, dances and music. However, each of the regions of Africa share a series of dominant cultural traits which distinguish various African regional cultures from each other and the rest of the world. For example, social values, religion, morals, political values, economics, and Aesthet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guyanese Creole
Guyanese Creole (''Creolese'' by its speakers or simply ''Guyanese'') is an English-based creole language spoken by the Guyanese people. Linguistically, it is similar to other English dialects of the Caribbean region, based on 19th-century English and has loan words from Indian-South Asian, West African, Arawakan, and older Dutch languages. Varieties and influences There are many sub-dialects of Guyanese Creole based on geographical location, urban – rural location, and race of the speakers. For example, along the Rupununi River, where the population is largely Amerindian, a distinct form of Guyanese Creole exists. The Georgetown (capital city) urban area has a distinct accent, while within a forty-five-minute drive away from this area the dialect/accent changes again, especially if following the coast where rural villages are located. As with other Caribbean languages, words and phrases are very elastic, and new ones can be made up, changed or evolve within a short p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jamaican Creole
Jamaican Patois (; locally rendered Patwah and called Jamaican Creole by linguists) is an English-based creole language with influences from West African, Arawak, Spanish and other languages, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican diaspora. Words or slang from Jamaican Patois can be heard in other Caribbean countries, the United Kingdom, New York City and Miami in the United States, and Toronto, Canada. The majority of non-English words in Patois derive from the West African Akan language.Cassidy, F. G. "Multiple etymologies in Jamaican Creole". ''Am Speech'', 1966, 41:211–215. It is spoken by the majority of Jamaicans as a native language. Patois developed in the 17th century when enslaved people from West and Central Africa were exposed to, learned, and nativized the vernacular and dialectal language spoken by the slaveholders and overseers: British English, Hiberno-English and Scots. Jamaican Creole exists in gradations between more conservative creole for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saramaccan
Saramaccan () is a creole language spoken by about 58,000 people of West African descent near the Saramacca and the upper Suriname River, as well as in Paramaribo, capital of Suriname (formerly also known as Dutch Guiana). The language also has 25,000 speakers in French Guiana and 8,000 in the Netherlands. It has three main dialects. The speakers are mostly descendants of fugitive slaves who were native to West and Central Africa; they form a group called Saamacca, also spelled Saramaka. Linguists consider Saramaccan notable because its vocabulary is based on two European source languages, English (30%) and Portuguese (20%), and various West and Central African languages (50%), but it diverges considerably from all of them. The African component accounts for about 50% once ritual use is taken into account, the highest percentage in the Americas. When ritual use is excluded, 35% English-derived, 25% Portuguese-derived, with 35% derived from one or another African language. It is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sranan
Sranan Tongo (Sranantongo, "Surinamese tongue", Sranan, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language from Suriname, in South America, where it is the first or second language for 519,600 Surinamese people (approximately 80% of the population). It is also spoken in the Netherlands and across the Surinamese diaspora. It is considered both an unofficial national language and a ''lingua franca''. Sranan Tongo developed among enslaved Africans from Central and West Africa, especially along the Caribbean coastline, after contact with English planters and indentured workers from 1651–67. Its use expanded to the Dutch colonists who took over the territory in 1667 and decided to maintain the local language as a ''lingua franca''. Because the number of English colonists was massively reduced following the arrival of the Dutch, later additions to the language and the presence of African influences have made it distinct from other Afro-Caribbean creoles based on English. History ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. Europe shares the landmass of Eurasia with Asia, and of Afro-Eurasia with both Africa and Asia. Europe is commonly considered to be Boundaries between the continents#Asia and Europe, separated from Asia by the Drainage divide, watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural (river), Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea, and the waterway of the Bosporus, Bosporus Strait. "Europe" (pp. 68–69); "Asia" (pp. 90–91): "A commonly accepted division between Asia and Europe ... is formed by the Ural Mountains, Ural River, Caspian Sea, Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea with its outlets, the Bosporus and Dardanelles." Europe covers approx. , or 2% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface (6.8% of Earth's land area), making it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African People
The population of Africa has grown rapidly over the past century and consequently shows a large youth bulge, further reinforced by increasing life expectancy in most African countries. Total population as of 2024 is about 1.5 billion, with a growth rate of about 100 million every three years. The total fertility rate (births per woman) for Africa is 4.1 as of 2024, the highest in the world. The most populous African country is Nigeria with over 206 million inhabitants as of 2020 and a growth rate of 2.6% p.a. The least populous African country is Seychelles with about 130,000 inhabitants. Population Genetics History Alternative Estimates of African Population, 0–2018 AD (in thousands) Source: Maddison and others. (University of Groningen). Shares of Africa and World Population, 0–2020 AD (% of world total) Source: Maddison and others (University of Groningen) and others. Vital Statistics 1950– Registration of vital events in most of Africa is incomplete. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dell Hymes
Dell Hathaway Hymes (June 7, 1927, in Portland, Oregon – November 13, 2009, in Charlottesville, Virginia) was a linguist, sociolinguist, anthropologist, and folklorist who established disciplinary foundations for the comparative, ethnographic study of language use. His research focused upon the languages of the Pacific Northwest. He was one of the first to call the fourth subfield of anthropology "linguistic anthropology" instead of " anthropological linguistics". The terminological shift draws attention to the field's grounding in anthropology rather than in what, by that time, had already become an autonomous discipline (linguistics). In 1972 Hymes founded the journal '' Language in Society'' and served as its editor for 22 years. Early life and education He was educated at Reed College, studying under David H. French; and after a stint in prewar Korea, he graduated in 1950. His work in the United States Army as a decoder is part of what influenced him to become a linguist. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
