Mervyn Coleridge Alleyne (Trinidad and Tobago, 13 June 1933 - 23 November 2016) was a

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 ...

creolist A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable form of contact language that develops from the process of different languages simplifying and mixing into a new form (often a pidgin), and then that form expanding and elaborating into a full-fl ...

and

dialectologist Dialectology (from Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , '' -logia'') is the scientific study of dialects: subsets of languages. Though in the 19th century a branch of historical linguistics, dialectology is often now considered a sub-fiel ...

whose work focused on the

creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable form of contact language that develops from the process of different languages simplifying and mixing into a new form (often a pidgin), and then that form expanding and elaborating into a full-fl ...

s of the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

. He attended

Queen's Royal College Queen's Royal College (St Clair, Port of Spain, St.Clair, Trinidad), referred to for short as QRC, or "The College" by alumni, is a secondary school in Trinidad and Tobago. Originally a boarding school and grammar school, the Secularity, secular c ...

Port-of-Spain Port of Spain ( ; Trinidadian and Tobagonian English, Trinidadian English: ''Port ah Spain'' ) is the capital and chief port of Trinidad and Tobago. With a municipal population of 49,867 (2017), an urban population of 81,142 and a transient dail ...

and later won a scholarship to the fledgling University College of the West Indies, Mona,

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

which he entered in 1953. After graduating from Mona, Alleyne obtained a PhD from the University of

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. He returned to the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona as a lecturer in 1959, and was made Professor of

Sociolinguistics 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 unde ...

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 The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...

, Río Piedras. Upon retirement from The

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

, Mona, the title of Professor

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

was conferred on him. He was president of the Society for Caribbean Linguistics (SCL) from 1990 to 1992 and was made an honorary member of the SCL in 1998. He also became an honorary member of the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

(LSA) in 1996. He is a co-founder of the

journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...

''Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages''. In 1996, a

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

in his honour was published: ''Caribbean Language Issues, Old & New: Papers in Honour of Professor Mervyn Alleyne on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday'' (edited by Pauline Christie, and published by UWI Press). In March 2007, Alleyne was the Humanities Scholar 2007 at The

, Cave Hill,

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

. In October 2011, he was the guest of honour at the special panel discussion “The Interdisciplinary Scholarship of a Caribbeanist: A Tribute to Dr. Mervyn Alleyne,” an activity organized at the Institute of Caribbean Studies at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras.

Significance of his work

Alleyne was best known as a pioneer in Creole Studies. He was one of the few

-born participants in the second ever International Conference on Creole Languages held at

The University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the Tertiary education, higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking Country, cou ...

, Mona in April 1968, the proceedings of which were published in 1971 in ''Pidginization and Creolization of Languages'' edited by

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 ...

. His paper “Acculturation and the Culture Matrix of Creolization” elaborated some of the themes which were to characterize his later work. Alleyne disagrees with the idea that creoles necessarily develop from prior pidgins, and he explains the considerable variation among creoles as the result of differing degrees of acculturation among

Africans The ethnic groups of Africa number in the thousands, with each ethnicity generally having their own language (or dialect of a language) and culture. The ethnolinguistic groups include various Afroasiatic, Khoisan, Niger-Congo, and Nilo-Sahara ...

who came in contact with

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 ...

ans. Alleyne repudiated the use of the term 'creole', positing that its meaning is unclear. He carefully avoided it in his book ''Comparative Afro-American'' (1980), arguably the most quoted source on the relevant varieties. In addition to its detailed comparison of structural aspects of Sranan,

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 ...

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 ...

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 En ...

, among others, this work reveals his preoccupation with the Black experience as a whole, and with the autonomy of

Black culture Black culture can refer to: * African-American culture African-American culture, also known as Black American culture or Black culture in American English, refers to the cultural expressions of African Americans, either as part of or distinc ...

. His fascination with the correlations between the linguistic picture and other aspects of culture, such as religion, manifests itself in ''Roots of Jamaican Culture'' (1988).

Publications

* ''Acculturation and the cultural matrix of creolization.'' In Pidginization and Creolization of Languages (edited by Dell Hymes), 169–86. Cambridge (1971): Cambridge University Press. * ''Comparative Afro-American — An Historical-Comparative Study of English-Based Afro-American Dialects'', Ann Arbor (1980): Karoma. * ''Theoretical Issues in Caribbean Linguistics'' (editor), Kingston (1982): University of the West Indies, Mona. * ''Studies in Saramaccan Language Structures'' (editor), Amsterdam (1987): University of Amsterdam. * ''Roots of Jamaican Culture'', London (1988): Pluto Press. * ''Syntaxe Historique Créole'', Paris (1996): Karthala/Presses Universitaires Créoles. * ''The Construction and Representation of Race and Ethnicity in the Caribbean and the World'', Kingston (2002): UWI Press. * ''Folk Medicine of Jamaica'' (with Arvilla Payne-Jackson), Kingston (2004): UWI Press.

External links

The University of the West IndiesList of works at The University of the West Indies, MonaKey Figures in Creole Studies, WarwickRoots of Jamaican CultureCaribbean Language Issues online The University of West Indies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alleyne, Mervyn C. Trinidad and Tobago sociologists Dialectologists 2016 deaths 1933 births Academic staff of the University of the West Indies Alumni of Queen's Royal College, Trinidad 20th-century linguists