Surviving the Middle Passage : The West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund

The relation between the Surinam Creoles and the languages of West Africa, where slaves who created the creoles originated, has been hotly debated. This book argues that the close relationship can be viewed in terms of a Trans Atlantic Sprachbund. It brings in new historical and linguistic evidence for an extremely close relationship between the creoles, the Gbe languages, and Kikongo, where bilingual practices led to new language forms.

This book is about the close historical and linguistic relationship between the languages of Surinam and Benin, a relationship which can be viewed in terms of a Trans Atlantic Sprachbund or linguistic area. It consists of a detailed analysis of various possible substrate and adstrate effects in a number of components of the grammar, in the Surinam Creole languages, primarily from the Gbe languages of Benin but also from Kikongo.