African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African folklore 414
historical/comparative linguistics and social historiography (see Mufwene 1993 and 2001
for further discussion). Some forms that have been argued to be Africanisms, for example
O.K., are not widely accepted as such.
Among the lexical words in AAE that are considered Africanisms are yam, tote, banjo,
gumbo, cooter (“turtle”), goober (“peanut”), and many personal names such as Cuffy or
Coffy, Cudjo or Cudjoe, Zola, and Phoebe (see Turner 1949 and the references in
Mufwene 1993 for longer lists). Nyam or some variant is found in many American
languages, meaning “eat” or a “yelloworangish tuber.” Linguists contrast lexical elements
(words, parts of words, and sometimes phrases) to grammatical elements, those belonging
to a small, closed set; closed meaning that those sets cannot easily take new members.
Examples are prepositions, auxiliary modal verbs, articles, and verb suffixes expressing
tense, aspect, and mood. Grammatical elements are more important than lexical ones in
the overall grammar of languages since the grammatical ones help to provide the basic
structural frame into which lexical words fit. The closed sets of which grammatical
elements are a part contain elements that are tightly interrelated.
Other semi-Creoles or post-Creoles are popular Dominican Spanish, popular Brazilian
Portuguese, popular Cuban Spanish, and Surinamese Dutch. (Popular before the
language’s name means the kind spoken by the great majority of the people.) It is notable
that popular Dominican Spanish has a version of the come of strong disapproval. Popular
Brazilian Portuguese has the Africanism bunda (buttocks).
The fourth level languages are the others in the Americas that have only a smattering
of Africanisms, virtually all of which are lexical words (as opposed to grammatical ones,
as discussed above). An example would be the English of the great majority of whites
and some African Americans and others in the United States. (Some African Americans
do not speak AAE.) This type of English, which actually includes many different
varieties, has Africanisms such as tote (carry) and the place/person name Cudjo or Cujo.
(Cudjo as a place name can be considered part of all American varieties of English due to
the existence of Cudjo Key, Florida, apparently the only African place name in the
United States.) Other languages on this level would be Argentine Span ish, Peruvian
Spanish, and in general other languages outside what has been called Afro-America, that
area stretching from the southern United States to Brazil and including the Caribbean,
where African cultural and linguistic influence has historically been profound due to the
density of African slaves in earlier populations.
In addition to the types of Africanisms distinguished above, there are other important
ones. First, we should note that linguists make a distinction between grammar and use.
Use refers to how speakers actually use a language, for example, to tell jokes, to insult,
and to greet. Use also refers to characteristics such as the normal quantity of speech (do
speakers typically talk a lot or not?) and speech events that are salient among particular
groups of speakers (for example, sermons, cursing, praising, and storytelling). Many
groups in Afro-America continue the African tradition of animal tales such as those about
Br’er Rabbit. Several scholars have noted that the African element in language use may
be significantly more important than that in grammar.
Second, communicative behaviors closely related to language and virtually
indispensable should be considered. Among such behaviors are paralanguage and
kinesics. Paralanguage refers to sounds that accompany speech, but that are not part of
language proper: sighs, moans, imitations of nonlanguage sounds, and so forth. Unh-hunh