The least understood aspect of Palenquero phonology is its intonational system. This is a serious gap, as it is precisely in the realm of prosody that the most striking phonological differences between Palenquero and (Caribbean) Spanish are apparent. Although several authors have speculated that African influence may be at the source of Palenquero’s peculiar intonation, to date published research offers no detailed information about the intonation of the creole.The goal of this study is to remedy this situation. Here we identify several specific intonational features where conservative (or older-generation) Palenquero differs from (Caribbean) Spanish. One of these features is a strong tendency to use invariant word-level contours, with a H tone on the stressed syllable and L tones on unstressed syllables, in all sentential contexts, including prenuclear positions. A second feature that we have identified is the use of a sustained phrase-final high or mid level contour in declaratives accented on the final syllable, and a long fall in declaratives accented on the penult.The final section addresses the issue of the possible origin of these intonational features. We point out similarities with Equatorial Guinea Spanish and conclude that, at some point in the history of Palenquero, the Spanish prosodic system was interpreted as involving lexical tone, in conformity with claims in the literature regarding several Atlantic creoles.

Heterogeneous patterns of admixture reveal a genetic substructure within the Department of Bolivar. On the paternal side, five out of the six communities studied exhibit a predominantly European gene pool. The exception is Palenque, where European input (38%) is more significant than we had expected.

SUMMARYThrough the detailed investigation of changes in predicate negation patterns of numerous, often poorly documented informal spoken varieties of Romance vernaculars (including Romance-derived creoles), this paper explores the view that despite considerable formal differences, languages tend to travel down a common hierarchy of changes in negation. Particular attention is paid to a 'new', clause- or sentence-final negation pattern (e.g. Braz. Port. [näo] falo inglês NäO; Palenquero y-osé ablä inglés NU "I do not speak English" in an attempt to uncover weaknesses in three recently advanced hypotheses about the origin of new negation strategies.In contrast to the approach taken in an earlier investigation (Schwegler 1983), emphasis is placed on the need for distinguishing various mechanisms of innovation, all of which conspire to produce negation cycles which are governed by recurrent complex principles and strategies syntactic, typological, semantic, pragmatic, and psycholinguistic.RÉSUMÉSe basant sur une analyse détaillée de l'évolution de la négation prédicative dans de nombreux dialectes romans, (y compris des dialectes creoles dérivés de langues romanes), cet article propose que, malgré d'importantes différences formelles, les langues ont tendance à passer par une hiérarchie de changements déterminée. Un nouveau type de negation, toujours placé en fin de la phrase principale ou subordonnée (port. brés. [näo] falo inglês NäO; palenquero y-asé ablä inglés NU "je ne parle pas anglais"), est relevé afin de démontrer les difficultés de trois hypothèses récentes sur l'origine de nouvelles stratégies en négation.Contrairement à la prise de position présentée dans une étude antérieure (Schwegler 1983), Fauteur relève l'importance de reconnaître de multiples méchanismes d'innovation. L'interaction de ces mechanismes produit des cycles de negation qui sont eux-mêmes gouvernés par de complexes principes et stratégies syntactiques, typologiques, semantiques, pragmatiques, et psycholinguistiques.ZUSAMMENFASSUNGDieser Artikel erforscht mittels einer detaillierten Untersuchung von änderungen in der Prädikatsnegation zahlreicher romanischer, oft sparlich dokumentierter Dialekte (einschlieBlich der romanisch-basierten kreolischen) den Gesichtspunkt, daB Sprachen trotz beträchtlicher formaler-Differenzen dazu neigen, eine gemeinsame Hierarchie von Negationsànderungen zu durchlaufen. Besondere Beachtung wird einem *neuen\ am Ende eines Haupt-' oder Nebensatz stehenden Negationstypus geschenkt (z.B. bras. port. [näo] falo inglês NäO; palenquero y-asé ablä inglés NU"ich rede nicht Englisch"), um die Schwächen dreier kürzlich vorgeschlagener Hypothesen über den Ur-sprung neuer Negationstrategien aufzudecken.Im Gegensatz zu dem in einer früheren Arbeit (Schwegler 1983) vertretenen Standpunkt wird hier hervorgehoben, daB mehrere Innovations-mechanismen unterschieden werden müssen. Das Zusammenwirken dieser Mechanismen führt zu Negationszyklen, welche komplexen syntaktischen, typologischen, semantischen, pragmatischen, und psycholinguistischen Prin-zipien und Strategien unterliegen.

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A conspicuous feature of Palenquero (P) morphosyntax is the unusual, though by no means unique, often clause-final or sentence-final placement of the predicate negator nu 'not ', e.g., i [NU] kelé bae aya NU 'I don't want to go there'. Previous descriptions, often cited in the literature, present oversimplified (and, therefore, misleading) accounts of the data. This paper attempts to rectify the descriptions found in Bickerton & Escalante [B&E] (1970), Lewis (1970), Friedemann & Patino Rosselli [F&P] (1983), andMegenney (1986).Based on an extensive corpus of informal spoken data, it is demonstrated that Palenqueros (Ps) systematically use not one but two basic creole negation patterns -preverbal and postverbal nu -and that the selection of construction signals important discourse pragmatic information. The study goes beyond earlier accounts by providing evidence that the syntax of postverbal nu is not, as generally claimed, utterance-final. The frequent placement of this negator at the end of a clause or sentence depends rather on the absence of constructions which occur infrequently. Such facts, together with the argument that a preverbal negation strategy cannot be viewed as a simple case of interference from Spanish (S), show that, contrary to the opinion of previous investigators, P negation exhibits virtually no signs of decreolization. 1.168 ARMIN SCHWEGLER Granda (1978:414-5), and seemingly also Byrne (1987:2) consider that, prior to the recent intensive contact with the outside world, slow convergence with S over the past three centuries has led to a post-creole continuum. Del Castillo (1984:88) and F&P (1983:185) reject this analysis, arguing (justifiably) that the current situation in San Basilio is still one of diglossia. 3 Lipski & Schwegler (forthcoming) suggest that three factors in particular have distorted research findings: (1) insufficient fluency in P on the part of the investigators, (2) excessive reliance on information obtained from P informants now residing in the (more hospitable) neighboring urban centers of Cartagena or Barranquilla, and (3) the accepted but erroneous belief that the speech modality found in the lumbalú -the ancestral funeral song still practiced today (Schwegler forthcoming b and e) -preserves an unusually heavy dose of unanalyzable African elements that must have characterized the early colonial speech of Ps. What is even more damaging to any study of this creole is the failure by researchers to draw attention to the frequent, often extremely rapid, and, therefore, admittedly not always easy to detect code-switching that takes place in free, uninterrupted conversations among fully bilingual Ps. 4 Lack of attention to such switching operations, as well as insufficient knowledge of either speech variety found in Palenque, has often led to false analyses of certain features (e.g., negation, as argued below), and brought about the hypervaluation of supposed interferences between S and P. 5 These points suggest the fundamental insufficiency of P studies when dealing ...