Languages of the Guianas

THE PHONOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF STEMS IN
SARAMACCAN

S. Catherine Rountree

Summer Institute of Linguistics

Most stems in Saramaccan^ have the potential for occurring in isolation.
They mclude simple stems that correspond to one phonological foot such as
muyee Voman', dagu *dog', waka 'walk', haika listen', we Veil'; simple
stems that correspond to more than one phonological foot such as siki/si
*six', kalu/wd lizard'; and compound stems such as liba/-se 'upriver',
gan/-gddu *the great god' (/ indicates foot boundary and - morpheme
boundary). They combine with affixes and clitics as in ta-wo6ko 'working',
o-wo6ko Vill work', si-de 'see there'. Phonological feet thus correspond to
simple stems, to parts of stems, and to stems with affixes and clitics.

This paper deals with the phonological properties of simple and
compound stems. Combinations of stems with affixes and clitics involve
sandhi phenomena that are the subject of a separate study.

Stems are composed of one to seven syllables. Syllables of any pattern
may occur at any position in the stem. The syllable patterns may be
formulated as (C)V1(V2)(N). There are restrictions on the V2 slot fillers. N
represents nasalization of the syllable and will be explained separately.

Fillers of the consonant slot may be charted as shown.

labial apical laminal dorsal dorsolabial general

N

nasals

m

n

nj

/prenasalized

mb

nd

ndj

ng

stops -(voiced

b

d

dj

g

gb

Cvoiceless

P

t

tj

k

kp

frica- Tvoiceless
tives ^voiced

f

s

V

z

lateral

1

semivowels

w

i

22

Saramaccan Stems 23

Contrasts between consonants are illustrated as follows:
Labial: mata 'mortar', mbata 'deer', bata 'bottle', pada 'paddle', finu 'thin',

vinde 'throw', wata 'water'.
Apical: tene 'tear, rip', tende 'stretch', edi 'head', eti 'yet', kuP^su 'pillow',

liNzo 'smooth', silo 'three-toed sloth'.
Laminal: njuNnju 'new', ndju 'type of peanut', djombo 'jump', tjotjo 'beat',

ju 'you, singular'.
Dorsal: ngaku 'stutter', gadu 'god', kasi 'cupboard'.
Dorsolabial: gbamba 'meat', kpata 'black and white Capuchin monkey'.

The general nasal N occurs only in syllable final position and is not in
contrast with the other consonants. It is described later.

The semivowels /h/ and /w/ are frequently dropped from certain words
when they occur foot initial: wosu ^^ osu 'house', womi -~6mi 'man',
wapa ^ apa 'star apple (Chrysophyllum cainitao)', hopo ~ opo 'up', hedi ^ edi
'head'. There are other words in which they occur foot initial and are never
dropped: wata 'water', wasi 'wash', hondi 'hunt', haP^so 'handsome'. Both
occur foot medially and are not dropped from that position: agadawedi 'type
of swallow', suwaki 'sick', ahalala 'centipede'.

As will be shown, a phonetic nasal-contoid sequence [NC] in which the
contoid is a voiced stop is considered a unit: a prenasalized stop, symbolized
generically as M. The same kind of sequence with any other contoid,
however, is considered to be a sequence of two units across a syllable
boundary for the following reasons. First, voiced prenasalized stops occur foot
initially: mbei 'make', ndeti 'night', ngaku 'stutter', ndju 'type of peanut'.
Other nasal plus contoid sequences do not. Second, in forms that contain no
nasal plus contoid sequences, high lax muffled [i] and high tense bright [i]
are allophones of /i/. [i] occurs only in nasal syllables (described later):
/gbelilSJ/ [gbelirv/gbelirj] 'absolute indicator', [i] occurs only in nonnasal
syllables: /guli/ [guli] 'swallow'. In forms in which [i] or [i] precede nasal
plus contoid sequences, [i] occurs only when the contoid that follows is not
a voiced stop: /viNtu/ [vintu] 'wind', [i] precedes sequences of nasal plus
voiced stop: /vinde/ [vinde] 'throw'. In other words [i] behaves exactly as it
would be expected to behave in a nasal syllable, whether it is followed by
another syllable or not, while [i] has the properties that are characteristic of
the vowel /i/ in nonnasal syllables. The nasal that follows the bright
allophone [i] of /i/ is by this argument part of the onset of the next
syllable. Third, native speakers indicate a syllable break before prenasalized
stops /mb nd ndj ng/ but after the general nasal in /Np Nt Nk Ns Nz
Nj/.

Since Saramaccan has no consonant clusters, the double stops /gb and
/kp/ function as single units. They have as allophones [gbj in free variation
with [gw] and [kp] in free variation with [kw]: /gbamba/ [gbamba -v. gwamba]
'meat', /kpata/ [kpata '>' kwata] 'black and white Capuchin monkey'.

24 Creole Languages

Voorhoeve (1959) labels these phonemes as implosives without going into
further details about their phonetic makeup.

Voorhoeve (1959, 1961, 1964, Voorhoeve and Donicie 1963) studied
the Lower Surinam River dialect of Saramaccan. This study is of the Upper
Surinam River dialect. Although it agrees essentially with his conclusions,
there are some diflferences. For example, he has the same number of vowels,
but diflferent phonetic norms. The Upper Surinam vowels are:

front central back

i u

[i] [V]

e o

In the VI slot of the syllable there is clear contrast in nonnasalized
between high bright i, mid muffled e, and mid bright e: tii 'steer', tei *take\
lei learn', lei *ride', biifi letter', teegi 'slowly', peegu 'nail'.^ There are also
relationships of free variation among these vowels which will be discussed
under archiphonemes.

High muffled [i] occurs in nasalized syllables, as already mentioned,
whereas the high bright [i] never occurs in nasalized syllables: gbeliPsf
[gbell 'v/ gbelir^] 'absolute indicator', guli [guli] 'swallow', viNtu [vintu] 'wind',
vinde [vlnde] 'throw'. The mid muffled [e] also appears in nasalized syllables:
s^PjJsi [sesi 'v sensi] 'since', peeNja [peefa] 'piranha'. For these reasons [i] must
be an allophone of /i/ rather than of /e/ as in the lower Surinam dialect.

There is also clear contrast in nonnasalized syllables between high bright
u, mid muffled o, d mid bright o: gudu 'rich', koti 'cut', k6to 'cold',
dungu 'dark', toNpi 'thorn', tongo 'tongue'. There are also relationships of
free variation between u and o which will be discussed under archiphonemes.

The low central a is neither bright nor muffled and has only one
allophone: da 'give', faa 'cut down', waka 'walk', paabi 'saucer', baaa
'brother'.

The high muffled /u/ is treated here as an archiphoneme because of its
special relationship to u and o. It occurs in CVN.CV and CV.MV stems. In
the environments 1— N, 1— M there is no contrast between u and o, and the
phone [u] occurs consistently: luNtu [luntu] 'around', lungi [luggi] *long'.^ In
the environment s—N, s— M there is contrast between u and o, as in siindju
[siindju] 'dirty', sondo [sondo] 'without', but free variation and no contrast
between [u] and [o], suni [soni ^ suni] 'thing',"^ sunde [sonde '^ sunde]

Saramaccan Stems 25

'Sunday'. In other environments there is free variation between [u] and [u] in
contrast with [o]: mundu [mundu /^ mundu] 'world', moNngo [m6r)g6] 'proper
name'. In other stems u and o occur with no free variation involved: bungu
[buggu] 'pitcher', kul^su [kiinsu] 'pillow', sonde [sondo] 'without'. The
archiphoneme /u/ is written to indicate the various ranges of free variation
and the lack of contrast in 1— N, 1— M.

A similar free variation occurs among the front vowels in nasalized
syllables CVN, CVJNJ, and before prenasalized stops CV.MV: siP^
[si ^ se ^ se A/ sir) ^ seg ^ seg] 'shame', liNzo [linzo ^ lenzo ^ lenzo] 'smooth'.
In other stems the front vowels occur with no free variation involved: siNkii
[sirjkii] 'body', peeNja [peeja] 'piranha' feP^se [fese '^^ fense] 'window', /i/ is
written to indicate free variation among front vowels.

Free variation with syllable final nasals will be discussed under
nasalization. The archiphonemes /i,u, ^/ represent these ranges of free
variation that are distinct from phonemes that show no such variation.

The second vowel of a syllable is either a repeat of the first vowel or a
dissimilar high vowel. The high back vowel can follow only central and back
vowels in the same syllable: tii 'steer', teegi 'slowly', peegu 'nail', paabi
'saucer', doongo 'intoxicated', koosu 'clothes', fuiiku 'early', lei 'learn', lei
'ride', bai 'buy', boi 'cook', bui 'chain', pau 'tree', kousu 'socks', foou
'flood'.5

Stems with three consecutive vowels are three syllables. Native speakers
classify them rhythmically with three syllable stems: baaa [ba.a.a] 'brother',
guuuN [gu.u.u] 'green', are like kumiitu 'come out' in rhythm.

Every vowel carries one tone. Two tones, high and low, are contrastive:
tembe 'build', sembe 'people', lembe 'lick'. In long syllables the tones may
be HL, kaima 'alligator', HH matuitiii 'spotted sandpiper', LH noiti 'never',
or LL peika 'fix'.

In the most common stem pattern, one and only one syllable has a
high tone: waka 'walk', fuuku 'early', siki/si 'six', apeesina 'orange'. A less
common stem pattern has no high tone: vuNvuN 'hummingbird', logoso
'turtle', legede 'lie', sembe 'people', gbamba 'meat', maisi 'electric eel'. A
third stem pattern has more than one high tone: matuitiii 'spotted sandpiper',
bumbuu 'state of well-being'.

The stress pattern of stems can be predicted according to the following
rules. (1) The first long syllable in each foot of the stem is stressed. (2) If
there is no long syllable, the next to the last syllable in the phonological
foot is stressed. In simple stems that correspond to more than one
phonological foot, the first stress is the heaviest. Compound stems remain to
be investigated. Two-syllable stems with a LH tone pattern have no set

26 Creole Languages

pattern; the stress varies freely between the syllables: 'bebe '^ be'be 'drink',
•guli 'X' gu'li 'swallow', •kini/N' ki'ni 'knee'.

Nasalization is primarily a feature of the syllable. It is manifested as a
general nasal /N/ and as the archiphoneme /^/. /N/ occurs as a final
nasal consonant before /p, t, k, 2/ that takes the same point of articulation
as the following consonant: taaNpu [taampu] 'stand', luNtu [liintu] 'around',
siNkii [sigkii] 'body', laNza [Idnza] 'spear'. In all other environments it occurs
only as nasalization of a vowel: waN [wa] 'one', djaNpaneNsi [djampanesi]
'Japanese'. /I^/ includes free variation between a final consonant and
nasalization of a vowel together, or nasalization of the vowel only: faa^Jsi
[faasi ^faansi] 'French', taPjJ [ta ^ tarj] 'stay'.

Nasalization extends over consonants and nasalizes the next syllable
when the consonant is /]/ or /nj/: peeNja [peeja] 'piranha', muNnja [munja]
'wet', but muNngi [mugga] 'bracelets'.

FOOTNOTES

^Saramaccan is spoken by twenty to twenty-four thousand Bush Negroes
who live along the Surinam and Saramacca rivers in the central interior of
Surinam. The data were gathered in Paramaribo with the aid of a Saramaccan
speaker, Mand6, from March to September 1968, and while living in the
paramount chief's village from October of 1968 to January of 1969. The
other principal language helpers were Edme (proper names deviate from the
regular phonological pattern), Meno Muyee, and Faansi. In doing this study I
have corroborated Voorhoeve's work and refined it in certain details. My
purpose is to lay the groundwork for a complete study of Saramaccan.

^Vowels are described as bright and muffled because pharyngeal cavity
shape rather than tongue height is the parameter on which they contrast
consistently, e, i, o, u are usually more high and tense than e, i, o, u. For
the distinction between bright and muffled see Sapir 1931, Chomsky and
Halle 1968, Pike 1966, and Ladefoged 1964.

^These words are written with an o in the practical orthography: I6ngi
'long', I6ntu 'around', according to the choice of native speakers literate in
Dutch.

^suni 'thing' is exceptional in that it fits neither the CVN.CV nor the
CV.MV syllable pattern within which /u/ alternates with u and o. It is a
free variant, however, of sundi, which does fit the pattern.

^The solution of writing the last front vowel in a syllable as a /y/, the
last back vowel as /w/, and a repeat vowel as /h/ was considered. But
since the second vowel carries tone, this solution was rejected.

Grimes, Joseph E., editor. 1972. Languages of the Guianas. Summer
Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics, 35. Norman: Summer
Institute of Linguistics of the University of Oklahoma, ix, 91 p.