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Subject

Seminar of English Linguistics

Presents
David Rodrigo Mora Leal

Professor
Alberto Abouchaar

Bogotá D.C, Colombia May 2018


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………….1

Key Words…………………………………………………………………………………………1

1. Introduction, Objectives, and Methodology……………………………………………….1

2. Historical Affairs of the Gullah language………………………………………………….2

3. Sociolinguistics of the Gullah language…………………………………………………...4

4. Grammar of the Gullah language………………………………………………………….5

5. Phonetics and Phonology of the Gullah language…………………………………………8

6. Gullah Media……………………………………………………………………………..10

7. Education of the Gullah people…………………………………………………………..11

8. Reflection…………………………………………………………………………………12

References………………………………………………………………………………………...14
Gullah language: An American creole

Abstract

The Gullah language is one of those languages created by necessity, because the slaves
required communicating with their British conquerors, and vice versa, here it is presented many
historical facts that took place in the development of the Gullah language, and that became it, into
the language that we know today. Then the next thing to present is the influence that the English
language had had on the creole language, in terms of grammar, and lexicon, but also how the
Gullah language kept its African heritage to enrich the lexicon and the pronunciation of the
Gullah language. In the part of phonetics, you can see that even though the Gullah language
developed in a purely English surrounding environment, there are traces of Spanish pronunciation
in the IPA of the Gullah language. In the education part, which is the most interesting part to me,
it is possible to see how the culture has been able to overcome those problems, and being able to
keep their culture, and customs. Finally yet importantly, we have the reflection, in which the
author presents their point of view about the Gullah language, and everything related to it.

Key words

Disease
Creole
African American
Slavery
Linguistics

1. Introduction, objectives and methodology

On this work, my idea was to present a view of the creole language, as deep as I could. By
going through the historical affairs of the language, the sociolinguistics, the grammar, the
phonetics and phonology, the education, which the part of the work I am interested most, and a
reflection of my point of view about the magnificent language I chose for this work: Gullah
language.

According to ethnologue, the Gullah language can be mainly in the lands where the original
slaves from West Africa were first settled by the British, in the area corresponding of the states of
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and the northern part of the state of Florida. In the
Carolinas, the Gullah tribe is located in almost all the isles in front of the coastline of those states,
and the lowlands close to the coast. In the state of Georgia, it is possible to find members of the
Gullah in tribe in every single corner of the state, and in the case of Florida, the largest settlement
of Gullah tribe members is in the city of Jacksonville.

The status of the language is, five, which means that it is still under a developing process,
with no risk to the language itself. Ethnologue uses a simpler term to sum up this number, five,
into a single word: Vigorous. There are not known dialects to the Gullah language, but is has
been found that the Gullah language has a close relationship in all skills of language with a creole
that is spoken in the Bahamas islands, and in lexical terms with a language called Afro-Seminole.
The part of literacy rate says that even though the Gullah language is not well developed as an
L1, in terms of what is the reading ability of the native speakers of Gullah language, shows that
the people that can read more in Gullah, is the people that have learned it as a L2

The Gullah tribe can be traced back to Africa, and the first registration in America goes back
from the period of slavery. The today’s speakers of Gullah language are descendants of the
original salves that were brought by the British in their ambition of power around the world. Then
these groups of people, with African roots suffered again the whipping of slavery, because yes,
they were freed of the British, but now they have new lords, well the good way is that at least
they have lords that were born in the same soil they are living now. Finally the most important
moment in history for the Gullah tribe, was the aftermath of the civil war, because they were able
to live like humans, for the first time in two hundred years.

2. Historical affairs of the Gullah language

It is well said that the first person that placed a foot in the Americas was Cristopher
Columbus, but what would be your reaction if I tell you that the first settlers in the Americas
actually were the Vikings, the ancestors of the people that currently lives in England. However,
they were not alone, one of the Native American groups, the innus, observed them, and when the
Vikings note that, they decided to attack, and the results were not quite good, because the innus
defended their lands. Therefore, the Vikings had to abandon the Americas, and this caused that a
legend was taken back to Europe, but the problem is that no one in Europe had the bravery to go
and fight with the Native Americans, until 500 years later.

In the middle of the 17th century, England was suffering a religious crisis, and the puritans,
common people that practice the catholic religion in a country where the pope was the most hated
person in the British islands, were being pursed. Then, in an attempt to save their own lives, the
puritans immigrated to the new world. Using the stories transmitted century by century since the
period of the Vikings. Puritans knew about the existence of hostile groups in the place they were
heading to, but they were in the necessity of doing that immigration, however they did not know
that this time, the arrival on the Americas are not going to be as the ones experienced by the
Vikings.

Once the puritans settled in the new world, they became into the pilgrims, and they created a
new place, a place that was under the command of the British crown, but also it was a place
where a religious freedom was created. When the British arrived at North America, they
experienced several troubles because their methods of living, and their tools did not work in this
new world. They were about to die, when a casual meeting with a native tribe saved their lives.
The wabanakies want to kill the Englishmen, and vice versa, but thanks to two members of the
wabanakie tribe, Sammoset, and Squanto, a carnage was avoided, and the establishment of a new
part of the British Empire took place.

Several years had passed, and thirteen colonies were created, the British divided those
colonies into three main regions: New England, Middle colonies, and the southern colonies.
However, the situation was not as beautiful as you may imagine. In every colony, agriculture was
an important element of the colons life, and it was one of the main financial sources of the British
Crown. However, even though the colonies got good resources to the crown, the monarchy was
on bankrupt, and a series of events in Constantinople, made the commerce with the Far East, the
place where most of the resources of the British came much more difficult.

So thanks to a good neighbor of the British, Portugal, the islanders were capable of sending
sailors to Africa, and what they found on the cost of West Africa was perfect for the crown. What
did they found? New people, in fact, black people, nevertheless, the British did not think about
the people, but they thought about the money and wealth they can get from these people, creating
what we know today, as the slavery treatment, in which all the ancient European potencies traded
with black people from these new places.

Obviously, the British were not idiots, and they sent some of these slaves to the North
American colonies, several of the slaves, about 40000 people arrived to the city that we know
today as Charleston, SC. The British conquerors obliged the black slaves to work on the
plantations of Cotton, Sugar, and Tobacco of the southern colonies. But there was a problem, the
two groups cannot communicate between each other, because the British spoke Early modern
English, and the slaves spoke African languages, how are they going to solve this issue?, with the
creation of a pidgin.

While the slaves continued to work, the slaves were thinking about an enormous desire, they
wanted freedom, and their dream was about to come true, but this revolution did not come from
the Gullah Slaves, but it came from upper, from Philadelphia.

In 1776, the colonies got independent from the British Empire, this means that each colony
can do whatever it want, each colony decided to unite themselves to form a new country, The
United States. Nevertheless the dream of freedom only was applicable to the white people, the
black people like the members of the Gullah tribe from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia,
and northern Florida would have to wait another 80 years to get their freedom.

In 1860, President Abraham Lincoln was elected with an idea of freedom for every single
person living in the United States, however, this idea led to a civil war, a war that helped the
Gullah tribe to create a stronger Gullah culture. In addition, because the people of the states were
more occupied fighting amongst themselves, the Gullahs could focus on creating a good culture,
with a strong language, the result, the union won, allowing that the black people were free, also
helping to create a tribe where the Gullah English was the main language.

The Gullah tribe kept hidden from the white American people; however, the expansion of the
cities and American lifestyle obliged the Gullah people to leave their comfort zones. Especially in
the prior time to the World War II, the Gullahs enrolled in the American army, as a way to help
their country, a country that even though have rejected once, now accepted them. This led to an
increase of the involving of the Gullah people in the modern American lifestyle. Because it is
very often to see members of the Gullah people living and working on the modern cities of North,
South Carolina, Georgia, and the northern part of Florida.

3. Sociolinguistics of the Gullah language

The Gullah language is part of a group of languages called: “African American Vernacular
English”. This is a scientific name for the “creole” languages, most of them evolved from pidgins
that arose from the necessity of the slaves brought from Africa to the southern east states of the
American union, and their British merchants.

On this days, the Gullah tribes is located more specific in a group of islands located in front
of the coast of the U.S states of the southern part of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and
the northern part of Florida. These islands have the name of the “Gullah Sea Islands”, and in
these islands is very common that the people of this tribe dedicate most of their time to the
agriculture, especially of plantations of rice, cotton, indigo, and tobacco plantations.

Being isolated from the continent has been benefic for the Gullah culture, because it has
allowed to this culture, to keep their customs and traditions, and one example of this the fact that
three times a year, the Gullah islanders celebrate a festival with the intention of honoring their
ancestral culture from Africa. It is very common that in this festival one of the most elements of
the African inheritance that is honored, it is the issue of food, which is a combination of the
African base of the Gullah culture, and the American gastronomy that we know based on the
products of the southern region, apples and other fruits.

In the terms of the status of the language, as you remember the status of the language is
dependable of the feeling of relationship between the people that were conquered and the people
that is conquering. Because in this particular case, this group has suffered the process of slavering
by two different groups, from the establishment of the thirteen colonies, to the American
Revolution in 1776; and then since the moment the colonies got independent until the time when
the American civil war took place, and the right of emancipation was declared. Therefore, this
means that while they were under the guidance of a stronger group the Gullah language was only
used while the people that were met were all native. Even today is difficult to find a person that
uses the Gullah language only, because if that person wants to socialize, with other people, has to
speak using the standard American English.

I would like to start my part of diglossia, and bilingualism with a question, is Gullah
decreolizing? Some linguists say yes, others say no. One of the linguists that say that is Jones-
Jackson (1987), “in which the creation of bridges that has facilitated education, and the change of
population is causing that the Gullah language goes from the process of a creole language, to a
language that is a short space of time, is going to disappear”.

The important thing here, and the advantage of this, is that the Gullah language is an English-
based creole which means that the people who live in the Gullah Sea Islands has acquired their
Creole as a mother tongue, and they have learned English as a second language. Nevertheless, we
have to add an important ingredient to this soup, and it is the fact that the Gullah Sea Islands have
become into one of the most popular touristic destinations of the southern region of the United
States, causing that a lot of “white” people visits the islands every year, so is on this cases in
which the usage of American standard English as the way of communication takes place.

Here another part of the sociolinguistic theory is taking place, because as it uses to happen
with most of the creole and the minority languages of the world, only the oldest members of the
tribe are capable of speaking using the minority language only, in this case Gullah language.
Whereas the younger generations tend more to use standard English to communicate between
themselves and with the tourists that come to the island to spend their week of vacations. In
addition, they use Gullah, only on the islands, and mostly exclusively, to use it with the old
people of the tribe that do not know Standard English, or in the cases where they consider it
necessary.

On the other hand, for the linguists that believe that the Gullah language is not decreolizing
state that there is not an extreme process of diglossia. Because most of the speakers use, and
enriches the Gullah language, by for example with the incorporation of new lexicon coming from
the standard American English, and also because this linguists say that the only interaction of the
native people of these islands, with the white people that have either moved to the islands
(Similar case to providence island in Colombia), only to have large properties that are only
occupied for a few days during the summer season; or with the white people that go to the islands
with a touristic plan, only takes place in only very little cases.

4. Grammar of the Gullah Language

As most of the creoles that we have seen in class, Gullah is a language that is a mixture of
other languages, most of them, languages that are spoken in the current countries of Nigeria,
Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Senegal, among these languages we can add: Krio language of Sierra
Leone, Jamaican Patois, Bajan Creole, Trinidadian Creole, Tobagonian Creole, Guayanese
Creole, and Belizean Creole.

The first important element in the part of the linguistics is that most of the vocabulary of the
Gullah language came from the African languages spoken on the countries mentioned above; in
fact, most of the words in the Gullah languages can be traced not only to a country, but also to a
tribe. In the following table, you can see a list of Gullah words, with its translation to English.

Table one, comparison of words in Gullah and English


tebl tapa ‘preacher’ i.e. ‘one who taps on the table’
tɒɪ 'unə mɒut ‘hush, stop talking’ i.e. ‘tie your mouth’ (< Mende)
swit mɒut ‘to flatter’ i.e. ‘to sweet mouth’
bad mɒut ‘to curse’ i.e. ‘to bad mouth’

Then we have the part of grammar, in this case, it has been evident, that the English
language affected the African substrate languages. Because different of what happened in San
Andrés, Colombia, in which Spanish has also affected the creole of San Andrés, in this case the
realization process took place with only one superior language taking part into it, English.
One of the researchers that investigated most about the linguistics of Gullah language was
Lorenzo Dow Turner. Turner became famous for his investigations about this language, and he
found on an investigation published in 1949 about the existence of about 300 loanwords from
different African Languages, it may seem a small amount of words for a language, but the thing
that surprises, is the large amount of proper names used in this language that come from the
African Language.

Also is pretty clear, that English has left its fingerprint on Gullah, because even though the
written is more related to the African inheritance this language has; the pronunciation, and some
part of the grammar, is still related to the Acrolith of this language, this means to the Standard
form of English, especially from the Irish, Scottish dialects of English. In the following
examples, you will see examples of the morphology, and the grammar tenses of Gullah language.

Uh he’p dem — "I help them/I helped them" (Present/Past Tense)


Uh bin he'p dem — "I helped them" (past tense) [I've been helping them]
Uh gwine he'p dem — "I will help them" (future tense) [I'm going to help them]
Uh done he'p dem — "I have helped them" (perfect tense) [I've done helped them]
Uh duh he'p dem — "I am helping them" (present continuous) [I do help them]
Uh binnuh he'p dem — "I was helping them" (past continuous) [I've been helping them]

We have the part of syntax in which you can see the organization of the words in Gullah, and
their translation into English.

Da' big dog, 'e bite'um — "That big dog, it bit him" (topicalization)
Duh him da' cry out so — "It is he who cried out that way" (front focusing)
Uh tell'um say da' dog fuh bite'um — "I told him, said that dog would bite him" (dependent
clauses with "say")
De dog run, gone, bite'um — "The dog ran, went, bit him" (serial verb construction)
Da' duh big dog — "That is a big, big dog" (reduplication)

As all the creole languages, we have seen in this course, Gullah English-based creole has
some characteristics that can make it a new language. In this particular case, we have the fact that
the plural number does not exist, so you do not have to worry about learning rules of how to put
an “s”, or “ies” at the end of the nouns to make it plural, instead, in Gullah, we have the
following examples:
Dɛm bɒɪ- ‘those boys’
Fɒɪw dɒg- ‘five dogs’

Also in the Gullah, language is very common that there is not inflection in the forms of verbs;
they actually do not conjugate the verbs. Also an important discovery I made while analyzing this
creole is the fact that first of all, Gullah does not have a feminine third person pronoun “she”,
another interesting fact of the Gullah language, and perhaps of most of the creoles spoken in the
Caribbean is the fact that Gullah does not have the neutral pronoun “it”.

mi go ‘I go’
wi go ‘we go’
'unə go ‘you go (sg.)’
'unə go ‘you go (pl.)’
i go ‘he goes’
dɛm go ‘they go’

And last, but not least to the part of Grammar of Gullah language, we have the pronouns
that are quite similar to the pronouns of English in terms of morphology and meaning. A
noticeable element of the pronouns is the fact that although in the nominative series of pronouns
of the Gullah language there is not a pronoun specifically related to the feminine subject, or even
the neutral subject, we have in English. You do see the presence of this kind of pronouns in the
objective and possessive pronouns of the Gullah language; here you can see some examples of
the Gullah language pronouns.

NOMINATIVE
mi (sometimes ɒɪ) ‘I’
wi ‘we’
'unə ‘you’
'unə ‘you’
i, hɪm ‘he’
dɛm (sometimes de) ‘they’

OBJECTIVE
mi ‘I’
wi ‘us’
'unə ‘you’
'unə ‘you’
hɪm, əm ‘him’
dɛm ‘they’
ʃi ‘her’

POSSESSIVE
mi, mɒɪ ‘my’
wi ‘our’
'unə ‘you’
'unə ‘you’
hɪm ‘his’
dɛm, dɛm on ‘their’
ʃi ‘her’

Moreover, here you have a comparison with the pronoun system of the Ibo pronoun
system, which is quite similar to the pronouns of the Gullah language.

NOMINATIVE
m3, mu3 ‘I’
a1ɲi3 ‘we’
ge3, gi3, i3, e3 ‘you’
u3nu1 ‘you’ ya3, ö3, ɔ3 ‘he’
ha3 ‘they’

OBJECTIVE
m3 ‘me’
a3ɲi3 ‘us’
ge3 ‘you’
u3nu1 ‘you’
ya3 ‘him,’ ‘her,’ ‘it’
ha3 ‘them’

POSSESSIVE
m3 ‘my’
a3ɲi3 ‘our’
ge3 ‘your’
u3nu1 ‘your’
ya3 ‘his,’ ‘her,’ ‘its’
ha3 ‘their

5. Phonetics and Phonology of the Gullah language

Actually, there is not a specific study of the phonology of the Gullah language, but there is a
deep study of the African American Vernacular English, group where the Gullah language is
included. It is impressing that all of these vernacular languages have so much common
characteristics that is possible to make single investigation for all of them, including Gullah
language.

So the first characteristic I am going to mention about the Gullah phonology is the one related
to the pronunciation of the consonants at the end of the words, one typical example of this is the
pronunciation of the “st”, in which one of the sounds is eliminated. In this particular case, and
because of the difficulty of changing the position of the tongue from the /s/, to the /t/
pronunciation, the Gullah native speakers tend to eliminate the sound of the /t/. Example:

West side (becoming wes side)

Then we can see, how the Gullah language native speakers have modified the
pronunciation of one of the characteristic phonemes of the Standard English, the “th” sound.

In this case, we have to remember that in English, we have to ways to pronounce the “th”
sound, one voiced /ð/, and the other voiceless /θ/. In the specific case of the Gullah speakers, the
tendency is to approach the sound of the corresponding “th” phoneme, to the closest letter to it,
for instance, to say thank you, in Gullah language, they change the “th” voiceless sound into a /t/,
and they say “tank yu”. In addition, if they have to say words like “this” “that”, or “them”, the
procedure is to change the “th” voiced sound into the pronunciation of a /d/, in the following
examples you can see the conversion of phonemes

/θ/ to /t/ ex: ‘thank you’ to tank yu


/ð/ to /d/ ex: ‘this, that, them’ to dɪs, dat, dɛm

Finally, in the part of consonants, we have the case of the sounds of /l/ and /r/, in which
the combination of these two phonemes during the speaking process becomes into a similar
sound of a vowel with this phoneme /ɚ/, showing the acrolect in this pronunciation of the Gullah
English with the standard British English.

'Steal', 'sister', 'nickel' becomes into steauh, sistuh, nickuh

The vowels in Gullah language suffer a change when they are after a nasal consonant,
because in this case, what the Gullah speakers do is the elimination of the nasal consonant, and
the nasalization of the vowel:

'Man' becomes mã

In addition, it was possible to identify the change of diphthongs because different from
the standard American English, in which you move your tongue while you pronounce the
diphthong, in the Gullah language you do not move your tongue.

'My' is pronounced ma as in he's over at ma sister's house.

Finally in the part of phonology, we have the issue related to the stress of the words, in
which there is a enormous change with the stress pronunciation of the American standard
English, because while in the standard English the stress changes either from the first, or the last
syllable of each word, in the Gullah language, most of the words have the stress on the first
syllable. Jack sindell (unknown year) gives the following example to describe how the
pronunciation of the Gullah words, changes regarding to the American standard English: “So,
where words like police, hotel and July are pronounced with stress on the last syllable in
standard English, in AAVE they may have stress placed on the first syllable so that you get po-
lice, ho-tel and Ju-ly.”

In addition, here, we have the list of phonemes that compose the Gullah language.

Vowels: [i, ɪ, e, ɛ, ã, a, ə, ɚ, u, ʊ, o, ʌ, ɒ]
Consonants:
Labial: [p, b, m, p’, kp, gb, mb, mp, mw, ɸ, β]
Alveolar: [t, d, n, t’, nt, nd, ns, θ, ð, s]
Palatal: [ʃ, ʃ’, c, ɟ, ɲ]
Velar: [k, g, k’, ɕ, ŋd, ŋg, ŋk]
Approximants: [l] and [r]

6. Gullah Media

The Gullah culture has been represented in several events related to the media, arts and
entertainment. In terms of exhibitions, the most representative one is Finding Priscila’s Children,
an exhibition that represents the story of Priscila, A 10 year-old girl, born in Sierra Leone, and
brought to the colonies to work as a slave in the plantations of rice and cotton of the XVIII
century. The exhibition also presented an investigation that traced the descendants of Priscila
living in South Carolina; most of these descendants are now prominent members of science
academies of the southern region of The United States, responsible for investigating and
promoting the Gullah culture.

Another media entertainment representation of the Gullah culture is in the seventh art of
Hollywood, movies that have been famous since 1974 about several topics related to the Gullah
culture. From the autobiography of a member of the Gullah tribe; Conrack (1974), other movie is
about the story of a ghost who lives in the area inhabited by the Gullahs. One of the tales of the
Unknown South (1984). Two movies about the participation of the Gullah tribe in the
emancipation process and the American Civil War (1984, and 1989), and some other related to
the life and the culture of the Gullah tribe.

In addition, if you are like me, fanatic of travelling and wind shielding a place, you should
arrive at North Carolina, go to the airport rent car facility, rent a car, go to a Walmart, buy a map,
some supplies, and start to visit the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. This historical
corridor was designated by The United States Congress in 2006, and it goes from Wilmington,
North Carolina, passing through all the coastline of South Carolina, and finishing in the northern
part of the city of Jacksonville, in the state of Florida.

An important thing to remark is the wealth of the literature; first about the amount of topics
about the Gullah culture, and that you can see the effort of preserving the Gullah language. As we
have seen in class, with the case of the Sanandresan Creole, in which textbooks are created with
the intention of promoting and increasing the usage of the Gullah language, especially by
children. Either all these works were written in Gullah language, or the main topic is about the
Gullah culture. Other writers have found inspiration by writing novels based on the area in which
the Gullah people have lived for the last 300 years. In terms of academic papers, most of the
topics that you can find in printed and online versions are investigations about the culture,
history, and language of the Gullah culture.

The Gullah culture has also been the inspiration of lots of music bands, one of these songs has
the title of “Gullah”, and it is part of an album of 2005, launched by a band from Germantown,
Maryland called Clutch. A second famous song related to the culture of the Gullah people, is one
called “Kum Bah Yah”, a sentence of the Gullah language that can be translated to Standard
English as “Come by Here”. Kum Bah Yah was originally launched in 1926, and it has been so
influential in the southern area of The United states, and perhaps in the whole country, that this
song has become into the classical tone that is used in the summer camps, and the army to
indicate that it is time to wake up.

A folkloric song of the time of the civil war has the name of “Michael Row the boat ashore”,
and this song is a representation of the Negro spiritual beliefs during the progress of the
American Civil War on one of the South Carolina islands called Helena Island.

Last but not least, in the part of music, we have a band called Ranky Tanky, they are a band
from Charleston, South Carolina, created in 2016, they are a band specialized in playing jazz
music with a lot of influence of the Gullah culture, it is actually something similar to
Choquibtown here in Colombia.

Since 1986, it is possible to find photographic registrations of the Gullah culture, most of
these representations are now in books that you can see on the University of Georgia Press, in
Athens, Georgia. Other group of people have collaborated to the effort of preserving for the
future generations the Gullah culture; among these people, we can find the New York Public
Library Astor Lenox, and Tiden foundations.

Finally, we have the issue of television. Along the years, four programs were created with the
intention of promoting the Gullah culture, not only around the United Sates, by also around the
world. The first one is “Gullah Gullah Island”, a program that is presented by Nickelodeon, and it
is based on the Gullah culture of the Saint Helena Island, in the state of South Carolina. There has
been also produced three different documentaries. One about the relationship of the members of
the Gullah people with the water that surrounds them, and the one they use to live. Other
documentary that shows the tragedy and the constant fight that the members of the Gullah people
have to combat with the white man, people with the intention of eliminating the tribe, with the
idea to stay in their territories. In addition, we have a film with the title of “Daughters of the dust”
(1991). the plot of this movie is about three women that live with the Peazant Family, in the Saint
Helena Island, and have the intention of emigrating to the mainland with the intention of looking
for new opportunities to live, despite of the large history of segregation that had had the United
States, a phenomenon that is stronger in these part of the country.

7. Education in the Gullah people

After the civil war, the African American people, that were recently released by the actions of
the late president Abraham Lincoln received the rights that all citizens of the united states have
right, among this we have the right to elect and to be elected, and one of the most important to
create an equal society; education.

In order to address this topic, my idea is to focus the education from two points of view, one
is the cultural heritage that we still have in the United States, and on the other hand, from the
sight of the people who think that the Gullah education is an obstacle for the education of the
children of South Carolina.

First, we have the part of the cultural heritage; I have recently found that a school district in
Saint Helena Island, which is something similar as the pillar of the Gullah culture, was founded
in 1862, right in the middle of the civil war, with the purpose of preserving the heritage and
written history of the Gullah culture. The founders of this district were aligned with the union
side during the American civil war, and in general is truly known that president Lincoln was a
truly defender of the education, and the founders of the Penn Center school district believed that
the education was a high priority for the post-civil war United States. This priority was so high,
that children received classes not only on the building designed to be the school, but also in any
available building in the island.

Nowadays, that love for education is still so enormous, that in a school district most of the
subjects, all the educative material are given, and written in Gullah language, and all the teachers
are natives of the Gullah people. Among this subjects we can find, Math, Biology, History and
science are taught in Gullah language. In terms of the process of learning languages, all the
students in this school district are native speakers of Gullah, and the expectative is that they
become fluent and competent in English as a second Language.

Nevertheless, for other school districts in the states that are part of the area of influence of the
Gullah tribe, the coastline of North Carolina, South Carolina, and the north of Florida, think that
the Gullah culture is an obstacle in the learning process of the students of these areas. Most of
this is believed because of the fact about the language barrier that may exist with a creole
language, and the standard variety of the linguistic base of the creole, can interfere with the
learning process, especially with the issue of not understanding the topics that are explained by
the teacher in a classroom.

In spite of the things previously mentioned, several teachers of schools along the coast of the
states influenced by the Gullah culture say that the “language barrier” does not represent any
trouble in the process of learning. Therefore, we can say that this is a battle between the people
that are involved in education, and the big cheese people that work on the departments of
education of the states where the Gullah tribe lives.

8. Reflection

From my point of view, I consider that despite of the Gullah tribe has been a people that have
passed by two different processes of slavery, one by the British, and other by the ironic American
independence promoters, they were able to survive, probably because as the teacher told us in
class, because they were isolated in an island. However some members of the tribe that were
slaves of the white people in the plantations of rice, cotton and tobacco, lost their language and
culture, thanks to the intervention of the white race on that issue. For the people that stayed on
the island it was much greater, because they were able not only to keep the culture intact, but also
they were able to expand it further until being sure that the future generation will appreciate and
practice that culture.

I consider that the Gullah language has a lot vitality, because not only there are still living
speakers of that language, but also because they live in a country where the most spoken
language is English. In addition, the main thing is that the Gullah language is an English-based
creole, so it is much easier for the speakers of the Gullah language to learn how to speak English,
and for the speakers of English to learn how to speak the Gullah language. This particular
characteristic, will improve the vitality of the Gullah language for the increasing number of
people that speak the Gullah language

In addition, in terms of survival of the language I am sure for what I have investigated that the
Gullah language will survive for a long time, especially for the large amounts of efforts made by
not only entities of the states where the Gullah tribe is settled, but also for other institutions that
have base in other parts of the united states, and the world.

An important element that I would like to highlight, is the studies made by the doctor Lorenzo
Low Turner, who was the first linguist and academic interested in the Gullah language, and was
the first person in the world to publish a complete, and rich investigation of the Gullah language,
its culture, its customs, etc.
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