The Forgotten History of Trade Languages

from Dispatches: Reflections on the Atlantic World

Endnotes

ENDNOTES

Modern society considers the age of encounter to be the doorway to trade and globalization that brought wealth and cultural exchanges. However, within this discussion, many forget the foundation which made the aforementioned developments possible: communication. Although deeply imbedded by inequality and power dynamics, Europeans, Africans and indigenous peoples all faced the challenge of communication with one another. Whether it was to understand trade methods or negotiations, each group had to discover a way to communicate their desires. This task is imminently difficult considering cultural and linguistic differences. Throughout the Atlantic world, sign, and body language as well as interpreters helped bridge the gaps until eventually creoles and pidgins were formed to help overcome the linguistic barrier.

On the African continent, interpreters and gestures were essential, although fraught with challenges. One of the first European groups to adopt the use of interpreters was the Portuguese. This involved the creation of a methodology to find and train translators. After its creation, it was adopted by other European powers and laid the foundation for West African exploration and trade.1 Slave ships were a necessary area of employment for these interpreters. For example, a 1550 expedition took enslaved Africans to England to learn English before attending a voyage.2 In some cases, slaves on board with the ability to translate were given freedom. However, in the case that the interpreters escaped, remaining crew had to resort to gestures, which were not always successful. According to Gomez Pirez, upon his arrival on the Guinea Coast in 1456, he attempted to show the locals his desire for peace through the presentation of a cake, mirror, and a sheet of paper with a cross. However, these symbols meant nothing to the indigenous Guineans and as a response, they broke the cake, smashed the mirror and tore the paper.3 This was a result of cultural differences. Just because one symbol had meaning in one place did not mean it was significant in another. Although hand gestures and body language were necessary in emergency situations, it was translators that made the early stages of communication simpler.

Photo by Lara Jameson, Pexels.

As time went on, communication became easier through creole peoples. A creole is defined as “any person of European (mostly French or Spanish) or African descent born in the West Indies or parts of French or Spanish America (and thus naturalized in those regions rather than in the parents’ home country).”4 Creoles were able to understand African and European cultures, and also languages. Consequently, many served as intermediaries and provided insight into commercial practices and diplomatic etiquette which benefited African merchants and European sea captains.5 The intercultural skills of Creoles contributed to the formation of pidgins and creoles. Portuguese played a large role in the development of these creole languages as it contributed to the development of pidgin babble which allowed for widespread communication. This is reflected in the languages of Bini and Kongo which were spoken by the first African slaves in Sao Tome. For example, Cape Verdean Creole maintained African influence in syntax and morphology as the Portuguese verbal conjugation shifted towards the African style conjugation.6 This created a language that was neither Portuguese nor African but could be understood

by both groups. Furthermore, as these pidgins developed among newer generations, it borrowed vocabulary from both sides and formed a unique grammar structure known as a creole “Guinea speech” to West Africans and “black Portuguese” by Europeans.7 As a result, it became the lingua franca of the Atlantic. As the settlement of the new world continued, so did the spread of the Guinea Speech to Cape Francis, Cartagena, San Salvador, Mexico City and Havana, along with a united linguistic culture and community.

In the case of North America, these same patterns continued among creole languages such as Gullah. A large contributing factor which led to the development of Gullah was isolation on South Carolina’s Sea Islands. Not only were these islands separated from the United States and other islands by dense marshlands, rivers and channels but for many centuries, interisland communication was limited to boat travel.8 As enslaved peoples who spoke a variety of languages such as Yoruba, Igbo, Efik, and Twi became isolated on plantations, they began to produce their own divergent language developments.9 This led to the formation of unusual sentence patterns. For example, much of the grammar is based in the aforementioned West African languages while the lexicon is primarily English.10 This is still reflected in the way Gullah is spoken today. For example, many Gullah speakers use a single pronoun to refer to feminine, masculine and neuter genders unlike English which uses distinct pronoun forms.11 This reflects how language took different forms to provide new means of communication.

Although the earliest methods of communication have significantly changed and died out over time, their importance cannot be understated. From hand gestures to interpreters to the formation of jargons or creoles, all laid the foundation of the world we know today. If it was not for these ways of communication, the interconnectedness of culture through ethnicity, food and technology would not exist. The transformation of communication from the sixteenth to twentyfirst century from hand gestures to fully developed languages is what allowed for more complex connections which built the world as known today.