Gwendolyn Midlo Hall > Quotes

“Bambara and other Mande languages, as well as most West African languages, are tonal. Rhythm as well as tonality not only determine the meaning of individual words but also play an important role in grammar. Functional tonality has been identified in a few creole languages. It is possible that the musicality of Louisiana Creole, which seduced generations of Louisianians and probably affected their own speech in Cajun and English as well as in French, is a nonfunctional survival of tonality in African languages....Patterns of rhythm and tonality in Louisiana Creole might be linked to patterns of musical expression, including syncopation and jazz. It is surprising that linguists have paid relatively little attention to the study of rhythm and intonation in creole languages.”
― Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Africans In Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth-Century