This brought back so many memories...I was on that trip to Guyana with the UWI St. Augustine and Mona linguistic departments. That's my friend Candace sitting next to her... Thank you Dr Robertson for such a great experience.
I was born in Berbice, the last connection to my Dutch heritage was my great uncle Wilhelm who died in the 1970's, he was over one hundred years old. When I was a little boy there was an old lady who sold ground provisions and she could only figure out her payment in guilders, which is the old Dutch currency.
The eastern Ijaw comprises Bonny (Okoloma), Opobo, Kalabari and Okirika. They understand each other and they can understand and communicate with people from western and southern Ijaw to some degree. I wished it was recorded. Nji is fish, Mingi is water etc.
Thanks dear for sharing your beautiful experiences. Teaching us about our ancestors in the Americas. Such rich cultural heritage. I feel so proud. Knowledge is power. Thanks dear.
There is a Dutch book which mentions this language as well. It's called in Dutch "Het verhaal van een taal" which translates into, The story of a language. It is very interesting to read and might be of some help to people who want to learn more about this language and other Dutch creole languages.
I'm glad that people like this are investigating and recording minority languages, AND are looking into the African influences. Too often those influences are ignored or assumed to be of other (usually European) origin.
They are definitely not ignored in linguistic studies concerning pidgin/creole formation (would be rather tricky to try study it then) The fact that (several) African influences often functioned as substrate languages, in combination with a European-based language functioning as a superstrate, is based in the social/political context. A context we can't simply ignore and has to be acknowledged, sad as things were.
"Fi" is death or to die in Kalabari. "Te" is a perfect tense like bo te which means "has come". I think "dote te" is a combination of Dutch and Kalabari. Dode is dead in Dutch and te is a perfect tense. So dote te means "has died".
Interesting to hear. I'm a Kalabari and in the Kalabari language we say "O fi te" meaning "he has died." Do te te (as she said) - quite similar. Obviously, with the passage of time, other words have been removed or added to the language by our people in the Caribbean and I can definitely see the similarity.
thanks for the video. as a Kalabari i know that the Dutch had lots of business dealings with us like 100 years ago. iit is possible that the languages influenced each other. minji is water in kalabari. It will also interest you to know that the Kalabari had Portuguese influence. The languages intermingled Dutch Creole, Kalabari and other languages and got modified over the years loosing some and "b" changing to "d" etc
Yeah, that's why he said that it came from Kalabari. It's "do-te-te", not "dood". "Te" means "has" and saying it twice emphasizes/intensifies the word in many West African languages, similar to how Europeans use swear/bad words to emphasize/intensify phrase like "Damn" in "Damn good" means "very good" or in Dutch, some say "kanker lekker" to mean "very cool" or "zeer goed" to mean "very good" even though "Kanker"(Cancer) is a sickness and feeling "Zeer"(Sore) isn't great either.
Very interesting, thank you for sharing this! I am Dutch living in Spain, and I can hear the various influences of the languages in what the old lady spoke.
I can't see a link. Maybe links are not showing here. If you like, I will explain some of the sound changes from Dutch to Berbice Dutch. I did not find out everything yet. Lately I am learning a bit of the old Virgin Island Dutch to find out if there are some parallel changes and to get more Dutch Creole vocabulary fit for Caribbean culture. Dutch words in Sranan are useful too, because some of them are just the same as in Berbice Dutch.
i didnt really understand Doto in kalabari, but te' definately yes...haven said that it might have been as a result of my handicap in the understanding of kalabari language,but i am on a mission of fixing the language problem,and that how i found this video...
Yes, dood means dead in Dutch... but why can't you imagine it might also be true that dote means dead in Kalabari? There's no monopoly on morphemes... and if you read a little about the development of a language you might realize that that even proves the point.
Dead in Kalabari is "FI" . John is dead in Eastern Ijaw wud sound lik this :."Johnu fi te". So mixing Dutch and Kalabari or any of d eastern Ijaw dialects one wud arrive at : "John Dood te" meaning John is dead. Dood(dead) , Te (is) Eastern Ijaw
I also belive ( it's understandable) that her predecessors could speak this language better.also, why did she get Dutch at school? Is this not unusual? Thanks for the tip!!
I was going to point that out. I have read a few of your articles on the Dutch creole languages in the Caribbean. I want to make my fellow young Caribbean people be aware of those languages.
@@silviakouwenberg Oh no no I am far from that. I am but a humble university student. I love the history of the Caribbean my people and I have been disappointed that certain aspects such as Berbice Dutch Creole have been forgotten by most Guyanese (I even wrote a blog about it). I would usually read historical books/blogs/journals about the Caribbean and share them with my friends and relatives.
Reuben,i dont think he ignored the Dutch language,you have to undertsand the purpose of this documentary,the berbice dutch creole just like he said is 40% Ijo,offcourse another African language tongue in ghana...so much has been said about the dutch influence on the language but very little is known about its African influence
Dodo is Zeelandic, the european parent of Berbice Dutch, for sleep too. A loanword from French. It is only used by/speaking to children. “Dodo doee” = dodo do = to do dodo = going to sleep. I think it may have survvived into Guyanese creole because it sounds familiar in a lot of languages and it is a very “domistic” word.
That seems a very narrow data set to base such a conclusion on. You simply do not know whether 'et te' has evolved from 'ist 'ie' or has some entirely different basis. That said, Dutch was the lexifier/superstrate language for this pidgin. If you are interested in the different features of Berbice and their respective origin (or of other pidgins/creoles), check out apics-online.info/contributions/28 Great source of information
Great video, but a few mistakes here and there. ''Bifi'' is most likely derived from the Dutch word ''bief'', meaning ''beef'. ''Doto'' is definitely derived from ''dood'' (Dutch for dead, like DisChanneliz mentioned) as Albertha's ancestors must have been threatened with death on numerous occasions by Dutch slavers a few hundred years ago. Back then Creoles were forced into speaking Dutch, so even if something sounds slightly African it's almost certainly derived from Dutch. You were actively looking for African linguistic roots where you should have looked for Dutch linguistic roots.
I am Dutch, but I've never heard of the word "doto", nor can I find it in any dictionary, apart from it referring to a certain type of sea slug. I was thinking more of a relation to the Dutch word "dood", meaning "dead". Or is this one of those cases where Deutsch (German for "German") is meant really?
He said it came from Kalabari, a West African language, not Dutch. It's "Do-te" not "dood". "Te" means "has" and saying it twice emphasizes/intensifies the phrase as in many West African languages.
@@kreal1 The title is "A Grammar of Berbice Dutch Creole". It is quite expensive, but maybe you can get it from a library. The author lives in Jamaica. I have one. It is red. But the newer ones are green. But I can also help you learning. You can go to our Discord group on the revival of Dutch creoles to meet interested people and to get resources. I already posted a link to it under a question here.
Not necessarily Ibani. Eastern Ijaws lik Kalabari, Okrika,Nembe, Akassa and Bonny/Ibani all hv closely related dialects in d Ijaw language. All eastern Ijaws use d word "Te"
This study seems to be based on assumptions rather than facts. Like Trinidad Creole and patoise, it is not dead, but dying . Trinidad has many rural areas where pockets of creole and patoise are spoken . Imagine the size of Guyana (compared to little Trinidad ); I am sure in scattered remote and rural areas these traditional language still exist. We cannot make these blanket statement before rigorous and thorough research is done.
This brought back so many memories...I was on that trip to Guyana with the UWI St. Augustine and Mona linguistic departments. That's my friend Candace sitting next to her... Thank you Dr Robertson for such a great experience.
It's a real thing of beauty that language and research can now be preserved for as good as eternity due to the digital age.
Great mini doc!
I was born in Berbice, the last connection to my Dutch heritage was my great uncle Wilhelm who died in the 1970's, he was over one hundred years old. When I was a little boy there was an old lady who sold ground provisions and she could only figure out her payment in guilders, which is the old Dutch currency.
The eastern Ijaw comprises Bonny (Okoloma), Opobo, Kalabari and Okirika. They understand each other and they can understand and communicate with people from western and southern Ijaw to some degree. I wished it was recorded. Nji is fish, Mingi is water etc.
Thanks dear for sharing your beautiful experiences. Teaching us about our ancestors in the Americas. Such rich cultural heritage. I feel so proud. Knowledge is power. Thanks dear.
There is a Dutch book which mentions this language as well. It's called in Dutch "Het verhaal van een taal" which translates into, The story of a language. It is very interesting to read and might be of some help to people who want to learn more about this language and other Dutch creole languages.
klaverenvrouwke waar te verkrijgen?
I'm glad that people like this are investigating and recording minority languages, AND are looking into the African influences. Too often those influences are ignored or assumed to be of other (usually European) origin.
They are definitely not ignored in linguistic studies concerning pidgin/creole formation (would be rather tricky to try study it then)
The fact that (several) African influences often functioned as substrate languages, in combination with a European-based language functioning as a superstrate, is based in the social/political context. A context we can't simply ignore and has to be acknowledged, sad as things were.
"Fi" is death or to die in Kalabari. "Te" is a perfect tense like bo te which means "has come". I think "dote te" is a combination of Dutch and Kalabari. Dode is dead in Dutch and te is a perfect tense. So dote te means "has died".
Absolutely correct.
Fi té
The Kalabari language of the people of Southern Nigeria is the basis of this language, love the acknowledgement of that in this video
interesting stuff
Are you from Nigeria
@@jayrockstedy9890 Kalabari is a major language in Rivers State, Nigeria.
This is my tribe. Never heard of this wow
I am Kalabari
Wow i didn’t know it was recorded! My grandfather is from Berbice and He didn’t even know of this language.
Interesting to hear.
I'm a Kalabari and in the Kalabari language we say "O fi te" meaning "he has died." Do te te (as she said) - quite similar.
Obviously, with the passage of time, other words have been removed or added to the language by our people in the Caribbean and I can definitely see the similarity.
Ohhh the last creole Dutch speaker in Amerika! My blessings for this woman! The World would never forget you.
My mother tongue is Dutch and I recongnized a lot of Dutch words.
thanks for the video. as a Kalabari i know that the Dutch had lots of business dealings with us like 100 years ago. iit is possible that the languages influenced each other. minji is water in kalabari. It will also interest you to know that the Kalabari had Portuguese influence. The languages intermingled Dutch Creole, Kalabari and other languages and got modified over the years loosing some and "b" changing to "d" etc
Thank you for this video! This is truly amazing. Didnt know this exist!
Dood (pronounced dode) is the Dutch for dead. I don't know of any Dutch word 'doto'.
This is a beautiful documentary!
Yeah, that's why he said that it came from Kalabari. It's "do-te-te", not "dood". "Te" means "has" and saying it twice emphasizes/intensifies the word in many West African languages, similar to how Europeans use swear/bad words to emphasize/intensify phrase like "Damn" in "Damn good" means "very good" or in Dutch, some say "kanker lekker" to mean "very cool" or "zeer goed" to mean "very good" even though "Kanker"(Cancer) is a sickness and feeling "Zeer"(Sore) isn't great either.
I am Kalabari in Abonnema,good to know this
Very interesting, thank you for sharing this! I am Dutch living in Spain, and I can hear the various influences of the languages in what the old lady spoke.
I can't see a link. Maybe links are not showing here. If you like, I will explain some of the sound changes from Dutch to Berbice Dutch. I did not find out everything yet. Lately I am learning a bit of the old Virgin Island Dutch to find out if there are some parallel changes and to get more Dutch Creole vocabulary fit for Caribbean culture. Dutch words in Sranan are useful too, because some of them are just the same as in Berbice Dutch.
Truly a gem!
i didnt really understand Doto in kalabari, but te' definately yes...haven said that it might have been as a result of my handicap in the understanding of kalabari language,but i am on a mission of fixing the language problem,and that how i found this video...
Yes, dood means dead in Dutch... but why can't you imagine it might also be true that dote means dead in Kalabari? There's no monopoly on morphemes... and if you read a little about the development of a language you might realize that that even proves the point.
Dead in Kalabari is "FI" .
John is dead in Eastern Ijaw wud sound lik this :."Johnu fi te".
So mixing Dutch and Kalabari or any of d eastern Ijaw dialects one wud arrive at : "John Dood te" meaning John is dead.
Dood(dead) , Te (is) Eastern Ijaw
Very touching... thank you so much!
Always nice to learn your heritage...
Mu to go.attend.
When she said muteschool,she meant she attended school
I also belive ( it's understandable) that her predecessors could speak this language better.also, why did she get Dutch at school? Is this not unusual? Thanks for the tip!!
Learned something new about Guyana
very nicely done; unfortunate, though, that the long treatise on the origins of the word doto-te is misguided: doto is of Dutch origin.
I was going to point that out. I have read a few of your articles on the Dutch creole languages in the Caribbean. I want to make my fellow young Caribbean people be aware of those languages.
@@lordforareason9440 Tell me more. Are you an educator?
@@silviakouwenberg Oh no no I am far from that. I am but a humble university student. I love the history of the Caribbean my people and I have been disappointed that certain aspects such as Berbice Dutch Creole have been forgotten by most Guyanese (I even wrote a blog about it). I would usually read historical books/blogs/journals about the Caribbean and share them with my friends and relatives.
@@lordforareason9440 Would you like to take part in the revival?
@@ThomasRuhm I'm interested, how can we revive such a language?
Reuben,i dont think he ignored the Dutch language,you have to undertsand the purpose of this documentary,the berbice dutch creole just like he said is 40% Ijo,offcourse another African language tongue in ghana...so much has been said about the dutch influence on the language but very little is known about its African influence
A few works carried over to the English creole. "Dood" became Dodo, which now means to sleep, and is still used in Berbice.
"Dodo" also means to sleep in French, though it is considered baby-talk.
my mom used do do for sleep also
Dodo is Zeelandic, the european parent of Berbice Dutch, for sleep too. A loanword from French. It is only used by/speaking to children. “Dodo doee” = dodo do = to do dodo = going to sleep.
I think it may have survvived into Guyanese creole because it sounds familiar in a lot of languages and it is a very “domistic” word.
Why did she get Dutch at school ?
yep. dote is from the Dutch word " dood" meaning dead.
This is mostly dutch language roots
Quite an interesting vid, never know that much of my country thanks.
@Sood81 I think you are right.
So is the Creol dutch a mix of Dutch and Kalabari?
Very Interesting
"Dote et te" sounds a lot like Dutch "Dood ist'ie" which means "dead is he/she".
I think there is less African language involved than proposed.
Well its the same with the English creole in the Caribbean. You cant say that though because you will get your head bitten off.
DisChanneliz Mïñē it said 40% is african origin
That seems a very narrow data set to base such a conclusion on. You simply do not know whether 'et te' has evolved from 'ist 'ie' or has some entirely different basis.
That said, Dutch was the lexifier/superstrate language for this pidgin.
If you are interested in the different features of Berbice and their respective origin (or of other pidgins/creoles), check out apics-online.info/contributions/28 Great source of information
My home town burbice love home town
Good
Is the Dutch Creole language spoken in the Danish West Indies ?
Great video, but a few mistakes here and there.
''Bifi'' is most likely derived from the Dutch word ''bief'', meaning ''beef'.
''Doto'' is definitely derived from ''dood'' (Dutch for dead, like DisChanneliz mentioned) as Albertha's ancestors must have been threatened with death on numerous occasions by Dutch slavers a few hundred years ago. Back then Creoles were forced into speaking Dutch, so even if something sounds slightly African it's almost certainly derived from Dutch. You were actively looking for African linguistic roots where you should have looked for Dutch linguistic roots.
Bifi to speak or eat
Minji for water and yefi for food
It is hard to tell how it would sound if young people spoke that language.
yes i ba te (Have u woke up) I bo te (have u come)
Right on point. I'm an Ijaw. Wot u said is correct
I am Dutch, but I've never heard of the word "doto", nor can I find it in any dictionary, apart from it referring to a certain type of sea slug. I was thinking more of a relation to the Dutch word "dood", meaning "dead".
Or is this one of those cases where Deutsch (German for "German") is meant really?
He said it came from Kalabari, a West African language, not Dutch. It's "Do-te" not "dood". "Te" means "has" and saying it twice emphasizes/intensifies the phrase as in many West African languages.
lovely video
what country is that?
Guyana
Is she still alive did they record here entire language documented
No, but she was one of the main informats for a grammar which was published in 1994.
@@ThomasRuhm how can I get that book
@@kreal1 The title is "A Grammar of Berbice Dutch Creole". It is quite expensive, but maybe you can get it from a library. The author lives in Jamaica. I have one. It is red. But the newer ones are green. But I can also help you learning. You can go to our Discord group on the revival of Dutch creoles to meet interested people and to get resources. I already posted a link to it under a question here.
Oh dear. I read 'link' instead of 'think'.
I know a guy named shamar
it sounds like Ijaw Ibani
Not necessarily Ibani.
Eastern Ijaws lik Kalabari, Okrika,Nembe, Akassa and Bonny/Ibani all hv closely related dialects in d Ijaw language. All eastern Ijaws use d word "Te"
Doto means dood i think im dutch its sound like it
It is hard to be acknowledged as a distinguished people, if you lost your language. There is the same problem with European minorities.
Dutch sounds allot like English
That's because English and Dutch are both Germanic langagues dumbass! 😆
Guyana
oh.
Dont lie !! .Dog Heart it isn't true
This study seems to be based on assumptions rather than facts. Like Trinidad Creole and patoise, it is not dead, but dying . Trinidad has many rural areas where pockets of creole and patoise are spoken . Imagine the size of Guyana (compared to little Trinidad ); I am sure in scattered remote and rural areas these traditional language still exist. We cannot make these blanket statement before rigorous and thorough research is done.
Skepi
whole heap a/nuff dogs = muchu (Spanish) honde(n) (DUTCH)
Berbice Creole and Skepi almost sounds like Afrikaans...
Funny. The guy is talking about " Berbice Dutch Creole" but totally ingores the Dutch influences, that are clearly there. I wonder why..
Very Interesting