Dominican Spanish in Contact with St. Thomas English Creole: a Sociolinguistic Study of Speech Variation on St
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DOMINICAN SPANISH IN CONTACT WITH ST. THOMAS ENGLISH CREOLE: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY OF SPEECH VARIATION ON ST. THOMAS, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS. A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Daniel Sebastian D’Arpa December 2015 Examining Committee Members: Augusto Lorenzino, Advisory Chair, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Jonathan Holmquist, TU Department of Spanish and Portuguese Paul Toth, TU Department of Spanish and Portuguese Paul Garrett, External Member, TU Department of Anthropology ABSTRACT This dissertation will demonstrate that a variety of Dominican Spanish in contact with St. Thomas English Creole (STTEC) revealed many features which are consistent with Dominican Spanish in other contact environments and some new features which are emerging as the result of uniquely STTEC influences. The most notable feature is the appearance of the vowel [ɛ] in Dominican Spanish, which in STTEC is highly indexical to St. Thomian identity. In the present sociolinguistic analysis, it was found that the variability of [ɛ] was significantly influenced by the following phonological segment, syllable stress, the language of the token, and the speaker's’ social network ties and self- ascribed identity. This dissertation also includes a socio-historical background of St Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, a description of St Thomas English Creole, and a history of immigration patterns of people from the Dominican Republic to St Thomas, U.S.V.I. ii For Jack, who is just starting school this year. May you always find joy in discovery. To my wife, Kristen, who kindly never asked about my dissertation but who generously always listened. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you, first and foremost, to the people of St. Thomas. I have a special gratitude for the Dominicanos of this island community. This dissertation is a very small thing compared to the enormous contribution these Spanish speakers have made to my scholarship. Les agradezco sinceramente a todos los miembros de esta comunidad dominicana en St. Thomas que me recibieron y que generosamente compartieron su tiempo, sus historias, y su habla conmigo. Thank you to Amalia Martín Gómez, who inspired me to learn Spanish. Thanks to my colleagues at the University of the Virgin Islands, especially Kendra Frett, Vincent Cooper, and Gilbert Sprauve, for sharing their time and their thoughts. Thanks to those students who served as research assistants, especially Génesis, Charles, and Renee. Thank you to my advisor, Augusto, and to my committee members, Professors Toth, Garrett and Holmquist, for reading this thing and for offering great insight and ideas for future studies. Gracias a mis amigos y colegas de la facultad en Temple, especialmente a Moira Álvarez y a Eunice Cortez por la solidaridad durante los momentos de desesperación. Merci à Sarah Barth, pour l’échange d’idées et de langues. Thanks to Sofia Santos and to my family and friends. Thank you to my dean at Mercer County College, Robin Schore, for his support and encouragement. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ xii LIST OF FIGURES ...........................................................................................................xv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................................................................... xvi INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... xvii CHAPTER 1. GEOGRAPHICAL AND SOCIO-HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF ST. THOMAS ENGLISH ..............................................................................................1 Geography ................................................................................................................1 History..................................................................................................................... 5 European Settlement ....................................................................................5 The Colony’s Economy ...............................................................................7 Transfer of the Islands .................................................................................9 Migration....................................................................................................10 Language ............................................................................................................... 12 Population ............................................................................................................. 17 A Fragmented Society........................................................................................... 21 2. DEMOGRAPHICS OF DOMINICANS ON ST. THOMAS ......................................27 Challenges in Reporting on the Dominican Presence ............................................27 v Interpreting Census Reports .................................................................................. 29 From Danish Colony to U.S. Territory ......................................................29 Cultural Definitions for Census Labels..........................................31 Interpretation of 1917 Census Regarding Dominicans ..................33 The 1940 Census: Birthright ......................................................................34 The 1950 Census: French, Not Spanish West Indians ...............................39 The 1960 Census: Dominicans in the “Mix” .............................................40 The 1970 Census: First Dominican Count .................................................40 The 1980 Census: Dominican Population Doubled in a Decade ...............43 Language ........................................................................................47 The 1990 Census: Race Separate from Ethnicity ......................................49 More Black Hispanics on STT .......................................................51 Urban and Rural Distribution on St. Thomas ................................53 The Dominican Family on STT .....................................................54 The 2000 Census: .......................................................................................56 The 2010 Census: .......................................................................................58 3. THE LANGUAGE OF THE MAJORITY: ST. THOMAS ENGLISH .......................62 The Creole Debate .................................................................................................62 Features of St. Thomian English Creole ................................................................66 The Vowel System .....................................................................................67 Consonants .................................................................................................69 The Noun Phrase ........................................................................................71 Plurality ..........................................................................................71 vi Possession ......................................................................................72 Possessive Adjectives ....................................................................73 Possessive Pronouns ......................................................................73 Personal Pronouns ..........................................................................73 The Verb Phrase .........................................................................................74 Mood ..............................................................................................74 Aspect ............................................................................................74 Strong Aspects of Verbs ................................................................75 Focus ..............................................................................................75 Habitual Aspect ..............................................................................76 Perfective Mode .............................................................................76 Copula Distribuution ..................................................................................77 Zero Copula ...................................................................................77 Zero Copula with Present Progressive ...........................................77 Other Creole Copulas .....................................................................77 Adverbs ......................................................................................................78 Negation .....................................................................................................78 Interrogation ...............................................................................................78 ɪntɪt .................................................................................................79 Existential Statements ................................................................................79