3 October 2018: Tjerk Hagemeijer (Lisbon), “The formation of the Gulf of Guinea creoles: between languages, genes, and history”

Abstract:

From the end of the fifteenth century on, contact between Portuguese and African settlers on the island of São Tomé in the Gulf of Guinea (West-Africa) triggered a process of creolization that led to the emergence of a new language family of four creole languages spoken on three different islands (São Tomé, Príncipe, Annobón). Based on an interdisciplinary approach that takes into account linguistic, genetic and historical research, this talk aims to discuss the origins and contribution of the populations and languages involved ​​in the early settlement of the Gulf of Guinea islands.

 

Download the slides here

Mini-Bio:

Tjerk Hagemeijer received his doctoral degree in 2007 at the University of Lisbon, where he is currently Assistant Professor at the School of Arts and Humanieties (FLUL) and researcher at the Center of Linguistics (CLUL). He has been developing most of his research on Portuguese related creoles in Africa, with an emphasis on the syntax and formation and diachronic evolution of the Gulf of Guinea Creoles, and on various aspects of the grammar and the sociolinguistic evolution of post-colonial varieties of Portuguese spoken in Africa. From 2011 to 2014, he led an interdisciplinary project on the origins of the Gulf of Guinea creole societies (2011-2014) and, starting in October 2018, he will be PI of a 3-year project on nativizing varieties of Portuguese in Africa and language contact, both funded by the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology (FCT).