Trip of the Tongue (38 page)

128  The production also ran into difficulties: Standifer, “The Complicated Life of Porgy and Bess.”

129  “Folklore subjects”: Thomson, “George Gershwin,” 151.

129  In the 1930s, for instance: Fraden,
Blueprints for a Black Federal Theatre
, 177–78.

129  “I saw the primitive Negro”: Standifer, “The Complicated Life of Porgy and Bess.”

135  Sometimes they were merely forced: Brown,
A Gullah Guide to Charleston
, 91.

135  if their owners were willing: Egerton, “The Material Culture of Slave Resistance.”

136  William Aiken Jr. owned more than 700 slaves: Aiken-Rhett House, “African Americans.”

139  The current statue is the second: Fields, “What One Cannot Remember Mistakenly,” 157.

140  “But let me not be understood”: Calhoun, “Speech on Slavery,” 159.

140  In his book, Alphonso Brown relates: Brown,
A Gullah Guide to Charleston
, 46.

141  The conditions were so difficult: Turner,
Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect
, 5.

142  It was here that King planned: McMillan, “An Island of Gullah Culture.”

143  The linguist George Philip Krapp: Krapp, “The English of the Negro,” 191.

143  When it was initially founded: Nichols,
Voices of Our Ancestors
, 52.

143  as linguist Patricia Causey Nichols points out: Nichols,
Voices of Our Ancestors
, 91.

143  Many of these names do have English roots: These and other names found in Baird and Twining, “Names and Naming in the Sea Islands,” 28–36.

144  Similar names found in Gullah include: Turner,
Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect
, 43.

144  the lack of passive voice in Gullah: Ibid., 209.

145  “As regards numerals”: Ibid., 254.

145  Then the historian P. E. H. Hair: Opala, “The Gullah: Rice, Slavery, and the Sierra Leone–American Connection.”

146  And more recently a linguist at the University of Texas: Ibid. For more information, see Hancock, “A Provisional Comparison of the English-Based Atlantic Creoles.”

149  “In fact, during my first few years”: Jones-Jackson,
When Roots Die
, 136.

149  In an interview with National Public Radio: National Public Radio, “ ‘New Testament' Translated Into Gullah.”

150  there had been little to no reputable research: Mille and Montgomery, “Introduction,” xix–xxii.

150  “is the worst English in the world”: Smith,
Gullah
, 18, quoted in Mille and Montgomery, “Introduction,” xiii. Mille and Montgomery note that Smith attributed this opinion to an unidentified source.

150  “Slovenly and careless of speech”: Gonzales,
The Black Border
, 10.

150  “When I was 16”: “The 43rd President: In His Own Words.”

152  Even though it has fewer than 10,000 monolingual speakers: Lewis, ed.,
Ethnologue
, s.v. “Gullah.”

153  there are reports from as late as 1949: Jones-Jackson,
When Roots Die
, 133.

153  As Patricia Jones-Jackson writes: Ibid., 133.

153  “Many speakers learn and use [Gullah]”: Nichols, “Creole Languages,” 139.

Chapter Six: Nevada

160  according to
A Basque History of the World
: Kurlansky,
The Basque History of the World
, 22.

162  Archi, a Caucasian language: Kibrirk, “Archi,” 467.

162  
, a generic term for a small fish: Liddell, Scott, Jones,
Greek-English Lexicon
, 9th ed., s.v. “
.”

162  one etymology cited if not endorsed by the
Oxford English Dictionary
:
Oxford English Dictionary
, 2nd ed., s.v. “bizarre.”

163  And although the word
honcho
: Ibid., s.v. “honcho.”

163  There are several plausible explanations: Ibid., s.v. “silhouette.”

163  “[Silhouette] is a French spelling”: Trask, “FAQs About Basque and the Basques.”

164  at least two words in the Mi'kmaq language: Bakker, “Two Basque Loanwords in Micmac,” 260.

164  In 1911 the
New York Times
reported: “Basque Language Balks Inspectors.”

172  the Basques first learned to herd: Douglass,
Amerikanuak
, 223–24.

172  and by 1901: Lane, “The Cultural Ecology of Sheep Nomadism,” 52–61, quoted in Lane, “Trouble in the Sweet Promised Land,” 35.

173  William A. Douglass cites a number of examples: Douglass,
Amerikanuak
, 265–70.

173  Testifying in Congress in 1913: Ibid., 268.

173  When Nevada's many Basque supporters: Ibid., 269. See also Lane, “Trouble in the Sweet Promised Land,” 38.

174  The latter act: U.S. Department of Labor,
Annual Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration to the Secretary of Labor
, 26.

175  The Basques were the first: Kurlansky,
The Basque History of the World
, 14.

178  Over the past three decades: Eustat, “Evolution of the Distribution of the Population.”

178  In Gipuzkoa, meanwhile: Eustat, “More than Half the Population Claimed to Have Some Knowledge of the Basque Language in 2001.”

179  UNESCO's most recent
Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
: Moseley, ed.,
Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
, 3rd ed., s.v. “Basque.”

179  57,793 people identified themselves as “Basque”: U.S. Census Bureau, “PCT018 Ancestry,” generated by American FactFinder for the United States.

179  Only 2,513, however: This and the following two data points from U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 Census Summary File 3, generated by the MLA Language Map Data Center, www.mla.org/map_data.

180  Idaho was the only state in 2000: Ibid.

Chapter Seven: North Dakota

184  Minot … was founded in 1886: This and other details of Minot's early history from
The WPA Guide to 1930s North Dakota
, 160–61.

187  The first Høstfest: This and other details about the history of Høstfest from Fiske,
The Best of the Norwegian Heritage
, 230.

192  in which he discusses the idea of “chamber of commerce ethnicity”: Lovoll,
Norwegians on the Prairie
, 262–69.

194  Some years would see: Semmingsen,
Norway to America
, 32–33.

194  By the end of the 1860s: Zempel,
In Their Own Words
, ix.

194  Between the 1860s and the 1920s: Ibid., ix.

194  by 1920, the Norwegian population: Semmingsen,
Norway to America
, 132.

196  In 1869, a Norwegian journalist: Lovoll, “The Norwegian Press in North Dakota.”

196  Between 1878 and 1890: Robinson,
History of North Dakota
, 146.

196  According to Ingrid Semmingsen: Semmingsen,
From Norway to America
, 138–39.

196  
Normanden
(The Norsemen): Details about
Normanden
and
Fram
from Lovoll, “The Norwegian Press in North Dakota.”

197  Some papers, of course, served more practical purposes: Semmingsen,
From Norway to America
, 84.

197  As Haugen writes: Haugen,
The Norwegian Language in America
, 1:76.

197  H. L. Mencken lists a number of these words: Mencken,
The American Language
, 411–14.

197  “mutilated beyond recognition”: Ibid., 412.

198  Ingrid Semmingsen relates the frustration: Semmingsen,
Norway to America
, 88.

199  “In early years the cows had their proper names”: Haugen, “Language and Immigration.”

199  “His name was Gunder”: Zempel,
In Their Own Words
, 52.

199  “Pastor H. thinks”: Ibid., 77.

199  among those arrested under the proclamation: Sage,
A History of Iowa
, 252.

200  Linguist Joshua Fishman estimates: Lovoll,
The Promise Fulfilled
, 335.

200  in the 1910 U.S. Census: U.S. Census Bureau, “Table 6. Mother Tongue of the Foreign-Born Population.”

200  The latest estimates, from 2000: U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 Census Summary File 3, generated by the MLA Language Map Data Center, www.mla.org/map_data.

202  “The Synod spent considerable time”: This quotation and other details about the Norwegian Church's educational efforts in the United States from Nelsen, “The School Controversy Among Norwegian Immigrants.”

202  As late as 1925 the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America: This and further details about the decline of the Norwegian language in the Norwegian-American church from Lovoll,
Norwegians on the Prairie
, 245–46.

203  There are today in the United States only two churches: Lovoll,
The Promise Fulfilled
, 96.

Chapter Eight: Florida

207  Current population estimates suggest: U.S. Census Bureau, “QT-P16 Language Spoken at Home,” generated by American FactFinder.

207  By 2050 it could be the largest: Mantilla, “Más ‘speak spanish' que en España.”

207  as of 2005 the ratio of English-speakers to Spanish-speakers: U.S. Census Bureau, 2005 American Community Survey, generated by the MLA Language Map Data Center, www.mla.org/map_data.

208  the highest proportion of foreign-born residents: Stepick et al.,
This Land Is Our Land
, 20.

208  was fully 65 percent Hispanic/Latino: U.S. Census Bureau, “QT-P10 Hispanic or Latino by Type: 2010,” generated by American FactFinder for Miami-Dade County.

208  home to nearly two times as many Spanish-speakers: U.S. Census Bureau, “QT-P16 Language Spoken at Home: 2000,” generated by American FactFinder for Miami-Dade County.

208  According to the linguist and creole specialist John Holm: Holm,
An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles
, 86.

210  Community groups such as Sant La: Metellus et al., “Risk and Protective Factors in Little Haiti and in the Haitian/Haitian-American Community in Miami Dade County.”

211  With 26.3 percent of its population living below the poverty line: U.S. Census Bureau, “S0501 Selected Characteristics of the Native and Foreign-Born Populations,” generated by American FactFinder for the city of Miami.

213  remittances from the diaspora make up: Forman, Lang, and Chandler, “The Role of the Haitian Diaspora in Building Haiti Back Better.”

216  the city's so-called Voodoo Squad: See, for instance, Sell, “Inside Miami: A Letter.”

219  Only 7 percent of the country's population: Schieffelin and Doucet, “The ‘Real' Haitian Creole,” 178

219  “Many educated middle-class Haitians”: Ibid., 182.

220  half of Miami-Dade County's 2.5 million residents: U.S. Census Bureau, “S0501 Selected Characteristics of the Native and Foreign-Born Populations,” generated by American FactFinder.

220  nearly one tenth of the Cuban population: Levine and Asís,
Cuban Miami
, 3.

220  By the end of the nineteenth century: Dixon, “An Overview of the Black Cubans Among the Mariel Entrants,” quoted in García and Otheguy, “The Language Situation of Cuban Americans,” 166.

222  Between 1981 and 1991: Mitchell, “U.S. Policy Toward Haitian Boat People,” 73.

223  “Vouésin millò passé fanmill'!”: Sylvain,
Cric? Crac!
, 16. This excerpt includes both the Haitian Creole and the Standard French versions.

223  “Neighbors better than family”: Lang,
Entwisted Tongues
, 219; Lang, “A Primer of Haitian Literature in ‘Kreyòl,' ” 136. In
Entwisted Tongues
Lang elected to translate
coucouill'
as singular: “firefly glows for his own eyes.” Here I inserted instead Lang's later, plural translation from “A Primer of Haitian Literature.”