XII.—§ 2. Grammar.
These phrases have already illustrated some points of the very simple grammar of this lingo. Words have only one form, and what is in our language expressed by flexional forms is either left unexpressed or else indicated by auxiliary words. The plural of nouns is like the singular (though the form men is found in my texts alongside of man); when necessary, the plural is indicated by means of a prefixed all: all he talk ‘they say’ (also him fellow all ‘they’); all man ‘everybody’; a more indefinite plural is plenty man or full up man. For ‘we’ is said me two fella or me three fellow, as the case may be; me two fellow Lagia means ‘I and Lagia.’ If there are more, me altogether man or me plenty man may be said, though we is also in use. Fellow (fella) is a much-vexed word; it is required, or at any rate often used, after most pronouns, thus, that fellow hat, this fellow knife, me fellow, you fellow, him fellow (not he fellow); it is found very often after an adjective and seems to be required to prop up the adjective before the substantive: big fellow name, big fellow tobacco, another fellow man. In other cases no fellow is used, and it seems difficult to give definite rules; after a numeral it is frequent: two fellow men (man?), three fellow bottle. There is a curious employment in ten fellow ten one fellow, which means 101. It is used adverbially in that man he cry big fellow ‘he cries loudly.’
The genitive is expressed by means of belong (or belong-a, long, along), which also serves for other prepositional relations. Examples: tail belong him, pappa belong me, wife belong you, belly belong me walk about too much (I was seasick), me savvee talk along white man; rope along bush means liana. Missis! man belong bullamacow him stop (the butcher has come). What for you wipe hands belong-a you on clothes belong esseppoon? (spoon, i.e. napkin). Cf. above the expressions for ‘bald.’ Piccaninny belong banana ‘a young b. plant.’ Belong also naturally means ‘to live in, be a native of’; boy belong island, he belong Burri-burrigan. The preposition along is used about many local relations (in, at, on, into, on board). From such combinations as laugh along (l. at) and he speak along this fella the transition is easy to cases in which along serves to indicate the indirect object: he give’m this fella Eve along Adam, and also a kind of direct object, as in fight alonga him, you gammon along me (deceive, lie to me), and with the form belong: he puss-puss belong this fellow (puss-puss orig. a cat, then as a verb to caress, make love to).
There is no distinction of gender: that woman he brother belong me = ‘she is my sister’; he (before the verb) and him (in all other positions) serve both for he, she and it. There is a curious use of ’m, um or em, in our texts often written him, after a verb as a ‘vocal sign of warning that an object of the verb is to follow,’ no matter what that object is.
Churchill says that “in the adjective comparison is unknown; the islanders do not know how to think comparatively—at least, they lack the form of words by which comparison may be indicated; this big, that small is the nearest they can come to the expression of the idea that one thing is greater than another.” But Landtman recognizes more big and also more better: ‘no good make him that fashion, more better make him all same.’ The same double comparative I find in another place, used as a kind of verb meaning ‘ought to, had better’: more better you come out. Too simply means ‘much’: he savvy too much ‘he knows much’ (praise, no blame), he too much talk. A synonym is plenty too much. Schuchardt gives the explanation of this trait: “The white man was the teacher of the black man, who imitated his manner of speaking. But the former would constantly use the strongest expressions and exaggerate in a manner that he would only occasionally resort to in speaking to his own countrymen. He did not say, ‘You are very lazy,’ but ‘You are too lazy,’ and this will account for the fact that ‘very’ is called too much in Beach-la-mar as well as tumussi in the Negro-English of Surinam” (Spr. der Saramakkaneger, p. iv).
Verbs have no tense-forms; when required, a future may be indicated by means of by and by: brother belong-a-me by and by he dead (my br. is dying), bymby all men laugh along that boy; he small now, bymbye he big. It may be qualified by additions like bymby one time, bymby little bit, bymby big bit, and may be used also of the ‘postpreterit’ (of futurity relative to a past time): by and by boy belong island he speak. Another way of expressing the future is seen in that woman he close up born (!) him piccaninny ‘that woman will shortly give birth to a child.’ The usual sign of the perfect is been, the only idiomatic form of the verb to be: you been take me along three year; I been look round before. But finish may also be used: me look him finish (I have seen him), he kaikai all finish (he has eaten it all up).
Where we should expect forms of the verb ‘to be,’ there is either no verb or else stop is used: no water stop (there is no water), rain he stop (it rains), two white men stop Matupi (live in), other day plenty money he stop (... I had ...). For ‘have’ they say got. My belly no got kaikai (I am hungry), he got good hand (is skilful).
XII.—§ 3. Sounds.
About the phonetic structure of Beach-la-mar I have very little information; as a rule the words in my sources are spelt in the usual English way. Churchill speaks in rather vague terms about difficulties which the islanders experience in imitating the English sounds, and especially groups of consonants: “Any English word which on experiment proved impracticable to the islanders has undergone alteration to bring it within the scope of their familiar range of sounds or has been rejected for some facile synonym.” Thus, according to him, the conjunction if could not be used on account of the f, and that is the reason for the constant use of suppose (s’pose, pose, posum = s’pose him)—but it may be allowable to doubt this, for as a matter of fact f occurs very frequently in the language—for instance, in the well-worn words fellow and finish. Suppose probably is preferred to if because it is fuller in form and less abstract, and therefore easier to handle, while the islanders have many occasions to hear it in other combinations than those in which it is an equivalent of the conjunction.