The reflexive Strategy in the Proto-creole of the Gulf of Guinea

Abstract

This study seeks to reconstruct the form of the reflective particle (REFLEX) in the Protocreole of the Gulf of Guinea (PGG) based on data from its daughter languages Santome (ST), Angolar (AN), Lung'Ie (LI), and Fa d’Ambô (FA). Thus, the reflexive mechanisms of the daughter languages were compared by identifying convergent and divergent features. Then, the reconstruction of the reflexive particle of the PGG was based on the application of the comparative method of historical linguistics. The reconstructed form *ôg͡bê > ubwê (ST), ig͡bê (LI), ôngê (AN), ôgê (FA) is an evidence for the relationship between the four daughter languages. Furthermore, the reconstruction of categories such as reflexive particles corroborates the fact that features from languages of the Niger Delta are not limited to phonology but are present in different layers of the proto-language. Therefore, the protoform *ôg͡bê function as a reflexive particle and can refer to lexical item ‘body’ too.