Date:  Sun, 13 Mar 1994 17:03:57 CST

From:  salikoko mufwene <mufw[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU>

Subject: Re: Actors & Accent



In Message Sun, 13 Mar 1994 14:43:08 -0600, mftcf[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uxa.ecn.bgu.edu writes:



>Have any of you who are

>speakers or students of VBE or similar southern lects ever seen or heard

>an actual attestation of nominal "us"? I f you have, are the only

>exampes you know from Gullah speakers (or Carribean creoles), or is it more

>widespread? In the U.S.?

 In 1989 I was presenting a paper on personal pronouns in creoles and

claimed that Gullah does not use "us" in the subject/nominative function.

Two people in the audience, one of whom was William Stewart, the other was

Anette Kashif (then at Howard), claimed they have heard or read it. I

haven't come across it yet. Personal pronouns are even more invariant in

Caribbean English creoles. I don't think "us" alternates with "we" in them,

but I am ready for more surprises, for which I'll be grateful.

Sali.

Salikoko S. Mufwene

Linguistics, U. of Chicago

s-mufwene[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uchicago.edu

312-702-8531