There are only scant records o f early Aluku, consisting o f word-lists, isolated lexical items and some place names. They only go back to the second half o f the 19th century, i.e. some one hundred years after the emergence o f this variety, around 1775 (Goury 2003, p. 19). The earliest sample that I know o f dates from 1877. There are three others, dating from 1890, 1891 and 1893. The authors o f the first three records
of early Aluku are French, which makes English and/or Dutch normalizing21 influence less likely.
As for the treatment o f obstruent + liquid onset clusters, three types o f reflexes are attested. First, there are quite a few instances o f unepenthesized obstruent + liquid onset clusters (see also Appendix 12):
(224) /pi/
1877planca (E / Dplank) ‘board’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33) (225) /br/
1877 broco (E broke) ‘broken’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33) (226) /gl/
1877 glasi (E glass / D glas) ‘glass’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33) (227) /kr/
1891 krassi- (E across) ‘blocked’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33) (2 2 8 )/gr/
1877 groom (E ground) ‘ground’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33)
In addition to these unepenthesized obstruent + liquid onset clusters, there are cases o f new such clusters:
(229) /tr/
1877 watra (E/D water) ‘water’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33) (230) /dr/
1877 hondro (D honderd) ‘hundred’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33) (231) /gr/
1877 neugre (D neger) ‘Negro’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33)
Next, there are a number o f lexical items exhibiting vowel epenthesis with vowel copying. As noted by Bilby (1993, p. 33), in all such cases, “intervocalic /l/ between like vowels was a regular feature at this time”.
(232) /dr/
1877 dili (D drie) ‘three’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33) (233) /kl/
1893 kolo (Ewe kid, Ge e-klo, Gu dklo) ‘turtle’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33)
Finally, there are some cases o f “occasional liquid deletion” (Bilby 1993, p. 33):
(2 3 4 ) /ff/
1877fed a (D frijdag) ‘Friday’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33) (235) /dr/
1877 di (D drie) ‘three’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33)
Note, however, that, on currently evidence, it is impossible to know for sure whether such forms really obtain from liquid deletion, as interpreted by Bilby (1993, p. 33). On his analysis, e.g. Aluku di obtains as follows:
(236) D drie > di
An alternative scenario would posit vowel epenthesis cum vowel copying and subsequent deletion o f the identical vowel (cf. also 4.3.4), Consider e.g. the hypothetical case, on this analysis, o f dV\
(237) D drie > Aluku dili > *dii > di
As can be seen, o f these three stages, the second one is not recorded, while the first and the third ones correspond to contemporary, competing forms in late 19th century Aluku, as shown below.
A final remark is in order here. The occurrence o f unepenthesized obstruent + liquid onset clusters cannot simply be dismissed by assuming faulty transcriptions. First, they occur in three independent sources, in 1877, 1890, and 1891. Second, as already mentioned, the authors o f these records are French, presumably less inclined to restore more English- and/or Dutch-like forms. Third, the author o f the records from 1877 notes unepenthesized obstruent + liquid onset clusters as well as cases o f simplification via vowel epenthesis or liquid deletion. This is indicative o f a careful transcriber.
Consider also the issue o f data from Kumanti, a cult language spoken by Aluku mediums. As noted by Bilby (1993, p. 32), “[s]ome o f the cult languages spoken by Aluku mediums while in a state o f possession display [...] unepenthesized clusters” . In addition, “not least striking about these examples is the presence o f both
III and /l/” (Bilby 1993, p. 33). Consider examples o f reflexes o f etyma with obstruent + liquid onset clusters such as:
(238) /tr/
trota (E throat) ‘throat’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33) (239) /gr/
gron (E ground) ‘ground’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33)
Also attested are instances o f new obstruent + liquid onset clusters: (240) /gr/
tigri (E tiger) ‘jaguar’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33) (241) /fl/
flauye (E fa r away) ‘far away’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33)
flaw ie (E fa r away) ‘far away’ (Bilby 1993, p. 33)
Clearly then, Aluku still had forms exhibiting obstruent + liquid onset clusters as late as 1891, as set out in tables (242) and (243) below.
(242) Obstment + liquid onset clusters in eary Aluku and Kumanti Aluku 1877 Aluku 1890 Aluku 1891 Kumanti -1987 etymon; gloss
planca — — — (E/D plank) ‘board’
broco — — — (E broke) ‘to break’
— — — trota (E throat) ‘throat’
— — krassi- — (E across) ‘blocked’
— — — — (E cry) ‘to cry’
glasi — — — (E glass / D glas)‘glass’
— gromm /groom — gron (E ground) ‘ground’
(243) New obstruent + liquid onset clusters in early Aluku and Kumanti
Aluku 1877 Aluku 1890 Kumanti -1987 etymon; gloss
watra -watra — (E / D water) ‘water’
hondro — — (D honderd) ‘hundred’
— ~ flduy
flauye
(E fa r away)
neugre — — (D neger) ‘Negro’
— — tlgri (E tiger) ‘jaguar’
Mention should also be made o f another cult language, not exemplified in tables (242) and (243). Bilby (1993, p. 33) briefly discusses22 “the speech o f Aluku mediums possessed specifically by yooka (ghosts, many o f them ancestral)” . According to him, it “is typically [emphasis added] peppered with intervocalic liquids (both /r/ and /l/) between like vowels, as well as unepenthesized CL [= consonant liquid] clusters” (Bilby 1993, p. 33).
The occurrence in present-day cult languages o f both obstruent + /r/ onset clusters and o f intervocalic /r/ corroborates the evidence from records o f late 19th century Aluku. Evidence from Kumanti (Hurault 1983 and Bilby 1993) and Bilby’s (1993) remarks about the language o f yoofoz-possessed Aluku mediums are relevant for the past history o f obstruent + liquid onset clusters. Indeed, these “varieties o f possession speech - particularly those associated with ancestral spirits - have been shown to retain archaic forms that have been lost, or have survived only marginally, in normal speech” (Bilby 1993, p. 33).
As shown in section 4.3.4, in modem Aluku obstruent + liquid onset clusters are disallowed. Reflexes o f such clusters exhibit vowel epenthesis and liquid deletion. There are two possible scenarios for the diachronic evolution o f reflexes o f etyma with obstruent + liquid onset clusters. The first one, along the lines o f Voorhoeve (1961, p. 103), Alleyne (1980, pp. 45-46), Smith (1987, p. 346), and Goury (2003, p. 55), would posit initial anaptyxis into the obstruent + liquid onset cluster and
subsequent liquid deletion between identical vowels23: (244) stage I. OVLV > stage II: OVV
There are a number o f drawbacks with this sequence o f events. First, vowel epenthesis is, by all accounts, a strategy for the resolution o f illicit clusters, disallowed by the substrate languages. Consider, however, the form kolo ‘turtle’, recorded in 1893, and listed under (233) above. Given that its West African etymon, whether Ewe, Ge or Gu, does contain the onset cluster /kl/, why would speakers o f early Aluku, presumably under the influence o f their substrate languages, have reduced the cluster?
Second, consider the implications o f the sequence o f stages postulated by Voorhoeve (1961), Alleyne (1980), Smith (1987), and Goury (2003). On their analysis, Aluku starts out with epenthesized obstruent + liquid onset clusters. In late
tVi
19 century, i.e. only some hundred years after the emergence o f the language, as illustrated above, Aluku appears to allow such clusters. That would presuppose that sometime during this interval syncope must have occurred. Mysteriously, between the end o f the 19th century and 1952 - the date o f the earliest records o f modem Aluku (Hurault 1983) - i.e. in some 60 years, the very obstruent + liquid onset clusters obtaining from prior syncope are, again, epenthesized and the liquid between like vowels deleted. This effectively means that the relative chronology in (244) should actually be broken down into what follows:
(245) stage I. OVLV > stage II. OLV > stage III. OVLV > stage IV. OVV While not impossible, this does not look like a very plausible scenario.
Third, consider comparative evidence from the closely related variety Kwinti. Kwinti is like Aluku an offshoot o f Ndyuka, from which they split in the second half of the 18th century. As shown in section 4.2.5, Kwinti seems to have allowed obstment + liquid onset clusters throughout its history. Positing initially epenthesized obstruent + liquid onset clusters in Aluku cannot account for the situation in Kwinti.
I would like to claim that the samples o f late 19th century Aluku illustrate a stage o f transition from originally unepenthesized obstment + liquid clusters to the current stage with epenthetic vowels and liquid deletion. Therefore, I basically suggest the following relative chronology:
(246) stage I. OLV > stage OVLV > stage III. OVV
As for the absolute chronology o f events, a tentative version would look like: (247) stage I: 1775
stage II.: end o f 19th century stage III: before 1952
I therefore conclude that in its earlier stages Aluku permitted obstruent + liquid onset clusters.