When the slaves were taken from Africa, obviously they had their own languages, to be replaced by English. How many words from their original languages made the transition to mainstream English?
“Banjo” may have come from the Bantu “mbanza,” which is a type of stringed instrument. “Gumbo” probably came from the Bantu “ngombo,” meaning “okra.”
“Voodoo” as it is known in Louisiana is a corruption of the word “vodounô”, meaning sorcerer or shaman ; and/or the word “Vodun”, which is an animist religion practiced in West Africa.
Oh, and in the same vein, the very hard to define “mojo” (which started off as a little bag filled with magical odds and ends, to bring good luck to the wearer), which itself is probably a bastardized form of the word “juju”. Juju means both a certain type of magical amulet, and in the broader sense is a kind of energy or luck akin to karma (e.g. if you do good things you’ll get good luck, if you do bad things not only will you get bad luck but you’ll also spread it to others)
I am going to hazard a guess here and say not many words made it. A number of factors come it to it.
- There were a large number of separate cultural groups each with their own language that were taken into slavery.
- Much of the time these cultural groups were mixed up. Certainly individuals were separated from friends and family. This is not conducive to sharing cultural values and experiences.
- Slaves were oppressed. While this horrific experience is often a foundation for cultural development it is again not conducive to retention of former values and customs – at least not in a mixed group. Effort goes into doing the necessary now and not into retaining a lost past.
- As I understand it, African speech and customs were actively discouraged by slave owners.
I am no expert here, but I would be surprised if more than a smattering of words survived.
There is also this list:
Though it’s probably difficult to estimate which of these words were used by slaves and then made the transition to English. For instance, boogie would seem plausible.
But Gullah is a new world creole, not an African language.
The word “Zombie” comes from Haitian Creole, which in turn comes from a word that is similar in several different African languages.
Do we know which of these words actually came over with slaves, as opposed to other African sources?
The etymology is uncertain, but “hip” (meaning “cool”) might have an African origin.
Really? I thought it originated in thirties slang as “hep,” meaning “with it” or “in the know.” Can you provide a citation of it (or something similar) being used at the time slaves were being brought in from Africa?
If you read your own very short link, you’d see that kumbayah comes from English.
Eight ball was another one.
Yes, but whence came “hep”?
A good rule of thumb is----------perhaps 10% of all proposed Arican languages words==similar English words.
Banjo–Spanish/Portugese instrument. African slaves perhaps corrupted the pronunciation to banjo.
[OED}Etymology: A corruption of bandore n.1, through African slave pronunciation, ban’jōre, ban’jō.[/OED]
gumbo.
So, yes. gumbo probaby came over.
hip and hep. Not African.
I’d be surprised if 10% of those words came from Africa in any respect.
Probably true.
You’re the one saying that it might have an African origin. What is your evidence for this?