This is a crucial week. Sometime in the next few days, my new book, "The Road to Frogmore: Turning Slaves into Citizens" will make its first appearance on Amazon. A unique feature of the book is a narrative thread, spoken by a Gullah woman, that runs through the entire book. Because of this feature, I'm going to re-run several articles I published about the Gullah language. I hope it will get your eyes and ears attuned to this beautiful and musical language. The Gullah language became part of the vernacular almost one hundred
years ago, when Joel Chandler Harris wrote his Uncle Remus stories. His
characters spoke the Gullah language, although most readers thought he
was just mimicking the way black people talked. Those
stories have become so well-known, thanks in part to Walt Disney, that,
even today, few people today realize that the language used is very
specific and unique, a language shared by the black population along the
coast of Georgia and South Carolina. Gullah contains enough
English-based vocabulary for English-speakers to understand it, but its
syntax, sentence structure, and much of its root-vocabulary come
straight from Sierra Leone. THE WONDERFUL TAR BABY STORY Joel Chandler Harris "Didn't the fox never catch the rabbit, Uncle Remus?" asked the little boy the next evening. "He
come mighty nigh it, honey, sho's you born--Brer Fox did. One day atter
Brer Rabbit fool 'im wid dat calamus root, Brer Fox went ter wuk en got
'im some tar, en mix it wid some turkentime, en fix up a contrapshun
w'at he call a Tar-Baby, en he tuck dish yer Tar-Baby en he sot 'er in
de big road, en den he lay off in de bushes fer to see what de news wuz
gwine ter be. En he didn't hatter wait long, nudder, kaze bimeby here
come Brer Rabbit pacin' down de road--lippity-clippity, clippity
-lippity--dez ez sassy ez a jay-bird. Brer Fox, he lay
low. Brer Rabbit come prancin' 'long twel he spy de Tar-Baby, en den he
fotch up on his behime legs like he wuz 'stonished. De Tar Baby, she sot
dar, she did, en Brer Fox, he lay low. "`Mawnin'!' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee - `nice wedder dis mawnin',' sezee. "Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nuthin', en Brer Fox he lay low. "`How duz yo' sym'tums seem ter segashuate?' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. "Brer Fox, he wink his eye slow, en lay low, en de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin'. "'How you come on, den? Is you deaf?' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. 'Kaze if you is, I kin holler louder,' sezee. "Tar-Baby stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low. "'You
er stuck up, dat's w'at you is,' says Brer Rabbit, sezee, 'en I;m gwine
ter kyore you, dat's w'at I'm a gwine ter do,' sezee. "Brer Fox, he sorter chuckle in his stummick, he did, but Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nothin'. "'I'm
gwine ter larn you how ter talk ter 'spectubble folks ef hit's de las'
ack,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. 'Ef you don't take off dat hat en tell me
howdy, I'm gwine ter bus' you wide open,' sezee. "Tar-Baby stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low. "Brer
Rabbit keep on axin' 'im, en de Tar-Baby, she keep on sayin' nothin',
twel present'y Brer Rabbit draw back wid his fis', he did, en blip he
tuck 'er side er de head. Right dar's whar he broke his merlasses jug.
His fis' stuck, en he can't pull loose. De tar hilt 'im. But Tar-Baby,
she stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low. "`Ef you don't
lemme loose, I'll knock you agin,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, en wid dat
he fotch 'er a wipe wid de udder han', en dat stuck. Tar-Baby, she ain'y
sayin' nuthin', en Brer Fox, he lay low. "`Tu'n me
loose, fo' I kick de natal stuffin' outen you,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee,
but de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin'. She des hilt on, en de Brer
Rabbit lose de use er his feet in de same way. Brer Fox, he lay low. Den
Brer Rabbit squall out dat ef de Tar-Baby don't tu'n 'im loose he butt
'er cranksided. En den he butted, en his head got stuck. Den Brer Fox,
he sa'ntered fort', lookin' dez ez innercent ez wunner yo' mammy's
mockin'-birds. "`Howdy, Brer Rabbit,' sez Brer Fox,
sezee. `You look sorter stuck up dis mawnin',' sezee, en den he rolled
on de groun', en laft en laft twel he couldn't laff no mo'. `I speck
you'll take dinner wid me dis time, Brer Rabbit. I done laid in some
calamus root, en I ain't gwineter take no skuse,' sez Brer Fox, sezee." Here Uncle Remus paused, and drew a two-pound yam out of the ashes. "Did the fox eat the rabbit?" asked the little boy to whom the story had been told. "Dat's
all de fur de tale goes," replied the old man. "He mout, an den agin he
moutent. Some say Judge B'ar come 'long en loosed 'im - some say he
didn't. I hear Miss Sally callin'. You better run 'long." |