How did past tense develop in Palenquero Creole?
What is it about?
Due to similarities in form, the preverbal past tense marker a in Palenquero Creole could have derived from Spanish (ha), Portuguese (ha), or Kikongo (a). It could have also arisen language internally. Since all of these are plausible scenarios for this creole language, how do we adjudicate between possibilities? This paper demonstrates that the Spanish and Kikongo forms most likely converged when Kikongo-speaking slaves began acquiring Spanish in colonial Colombia. That helps to explain why past tense marking is further developed in Palenquero than it is in Spanish, a language that is much older. I also found that even though there is evidence of convergence of languages, the behavior of past tense conforms to that of other so-called "natural" languages and languages in contact situations. This is important since creoles are often said to be different from other languages. The evidence here suggests that they are not.
Why is it important?
Creole languages are often compartmentalized as unique or somehow different from other world languages. Some have even suggested that their grammars are simpler. This paper is part of an emerging body of work demonstrating the creoles are systematic, complex, and conform to crosslinguistic patterns found in many other languages.