Loanwords from African Languages Nancy Kao

Intro A few words from languages that were spoken in the west of African have entered English: 1. by way of Portuguese and Spanish in the end of the 16 th century..…… “banana” 2. by Louisiana French…………. “voodoo” 3. by Brazilian Portuguese and Cuban Spanish…………………………… “zombie”

Banana Bananas were introduced to the Americas by Portuguese sailors who brought the fruits from West Africa in the 16th century. The word “banana” is of West African origin, from the Wolof language.PortugueseWest AfricaWolof language Wolof is a language spoken in Senegal, The Gambia, and Mauritania.

Voodoo Vodun or Vudun (also spelled Voodoo) is a traditional organized religion of coastal West Africa from Nigeria to Ghana.West AfricaNigeriaGhana Louisiana Voodoo is a cultural form of the Afro- American religions which developed within the French, Spanish, and Creole speaking African American population of the U.S. state, Louisiana. It became syncretized with the Catholicism and Francophone culture of south Louisiana as a result of the slave trade.Afro- American religionsLouisianaslave trade

Zombie The original zombies occured in the West African Vodun religion and its American offshoots Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Voodoo.West AfricanVodun "Zombi" is also another name of the Vodou snake lwa Damballah Wedo, of Niger-Congo origin; it is akin to the Kikongo word nzambi, which means "god".lwaDamballah Wedo Niger-Congo Kikongo

Other words cola - from West African languages (Temne kola, Mandinka kolo)cola coffee – disputed. either from the Ethiopian region (Kingdom of Kaffa), where coffee originated; or Arabic kahwacoffee conga - feminized form of Congo through Spanishconga

Other words jazz - from West African languages (Mandinka jasi, Temne yas)jazz jumbo - from Swahili (jambo or jumbe) or from Kongo nzamba- "elephant"jumbo safari - from Swahili “travel”; ultimately from Arabicsafari tango - probably from Ibibio tamgutango

Thanks for your listening! Sources: text book and Wikipedia