Editing Gullah (section)

==Etymology==
The origin of the word ''Gullah'' can be traced to the Kikongo language, spoken around the [[Congo River]]'s mouth, from which the [[Gullah language]] dialects spoken by black Americans today come. Some scholars suggest that it may be cognate with the name ''[[Angola]]'', where the ancestors of many of the Gullah people originated.<ref name="Gomez2000" /><ref name="Sumpter2006">{{cite encyclopedia|author1=Althea Sumpter|author2=((NGE Staff))|title=Geechee and Gullah Culture |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/geechee-and-gullah-culture |publisher=Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press; Georgia Institute of Technology |access-date=30 July 2016 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Georgia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160406015809/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/geechee-and-gullah-culture |archive-date=April 6, 2016|date=March 31, 2006}}</ref> Shipping records from the [[Port of Charleston]] revealed that Angolans accounted for 39% of all enslaved Africans shipped to the port.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The Gullah Community (in the United States of America), a story |url=https://aaregistry.org/story/the-gullah-community-in-the-united-states-of-america-a-story/ |access-date=2024-07-31 |website=African American Registry |language=en}}</ref> The story of [[Gullah Jack]] (an African slave trafficked from Angola to the United States) further supports the theory that the word ''Gullah'' originated in Angola.<ref name="Rodriguez1997">{{cite book |author=Marquetta L. Goodwine |title=The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-87436-885-7 |editor=Junius P. Rodriguez |page=322 |chapter=Gullah Jack |quote=Some people believe the word is a shortened version of Angola. Numerous Africans brought from the area that is now the country of Angola were named Gullah to denote their origin, which is why names like Gullah Jack and Gullah Mary appear in some plantation accounts and stories. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATq5_6h2AT0C&pg=RA1-PA322}}</ref>

Some scholars also have suggested that it may come from the name of the [[Gola people|Gola]], an ethnic group living in the border area between present-day Sierra Leone and [[Liberia]] in West Africa, another area of enslaved ancestors of the Gullah people.<ref name="Opala2006">{{cite web|author=Joseph A. Opala|title=Bunce Island in Sierra Leone|url=http://www.glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/publichistory/opala.pdf|publisher=Yale University|access-date=30 July 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151218070249/http://glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/publichistory/opala.pdf|archive-date=18 December 2015}}</ref><ref name="Gomez2000" /> British planters in the Caribbean and the Southern colonies of North America referred to this area as the "Grain Coast" or "Rice Coast"; many of the tribes are of [[Mandé]] or Manding origins. The name "Geechee", another common name for the Gullah people, may derive from the name of the [[Kissi people]], an ethnic group living in the border area between Sierra Leone, [[Guinea]], and Liberia.<ref name="Gomez2000" />

Another possible linguistic source for "Gullah" are the [[Dyula people|Dyula]] ethnic group of West Africa, from whom the American Gullah might be partially descended.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1973 |title=Conferences |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3818615 |journal=Research in African Literatures |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=62–74 |jstor=3818615 |issn=0034-5210}}</ref> The [[Dyula people|Dyula]] civilization had a large territory that stretched from Senegal through Mali to Burkina Faso and the rest of what was [[French West Africa]]. These were vast savanna lands with lower population densities. Slave raiding was easier and more common here than in forested areas with natural forms of physical defenses. The word "[[Dyula people|Dyula]]" is pronounced "Gwullah" among members of the [[Akan people|Akan]] ethnic group in [[Ghana]] and [[Côte d'Ivoire]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Contributor |first=Clara Fagan, Staff |date=2021-01-18 |title=The Gullah People |url=https://africaotr.com/the-gullah-people/ |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=Africa OTR |language=en-US}}</ref> The primary land route through which captured [[Dyula people]] then came into contact with European slavers was the "Grain Coast" and "Rice Coast" (present-day Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegambia, and Guinea).

One scholar suggested that the Gullah-Geechee name could have also been adopted from the [[Ogeechee River]].<ref name="Matory2015">{{cite book|author=J. Lorand Matory|title=Stigma and Culture: Last-Place Anxiety in Black America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WbreCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA196|date=2 December 2015|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-29787-3|page=196}}</ref> [[Sapelo Island]], the site of the last Gullah community of [[Hog Hammock]], was also a principal place of refuge for Guale people who fled slavery on the mainland.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.as.uky.edu/sapelo-island-mission-period-archaeological-project |title = The Sapelo Island Mission Period Archaeological Project &#124; College of Arts & Sciences}}</ref>