Editing Gullah language (section)

==Origins==
Gullah is based on different varieties of [[English language|English]] and languages of [[Central Africa]] and [[West Africa]]. Scholars have proposed a number of theories about the origins of Gullah and its development:
# Gullah developed independently on the Sea Islands off the coast of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida throughout the 18th and 19th centuries by enslaved Africans. They developed a language that combined grammatical, phonological, and lexical features of the nonstandard English varieties spoken by that region's white slaveholders and farmers, along with those from numerous Western and Central African languages. According to this view, Gullah developed separately or distinctly from African American Vernacular English and varieties of English spoken in the South.<ref name="University of Georgie Press">{{cite book |last1=Pollitzer |first1=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2efDSQdNq-cC&q=Development%20of%20a%20creole%20language |title=The Gullah People and Their African Heritage |date=2005 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=9780820327839 |pages=124–129 |access-date=September 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220325025806/https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Gullah_People_and_Their_African_Heri/2efDSQdNq-cC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Development+of+a+creole+language |archive-date=March 25, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Gullah Culture in America">{{cite book |last1=Cross |first1=Wilbur |title=Gullah Culture in America |date=2008 |publisher=Praeger |pages=4–6, 18, 128 |isbn=9780275994501 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYDVTGrnbHYC&q=Gullah+language |access-date=September 14, 2021 |archive-date=March 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220325025911/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gullah_Culture_in_America/kYDVTGrnbHYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Gullah+language&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref>
# Some enslaved Africans spoke a [[West African Pidgin English|Guinea Coast Creole English]], also called West African Pidgin English, before they were forcibly relocated to the Americas. Guinea Coast Creole English was one of many languages spoken along the West African coast in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries as a language of trade between Europeans and Africans and among multilingual Africans. It seems to have been prevalent in British coastal slave trading centers such as [[James Island (The Gambia)|James Island]], [[Bunce Island]], [[Elmina Castle]], [[Cape Coast Castle]] and [[Anomabu]]. This theory of Gullah's origins and development follows the [[creole language#Monogenetic theory of pidgins and creoles|monogenetic theory]] of creole development and the [[creole language#Domestic origin hypothesis|domestic origin hypothesis]] of English-based creoles.<ref name="University of Georgie Press"/><ref name="Gullah Culture in America"/>