Many years ago, the Gullah language was a very popular way of speaking among African Americans many years ago. Many southerners have spoken Gullah during and after the period of slavery. The Gullah language has been a very distinctive feature that has been attributed to the Gullah culture. Within this research paper, I will define Gullah, and discuss the features that make this a unique language.
             "The word Gullah derives from the word Gul which was the Creole language formerly spoken by the Gullah, an African-American community of the Sea Islands and the Middle Atlantic coast of the United States. The word is said to be a corruption of the African Gola or Gora, names of African tribes living in Liberia, but it may also be derived from Angola, whence many of the Gullahs ancestors came"(Encarta.com). The word Gullah also refers to the people of the coastal South Carolina, Georgia, and Northeastern Florida who were brought to America largely from different communities on the Rice Coast of West Africa. The Gullah language came about during the time when the slave trade took place. Communication was a very important part of the slave trade. Many of the slaves spoke similar, but distinctive languages, therefore in order for slave traders to communicate with the slaves and vice versa the similarities of the languages were combined with the English that they learned to form the language that became known as Gullah.
             The Gullah language has been researched and studied by many different people throughout history. How the word Gullah originated cannot be determined satisfactorily. Due to the fact that slaves were from various tribal groups it would be incorrect to say that Gullah derived from one specific group, although some researches would beg to differ. The Professor Reed Smith, of the University of South Carolina conducted a study on the probable origin of the term Gullah. "There are two widely held conjectures. One is th...