Case Study
2024
All images sources from The Library of Congress
The Gullah Geechee are a group of African Americans who descendants were slaves in West and Central Africa. They live across the east coast, specifically on the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. They have maintained a distinct culture, language, and way of life that reflect their African heritage, blending it with elements from their new surroundings.
What sparked this project was my interest in their culture and more specifically their dialect. Growing up in North Carolina, I learned a lot about them. However, their unique dialect was always glazed over.
I began a deep dive into linguistics and how the Gullah Geechee dialect formulated and continues to stay in tact by its native speakers. But as more natives become pushed out from Gullah due to gentrification, the possibility of their dialect dwindling continues to grow.
COMEYUH N LAAN
DIALECT
“Beenya” is a Gullah Geechee term that means “been here.” The origin of the word is that it’s used to describe people who are native to the area versus the term “comeya” which refers to people who “came here.” and “Come’yuh” is a push for someone to “come here.”
COME’YUH ": COME HERE
And becomes shortened to “n” for pronunciation purposes. And as you may have guessed, “Laan” means “Learn.”
N : AND
LAAN : LEARN
Linguists refer to the Gullah language as an English-based Creole language. Creoles emerged during trade, colonialism, and slavery when people of color were forced to forge a common means of communication.
Design Decisions
Type and Color has a direct influence from W.E.B Du Bois. His involvement in researching the Gullah Geechee people led to my use of bright colors. The type derives from Tré Seals
Haint Blue
The Gullah spiritual tradition uses the color for comfort and protection or to ward off evil or unwanted spirits, called haints or boo hags, that might want to spread chaos. The haints were thought to be distracted or tricked by the color
