Taki-Taki
| Sranan Tongo | |
|---|---|
| Sranan Tongo | |
| Native to | Suriname |
|
Native speakers
|
130,000 (1993) L2 speakers: 50% of the population of Suriname (1993?) |
|
English Creole
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | srn |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | sran1240 |
| Linguasphere | 52-ABB-aw |
Sranan Tongo (also Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue", Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole, Taki Taki) is an English-based creole language spoken as a lingua franca by approximately 500,000 people in Suriname.
Because the language is shared between the Dutch-, Indigenous-, Javanese-, Hindustani-, and Chinese-speaking communities, most Surinamese speak it as a lingua franca among both the Surinamese in Suriname, a former Dutch colony, and the immigrants of Surinamese origin in the Netherlands, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
The Sranan words for 'to know' and 'small children' are sabi and pikin, which is due to the Portuguese having been the first explorers of the West African coast, where they developed a pidgin language from which a few words became common in interactions with African by explorers who came afterward, including the English. However, research has established that, as far as its lexicon is concerned, Sranan is mostly an English-based creole language, with a substantial overlay of words from Dutch, due to the Dutch takeover of Suriname in 1667.
Sranan Tongo's lexicon is thus a fusion of English, Dutch, Portuguese and Central and West African languages. It began as a pidgin spoken primarily by African slaves in Suriname who often did not have a common African language. Sranan also became the language of communication between the slaves and the slave-owners, as the slaves were not permitted to speak Dutch. As other ethnic groups were brought to Suriname as contract workers, Sranan became a lingua franca.
Although the formal Dutch-based educational system repressed its use, Sranan became more accepted by the establishment over time, especially during the 1980s when it was popularized by Suriname's then dictator Dési Bouterse who often delivered national speeches in Sranan.
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Wikipedia