Surinamese Dutch

Surinamese Dutch (Surinaams-Nederlands, syːriˌnaːms ˈneːdərlɑnts) is the form of Dutch spoken in Suriname and is the official language in Suriname, a former colony of the Netherlands.^[1] Dutch is spoken as a native language by about 80% of the population, most of them being bilingual with Sranan Tongo, Sarnámi Hindustáni, English, Javanese, or other languages.^[1] Nevertheless, Dutch is the country's sole official language. Surinamese Dutch is easily intelligible with other forms of Dutch. Furthermore, as opposed to other languages that have different forms in the Americas (e.g., American English vs. British English) the regulation and thus standardised spelling of the Dutch language is done through a joint Dutch–Belgian–Surinamese organization, the Dutch Language Union, and thus has no regional differences regarding spelling.^[2] Suriname has been an associate member of this Nederlandse Taalunie since 2004.^[3] Therefore, many typical Surinamese words were added to the official Wordlist of Standard Dutch, known as "the Green Booklet" (Groene Boekje).

Surinamese Dutch is generally easily distinguishable from other standardized forms of Dutch due to the accent and some loanwords adopted from other languages spoken in Suriname.

History

Dutch was introduced in what is now Suriname when Paramaribo and its environs became a Dutch colony. The remainder of Suriname, however, remained in British hands.^[4] Only after the Dutch had lost New Netherland (now New York) to the British did they in exchange receive the rest of Suriname. Then, Dutch became the language of communication between Native Surinamese, African slaves, and the Dutch colonial administration. In 1876, the language also became official in the Surinamese education system, and new immigrants from British India and the Dutch East Indies also picked up the language.^[5] The immigrants also added features to spoken Dutch that are not present in the original European variants of Dutch, and preserved features (mostly vocabulary) that are not present in Dutch from the Netherlands.^[6]

Phonology

In Surinamese Dutch, the voiced fricatives /v, z, ɣ/ have completely merged into the voiceless fricatives /f, s, x/.^[7]

See also

• Standard Dutch
• Indonesian Dutch

References

1. ^ "Suriname - The World Factbook". CIA.gov. CIA. 2023-11-14. Archived from the original on 2023-11-16. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
2. ^ "Taalunie" (in Dutch). Taalunie.org. Taalunie. Archived 2023-10-21 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2023-11-16. De Taalunie ontwikkelt en stimuleert beleid voor het Nederlands in Nederland, Vlaanderen en Suriname, en ondersteunt het Nederlands in de wereld.
3. ^ "Suriname - Taalunie" (in Dutch). Taalunie.org. Taalunie. Archived 2023-04-17 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2023-11-16. Sinds 2004 is Suriname geassocieerd lid van de Taalunie.
4. ^ "Suriname country profile - BBC News". BBC.com. BBC News. 2023-11-13. Archived 2023-11-13 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
5. ^ Diepeveen, Janneke & Hüning, Matthias (2016). "The status of Dutch in post-colonial Suriname". neon.niederlandistik.fu-berlin.de. Freien Universität Berlin. Archived 2023-02-21 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
6. ^ Dutch in Suriname - Dialectloket (Dutch website).
7. ^ De Schutter (2013), pp. 448, 451.

Bibliography

• De Schutter, Georges (2013 [First published 1994]), "14 Dutch", The Germanic Languages, van der Auwera, Johan & König, Ekkehard (eds.), Routledge, pp. 439–477, ISBN 978-0-415-05768-4