Andrew Schinkowski

Historical Background 1651 – English settlement of Suriname c – Sranan creolized from Caribbean Plantation English 1665 – Jewish settlers arrive from Cayenne 1667 – Suriname surrendered to the Dutch – English population (and slaves) leave c – Sranan partly relexified to Portuguese 1690 – Mass escape of slaves (Saramacca) 1712 – Mass escape of slaves (Ndyuka)

Suriname overview Early settlers were already familiar with the plantation system (and had already developed pidgins) Relatively small ratio of slaves to Europeans

Sociolinguistic Background 25,000 members of the Saramaccan tribe and 2,000 members of the Matawi tribe 3 attested dialects: Upper and Lower Suriname River Dialects and Matawi dialect Very little variation noticed between dialects and populations going as far back as 18 th century missionary work

Sociolinguistic Background (cont.) Isolation continues to a fair degree even today “states within a state” Between period of escape and peace treaty with the Dutch (1762/1767) addition of escaped slaves rare Complex attitudes towards outsiders Superstrates: English, Portuguse* Substrates: Fon, Kikongo

Linguistic Structure - Phonology Consonants

Linguistic Structure - Phonology Vowels Matching set of nasal vowels as well Although Portuguese has nasal vowels, appearance is more likely from African language roots 3-way length contrast for vowels

Linguistic Structure - Phonology Tone System of high, low and unspecified For European-derived words a high tone will appear on the primarily accented element, with the rest unspecified Stone sitónu For African-derived words, a tone is specified for each element Additionally, there are tone rules

Lexicon English – 50% Portuguese – 35% African/Amerindian – 15%

Morphology and Syntax SVO head initial language that allows fronting Reduplicated Adjectives Dí miíi dé nákináki. ‘The child is beat up.’ Dí miíi náki.‘The child was beaten.’ Copula system de – verbal status can only appear with PP and AP-complements TMA-marking is done with this form da – pronominal status TMA-marking is blocked with this form

Morphology and Syntax Copula system Complements- Kone de/*da siki-siki‘Kone is sick.” Kone COPsick-sick TMA marking- Etnelbidewanmalenge-ma EtnelPASTCOPonelazy-MA ‘Etnel was/will be a lazy guy.” *Etnelbidamalenge-ma EtnelPASTCOPlazy-ma Etnel PAST/IRR COP lazy guy.

Morphology and Syntax V(P)-nominalization with ‘–ma’ hondi-ma‘hunter’ hunt-AG bebe-daan-ma‘drunkard’ drink-rum-AG siki-n’-en-edi-ma‘insane person’ sick-LOC-his-head-AG tja-boto-go-a-wosu-ma‘pilot’ carry-boat-go-LOC-house-AG

Bibliography Bakker, Peter, Smith, Norval, & Veenstra, Tonjes. (1995). Saramaccan. In J. Arends, P. Muysken, N. Smith (Ed.), Pidgins and Creoles: an introduction (pp ). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins North America. Carlin, Eithne B., & Arends, Jacques (Ed.). (2002). Atlas of the Languages of Suriname. Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde: Ian Randle Publishers. Migge, Bettina. (2003). Creole Formation as Language Contact: The Case of the Suriname Creoles. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins North America. Price, Richard. (1975). Saramaka Social Structure: Analysis of a Maroon Society in Suriname. Rio Piedras, PR: Institute of Caribbean Studies.