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Saramaccan (Saamáka) is a creole language spoken by about 58,000 people of West African descent near the Saramacca and the upper Suriname River, as well as in Paramaribo, capital of Suriname (formerly also known as Dutch Guiana). The language also has 25,000 speakers in French Guiana and 8,000 in the Netherlands.[1] It has three main dialects. The speakers are mostly descendants of fugitive slaves who were native to West and Central Africa; they form a group called Saamacca, also spelled Saramaka.
Linguists consider Saramaccan notable because its vocabulary is based on two European source languages, English (30%) and Portuguese (20%), and various West and Central African languages (50%), but it diverges considerably from all of them. The African component accounts for about 50% once ritual use is taken into account, the highest percentage in the Americas. It is derived from Niger–Congo languages of West Africa, especially Fon and other Gbe languages, as well as Akan and Central African languages such as Kikongo.[2]
^ abPrice, Richard (2013). "The Maroon Population Explosion: Suriname and Guyane". New West Indian Guide. 87 (3/4): 323–327. doi:10.1163/22134360-12340110.
^Price 2007, pp. 309–389.
and 21 Related for: Saramaccan language information
Saramaccan (Saamáka) is a creole language spoken by about 58,000 people of West African descent near the Saramacca and the upper Suriname River, as well...
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concerned with creole languages and their relationship to other languages, often focusing on the Suriname creole languageSaramaccan. His work has expanded...
over the Americas and languages derived from Portuguese, notably Papiamento spoken on Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao; Saramaccan of Suriname; and Cupópia...
need not emerge from a pidgin). Prime examples of this are Aukan and Saramaccan, spoken in Suriname, which have vocabulary mainly from Portuguese, English...
theoretical linguistics, Shua language McWhorter, John Hamilton (United States, 1965–), creole languages, Saramaccanlanguage Meillet, Antoine (France, 1866–1936)...
Guinness Book of World Records featured Saramaccan, a creole language, as "the world's least complex language". According to linguists, this claim was...
Caribbean Saramaccan, creole language of Suriname with vocabulary built based on English, Portuguese, and West and Central African languages Upper Guinea...
Dutch; these groups included speakers of Javanese, Sarnami Hindustani, Saramaccan, and varieties of Chinese. Sranan Tongo is commonly but incorrectly cited...
H. (1992), "Substratal influence in Saramaccan serial verb construction", Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 4 Mufwene, Salikoko (1986), "The Universalist...
Hindustani), Surinamese-Javanese, and different Maroon languages (especially Saramaccan and Aukan). Since most Surinamese people are multilingual (for instance...
considered dialects of the Aukan language. The same can be said about Matawai, which is mutually intelligible with Saramaccan. Javanese is used by the descendants...
Suriname Saramacca River, Suriname Saramaka or Saramacca peoples Saramaccanlanguage This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title...
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Marowijne River Saamaka (Saramaccan) at the Suriname River The sources of the Surinamese Maroon vocabulary are the English language, Portuguese, some Dutch...
the person this language can be either the mother tongue, second language or third language (after Dutch or Sranan Tongo). Saramaccan is spoken by the...
Also, Saramaccan seems to be a pidgin frozen in the middle of relexification from Portuguese to English. However, in cases of such mixed languages, as Bakker...
home to Saramaccan Maroons. During the slavery period, they managed to escape from plantations and settled in this region. In addition, Saramaccan villages...
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