Sranan Tongo

Also known as Sranan, Sranantongo, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole, Surinamese tongue, Surinaams, Taki Taki, srn

creole language spoken in Suriname

AI overview

Sranan Tongo is a creole language spoken in Suriname, a country on the northern coast of South America. It developed historically from the mixing of African languages with English and Dutch, and today serves as a lingua franca that allows people from different backgrounds in Suriname to communicate with one another.

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Wikidata facts

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native label: Sranantongo
Wikimedia language code: srn
Commons category: Sranan Tongo creole
exact match: apics-online.info/contributions/2
P10369: Linkin Park
number of speakers, writers, or signers: 126000

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Article

Sranan Tongo (Sranantongo, "Surinamese tongue", Sranan, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language from Suriname, in South America, where it is the first or second language for 519,600 Surinamese people. It is also spoken in the Netherlands, and across the Surinamese diaspora. It is considered both an unofficial national language and a lingua franca.

Sranan Tongo developed among Afro-Surinamese, enslaved Africans from Central and West Africa, especially along the Caribbean coastline, after contact with English planters and indentured workers from 1651–67. Its use expanded to the Dutch colonists, who took over the territory in 1667, and decided to maintain the local language as a lingua franca. Because the number of English colonists was massively reduced following the arrival of the Dutch, the later Dutch and African additions and influences to the language have made it distinct from other Afro-Caribbean creoles based on English. There are also influences from Portuguese and Hebrew present in the language.