Saramaccan language

Saramaccan (autonym: Saamáka) is a language spoken by about 24,000 people near the Saramaccan and upper Suriname Rivers in Suriname, and 2,000 in French Guiana. The speakers are mostly descendants of fugitive slaves from former Dutch Guyana (today's Suriname).

Origins

The Saramaccan lexicon is largely drawn from Portuguese, English, Dutch, and Sub-Saharan African languages, especially Kongo and Gbe. The African entries account for 20% of the total.

Samaraccan phonology is closest to languages of Africa, and it has even developed tones, which are common in Africa.

The grammar shows many similarities to other Portuguese-based creoles, even to Portuguese-Indian ones.

It is not known why Saramaccan has such Portuguese influence. It has been speculated that the slaves brought a Portuguese pidgin learned in Western Africa, or that their masters were Portuguese.

Dialects

About 2,000 of its speakers use a dialect called Matawari.

Phonology

The language has two tones, "high" and "low".

Its vowel inventory, besides i, a and u, contains both open and closed e and o sounds, giving seven vowels in all. There is no r sound. Two phonemes that are very typical of West African languages, kp and gb, are also found. These are not consonant clusters, but are made by simultaneously articulating at both labial and glottal points.

There are nasal vowels, indicated in writing with an n or m at the end of a syllable. The syllabic structure is (C)V(V). Words that start with o are labialized.

Examples

To English speakers not familiar with it, the English basis of this language is almost unrecognizable. These are some examples of Saramaccan sentences (taken from the SIL dictionary):

De waka te de aan sinkii möön.
"They walked until they were worn out."

U ta mindi kanda fu dee soni dee ta pasa ku u.
"We make up songs about things that happen to us."

A suku di soni te wojo fëën ko bëë.
"He searched for it in vain."

Mi puu tu dusu kölu bai ën.
"I paid two thousand guilders to buy it."

Examples of words originally from Portuguese or a Portuguese creole are: mujee (mulher) "woman"; womi (homem) "man"; da (dar) "to give"; bunu (bom) "good"; kaba (acabar) "to end"; ku (com) "with"; kuma (como) "as"; faka (faca) "knife"; aki (aqui) "here"; ma (mas) "but"; kendi (quente) "hot"; liba (acima) "above"; lio (rio) "river".

The nomenclature dispute

There is debate in the linguistics community over whether to consider the language an English creole or a Portuguese creole.

Jan Voorhoeve (1973), N. Smith (1987), M. F. Goodman (1987), John McWhorter (1996), Salikoko Mufwene (2002), and Derek Bickerton consider Saramaccan to be an English-based creole. SIL Suriname's website and Ian Hancock calls it a Portuguese-based creole. The issue is complicated by the fact that, in the 19th century, English started to have a strong influence on Saramaccan. Most Portuguese original elements are verbs, adverbs, pronouns and everyday objects.

External links

• Ethnologue entry
• SIL Saramaccan-English dictionary
• Saramaccan and Haitian as Young Grammars, John McWhorter
• Saramaccan Grammar