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Sranan Tongo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Takitaki" and "Taki Taki" redirect here. For the athlete, see Sione Takitaki. For the song, see Taki Taki (song).
Sranan Tongo
Sranantongo, Sranan
Native toSuriname
EthnicityAfro-Surinamese
Native speakers
L1: 520,000 (2018)[1]
L2: 150,000
English Creole
  • Atlantic
    • Suriname
      • Sranan Tongo
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-2srn
ISO 639-3srn
Glottologsran1240
Linguasphere52-ABB-aw

Sranan Tongo (Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue", Sranan, Surinamese Creole) [2]

Sranan is an English-based creole language from Suriname, located in Mainland Caribbean.

Created by Afro-Surinamese people in the 17th century during the Transatlantic Slave trade. Its influences are Central & West African, Indigenous (and European languages.

Linguists label Sranan a radical English-based Creole language, notable for its surprisingly high amount of Africanisms compared to most Creole languages found in the Americas. It's not mutually intelligible with English or Dutch and has a distinctive grammar with strong African influences.[3]

Sranan is very popular in Suriname and spoken as the lingua franca across all ethnicities by 80-90% of the population (Approximately 519,600). It's mainly used in social interactions, trade and music.

It's very also popular in the Surinamese Diaspora. Primarily found in The Netherlands, United States, French-Guiana and the rest of the Caribbean.

The official language of Suriname is Dutch, despite Sranan being the lingua franca throughout the whole country across all ethnicities having no official status as of yet.

Sranan is very popular in The Netherlands, similar to Jamaican Patois in the UK and AAVE in The United States.[4]

History

[edit]

Sranan was created in the 17th century by enslaved Africans from Central and West Africa that lived on plantations in Suriname during the Transatlantic Slave trade.[5]

The plantations enslaved Africans in Suriname lived on at the time, were owned by colonial settlers that were Portuguese speaking Jews from Europe and English speakers from Britain.[6] Their African descendants are Afro-Surinamese people (Krioro), to whom Sranan is native through Ancestral cultural heritage. In context they can be subcategorised as Coastal Creoles & Inland Creoles/Maroons.

Their Ancestors at the Creole genesis were primarily Gbe and KiKongo speaking Africans that laid the foundation that Sranan was built and developed on while being in contact with Portuguese and English.[7]

Early 18th century (1720), there was a large import of Akan people (65%) from the region then called the Gold Coast, to plantations in Suriname. Those Akan people influence Early Sranan which was already establish by that time, and added Akan as Sranan's third primary component of its African foundation.[8]

The 3 main Central & West African influences at the core foundation of Sranan are: 1. Gbe 2. KiKongo and 3. Akan.[9]

Examed closer, its primary African language influences are: 1. Gbe: Fon, Ewe, Aja, Gun, Gen (Mina), Xwela 2. KiKongo3. Akan: Twi and Fante. With its additional African influences being Yoruba, Igbo, Efik, Ibibio, Bambara and Mende.

The African influence on Sranan can be found in its grammar, morphology and phonology. Next to its idioms and idiophones in addition to its culinary, botanical, zoological, anatomical, artifactual, musical and Winti lexicon.[10][11][12][13]

Afro-Surinamese people speak the purest forms of Sranan, especially during Winti rituals having Ancestral ties to the language going back to its creation in the 17th century.[14]

Enslaved Amazonian Indigenous people lived with enslaved Africans on plantations, adding a significant amount of their cultural influence to Sranan and Afro-Surinamese culture. The influence of the Cariban language, Carib - and Arawakanlanguage, Arawak can be found in Sranan's botanical, zoological, musical, culinary and Winti lexicon.[15]

Sranan is the oldest Creole language in Suriname and Mother Creole to other Surinamese Creole languages.[20] Notably, the Maroon Creole languages Saramaccan, Ndyuka, Kwinti and Matawai.[21]  Linguists have found this also to be the case to Jamaican Maroon Creole and Jamaican Patois that spawned from it in Jamaica. [16]

The first Surinamese Creole birthed from Sranan when it was Portuguese-based, is Saramaccan, the oldest Maroon Creole language in Suriname. This Portuguese-based Creole was the result of Coastal Africans on Plantations being able to escape and take refuge deeper in the Amazone. Those Africans that would become known as Saramaka and established the first Maroon community of Suriname late 17th century. They continued developing the Sranan they spoke in isolation into Saramaccan as it is known today. Similarities between Sranan and Saramaccan are still clearly observable.

Remnants of Sranan's Portuguese-based period can still be traced in its lexical items of Portuguese origin and the Ancestral tradition of Odos. Odos are the Ancestral cultural heritage of Afro-Surinamese people by way of proverbs, pieces of wisdoms, folk-lore and stories from their perspective. Those were passed down generation to generation during slavery through oral tradition in Sranan. Those oral stories, wisdoms and folk-lore told during slavery from their Ancestors' perspective were carried on post-slavery and are still a big part of Afro-Surinamese culture and identity. A striking feature about the oral history of Afro-Surinamese people told through Odos and Winti songs, is that many African proverbs were retained that can be traced back to specific regions in Central and West Africa where they descent from. [17][18]

After the Dutch took over colonial rule of Suriname (Dutch-Guiana at the time) from the British in 1667 - following the Treaty of Westminster (1674) (in exchange for ceding the North American eastern seaboard colony of New Netherland to the English). Many British settlers left Suriname with a significant amount of enslaved Coastal Afro-Surinamese and Indigenous people they owned, and resettled in Jamaica. The Coastal enslaved people brought Sranan (which was already established at the time) with them to Jamaica, predominantly in parish St. Elizabeth. This section in Jamaica, which was called Surinam Quarter at the time, would later become a part of Westmoreland.[19]

The strong historical connections between Coastal Afro-Surinamese and Afro-Jamaican people can still clearly be traced through Jamaican Patois and Jamaican Maroon Creole to an increased extent due to Jamaican Maroons having being isolated. Remarkably, linguists were able to trace Sranan's influence all the way to West Africa in Sierra Leone's English-based Creole Krio.[20]

Enslaved Africans in Suriname weren’t allowed to learn Dutch under Dutch colonial rule. This lead to Sranan being isolated from English, which was its main superstrate and Portuguese and Dutch to a lesser extent having relatively little superstate influence, despite frequent misconceptions between fully spoken Sranan and its casual code-switching form being spoken. [21]

Sranan being isolated from English and Dutch created a rather unique situation in Suriname and Haiti accuring parallel. Suriname and Haiti not only have an identical composition of Gbe and KiKongo speakers at their Creole Genesis, but also both having been isolated from their European lexifiers.

Leading to Surinamese Creole speaking Africans in Suriname and Haitian Creole speaking Africans in Haiti to develop their Creole languages among themselves, with relatively little interference of European languages and remaining radical Creoles.[22]

As Sranan and Haitian Creole were spoken as the lingua franca among locally born Africans and new imported Africans that came in through large shipments. Those Africans developed their Creole among themselves and remained radical Creoles. Unlike most Creole languages found in the Americas where Creole was spoken on a continuum with their European lexifier and decreolise.

In Suriname, this historical condition among Afro-Surinamese lead to Gbe, KiKongo and Akan having an adstratalAfrican influence on Sranan.[23] Those language groups were widely spoken for many generations by locally born Africans in Suriname that came in contact with large newly imported Africans from Central and West Africa and used Sranan as the lingua franca amongst themselves.[24]

This unusual condition on plantations in Suriname lead to Sranan and its derived Surinamese Creoles having an unusually high African retention, especially found in the Winti cultural sphere where three ritual languages exist. This being the legacy of enslaved Africans in Suriname for many generations having spoken Gbe, KiKongo and Akan languages and the importance of Winti culture being a unifier among those Africans to this. Winti as a unifying tradition and cultural identity among Afro-Surinamese people is currently gaining significant ground in The Netherlands, as a direct result of their active promotion of Winti culture and the importance of cultural rehabilitation in the process of liberation and decolonisation.[25]

Winti is an Afro-Caribbean religion created in the 17th century by the Ancestors of Afro-Surinamese people living on plantations in Suriname. Uniquely, Winti is the only African Diasporian Religion that didn't syncretize with Christianityor any other Abrahamic religion and remained fully African.[26] A spectacular amount of Winti lexicon can be traced back to specific ethnicities and regions in Central and West Africa.[27]

Winti's only non-African influences are Mainland Carib and Arawak beliefs from the Amazon rainforest of Suriname. The Indigenous influence on Winti is the result of enslaved Africans being in close contact with enslaved Indigenous people on plantations with them and those that were able to escape and live as Maroons being in close contact with free Indigenous people living deeper in the Amazon.[28]

Notably,Winti has three Ritual Languages derived from its Central and West African foundation assigned to its Vodun, BuKongo and Akom pantheons that laid its foundation on plantations in Suriname during its creation and development.[29][30]

  • Fodu: a ritual language from the Vodun pantheon in Winti, containing a nucleus of Gbe-derived lexical items.
  • Luangu: a ritual language from the BuKongo pantheon in Winti, containing a nucleus of KiKongo-derived lexical items.
  • Kumanti: a ritual language from the Akom pantheon in Winti, containing a nucleus of Akan-derived lexical items.

Winti has commonalities with sister religions Vodou from Haiti, Santería from Cuba and Candomblé from Brazil among others in the Americas.

Winti can have an elusive presence because of lingering anti-Blackness because of historic systemic anti-Black racism towards it from Christian Dutch colonial settlers unjustly demonizing it and even going so far as to ban Winti until 1971. Reason being its firm part in Afro-Surinamese African identity keeping enslaved Plantation communities and Maroons rebellious to enslavement and using it to escape and attack plantations frequently.[31]

Despite systemic oppression and stigmas, Sranan and Winti are connected and play a large part in Afro-Surinamese people's African identity and everyday life.

Sociolinguistics

[edit]

Role in society

Historically, Sranan has been a very beloved language and the lingua franca among Afro-Surinamese people in Suriname for hundreds of years.

The high esteem Afro-Surinamese people historically have is not only reflected in it being at the centre of Afro-Surinamese culture and identity. Its status was also documented on a few accounts, like in 1844 by Helmig van der Vegt:

"Everyone who has visited the colony knows that no Creole (Afro-Surinamese) can be found who does not possess a strong love for his native language, even to the extent that he speaks it with a pride as if he were a Frenchman".[32]

In 1823, A.F. Lammens, a colonial official who was President of the Court of Civil Justice recounts:

"Negro-English, which is a kind of general language spoken mainly with the slaves. It is a composition of several languages, of which English is the most important, then Dutch. This language is very poor and it is pronounced in an extremely sloppy fashion. At first hearing it is pleasant; it seems that the way it is spoken, the manifold vowels added at the end of most words give it a singing tone or melody as a result of which it sounds somewhat like Italian. The language is learned easily, the children prefer speaking it to the other languages they hear their parents speak."[33]

In 1876, three years after the actual ending of Slavery in Suriname (1873), compulsory education was implemented and Dutch became the official language of instruction.

(1863 is widely rejected by the Surinamese community, because enslaved Coastal Afro-Surinamese people were forced to 10 extra years of slavery under state supervision to pay for their freedom).[34]

Sranantongo came under severe systemic oppression and anti-Black hostility because of the symbiotic relationship between Sranan and the African identity of Afro-Surinamese people. From beatings at school, to opportunities being withheld by institutions to those that spoke Sranan left multiple generations of Afro-Surinamese parents that underwent it traumatised, putting a dent in the unified love they people had for the language. Causing some parents to choose not to teach their children Sranan as an attempt to prevent their children from suffering like they did and give them opportunities.

Sranan nonetheless was a widely spoken language socially, so people would still often pick up the language despite anti-Black stigmas against it.

During the 1980s Desi Bouterse, the then dictator of Suriname, helped to popularise rehabilitate Sranan by making speeches in it to showcase and promote national pride in Surinamese identity as by that time Sranan was the lingua franca across all ethnic groups. A new official spelling system was established in 1986 which was in line with Sranan's actual phonetics. This process was to fulfill Suriname's strong desire to emancipate Sranan from the Dutch linguistic lense given their big differences. Not surprising given the fact that Suriname had just gained independence from The Netherlands and was in the process of shaping its own identity.

Modern use

[edit]

Sranan Tongo remains widely used by the Surinamese diaspora populated in urban areas of The Netherlands where it's used in casual conversation and cultural settings. It's also freely spoken mixed with Dutch in a code-switching context, not to be confused with fully spoken Sranan.

Written code-switching between Sranan Tongo and Dutch is also common in computer-mediated communication.[35]People often greeting each other in Sranan Tongo by saying "Fa waka?" or "(O)fa?" (how are you?), instead of the Dutch way "hoe gaat het?" ('how is it going').

Historically the formal Dutch-based colonial educational system heavily repressed the use of Sranan Tongo because of anti-Blackness prejudice, prejoratively dismissing it as Taki Taki (literally: 'talk talk' or 'say say') meaning "chatter".[36]

(Taki Taki being used when referring to Sranan is considered highly offensive by Surinamese people and actively gets discouraged to be used by outsiders)

Despite decades of systemic oppression, Sranan gradually became more accepted by the establishment and wider society to speak during the 1980s. This was when the language was popularized by publicly known speakers, including chairman Dési Bouterse, who often delivered national speeches in Sranan Tongo to promote national pride and identity.

In 2021, Sranan Tongo appeared on the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time during Jeangu Macrooy's performance of "Birth of a New Age". In this song he sang the lyrics: "Yu no man broko mi" meaning "You're not able to break me" in Sranan.

Phonology and orthography

[edit]
Main article: Sranan Tongo phonology and orthography

Under Dutch colonial rule, the spelling of Sranan was not standardized, but based on Dutch orthography. In view of the considerable differences between the phonologies of Sranan and Dutch, this was not a satisfactory situation.

With the emergence of a movement striving for the emancipation of Sranan as a respectable language, the need for a phonology-based orthography was felt. A more suitable orthography developed as an informal consensus from the publications of linguists studying Sranan and related creoles. For every-day use, the Dutch-based spelling remained common, while some literary authors adopted (variants of) the linguistic spelling.

To end this situation, the Surinamese government commissioned a committee of linguists and writers to define a standard spelling, which was adopted and came into force in 1986. This standard essentially followed the linguistic consensus. However, as the language is not taught in schools, while Dutch is, many speakers are not clearly aware of the principles on which this spelling is based and continue to use a Dutch-like, variant spelling.

Nowadays there's a strong push for awareness of the importance to use the spelling of 1986.[37]

Literature

[edit]

As a written language, Sranan Tongo has existed since the late 18th century. The first publication in Sranan Tongo was in 1783 by Hendrik Schouten who wrote a part Dutch, part Sranan Tongo poem, called Een huishoudelijke twist ('A Domestic Tiff').[38] The first important book was published in 1864 by Johannes King, and relates to his travels to Drietabbetje for the Moravian Church.[39]

Early writers often used their own spelling system.[40] An official orthography was adopted by the government of Suriname on July 15, 1986, in Resolution 4501. A few writers have used Sranan in their work, most notably the poet Henri Frans de Ziel ("Trefossa"), who also wrote God zij met ons Suriname, Suriname's national anthem, whose second verse is sung in Sranan Tongo.[41]

Other notable writers in Sranan Tongo are Eugène Drenthe, André Pakosie, Celestine Raalte, Michaël Slory, and Bea Vianen.

Example

[edit]

Lieve Hugo - Blaka Rowsu

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Sranan Tongo at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Braun, Maria (2009). Word-formation and Creolisation: the case of early Sranan. Linguistische Arbeiten. Tübingen: Niemeyer. ISBN 978-3-484-30517-5.
  3. ^ Muysken, Pieter; Smith, Norval; Borges, Robert B., eds. (2015). Surviving the middle passage: the West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund. Trends in linguistics Studies and monographs. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-039499-3.
  4. ^ "DPG Media Privacy Gate". myprivacy.dpgmedia.nl. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  5. ^ Sherriah, André Ché (2019). Tale of two dialect regions. Place of publication not identified: Language Science Press. ISBN 978-3-96110-155-9.
  6. ^ Sherriah, André Ché (2019). Tale of two dialect regions. Place of publication not identified: Language Science Press. ISBN 978-3-96110-155-9.
  7. ^ Muysken, Pieter; Smith, Norval; Borges, Robert B., eds. (2015). Surviving the middle passage: the West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund. Trends in linguistics Studies and monographs. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-039499-3.
  8. ^ Braun, Maria (2009). Word-formation and Creolisation: the case of early Sranan. Linguistische Arbeiten. Tübingen: Niemeyer. ISBN 978-3-484-30517-5.
  9. ^ Muysken, Pieter; Smith, Norval; Borges, Robert B., eds. (2015). Surviving the middle passage: the West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund. Trends in linguistics Studies and monographs. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-039499-3.
  10. ^ Braun, Maria (2009). Word-formation and creolisation: the case of early Sranan. Linguistische Arbeiten. Tübingen: Niemeyer. ISBN 978-3-484-30517-5. OCLC 232333510.
  11. ^ Smith, Norval; Adamson, Lilian (2006-02-01). "Tonal phenomena in Sranan". 59 (2): 211–218. doi:10.1524/stuf.2006.59.2.211. ISSN 2196-7148. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  12. ^ van Andel, Tinde R.; van ‘t Klooster, Charlotte I. E. A.; Quiroz, Diana; Towns, Alexandra M.; Ruysschaert, Sofie; van den Berg, Margot (December 2014). "Local plant names reveal that enslaved Africans recognized substantial parts of the New World flora". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111 (50). doi:10.1073/pnas.1418836111. ISSN 0027-8424.
  13. ^ Muysken, Pieter; Smith, Norval; Borges, Robert B., eds. (2015). Surviving the middle passage: the West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund. Trends in linguistics Studies and monographs. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-039499-3.
  14. ^ Braun, Maria (2009). Word-Formation and Creolisation: The Case of Early Sranan. Linguistische Arbeiten Ser. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, Inc. ISBN 978-3-484-97022-9.
  15. ^ Migge, Bettina (2003). Creole formation as language contact: the case of the Suriname creoles. Creole language library. Amsterdam Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-58811-397-9.
  16. ^ McWhorter, John H., ed. (2010). The missing Spanish creoles: recovering the birth of plantation contact languages. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-21999-1.
  17. ^ Arends, Jacques (2017). Language and slavery: a social and linguistic history of the Suriname creoles. Creole Language Library. Amsterdam ; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 978-90-272-6580-7.
  18. ^ Arnold, A. James; Rodríguez-Luis, Julio; Dash, J. Michael, eds. (1994). A history of literature in the Caribbean. A comparative history of literatures in European languages = Histoire comparée des littératures de langues européennes. Amsterdam ; Philadelphia: J. Benjamins. ISBN 978-90-272-3442-1.
  19. ^ "Historical Background of Jamaica". www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  20. ^ McWhorter, John H., ed. (2010). The missing Spanish creoles: recovering the birth of plantation contact languages. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-21999-1.
  21. ^ Michaelis, Susanne, ed. (2008). Roots of Creole structures: weighing the contribution of substrates and superstrates. Creole language library. Amsterdam ; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. ISBN 978-90-272-5255-5. OCLC 227205843.
  22. ^ Michaelis, Susanne (2008). Roots of Creole structures: weighing the contribution of substrates and superstrates. Creole language library. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins. ISBN 978-90-272-5255-5.
  23. ^ Muysken, Pieter; Smith, Norval; Borges, Robert B., eds. (2015). Surviving the middle passage: the West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund. Trends in linguistics Studies and monographs. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-039499-3.
  24. ^ Muysken, Pieter; Smith, Norval; Borges, Robert B., eds. (2015). Surviving the middle passage: the West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund. Trends in linguistics Studies and monographs. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-039499-3.
  25. ^ balkenhol, markus (2015-04-03). "working with the ancestors. the kabra mask and the "african renaissance" in the afro-surinamese winti religion". Material Religion. 11 (2): 250–254. doi:10.1080/17432200.2015.1059135. ISSN 1743-2200.
  26. ^ West-Durán, Alan, ed. (2003). African Caribbeans: a reference guide. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-03934-8.
  27. ^ PRICE, RICHARD (December 1973). "Religion: Winti: Een Afroamerikaanse godsdienst in Suriname. Een cultureel‐historische analyse van de religieuze verschijnselen in de Para. CHARLES J. WOODING". American Anthropologist. 75 (6): 1884–1886. doi:10.1525/aa.1973.75.6.02a00840. ISSN 0002-7294.
  28. ^ McWhorter, John H. (2000). The missing Spanish creoles: recovering the birth of plantation contact languages. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-21999-1.
  29. ^ Muysken, Pieter; Smith, Norval; Borges, Robert B., eds. (2015). Surviving the middle passage: the West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund. Trends in linguistics Studies and monographs. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-039499-3.
  30. ^ Arends, Jacques; Muysken, Pieter; Smith, Norval, eds. (2008). Pidgins and creoles: an introduction. Creole language library (Reprint with corrections ed.). Amsterdam Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 978-90-272-9950-5.
  31. ^ Hoogbergen, Wim (2008). Out of slavery: a Surinamese roots history. Berlin: Lit. ISBN 978-3-8258-8112-2.
  32. ^ Arends, Jacques (2017). Language and slavery: a social and linguistic history of the Suriname creoles. Creole Language Library. Amsterdam: John Benjamins publishing company. ISBN 978-90-272-5276-0.
  33. ^ Arends, Jacques (2017). Language and slavery: a social and linguistic history of the Suriname creoles. Creole Language Library. Amsterdam: John Benjamins publishing company. ISBN 978-90-272-5276-0.
  34. ^ Zaken, Ministerie van Algemene (2023-11-08). "Slavery Memorial Year - Discrimination - Government.nl". www.government.nl. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  35. ^ SEBBA, MARK (2000-01-27). "Orthography and ideology: issues in Sranan spelling". Linguistics. 38 (5). doi:10.1515/ling.2000.016. ISSN 0024-3949.
  36. ^ Radke, Henning (2017-09-01). "Die lexikalische Interaktion zwischen Niederländisch und Sranantongo in surinamischer Onlinekommunikation". Taal en Tongval. 69 (1): 113–136. doi:10.5117/tet2017.1.radk. ISSN 0039-8691.
  37. ^ Sebba, Mark (2007). Spelling and society: the culture and politics of orthography around the world. Cambridge, UK ; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-84845-9. OCLC 75087929.
  38. ^ "The History of Sranan". Linguistic Department of Brigham Young University. Retrieved 25 May 2020..
  39. ^ "Johannes King (1830-1898)". Werkgroup Caraïbische Letteren (in Dutch). Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  40. ^ "Suriname: Spiegel der vaderlandse kooplieden". Digital Library for Dutch Literature (in Dutch). 1980. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  41. ^ "Trefossa en het volkslied van Suriname". Star Nieuws (in Dutch). Retrieved 19 May 2020.

Sources

[edit]
  • Iwan Desiré Menke: Een grammatica van het Surinaams (Sranantongo), Munstergeleen : Menke, 1986, 1992 (Dutch book on grammar of Sranan Tongo)
  • Jan Voorhoeve and Ursy M. Lichtveld: Creole Drum. An Anthology of Creole Literature in Suriname. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975.
  • C.F.A. Bruijning and J. Voorhoeve (editors): Encyclopedie van Suriname. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Elsevier, 1977, pp. 573–574.
  • Eithne B. Carlin and Jacques Arends (editors): Atlas of the Languages of Suriname. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2002.
  • Michaël Ietswaart and Vinije Haabo: Sranantongo. Surinaams voor reizigers en thuisblijvers. Amsterdam: Mets & Schilt (several editions since 1999)
  • J.C.M. Blanker and J. Dubbeldam: "Prisma Woordenboek Sranantongo". Utrecht: Uitgeverij Het Spectrum B.V., 2005, ISBN 90-274-1478-5, www.prismawoordenboeken.nl - A Sranantongo to Dutch and Dutch to Sranantongo dictionary.
  • Henri J.M. Stephen: Sranan odo : adyersitori - spreekwoorden en gezegden uit Suriname. Amsterdam, Stephen, 2003, ISBN 90-800960-7-5 (collection of proverbs and expressions)
  • Michiel van Kempen and Gerard Sonnemans: Een geschiedenis van de Surinaamse literatuur. Breda : De Geus, 2003, ISBN 90-445-0277-8 (Dutch history of Surinam literature)
[edit]
Sranan Tongo edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Look up Sranan Tongo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Sranan phrasebook.
For a list of words relating to Sranan Tongo, see the Sranan Tongo lemmas category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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