| Sranan Tongo | |
|---|---|
| Sranantongo | |
| Native to | Suriname |
Native speakers | L1: 520,000 (2018)[1] L2: 150,000 |
English Creole
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | srn |
| ISO 639-3 | srn |
| Glottolog | sran1240 |
| Linguasphere | 52-ABB-aw |
Sranan Tongo (Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue", Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole)[2] is an English-based creole language that is spoken as a lingua franca by approximately 519,600 people in Suriname.[1]
Developed originally among enslaved Africans from Central and West Africa in Suriname, its use as a lingua franca expanded after the Dutch took over the colony in 1667. 85% of the vocabulary comes from English and Dutch. It also became the common language among the Indigenous peoples and the indentured laborers imported by the Dutch; these groups included speakers of Javanese, Sarnami Hindustani, Saramaccan, and varieties of Chinese.
Sranan Tongo is commonly but incorrectly cited as "having a vocabulary of only 340 words"; in fact, contemporary Sranan Tongo dictionaries have several thousand word entries.[3]
- ^ a b Sranan Tongo at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ "Sranan | language | Britannica".
- ^ "The Sranan Tongo language". suriname-languages.sil.org. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
