Saramaccan language

Saramaccan
Saamáka
Native toSuriname, French Guiana
EthnicitySaramaka
Native speakers
90,000 (2013)[1]
Dialects
  • Matawai (Matawari)
Language codes
ISO 639-3srm
Glottologsara1340
Linguasphere52-ABB-ax
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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. When ritual use is excluded, 35% English-derived, 25% Portuguese-derived, with 35% derived from one or another African language.[2] 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.[3]

  1. ^ a b Price, Richard (2013). "The Maroon Population Explosion: Suriname and Guyane". New West Indian Guide. 87 (3/4): 323–327. doi:10.1163/22134360-12340110.
  2. ^ Price, Richard (2010-02-15). Travels with Tooy: History, Memory, and the African American Imagination. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-68057-6.
  3. ^ Price 2007, pp. 309–389.