Sranan Creole Paper (sranan Tongo)

                                                                                     March 5, 2015

Sranan (Sranan Tongo)

        Sranan is a creole language spoken as a bridge language by about 120,000 first language speakers and 300,000 second-language speakers.  This type of language is communicated between, Dutch, Javanese, Hindustani, and Chinese speaking communities.  The pidgin language was developed due to the Protuguese being the first explorers of the West African coast.  Few words became common in interactions with the Africans after that incident, including the English.  Sranan is fundamentally English-based pidgin language, with an overlay of words from Dutch, due to the Dutch takeover of Surinam in 1667.  

The pidgin began primarily by African slaves in Suriname who often did not have common African language. The slaves and slave-owners both spoke the pidgin language and as other ethnic groups were brought to Suriname as contract workers, Sranan became a lingua franca (bridge language).   In 1877, Dutch was enforced in the schools and continued to be the main language of the government and of the prestigious classes.  Any Sranan-speaking students who wanted to further their education had to learn Dutch to attend the university near the capital Paramariboor in the Netherlands.  The government in the early 20th century mounted their efforts to eradicate Sranan from schools and would severly punish the kids who spoke it.  And in turn parents concerned about social status discouraged it in the home.  This is similar to what happened to the Hawaiian language; when the government banded the language in the school; so ultimately it affected the home environment as wellThe language was popularized by Suriname’s dictator in the 1980’s whom is now currently the President, Desi Bouterse who delivers national speeches in Sranan.

Recently, Sranan is building as a written language as well and has been given an official spelling by the government of Suriname on July 15, 1986.  Sranan remains greatly used in Suriname and in large Dutch urban areas and used as casual conversation where it is often mixed in freely with Dutch.  

An example of use of Sranan would be “fa waka” which means, “how are you” instead of the more formal Dutch “hoe gaat het” having the same meaning.  Hello in Sranan is “Odi” and Hey is “Ei.”  Vowels and gliding vowls are usually nasalized before a nasal consonant.  Some other notes is that n may be realized as m when it precedes a labial consonant.