| Saramaccan | |
|---|---|
| Saamáka | |
| Native to | Suriname,French Guiana |
| Ethnicity | Saramaka |
Native speakers | 90,000 (2013)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | srm |
| Glottolog | sara1340 |
| Linguasphere | 52-ABB-ax |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Saramaccan (Saamáka) is acreole language spoken by about 58,000 people of West African descent near theSaramacca and the upperSuriname River, as well as inParamaribo, capital ofSuriname (formerly also known asDutch Guiana). The language also has 25,000 speakers inFrench Guiana and 8,000 in the Netherlands.[1] It has three main dialects. The speakers are mostly descendants of fugitiveslaves who were native toWest andCentral Africa; they form a group called Saamacca, also spelledSaramaka.
Linguists consider Saramaccan notable because its vocabulary is based on two European source languages,English (30%) andPortuguese (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 fromNiger–Congo languages of West Africa, especiallyFon and otherGbe languages, as well asAkan and Central African languages such asKikongo.[3]
The language is derived from Plantation Creole, which is nowadays known asSranan Tongo, but the branches diverged around 1690 and evolved separately.[4] The Saramaccan lexicon is largely drawn from English, Portuguese, and, to a lesser extent,Dutch, among European languages, andNiger–Congo languages of West Africa, especiallyFon and otherGbe languages,Akan, and Central African languages, such asKiKongo. The African component accounts for about 50% of the total.[3]
Saramaccanphonology has traits similar to languages of West Africa. It has developed the use oftones, which are common in Africa, rather thanstress, which is typical of European languages.
Over a fourth of words are from English. It is generally agreed that the Portuguese influence originated from enslaved peoples who lived on plantations with Portuguese masters and possibly with other slaves who spoke a Portuguese creole. The masters might have brought the latter in migrating to Suriname fromBrazil.[5] Saramaccan originators began with an early form ofSranan Tongo, an English-based creole, and transformed it into a new creole via the Portuguese influx, combined with influence from the grammars ofFongbe and otherGbe languages.[5]
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Saramaccan is divided into two main dialects. TheUpper Suriname River dialect and the Lower Suriname River dialect are both spoken by members of theSaramaccan tribe. And by the Surinamese people who are living in the 12 English-speaking Caribbean nations of which all 12 have a foreign relationship with the Republic of Suriname:Antigua and Barbuda,Bahamas,Barbados,Belize,Dominica,Grenada,Guyana,Jamaica,Saint Kitts and Nevis,Saint Lucia,Saint Vincent and the Grenadines andTrinidad and Tobago.
TheMatawai tribe has its own language, which is related to the Saramaka language.[6] The language is derived from Plantation Creole, which is nowadays known asSranan Tongo. However, the branches diverged around 1700 and evolved separately.[4] Matawai is spoken in the villages inKwakoegron andBoven Saramacca. However, code-switching with Sranan Tongo, other Maroon languages, andDutch is common. The language is considered endangered.[7]
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Close-mid | e | o |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ |
| Open | a | |
Each oral vowel also has a correspondingnasal vowel. There are also threevowel lengths:/bɛ/ "red",/bɛ́ɛ/ "belly,"/bɛɛ́ɛ/ "bread."[8]
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | Labial | ||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||||||||
| Plosive | plain | p | b | t | d | c | ɟ | k | ɡ | k͡p | ɡ͡b |
| prenasalized | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮɟ | ᵑɡ | |||||||
| Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | |||||||||
| Fricative | f | v | s | z | ç | ||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||||||
/c,ɟ,ɲ,ᶮɟ/ are more specificallydorso-postalveolar, but the palatal fricative/ç/ isdorso-palatal.[8]
The language has two surfacetones: high and low.Stress in European words is replaced by high tone in Saramaccan.[8]
| Letter | Pronunciation |
|---|---|
| a | [a] |
| e | [e] |
| ë | [ɛ] |
| i | [i] |
| o | [o] |
| ö | [ɔ] |
| u | [u] |
Long and overlong vowels are written as doubled or tripled respectively.
| Letter | Pronunciation |
|---|---|
| b | [b] |
| d | [d] |
| dj | [ɟ] |
| g | [g] |
| gb | [ɡ͡b] |
| h | [h] |
| j | [j] |
| k | [k] |
| kp | [k͡p] |
| l | [l] |
| m | [m] |
| mb | [mb] |
| n | [n] |
| nd | [nd] |
| nj | [ɲ] |
| p | [p] |
| s | [s] |
| t | [t] |
| tj | [ç],[c]? |
| v | [v] |
| w | [w] |
Saramaccan's vocabulary is 30% derived fromEnglish, 20% fromPortuguese. It is one of the few known creoles to derive a large percentage of its lexicon from more than one source (most creoles have one mainlexifier language). Also, it is said to be both anEnglish-based creole and aPortuguese-based creole.[10]
About 50% of the vocabulary of Saramaccan is ofAfrican origin,[3] the largest percentage of any creole in theAmericas. Source languages for these words includeKikongo,Gbe languages, andTwi.[10]
To English-speakers who are not familiar with it, Saramaccan's English basis is almost unrecognizable. Here are some examples of Saramaccan sentences that are 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 aremujee (mulher) "woman",womi (o homem) "man",da (dar) "to give",bunu (bom) "good",kaba (acabar) "to end",ku (com) "with",kuma (como, cf. vernacular Braziliancuma? forcomo é?, "come again?") "as, like",faka (faca) "knife",aki (aqui) "here",ma (mas) "but",kendi (quente) "hot",liba (riba) "above", andlio (rio) "river".
Saramaccan has a rich history of published works, including the following dictionaries: Christian Schumann's 1778,Saramaccanisch Deutsches Worter-Buch,[11] Johannes Riemer's 1779Wörterbuch zur Erlernung der Saramakka-Neger-Sprache, a copied and edited version of Schumann,[12] Jan Voorhoeve and Antoon Donicie's 1963 wordlist,De Saramakaanse Woordenschat,[13] Antoon de Groot's,Woordregister Nederlands- Saramakaans met context en idioom (1977)[14] and hisWoordregister Saramakaans-Nederlands (1981),[15] and Glock (ed)Holansi-Saamaka wöutubuku (Nederlands-Saramaccaans woordenboek)[16]
TheInstituut voor Taalwetenschap has published tens of literacy books and collections of folktales written by Saramaccans and a complete translation of theNew Testament.[17] Two books written by Richard Price have now been published in Saamakatongo:Fesiten[18] andBoo go a Kontukonde.[19]Alison Hinds ofBarbados based her up tempo soca song "Faluma" on the language.[20] The Saramaccan orthography created by theSummer Institute of Linguistics is not in universal use.[21] Linguist Vinije Haabo is developing a Saramaccan dictionary based on an improved orthography, which he intends to publish online.[22]