Loanwords in Saramaccan, an English-based Atlantic creole of Suriname

1. The language and its speakers 1.1. Sociohistorical background Saramaccan is an Atlantic creole spoken primarily in Suriname, though there are also speakers in French Guiana as well as a substantial diaspora population in the Netherlands. The fifteenth edition of the Ethnologue estimates that there are about 26,000 speakers of the languages. It is a maroon creole—that is, a creole spoken by descendants of slaves who escaped from plantations (see Price 1976 for an overview of the history of the maroons of Suriname). Accordingly, most Saramaccan villages lie in the Surinamese rain forest away from the coast which was the center of the colonial plantation economy. These villages are situated along two rivers, the Suriname River and Saramacca River. (The populations found along the Saramaccan River, speaking the Matawai dialect, are sometimes classified as a distinct group from the Saramaccans.) All of the data discussed here, and included in the loanword database, comes from dialects spoken along the Suriname River, of which two are traditionally distinguished, a Lower River dialect, spoken closer to the coast, and an Upper River dialect spoken further in the interior. In addition to Saramaccan, there are two other creoles spoken in Suriname, Sranan and Ndyuka, that are generally believed to be genetically related to Saramaccan (see, for example, also good evidence that the Surinamese creoles, in turn, are part of a larger genetic unit compris-like Saramaccan, is a maroon creole. Sranan, the urban and coastal creole of Suriname, represents a continuation of Surinamese plantation creole varieties and serves as a lingua franca for the country. Figure 1 gives a map showing the Saramaccan-speaking area, in addition showing the locations of the other Surinamese language communities. Two important languages of Suriname, Sranan and Dutch are not specifically located on the map, as their use is widespread through the country. [Insert map about here—when it exists. The Ethnologue one is good for this area.] Permanent European settlement in Suriname began in 1651 when an English colony was established along the Suriname River. English control of the area was relatively short-lived and Suriname came under the control of the Dutch in 1667. Despite the relatively short period of English control, the lexicons of the Surinamese creoles show heavy English influence and are generally considered English-lexifier creoles, though the Saramaccan case is quite complex since the language shows a significant Portuguese element in its basic vocabulary (see Smith 1987b:116–125)—this …