Saramaccan (autonym : Saamáka) is a creole spoken by about 24,000 people near the Saramaccan and upper Suriname Rivers in Suriname, and 2,000 in French Guiana. About 2,000 of the total speak a dialect called Matawari. The sources of Saramaccan vocabulary are English, Portuguese, Dutch, and Sub-Saharan African languages (20% of its vocabulary is African), especially Kongo and Gbe. Its phonology is closest to languages of Africa, and it has even developed tones, which are common in Africa.

Phonology

The language has two tones, "high" and "low".

Its vowel inventory, besides i, a and u, contains both open and closed e and o sounds, giving seven vowels in all. There is no r sound. Two phonemes that are very typical of West African languages, kp and gb, are also found.

There are nasal vowels, indicated in writing with an n or m at the end of a syllable. The syllabic structure is (C)V(V). Words that start with o are labialized.

Examples

To English speakers not familiar with it, the English basis of this language is almost unrecognizable. These are some examples of Saramaccan sentences (taken from the SIL dictionary):

De waka te de aan sinkii möön.
"They traveled 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 looked for it in vain."

Mi puu tu dusu kölu bai ën.
"I paid two thousand guilders for it."

Examples of words originally from Portuguese or a Portuguese creole are: mujee (mulher) "woman"; womi (homem) "man"; da (dar) "to give"; bunu (bono) "good"; kaba (acabar) "to end"; ku (com) "with"; kuma (como) "as"; faka (faca) "knife"; aki (aquí) "here"; ma (mas) "but"; kendi (quente) "hot"; liba (arriba) "above"; lio (rio) "river".

External Links

• Ethnologue entry
• SIL Saramaccan-English dictionary
• Saramaccan and Haitian as Young Grammars, John McWhorter
• Saramaccan Grammar