Sranan Tongo

== Overview ==
Sranan Tongo (also Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue", Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole, Taki Taki) is an English-based creole language that is spoken as a lingua franca by approximately 500,000 people in Suriname.
Because the language is shared by communities speaking Dutch, Indigenous languages, Javanese, Hindustani, Saramaccan, and Chinese, most Surinamese speak it as a lingua franca among both the Surinamese in Suriname, a former Dutch colony, and the immigrants of Surinamese origin in the Netherlands, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
== Origins ==
The Sranan Tongo words for "to know" and "small children" are sabi and pikin (respectively from Portuguese saber and pequeno), because the Portuguese were the first explorers of the West African coast, where they developed a pidgin language from which a few words became common in interactions with Africans by later explorers, including the English. However, research has established from its lexicon that Sranan Tongo is mostly an English-based creole language, with a substantial overlay of words from Dutch because of the Dutch takeover of Suriname in 1667.
Sranan Tongo's lexicon is thus a fusion of mostly English and Dutch (+/-85%) and some Portuguese, and West African languages. It began as a pidgin spoken primarily by African slaves in Suriname who often did not have a common African language. Sranan Tongo also became the language of communication between the slaves and the slaveowners, as the slaves were not permitted to speak Dutch. As other ethnic groups were brought to Suriname as contract workers, Sranan Tongo became a lingua franca.
== Modern Use ==
Although the formal Dutch-based educational system repressed Sranan Tongo, it gradually became more accepted by the establishment, especially during the 1980s when it was popularized by the dictator Dési Bouterse, who often delivered national speeches in Sranan Tongo.
Sranan Tongo remains widely used in Suriname and in large Dutch urban areas populated by immigrants from Suriname, especially in casual conversation, which often freely mixes it with Dutch. Written code-switching between Sranan Tongo and Dutch is also common in computer-mediated communication. People often greet each other in Sranan Tongo by saying, for example, fa waka (how are you), instead of the more formal Dutch hoe gaat het(how are you).
== Sranan Tongo excerpt from Wikipedia article "Sranantongo" ==
Sranantongo bigin leki a tongo fu den srafu di ben tya komopo fu Afrika ini a tiri fu den Bakra. A abi pisi fu Ingrisi, Bakra, Spanyoro, Potogisi nanga Afrikan tongo. A bigin e gersi a di fu den tra kriorotongo Caraibisch Pisigron, so leki Papiamento.
Wan kriorotongo na wan tongo di bigin bika wan fanowdu ben de fu man taki nanga makandra, fu di difrenti suma ini wan situatie no b'o man ferstan makandra. So wan tongo gro kon tron wan "trutru" tongo, nanga en eigi gramatika, ën gro kon tron wan mamatongo.
== Video ==
centre|thumb|330x330px
Category:Creole Languages
Category:Suriname
Category:South America
Category:Caribbean
Category:English-based Creole Languages