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Article: A lingua franca for a tropical babel; Suriname.(Suriname's language debate)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- February 12, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A debate over language politics
BELGIANS, Quebeckers and Basques may define themselves by language. Not so the inhabitants of Suriname. The fewer than 500,000 inhabitants of this corner of South America share more than a dozen languages in daily use. Conversations--and newspapers-- switch effortlessly in mid-sentence.
Dutch, the language of the former colonial power, is used at school and by officialdom, but not much at home. Closest to a national tongue is Sranan Tongo. This is an amalgam developed by the former slave population mixing Dutch and English--Britain once ruled Suriname before short-sightedly swapping it for New York in 1667--with African ...