ELL: Surinam Dutch (was: Flemish vs. French in Brussels)

[Lucas Husgen]

Niels Wijnen wrote:

> Dutch in Flanders (Flemish) used to be endangered. It is very interesting to
> see the recovery of the (standarized) language of the region that used to be
> one of the most powerfull one, both economical and cultural. It is impossible
> to tell the whole history, and that's a pitty. Because the struggle for the
> usage of your own language is not limited to Flanders. You find it in the whole
> wide world. It goes on day after day. Not only in Flanders and Brussels where
> English threatens. There will always be a nation that has to fight to use his
> langauge. And then it is very interesting to look how other nations handled
> such a situation.

As to Dutch, recently I heard an interesting example about the way language can preserve itself in isolation. A friend of mine stayed in Surinam for three weeks, and he discovered that the Dutch, being spoken out there, differed much from the Dutch, as spoken in the Netherlands. That is, Surinam Dutch sounded like Dutch as spoken in the Netherlands around the time of Surinam's independence, 1975 or so. Those who know the present state of our language (as it is in the Netherlands), one might say littered with badly digested English, should rejoice. It's interesting to note that of course Surinam also boasts a language of its own, Sranan Tongo, a Creole language which has incorporated many Dutch, English, Portugese words. Yet, Surinam Dutch still seems to hold out the way Dutch was spoken at the time when the Dutch left. So, as I have understood that for instance some people regard the Korean, as spoken in the United States, as a language under threat (even though of course, Kor!
ean is amongst the most spoken languages worldwide), should Surinam Dutch also be regarded as a language which needs preservation?

Lucas







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