Dutch in Suriname

The territory of modern Suriname was first colonized by the British (1605-1667). Although the white population in the republic was never significant and, moreover, avoided contact with the colored population, the role of the “lingua franca” was established for the Creole language Sranan Tongo , the vocabulary of which includes words from languages ​​of African descent, as well as from English, Dutch, Portuguese. The Dutch authorities have long pursued a liberal language policy in the Caribbean colonies, where English or its Creole versions were used as the lingua franca.

Education in Suriname was fully translated into Dutch only in 1876. Since then, the proportion of residents of Suriname who consider this language to be their mother tongue has steadily increased and reached about 60% at the beginning of the 21st century. The popularization of the Dutch language in the colony was facilitated by the arrival of Indonesian coolies, who preferred to speak the Dutch language rather than Sranan Tongo.

After independence in 1975 , the percentage of the white population in the country fell to less than 1%, most speakers of the Dutch language are bilingual and even trilingual and speak other languages ​​(black people use sranan actively, and Indians and Indonesians use sraran and their tribal languages) .

In fact, in its pure form, the Dutch language is used only at school, in spoken language a mixture of sranan and Dutch dominates. Most people who consider the Dutch language their native language and / or speak it live in the most Europeanized capital of Paramaribo . As you move away from her, the role of sranan increases. In 2004 , Suriname joined the Dutch Language Union , which somewhat strengthened the position of the Dutch language in the country. In addition, about 450,000 natives of the country live in the Kingdom of the Netherlands .