Language and Slavery

Front matter

CREOLE LANGUAGE LIBRARY 52

A social and linguistic history of the Suriname creoles

Jacques Arends

Table of contents

List of tables and figures IX List of oral texts XIII List of written texts XV Introduction to this edition XIX Series editor’s preface XXI Trotji (Sranan: Preface) XXIII Outline of the book XXVII CHAPTER 1

Introduction 1

Suriname, a creole society 1

Chapter 2

The ‘prehistory’ of the Suriname creoles 35 24 Early contacts between European and non-European languages

2.2 2.3

2.4

(1450-1600) 36 Early settlements in and around Suriname (1600-1650) 43 The formative years: 1651-1690 54 2.31 The English period (1651-1667) 56 2.311 The colonization by the English 56 2.3.1.2 The SephardicJews 63 2.3.2 The first years of Suriname as a Dutch colony (1667-1690) 71 2.3.21 The transition period (1667-1680) 71 2.3.2.2 The English exodus (1667-1680) 77 2.3.2.3 The Indian war (1678-1686) 86 2.3.2.4 Early marronage: The formation of the Saramaka Maroons and their language 89 Conclusion 99

VI

CHAPTER 3 Social and demographic factors in creole formation 3.1 Introduction 101 3.2 Social stratification and network relations 102 3.2.1 Social stratification 104 3.2.2 External networks 114 3.23 Conclusion 121 3.3 Demographic factors 122 3.3.1 Introduction 122 3.3.2 Factors related to immigration 123 3.3.2.1 Africans 124 3.3.2.2 Origins 124 3.3.2.3 Age and sex distribution 138 3.3.2.4 Europeans 141 3.3.3 Factors related to population 142 3.3.3.1 Africans and Europeans 143 3.3.3.2. The rate of nativization among the Blacks 151 3.3.3.3. The creole-to-bozal ratio among slave children on the plantations 154 3.3.3.4 The creole-to-bozal ratio among Maroons 158 3.4 Summary and conclusion 160

CHAPTER 4 Meta-linguistic evidence: Variation, attitudes and linguistic repertoires in the pre-Emancipation era 41 Introduction 163 4.2 Variation in early Sranan 163 4.24 Ethnicity: nengre tongo and bakra tongo 166 4.2.2 Geography: The Creole of the plantations and the Paramaribo Creole 173 4.2.3 Ownership: Differences between the language of English, Jewish, and other plantations 179 4.2.3.1 The Creole of the ‘old English plantations’ 180 4.2.3.2. Djutongo: The Creole of the Jewish plantations 182 4.2.3.3 The Creole as spoken on other plantations 188 4.2.4 Religion: church Sranan, the creole variety used by the Moravian missionaries 188 4.2.5 Place of birth: Native and non-native Sranan 192 4.2.6 Some additional observations 195 4.2.7 Summary and conclusion 198

Table of contents

VII

4.3 Language choice and attitudes 200 4.3.1 Attitudes towards Sranan 201 4.3.2 Linguistic repertoires 209 4.3.2.1 Sranan 210 4.3.2.2 European languages 214 4.3.2.3 The use of African languages and Arabic 223 4.3.2.4 Some miscellaneous observations 228 4.4 Appendices 231 4.4.1 Lexical items labeled bakratongo in Schumann's (1783) Sranan dictionary 231 4.4.2 Lexical items labeled dju tongo in Schumanns (1783) Sranan dictionary 234

CHAPTER 5 Early developments (1667-c1800) 237 5.1 Sranan 237 5.11 Miscellaneous early sources (1667-1763) 237 5.1.2 Herlein (1718) and Nepveu (1770) 243 513 Van Dyk (c1765) 255 5.1.4 Comparing Herlein, Nepveu, and Van Dyk 257 5.1.4.1 A second look at Herleins Sranan 257 5.1.4.2 Van Dyk 260 5.1.5 Stedman 269 5.2 Saramaccan 274 5.3 The other Suriname creoles 275 5.4 Introducing early texts 275

CHAPTER 6

Oral texts 277 6.1 Songs 277

6.3 Anansi stories 310

CHAPTER 7

Written texts 315 71 Secular texts 316

72 Religious texts 410

Index 457

List of tables and figures

Figure 1.1 Table 1.1

Figure 1.2 Figure 1.3

Table 1.3 Table 1.4

Table 2.1 Table 2.2

Table 2.6 Table 2.7

Table 2.9 Table 2.10

Table 2.11 Figure 2.1

The numerical distribution of ethnic groups

in present-day Suriname

Major events in the history of Suriname (1499-1975) Genealogical tree of the Suriname creoles

The Suriname creoles grouped according to their major lexifier language(s)

Nomenclature, geographical distribution, and numbers of speakers of the Suriname languages

Published editions of early Sranan and Saramaccan texts Contents of the digitalized corpus of early Sranan

and Saramaccan texts

A survey of diachronic studies on Sranan and Saramaccan (1982-2002)

Lexical correspondences between baragouin and Sranan Toponymical conventions with regard

to the ‘Greater Guyana’ region

Survey of the earliest settlements in Suriname and adjacent areas (1530-1650)

Documented figures of European immigration into Suriname (1651-1653)

Documented figures of the European population of Suriname (1651-1667)

The immigration of Sephardic Jews into Suriname (1651-1667) Numbers of plantations in Suriname River and Commewijne Rivers areas (1667/1686)

Place of departure of slave ships arriving in Suriname

between 1667 and 1674

The English exodus according to Voorhoeve & Lichtveld (1975:2) Population figures for the European population of Suriname (1666-1684) according to Voorhoeve & Lichtveld (1975: 3) Emigration from 1668 to 1680

The genealogy of an unwarranted claim: The construction of the Machado Theory with respect to the inception of Saramaccan

Table 3.1 Annual wages for white plantation personnel: Early 18th century — 106

Table 3.2 Social stratification of free plantation population: 18th century 107 Table3.3 Social stratification of enslaved plantation population:

18th-century 108 Table 3.4 African origins in the overall Dutch slave trade (1658-1674) 125

Table 3.5 Place of departure of slaves imported into Suriname (1652-1803) — 127 Figure 3.1 Place of departure of slaves imported into Suriname (1652-1803) — 128 Table 3.6 Maximum radius of slave recruitment areas 133 Table3.7 Percentage of children (3-15 yrs) in a sample of Suriname imports

and in a sample of the overall Dutch trade (1680-1803) 139 Table 3.8 Projected percentages and numbers of children (3-15 yrs)

among slaves imported to Suriname (1680-1803) 140 Table 3.9 Percentages of children among slaves imported to Suriname

(1684-1803) 140 Table 3.10 Numbers of Maroons (1678-1863) 144 Table 3.11 Numbers of manumitted slaves (1783-1830) 145 Table 3.12 Growth of black and white population in Suriname (1651-1862) 145 Table 3.13 Composition of the population on 12/31/1684 148 Table 3.14 Development of black-to-white ratio (1652-1830) 149 Table 3.15 National origins of whites married in Paramaribo between 1687

and 1700. Source: Van der Linde (1966: 58) 150 Table 3.16 Regional origins of whites of Dutch descent married

in Paramaribo between 1687 and 1700 151 Table 3.17 Ratio of slave import per decade to slave population present

at beginning of decade (1651-1799) 152 Figure 3.2 Ratio of slave import per decade to slave population present

at beginning of decade (1651-1799) 153

Table 3.18 Percentages of locally-born slaves on sugar plantation Roosenburg 153 Table 3.19 Age distribution among the black and white population

(1684-1830) 155 Table 3.20 Estimated numbers of permanent run-away slaves (1702-1749) 159 Table4.1 — Non-Dutch derived bakra tongo words, with their equivalents

in nengre tongo (Schumann 1783) 167 Table4.2 Dutch derived bakra tongo words, with their English- and

non-English-derived equivalents in nengre tongo

(Schumann 1783) 168 Table 4.3 Words labeled bakra tongo in Schumann's 1783 Sranan dictionary

which are unlabeled in Schumann's 1778 Saramaccan dictionary 171 Table 4.4 — English-derived words in Herlein (1718) later replaced

by Dutch-derived words 176

List of tables and figures

XI

Table 5.1 Table 5.2 Table 5.3 Table 5.4 Table 5.5

Table 5.6 Table 7.1 Table 7.2

Names for the days of the week in Van Dyk (c1765) and Weygandt (1798)

English-based words containing a diphthong in Herlein (1718)

which have a monophthong in post-1718 sources Examples of semantic extensions of Sranan words used by Moravian missionaries to denote Christian concepts Question words in Herlein 1718 and Nepveu 1770 Question words in 18th-century Sranan

The nominal copula in 18th-century Sranan

The development of clefting in Sranan (1718-1798)

The expression of comparison in Van Dyk (c1765)

and Schumann (1783)

The development of serialization in Sranan (1750-now) Sranan translations of texts concerning Emancipation Sources for Dutch and Sranan versions

of texts concerning Emancipation

191 254 263 264 265

266 267 373

BO: CO ON OR e En

N Ne e e -e -e lld m oen NO (go AO UY de de

22;

List of oral texts

A farewell song (c1775)

Celebrating the Ndyuka Peace Treaty (c1760)

A black Odysseus (c1800)

A children's song (c1800?)

Praise for Governor Friderici (c1800) Mocking a corrupt public servant (c1815) Making fun of the Governor's eating habits (c1825) Prince Hendrik visits Suriname (1835)

A sceptic view of love (pre-1850)

Love is war (pre-1850)

Putting a curse on someone (pre-1850) Teasing a girl whos in love (pre-1850)

The end of a love affair (pre-1850)

Changing lovers (pre-1850)

A rowing song (pre-1850)

Another rowing song (pre-1850)

A susa song (pre-1850)

Another susa song (pre-1850)

Love and money (pre-1850)

Love and colour (pre-1850)

A songe dance song (Ndyuka)

‘Basya, lash out!’ (1854)

Wishing the master a Happy New Year

A work song

‘Puttin on ole massa (1862)

Slaves get punished, freemen do not (pre-1863) Celebrating Emancipation (1863)

Poking fun at the nouveaux riches (c1870) Mock-praise for Governor Van Sypesteyn (c1880) A children’s song (pre- 1884)

Pride in the face of oppression (19th century?) Two Ndyuka dance songs

Xiv Language and Slavery

A baboon song

30b. The white-toothed Black

A lobi singi (c1900)

An unfaithful husband (c1900)

Nobody knows you when you're down and out (c 1900) A children’s song (c1900)

A lullaby (c1900)

A comical song (c1900)

A satirical rowing song (1900)

The tongue of the gods

The national anthem of Suriname (1959) Sranan odos

A folk-tale in Sranan

A folk-tale in Saramaccan

311 312

List of written texts

George Warren's Impartial description (1667) Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko (1688)

Hermann (1689)

Maria Sybilla Merian’s Studienbuch (1699) The voice of the slaves (I) (1702-1711) Words (1702-1711)

Sentences (1707)

Herleins (1718) Dialogues

The voice of the Maroons (I) (1728/1733) The voice of the slaves (II) (1745-1762)

The voice of the Maroons (II) (1757-1759) The Saramaka Peace Treaty in Sranan (1762) The text of the treaty

The voice of the Maroons (III) (1762)

The voice of the slaves (III) (1763-1767)

Van Dyk (c1765)

The burial scene from Van Dyk’s reading drama Dialogue no 2 from Van Dyk’s language primer Fermin (1769)

Nepveu (1770)

Nepveus corrections toHerlein 1718 (1770) Nepveu's additions to Herlein 1718 (1770) Hartsinck (1770)

Sample lemmas from Schumann's Saramaccan dictionary

Anon. [Schumann] (c1780)

The verbal system of Early Saramaccan Schouten (1783)

Stedman (1790)

Weygandt (1798)

Riemer (1801)

Bolingbroke (1807)

A dialogue between a newly arrived bakra and a free mulatto girl (1829)

XVI Language and Slavery

3le.

Ala. 41b.

Alc

Ald.

Benoit (1830)

Them belly full (but we hungry) (1835)

Winkels (1840)

Greeting the master (c1840)

Sample lemmas from Fockes (1855) Sranan dictionary Wullschlagel (1854) and (1856)

Wullschlagel (1854) on logophoric pronouns

Sample lemma from Wullschlagel’s Sranan dictionary

Documents concerning Emancipation (1862-1873)

The Emancipation Act (1862)

The placard announcing Emancipation (1862)

The placard announcing amnesty for runaway slaves (1862)

The placard announcing the rights and obligations of emancipated slaves (4/16/1863)

The placard announcing an addendum to the rights and obligations of emancipated slaves (1863)

The placard announcing the end of ‘State supervision (6/14/1873) Blacks talking back

Ndyuka-Trio Pidgin: Crevaux (1883)

A Sranan grammar in Sranan: Helstone (1903)

Ndyuka-Trio Pidgin: De Goeje (1908)

Saying ‘hello’ in Ndyuka: De Goeje (1908)

Koenders (1946)

Skipio (1768): Asking for help with a sore foot

Schumann (1779) and Anon. (1803): ‘Oh Head so full of bruises’

in Saramaccan and Sranan

Christian Grego and Johannes Alabi (1790-1791):

The Saramaka Maroon Letters

The Lord's Prayer in Saramaccan and Sranan (1779, 1801, 1829, 1884) Late-18th-century Saramaccan version I: Schumann (1779) Late-18th-century Saramaccan version II: Riemer (1801)

Early 19th-century Sranan version: Anon. (1829)

Late 19th-century Sranan version: Bonaparte (1884)

The Acts of the Apostles in Saramaccan and Sranan (1805 [1793], 1829) Acts 1: 1-10 in Saramaccan: Wietz (1805[1793])

Acts 1:1-10 in Sranan: Anon. (1829)

List of written texts XVII

43. The Apostles Creed in Sranan: A Catholic and a Moravian translation

(1822, c1830) 422 43a. ‘The Catholic version (1822) 423 43b. ‘The Moravian version (c1830) 423 44. Jonas Adam: A Sranan letter written by a slave (1835) 424 45. ‘Little white man talking sweet’: W. Boekhoudt’s sermon in Sranan (1846) 425 46. A papal bull in Sranan (1878) 426 47. “The writing in the sky’: Visions from Johannes King’s Skrekibuku

(1882-1888) 428 48. Food for christian souls: The Makzien foe Kristen-soema zieli (1902) 430

49. An indigenous syllabic script for Ndyuka: Afaka (1917) 431

Introduction to this edition

The author of this book passed away before he could finish it, on August 16, 2005. Jacques Arends considered the manuscript to be the culmination point of his long-standing research on Suriname creolization. He had told friends and colleagues that he was about to complete the work. It was for the sake of Jacques Arends’ scholarly labour and for language science that some of them, supported by his wife Melanie, felt that the manuscript deserved serious publication.

It was a book-to-be, though. Jacques bequeathed us both soft and hard concepts of (partial) chapters, outlines, lists of references and sources, proposals, and even a preface — the author’s own preface following this one. Clearly, the texts were part of a master plan, but the plan was not fully transparent to outsiders and the texts were pre-final.

It took eleven years for the book to appear in print. There are quite a few reasons but very few excuses why it took so long. Two chapters mentioned in the author’s draft book-proposals we could not trace back. A chapter dubbed Syntax was mentioned there but could not be identified. Presumably, Jacques Arends planned to rely on previous work of his, but we could not decide which work he had intended. It occurred to us, however, that the chapter would not add new aspects to the book’s main line of argument, and that the merit of the book would not depend on such a chapter either. Therefore, we decided not to ‘invent’ that chapter. In addition, the intended final chapter Conclusions was not in the materials available to us. Again, we decided not to try and reconstruct the author's intentions in this respect.

All other concept chapters were handled very conservatively. No major changes of any kind have been implemented. Mainly, we have tried to resolve ‘weak spots’ - some of which Jacques had indicated himself — and factual gaps (notably in the references). In doing so, we have not chosen a philologists’ point of view; rather, we went for scholarly integrity and relevance, while not interfering unnecessarily with stylistic matters. In this spirit, we also refrained from adding maps and illustrations to the text. Although Jacques compiled many of these, it was beyond our competence to decide which material he had intended to use and in which way. Therefore, this edition is less illuminated than the author had envisaged.

The book is - above all - meant to be an original and important contribution to the study of creolization. Notwithstanding the delay, we trust that it will turn xx Language and Slavery out to be just that, and that it will consolidate Jacques Arends’ reputation as an eminent researcher. This book is yet another testimony of the the author’s scholarship and perseverance We hope that his sons Jasper, Michiel and Tom will also find inspiration from his impressive legacy.

The manuscript was initially evaluated by Eithne Carlin, Norval Smith, Saskia de Haan and Crit Cremers. They also decided on the outline of the present edition. Subsequently, Saskia de Haan conscientiously and thoroughly edited the manuscript. Eithne Carlin wrote an addendum to the original preface. Adrienne Bruyn provided essential advice and support with respect to the references and the index. Crit Cremers is responsible for the final draft.

We are indebted to Miriam Meyerhoff as an Editor of the Creole Language Library and to Kees Vaes representing John Benjamins Publishing Company for their willingness, patience and advice in finally publishing Jacques Arends’ opus magnum.

Crit Cremers May 2017

Series editor’s preface

When John Singler decided to stand down as a co-editor of the Creole Language Library in the early 00s, he approached me to see if I would be willing to replace him. We both understood that this would be contingent on whether the other editor of CLL at the time, Jacques Arends, and I believed we could work well together.

I knew Jacques by sight from meetings of the Society of Pidgin and Creole Linguistics but primarily I knew his work. His textbook (in the CLL series) was the text in the course on pidgins and creoles that I took as a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania. I was also deeply sympathetic to the arguments he made about the gradual development of creoles based on his careful demographic and corpus-based research. I liked that he was willing to recognise when others’ research raised problems or issues for his theory.

Jacques and I met and chatted about the Creole Language Library at the next conference we both attended in Amsterdam in 2004. I learnt then that he combined a steely professional rigour with an affectionate view of life. I came away from the meeting reassured and looking forward to the prospect of working with and learning from him as his co-editor in the series. It was not to be.

When I agreed to work with Jacques on the series, I agreed to give it at least six years. This year, it has been more than a decade. As I prepare to hand on the role of editing the Creole Language Library this year, I am terribly happy to see this volume go to press. This is the second volume we have had the pleasure of publishing in the Creole Language Library that celebrates Jacques Arends’ profound scholarly contribution to the field of creolistics (see also CLL 34, 2009).

It speaks volumes for Jacques Arends that his colleagues have been moved to secure his invaluable intellectual legacy for future researchers in the field. Many of the people involved in editing this volume have done so at considerable effort — over and above their other work and their busy lives. It is truly a labour of love, for a man who knew quite a lot about that emotion.

Miriam Meyerhoff August 2016

Trotji (Sranan: Preface)

This book is being published on the premise that it is possible for a white, European linguist in the 21st century to write the history of a group of languages whose formation is so deeply entwined with the strange and cruel history of the people who created these languages some three hundred years ago. From a purely scientific point of view, of course, this should pose no problem whatsoever. The histories of many languages have been written before, although most often from a purely linguistic point of view, that is without taking the external history into account. In fact, the building of modern Western linguistics rests on the foundation of the historical linguistics of the 19th century which dealt almost exclusively with languages’ internal history, the structural changes they underwent through time without taking into account the historical context in which these changes took place. In such cases the color of the scholar’s skin or the ‘strangeness’ of the historical context or the time-depth involved did not play any role at all.

In the case discussed in this book, however, these things do play a role. The extraordinary nature of the history of the Blacks in Suriname made it impossible — for this author, at least — to write the history of the Suriname Creoles in purely linguistic terms, as just one more study in diachronic linguistics. This is not to say that this could not be done, or that there would be anything wrong doing it. In fact, because of the underdeveloped state of the historiography of Suriname it would be a whole lot easier. The author of any such study would have been spared the many instances where the historical record is either incomplete or contradictory or simply wrong. On the other hand, I am certain that in such an approach many phenomena would have received an incorrect explanation or no explanation at all. This is especially so because the formation of the Suriname Creoles (and of Creoles in general) is first and foremost a process of language contact, more in particular one where the coming into contact of the speakers of a number of different languages leads to the emergence of one or more new languages. Once this is recognized, it becomes clear that to write this history of the Suriname Creoles in a responsible way the historical context must taken into account, if only to determine on independent grounds which languages exactly were involved in the contact situation.

Apart from the identification of the languages involved in the contact situation, there are other reasons why it is wise or even necessary to take the historical

XXIV Language and Slavery context into account in the study of Creole genesis and development. As has been amply demonstrated in recent studies in contact linguistics (Thomason & Kaufman 1988; Thomason 2001), the question of what will happen in a contact situation is ultimately dependent on social rather than purely linguistic factors. This does not mean that an exhaustive knowledge - if at all possible — of the historical context will yield a solution to each and every linguistic problem connected with Creole formation. But it does enable us to at least avoid the kind of erroneous explanations that are sometimes proposed simply because the historical context is not taken into account at all. To give just one example, if it can be shown on demographic grounds that children were not present in sufficient numbers to create a Creole and subsequently enforce it onto the rest of the community, any theory of Creole genesis which accords a crucial role to L1 acquisition should be abandoned.

As far as the historical context of creolization is concerned, this book even goes one step further in that it attempts to tell the history of the Suriname Creoles as an integral part of Suriname’s history per se. In other words, rather than reverting to historical factors whenever this seems necessary, this book attempts to treat the history of these languages as part and parcel of the history of Suriname. I use the word ‘attempt’ on purpose here, not out of some kind of modesty, because the present state of the historiography of Suriname does not allow a fully historical treatment of the topic. Although the situation is improving (Van Stipriaan, Oostindie, Beeldsnijder, Van der Meiden), there are simply too many gaps in the historical literature, e.g. with regard to demographics (Van der Meiden 1987: 14). Compare e.g. the fact that the most recent general history of Suriname, based on primary sources, dates from 1861 (Wolbers 1861)! This means that in many cases one has to rely on partial studies, often done by amateur historians (cf. Van der Meiden 1987: 57, 64, 68; the history of Suriname is an amateur history). Apart from sheer lack of professionalism, another problem is that even if historical studies are based on original documents, there is the problem that these do not necessarily tell the truth (Van der Meiden 1987: 9, 42,77). Colonialism was part of the big political game among the major European powers of the time (England, France, The Netherlands), and often, there were reasons to hide the truth.

Since this book is based on work done during the past twenty years, many people have been involved in its gestation in one way or another. While I thank all of them wholeheartedly, I will mention only a few names in particular. Pieter Seuren put me on the track of Creoles by suggesting the development of Sranan syntax as a topic for my dissertation and Jan Voorhoeve supervised it. Pieter Muysken cordially accepted me as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam’s Department of Linguistics and continuously asked me about ‘the progress of my book’ when I didn’t even know I was writing one. My colleagues at the department, especially my fellow creolists, even more especially my fellow

Trotji (Sranan: Preface) xxv

Surinamists: Liliane Adamson, Margot van den Berg, Adrienne Bruyn, Norval Smith, and Tonjes Veenstra. Adrienne and Norval provide an almost continuous soundboard. Peter Bakker also deserves a special word of thanks for noting and sometimes even sending me obscure but highly relevant old references. During the actual writing of the book, my participation in the Transatlantic Sprachbund Research Project provided much inspiration. For advice and support, I am indebted to Sue Ang, Marlyse Baptista, Ruud Beldsnijder, Hans den Besten, Eithne Carlin, Silvia Kouwenberg, André Kramp, Herman Wekker and many students at the University of Amsterdam. Hein Eersel checked my interpretation and translation of the Sranan sentences which form the corpus for the analysis in Chapter 6. Frank Byrne checked the English of my translation of Van Dyk (c1765). Finally, the book would not have been written without the support of my family.

Rather than dedicating this book to anyone in particular, I prefer to dedicate it to this mysterious force which I believe is behind the wonder of creolization and for which I have no better name than ‘the Creole spirit’, the power that is ultimately — through the Creole speakers — responsible for the creation of not just Creole languages but of Creole cultures as well. It is a power that unites what has been divided, recreates what has been destroyed, heals what has been broken. It is a power which — in a sense — is present in all of life, not just in creolization but in the continuous creation and recreation of the world and which is usually taken for granted, unless, as in creolization, it is present with a force that cannot be denied. May the Creole spirit continue to renew our world and our lives.

Jacques Arends May 2005

[Editors addendum. From notes left by the author and linked to this preface, one can infer that Jacques Arends intended to gratefully acknowledge various types of support from the following institutions:

the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research NWO

the Dutch Academy of Sciences KNAW and its Institute for Advanced Studies NIAS the University of Amsterdam and its research institutes IFOTT and ACLC

the Archives of the Moravian Church. ]

Outline of the book

The Surinamese creole languages enjoy the notable status of being the bestdocumented creoles in the earlier stages of their development, albeit that the initial written documentation of the two main languages, Sranantongo (henceforth Sranan) and Saramaccan, was mainly by the hand of non-native speakers. For this reason much scholarship exists on the diachrony of these two languages while synchronic variation at any given period of time is lacking for precisely the same reason. This book aims to shed new light on and address the various questions that have arisen regarding the genesis and development of these Surinamese languages.

The contribution of the present book is to give an in-depth synthesis of previous scholarship on not only the linguistic history of the Surinamese creole languages, but also to re-visit the sociohistorical developments pertinent to the formation and growth of these languages. Much previous scholarship has not only been based on erroneous historical-demographic evidence but also the period before colonization by the English in 1651 has been largely ignored even though there is sufficient historical evidence of European settlements before that date and no convincing evidence of an absence of African slaves. Given that Captain Marshall attempted settlement in Suriname in 1630 it is likely that he took African slaves with him since slaves were already present in Barbados from the mid-1620s. This bone of contention among creolists and historians alike is dealt with here giving strong evidence for including the period 1630-1651 in an analysis of the developments ensuing in Suriname in the colonial period. This book also includes in its deliberations areas beyond the borders of Suriname, namely Brazil and the Greater Guyana area showing how the 150 years prior to settlement in Suriname were forerunners of developments in Suriname.

This book starts with an overview of the history of Suriname as a creole society within the larger historical context, including the previously ignored early settlements, and leads up to a concise overview of the most relevant theories, hypotheses and questions in creole studies, one of which remains creole genesis.

Chapter 2 starts out with the claim that the formation of the Surinamese creoles may go further back than the generally accepted mid-seventeenth century, to a period prior to colonization. This the author refers to as the ‘pre-history’ of the Surinamese creoles. He walks us through the early settlements, the English period,

XXVIII Language and Slavery the arrival of Sephardic Jews, and the early years of Dutch colonization leading up to the English exodus, the turbulent years of transition from English to Dutch rule which resulted in the Amerindian war (1678-1686) and early marronage which led to the formation of the Saramaka Maroons and their language. Given the historical relationship between Sranan and Saramaccan, any hypothesized dating of the formation of Saramaccan has direct repercussions for the reconstruction of creole genesis in Suriname. Thus the author scrutinizes the empirical evidence used notably by Richard Price (1976, 1983, 1990) to form his claims for the earliest date of 1690 as the formation of the Saramaka Maroons — and by extension their language - rather than the 1640s during Captain Marshall’s second settlement, which is corroborated by Saramaccan oral traditions.

Chapter 3 seeks to address an issue that is generally ignored by creolists, namely the social and demographic factors that played a role in the formation of the creole languages. Besides offering a wealth of detailed demographics, the author shows that internal social stratification favored linguistic differentiation, whereas an external social network favored linguistic homogenization. In Chapter 4 the author zooms in on language variation and linguistic repertoires in the pre- Emancipation era, giving an all-encompassing sociolinguistic overview ofthe early colony, showing how ethnicity, language attitude, religion and location (urban versus plantation) had an effect on by whom and how Sranan was spoken.

Chapter 5 then discusses the linguistic data gleaned from texts from the pre- 1800 period, namely some miscellaneous texts (1667-1763) and those of Herlein (1718), Nepveu (1770), Van Dyk (c1765) and Stedman (1790). Some of these texts, which include court transcriptions and dialogues, constitute the earliest written sources for Sranan, better known as Suriname Plantation Creole. The author also looks in detail at some features of Herlein's Sranan texts that are indicative of a pre-creole stage of that language.