Sranan Tongo

Sranan Tongo (also Taki Taki, Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue," Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language that is spoken as a lingua franca by approximately 519,600 people in Suriname.

"Taki Taki" redirects here. For the DJ Snake song, see Taki Taki (song).
Sranan Tongo
Sranantongo
Native toSuriname
Native speakers
L1: 520,000 (2018)
L2: 150,000
English Creole
  • Atlantic
    • Suriname
      • Sranan Tongo
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-2srn
ISO 639-3srn
Glottologsran1240
Linguasphere52-ABB-aw

Developed originally among slaves from West Africa and English colonists, its use as a lingua franca expanded after the Dutch took over the colony in 1667, and 85% of the vocabulary comes from English and Dutch. It also became the common language among the indigenous peoples and the indentured laborers imported by the Dutch; these groups included speakers of Javanese, Sarnami Hindustani, Saramaccan, and varieties of Chinese.

Sranan Tongo is commonly but incorrectly cited as "having a vocabulary of only 340 words"; in fact, contemporary Sranan Tongo dictionaries have several thousand word entries.

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