Ndyuka , also called Aukan, ''Okanisi, Ndyuka tongo'', Aukaans, ''Businenge Tongo'' (considered by some to be pejorative), Eastern Maroon Creole, or ''Nenge'' is a

creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...

of Suriname and

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...

, spoken by the Ndyuka people. The speakers are one of six Maroon peoples (formerly called "Bush Negroes") in the Republic of Suriname and one of the Maroon peoples in

. Most of the 25 to 30 thousand speakers live in the interior of the country, which is a part of the country covered with

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equa ...

s. Ethnologue list
two related languages
under the name ''Ndyuka'', the other being a dialect of Lutos.

Phonology

Ndyuka is based on English vocabulary, with influence from

African languages The languages of Africa are divided into several major language families: * Niger–Congo or perhaps Atlantic–Congo languages (includes Bantu and non-Bantu, and possibly Mande and others) are spoken in West, Central, Southeast and Souther ...

in its grammar and sounds. For example, the difference between ''na'' ("is") and ''ná'' ("isn't") is tone; words can start with consonants such as ''mb'' and ''ng'', and some speakers use the consonants '' kp'' and '' gb''. (For other Ndyuka speakers, these are pronounced ''kw'' and ''gw'', respectively. For example, the word "to leave" is ''gwé'' or ''gbé'', from English "go away".) A distinguishing characteristic of the language is the elimination of the letter ''r'' which is frequently used in

Sranan Tongo Sranan Tongo (also Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue," Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language that is spoken as a ''lingua franca'' by approximately 550,000 people in Suriname. Developed originally amo ...

. There are also influences from other languages. According to ''Creolization and Contact'' (2002), 46% of the words were from English, 16% from

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

, 35% from

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, and 3% from African languages.

Orthography

Modern

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...

differs from an older

-based orthography in substituting ''u'' for ''oe'' and ''y'' for ''j''. The digraphs ''ty'' and ''dy'' are pronounced somewhat like the English '' ch'' and '' j'', respectively. Tone is infrequently written, but it is required for words such as ''ná'' ("isn't"). The syllabic

Afaka script The Afaka script ( ''afaka sikifi'') is a syllabary of 56 letters devised in 1910 for the Ndyuka language, an English-based creole of Suriname. The script is named after its inventor, Afáka Atumisi. It continues to be used to write Ndyuka in t ...

was devised for Ndyuka in 1908.

Latin alphabet

* A - * B - * D - * E - * F - * G - * H - * I - * K - * L - * M - * N - * O - * P - * S - * T - * U - * W - * Y - * Z -

Other letters

* dy - ͡ʒ* ny - �* sy - �* ty - ͡ʃ Long vowels are written with double vowels (e.g. aa ː ee ː An acute accent is sometimes used for a high tone. (e.g. á)

Dialects

The Ndyuka language has three dialects: proper Ndyuka (or ''Okanisi''), Aluku, and Paramaccan, which are ethnically distinct.. Kwinti is distinct enough linguistically to be considered a separate language, but it is sometimes included as well under the name ''Ndyuka''. Ndyuka was also a basis of the Ndyuka-Tiriyó Pidgin.

Example

Here is an example of Ndyuka text, and its translation into English (showing the similitarities as well as the lexical evolution), adapted from ''Languages of the Guianas (SIL Publications)'': The language bears some similarity to

Twi Twi () is a dialect of the Akan language spoken in southern and central Ghana by several million people, mainly of the Akan people, the largest of the seventeen major ethnic groups in Ghana. Twi has about 17-18 million speakers in total, includ ...

and other

Akan languages Akan may refer to: People and languages *Akan people, an ethnic group in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire *Akan language, a language spoken by the Akan people *Kwa languages, a language group which includes Akan * Central Tano languages, a language group ...

spoken by the Akan people of Ghana.

Encoding

The IETF language tags have registered: * as "Eastern Maroon Creole", "Businenge Tongo", "Nenge" ** for the Aluku language ** for the Ndyuka language ** for the Paramaccan language * for the

Kwinti language Kwinti is an English-based creole of Suriname closely related to Ndyuka. The language has less than 300 speakers, and split from Plantation Creole which is nowadays known as Sranan Tongo in the middle 18th century. Code-switching with Sranan Ton ...

Notes

References

External links

Aukan–English Language Learning Library
{{Languages of Suriname