This is incorrect. It is not "the" language of Surinam. Only 120.000 are native speakers of this language. There are actually MORE native speakers of Dutch (200.000) and Carribean Hindustani (150.000) than of Sranan Tongo. There are also 60.000 native speakers of Carribean Javanese, 50.000 of Guyanese Creole English, 23.000 of Saramaccan, 15.000 of Aukan (aka Ndjuka, written in some parts with its own unique syllabary), 6.000 of Chinese (all Hakka), 2.400 of Carib, 1.000 of Arawak, 1.000 of Trió, 400 of Wayana, 100 of Kwinti, 50 of Akulyo, and various others.
In short, Surinam is a very linguistically diverse place.
In the Antilles and Aruba, in addition to Papiamentu, there is Virgin Islands Creole English which is spoken by 13.000 people (including the entire population of 3 different islands).
Mark
On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 16:47:26 +0200, Huikeshoven, A.H. AHuikeshoven@minszw.nl wrote:
The Dutch are progressing in creating a chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation. A Wiki-site to support the initiative is live for a week now at http://nl.wikimedia.org/ The domain wikimedia.nl has been squatted by Sam van Buuren on January 25th, 2005. We'll have to reclaim that.
The Netherlands Antilles are still a country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (as is Aruba). Their official language is Papiamentu, ISO-639 code is PAP. Surinam is a former colony of the Netherlands. Half their population is living in the Netherlands. Their tongue is Sranang Tongo, ISO-639 code presumed to be SRN. The Dutch Wikimedia chapter to be incorporated will have as mission to support all projects run by people in the Netherlands regardless of language. Frysian and Limurgian projects (fy and li) have already been started. There are no projects in Papiamentu or Sranang Tongo yet.
We would like to establish an initial framework for these two languages to provide a head start to these communities. Waerth pushed me to take the first step.
Dedalus
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