Suriname's Shockingly Huge Variety Of Languages 

If you're watching from Suriname I'd love to know what languages you are able to speak!

All my Suriname people..let me see you.. Tek joe big up djaso..🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷

Haha, never expected Suriname to be featured here (or anywhere really). As someone who is half Surinamese, thanks!

Greetings from Australia, learnt about this country from the movie Wan Pipel

Funny enough this popped up in my recommendations. Most people don't even know our country exists haha. Glad you made a video on this. We consist of different religions, languages and races. Most of us speak Dutch tho, depending on different parts tho. Some speak less Dutch then others. Surprisingly people find it odd to see so many different people together in one place in our country. It's very nice honestly and I wouldn't change it for the world❤👌

The Netherlands is sending Jeangu Macrooy to Eurovision this year and he’s originally from Suriname. His song also includes some lines in Sranan Tongo!

Surinamese Dutch is basically a heavy accent. Funnily enough many Surinamese creole words made it into modern Dutch informal language. Patta, skeer and jonkoe to name a few. I work with a lot of Surinamese folks. According to them Dutch is spoken by everyone, I don't think it is viewed as a 'oppressive' language since, well, they are independent. They can make Sranan the only official language if they want. Surinamese independence is a very interesting topic, as is Suriname as a whole. While they are independent, Dutch influence is HUGE. Apart from the language, there is a huge diaspora in the Netherlands. Many people in Su have family in NL. Most people going on vacation from Su go somewhere within the Dutch kingdom, be it to NL proper or the Dutch Caribbean. Surinamese students can go to Dutch universities for the same cost as Dutch students as opposed to other foreigners who pay much more. In some ways the country is in an unofficial Dutch commonwealth. Independence in 1975 wasn't uncontroversial, since many people there did not want Su to be independent at all. However Colonialism was not cool anymore in the seventies and so the Dutch basically tossed them to the side. The country isn't doing particularly well and official relations between the last Su president and the Dutch government were bad to say the least, relations are now improving again and I hope this has a positive effect on the country. Oh and there are as many culinary influences as there are linguistic ones. Surinamese food is fantastic.

Thank you so much for doing a video about my country. It is so beautiful, diverse and unique, but so unknown to many. For it to receive an entire video is amazing! 🇸🇷

Hey - from/in Suriname here. You are correct with regards to the relationship of Sranan and Dutch, although it is not the elite only anymore. Anyone who has gone to school will know and speak Dutch, since schooling is exclusively in Dutch. The older people and those who dropped out in elementary school and work in the mostly unofficial industry rarely speak Dutch but will usually understand it more or less. Sranan is indeed the language which everyone if not speaks, then definitely understands. It is now an official language with grammar rules, spelling, and a dictionary. It is an incredibly simple language with no past tense or future tense - you simply add a word to indicate the past: no distinctions between ongoing or finished events, etc. You have to describe what you mean instead of being able to use specific grammar rules to indicate this. Did you know that Suriname was traded for the island of Manhattan? Culturally and the ethnically Suriname is part of the Caribbean.

"but javanese how did a language from the other side of the pacific..." *me who is dutch* K O L O N I S A T I E

Fun fact: Sranan Tongo has started to make it's way into pop/rap scene in the Netherlands. I believe it is also heavily being used as slang even between the different people. Who knows, it might one day fulfill the same role as it did in Suriname: providing a way for people of different cultures to communicate with one another.

I really interested for Surinamese Javanese,greetings from an Indonesian Javanese

Thanks to explain about history of language in Suriname, especially about the arrival of the Javanese people who influenced their language. Btw, salam sedulur Jowo 🇸🇷 saka wong Jowo 🇮🇩

Your pronunciation was very good of those names. It was very surreal hearing those words spoken in a British accent. What a time to be alive

Being a Suriname local and stumbling upon this video is very funny indeed

I visited Suriname a few years ago and it was quite an experience. The amount of languages I heard and different cultures there were was fascinating

I am half Surinamese, Half Dutch. The Saran tongo language is used informally I'ts kinda comparable like how Scottish, Welsh or even Frisian are spoken in the UK and The Netherlands. With the key difference being that you don't see them written so much as a second language on signs and stuff like that.

Thank you jon bastion and name explain for doing my country ... i was born there but lived in the Netherlands from a very young age! right now I'm writing a sociological paper about how the kolonial switch still affects today. I'm so elated that this video was made at this moment. love love love ❤️

This just makes me so happy.big up sranang brada nanga sisa😘🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷

♫ It’s time to learn Geography ♫ NOW!

The Surinamese Dutch is pretty cool when you consider that it took it's own path of development. As a Dutchman, it took me a while to get used to some of the "old-fashioned" words that I heard during my five year tenure there. The grammatical structure of Surinamese Dutch is also increasingly influenced by creole and carribean English, which makes for some unusual sentence constructions. My personal favourite: Begin te gaan.

As a Surinamese I'd like to give some insight and some corrections: 0:15 = depending on who you ask, this map is either good or wrong. A Surinamese uses this map: i.pinimg.com/originals/9d/50/c9/9d50c9aebdd61e3be97323a73500f931.jpg. There is a border dispute with both Guyana and France (French Guiana). Read more about that here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borders_of_Suriname 8:11 = Dutch is the native language of 60% of the population. Yes, Sranantongo is spoken by almost everyone, but it has only around 20% of native speakers. The other 60% are the Dutch native speakers that speak Sranantongo as a second language and or mix it with Dutch. Dutch is seen as a formal language, while Sranantongo is seen as a informal language. The more formal the situation, the more Dutch in someone's speech, the less formal the situation, the more you will hear Sranantongo. Dutch is mainly heard in the capital and the area around it, which is also where 70% of the nation lives. 10:44 = Sarnami Hindustani is not an export language. It's a creole language. It was created here and it has mainly influences of Bhojpuri, other Indian languages, Dutch and Sranantongo. A native Hindi and Bhojpuri speaker might understand a lot of it, but not everything. Sarnami is also not spoken by all the 150.000 Indo-Surinamese as native language though. Many of them speak Dutch as native language and either Sarnami or Sranantongo as second or third. 11:00 = The Netherland's didn't rule over that area. It was the British Raj. The Dutch made a deal with the Brits to bring Indians to Suriname, because the British were doing it too. Our neighbor Guyana also has Indians as does Trinidad and many other Caribbean countries. 11:34 = It's not Javanese, it's Surinamese Javanese. A creole language of Suriname. Like Sarnami it has influences of Dutch and Sranantongo. It also has words that sound Javanese, but are not found in standard Javanese of Indonesia. There are not 100,000 speakers as Suriname has only 73,000 Javanese. Of that number only 12.967 speak it; 5.531 are native speakers and 7.436 second speakers. The Javanese in Suriname mainly speak Dutch and Sranantongo. I hope the following is a little more clear now.

How great to see this! Thank you! Sincerely, a Dutch-born with parents from Suriname (Javanese & Indian)🤗

As a surinamese person proud that we are featured. I speak sranan tongo and other languages as well. I don't live in Suriname anymore but i never forget where i came from

AAAAH i loved this soo much. It's always great to see my country in these kinds of videos. Most kids here speak 3 languages (usually dutch, english and sranang and whatever tongue they may speak at home) I myself speak 5 languages sranang, dutch, english, spanish and portuguese.

Speaking of Suriname, hello from Indonesia fellow brothers and sisters Indonesia also had a huge variety of living languages, there's 700 of them Anyway, great and insightful video as always!

I'm a Patreon Saint. Yay!

Suriname is an example of how many people can live together in harmony ❤🇸🇷

I looked at the thumbnail and went ohh wait that's my country. Thank you for doing this❤🇸🇷

Having lived 3 years in Suriname, I encountered also several other cultures and languages than you summed up. As a starter, there are still descendants of Portuguese Jews (from Brazil) as wel as Jews from early Colonization by Dutch, of whom still speak a remnant of Hebrew. Further there are descendants of Libanese immigrants, who speak a form of Arab. Also there are descendants of immigrants of Cabo Verde, which speak still a dialect of Portuguese. Then there are descendants of early Dutch settlers who speak a very Surinamised Dutch, called "Boeroe" (boers meaning Farmers), whitch is not unlike (South-) Afrikaans. The "Hindustani" have alse still many speakers in "Hindi" (from India) as well as "Urdu" (the language now of Pakistan). The "Javanese" speak themselves more (inter-related) languages, like Soendanese and Madurese, and some languages from other Indonesian Islands, though there are only a few speakers still alive. But then the Chinese: there are many languages in China, of which some are still spoken in Suriname. And I might have forgotten some also. Still even more so a record!

Thank you for doing an episode about Suriname! I was fortunate enough to spend New Years in Paramaribo a few years ago and immediately fell in love with Suriname. Such an interesting and beautiful country. Everyone I interacted with spoke very good English, but walking around the markets at night it was really interesting to hear Surinamese Dutch as well as other languages being spoken there. Although the book focuses on Guyana you should read "Bastard Tongues" by Derek Bickerton, it goes into great detail on the African/ Guiana creoles across that area. Incredibly fascinating.

As a boomer who grew up with colonial era maps, I can testify that when it was a Dutch colony, the final silent E was not used. It was added only after independence.

I'm south-east Asian that moved to Suriname and learned Dutch there. Than moved to Netherlands since I already learned how to speak their language. Here in Netherlands in street slang ""Suriname" often gets shorted to "Su".

Suriname 🇸🇷 🇸🇷 🇸🇷 We approve of this video. If you are Surinamese or have lived in Suriname for a few years you are automatically multi lingual.

Very educational and well presented. Shared with my family in and from Suriname

Thanks for the great vid about my country. Respect and love from suriname

Am I the only one who used to misread "Suriname" as "surname", and wondered why there was a country named after last names

the dutch had indonesia its reflected in surinamese food

I really love how you try your best to pronounce the names👍😊. It's really nice to see this as a recommendation! Born and raised in Suriname! 😉

Thanks for telling people about us. There's a lot more to tell and learn about Suriname.

Oi lad The relationship between Dutch and sranan is : we just put that stuff in the blender and talk....that's it there is no divide between elites and non elites using a specific language . we just mix that stuff most of the time

I see my country i click.

Ofa I'm from Suriname and I'm thankful you made a video about my country. Heel feel dank en blessie mi brada tek eng rustig jere, adios.XD

Really cool didn't expect you to talk about Suriname really cool man

God: "Ok, and now to Suriname. How many languages do you want?" Suriname: NO, BUT ALSO YES

Whaaaaaat I’m half Surinamese. I was born in Holland where we have a huge diaspora. I speak Dutch and can understand Sarnami. However my dad who was born there speaks Dutch, Sranang Tongo, and Sarnami (Daughter language of Bhojpuri of the Indo-Surinamese population)

What a fun video!:)

One thing i would like to add. The Dutch had some land in India but the indentured servants that came here, which I am a descendant from, came from British India. The Dutch asked the British for some manpower and the Brits said, I know a place with lots of people.

Suriname are amazing, speach dutch and English and have a lot of Indians.

♥️💯🇸🇷 Suriname 🇸🇷♥️💯🔥 I live in Suriname 🇸🇷 best country ever And I'm a saramakaan and proud 👏🏾💯❤️

Beautiful video..love it🇸🇷👏 Like the different languages we also have different religions what also make us unique. A beautiful place where we live in harmony with each other 🙏🌍

Thanks for making this vdo. The thought recently crossed my mind to suggest Suriname as it's indeed an interesting country with interesting people and the many languages. I'm a second generation Amsterdammer (lastly I consider myself Dutch) from Surinamese descend. The fact that I was born and raised in Amsterdam whilst my parents spoke solely Dutch to me and my siblings was, as already mentioned, due to the erroneous idea that we as children were thought to have lingual difficulties in NL. As a matter of fact thus very situation opened up my interest for languages at an early age. I taught myself the basics in English through the adult courses on telly. I then already discovered similarities between SrananTongo (~ng~ sounds as in 'ring') which sped my skill. In answer of your question: this made me speak seven languages; NL, DE, FR, ES, CAT, ST and EN.

Surinamese here! loved the video, some of the facts are even new to me, haha! About the language: The most schools are in Dutch and teach exclusively in Dutch like (96% of them). Surinamese people who don't speak Dutch generally haven't had basic education. However this may be just about 10% of the population or less. The majority of the population (90%) lives in urban areas, but the rest are scattered throughout the (mostly) untouched nature that accounts for roughly 90% of the country! Sranan Tongo is very easy to learn because it doesn't have a lot of words (Approx. 340!), so often this language eliminates the language barrier for people that don't speak Dutch in the country. If you meet a Surinamese person, it's most likely they'll understand you the best in Dutch! About Dutch in the Netherlands vs Suriname : Surinamese and the Dutch understand each other perfectly! The only problem can be the accent, but it's not hard to get past that. Grammatically both are identical. Generally Surinamese and the Dutch understand each other for about 99% because of how we sometimes address certain objects or actions.

Something I've noticed (being from Suriname) is that more and more (young/ gen z/ gen Alpha) people are developing an accent. I have it and a lot of my friends do too. It kinda sounds like a Dutch accent, but we got it from speaking too much english. We now pronounce our Rs less clearly and our Ls a little different. To be completely honest I think one day in the far future English will be spoken more than dutch and surinames/ any other languages in Suriname.

I never thought that someone actually would talk about my country on RU-vid 🥰 l gotta share this

Hii, greatings from Suriname 🇸🇷 In these covid times it is good to see something other than covid... Thank you for making a video of the languages in Suriname... Some things not accurate though but it's a start ☺

I'm Dutch with afro-Surinamese roots. Many people of my age don't really speak Sranan Tongo here in the Netherlands. Our parents and/or grandparents moved to the Netherlands and there are many of them who didn't teach their children Sranan. It was forbidden to speak Sranan tongo during the colonized times. As result people are proudly dutch-Surinamesre, but their level or Sranan Tongo is very low. There are many initiatives by organisations to help the next generation of the Surinamese diaspora in the Netherlands with learning S.T. language is part of your heritage.

Tanzania's national languages included Swahili, English, French, German and over 120 ethinic languages.

Pe den sranan mang f'mi de? Iets om trots op te zijn! Loved this video

Really nice to see my country get more exposure

A creole is not specific to america, but rather refers to any pidgin language that becomes a native language. There are even theories that English is a creole language, and many Creoles came about across the world as a result of imperialism.

Just in time for Geography Now, who I think has its next episode about Suriname.

Omggg!!! Reallyyy a video about our country❤❤🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷 I'M FROM SURINAME AND IT IS A FACT THAT IT IS A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY AND WE HAVE MANY LANGUAGES❤❤🤗🤗🤗🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷 btw i live in SURINAME and i speak Hindoestani also know as Surinami❤❤🤗🤗 ok greeting from suriname🇸🇷❤❤🤗🤗🤗🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷

Groeten van jullie Europese broertjes 🇳🇱🇸🇷❤️

The Dutch didn't seize it but they exchanged it with the British the British got new York

"Street language" in the Netherlands is heavily influenced by Tamazight (Berber language from Nothern Marocco) and Sranantongo (from Suriname). Pattas - shoes Doekoe - money Taataa - Dutch people All come from Sranantongo for example.

Linguistic treasure wow.... We Surinamers appreciate your time taken for all your input to make such great video... Haha... It's really fascinating that foreigners see out beloved Suriname like a treasure! Where are you from? I speak Sranang tongo, sarnami, Dutch(our main language) English and little Spanish

Shout out from paramaribo!!....Cool video

Suriname often sending their javanese suriname as diplomat in indonesia as it can make relation between the two country became closer and closer Also, if you are javanese suriname and never tracking your relatives in java, it's better to start doing so, as alot of javanese suriname already find their relatives in indonesia Psst... If you are javanese suriname and you are single, finding your relatives in java might be a good idea, as you may have lots of beautiful cousin to choose

I'm arawak and i can talk a little bit of my own language and also Dutch and many others. Suriname really does have many cultures and it's so amazing.

I wasn't paying much attention to the name of this video, and for a second i unsarstood it as "surnames' varieties in origins " (i don't know how that end ended up there either), and now i'm curious on the variety in surnames origins XD

I'm just surprised that I even saw this tbh Loved the video (Sranan tongo,Dutch,English,Spanish)

Fact about my country: The last TWO speakers of the Mawayana language live in the village of Kwamalasamutu in the south of Suriname. It was spoken in the south of Suriname and north of Brazil. After these people pass away the Mawayana will be extinct.

9:55 is it 70,000 like you said or 7,000 like you wrote on screen?

Im seeing this an hour after submitting my schoolwork on Suriname 😀

i can't give you ratio perse, but dutch is often used in formal settings while sranantongo is used in informal settings so most people speak both depending on the situations and who they are speaking to officially we are taught in dutch but most of media, at least when it comes to movies and series, are just in english, no dutch subtitles. all official media is in dutch however. we are taught english in our 8th year of school all the way till the end of highschool. we are also taught spanish in our 8 year but after our 9th year it becomes optional

I'm from suriname, and i can speak : dutch, English, javaanese, Spanish And Portuguese(cause of school), and a little bit of hindu. and we got a ton of cultures in here, there's even a mosque build next to a synagogue which is freaking awesome

3:48 'in 3000 BC they didn't care much for borders like wo do' that's what you think. For the most part, tribes make up very pronounced borders along the lines of geographical features such as rivers, valleys or mountains.

🇸🇷‼️ To Us Alone Bushinenge (maroon) of Suriname. We have many languages ​​7 & 7 : there seven contemporary Afro-Surinamese and a bit of European Creole languages: Sranan tongo, Saamaka, Matawai, Okanisi, Kwiïnti, Aluku and Pamaka. 7 other older ones that some of us also practice are: Amanfu, Kumanti, Akoopina, Loanga, Ampuku, Papa and Anklibenda, ancestral African languages. saamaka, Pamaka, Aluku, Sranan, Okanisi, Matawai, Kiïnti. and the oldest Amanfu, Kumantie, Papa, Loanga, Anklibenda, Akoopina, Ampuku THESE ARE LANGUAGES PRACTICED ALREADY MORE THAN 343 - 500 YEARS OLD. I am extremely proud of what we have, I myself speak 7 of them with other languages ​​from elsewhere like French, English and Créole guyanaise. So with the rest of the other communities in the country we are unique for a population of around 630,000 inhabitants on a territory covered 90% by the primary Amazonian forest.

Another interesting fact about Warao is that it's one of the few languages which uses object-subject-verb word order. However, OSV has found notability in English; it's the word order that Yoda speaks in

I recommend "Lexicon Valley," a podcast by John McWhorter. He's a professional linguist who has done a lot of research on creole languages in Suriname. He covers a range of linguistic topics in a quirky way that is accessible to non-specialists.

Suriname is sure intresting and a treasure. 💡

Greetings from Suriname 🇸🇷❤ Odi odi Slamet isoh☀️ Zag deze video plotseling in me recommendations vanochtend

thank you for explaining that we have so much languages somtimes sranan and ducth sometimes mix with eachother

Suriname 🇸🇷 Well I am Dutch but have a SU mother

My ansasteres are from Java but the funny part is i can't speak Java only my parens . Because we learn a nother type of lenguages that is Nederlands.😒

nice video, thank you! I speak dutch, sranan tongo, english. I was born in the Netherlands, but learn how to speak sranan tongo when I became an adult. Soso lobi (one love)

Thanks for putting us on the map 🇸🇷🇸🇷💯

Step Back has a great video about the Maroons

I would say i hope he does the languages of Papua New Guinea. But because that has over 800 languages i think that may be a long video

So he did a video on us to nice keep it up

fawaka! alla sma dja. Dude you did great work with this videoclip , you got the all facts right and you pronounce Suriname perfectly but ..... nice try on the other names and keep up the good work btw i was once told that Suriname means "the land of rivers" in one of the native-american lingo maybe you can confirm this sometime, seeing that you do lingo stuff. Cheers

Suriname's variety of languages is a reminder about the country's fascinating history and culture.

hope u can explain about language in Curacao.

At 10:32 that should read "speakers: a lot".

Hi, I am from Suriname and I speak, Dutch, English, Sranan-tongo, hindi and Sarnami

You forgot Arabic.. since a big parrt of Suriname is Muslim. Also lots of Jewish people, immigrants from Syria, Turkey and Morocco.

*Sad Papua New Guinea noises*

Never expected somebody talking about this. :D

🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷 love from suriname to you all land of love 🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷