8 On the Linguistic Consequences of Language Contact in Suriname: The Case of Convergence

Abstract

© kofi yakpo et al., ���5 | doi ��.��63/9789004�80��0_009 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-NC 3.0) License.

Unity in diversity

“…Adstrate' denotes languages other than the superstrate that are synchronically exerting influence on the creoles in a situation of language maintenance. For example, while Akan was a historical adstrate spoken during the formative phase of Sranan (e.g., Huttar 1981;Borges, Muysken, Villerius & Yakpo 2013: 63-66;van den Berg 2015), typologically very different languages spoken on Surinamese soil function as contemporary adstrates (e.g., Sarnami and Surinamese Javanese; see Borges et al 2013;Yakpo 2015;Yakpo, van den Berg & Borges 2015).…”

The expression of location and space in Surinamese and Indonesian Javanese

“…This has been shown to be the case in Suriname: Sranantongo, the lingua franca of Suriname, and an English-lexifier creole, originally allowed the use of both post-and prepositions in locative constructions, but modern-day Sranantongo speakers show a high preference for prepositions, following the construction found in Dutch (Yakpo, Van den Berg, and Borges 2015). Yakpo, Van den Berg, and Borges (2015: 165) analyse this as a case of convergence, which in a broad sense can be defined as the increase in "(partial) similarities at the expense of differences between the languages in contact" (Weinreich 1954 in Yakpo, Van den Berg, andBorges 2015: 165).…”

“…Synchronically, language contact is visible through the presence of loan translations, code-switching, and borrowings. Diachronically, changes can occur in the grammatical system of the heritage language, including for example re-analysis, consolidation, overgeneralization, reduction/loss or simplification of linguistic structures (Yakpo, Van den Berg, and Borges 2015).…”