Codemixing and social change: observations from Suriname

Abstract

The South American nation of Suriname boasts an unusual degree of societal multilingualism resulting in extensive language contact. The linguistic scenario of Suriname is characterized by the presence of two numerically and socially dominant languages, namely Dutch and Sranan Tongo and the undiminished importance of large community languages like Sarnámi (Surinamese Hindustani), Ndyuka and Surinamese Javanese. At the same time, we find a tendency towards language shift towards the two dominant languages in most linguistic communities of the country. In this talk, I will address two issues and in doing so will focus on Sranan Tongo, Sarnámi and Javanese. First, I will attempt to identify patterns of codemixing characteristic for the Surinamese contact scenario. So far, the data has revealed particular patterns of insertional mixing and borrowing, alternational mixing, as well as complex patterns of 'fusional mixing' characterized by complex calquing, congruent lexicalization, innovative approximations of donor structures and constant changes of the matrix language. Second, I will explore the possbility that differences between the codemixing patterns of particular language constellations (e.g. Sarnámi–Sranan Tongo–Dutch vs. Javanese–Sranan Tongo–Dutch) may reflect specific configurations between social groups in Suriname and the type of social change that particular groups have been and are undergoing in recent times. A preliminary conclusion is that mixing patterns in Suriname bear a strong overall resemblance to each other in spite of the typological diversity of the languages involved in the different language constellations. At the same time, there are significant differences between the mixing patterns in these constellations which may be caused by differences in the social processes that groups of specific languages are subjected to.