Ndyuka

All you want to know about Ndyuka

Ndyuka
Spoken in:	Suriname

Total speakers:	30,000
Language family:	Creole language English Creole Atlantic Suriname Ndyuka
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:
ISO 639-3:	`djk`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Ndyuká (pronounced /(ɛ)nˈdʒuːkə/ in English), also called Ndyuká tongo or Okanisi, is a creole language of Suriname. 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 rainforests. Ethnologue lists two related languages under the name Ndyuka.

Ndyuka is based on English vocabulary, with influence from African languages 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. For example, the word "to leave" is gbé or gwé, from English "go away".) There are also influences from Portuguese and other languages.

Modern orthography differs from an older Dutch-based orthography in substituting u for oe and y for j. The digraphs ty and dy are pronounced more or less like English ch and j. Tone is infrequently written, though it is required for words such as ná "isn't".

The Ndyuka language has three dialects, Ndyuka proper or Aukan, Aluku, and Paramaccan, which are ethnically distinct. Kwinti is distinct enough linguistically to be considered a separate language, though it too is sometimes included under the name Ndyuka.

The Ndyuka and related people are of African descent and identify themselves as Maroon (people)s. They were shipped as slaves to Suriname about 300 years ago to work on English colonial plantations. Those who escaped fled deep into the rain forests where they established communities along rivers in eastern Suriname and parts of neighboring French Guiana, where their culture adopted elements of Native American cultures.

In the last decades of the 20th century a large number of the Ndyuka people have moved from their ancestral villages to the coast, especially in and around Paramaribo, the country's capital.

The syllabic Afaka script was devised for Ndyuka in 1908 and remains in use, though only about 10% of the Ndyuka are literate in their own language using any script.