Surinaams

Overview

=Setting= Surinaams is more of a Dutch creole than a conlang. It's setting is in the ex-Dutch colony of Suriname. In this alternate world, the people of Suriname developed their own version of their colonisers tongue. This Dutch base was mixed with elemens and influences from English, Portuguese, Spanish, and a small amount of French, as the languages of the surrounding countries made their mark on the language.

=Basic Grammar=

Word Order
Word order is the main area in which Surinaams differs from Dutch. Surinaams adopts a more Romance style and is written in an SVO format.

Nouns
Most nouns describe persons, places, things, and abstract ideas, and are treated as grammatically distinct from verbs.

Gender
Again, in a split from Dutch, Surinaams only has two genders; masculine and feminine (in comparison to Dutch's masculine, feminine and neuter). A simple rule has arisen for determining whether a noun is masculine or feminine; the de maawis verkoper rule. All words ending with th letter a/d/e/i/k/m/o/p/r/s/v/w are feminine (de maawis verkoper (meaning the mouse seller)).

Examples:

luun - moon (masculine)

vutbol - football (masculine)

krun - crown (masculine)

stadion - stadium (masculine)

fietet - bycicle (masculine)

alda - village (feminine)

stad - city (feminine)

beeld - image (feminine)

rota - rock (feminine)

auto - car (feminine)

Definite Articles
When referring to one particular person or item, the definite article is used. The definite article de is used for both masculine and feminine nouns:

de zong - the song (masculine)

de baat - the boat (masculine)

de zop - the shop (feminine)

de hond - the dog (feminine)

The article does not change when the nouns become plural:

de zongen - the songs (masculine)

de batten - the boats (masculine)

de zopen - the shops (feminine)

de honden - the dogs (feminine)

Indefinite Articles
The indefinite article is een for both genders when the noun is singular:

een zong - a song (masculine)

een baat - a boat (masculine)

een zop - a shop (feminine)

een hond - a dog (feminine)

The translation of "some" is zum, and it's used as the indefinite article when the noun is plural:

zum zongen - some songs (masculine)

zum batten - some boats (masculine)

zum zopen - some shops (feminine)

zum honden - some dogs (feminine)

Demonstrative Pronouns
Like with articles, the gender of the noun has no effect on the demonstrative pronoun which is used.

The Infinitive
All verb infinitves in Surinaams end in -en:

zoken - to search

winnen - to win

bevoken - to watch

vlaajen - to fly

Stems
The stem of the infinitive stays the same in all tenses for regular (weak) verbs:

zoken - to search

winnen - to win

bevoken - to watch

vlaajen - to fly

Present Tense
The general rule of conjegation is shown below:

Example:

Perfect Tense
The perfect tense is made up of two parts: the auxilliary verb and the past participle.

The verb habben (to have) is usually used as the auxilliary verb. Its present tense is used:

The past participle is formed like so:

Examples:

gezoked - searched

gewinned - won

gebevoked - watched

gevlaajed - flown

Therefore, the perfect tense in full looks like so:

=Dictionary=

Colours
koleuren - colours

blaaw - blue

bron - brown

dorad - gold

geel - yellow

grun - green

oraange - orange

paars - purple

rood - red

roze - pink

vit - white

zilver - silver

zvaart - black

Numbers
nomeren - numbers

een - one

duuz - two

dree - three

vur - four

vijf - five

zes - six

zeven - seven

aakt - eight

nuen - nine

dez - ten

aalf - eleven

tvaalf - twelve

dreeden - thirteen

vurden - fourteen

vijfden - fifthteen

zesden - sixteen

zevenden - seventeen

aakden - eighteen

nuenden - nineteen

duuzdez - twenty

duuzdez-een - twenty-one

dreedez - thirty

vurdez - fourty

vijfdez - fifty

zesdez - sixty

zevendez - seventy

aakdez - eighty

nuendez - ninety

een-hundred - one hundred

een-daazend - one thousand

een-miljon - one million

een-biljon - one billion

Useful Vocabulary
geen - no

naat - not

Verbs
habben - to have

seijn - to be

vlaajen - to fly

=Example text= ...