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,k 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)).

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)

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:

zongen - some songs (masculine)

batten - some boats (masculine)

zopen - some shops (feminine)

honden - some dogs (feminine)

=Dictionary= ...

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