| The Suriname creoles play a central role in the ongoing debates on creole formation and development. Moreover, they are relatively well documented in their early stages of development, especially when compared to other creole languages. As the textys stored in the SUCA online database represent various varieties of the Suriname Creoles in their early stages, they contain valuable information on the processes that have shaped the Suriname Creoles. The Creoles of Suriname online databse is based on a computerized corpus that has been built at the University of Amsterdam from the mid-1980s onwards, with the support of NWO and the KNAW. This corpus includes several types of texts, ranging from word lists and dictionaries to dialogues and short plays. Some of these Sranan and Saramaccan texts are well known (Van Dyk 1765 (SR); Schumann 1783 (SR); Wietz (SA), while others are lesser known texts such as the Sranan version of the Saramaka Peace Treaty (1762) and the Saramaka Maroon Letters (Alabi & Grego, 1790-1818). Futhermore, Saramaccan manuscripts that are collected by dr. J. Arends (UvA) in the Moravian Archives in Paramaribo, Herrnhut and Utrecht (over 2,000 pages) will also be added to the corpus in due time. Its total size upon completion is estimated at some 500,00 words. |
