Tonal phenomena in Sranan

Summary

It has always been assumed that the coastal creole of Suriname, Sranan, was a completely non-tonal language. It will be suggested in this article that there is evidence that this is not a completely correct position. It appears that Sranan does have certain properties reminiscent of tone languages. Two types of phenomena exhibitng such properties are discussed here: emphatic focussing in situ, and high-pitched ideo-phones. At least ideophones require to be lexically specified as to whether they bear a High tone or not.

Published Online: 2009-09-25

Published in Print: 2006-02-01