Samenvatting
This paper reports a large-scale survey into the language attitudes of 485 participants from the Surinamese capital Paramaribo.
Suriname is an interesting arena for standard language research, as the country is steeped in multilingualism but
regards the Dutch of its former colonizer as its only official language. We elicited evaluations of 10 languages spoken in
Suriname in response to label- and audio-based stimuli. Responses were enriched with valence information (pertaining
to their positive/negative character), and subjected to qualitative scrutiny and regression analysis. Theoretically, our findings
indicate that Suriname is embracing the endonormative development of a Surinamese variety of Dutch, which is becoming
an obvious and uncontested practical norm variety. American English is also deemed prestigious, but its superiority perceptions
pertain for the most part to a (desired) ideological status rather than to any suitability as a practical lingua franca. Sranan,
finally, is valued as a solidarity standard, but it lacks the prestige correlates which are a prerequisite for standard status.
Methodologically, this paper demonstrates that harvesting language attitudes in multi-ethnic, multilingual societies necessitates
an exploratory attitude, a ‘wide net’, and a concomitantly large toolbox of experimental techniques.
Suriname is an interesting arena for standard language research, as the country is steeped in multilingualism but
regards the Dutch of its former colonizer as its only official language. We elicited evaluations of 10 languages spoken in
Suriname in response to label- and audio-based stimuli. Responses were enriched with valence information (pertaining
to their positive/negative character), and subjected to qualitative scrutiny and regression analysis. Theoretically, our findings
indicate that Suriname is embracing the endonormative development of a Surinamese variety of Dutch, which is becoming
an obvious and uncontested practical norm variety. American English is also deemed prestigious, but its superiority perceptions
pertain for the most part to a (desired) ideological status rather than to any suitability as a practical lingua franca. Sranan,
finally, is valued as a solidarity standard, but it lacks the prestige correlates which are a prerequisite for standard status.
Methodologically, this paper demonstrates that harvesting language attitudes in multi-ethnic, multilingual societies necessitates
an exploratory attitude, a ‘wide net’, and a concomitantly large toolbox of experimental techniques.
| Originele taal-2 | Engels |
|---|---|
| Artikelnummer | 103340 |
| Pagina's (van-tot) | 1-27 |
| Aantal pagina's | 27 |
| Tijdschrift | Lingua |
| Volume | 273 |
| Status | Gepubliceerd - 09 mei 2022 |