Speakers' choices in three Saamaka communities (A08*)

• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 416591334

The central aim of this project is to explore the general hypothesis that language separation/choice and language mixing function as register markers. It does so by investigating the situation-specific linguistic variation in Saamaka (Tongo), one of the major Maroon languages of Suriname and the project examines three Saamaka-speaking communities with different multilingual profiles, focusing on spoken language in different settings of formality, addressee and majority language. We investigate the distribution and properties of lexical as well as grammatical phenomena.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1412: Register: Language-Users’ Knowledge of Situational-Functional Variation
• Applicant Institution: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• Project Head: Professorin Dr. Artemis Alexiadou