[LINK] "Language in Suriname"

[rfmcdonald]

In linking to a still-interesting 2008 article (that I linked to) about the standardization of Surinam's creole Sranam language as the national standard in place of Dutch, Language Hat starts an interesting discussion on the changing spelling of placenames tracking political changes.

Incidentally, my problem with the recent switch from the traditional English spelling Surinam to the Dutch Suriname is that it introduces an unnecessary split between spelling and pronunciation (of which English already has more than a sufficiency): to be consistent, the pronunciation should be changed to soo-ri-NAH-muh, but I'm pretty sure nobody says that. What was wrong with Surinam, anyway? I know, I know, I'm a hopeless reactionary when it comes to place names. If it was good enough for granddad, it's good enough for me.

Others say "Suriname" more accurately reflects the pronunciation. And the great debate spreads well beyond northeastern South America.