World Language Map

Languages spoken in Suriname

21 living languages are mapped in Suriname. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is Dutch (90% of the population). They belong to 6 language families, the largest being Indo-European (10 languages). One is a language isolate, with no known relatives.

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The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Languages of Suriname at a glance

  • 21living languages
  • 6language families
  • 647,000people (CLDR estimate)
  • 4with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in Suriname. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

Languages spoken in Suriname

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

LanguageFamilyShare of populationEstimated speakersStatus
DutchIndo-European90%582,082Not endangered
Sranan TongoIndo-European68%439,795Not endangered
Mandarin ChineseSino-Tibetan1.1%7,114Not endangered
Hmong NjuaHmong-Mien0.4%2,328Not endangered
ApalaíCaribanShifting
AukanIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
Caribbean HindustaniIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
Caribbean JavaneseAustronesianNot endangered
EnglishIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
Galibi CaribCaribanShifting
Guianese Creole FrenchIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
Guyanese Creole EnglishIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
KaxuiânaCaribanMoribund
KwintiIndo-EuropeanThreatened
LokonoArawakanMoribund
Mapidian-MawayanaArawakanNearly extinct
PortugueseIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
SaramaccanIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
TrióCaribanShifting
WaraoIsolateThreatened
WayanaCaribanShifting

Read more: where is Dutch spoken?

Language families in Suriname

About these numbers

The list of languages in Suriname comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in Suriname

How many languages are spoken in Suriname?

21 living languages are mapped in Suriname, from 6 families, plus 1 language isolate. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in Suriname?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, Dutch is spoken by 90% of the population, about 582,082 people, followed by Sranan Tongo (68%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in Suriname?

Indo-European (10 languages), Cariban (5 languages), Arawakan (2 languages), Sino-Tibetan (1 language) and Hmong-Mien (1 language), and 1 more.

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