411 REFERENCE · Wiktionary
Negerengels
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
Dutch
Alternative forms
nl Neger-Engels superseded
nl N.E. initialism
Etymology
Negro English, compound of nl neger Negro Engels English.
Pronunciation
nl /ˈneːɣərˌɛŋəls/
nl Nl-sr-Negerengels.ogg
nl Ne ger eng els
Proper noun
n
nl colloquial _ and _ dated _ in _ Suriname obsolete _ and possibly _ offensive _ in the _ Netherlands and Belgium Sranan Tongo an English-based creole language and lingua franca in Suriname
nl Sranantongo Sranan Surinaams Creools dated, rare Surinaams Netherlands, proscribed in Suriname takitaki dated, pejorative, offensive
nl Verstaat u Negerengels? Do you understand Sranan Tongo?
nl Hendrik Schouten 1783-1785 1980 Een huishoudelyke twist A domestic row Suriname: Spiegel der vaderlandse kooplieden nl Jan Voorhoeve (surinamist) Jan Voorhoeve, Ursy M. Lichtveld Den Haag Martinus Nijhoff 9024722527 194 Wilt nu maar Neeger-Engelsch blaffen! Go ahead and bark in Sranan Tongo! https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/voor007suri01_01/voor007suri01_01_0012.php https://web.archive.org/web/20261004193223/https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/voor007suri01_01/voor007suri01_01_0012.php 4 October 2026
nl Uit onze West. Nederlandsch in Suriname. From our West-Indies. The Dutch language in Suriname. [J.H. Heslinga] 3 January 1931 w:nl:De Maasbode 10 https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=MMKB04:000197906:mpeg21:a0085 Alleen de allerlaagste volksklasse bedient zich van een taal, samengesteld uit een mengelmoes van verschillende talen[,] Neger-Engelsch of taki-taki geheeten, welke taal ook gebezigd wordt bij de bestuurs-aanraking met boschnegers en Indianen. Only the very lowest classes of the population use a language made up of a mishmash of different languages, called Negro English or takitaki, which is also used in administrative contacts with Bush Negroes and Indians.
nl 2003 Carrousel w:Marylin Simons Paramaribo Okopipi 99914-64-09-3 53 https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/simo028carr01_01/simo028carr01_01_0008.php Die overgrootmoeder van me, ze was eigenlijk niet van hier, als je goed berekent. Is van Bridgetown was ze. ‘Bados’ zeggen die mensen van daar want ze weten niet als wij te praten. Badyan... is Badyan praten ze daar, een soort van Negerengels ma' toch een beetje anders als van ons. My great-grandmother, she was actually not from here, strictly speaking. From Bridgetown, she was. 'Bados', the local people say, because they can't speak like us. Bajan... Bajan, they speak there, a kind of Creole, but still a bit different from ours. https://web.archive.org/web/20251016070039/https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/simo028carr01_01/simo028carr01_01_0008.php 16 October 2025
nl Flos Rustveld: ‘Sranatongo is de taal van mijn hart’ Tascha Aveloo https://dwtonline.com/flos-rustveld-sranatongo-is-de-taal-van-mijn-hart/ De Ware Tijd 19 January 2024 13 March 2024 Tijdens het gesprek met de Ware Tijd praat zij voor 99 procent alleen Sranantongo. Wat een verschil met vroeger: op jongere leeftijd moest ze haar mond met zeep of tandpasta reinigen als ze deze taal sprak. “Geen pak slaag hoor, dat niet, maar het was niet zo geaccepteerd als nu. Op school kreeg je strafregels: ‘ik mag geen Sranantongo praten’. Toen zei men overigens vooral Negerengels.” Talking to de Ware Tijd, for 99 percent [of the time], she speaks only Sranan Tongo. What a contrast with the old days: when she was younger, she had to clean her mouth with soap or toothpaste whenever she spoke this language. "I didn't get spanked, not that, but it wasn't as accepted as it is now. At school I was given lines to write: 'I must not speak Sranan Tongo'. Back then, by the way, people mainly called it Negro English." Flos Rustveld: ‘Sranan Tongo is the language of my heart’ https://web.archive.org/web/20250904233117/https://dwtonline.com/flos-rustveld-sranatongo-is-de-taal-van-mijn-hart/ 4 September 2025
Usage notes
Started to be superseded by nl Sranantongo in the 1960s. In Suriname, still used colloquially, mainly by older speakers who are not ethnic Creoles, without an overtly pejorative meaning, or sometimes by ethnic Creoles who do not identify with the language, in which case it may have a pejorative undertone. Possibly perceived by some speakers as the correct Dutch equivalent of informal srn nengre. Obsolete and possibly offensive in all other contexts.