Endangered Languages Project - Berbice Creole Dutch

Berbice Creole Dutch

^{[aka Berbice Dutch]}

Classification: Pidgin or Creole

·

Dormant

ALSO KNOWN AS		Berbice Dutch
CLASSIFICATION		Pidgin or Creole, Dutch based creole
CODE AUTHORITY		ISO 639-3
LANGUAGE CODE		brc
DOWNLOAD		As csv
MORE RESOURCES		OLAC search

Compare Sources (6)

Information from: “Berbice Dutch Officially Extinct” .

Dormant
0
Native speakers worldwide
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
Twenty years ago there were still handfuls of Berbice speakers in Guyana but...it has been discovered that the last speaker died in 2005.

DATE OF INFO: 2005

PLACES: Guyana

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Berbice Dutch was spoken in plantations along the River Berbice, part of Guyana which was once a private colony founded by a Dutch planter from Zeeland.

Critically endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
4
Native speakers worldwide
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
Data for the number of native speakers comes from S. Kouwenberg (1993). "15 [individuals] with limited competence [in the language]" (Holm 1989).

DATE OF INFO: 1993

PLACES: Guyana;

Critically endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available
1
Native speakers worldwide
ELDERS
1
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
The last known Berbice Dutch Creole speaker is Bertha Bell, who was 103 years old when last interviewed by Ian Robertson and a UWI linguistics research team in March, 2004.

DATE OF INFO: 2004

DOMAINS OF USE
SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS
TRANSMISSION

PLACES: Guyana

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Berbice Dutch Creole is a language formerly widely spoken in the former Dutch colony of Berbice, which became in the early 19th century part of the British colony of British Guiana, now Guyana. The last speakers of this language were found in the 1970s by Ian Robertson, living on the upper reaches of the Berbice River in and around the area of the Wiruni Creek.

Critically endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
4
Native speakers worldwide

Dormant
Ø
Native speakers worldwide
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
No known L1 speakers.
15 with limited competence (Holm 1989).

DATE OF INFO: 2011

PLACES: Guyana

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: East Berbice-Corentyne and Upper Demerara-Berbice regions.

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LOCATION INFORMATION

COORDINATES

6.1667,-57.7167

COORDINATES

5.33333333333,-58.0

Compare Sources (2)

Information from: “Berbice Dutch Creole” . The University of the West Indies (2013)