- Western (Guyanese) Lokono
- Eastern (Surinamese) Lokono
State-of-the-Art in the Development of the Lokono Language
Speaker Number Trend 5
A small percentage of the community speaks the language, and speaker numbers are decreasing very rapidly.
Domain Of Use 4
Used mainly only in the home and/or with family, and may not be the primary language even in these domains for many community members.
Transmission 4
Many of the grandparent generation speak the language, but younger people generally do not.
Speakers
Location and Context
"Geographically, the Lokono people live in the pericoastal villages (indicated in red [on map in article]) as well as in the three capital cities of the Guianas: Cayenne, Paramaribo and Georgetown. According to an unpublished report by the Summer Institute of Linguistics (2002), there is also a small Lokono community in Venezuela, not far from the Guyanese border. Finally, there is also a sizable community of Lokono people living in the Netherlands who emigrated from Suriname in the last few decades for economic, educational, and political reasons. Patte (2014) also mentions an expatriate Lokono community in Great Britain."
languages, is recognized as a regional language in Guyana. In French Guiana, Lokono, together with other Amerindian and Maroon languages, at least theoretically, has the status of a regional language of France. Despite clear differences between the three countries, in none of them is there an actual implemented language policy aimed at sustaining and developing the Lokono language."