Surinamese Dutch (Surinaams-Nederlands, pronounced [syːriˌnaːms ˈneːdərlɑnts]), also known as Surinaams is the form of Dutch spoken in Suriname and is the official language in Suriname, a former colony of the Netherlands. Dutch is spoken as a native language by about 80% of the population, most of them being bilingual with Sranan Tongo, Hindi, Javanese, or other languages.Nevertheless, Dutch is the country's sole official language. Surinamese Dutch is easily intelligible with other forms of Dutch. Furthermore, as opposed to other languages that have different forms in the Americas (e.g., American English vs. British English) the regulation and thus standardised spelling of the Dutch language is done through a joint Dutch–Belgian–Surinamese organization, the Dutch Language Union, and thus has no regional differences regarding spelling.Suriname has been an associate member of this Nederlandse Taalunie since 2004.Therefore, many typical Surinamese words were added to the official Wordlist of Standard Dutch, known as "the Green Booklet" (Groene Boekje).
Surinamese Dutch is generally easily distinguishable from other standardized forms of Dutch due to the accent and some loanwords adopted from other languages spoken in Suriname.
