Gone But Not Forgotten: The Extinct Language of Berbice Creole Dutch

Rita and Amy Thomas, two of the last Berbice Creole Dutch speakers

 

This blog has covered the impacts of language loss on cultural groups around the world, as well as the various conservation efforts that have been implemented to stop their extinction.  While several of these programs and initiatives have been successful there are some that have not been, leading to the extinction of a language (and the culture associated with it).  Today’s blog post will address a language made recently extinct as its last speaker passed away.  In this post you will learn about Berbice Creole Dutch.

 

Berbice Creole Dutch was one of several Dutch Creole languages spoken in what is today known as the country of Guyana in South America.  This language was spoken in an area along the Berbice River, of which the private colony of Berbice (and the language itself) derived their names.  When the colony was first established in 1627 under the permission of the Dutch West India Company its population consisted of primarily White European (Dutch) and a small proportion of enslaved Africans.  As the Berbice plantations multiplied the population demographics shifted considerably.  More Africans, particularly from East Africa, were forced to work on the plantations, alongside a small proportion of Lokono (commonly referred to as Arawak) Amerindians.  The White Dutch population was the minority in size. 

 

Because of their sociopolitical power the White Dutch population dominated the area, and they realized the need to communicate with the enslaved Black and Amerindian populations.  This led to the creation of the Berbice Creole Dutch language, which was derived from Eastern Ijo languages of Africa, Dutch of Europe, and Lokono, the local language of the indigenous Amerindians.  Based on linguistic studies of Berbice Creole Dutch 1/3 of the language’s lexicon (vocabulary) comes from Eastern Ijo languages, and no more than 10% of the lexicon comes from Lokono.  The rest is made up of Dutch words.  Despite the contribution of Lokono to its vocabulary it did not contribute to the grammatical structure of the language.  This is made up of the grammatical rules from the Eastern Ijo and Dutch languages. 

 

Beginning in the 1800s when the colony came under the control of the British the bovianders, the name of the descendants of the Dutch, enslaved Africans, and Lokono peoples, came under scrutiny and were quickly the victims of discrimination.  Their culture, which included animistic religious practices derived from Africa, the construction and habitation of simple but effective thatch-roofed homes, and hunting of local bush meat, was viewed as inferior, and the bovianders were strongly encouraged to assimilate to British colonial practices. 

 

Over time, generations of bovianders gave into that pressure.  When Berbice Creole Dutch was first studied very little of it was able to be documented due to native speakers being fearful of sharing their language or flatly refusing to do so.  They did not want to be judged harshly by linguistic scholars, who were often foreigners, as they were already judged by local populations.  As time went on and fewer and fewer native speakers remained there was a greater push among both linguists and the bovianders to document the language.  Unfortunately, social attitudes hampered preservation efforts, and in 2005 when Albertha Bell, the last remaining Berbice Creole Dutch speaker passed away at the age of 103, the language was deemed extinct. 

 

Her death did not just mark the extinction of a language, however.  It also provided lessons on the effects of language death.  Because of the sociocultural attitudes that harshly and negatively viewed the bovianders they lived their last years primarily isolated from others.  Their family members moved away and eventually stopped visiting them due to the view of the bovianders as “backwards” individuals who were too stubborn and ignorant to “evolve” and modernize.  This attitude also contributed to other, nonfamily members from interacting with them.  As stated at the beginning of this post these actions led not only to the extinction of a language but the culture that went with it.  An unfortunate end to a culture that thrived despite extreme challenges, only to be exterminated in large part by itself.

  

Works Cited

Jamaican Language Unit, University of the West Indies, Mona. "Berbice Dutch Creole." 2007. Caribbean Indigenous and Endangered Languages. Electronic. 8 June 2026.

Kouwenberg, Silvia. "Berbice Dutch: a language in South America." 10 October 2025. Lingo Blog. Electronic. 8 June 2026.

Kouwenberg, Silvia. "Survey chapter: Berbice Dutch." Michaelis, Susanne Maria, et al. The survey of pidgin and creole languages. In "The survey of pidgin and creole languages". Volume 1: English-based and Dutch-based Languages. . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.