Berbice Dutch: a language in South America
Known to its speakers as di lanshi (= the language), Berbice Dutch was declared extinct, after the death of its last fluent speakers, Albertha Bell and Arnold King, in the early 2000s. Auntie Bertha and Uncle Arnold – as I knew them, using the usual terms of address for one’s respected elders in Guyana – were cousins who grew up together after King’s parents died in the flu pandemic of 1918 which reached even the remote tributaries of the Berbice River in Guyana, in South America; having survived that deadly flu as children, they both lived long lives, into their 90s.
Berbice Dutch: language of the Berbice colony
Like other creole languages in the Caribbean region, Berbice Dutch was once … ↪