Sranan

The chorus of “You can’t break me” is sung in Sranan Tongo, the lingua franca of his native Suriname in South America.

Following thi logic, we examined the pronunciation of Sranan, an English-based Creole still spoken in Suriname.

In 1667, soon after Sranan was formed, the English ceded Suriname to the Dutch, and most English speakers moved elsewhere.

So the indentured servants and other migrants from England had a brief but strong influence on Sranan.

It turned out that 80 percent of the English features in Sranan could be traced back to regional dialectal features from two distinct locations within England: a cluster of locations near the port of Bristol and a cluster near Essex, in eastern England.