VI The structure of the Surinamese creoles 163 in Saramaccan, where we find wei and biz. In Ndyuka they sometimes disappear, in par- ticular between identical vowels, as in bêe, but in other cases they have become /1/, as in wéh. Related to the elision of certain consonants is the fact that vowel length is contras- tive. So we find NDY bon 'bone' or 'tree' vs. boon 'burn', and SAR é>e 'red' vs. feée 'belly' vs. fceée 'bread'. The influence from the African Substrate languages on. the phonological level is most clearly evidenced in the Maroon varieties. Not only do they adhere more strongly than Sranan to a CV pattern similar to those found in Gbe and Kikongo, but they also exhibit lexical tone. Syllables have a high tone (indicated by an acute accent), a low tone (indicated by a grave accent, if at all) or an unspecified tone, which is either subject to tone-sandhi (assimilation) or realized as low. In words derived from European languages the high tone corresponds to the main stress in the source form. Tone may distinguish otherwise similar forms, for example NDYbüku 'book' vs. bukü 'mould', SAR kat 'call' vs. kai 'fit', or NDY/SAR copular (n)a 'be' vs. (n)a 'be not' (the merged form of the copula (n)a and the negator (n)a). In Sranan similar contrasts are expressed by stress (accent, prominence), for example 'buku 'book' vs. bu'ku 'mould' (stress indicated by a preceding '). In Ndyuka and Saramaccan, P-language A number of linguistic communities in StirmatHQ, mostlyyoung people, practice 'PJanguage' in small groups of inti- inate ftiends. We know that Saramactan boys in Pikjiislee appliécï it'ac the beginning of the ipSos, as well as young people in Cbrónie in théir Dutch in the sarne period, and Trio wornett in Kwamalasamiitu. The procedure is explained hete fcr Saramaccan. It consists ofdoubling evetysyllable whjjereplacing the initial consonant (onset) of the replacing syllable by p; an empty onset (no initial consonant) is also replaced by p. The second syllable, with p in the onset, receives sttess; for example, mi t« ivoko 'l am walking' becomes mt'pf ta'pif wa'póka'pa'. All wotds includmg fimction (gramniatical) words are aftêcted. Another such procedure is sk-language m which the voWel of the original syllable is lengthened and the onset of the reduplicated syllable is replacêd with sk, a cluster which is otherwise not admitted m Saramaccan; for example, kdti 'cut' becomestó&kot&ki,Such language game£ are a powerful tooi to mvestigate the mettical phonological structure of the language in question. In Satamaccart P-language, the autosegmental features of tone, vowel length, and nas,Jity are transferred to the stressed reduplicated syllable; thus kóti 'cut' becomes kopótipfand toto" 'father' tapdkpa; üoóko break' becomes ëopóókopó and tu 'govern' ttfd; te 'time' becomes tepê The same holds for expressive tone and length; thus in a M&t tht 'it is v^ery heavy', the reduplicated final syllable can again be reahzed with length and pitch as reqiured, apd fiepé6ipi tep&e. The procedure may serve to show the monosyllabic birnoraeic charac- ter of diphthongs: do'it 'arrive' becomes dopóu, téi 'take' tepéi, and maftye, an expression of despair, mapm%epé. Vowel sequences with an initial high vowel are disyllabic, as can be seen in simki 'illness' becoming supdwapakipf and 6cma 'assistant chief ßapasipfyapd. In contrast, rounded consonants such as kw make up the onset of the syllable; for example, kwéfa 'cap for baby' results m kwepé/apd. The same applies to prenasahzed consonants; lembë 'lick' becomes lepembepe, rjgón 'gutter' becomes ij^jopótopó, Tooqntgba, a personal name, becomes Toptógtn^fcapa; but the initial nasal m mtóoin 'tree sp.' is clearly syllabic since it results in mpi'topóólnpi'. The inserted p tends to harmonize with replacêd labiovelars, thus kpob 'to strike' results m eithet kpokprflops or kpoprflopd. Saramaccan is a language with a strict CV syllable struc- ture, but the game can also be applied to languages wilh a more complex syllable structure, such as Dutch ik denk dat wy numocttngaanstopijien'I think weshouldstop now' becomcsipikdepcrjkdapatwspe'itygymuputsps xapa tutopopspsn The language game not only helps to segment a language, but also helps in acquiring fluency m a given language Maarten Mous and Vinye Haabo