Vowel systems

Sranan and Ndyuka have a five-vowel system: /i, e, a, o, u/, and Saramaccan has a seven-vowel system: /i, e, ε, a, ɔ, o, u/ . In Saramaccan there is an additional vowel harmony restriction forbidding contiguous sequences of low-mid and high-mid vowels. A further restriction affects the incidence of vowels in Saramaccan insofar as /..e’.e#, ..o’.e#/ sequences seem only to occur in more recent forms. Older English-derived forms seem to have  instead.

The approximate phonetic qualities of the vowels are as follows:

Note that tenseness and laxness play no role in these vowel systems. /e/ and /o/ in Sranan, and /ε/ and /ɔ/ in Saramaccan would appear to be [–ATR], the other vowels being [+ATR].

Long vowels occur in all systems, although only marginally in Sranan. In Sranan stressed vowels preceding /r/ are lengthened considerably, and those following consonant-/r/ clusters are lengthened to a lesser degree.