’Een schip vol woorden’ exhibition on display in Utrecht University Library

From September, the Taalmuseum 's exhibition ' Een schip vol woorden ' ('A Ship Full of Words') will be on display at the Utrecht University Library. This travelling exhibition chronicles history through the lens of Sranantongo, Suriname's most commonly spoken language. Historical link with Africa revealed. The exhibition ' Een schip vol woorden ' is one of the results of the collaboration between linguist Margot van den Berg , Taalmuseum director Fresco Sam-Sin , and researchers Jeroen van Ravenhorst  and  Hermine Haman. In their research project of the same name, they make the historical connection of Afro-Surinamese with Africa intelligible on the basis of individual word histories. For this project, they were awarded the LOT Popularisation Prize in February. Languages contain a great deal of information about their speakers: for instance, what did they consider important and with whom did they come into contact? This information can be found in the language structure, but it is particularly visible in the vocabulary, as words are adopted and passed on.