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nMashramani (Mash for short)nis Guyana’s patriotic holiday that commemorates the day that itnbecame a republic in 1970. There are parades, music, games, andncooking—the most colorful festival of the year—with floats,nmasquerade bands, and dancing in the streets, elaborate costumes,ncalypso competitions, and the crowning of a Mash king ornqueen.
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nGuyananis one of the smallest nations in South America. Its officialnlanguage is English, although it was a Dutch colony before it wasntaken over by Britain, and the largest group of people living in thennation are descendents of immigrants from India! Other Guyanesengroups include descendents of the following groups: enslavednAfricans, Amerindians (the peoples who lived in the area before thencoming of Columbus) such as Arawaks and Caribs, Portuguese and othernEuropean settlers, and Chinese immigrants. With all this ethnicndiversity, it is perhaps not a surprise that Caribbean languages,nSpanish, and Portuguese are spoken by small minorities; but I wasnsurprised to read that a national language called Guyanese Creole isnwidely spoken.
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nAncreole language is a stable language that is created by the mixing ofntwo or more parent languages. Scholars who study languagesn(linguists) tell us that a creole language is created by children innmixed-language locations, just naturally as they play together andntry to communicate with each other. A creole language can become thenprimary language for many people.
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nGuyanesenCreole is based on English with African and East Indian syntaxn(grammar).
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nExplorenGuyana
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nHerenis a super-short tourism video of Guyana.
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nThis five-minute video is much more informative.
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nAlsonon this date:
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nScholar and civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois’s birthday n
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nAnniversary of the writing of the song “This Land Is Your Land” n
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