Ykhjuy

Papiamento
Papiamentu
Native to	Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao
Native speakers	341,300[1]
Language family	Portuguese Creole Upper Guinea Creole Papiamento
Writing system	Latin (Papiamento orthography)
Official status
Official language in	Aruba, Curaçao
Recognised minority language in	Bonaire[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-2	pap
ISO 639-3	pap
Glottolog	papi1253[3]
Linguasphere	51-AAC-be
Location map of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, where Papiamento is spoken

Papiamento (English: /pɑːpiəˈmɛntoʊ/)^[4] or Papiamentu (English: /pɑːpiəˈmɛntuː/) is a creole language spoken in the Dutch Caribbean. It is the most-widely spoken language on the Caribbean ABC islands, having official status in Aruba and Curaçao. The language is also recognized in Bonaire by the Dutch government.^[2]

Papiamento is largely based on Portuguese and Spanish and has a considerable influence coming from the Dutch language. Because of lexical similarities between Portuguese and Spanish, it is difficult to distinguish the exact origin of each word. Though there are different theories about its origins, nowadays most linguists believe that Papiamento has originated from the West African coasts, as it has great similarities with Cape Verdean Creole and Guinea-Bissau Creole.^[5][6]

History

Burial site and monument to Doctor Moises Frumencio da Costa Gomez, first prime minister of the Netherlands Antilles, with a message inscribed in Papiamento: "No hasi ku otro loke bo no ke pa otro hasi ku bo", roughly meaning: "Do not do unto others what you don’t want others do unto you.”

The precise historical origins of Papiamento have not been established. Its parent language is Iberian for sure, but scholars dispute whether Papiamento is derived from Portuguese and its derived Portuguese-based creole languages or from old or new Spanish. Historical constraints, core vocabulary and grammatical features that Papiamento shares with Cape Verdean Creole suggest that the basic ingredients may be Portuguese,^[7] and that other influences occurred at a later time (17th and 18th centuries, respectively). A summary of the century-long debate on Papiamento's origins is provided in Bart Jacobs' study The Upper Guinea Origins of Papiamento.^[8]

The name of the language itself comes from papia or papear ("to chat", "to talk"), a word present in Portuguese and colloquial Spanish.

Spain claimed dominion over the islands in the 15th century, but made little use of them after the Spanish defeat to the Netherlands as a result of Eighty Years' War. Portuguese merchants had been trading extensively in the West Indies, and with the Iberian Union, this trade extended to the Castillian West Indies, as the Spanish kings favoured the free movement of people. In 1634, the Dutch West India Company (WIC) took possession of the islands, deporting most of the small remaining Arawak and Spanish population to the continent, and turned them into the hub of the Dutch slave trade between Africa and the Caribbean.

The first evidence of widespread use of Papiamento in Aruba can be seen through the Curaçao official documents in the early 18th century. In the 19th century, most materials in the islands were written in Papiamento including Roman Catholic schoolbooks and hymnals. The first Papiamento newspaper was published in 1871 and was titled Civilisado (The Civilized).

An outline of the competing theories is provided below.

Local development theory

There are various local development theories. One such theory proposes that Papiamento developed in the Caribbean from an original Portuguese-African pidgin used for communication between African slaves and Portuguese slavetraders, with later Dutch and Spanish (and even some Arawak) influences.

Another theory is that Papiamento first evolved from the use in this region since 1499 of 'lenguas' and the first Repopulation of the ABC islands by the Spanish by the Cédula real decreed in November 1525, in which Juan Martinez de Ampués, factor of Española, had been granted the right to repopulate the depopulated Islas inútiles of Oroba, Islas de los Gigantes and Buon Aire.
The evolution of Papiamento continued under the Dutch colonization under the influence of the 16th century Dutch, Portuguese (Brazilian) and Native American languages (Arawak en Taíno) with the second repopulation of these ABC islands under Peter Stuyvesant, who arrived here from the ex-Dutch Brazilian colonies.

The Judaeo-Portuguese population of the ABC islands increased substantially after 1654, when the Portuguese recovered the Dutch-held territories in Northeast Brazil – causing most of the Portuguese-speaking Jews and their Portuguese-speaking Dutch allies and Dutch-speaking Portuguese Brazilian allies in those lands to flee from religious persecution.
The precise role of Sephardic Jews in the early development is unclear, but it is certain that Jews played a prominent role in the later development of Papiamento. Many early residents of Curaçao were Sephardic Jews either from Portugal, Spain, Cape Verde or Portuguese Brazil. Also, after the Eighty Years' War, a group of Sephardic Jews immigrated from Amsterdam. Therefore, it can be assumed that Judaeo-Portuguese was brought to the island of Curaçao, where it gradually spread to other parts of the community. As the Jewish community became the prime merchants and traders in the area, business and everyday trading was conducted in Papiamento. While various nations owned the island and official languages changed with ownership, Papiamento became the constant language of the residents. When Netherlands opened economic ties with Spanish colonies in what are now Venezuela and Colombia in the 18th century ^[9] the students on Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire were taught predominantly in Spanish, Spanish began to influence the creole language.^[5]
Since there was a continuous Latinization process (Hoetink, 1987), even the elite Dutch-Protestant settlers eventually served better in Spanish than in Dutch. A wealth of local Spanish-language publications in the nineteenth century testify to this. It has recently been discovered that a small group on the Venezuelan Paraguaná peninsula speaks a variant of Papiamento. Some researchers claim that the Papiamentu that originated in Curaçao via Venezuela ended up on Aruba and that that is why the Aruban dialect of Papiamento sounds more like Spanish in terms of sound and vocabulary.

European and African origin theory

Peter Stuyvesant's appointment to the ABC islands followed his service in Brazil. He brought Indians, soldiers, etc. from Brazil to Curaçao as well as to New Netherland. Stuyvesant's Resolution Book shows the multi-ethnic makeup of the garrison and the use of local Indians: "... whereas the number of Indians, together with those of Aruba and Bonnairo, have increased here by half, and we have learned that they frequently ride ..." They communicated with each other in 'Papiamento' a language originating when the first Europeans began to arrive on these islands under Ojeda, Juan de Ampues, Bejarano and mixing with the natives. Stuyvesant also took some Esopus Indians captives in New Netherland and brought them as slaves to Curaçao. There was little Dutch government activity in the management of DWI because during the period 1568–1648, they were actively fighting for their independence and were not in a position to manage their colonies.

A more recent theory holds that the origins of Papiamento lie in the Afro-Portuguese creoles that arose almost a century earlier, in the west coast of Africa and in the Portuguese Cape Verde islands. From the 16th to the late 17th century, most of the slaves taken to the Caribbean came from Portuguese trading posts ("factories") in those regions. Around those ports several Portuguese-African pidgin and creole languages developed, such as Cape Verdean Creole, Guinea-Bissau Creole, Angolar and Forro (from São Tomé), and Guene.^[10] These sister languages bear strong resemblance with Papiamento. According to this theory, Papiamento was derived from one or more of these older creoles or their predecessors, that was brought to the ABC islands by slaves and traders from Cape Verde and West Africa.

Guene was a secret language, that was used by slaves on the plantations of the landhouses of West Curaçao^[11]. There were about one hundred Guene songs that were sung to make the work lighter. The name Guene comes from Guinea ^[12]

Some specifically claim that an Afro-Portuguese mother language of Papiamento arose from a mixture of Cape Verdean creole and the Angolar creole (from São Tomé). Proponents of this theory contend that it can easily be compared with other Portuguese creoles. For instance, compare "mi" and "bo" ("I" and "you") in Papiamento and Cape Verdean Creole. "Mi" is from the Portuguese "mim" and "bo" is from the Portuguese "vós". The use of "b" instead of "v" is very common in the African Portuguese Creoles.

Linguistic and historical ties with Upper Guinea Portuguese Creole

Current research on the origins of Papiamento focuses specifically on the linguistic and historical relationships between Papiamento and Upper Guinea Portuguese Creole as spoken on the Santiago island of Cape Verde and in Guinea-Bissau and Casamance. Elaborating on comparisons done by Martinus (1996) and Quint (2000),^[13] Jacobs (2008,^[14] 2009a, 2009b^[15]) defends the hypothesis that Papiamento is a relexified offshoot of an early Upper Guinea Portuguese Creole variety, transferred from Senegambia to Curaçao in the second half of the 17th century, a period in which the Dutch controlled the harbour of Gorée, just below the tip of the Cape Verde Peninsula. On Curaçao, this variety underwent internal changes as well as contact-induced changes at all levels of the grammar (though particularly in the lexicon) due to contact with Spanish and, to a lesser extent, Dutch. These changes notwithstanding, the morpho-syntactic framework of Papiamento is still remarkably close to that of the Upper Guinea Creoles of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau.

Present status

Many Papiamento speakers are multilingual and are also able to speak Dutch, English and Spanish. Papiamento has been an official language of Aruba since May, 2003.^[16] In the former Netherlands Antilles (which at the time comprised Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten) Papiamento was made an official language on March 7, 2007.^[17] After its dissolution, the language's official status was confirmed in the newly formed Caribbean Netherlands (part of the Netherlands proper, and compromising Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius),^[18] until January 1, 2011; since then, Bonaire is the only portion of the Caribbean Netherlands in which it is recognized.^[2]

Papiamento is also spoken elsewhere in the Netherlands, particularly on Saba and Sint Eustatius, and on St. Maarten, by immigrants from Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. Some 150.000 Antillians live in The Netherlands (mostly from Curaçao) and they are fluently in their mother language Papiamento.

Venezuelan Spanish and American English are constant influences today. Code-switching and lexical borrowing between Papiamento, Spanish, Dutch and English among native speakers is common. This is perceived as a threat to the further development of Papiamento due to a language ideology that is committed to preserving the authentic and Creole "feel" of Papiamento.

Many Latin American immigrants from Venezuela, Colombia and Spanish Caribbean, who settle in Aruba, Bonaire or Curaçao choose to learn Papiamento because it's more practical in daily life on the islands. For Spanish speakers, it is easier to learn than Dutch, because Papiamento has many Spanish and Portuguese words in it.^[19]

Distribution and dialects

Papiamento has two main dialects, one in Aruba and one in Curaçao and Bonaire (Papiamentu), with lexical and intonational differences.^[20] There are also minor differences between Curaçao and Bonaire.

Spoken Aruban Papiamento sounds much more like Spanish. The most apparent difference between the two dialects is given away in the name difference. Whereas Bonaire and Curaçao opted for a phonology-based spelling, Aruba uses an etymology-based spelling. Many words in Aruba end with "o" while that same word ends with "u" in Bonaire and Curaçao. And even in Curaçao, the use of the u-ending is still more pronounced among the Sephardic Jewish population. Similarly, there is also a difference between the usage of "k" in Bonaire and Curaçao and "c" in Aruba.

For example:

Phonology

Vowels and diphthongs

Most Aruba Papiamento vowels are based on Ibero-Romance vowels, but some are also based on Dutch vowels like : ee /eː/, ui /œy/, ie /i/, oe /u/, ij/ei /ɛi/, oo /oː/, and aa /aː/.

Aruba Papiamento has the following nine vowels.^[21] The orthography and spelling of Curaçao and Bonaire Papiamentu has one symbol for each vowel.

There are dialects that exist within the island itself. An example is the Aruban word "dolor" ("pain"). The R is silent in certain parts of the island. It is therefore sometimes written without the R.

In addition to the vowels listed above, schwa also occurs in Papiamento. The letter e is pronounced as schwa in the final unstressed syllables of words such as agradabel and komader.^[22] Other vowels in unstressed syllables can become somewhat centralized (schwa-like) in rapid casual speech.

Stress and accent

The stress is of great importance in Papiamento. Many words have a very different meaning when a different stress is used.

For example, the word kome (to eat).

• When both syllables are equally stressed: kome, the meaning is: to eat.


• When emphasis is laid upon the first syllable: kome, it means: eat! (imperative).


• When you say: kom'é (short for kome é), than the meaning is: eat it!. E pan komé = the eaten bread.

There are general rules for the stress and accent, but also a great deal of exceptions.
When a word deviates from the rules, the stressed vowel should officially be indicated by an acute accent mark. The accent marks are often omitted in casual writing.

The main rules are^[23]:

• When a word ends on a vowel (a,e,i,o,u), the stress is laid upon the before last syllable: buriku (donkey).


• When a word ends not on vowel, but on a consonant, the stress is laid upon the last syllable: hospital.


• When a verb has two syllables, the syllables are about equally stressed: sòru (to care), falta (to lack).


• When a verb has more than two syllables, the stress is laid upon the last syllable: kontestá (to answer), primintí (to promise).

Lexicon

Vocabulary

Most of the vocabulary is derived from Portuguese and its derived Portuguese based creoles and (Old) Spanish. Most of the time the real origin is difficult to tell due to the great similarity between the two Iberian languages and the adaptations made in Papiamento. A list of two hundred basic Papiamento words can be found in the standard Swadesh list, with etymological reference to the origin language.^[24] There is a remarkable similarity between words in Papiamento, Cape Verdean Creole and Guinea-Bissau Creole, that all belong to the same language family of the Upper Guinea Creoles. Most of these words can be connected with their Portuguese origin.
Linguistic studies have shown that roughly eighty percent of the words in Papiamento's present vocabulary are of Iberian origin, twenty percent are of Dutch origin, and some of Native American or African origin.
A study by Buurt & Joubert inventoried words of indigenous Taíno Arawak origins.^[25]. Taíno Arawak is an extinct language that was spoken by indians throughout the Caribbean. Jacoba Bouschoute made a study of the many Dutch influences in Papiamento.^[26].

Examples of words of Iberian origin, which are impossible to label as either Portuguese or Spanish:

• por fabor (please) – Spanish: por favor - Portuguese: por favor
  


• señora (madam) – Spanish: señora - Portuguese: senhora
  


• kua (which) - Spanish: cuál - Portuguese: qual
  


• kuantu (how much) – Spanish: cuánto - Portuguese: quanto.

While the presence of word-final /u/ can easily be traced to Portuguese, the diphthongization of some vowels is characteristic of Spanish. The use of /b/ (rather than /v/) is difficult to interpret; although the two are separate phonemes in standard Portuguese, they merge in the dialects of northern Portugal, just like they do in Spanish. Also, a sound-shift can have occurred in the direction of Spanish, whose influence on Papiamento came later than that of Portuguese.
For instance: subrino (nephew): sobrinho in Portuguese, sobrino in Spanish. The pronunciation of "o" as /u/ is traceable to Portuguese, while the use of "n" instead of "nh" (IPA /ɲ/) in the ending "-no", relates to Spanish.

The Portuguese words mostly don't descend directly from the Portuguese, but come via the Portuguese based Creole, like in the examples hereunder, the Cape Verdean Creole words are: "borboléta", "katchor", "prétu" and "fórsa".

Portuguese origin words:

• barbulètè (butterfly) – Portuguese: borboleta.


• kachó (dog) – Portuguese: cachorro.


• pretu (black) – Portuguese: preto.


• forsa (power) - Portuguese: força.

Spanish origin words:

• siudat (city) – Spanish: ciudad
  


• sombré (hat) – Spanish: sombrero
  


• karson (trousers) – Spanish: calzón
  


• hòmber (man) – Spanish: hombre.

Dutch origin words:

• apel (apple) – Dutch: appel
  


• buki (book) – Dutch: boek
  


• lesa (to read) – Dutch: lezen
  


• mart (March) - Dutch: maart.

And some words come from:

English origin words:

• bek - English: back
  


• bòter - English: bottle
  


• baiskel - English: bicycle.

African origin words:

• pinda (peanut) - Kongo: mpinda
  


• makamba (white man) - Bantu: ma-kamba
  


• yongotá (to kneel) - Wolof: djongotó
  


• maribomba (wasp) - Bantu: ma-rimbondo.

Native American origin words:

• orkan (hurricane) – Taíno: juracán
  


• maishi (corn) – Taíno: mahíz
  


• kunuku (farm) – Taíno: conuco
  


• mahos (hateful) - Arawak: muhusu.

Orthography and spelling

Papiamento is written using the Latin script.

Since the 1970s, two different orthographies were developed and adopted. In 1976, Curaçao and Bonaire officially adopted the Römer-Maduro-Jonis version, a phonetic spelling. In 1977, Aruba has approved a more etymological-based spelling presented by the Comision di Ortografia (Orthography Commission) presided by Jossy Mansur.

Examples

Phrase samples

• Kon ta bai? (How are you?) - Spanish: ¿Cómo te va? - Portuguese: Como vai?
  


• Kon ta k'e bida? (How is life?) - Spanish: ¿Cómo te va la vida? - Portuguese: Como está a vida?
  


• Por fabor (please) – Spanish: Por favor - Portuguese: Por favor
  


• Danki (Thank you) - Dutch : Dank je
  


• Ainda no (Not yet) - Portuguese: Ainda não
  


• Kòrda skirbi mi bèk mas lihé posibel (Remember to write me back as soon as possible) - Portuguese: Recorde-se de me escrever assim que for possível.


• Bo mama ta mashá bunita (Your mother is very beautiful) - Portuguese: Tua mãe é muita bonita.

Expressions

• Hopi scuma, tiki chuculati (A lot of foam, little chocolate): Too good to be true.


• Eynan e porco su rabo ta krul (That is where the pig's tail curls): That is where the problem lies.


• Sopi pura ta sali salo (Quick soup turns salty): Good things take time.

Comparison of vocabularies

This section provides a comparison of the vocabularies of Papiamento, Portuguese, and the Portuguese creoles of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Spanish is shown for the contrast.

See also

• Creole language


• Joceline Clemencia


• Linguistics


• Portuguese-based creole languages

References

Bibliography

Dictionaries

• 
  Mansur, Jossy (1991). "Dictionary English-Papiamento Papiamento-English". Edicionnan Clasico Diario, Oranjestad.


• Ratzlaff, Betty (2008). "Papiamento-Ingles, Dikshonario Bilingual". TWR Jong Bonaire.


• Joubert, Sidney (2007). "Handwoordenboek Papiaments-Nederlands". Joubert Press, Willemstad.


• Van Putte, Florimon; Van Putte-De Wind, Igma (2005). Groot Woordenboek Papiaments Nederlands". Walburg Press, Zutphen


• Kramer, Johannes (2015). "Etymologische Studien zum Papiamento". Buske Verlag, Hamburg.


• N.N.; Los Editores (1876). "Guia para los Españoles hablar Papiamento y viceversa". Prenta del Comercio, Curaçao.
  


• 
  Marugg, Tip (1992). "Dikshonario Erotiko Papiamentu". Scherpenheuvel, Curaçao.


• Majstro English-Papiamento dictionary


• Glosbe English-Papiamento dictionary

Grammar

• Goilo, Enrique R. (2000). "Papiamento Textbook". De Wit Stores, Oranjestad.


• Blankenburg, Eleanor (1986). "Basic Papiamentu Grammar for English Speakers". Blankenburg Edition, Bonaire.


• Frans-Muller, Xiomara (2017). "Papia Papiamentu ku mi". Expert book, Bonaire.

External links and further reading

Papiamento edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Papiamento edition of wikipedia


• 
  Papiamento.aw – Papiamento language website of the Aruba government (in Papiamento)]
  
  
  
  • Aruba Papiamento language grammar (in Papiamento)
  
  
  • Aruba Papiamento spelling and orthography rules (in Papiamento)
  
  
  • Aruba Papiamento official wordlist
  
  
  
  


• Curaçao and Bonaire Papiamentu official wordlist


• General information on Papiamento, including a poem from Lucille Berry-Haseth


• Aruba information website


• Diario, newspaper in Papiamento


• Extra, newspaper in Papiamento


• Nostisia, newspaper in Papiamento


• Website for learning Papiamento, linked to YouTube channel Henky's Papiamento


• Bible fragments in Papiamento


• Papiamentu tur dia – A blog for English-speaking students of Papiamento


• 
  "A Language Thrives in Its Caribbean Home" – Article by Simon Romero in The New York Times


• 
  Bookish Plaza – online bookstore with literature from Aruba and Curaçao