Papiamento
Encyclopedia
Papiamento is the most widely spoken language
on the Caribbean
ABC islands, having the official status on the islands of Aruba
and Curaçao
. The language is also recognized on Bonaire by the Dutch
government.
Papiamento is a creole language
derived from either Portuguese
or Spanish
with some influences from English
, and Dutch
. Papiamento has two main dialects: Papiamento, spoken primarily on Aruba; and Papiamentu, spoken primarily on Bonaire and Curaçao.
Historical constraints, core vocabulary and grammatical features that Papiamento shares with Cape Verdean Creole suggest that the basic ingredients are Portuguese, and that other influences occurred at a later time (17th and 18th century, respectively). The name of the language itself comes from papear ("to chat", "to talk"), a word present in Portuguese and colloquial Spanish; compare with Papiá Kristang
("Christian talk"), a Portuguese-based creole of Malaysia and Singapore
, and the Cape Verdean Creole word papiâ ("to talk"), or to Caribbean (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba) "papiar" - to talk excessively (but also, "to eat": "papar" is Portuguese kid term for "to eat"). Spain claimed dominion over the islands in the 15th century, but made little use of them. 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 though 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 titled "Civilisado" (The Civilizer). "Civilizado" is Spanish and Portuguese for "civilized" but can also be understood as a suppressed final "r" in the word "Civilizador" (Civilizer).
An outline of the competing theories is provided below.
used for communication between African slaves and Portuguese slavetraders, with later Dutch and Spanish (and even some Aruac) influences.
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 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 play a prominent role in the later development of Papiamento. Many early residents of Curaçao were Sephardic Jews either from Portugal, Spain, or Portuguese Brazil. Therefore, it can be assumed that Judaeo-Spanish
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 with some Ladino influences. While various nations owned the island and official languages changed with ownership, Papiamento became the constant language of the residents.
here by half, and we have learned that they frequently ride ..." Surely they communicated with each other in 'papiamento' a language originating since 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 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 also manage their colonies.
A more recent theory supposedly 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 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 there developed several Portuguese-African pidgins and creoles, such as Guinea-Bissau Creole, Mina, Cape Verdean Creole, Angolar
, and Guene. The latter bears strong resemblances to Papiamento. According to this theory, Papiamento was derived from those pre-existing pidgins/creoles, especially Guene, which were brought to the ABC islands by slaves and/or traders from Cape Verde and West Africa.
Some specifically claim that the Afro-Portuguese mother language of Papiamentu arose from a mixture of the Mina pidgin/creole (a mixture of Cape Verdean pidgin/creole with Twi) and the Angolar
creole (derived from languages of Angola and Congo
). Proponents of this theory of Papiamento contend that it can easily be compared and linked with other Portuguese creoles, especially the African ones (namely Forro
, Guinea-Bissau Creole, and the Cape Verdean Creole). For instance, Compare mi ("I" in Cape Verdean Creole and Papiamento) or bo (meaning you in both creoles). Mi is from the Portuguese mim "me", and bo is from Portuguese vós "you". The use of "b" instead of "v" is very common in the African Portuguese Creoles (probably deriving from the pronunciation of Portuguese settlers in Africa, numerous from the North of Portugal rural areas).
Papiamento is, in some degree, intelligible with Cape Verdean creoles and could be explained by the immigration of Portuguese Sephardic Jews from Cape Verde to these Caribbean islands, although this same fact could also be used by dissenters to explain a later Portuguese influence on an already existing Spanish-based creole.
Another comparison is the use of the verb ta and taba ta from vernacular Portuguese tá (an aphesis
of estar, "to be" or está, "it is") with verbs where Portuguese does and with others where it does not use it: "Mi ta + verb" or "Mi taba ta + verb", also the rule in the São Vicente Creole and other Barlavento Cape Verdean Creoles . These issues can also be seen in other Portuguese Creoles (Martinus 1996; see also Fouse 2002 and McWhorter 2000), but some are also found in colloquial Spanish.
and Spanish. In the Netherlands Antilles
, Papiamentu was made an official language on March 7, 2007. After its dissolution, the language's official status was confirmed in the Caribbean Netherlands, until January 1, 2011; since then it has been recognised as a language on Bonaire only.
Papiamento is also spoken in the Netherlands
and on the other Dutch Caribbean islands of St. Maarten, Saba and Sint Eustatius by immigrants from Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao.
Venezuelan Spanish
and American English
are constant influences today. Code-switching
and lexical borrowing between Papiamentu, 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 African or Creole "feel" of Papiamento.
and Papiamentu in Curaçao and Bonaire. Although the Papiamentu in Curaçao and Bonaire are largely the same, there are still minor differences.
Spoken (Aruban) Papiamento sounds much more Spanish. The most apparent difference between the two dialects is given away in the name difference. Whereas Curaçao and Bonaire opted for a phonologically based spelling, Aruba uses an etymologically based spelling. Many words in Aruba end with "o" while that same word ends with "u" in Curaçao and Bonaire. And even on Curaçao, the use of the u-ending is still more pronounced among the Sephardic Jewish population. Similary, there is also a difference between the usage of "k" in Curaçao and Bonaire and "c" in Aruba.
For example:
Furthermore, there is also an intonation and lexical difference between Papiamento and Papiamentu.
Papiamento has the following nine vowels. The orthography (writing system) of Curaçao has one symbol for each vowel.
There are dialects that exist in the island itself.
An example is the Aruban word, "dolor" ("pain"), which is the same in Curaçao's version, but written differently. The R is silent in certain parts of the island. It is also 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. Other vowels in unstressed syllables can become somewhat centralized
(schwa-like) in rapid casual speech.
Polysyllabic words that end in vowels are stressed on the next-to-last syllable; most words ending in consonants are stressed on the final syllable. There are exceptions. When a word deviates from these rules, the stressed vowel should be indicated by an acute accent mark. The accent marks are often omitted in casual writing.
Papiamento words have distinct tone patterns. According to recent linguistic research, there are two classes of words: those that typically have rising pitch on the stressed syllable, and those that typically have falling pitch on the stressed syllable. The latter category includes most of the two-syllable verbs in the language. Any given word's tone contours may change depending on discursive factors such as whether the sentence is affirmative, interrogative, or imperative.
Altering tone in Papiamento can distinguish meaning and grammatical function: compare noun 'para' (PA-ra: bird) with verb 'para' (pa-RA:stand or stop)
Independently from tone, stress can also be altered: compare 'pa-ra' (stand or stop) with 'pa-ra' (stopped or standing)
Papiamento/u uses prosodic accent
. Tone
(with stress) is largely dependent on the grammatical function
of the word in sentence. Compare:
The following are the grammatical rules of Papiamentu intonation:
-Verbs usually have rising tone; a following adverb receives high intonation (ex. 'bira RONT:' turn around).
-Nouns (substantives) and adjectives usually have falling tone, a following adjective receives low intonation (ex. 'PA-lu haltu:' tall tree).
-In words of more than three syllables, grammatical tone or accent will fall on the last stressed syllable. The first stressed syllable receives the opposite tone for contrast: compare noun 'kini-kini' (kini-KI-ni): falcon with adverb 'poko-poko' (PO-ko-poko): slowly.
-An adverb has rising tone, so a following adjective receives high tone (ex. 'masha BON' very good).
!!! - The adverbs 'bon' (good) and 'mal' (bad), even though they are adjectives, in grammar will always have adverbial, rising tone character (ex. 'bon ha-SI:' well-done). They will always behave like adverbs, even when they qualify nouns (ex. 'bon DI-a:' good day). They behave like adverbs even when doubled for emphasis ('bon-BON:' very good).
(Note: in all above examples, primary stress remains on the second word, while secondary stress
remains on the first word, independently of tone changes. It is thus more accurate to transcribe 'PA-lu hal-tu' and 'bira RONT', with bold typing indicating stress
and CAPITAL LETTERS indicating high tone
syllables. Unstressed syllables' tone is dependent on contact syllables.)
-The particle of negation 'no' always receives rising tone: the following verb is inevitably raised in pitch: compare 'mi ta PA-pia' (I speak) and 'mi no TA PA-pia' (I do not speak). This negating pitch-raise is crucial and is retained even after contraction
of the particle in informal speech: 'mi'n TA papia' ("I don't speak")
It is theorised that the unusual presence of both stress and tone in Papiamentu is an inheritance of African languages (which use tone) and Portuguese (which has stress)
Linguistic studies have shown that roughly two thirds of the words in Papiamentu's present vocabulary are of Iberian
origin, a quarter are of Dutch origin,and some of Native American origin and the rest come from other tongues. A recent study by Buurt & Joubert inventarised several hundred words of indigenous Arawak origins
Examples of words of Iberian and Roman, Latin origin, which are impossible to label as either Portuguese or Spanish:
While the presence of word-final /u/ can easily be traced to Portuguese, the diphthong
ization of some vowels is characteristic of Spanish. The use of /b/ (rather than /v/) is difficult to interpret; although the two are separate phoneme
s in standard Portuguese, they merge in the dialects of northern Portugal, just like they do in Spanish
. Also, a sound-shift could have occurred in the direction of Spanish, whose influence on Papiamento came later than that of Portuguese.
Other words can have dual origin, and certainly dual influence. 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.
Portuguese origin words:
Spanish origin words:
Dutch origin words:
English origin words;
Italian origin words:
Native American words:
Author: N. N.;
Publisher: Impr. del Comercio;
Year: 1876
Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT;
Language: Spanish
Digitizing sponsor: Google
Book from the collections of: Harvard University
Collection: americana
Notes: Cover-title: Guia-manual para que los españoles puedan hablar y comprender el papiamento ó patois de Curazao y vice-versa ...
http://www.archive.org/details/guiaparalosespa00ngoog
spelling used in Aruba.
*Santiago Creole variant
**Writing system used in this example: ALUPEC
***Portuguese expression used in creole.
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
on the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
ABC islands, having the official status on the islands of Aruba
Aruba
Aruba is a 33 km-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located 27 km north of the coast of Venezuela and 130 km east of Guajira Peninsula...
and Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
. The language is also recognized on Bonaire by the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
government.
Papiamento is a creole language
Creole language
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
derived from either Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
or Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
with some influences from English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, and Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
. Papiamento has two main dialects: Papiamento, spoken primarily on Aruba; and Papiamentu, spoken primarily on Bonaire and Curaçao.
History
The historical origins of Papiamento are still not very well known. It is disputed whether Papiamento originated from Portuguese or from Spanish. A summary of the century-long debate on Papiamento's origins is provided in Jacobs (2009a).Historical constraints, core vocabulary and grammatical features that Papiamento shares with Cape Verdean Creole suggest that the basic ingredients are Portuguese, and that other influences occurred at a later time (17th and 18th century, respectively). The name of the language itself comes from papear ("to chat", "to talk"), a word present in Portuguese and colloquial Spanish; compare with Papiá Kristang
Kristang language
Papiá Kristang , or just Kristang, is a creole language. It is spoken by the Kristang, a community of people of mixed Portuguese and Asian ancestry, chiefly in Malacca and Singapore....
("Christian talk"), a Portuguese-based creole of Malaysia and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, and the Cape Verdean Creole word papiâ ("to talk"), or to Caribbean (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba) "papiar" - to talk excessively (but also, "to eat": "papar" is Portuguese kid term for "to eat"). Spain claimed dominion over the islands in the 15th century, but made little use of them. In 1634, the Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...
(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 though 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 titled "Civilisado" (The Civilizer). "Civilizado" is Spanish and Portuguese for "civilized" but can also be understood as a suppressed final "r" in the word "Civilizador" (Civilizer).
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 pidginPidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the...
used for communication between African slaves and Portuguese slavetraders, with later Dutch and Spanish (and even some Aruac) influences.
The Judaeo-Portuguese population of the ABC islands increased substantially after 1654, when the Portuguese recovered the Dutch-held territories in Northeast Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
causing most of the Portuguese-speaking Jews 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 play a prominent role in the later development of Papiamento. Many early residents of Curaçao were Sephardic Jews either from Portugal, Spain, or Portuguese Brazil. Therefore, it can be assumed that Judaeo-Spanish
Judaeo-Spanish
Judaeo-Spanish , in Israel commonly referred to as Ladino, and known locally as Judezmo, Djudeo-Espanyol, Djudezmo, Djudeo-Kasteyano, Spaniolit and other names, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish...
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 with some Ladino influences. While various nations owned the island and official languages changed with ownership, Papiamento became the constant language of the residents.
European and African origin theory
There is the fact that Peter Stuyvesant first was appointed in Brazil, before being appointed in Curaçao. With him he brought Indians, soldiers, etc. from Brazil not only to Curaçao but also to "New Netherland". In Stuyvesant's Resolution Book while he was in charge of the ABC islands, there is document # 4b in the Curaçao Papers, presenting the multi-ethnic makeup of the garrison and the use of local Indians as cowboys: "... .whereas the number of Indians, together with those of Aruba and Bonnairo, have increasedhere by half, and we have learned that they frequently ride ..." Surely they communicated with each other in 'papiamento' a language originating since 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 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 also manage their colonies.
A more recent theory supposedly 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 Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
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 there developed several Portuguese-African pidgins and creoles, such as Guinea-Bissau Creole, Mina, Cape Verdean Creole, Angolar
Angolar language
Angolar, also Ngola is a minority language of São Tomé and Príncipe, spoken in the southernmost towns of São Tomé Island and sparsely along the coast. It is a creole language, based partially on Portuguese with a heavy substrate of a dialect of Kimbundu Angolar, also Ngola (Lungua N'golá) is a...
, and Guene. The latter bears strong resemblances to Papiamento. According to this theory, Papiamento was derived from those pre-existing pidgins/creoles, especially Guene, which were brought to the ABC islands by slaves and/or traders from Cape Verde and West Africa.
Some specifically claim that the Afro-Portuguese mother language of Papiamentu arose from a mixture of the Mina pidgin/creole (a mixture of Cape Verdean pidgin/creole with Twi) and the Angolar
Angolar language
Angolar, also Ngola is a minority language of São Tomé and Príncipe, spoken in the southernmost towns of São Tomé Island and sparsely along the coast. It is a creole language, based partially on Portuguese with a heavy substrate of a dialect of Kimbundu Angolar, also Ngola (Lungua N'golá) is a...
creole (derived from languages of Angola and Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
). Proponents of this theory of Papiamento contend that it can easily be compared and linked with other Portuguese creoles, especially the African ones (namely Forro
Forro language
Forro is a Portuguese-based creole language spoken in São Tomé and Príncipe.The name means "freed slave" in Portuguese. The language is also called crioulo santomense. It should not be confused with the dialect of Portuguese spoken in São Tomé and Príncipe.- History :São Tomé is an island of the...
, Guinea-Bissau Creole, and the Cape Verdean Creole). For instance, Compare mi ("I" in Cape Verdean Creole and Papiamento) or bo (meaning you in both creoles). Mi is from the Portuguese mim "me", and bo is from Portuguese vós "you". The use of "b" instead of "v" is very common in the African Portuguese Creoles (probably deriving from the pronunciation of Portuguese settlers in Africa, numerous from the North of Portugal rural areas).
Papiamento is, in some degree, intelligible with Cape Verdean creoles and could be explained by the immigration of Portuguese Sephardic Jews from Cape Verde to these Caribbean islands, although this same fact could also be used by dissenters to explain a later Portuguese influence on an already existing Spanish-based creole.
Another comparison is the use of the verb ta and taba ta from vernacular Portuguese tá (an aphesis
Aphesis
In phonetics, apheresis is the loss of one or more sounds from the beginning of a word, especially the loss of an unstressed vowel.-Apheresis as a historical sound change:...
of estar, "to be" or está, "it is") with verbs where Portuguese does and with others where it does not use it: "Mi ta + verb" or "Mi taba ta + verb", also the rule in the São Vicente Creole and other Barlavento Cape Verdean Creoles . These issues can also be seen in other Portuguese Creoles (Martinus 1996; see also Fouse 2002 and McWhorter 2000), but some are also found in colloquial Spanish.
Linguistic and historical ties with Upper Guinea Portuguese Creole
Current research on the origins of Papiamentu focuses specifically on the linguistic and historical relationships between Papiamentu 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), Jacobs (2008, 2009a, 2009b) defends the hypothesis that Papiamentu 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, better known as Papiamentu, 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 as well as with a variety of Kwa and Bantu languages. These changes notwithstanding, the morpho-syntactic framework of Papiamentu is still remarkably close to that of the Upper Guinea Creoles of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau/Casamance.Present status
Many Papiamento speakers are multilingual and are also able to speak Dutch, EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Spanish. In the Netherlands Antilles
Netherlands Antilles
The Netherlands Antilles , also referred to informally as the Dutch Antilles, was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of two groups of islands in the Lesser Antilles: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao , in Leeward Antilles just off the Venezuelan coast; and Sint...
, Papiamentu was made an official language on March 7, 2007. After its dissolution, the language's official status was confirmed in the Caribbean Netherlands, until January 1, 2011; since then it has been recognised as a language on Bonaire only.
Papiamento is also spoken in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and on the other Dutch Caribbean islands of St. Maarten, Saba and Sint Eustatius by immigrants from Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao.
Venezuelan Spanish
Venezuelan Spanish
Venezuelan Spanish is a dialect of the Spanish language spoken in Venezuela.Spanish was introduced in Venezuela by the conquistadors. Most of them were from Andalusia, Galicia, Basque Country, and the Canary Islands...
and American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
are constant influences today. Code-switching
Code-switching
In linguistics, code-switching is the concurrent use of more than one language, or language variety, in conversation. Multilinguals—people who speak more than one language—sometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other...
and lexical borrowing between Papiamentu, 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
Language ideology
In sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, a language or linguistic ideology is a systematic construct about how particular ways of using languages carry or are invested with certain moral, religious, social, and political values, giving rise to implicit assumptions that people have about a...
that is committed to preserving the authentic African or Creole "feel" of Papiamento.
Dialects
Papiamento has two main dialects: Papiamento in ArubaLanguages of Aruba
On the Caribbean island of Aruba, there are many languages spoken. The official language is Dutch, and schools require students to learn both English and Spanish. French and, to a lesser extent, Portuguese are also present on the island...
and Papiamentu in Curaçao and Bonaire. Although the Papiamentu in Curaçao and Bonaire are largely the same, there are still minor differences.
Spoken (Aruban) Papiamento sounds much more Spanish. The most apparent difference between the two dialects is given away in the name difference. Whereas Curaçao and Bonaire opted for a phonologically based spelling, Aruba uses an etymologically based spelling. Many words in Aruba end with "o" while that same word ends with "u" in Curaçao and Bonaire. And even on Curaçao, the use of the u-ending is still more pronounced among the Sephardic Jewish population. Similary, there is also a difference between the usage of "k" in Curaçao and Bonaire and "c" in Aruba.
For example:
| English | Papiamento | Papiamentu |
|---|---|---|
| Tree | Palo | Palu |
| House | Cas | Kas |
| Knife | Cuchíu | Kuchú |
Furthermore, there is also an intonation and lexical difference between Papiamento and Papiamentu.
Vowels and diphthongs
Most 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/.Papiamento has the following nine vowels. The orthography (writing system) of Curaçao has one symbol for each vowel.
| IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic... |
Curaçao orthography | Aruba orthography |
|---|---|---|
| a | a in kana | a in cana |
| e | e in sker, nechi | e in scheur (= to rip) |
| ɛ | è in skèr, nèchi | e in sker (= scissors) |
| i | i in chikí | i in chikito |
| o | o in bonchi, doló | o in dolor |
| ɔ | ò in bònchi, dòler | o in dollar |
| u | u in kunuku | u in cunucu |
| ø | ù in brùg | u in brug |
| y | ü in hür | uu in huur |
There are dialects that exist in the island itself.
An example is the Aruban word, "dolor" ("pain"), which is the same in Curaçao's version, but written differently. The R is silent in certain parts of the island. It is also written without the R.
In addition to the vowels listed above, schwa
Schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean the following:*An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel...
also occurs in Papiamento. The letter e is pronounced as schwa in the final unstressed syllables of words such as agradabel and komader. Other vowels in unstressed syllables can become somewhat centralized
Relative articulation
In descriptions of phonetics and phonology, the manner and place of articulation of a speech sound may be specified relative to some point of comparison...
(schwa-like) in rapid casual speech.
Stress and tone
Papiamento is one of only two languages worldwide that distinguish both stress and tone and is the only language in the world known to use both stress and prosodic accent.Polysyllabic words that end in vowels are stressed on the next-to-last syllable; most words ending in consonants are stressed on the final syllable. There are exceptions. When a word deviates from these rules, the stressed vowel should be indicated by an acute accent mark. The accent marks are often omitted in casual writing.
Papiamento words have distinct tone patterns. According to recent linguistic research, there are two classes of words: those that typically have rising pitch on the stressed syllable, and those that typically have falling pitch on the stressed syllable. The latter category includes most of the two-syllable verbs in the language. Any given word's tone contours may change depending on discursive factors such as whether the sentence is affirmative, interrogative, or imperative.
Altering tone in Papiamento can distinguish meaning and grammatical function: compare noun 'para' (PA-ra: bird) with verb 'para' (pa-RA:stand or stop)
Independently from tone, stress can also be altered: compare 'pa-ra' (stand or stop) with 'pa-ra' (stopped or standing)
Papiamento/u uses prosodic accent
Accent
-Speech and language:* Accent , pronunciation characteristic of a certain locality* Accent , of a word* Stress , tone levels and emphasis used in many languages for words or grammar* A diacritical mark is also known as an accent....
. Tone
Tone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
(with stress) is largely dependent on the grammatical function
Grammatical function
In linguistics, grammatical functions refer to functional relationships between participants in a proposition...
of the word in sentence. Compare:
| word Word In language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content . This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own... (s) |
meaning Meaning (linguistics) In linguistics, meaning is what is expressed by the writer or speaker, and what is conveyed to the reader or listener, provided that they talk about the same thing . In other words if the object and the name of the object and the concepts in their head are the same... |
grammatical functions | stress Stress (linguistics) In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed... pattern |
accent Accent -Speech and language:* Accent , pronunciation characteristic of a certain locality* Accent , of a word* Stress , tone levels and emphasis used in many languages for words or grammar* A diacritical mark is also known as an accent.... pattern |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| kini-kini | falcon | noun Noun In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of... substantive |
ki-ni-ki-ni | kini-KI-ni (low-x-high-x) |
| divi-divi | Caesalpinia coriaria tree | noun substantive | di-vi-di-vi | divi-DI-vi (low-x-high-x) |
| blanku blanku | "snowwhite" (emphatic doubling Doubling Doubling may refer to:*in math:**multiplication by 2**doubling the cube, a geometric problem**doubling time, the period of time required for a quantity to double in size or value**doubling map**period-doubling bifurcation***in music:... ) |
adjective | blan-ku blan-ku | BLAN-ku blanku (high-x-low-x) |
| palu haltu | tree+high 'tall tree | noun substantive+adjective | pa-lu hal-tu | PA-lu haltu (high-x-low-x) |
| poko-poko | slow/calm | adverb Adverb An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs.... |
po-ko po-ko | PO-ko poko (high-x-low-x) |
| bira ront | turn+round (to) turn around | verb Verb A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive... +adverb |
bi-ra ront | bira RONT (low-x-high-x) |
| masha bon | very+good | adverb+adjective | masha bon | masha BON (low-x-high) |
The following are the grammatical rules of Papiamentu intonation:
-Verbs usually have rising tone; a following adverb receives high intonation (ex. 'bira RONT:' turn around).
-Nouns (substantives) and adjectives usually have falling tone, a following adjective receives low intonation (ex. 'PA-lu haltu:' tall tree).
-In words of more than three syllables, grammatical tone or accent will fall on the last stressed syllable. The first stressed syllable receives the opposite tone for contrast: compare noun 'kini-kini' (kini-KI-ni): falcon with adverb 'poko-poko' (PO-ko-poko): slowly.
-An adverb has rising tone, so a following adjective receives high tone (ex. 'masha BON' very good).
!!! - The adverbs 'bon' (good) and 'mal' (bad), even though they are adjectives, in grammar will always have adverbial, rising tone character (ex. 'bon ha-SI:' well-done). They will always behave like adverbs, even when they qualify nouns (ex. 'bon DI-a:' good day). They behave like adverbs even when doubled for emphasis ('bon-BON:' very good).
(Note: in all above examples, primary stress remains on the second word, while secondary stress
Secondary stress
Secondary stress is the weaker of two degrees of stress in the pronunciation of a word; the stronger degree of stress is called 'primary'. The International Phonetic Alphabet symbol for secondary stress is a short vertical line preceding and at the foot of the stressed syllable: the nun in ...
remains on the first word, independently of tone changes. It is thus more accurate to transcribe 'PA-lu hal-tu' and 'bira RONT', with bold typing indicating stress
Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
and CAPITAL LETTERS indicating high tone
High Tone
High Tone is a dub band from Lyon, France. Formed in 1997, the band came with an emergence of the French dub music Scene, with bands like Brain Damage Sound System, Kaly Live Dub, Le Peuple de l'Herbe, Improvisators Dub or Meï Teï Shô...
syllables. Unstressed syllables' tone is dependent on contact syllables.)
-The particle of negation 'no' always receives rising tone: the following verb is inevitably raised in pitch: compare 'mi ta PA-pia' (I speak) and 'mi no TA PA-pia' (I do not speak). This negating pitch-raise is crucial and is retained even after contraction
Synalepha
A synalepha or synaloepha is the merging of two syllables into one, especially when it causes two words to be pronounced as one.The original meaning in Greek is more general than modern usage, and also includes coalescence of vowels within a word...
of the particle in informal speech: 'mi'n TA papia' ("I don't speak")
It is theorised that the unusual presence of both stress and tone in Papiamentu is an inheritance of African languages (which use tone) and Portuguese (which has stress)
Vocabulary
Most of the vocabulary is derived from Spanish and Portuguese and most of the time the real origin is unknown due to the great similarity between the two Iberian languages and the adaptations required by Papiamentu. A 100-Swadesh List of Papiamentu can be found onlineLinguistic studies have shown that roughly two thirds of the words in Papiamentu's present vocabulary are of Iberian
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
origin, a quarter are of Dutch origin,and some of Native American origin and the rest come from other tongues. A recent study by Buurt & Joubert inventarised several hundred words of indigenous Arawak origins
Examples of words of Iberian and Roman, Latin origin, which are impossible to label as either Portuguese or Spanish:
- por fabor/sea asina di = please - Spanish/Portuguese, por favor
- señora = mrs, madam - Spanish, señora; 'Portuguese, senhora;
- kuá? = 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 diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
ization of some vowels is characteristic of Spanish. The use of /b/ (rather than /v/) is difficult to interpret; although the two are separate phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s in standard Portuguese, they merge in the dialects of northern Portugal, just like they do in Spanish
Spanish phonology
This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the Spanish language. Unless otherwise noted, statements refer to Castilian Spanish, the standard dialect used in Spain on radio and television. For historical development of the sound system see History of Spanish...
. Also, a sound-shift could have occurred in the direction of Spanish, whose influence on Papiamento came later than that of Portuguese.
Other words can have dual origin, and certainly dual influence. 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.
Portuguese origin words:
- barbulet = butterfly - Portuguese, borboleta;
- sapatu = shoe - Spanish, zapato; Portuguese, sapato;
- kachó = dog - Spanish, cachorro; (puppy); Portuguese, cachorro (dog or puppy);
- bisiña = neighbour - Spanish, vecino, vecina; Portuguese, vizinho, vizinha;
- galiña = chicken(hen) - Spanish, gallina; Portuguese, galinha;
- gai = rooster - Spanish, gallo; Portuguese, galo
Spanish origin words:
- siudat (siudatnan) = city - Spanish, ciudad; Portuguese, cidade
- sombre/sinkuri = hat - Spanish, sombrero; Portuguese, chapéu
- kashon/karson = trousers - Spanish, pantalon or calzon/es; Portuguese, calção
- hòmber = man - Spanish, hombre; Portuguese, homem
Dutch origin words:
- apel/aplo = apple - Dutch, appel
- blou = blue - Dutch, blauw
- buki = book - Dutch, boekje
- lesa = to read - Dutch, lezen
English origin words;
- bèk = back
- bòter = bottle
Italian origin words:
- kushina = kitchen - Italian cucina; Spanish cocina; Portuguese cozinha
- lanterna/latern = lantern - Italian lanterna; Portuguese, lanterna
Native American words:
- horkan = hurricane - Taino, hurakan; Carib, yuracan, hyoracan;
Dictionaries
- "GUIA para los españoles hablar papiamento y viceversa: Para que los de Curazao puedan hablar espanol ... (1876)
Author: N. N.;
Publisher: Impr. del Comercio;
Year: 1876
Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT;
Language: Spanish
Digitizing sponsor: Google
Book from the collections of: Harvard University
Collection: americana
Notes: Cover-title: Guia-manual para que los españoles puedan hablar y comprender el papiamento ó patois de Curazao y vice-versa ...
http://www.archive.org/details/guiaparalosespa00ngoog
- Mansur, Jossy M.Jossy MansurJossy Mehsen Mansur is a descendant from an originally Lebanese family, which settled on the island of Aruba. He is the editor of the Papiamento-language newspaper Diario in Aruba...
(1991) Dictionary English-Papiamento Papiamento-English. Oranjestad: Edicionnan Clasico Diario - Betty Ratzlaff (2008) Papiamentu-Ingles, Dikshonario Bilingual e di dos edishon. Bonaire: St. Jong Bonaire
- Websters online Papiamento English Dictionary
Writing system
There are two orthographies: a more phonetic one called Papiamentu (in Curaçao and Bonaire), and the etymologicalEtymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
spelling used in Aruba.
Phrase samples
NOTE: These examples are from Curaçao Papiamentu and not from Aruban Papiamento.- Kon ta bai? or Kon ta k'e bida?: "How are you?" or "How is life?", Portuguese, Como vai?/Como está a vida?, Spanish ¿Cómo te va? ¿Cómo te va la vida?
- Por fabor/ Sea asina di: "Please" Portuguese/Spanish por favor
- Danki: "Thank you" Dutch, Dank je
- Ainda no: "Not yet" Portuguese Ainda não
- Mi (ta) stima bo: "I love you" Portuguese Eu (te) estimo (você) / Eu te amo
- Laga nos ban sali!/ban sali: "Let's go out!", Spanish ¡Vamos a salir!
- 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 nice" Portuguese Tua/Sua mãe é muito bonita.
Comparison of vocabularies
This section provides a comparison of the vocabularies of Portuguese, Papiamento and the Portuguese creoles of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Spanish also shown for contrast.| English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
Portuguese Portuguese language Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095... |
Papiamentu | Guinea-Bissau | Cape Verdean* ** | Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome | Bem-vindo | Bon biní | Bô bim drito | Bem-vindo*** | Bienvenido |
| Good day | Bom Dia | Bon dia | Bon dia | Bon dia | Buenos días |
| Thank you | Obrigado | Danki | Obrigadu | Obrigadu | Gracias |
| How are you? | Como vais?/como vai? | Kon ta bai? | Kumá ku bo na bai? | Kumo bu sta? | ¿Cómo te va? |
| Very good | Muito bom | Mashá bon | Mutu bon | Mutu bon | Muy bien |
| I am fine | Eu estou bem/(bom) | Mi ta bon | N' sta bon | N sta bon | Yo estoy bien |
| I, I am | Eu, Eu Sou | Mi, Mi ta | N', Mi i | N, Mi e | Yo, yo soy |
| Have a nice day | Passa/Passe/Tenha um bom dia | Pasa un bon dia | Pasa un bon dia | Pasa un bon dia | Pasa/Tenga un buen dia |
| See you later | Vejo-te depois/ Te vejo depois/ Até logo | Te aweró/ Te despues | N' ta odjá-u dipus | N ta odjâ-u dipôs, Te lógu | Te veo después/ Hasta luego |
| Food | Comida | Kuminda | Bianda | Kumida | Comida |
| Bread | Pão | Pan | Pon | Pon | Pan |
| Juice | Sumo/Suco | Djus | Sumu | Sumu | Zumo / Jugo |
| I like Curaçao | Eu gosto de Curaçao | Mi gusta Kòrsou | N' gosta di Curaçao | N gosta di Curaçao | Me gusta Curazao |
*Santiago Creole variant
**Writing system used in this example: ALUPEC
ALUPEC
The Alfabeto Unificado para a Escrita do Caboverdiano , commonly known as ALUPEC, is the alphabet that was officially recognized by the Cape Verdean government to write Cape Verdean Creole.- Description :...
***Portuguese expression used in creole.
See also
- Afro-Latin AmericanAfro-Latin AmericanAn Afro-Latin American is a Latin American person of at least partial Black African ancestry; the term may also refer to historical or cultural elements in Latin America thought to emanate from this community...
- Creole languageCreole languageA creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
- LinguisticsLinguisticsLinguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
- PalenqueroPalenqueroPalenquero is a Spanish-based creole language spoken in Colombia. Palenquero is the only Spanish-based creole in Latin America. The ethnic group which speaks this Creole consists only of 3,000 people,...
- Portuguese-based creole languages
- Spanish-based creole languagesSpanish-based Creole languages-Chavacano:Chavacano is a Spanish-based Creole language and the name of the Six Dialects of Spanish evolved words turned into a Creole language spoken in the Philippines...
External links and further reading
- General (socio-)linguistic and historical information on Papiamentu, including an unedited poem (with translation) from the Curaçaoan poet Lucille Berry-Haseth
- Ethnologue.com, report on Papiamentu.
- Papiamento Official Aruba Government Portal
- Papiamento English Dictionary
- Newspaper from Aruba
- La Prensa A Leading Curaçao Newspaper in Papiamentu
- Hasibokos I-News in Papiamento (and Dutch)
- Radio Curom Listen to Papiamentu Radio
- Papiamentu - history and grammatical features
- Papiamentu origins
- Bible Excerpt in Papiamentu
- Papiamentu Translator a simple online translation English - Papiamentu
- iPapiamentu A blog on learning Papiamentu for English speakers
- Papiamentu tur dia A blog for English-speaking students of Papiamentu
- Papiamentu Pronunciation and Grammar Wiki
- For a discussion about the origins of Papiamentu, see "Papiamentu facts", an essay by Attila Narin.
- "A Language Thrives in Its Caribbean Home" article by Simon Romero in The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
July 4, 2010