# Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society/Volume 22/Number 120/The Aruba Language and the Papiamento Jargon

from Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 22, No. 120, Part IV (October 1885), pp. 299–305
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THE ARUBA LANGUAGE AND THE PAPIAMENTO JARGON.
By Alb. S. Gatschet, Washington, D.C.
(Read before the American Philosophical Society, July 18, 1884.)
Aruba is the westernmost isle of the group of islands which extends from east to west along the northern coast of South America at a short distance from the mainland. It lies north of the peninsula of ​Paraguana, Venezuela and north-east of the entrance to the Gulf of Maracaïbo; it belongs to the dominion of the Dutch in the West Indies, which extends over the following islands: Aruba (preferable to the orthography: Oruba), Curaçao, Curaçilla at the south-eastern cape of Curaçao, Bonaire or Buen Aire, and the two Aves or Bird islands. Curaçao is the largest island of the archipelago and consists of a barren rock almost devoid of vegetation; the capital of the Dutch colony, Wilhelmstadt, is built upon its south-western shore. In former times the thrifty inhabitants accumulated wealth as the mediators of a lively smuggling trade between the Spanish and other colonies of the West Indies. Salt is now the staple produce of Curaçao with its 22,000 inhabitants; as to its size, it is nearly three times larger than Aruba, which has 300 square kilometers and 5070 inhabitants.
The explorer Alphonse L. Pinart, from whom the linguistic material printed below was obtained, visited the Curaçao group in the summer of 1882. Although the natives of Aruba have since A.D.1800 abandoned their paternal language for the Papiamento jargon, their exterior is still of a pure Indian type. The Aruban language was probably the same as that of Curaçao and related to the vernacular of the peninsula of Paraguana. From natives far advanced in age Pinart succeeded in obtaining a few terms of the Aruban language and of local nomenclature, also six sorcerer's formulas, and from the Papiamento, as spoken at present, he secured a limited number of plant and animal names evidently pertaining to the extinct Indian dialect; the number of these may be easily increased by future travelers.
An old Aruba Indian, recently deceased, witnessed at the former Indian encampment at Saboneta the inhumation of a native female in one of the large conical ollas, her body being doubled up within the vase and the head protruding through the orifice. A smaller urn was then placed upon the head, bottom up, and the whole covered with earth. Several Aruban grottoes and rock-shelters yielded inscriptions and pictographs to the explorer, who considers their style as related to the pictography of the Orinoco and Apure countries. Fragments of pottery, hatchets made of shells and stones, are profusedly scattered around the ancient encampments of the native Arubans.
The name of Curaçao island seems to be the Tupi word coaracý, curassé sun, in Guarani quaraçí; Aruba resembles the name of a shrub which is called in French Guyana; arube. Nicolas Fort y Roldán, in his Cuba indigena (Madrid, 1881), p. 125, gives arabo as the name of a plant as heard once on the Great Antilles. For Curaçao compare: Navarrete, Colleccion de les Viages, III, pp. 250.
Nouns, verbs and sentences,
adamudu rain bāru xantu uōu to ask for something to eat danshikki danshēbu sack, pouch ​datiē! be gone! kāfa devil, wicked spirit kanla (?kaula) thing, object kantie baulēte! give me to eat! karebe spoon χāba dōboχedan guayete! sit down! χida mão! good morning! χomoi phantom, hobgoblin χute kontābo? how do you do? totumba, waidānga water-gourd.
Names given to Aruban mountains and heights:
Aiyo, Behika, Cukūroi, Handebirari, Kasinari, Kibaima, Kodekodēktu, Matīvidiri, Shabururi, Shiribana, Tarabana, Wakubana, Yabarubari, Yamanota.
Names of Aruban caves:
Matīvidiri, Warerūkuri, Waririkiri.
Names of Aruban places ("endroits"):
Antikūri, Arikurari, Bedūi, Bushiribani (?), Cūbari, Damāri, Hendieku, Kamakūri, Kashiunti, Kausheati, Kassibari, Warirūri, Webūri, Yuditi.
Names of Aruban trees:
dabaraida; hubădā tarabada.
Names of plants:
dividivi fruit of Sapindus coriaria jobo Spondias lutea kadushi Cereus laniginosus kipopo Agaricus lokiloki Mimosa unguiscata makura Abrus precatorius nandu Cytisus catjan shimaruko Malpighia glabra surun Cratera gynandra takamahak Ragara octandra tuturutu Robinia pulcherrima watapana Sapindus coriaria yoroyoro Theretia neriflora.
Names of fish:
ginga Diodon atinga karmā-u Characinus cyprinioides kurkur Chatodon fromitus puruntsi Serranus variolosus.
​Names of birds:
kinikini Cymindes illigeri krabete Fulica —? shushubi Orpheus americanus warawara Cathartes curasoica.
Insects and other animals:
dori Rana (—?) guruguru Calandra granaria (a beetle) hanahana Formica cephalota kimakima Cassiopea frondosa (a rhizopod) kumexen Termes fatalis lembelembe Conops sanguisuga (a dipteron) mamondenga Ichneumon niger paluli Mytilus edulis waltaka lizard.
Several of these names are formed by duplication of the (dissyllabic) radix, a process occurring in many languages to indicate formation by onomatopoesy, or diminutive nouns, or objects existing in large numbers.
EXORCIST'S OR CONJURER'S FORMULAS.
When A. L. Pinart gathered these formulas, he found it impossible to obtain any interpretation for the single words. When I remarked to him that such formulas of sorcery were often made up of unmeaning sounds and words, he scouted the idea, and said these sentences were literal quotations from the extinct Aruban tongue. It will be noticed that several words in them occur in the lists above kāfa, datiē, watapuna (cf. watapana). In the formula preceding the last one, some rhythm resembling assonance is perceptible.
In making a study of the above lists, I have endeavored to classify the lost Aruba language among some of the circumjacent linguistic families. But the peculiar selection of the terms, which are very uncommon, the paucity and probable disfiguration of them in the mouth of the uneducated people have not permitted to find any other but passing analogies with the ​above. Goajiro, which is spoken from the point of the Goajira peninsula down to the Gulf of Darien in various dialects, yielded the following:
Aruba: kāfa devil, Goaj. yarfás, yartá, yaröjá.
All the other terms which I could compare with Goajiro, Guamaco, Arawak, Tupi and the extinct male and female Carib dialects of the Leeward islands (dialect of Guadeloupe, Dict. of Rev. Raym. Breton, 1665) differed entirely from Aruba. Hagē, the generic term for ant in the insular Carib, may be compared with hanahana, Formica cephalota of Aruban.
The Papiamento.
On account of the peculiar selection and association of their ingredients, and the grammatic changes which the terms are undergoing, the jargons or medley languages are now being studied by linguists with the interest they deserve. The best known jargons of America are the conversational Tupi or lengoa geral, the various negro jargons of Guyana, of the West Indies and of Louisiana, the Chinook jargon, etc. The main ingredient of Papiamento, which is spoken upon Aruba, Curaçao and the rest of this island group, is the Spanish language; then comes Dutch, the language of the Netherlandish rulers, and least in frequency are the words of Indian origin.
The character of this medley speech will best appear from extracts taken from a "Conversational Guide," published at Curaçao, 1876.
Span. comerciante: comerchanti, cajero cajeru, tenedor de libros tenedó di buqui, dependiente clerc, relojero dreshadó di oloshi, pastelero trahadó di pastechi, carnecero matadó di bestia, silletero trajadó di stul, ojelatero blequero, velero seilemaker, aserrador zagdó di palu, encuadernador trajadó di buqui, sastre sneire (Germ. Schneider), zapatero zapaté, albañil meslá, herrero smet, remendador lapidó, predicador domí, director de entierro forlese, sepulturero coster, consejo del templo kerkerad, púlpito prekstul, comunion ricibimentu, campanero leidó di cloc.
The following objects of natural history are partly rendered by aboriginal Indian terms: Span. arból de uva palu di dreif, arból de mamon palu di quenepa, arból de merey palu di cachú; arból de guayaba palu di guyaba, pájaro para, yegua meri, mula mula mujé, burro machu, burra buricu mujé, mono macacu, rata yacá, pulga pruga, lombriz bichi, golondrina souchi, hormiga bruminga, cucaracha cacalaca, gavilan guaraguara, pollo púitu, pavo calacuna, papagayo lora, cienpie disinbei (Dutch), pauji pajuis, migajas wiriwiri, cante conufes (a fish), zavalo snuc (a fish), arenque en salza pequelé (Dutch), chimbobó guiambó, ahullama pampuna, lechoza papaya, aji (or chile) promente [Span. pimiento], cambur bacoba, guanábana sorsaca, plátano banana, chirimoña ó riñon scopapel, piña anaza, naraja laraja, ciruelas preimu.
We add a few conversational sentences:
Debe ser tarde mesté ta lat No espera Usted al Sr. L.? bo no ta sperá shon L.? ​Vé a ver otra vez si ha venido bai ueita atrové cu él á bini. El Sr. L. está en casa? Shon L., ta na cas? Ha ido fuera ela vai afó Hablas bien bo ta papia bon Lo estimaré siempre lo mi stimabu tur mi vida Quiere Usted jugar carta? mener quié jungá carta? (mener: mynheer) Mo tengo ganas de jugar mi non tin gustu dé jungá Ha comido Usted bastante? bo a comé jopi? Es bastante léjos ta machá aleu Estoy aun un poco débil ainda mi ta un poco suac Cuantas iglesias hai aqui? cuantu misa tin aqui? Muchas en el campo jopi na cunucu.
The above examples plainly show that this jargon exhibits the same processes of linguistic deterioration as are commonly found in medley languages of this description.
Three dialects may be distinguished upon Curaçao island (Guide, p. 49): that of the Dutch Protestants, marked by the peculiar accent of the Hollanders; the one of the Jews, which comes nearer to the Spanish pronunciation; the third dialect is that of the common people. The term papiamento signifies talk, conversation and is derived from palabramentum, pa-abra being the Spanish for word, talk (from παραβολἡ). The verb papiá means to converse, speak.
At Corsouw a weekly paper of four quarto pages was published from 1871 to 1875 in this jargon, which bore the title: Civilisadó. Courant di pueblo. Orden, trabouw, instruccion:—Progreso.
Judging from the titles below transmitted by the kindness of Mr. Pinart the literature of this isolated form of human speech has been up to the present time chiefly of a devotional character:
Guia para los Españoles hablar papiamento, y viceversa, para que los de Curazao puedan hablar español. Por N. N.—Curazao, imprenta del Comercio, 1876. 16°, 86 pages. (The title on the book-cover differs slightly from the inside title above.)
A treatise on the Papiamento jargon was published by Emilio Teza in the Politecnico of Milan, Vol. xi, and also separately Il dialetto curassese, Pisa, 1863. 8°.
Appendix.
(From manuscripts transmitted by Mr. Alph. L. Pinart.)
I. Prayer to the Holy Virgin in the Karibisi dialect (Karibisi tongo) of Surinam.
Odi Maria, Jeretion Maria pololé genade tamoeni romo mālŏmā āmōro Kopo papōrijān Kopo papori walijan Santa Maria tamoeni sāno sēroĕpā toko wangonībā pōkō ērŏmē koman bōkŏ alamboe pŏmĕra. Kepobome.
II. Lord's Prayer in the Cuna language, as spoken on the Pacific slope of the Isthmus of Panamá. Reproduced in a corrected form from the American Antiquarian, Vol. v (1883), p. 354.
patir or papa father, nanguini our; maatuda to-day, pan bread, pe thou, igoat give (in emigoatguine), –guine plural suffix.
III. Prayer to Christ in the Sambú dialect of Chocó, Columbian States.
Naniuri biaunausi zese guanadi, mune-é mule Jesu Cristo zese umaquina etaupen zese redentor mune-é, maquiniamur umaquiniamur, zanaambul umandu caidebu tandé caidebu tandé caidé, zegabur careambur troadena, zaum beuatde, latiguai, cauai nambicansi convezainame cumli-i penitencia caima majorasnane convesai naninanei.
Pidele perdon a Dios, digas Señor mio Jesu Cristo, Dios y hombre, criador padre y redentor mio pesame de todo corazon de haberte ofendido solo por ser quien eses tan digno de ser amado, y tambien me pesa porque me puedas castigar en el infierno, y propongo nunca mas pecar ayudado de tu divina gracia, confesarme y cumplir la penitencia que me mande el padre confesor.
PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. xxii. 120. 2M. PRINTED MAY 25, 1885.
This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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