Papiamento

Papiamento(English:/ˌpæpiəˈmɛntoʊ,ˌpɑː-/)orPapiamentu(English:/-tuː/;Dutch:Papiaments[ˌpaːpijaːˈmɛnts]) is aPortuguese-based creole languagespoken in theDutch Caribbean. It is the most widely spoken language on theABC islands(Aruba,Bonaire, andCuraçao).
The language, spelledPapiamentoin Aruba andPapiamentuin Bonaire and Curaçao, is largely based onPortugueseas spoken in the 15th and 16th centuries, and has been influenced considerably byDutchandVenezuelan Spanish. Due tolexical similarities between Portuguese and Spanish, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact origin of some words. Though there are different theories about its origins, most linguists now believe that Papiamento emerged from thePortuguese-based creole languagesof the West African coasts,as it has many similarities withCape Verdean CreoleandGuinea-Bissau Creole.
There are various theories about the origin and development of the Papiamento language, and precise history has not been established. Its parent language is surelyWest Iberian Romance, but scholars dispute whether Papiamento was derived from Portuguese and its derivedPortuguese-based creole languagesorfrom Spanish. Historical constraints, core vocabulary, and grammatical features that Papiamento shares withCape Verdean CreoleandGuinea-Bissau Creoleare far less than those shared with Spanish, even though the Spanish and Dutch influences occurred later, from the 17th century onwards. In 1978, Jacoba Bouscholte conducted a study on the various Dutch influences in Papiamento. An example of a hybrid word isverfdó, which is a combination of a Dutch rootverf(meaning 'paint') and the Portuguese and Spanish suffix-dor(used for a person who performs an action, like 'painter'). The transformation fromververtoverfdóinvolved changing the-dorto-dódue to a linguistic process calledapocopation.
The name of the language itself originates frompapia, from Portuguese and Cape Verdean Creolepapear("to chat, say, speak, talk"), added by the noun-forming suffix-mento.
Spain claimed dominion over the islands in the 15th century but made little use of them. Portuguese merchants had been trading extensively in the West Indies and with theIberian Unionbetween Portugal and Spain during 1580–1640 period, their trade extended to theSpanish West Indies. In 1634, theDutch West India Company(WIC) took possession of the islands, deporting most of the small remainingArawakand Spanish population to the continent (mostly to the Venezuelan west coast and the Venezuelan plains, as well as all the way east to the Venezuela Orinoco basin and Trinidad), 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 and Curaçao can be seen in official documents in the early 18th century. In the 19th century, most materials in the islands were written in Papiamento includingRoman Catholicschool books and hymnals. In 1837, theCatecismo Corticu pa uso di catolicanan di Curaçao(Brief Catechism for use by Catholics) was printed, the first printed book in Papiamento. In 2009 the Catecismo Corticu was added to theUNESCOMemory of the Worldregister.The first Papiamento newspaper was published in 1871 and was calledCivilisadó(The Civilizer).
One local development theory proposes that Papiamento developed in the Caribbean from an original Portuguese-Africanpidgin, with later Dutch and Spanish (and even some Arawak) influences.
Another theory is that Papiamento first evolved from the use in the 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 colonisation under the influence of 16th-century Dutch, Portuguese (Brazilian) and Native American languages (Arawak and Taíno), with the second repopulation of the ABC islands with immigrants who arrived from the ex-Dutch Brazilian colonies.
The Judaeo-Portuguese population of the ABC islands increased substantially after 1654, when the Portuguese recovered theDutch-held territories in NortheastBrazil, causing most 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 ofSephardic Jewsin the early development is unclear, butJewscertainly played a prominent role in the later development of Papiamento. Many early residents of Curaçao were Sephardic Jews from Portugal, Spain, Cape Verde or Portuguese Brazil. Also, after theEighty Years' War, a group of Sephardic Jews immigrated fromAmsterdam. Therefore, it can be assumed thatJudaeo-Portuguesewas brought to the island of Curaçao, where it gradually spread to other parts of the community. The Jewish community became the prime merchants and traders in the area and so 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 the Netherlands opened economic ties with Spanish colonies in what are now Venezuela and Colombia in the 18th century,students on Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire were taught predominantly in Spanish, and Spanish began to influence the creole language.Since there was a continuous Latinisation process (Hoetink, 1987), even the elite Dutch-Protestant settlers eventually communicated better in Spanish than in Dutch, as a wealth of local Spanish-language publications in the 19th century testify.
According to the European and African origin theory the origins of Papiamento lie in the Afro-Portuguese creoles that arose in the 16th century in the west coast of Africa and in thePortuguese Cape Verdeislands. From the 16th to the late 17th centuries, most of the slaves taken to the Caribbean came from Portuguesetrading posts(feitorias,transl.factories) in those regions. Around those ports, several Portuguese-African pidgin and creole languages developed, such asCape Verdean Creole,Guinea-Bissau Creole,Angolar, andForro(from São Tomé).The 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, which were brought to the ABC islands by slaves and traders from Cape Verde and West Africa.
The similarity between Papiamento and the other Afro-Portuguese creoles can be seen in the same pronouns used,mi,bo,el,nos,bos(o), being Portuguese-based.
Afro-Portuguese creoles often have a shift from "v" to "b" and from "o" to "u":bientu(transl.wind), instead ofviento.In creole and also in Spanish,⟨v⟩and⟨v⟩are pronounced the same. In creole, it is also written as a⟨b⟩. Just as in Portuguese, an unaccented final⟨o⟩is pronounced as/u/.
Guene (the name comes from "Guinea") was a secret language that was used by slaves on the plantations of the landhouses of West Curaçao.There were about a hundred Guene songs that were sung to make the work lighter.However, because of the secret character of Guene, it never had much influence on Papiamento.
Since the late 1990s, research has been done that shines light on the ties between Papiamento and Upper Guinea Portuguese Creole.focus specifically on the linguistic and historical relationships with the Upper Guinea Portuguese Creole, as spoken on the Santiago island of Cape Verde and in Guinea-Bissau and Casamance.
In Bart Jacob's studyThe Upper Guinea Origins of Papiamentohe defends the hypothesis that Papiamento is arelexifiedoffshoot of an early Upper Guinea Portuguese Creole variety that was transferred from Senegambia to Curaçao in the second half of the 17th century, when the Dutch controlled the island ofGorée, a slave trading stronghold off the coast ofSenegal. The Creole was used for communication among slaves and between slaves and slave holders.
On Curaçao, this variety underwent internal changes as well as contact-induced changes at all levels of the grammar, but particularly in the lexicon, due to contact with Spanish and, to a lesser extent, Dutch. Despite the changes, the morphosyntactic framework of Papiamento is still remarkably close to that of the Upper Guinea Creoles of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. Parallels have also been identified between the development of Papiamento andCatholicism.
Papiamento is spoken in all aspects of society throughoutAruba,CuraçaoandBonaire.
Papiamento has been an official language ofArubasince May 2003.In the formerNetherlands Antilles, Papiamento was made an official language on 7 March 2007.After thedissolution of the Netherlands Antilleson 10 October 2010, Papiamento's official status was confirmed in the newly formedCaribbean Netherlands.Also, 150,000 Antillians (mostly from Curaçao) live in the Netherlands and speak their mother language, Papiamento, fluently. Some Papiamento is also spoken onSint Maartenand theParaguaná PeninsulaofVenezuela.
Venezuelan SpanishandAmerican Englishare constant influences today.Code-switchingandlexical borrowingfrom Spanish, Dutch and English among native speakers is common. This is considered as a threat to the development of the language because of the loss of the authentic and Creole "feel" of Papiamento.
Many immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean choose to learn Papiamento because it is more practical in daily life on the islands. For Spanish-speakers, it is easier to learn than Dutch, because Papiamento uses many Spanish and Portuguese words.
The firstoperain Papiamento, adapted byCarel De Haseth[nl]from his novelKatibu di Shon, was performed at theStadsschouwburgin Amsterdam on 1 July 2013, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the ending of slavery in the Dutch Caribbean.
The Papiamento language originates from about 1650. The oldest Papiamento texts that have been preserved are written letters. In the following three letters it can be seen that the words changed and the spelling became closer to the Dutch spelling. Although some words are no longer in use, the basis of Papiamento did not change much.
The oldest letter dates from 1775.It was sent by theSephardic JewAbraham Andrade to his mistress Sarah Vaz Parro, about a family meeting in the centre of Curaçao.
The next letter dates from 1783 and was recently discovered in an English archive.It was sent by Anna Charje in the name of her baby Jantje Boufet to her husband Dirk Schermer in Rotterdam. (The final sentence is standard Dutch.)
The third text dates from 1803.It is anaffidavit(written testimony for use in a court of law as evidence) signed by 26 Aruban farm workers to support their supervisor Pieter Specht against false accusations by landowner B.G. Quant.
Papiamento is written using theLatin script.
Since the 1970s, two different orthographies have been developed and adopted. In 1976, Curaçao and Bonaire officially adopted the Römer-Maduro-Jonis version, a phonetic spelling. In 1977, Aruba approved a moreetymology-based spelling, presented by the Comision di Ortografia (Orthography Commission), presided by Jossy Mansur.
Papiamento is primarily spoken on theABC Islandsand to a lesser extent by theDutch Caribbeandiaspora,namely in the Netherlands. Papiamento is also spoken by a smaller number of speakers in Sint Maarten,Saba and Sint Eustatius.An earlier, now-extinct form of Papiamento was formerly spoken on the Paraguana peninsula of Venezuela.
There are two main dialects of Papiamento, the dialect ofAruba(Papiamento) and the dialect ofCuraçaoandBonaire(Papiamentu), with lexical and intonational differences.There are also minor differences between Curaçao and Bonaire.
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 the 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, the use of "k" in Bonaire and Curaçao replaces "c" in Aruba.
For example:
In the past, certain rural areas of Aruba and Curaçao featured theguttural R(a feature common in French) or omitted the letter S at the end of words (a feature common inCaribbean Spanish). However it is likely many of these rural features have either disappeared over time or are used by few speakers today.
Papiamentovowelsare based on Ibero-Romance and Dutch vowels. Papiamento has the following nine vowels:
Papiamento hasdiphthongs, two vowels in a single syllable that form one sound.
Papiamento diphthongs are based on Ibero-Romance and Dutch diphthongs. It has the following diphthongs:
Stress is very important in Papiamento. Many words have a very different meaning when a different stress is used:
There are general rules for the stress and accent but also a great many exceptions.
When a word deviates from the rules, the stressed vowel is indicated by an acute accent ( ´ ), but it is often omitted in casual writing.
The main rules are:
Most of the vocabulary is derived from Portuguese and
derived Portuguese-based creoles and (Early Modern) Spanish. The real origin is usually difficult to tell because the two Iberian languages are very similar, and adaptations were made in Papiamento. Alist of 200 basic Papiamento wordscan be found in the standardSwadesh list, with etymological reference to the language of origin. There is a remarkable similarity between words in Papiamento, Cape Verdean Creole, and Guinea-Bissau Creole, which all belong to the same language family of theUpper Guinea Creoles. Most of the words can be connected with their Portuguese origin.
Linguistic studies have shown that roughly 80% of the words in Papiamento's present vocabulary are ofIberianorigin, 20% are of Dutch origin, and some of Native American or African origin. A study by Van Buurt and Joubert inventoried the words of Taíno andCaquetíoArawak origin, mostly words for plants and animals.Arawak is an extinct language that was spoken by Indigenous people throughout the Caribbean. The Arawak words were re-introduced in Papiamento by borrowing from the Spanish dialect of Venezuela
Many words are of Iberian origin, and it is impossible to label them as either Portuguese or Spanish:
While the presence of word-final/u/can easily be traced to Portuguese, thediphthongisationof some vowels is characteristic of Spanish. The use of/b/, rather than/v/, descends from its pronunciation in the dialects of northern Portugal as well as ofSpanish. Also, a sound shift may have occurred in the direction of Spanish, whose influence on Papiamento came later than that of Portuguese:subrino("nephew"):sobrinhoin Portuguese,sobrinoin Spanish. The pronunciation ofoas/u/is certainly Portuguese, but the use ofninstead ofnh(/ɲ/) in the ending-nois from Spanish.
Few Portuguese words come directly from Portuguese, but most come via the Portuguese-based creole; in the examples below, the Cape Verdean Creole equivalents areborboléta,katchor,prétuandfórsa.
Portuguese-origin words:
Spanish-origin words:
Dutch-origin words:
English-origin words:
African-origin words:
Native American-origin words:
Aruba and Bonaire's national anthems are in Papiamento, "Aruba Dushi Tera" and "Tera di Solo y suave biento" respectively. The newspaperDiariois also in the language.
The 2013 filmsAbo So(Aruba) andSensei Redenshon(Curaçao) were the firstfeature filmsin Papiamento; the comedyBon Bini Holland(Curaçao and Netherlands) also contains some Papiamento.
TheLord's Prayerin a register of Papiamento usedliturgicallyby theRoman Catholic Church, compared with Spanish, Portuguese, andKing James English:
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.