Papiamento (or Papiamentu) is the language spoken on the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao (the so-called "ABC islands").
Papiamento is a creole language with roots in primarily African, Portuguese and Dutch and to a lesser extent Spanish, and Native Indian languages. The biggest menace to the existence and the further development of Papiamento is that native speakers tend to deviate from its origins by replacing original African, Portuguese and Dutch words with Spanish equivalents.
The historical origins of Papiamento are still not very well known. It is disputed whether Papiamento originated from Portuguese or from Spanish. Due to the resemblance between Spanish and Portuguese, it is difficult to tell whether a particular word came from one or from the other, or even from Italian (old Genovese). In addition, some Arubans claim Papiamento to be of exclusively Arawak-Spanish origin and do not want to accept the African influence on the language, while others do not want to accept the Native American influence on Papiamento and therefore maintain it to be an exclusively Afro-Iberian language that developed first on Curaçao and then spread to Aruba. While such discussions often are based on historical evidence selectively interpreted for nationalist purposes, they nevertheless further complicate the debate on the origins of Papiamento.
However, historical constraints, core vocabulary and grammatical features that Papiamento shares with Cape Verdean Creole suggest that the basic ingredients were Portuguese and languages of West Africa, and that the Dutch, Spanish and 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 both Portuguese and Spanish; compare with Papiá Kristang ("Christian talk"), a Portuguese-based creole of Indonesia, and the Cape Verdean Creole word papiâ ("to talk"). Spain claimed dominion over the islands in the 15th century, but made little use of them. In 1634, the Dutch-based 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. An outline of the competing theories is provided below.
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 Ladino 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.
Some specifically claim that 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.
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).
Papiamento has two main dialects: Papiamento in Aruba and Papiamentu in Curaçao and Bonaire. Although the Papiamentu in Curaçao and Bonaire are significantly the same, there are still minor differences.
Papiamento sounds much more Spanish. The most apparent difference between the two dialects is given away in the name difference. Many words in Aruba end with "o" while that same word ends with "u" in Curaçao and Bonaire. It is the same with the letters c and k.
For example:
Papiamento: Palo (tree) Cas (house) Papiamentu: Palu (tree) Kas (house)
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/.
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 which typically have rising pitch on the stressed syllable, and those which 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.
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 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 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:
There are two orthographies: a more phonetic one called Papiamentu (in Curaçao and Bonaire), and the etymological spelling used in Aruba (and formerly used on all three islands).
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 | Portuguese | Papiamentu | Guinea-Bissau | Cape Verdean* ** | Spanish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome | Bem-vindo | Bon Biní | Bô bim drito | Bem-vindo*** | Bienvenidos |
| Good day | Bom Dia | Bon dia | Bon dia | Bon dia | Buenos días |
| Thank you | Obrigado | Danki | Obrigadu | Obrigadu | Gracias |
| How are you? | Como vais? | Kon ta bai? | Kumá ku bo na bai? | Módi ki bu sa ta bai? | ¿Cómo te va? |
| Very good | Muito bom | Mashá bon | Mutu bon | Mutu bon | Muy bien |
| I am fine | Eu estou bom/bem | Mi ta bon | N' sta bon | N sta dretu | 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 um bom dia | Pasa un bon dia | Pasa un bon dia | Pasa un bon dia | Pasa un buen dia |
| See you later | Vejo-te depois | Te aweró | N' ta odjá-u dipus | N ta odjâ-u dipôs, Te lógu | Te veo despues |
| Food | Comida | Kuminda | Bianda | Kumida | Comida |
| Bread | Pão | Pan | Pon | Pon | Pan |
| Juice | Sumo | Djus | Sumu | Sumu | Zumo / Jugo |
| I love Curaçao | Eu gosto de Curaçao | Mi stima Kòrsou | N' gosta di Curaçao | N gosta di Curaçao | Yo amo Curaçao |
: Ethnologue report on Papiamentu.
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