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===Local development theory===
===Local development theory===

'''The Language of Aruba'''
Many on the ABC islands would have it that Papiamento originated from Portuguese, simply due to its having Portuguese loan words. Is this true? Did Papiamento originate from Portuguese or some African dialect, even though no African words can be found in the Papiamento spoken by Arubans? What do written declarations from the past teach us?
Before answering those questions, let’s take as an example the American sport of baseball. Those who know this sport are familiar with the words “home-run” and “hit.” Hispanics from South America have adapted those two words, pronouncing them differently from the way Americans do. “Hit,” for example, is pronounced “heat.” But, does this mean that Spanish originated from English? Let’s take a look at some historical declarations to learn more about the origin of the Papiamento language.
A document by Reverend Schnabel, written in 1704, reads as follows: ''At the time the Dutch arrived on Curaçao, the Indians spoke a broken Spanish, a bastard Spanish.''
The reverend’s declaration was not merely a theory, but a fact that proved the existence of the Indian Papiamento. His declaration is historically confirmed by a letter written by Abraham da Costa Andrade, a Sephardic Jew, to Sarah de Isaac Pardo and Vaz Farro in 1775 on Curaçao, and a written testimony by 26 Aruban Indians in 1803.
The language that the Portuguese Jew used in his letter was the same as the Indian Papiamento used by the Arubans, with the exception that the Aruban document was penned by a Dutchman, with a Dutch orientation, while a Portuguese had written the Curaçaoan letter, with Portuguese orientation. This is evident proof that the Jews of Curaçao continued to use the Indian Papiamento that their ancestors had learned when they arrived on Curaçao. In fact, this may help explain a curious difference in the way certain words are pronounced on Curaçao as opposed to Aruba. On Curaçao, most words that in Spanish end in an “o” are pronounced with an “u” at the end instead, while on Aruba the “o” sound is preserved. This is usually interpreted as evidence of the African influences on the Curaçaoan brand of papiamento. But, when read in this context, may very well show the influence Portuguese Jews had on Curacao’s culture. This idea is plausible, to say the least, if one considers the usual tendency of the populace to emulate the ruling classes. It is of interest that, when one examines the different Curaçaoan Papiamento “dialects”, the one most favoring the “u” ending in words is that of the Sephardic population. Had Papiamento truly originated from Portuguese, we would expect this phonological influence to be more uniform across Papiamento speakers (that is, also under the Aruban population), and not only on Curaçao, where the Jewish influence has been the strongest. So we see that indications in favor of a Portuguese origin of Papiamento may well be misinterpreted traces of a later Sephardic influence, which would naturally be more evident on Curaçao than on Aruba, given that the presence of the Jewish community on Aruba was, and still is, hardly felt.
In 1825 Noel made this declaration: “De indianen van Curaçao hebben zeker hun eigen taal gehad, die naderhand toen zij met de Spanjaarden gemeenzamer werden met Spaanse bastaardwoorden vermengd en waarbij in latere tijden ook enige verdraaide Hollandse woorden zijn gevoegd, zodat het samengelapte Papiamento is ontstaan.''
(*The Indians of Curaçao surely had their own language, to which, after they had become familiar with the Spanish people, Spanish bastard words where introduced, and in later times some twisted Dutch words as well, thus originating the hybrid Papiamento.)
Noel, an expert on the Spanish language, did a study on the origin of Papiamento in which he came to this conclusion.*
It's remarkable to read that there is no mention of African slaves, nor of Portuguese. It is also noteworthy that Noel mentions neither Aruba nor Bonaire. This is due to the dominance of the name Curaçao in the Colonial era, when Aruba and Bonaire were dependent on Curaçao.
Noel's declaration, like that of Reverend Schnabel and other writers from those days, are based on historical reality. And these declarations are positive indication that the legitimate Papiamento is Indian-Spanish, a language that originated during the Spanish occupation. Furthermore, the "broken Spanish" or "bastard Spanish" that the writer mentioned is corroborated by the written testimony by the 26 Aruban Indians in 1803.
It was the Spanish language that was dominant at the end of the 19th century, and the Dutch orientation was influential. This finds proof in an historical document from the time, that reads as follows:
“Proclamacion. Johannes Adriaan de Veer koe ta firma aqui bau, ta participa na toer habitantes di isla di Aruba, koe Su Magestad noos respetada Reina Viuda Regente a haya boon nombrele pa resolucion di dia 19 di Mayo 1897 No 29 como Gezaghebber di Aruba. E ta participa tambe koe ele a encargue awor di e gobierno di Aruba y ta confia, koe toer empleados y habitantes sinsatos lo prestele ayuda y asistencia, a la fin koe su gobierno bau bendicion indispensable di Ser Supremo poor resulta ta interes di e isla aqui y sus habitantes.Aruba, September, 1897, E gezaghebber nombrado J.A.de Veer''. (Proclamation. Johannes Adriaan de Veer that signs hereunder, notifies to all inhabitants of the island of Aruba, that her Majesty our respected Regent Widow-Queen has agreed to name him by the resolution of May 19, 1897, No 29, as the person in charge of Aruba. He communicates too that she has commissioned him with the government of Aruba and believes, that all employees and inhabitants will give help and assistance, so that his government under the indispensable blessing of the Holy Being will result in the interest of this island and his inhabitants. Aruba, September, 1897,Person in charge named J.A.de Veer''.)
It is important and very instructive to notice the absence of any Portuguese and African words.
In the year 1928 it was Bishop A. van de Veen that published his book Practische behandeling der Papiamentse Spraakkunst. (Practical Treatise of the Papiamento language.)
In it, he proposes an etymological orthography based on Latin principles, but maintaining a Dutch orientation. And this was the Papiamento language system of writing for the A.B.C. islands.
But in Curaçao a tendency began to manifest itself that words should be written the way they are pronounced. In the year 1961 the "commission Daal" was installed in Curaçao, without ever consulting Aruba. At that time Aruba was still unwillingly forming part of the Netherlands Antilles (N.A.), and Curaçao being de facto the capital, it appropriated the Papiamento language.
Curaçao had one motto in mind: "Three islands but one nation, one flag, one language."
In other words, Curaçao wanted Aruba to change his traditionally etymological language and accept a phonological orthography from Curaçao and forget its Indian-Aruban heritage.
The following testimony is a copy of the document in which 26 Aruban Indians gave their supporting declaration in a process between Commander Pieter Specht and Tax collector Bruyn Goverts Quant. This testimony was published in the January 20, 1990 edition of the Dutch language Aruban newspaper “Amigoe,” by Mr. Charles Gomez Casseres. Mr. Casseres gave an ample report about the Papiamento in olden times, and removed all possibilities that the Papiamento of Aruba could have originated from Afro-Portuguese. Again in this testimony it is noticed that the language of the Portuguese and African slaves living in Curaçao had no influence on the Papiamento of Aruba.
This declaration is of the 22nd of June, 1803, and the original is saved in the Kingdom files in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Testificacion.
''Noos ta firma por la berdad, y para Serbir na tiempo qu lo llega di mooster, qui des die tiempoe koe Señor B.G Quant ta poner na Serbisje die tera, Seemper noos ta teende coonta qui eel ta maltrata noos comanndeur pieter Specht pa toer sorto die koos y seemper el dho Quant ta precura die entreponeel deen toer gobierno die comandeur,por ees motibo noos ta espriminta koe eel ta causa die toer disunion y asina koe a ofrece na tiempoe die comandant Engles A. Greagh koe eel a habla comandant Engles, cu noos indiaan ta baay lamanta contra Engles/ariba die ees falso testimonio qui eel a hasie contra noos,comandant Engles a baay na kaas die comandeur kibra cañon die canpania y bira toer cañon nan roerpert,claba cañon toema toer scopette y polbe die forti Cargaar,pa dien die tera y pide asistencie na toer barco,oen mientira,koe noenka tal koos no pasa no noos cabees,tambien noos ta confesa qui noos camandeur a precura seemper na toer llegada die barcasion enemigo,die tira alarma na sue kaas, y tene boon guardia y ronda toer anoche, y seemper noos comandeur tabata hoento koe noos, y koe oen boon gobierno, no solamente na ees caso allie, mas na toer sorto die gobierno kie ta depende die comandeur, nos tabata tenido abaau die oen boon order, y koe moechoe boon hablar, sin oesa die ningoen maltrato, ni die palabra, menos die castigo, pa poor doena motibo die koorda, kie ta oen omber tocado na Soe sientier mas contrario asta presente nos ta halla nos comandeur coemplido, na toer soe rason y conversacion y por ser berdad noos ta firma ees die noos mismo mano ofresiendo nos hoeramento delantie tribunal die nos mayor gobierno. Aruba 22e Junio 1803''.
It is noteworthy that from the 288 words in the declaration, only 5 are Dutch. Technical military words: Comandeur, roerpert, asistensie, order and Indiaan. The word fortie is also used, which is adapted from the Dutch word “fort.” And because a Dutchman wrote the letter, it has Dutch orientation.
For example, the letter u in Papiamento is equal to oe in Dutch. So if you tell a Dutchman to write duna (give), he would write “doena”.
Tuma (take) would be “toema”, tur (all) would be “toer” and cu/qu (with/that) would be koe. Uza (use) would be “oesa”.
Because Dutch is the language taught in school, many Aruban children will write Papiamento with a strong Dutch orientation. For example, if an Aruban child must write this question in Papiamento: “Can you come to my house so we can play in the wood?”
The child would write: “Boo poor bien mie kas panoos hoenga din moondie? Which corrected by an adult would be like this: “Bo por bin mi cas panos hunga den mondi?”
Aruba was placed by the Netherlands in The Netherlands Antilles (N.A.) with other 5 islands and with Curaçao as the seat of its capital. For many years Aruba sought to sever ties with the other islands. Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles on January 1, 1986, and became a separate, self-governing member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. For years the truth about the Papiamento language was hidden from some Arubans. Because of Curaçao’s African heritage, they wanted to find African roots to their language, and even tried to force feed this notion to Arubans during the days when Aruba was bound to Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles. But Aruba never wanted to lose its identity and never accepted the theory.
According to historian Hamelberg, up to and including the year 1758 there were no African slaves in Aruba. According to Hartog there were only a few African slaves in Aruba by 1791.
Our Indian or Arawak heritage is stronger than that of most Caribbean islands. Even though no full blooded aboriginals remain, the features of the islanders clearly indicate our genetic heritage. And the majority of the population is descended from Indian Arawak, Dutch and Spanish ancestors.
Just like other languages, in time the Papiamento language too adapted words from other languages, especially from Dutch, English and Portuguese. But these words were adapted after the Papiamento language already came “alive”. Some of these words were probably things that were not known by the “parents” of the Papiamento language.
For example:
• spiel (mirror) is adapted from the Dutch word “Spiegel”
• “auto” (car) is adapted from the Dutch word “auto”
• “Frigidaire” was adapted from the Trademark that is used for electric refrigerators and is how a refrigerator is called in Papiamento
• “Airco” is adapted from the English word Air conditioner
• Cachó (dog) from the Portuguese word “cachorro” ( Probably it were the Portuguese that made this animal known to the inhabitants.)

Because some words were adapted from other languages and introduced in Papiamento does not imply that Papiamento originated from those languages. Other people will reason that even though they have never learned Portuguese, they can almost understand it, and so implying that Papiamento originated from Portuguese. But lets not forget that both Spanish and Portuguese originated from Latin; that is why there are similarities, and nothing else. It is just like the Italian language, which has Latin roots. If it is spoken slowly, some words can be understood by Arubans.
Today we can be thankful to Aruban historian and linguist Jossy M. Mansur, who, after studies, wrote many articles about the origin of the language. And we can be thankful to people in the past who wrote about the Indians, so that today we know for sure that the legitimate Papiamento language did not originate from African-Portuguese, but from Indian-Spanish.
The late Aruban and political advisor José D. van der Linde even suggested that because Curaçao made itself “owner” of the language and gave the language “African-Portuguese” roots, the language spoken by the Arubans with “Indian-Spanish” roots should be given a different name, and till his death he always referred to the language, not as Papiamento, but as “E Idioma di Aruba” (The Language of Aruba).
When the word Indian or Indians is written, it does not apply to the people of India, but to the Aboriginal/Indigenous Arawaks that left Venezuela and settled in Aruba.


There are various local development theories. One such theory proposes that Papiamento developed in the Caribbean from a Portuguese-African [[pidgin]] used for communication between African slaves and Portuguese-speaking slave traders.
There are various local development theories. One such theory proposes that Papiamento developed in the Caribbean from a Portuguese-African [[pidgin]] used for communication between African slaves and Portuguese-speaking slave traders.
For religious and political reasons, the traders were mostly [[Jew]]s of Portuguese origin.
For religious and political reasons, the traders were mostly [[Jew]]s of Portuguese origin.


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, for fear of being punished as Dutch collaborators.
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, for fear of being punished as Dutch collaborators.
The precise role of [[Sephardic Jew]]s in the early development is unclear, but it is certain that [[Jew]]s play a prominent role in the later development of Papiamentu. It is certain that Papiamento is linguistically similar to [[Ladino]], the language of early Portuguese/Spanish Sephardic communities. 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/Ladino. As various nations owned the island and official languages changed with ownership, Papiamento/Ladino became the constant language of the residents.
The precise role of [[Sephardic Jew]]s in the early development is unclear, but it is certain that [[Jew]]s play a prominent role in the later development of Papiamentu. It is certain that Papiamento is linguistically similar to [[Ladino]], the language of early Portuguese/Spanish Sephardic communities. Many early residents of Curacao 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/Ladino. As various nations owned the island and official languages changed with ownership, Papiamento/Ladino became the constant language of the residents.


===African origin theory===
===African origin theory===

Revision as of 15:51, 21 March 2007

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Papiamento or Papiamentu is the primary language spoken on the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao (the so-called ABC islands). It is also well known by people in Saba, St Eustatius, and the Sint Maarten islands.

Papiamento is a creole language whose lexicon is drawn firstly from Portuguese (about 60%) and some Spanish language and from Dutch (about 25%). The remainder (15%) comes from West African languages, Arawak, and other languages.

History

The historical origins of Papiamentu are still not very well known. It is still 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. In addition, some Arubans claim Papiamentu to be of Arawak-Spanish origin and developed mostly in Aruba, while others maintain it to be an Afro-Iberan language that developed on 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 Papiamentu.

However, historical constraints, core vocabulary and grammatical features that Papiamentu shares with Capeverdean crioulo suggest that the first ingredients were Portuguese and languages of West Africa, and that the Dutch and Spanish influence occurred at a later time (17th and 18th century, respectively). The name of the language itself comes from papear ("to chat", "to talk"), a characteristically (old) Portuguese word; compare with Papiá Kristang ("Christian talk"), a Portuguese-based creole of Indonesia, and the Capeverdean Crioulo word papiá ("to talk"). Spain claimed dominion over the islands in the 16th century, but made little use of them. In 1634 the Dutch-based West India Company (WIC) took possession of the islands, deporting their small 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.

Local development theory

There are various local development theories. One such theory proposes that Papiamento developed in the Caribbean from a Portuguese-African pidgin used for communication between African slaves and Portuguese-speaking slave traders. For religious and political reasons, the traders were mostly Jews of Portuguese origin.

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, for fear of being punished as Dutch collaborators. 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 Papiamentu. It is certain that Papiamento is linguistically similar to Ladino, the language of early Portuguese/Spanish Sephardic communities. Many early residents of Curacao 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/Ladino. As various nations owned the island and official languages changed with ownership, Papiamento/Ladino became the constant language of the residents.

African origin theory

A more recent theory holds that the origins of Papiamentu 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 Upper Guinea Kriol, Mina, Capeverdean Crioulo, 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 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, Upper Guinea Kriol, and the Capeverdean Crioulos). For instance, Compare mi ("I" in Cape Verdean Creole and Papiamento) or bo (meaning you in both creoles). Mi is from the Portuguese mim (IPA: [mĩ], me) and bo is from Portuguese vós (you). The use of "b" instead of "v" is very common in the African Portuguese Creoles due to their relation with Northern Portugal dialects.[citation needed] 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 Potuguese influence on an already existing Spanish-based creole. Another comparison is the use of the verb "ta" from vernacular Portuguese "tá" (from "estar", to be) with verbs where Portuguese does and with others where it does not use it: "Mi ta + verb", also the rule in the Cape Verdean Creoles. These issues can also be seen in other Portuguese Creoles (Martinus 1996; see also Fouse 2002 and McWhorter 2000).

Present status

Many Papiamento speakers are also able to speak Dutch, English and Spanish. Venezuelan Spanish is a constant influence today, especially in Aruba.

Dialects

Papiamento has three main dialects, one per island: Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire.

Sounds

Most Papiamento vowels are based on Ibero-Romance vowels, but some are also based on Dutch vowels like : ee, ui, ie, oe, ij, ei, oo, and aa.

Grammar

Vocabulary

Most of the vocabulary is derived from Portuguese and Spanish, 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. 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 the rest come from other tongues.

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

  • Por fabor = Please - Portuguese/Spanish por favor
  • Señora = Mrs, Madam, - Portuguese Senhora, Spanish Señora
  • Kua? = Which? - Portuguese, Qual; Spanish, Cual
  • Kuantu? = How much? - Portuguese, Quanto; Spanish, Cuanto

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:

  • sapatu = shoes - Portuguese sapato, Spanish, zapato
  • kachó = dog - Portuguese cachorro (dog), Spanish, cachorro (puppy)
  • bisiña = neighbour - Portuguese vizinho, vizinha, Spanish, vecino, vecina

Spanish origin words:

  • siudat = city - Spanish ciudad
  • sombre = hat - Spanish sombrero
  • karson = trousers - Spanish calzón, Portuguese calção

Dutch origin words:

  • apel = apple - Dutch appel
  • blòu = blue - Dutch blauw
  • buki = book - Dutch boekje
  • lesa = to read - Dutch lezen

Dictionaries

Writing system

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).

Examples

Phrase samples

NOTE: These examples are from the Aruban Papiamento, not the other Papiamentu

  • Bon dia = Good morning, Portuguese Bom dia; Spanish Buenos dias
  • Mòro = The short way of saying "Good morning" from Dutch "(Goede) morgen"
  • Bon tardi = Good afternoon, Portuguese Boa tarde, Spanish buenas tardes
  • Bon nochi = Good night (Portuguese, Boa noite; Spanish, Buenas noches)
  • Con ta bay? or Con ta k'e bida? = How are you? or How is life?, Portuguese, Como vai?/Como está com a vida?; ta is the vernacular Portuguese of verb to be, 'tá instead of está, Spanish ¿Cómo te va?)
  • Mi ta bon, danki = I am fine, thank you, vernacular Portuguese, Eu (mim) (es)tou bom/bem
  • Tur kos ta bon = everything is alright, Portuguese tudo está bem (bom) (kos = coisa)
  • Hopi bon or Tremendo = very good
  • Trankilo = calm, Portuguese/Spanish, tranquilo
  • Hopi calor = very hot/warm, Portuguese/Spanish calor/caliente (hopi = Dutch hoop, lit. a heap, a lot)
  • Con yama bo? or Kon bo nomber ta? = What's your name?, Portuguese Como você se chama? / Como te chamas?
  • Ami yama Raul or Mi nomber ta Raul = My name is Raul, Portuguese, Me Chamo Raul / Meu nome é Raul; Spanish, Mi nombre es Raul/Me llamo Raul
  • Di unda bo ta? = Where are you from?, Portuguese, De onde você vem?
  • Mi ta bin(i) di… = I come from…, Portuguese Eu venho de…
  • Mi ta biba na… = I live in…, Portuguese Eu vivo na…
  • Por fabor = Please, Portuguese/Spanish por favor
  • Danki = Thank you, Dutch, Dank u
  • Di nada! = it was no trouble at all! (or it was nothing!), Portuguese/Spanish De nada
  • Hende hòmber = Male, Portuguese, Homem; Spanish Hombre
  • Hende muhé = Female, Portuguese Mulher; Spanish Mujer
  • Hende = mankind, or people, in Papiamento "female" and "male" attribute is referred externally
  • Si = Yes, Spanish Sí; Portuguese Sim
  • No = No, Spanish No; Portuguese Não
  • Ainda no = Not yet, Portuguese Ainda não
  • Ayo! = Goodbye!, Portuguese Adeus; Spanish Adiós
  • Te otro biaha! = until next time!, Portuguese Até outro dia
  • Te awero(Te' oro) = See you later!
  • Mi ta sinti bo falta! = I miss you!, Portuguese Eu (mim) sinto vossa falta!, Spanish me haces falta
  • Mi (ta) stima bo = I love you, Portuguese Eu (te) estimo (você) / Eu te amo
  • Awor / Aworaki = Now, Portuguese Agora; Spanish Ahora
  • Ayera = Yesterday, Spanish Ayer
  • Mi tin hamber = I am hungry, from Spanish tengo hambre
  • Mi tin sed = I am thirsty, Spanish tengo sed, Portuguese Eu tenho sede
  • Laga nos ban sali! = Let's go out!, Spanish ¡Vamos a salir!
  • Te mañan!, Te mas awero!(Te' oro), Te despues! =Until tomorrow!, see you later!, Till the next time!, Portuguese Até amanhã, Até logo, Até depois)
  • Pabien! = Happy birthday! (also means congratulations!), Portuguese Parabéns!
  • Bon Aña! = Happy new year!, Portuguese Feliz ano novo or Bom ano; Spanish Feliz año nuevo
  • Bon pasco (di nasemento)! Bon pasku (di resurecion) = Merry Christmas! Happy Easter!, Portuguese, Boa Páscoa
  • No lubida! = Don't forget!, Spanish, No olvides
  • Corda skibi mi bèk mas lihe posíbel! = Write me back as soon as possible!
  • Mener = Mister, Portuguese Senhor; Spanish Señor; Dutch Meneer
  • Señora = Mrs, Madam, Portuguese Senhora, Spanish Señora
  • Jùfròu = Miss, Ms., Dutch, juffrouw
  • Mi number di telefòn ta… = my phone number is…, Spanish Mi número de teléfono es…
  • Yama'mi = Call me (by telephone); Spanish Llámame.
  • Holoshi = Clock /watch, Dutch: "horloge", Spanish: "reloj", Portuguese: "relogio"

References

  • Efraim Frank Martinus (1996) The Kiss of a Slave: Papiamentu's West-African Connections. University of Amsterdam Press.
  • Gary Fouse (2002) The Story of Papiamentu. New York: University Press of America
  • John H. Holm (1989) Pidgins and Creoles Volume One. Theory and Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  • John McWhorter (2000) The Missing Spanish Creoles: Recovering the Birth of Plantation Contact Language. Berkeley: University of California Press.

See also

Papiamento edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Template:Official Languages of South America

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