Information AboutPapiamento |
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|name=Papiamento |nativename=Papiamentu |familycolor=Creole |states= Netherlands Antilles and Aruba |region=Caribbean islands |speakers=329,000 |fam1= Portuguese Creole |iso2=pap|iso3=pap}} 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 Africa n languages, Arawak , and other languages. History It is still disputed whether Papiamento originated from Portuguese or from Spanish. Due to the resemblance between the two tongues, it is difficult to tell whether a particular word came from one or from the other. However, historical constraints and its core vocabulary suggest that the first ingredients were Portuguese and languages of West Africa, and that the Dutch and Spanish influence occurred at at a later time (17th and 18th century, respectively). The name of the language itself comes from ''papear'' ("to chat", "to talk"), a characteristically Portuguese word; compare with '' Papiá Kristang '' ("Christian talk"), a Portuguese-based creole of Indonesia, and the Capeverdean Crioulo word ''papia'' ("to talk"). Spain claimed dominion over the islands in the 16th century, but made little use of them. In 1640 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. It is still not known how Papiamento fits into this picture. Local development theory The traditional theory is that Papiamento developed in the Caribbean, from a Portuguese-African Pidgin used for communication between the African slaves and the Portuguese-speaking slave traders. For religious and political reasons, the traders were mostly Jew s of Portuguese origin. The Judaeo-Portuguese population of the 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. African origin theory A more recent theory holds that Papiamento originated 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, and there are still small communities of Guene speakers in Aruba. 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 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 : {Link without Title} , 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. 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" 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. Present status Many Papiamento speakers are also able to speak Dutch (the official language of the Dutch Caribbean), English and Spanish. Venezuela n 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'''. Papiamento is a Tonal Language , which is unusual in creoles, and probably influenced by African tones. Tones in creoles can also be found in Saramaccan . 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 Papiamento. Linguistic studies have shown that roughly two thirds of the words in Papiamento'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:
Meanwhile the existence of a final vowel {Link without Title} can easily be traced to Portuguese, and a Diphthong ization in some vowels can easily be traced to Spanish. The \b\ sound and "ñ" character can mislead an untrained observer; also a sound-shift could occur in direction to Spanish, because this language is of a later influence than Portuguese. Other words can have dual origin, and certainly dual influence. For instance: ''Subrino'' (nephew); in Portuguese is ''Sobrinho'' while in Spanish is ''Sobrino''. The pronunciation of /u/ in the "su-" is traceable to Portuguese, while /n/ in "-no", can be traceable to Spanish. ''Portuguese origin words:''
''Spanish origin words:''
''Dutch origin words:''
Dictionaries
Writing system There are two orthographies: a more phonemic one called Papiamentu (in Curaçao and Bonaire), and one resembling Spanish (in Aruba). Examples Phrase samples
See also External links
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