Papiamentu Language
Papiamentu is a mixture of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English, French, and it also has some Arawak Indian and African influences. Papiamentu is one of the few Creole Languages of the Caribbean that has survived to the present day.
Papiamentu is predominately a spoken language among the local people of Curaçao, Bonaire, and Aruba. The official language is Dutch, and the written Papiamentu is limited to some local newspapers and literature. Also the schooling system is Dutch, and people typically don’t get any formal training in their language. There have been some discussions about introducing Papiamentu to be taught at schools as well.
Compared to other languages, Papiamentu is spoken by very few people: less than one third of a million in total. Papiamentu is also a fairly simple language, and it is quite common that certain expressions or more complicated grammatical constructs have to be simplified in order to be translated into Papiamentu.
From island to island, small variations in Papiamentu mainly in spelling and vocabulary can be observed. Some efforts have been made to standardize Papiamentu and its orthography, however, Aruba decided for a spelling that is closer to Spanish, whereas the other islands tried to stay closer to the roots in that respect. As a result, some words may still have more than one way of spelling it, e.g. Papiamentu – Papiamento, Korsou – Korsow, kwater – cuater, sinku – cincu, etc. In general, words are spelled exactly as they are pronounced, e.g. “flet tair” for flat tire.
Basic papiamentu phrases and vocabulary
| Papiamentu | English |
|---|---|
| Bon Bini | Welcome |
| bon dia | good day (before noon) |
| bon tardi | good afternoon |
| bon nochi | good evening; good night |
| danki | thank you |
| por fabor | please |
| di nada | you are welcome |
| mi number di telefon ta … | my phone number is … (see numbers) |
| bél mi | call me |
| kon ta bai ku bo | how are you? |
| kon ta ku bida | how is life? |
| hopi bon | very good |
| tremiento | very good |
| trankilo | calm, everything ok |
| terible | terrible |
| den gran forma | in great shape (said among young/cool people) |
| hopi kalor/caliente | very hot/warm |
| ata aki / ataki | here is the (the second “a” is not pronounced) |
| mi tin hamber | I am hungry |
| mi ke kome | I want to eat |
| lihe, pura, rapido | fast, quick |
| yufrow | Miss |
| señora | Misses |
| mai | very old lady (used instead of Miss) |
| mener | Sir, Mr. |
| flet tair | flat tire |
| sigur | sure |
| pakiko | why? (as in “what for?”) |
| dikon | why? (as in “what is wrong with you?”) |
| di cón | why |
| i | and |
| awe | today |
| ayera | yesterday |
| pan | bread |
| na cas | at home |
| awa | water |
| paña nobo | new cloths |
| casá, esposa, señora | spouse, wife |
| casá, esposo | spouse, husband |
| cuá | which |
| kí | what |
| nada | nothing |
| cu mi | with me |
| pa mi | for me |
| tur cos | everything |
| tur hende | everybody |
| tur caminda | everywhere |
| mainta | morning |
| merdía | noon |
| tramerdia | afternoon |
| ningun hende | nobody |
| sin | without |
| si | if |
| bon | good |
| malu | bad |
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Here are some basic things to say:
Days of the week
Month names (like in Dutch)
Colors
Animals
Some useful verbs
Persons
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