- Official language in
- Aruba
- Also spoken in
- Curaçao, Caribbean Netherlands
- Script
- Latin
Where it's spoken
Papiamento is an official language of Aruba, alongside Dutch: a national ordinance names Papiamento and Dutch as Aruba's official languages and entitles anyone to use either one, spoken or written, in dealings with an administrative body. In Curaçao, the government's own public information portal is presented in Papiamentu by default, with Dutch offered as an alternative. In the Caribbean Netherlands, the law specifically allows the government bodies of Bonaire to conduct oral dealings with anyone in Papiaments. This app's phrase cards describe a common Papiamentu greeting as one used in Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire alike.
Sources
- Landsverordening houdende enige regels inzake het Papiamento en het Nederlands als officiële taal ("Landsverordening officiële talen"), Aruba, AB 2003 no. 38 — Artikel 2 (official languages), Artikel 3 lid 1 (right to use either language with an administrative body)
- Invoeringswet openbare lichamen Bonaire, Sint Eustatius en Saba (huidige geldende versie) — Artikel 4e, lid 1 (Bonaire's government bodies may use Papiaments orally)
- Gobièrnu di Kòrsou — official information portal of the Government of Curaçao — Homepage language navigation (Papiamentu default, Dutch offered as alternate)
Script & pronunciation
Papiamentu is written in the Latin alphabet. Aruba's official spelling standard lists several two-letter combinations alongside the single letters, including ch, dj, sh, and zj, as in this app's card for Bon nochi ("Good night / Good evening"), which contains ch. The same spelling standard divides a word into syllables according to where it is stressed. This app's "romanization" field is not a separate phonetic spelling: it repeats the same word as the "text" field, with a hyphen added between syllables, as in Con bo ta pronuncia esaki? ("How do you pronounce this?"), romanized Con bo ta pro-nun-cia e-sa-ki?
Sources
- Goilo, Enrique R. (2000). Papiamentu Textbook. Oranjestad: De Wit Stores — Preface, p.5 (alphabet)
- Landsverordening schrijfwijze papiamentse taal, with annexed "Ortografia Papiamento", Aruba, AB 1990 no. GT 60 — Ch.1 §2 Abecedario, §7 Digrafonan, §8 Division di Silaba
Grammar essentials
Papiamentu's basic word order places the subject before the verb. Tense is marked by a separate word placed before the verb rather than by changing the verb's ending: ta marks the present, a marks the past, and lo marks the future, as in this app's card Mi ta komprondé ("I understand"), where the subject mi is followed by ta and the verb. Negation is formed by placing no directly before the verb, as in this app's card Mi no ta komprondé ("I don’t understand"). The order of words in a question is the same as in a statement, with only the sentence's intonation changing for a yes-or-no question; when a question opens with an interrogative word, that word is simply placed first while the rest of the sentence keeps its ordinary order, as in this app's card Con bo ta pronuncia esaki? ("How do you pronounce this?"), where the interrogative Con is followed by the ordinary subject-verb-object sequence. A plural suffix, -nan, is added to a noun only when it is necessary to show that the noun is plural, as in this app's card e kondishonnan ("the terms") in Mi ta di akuerdo ku e kondishonnan ("I agree with the terms").
Sources
- Goilo, Enrique R. (2000). Papiamentu Textbook. Oranjestad: De Wit Stores — Lesson 1, p.10–13 (word order, tense markers ta/a/lo, negation, plural -nan); Lesson 2, p.19 (question word order)
Politeness & etiquette
Papiamentu has a single second-person pronoun, bo, for "you," used regardless of how formal the situation is. Where politeness needs to be marked, the person is instead addressed by a title, such as Señor, Señorita, or Doctor, rather than by switching to a separate polite pronoun.
Sources
- Goilo, Enrique R. (2000). Papiamentu Textbook. Oranjestad: De Wit Stores — Lesson 1, p.10 (personal pronouns; polite address by title)