1 Introduction

Papiamentu, also known as Papiamento, is spoken on the islands of Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire, collectively referred to as the ABC Islands (situated just above Venezuela in the Caribbean). Aruba and Curaçao are countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Bonaire is a special municipality.

Papiamentu (Papiamento) is categorised as a Creole language derived from Portuguese. Simultaneously, Spanish has had a significant influence on Papiamentu and it is clearly evident in Papiamentu’s vocabulary.

2 Pronunciation

Spanish speakers would find it easier to pronounce in Papiamentu than Portuguese speakers. However, there are features of Papiamentu’s sound system which will be new to speakers of both languages. Here are two of the most important examples:

DJ

DJ is the equivalent of the English j or Italian gi sound. The closest sounds in Spanish would be the ll/y sound and the j in Portuguese:

Ù / Ü

Ù / Ü is the equivalent of the Dutch or French u, which is not present in either Spanish or Portuguese, except in Azorean Portuguese:

3 Grammar

Although words in Papiamentu are very recognisable to Spanish and Portuguese speakers, Papiamentu grammar can be quite different and cause difficulties in comprehension.

Definite articles

Both Portuguese and Spanish have singular and plural definite articles for both the feminine and masculine. However, in Papiamentu, there is only one definite article: e.

Indefinite articles

There is one singular indefinite article and one plural indefinite article that do not distinguish genders.

Gender

This feature of reducing articles to just one also translates to gender. In Papiamentu, nouns are neither masculine nor feminine:

Pluralisation

In Papiamentu, the suffix -nan is used to pluralise nouns. This contrasts greatly with both Spanish and Portuguese, which generally form plurals with an -s. Additionally, in Papiamentu, if context indicates that a noun is in the plural, adding the suffix -nan is not necessary.

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns may not be fully recognisable for either Spanish or Portuguese speakers. For the first person, instead of a variation of eu / yo, Papiamentu uses mi. The 2nd person singular is bo, which is reminiscent of Central American and Rioplatense Spanish vos or Brazilian Portuguese você. Additionally, Papiamentu does not distinguish between he / she, using only one term e, which can also mean “the”, depending on the context.

The plural personal pronouns are noso and boso, which look similar to nosotros / nós and vosotros / vocês / vós. Finally, nan is used for they, which does not resemble the terms used either in Spanish or Portuguese.

4 Verbs

Verbs in Papiamentu follow a simpler structure than both Spanish and Portuguese. Whereas Spanish and Portuguese conjugate verbs, Papiamentu uses particles, which are placed between the personal pronoun and the verb.

Present

The present tense in Papiamentu is constructed using ta:

Future

For the future tense in Papiamentu, the particle ta changes to lo:

Past

For the past tense in Papiamentu, the particle ta changes to a, which is similar to the Spanish present perfect third person ha:

Imperfect

For the imperfect tense, the particle ta changes to tabata, which resembles Spanish estaba and Portuguese estava:

5 Connectors

Most connectors in Papiamentu derive from either Spanish or Portuguese:

Although there are always some exceptions:

6 Adverbs

Adverbs in Papiamentu can be very recognisable to Spanish and Portuguese speakers. Here are a few examples:

However, there is a commonly used adverb which derives from Dutch:

7 Question words

Some of the question words in Papiamentu resemble both Spanish and Portuguese:

However, there are other question words which also derive from Spanish / Portuguese, which are not instantly recognisable:

8 Prepositions

Some prepositions in all three languages closely resemble each other. Here are some examples:

Others are more similar to Spanish:

And others are more similar to Portuguese:

On the other hand, some look very different:

9 Vocabulary

Numbers

Papiamentu numbers from 0 to 10 are slightly more similar to Spanish than they are to Portuguese:

Numbers from 11 to 19 follow a different structure. First, you take the word for ten djes, then you add another number from 1 to 9 to get your final number. Therefore, if you want to say 14, you take djes and kuater and you put them together: djeskuater. This is very similar to what happens with numbers 16 to 19 in Spanish and Portuguese:

Numbers 20 and above follow similar patterns to Spanish and Portuguese:

Want to learn more? If you want to go deeper into Papiamentu Numbers and learn how they compare to other Creole languages, visit this page: Creole Languages: Numbers (0–100).

Days of the week

Days of the week derive, for the most part, from Spanish, combining two parts: dja from Spanish día + luna, mars, rason, weps, bièrnè, sabra and dumingu:

Want to learn more? If you want to go deeper into Papiamentu Days of the Week and learn how they compare to other Creole languages, visit this page: Creole Languages: Days of the Week.

Other vocabulary

Although the majority of Papiamentu vocabulary can be traced to either Portuguese or Spanish:

There is one area where knowing Spanish or Portuguese will not help you learn or understand Papiamentu. Because, even though Papiamentu is a Portuguese Creole language, it has a whole range of vocabulary derived from African languages and Dutch, one of the official languages of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. Here are some examples:

Unlike the majority of Papiamentu’s lexicon, months of the year are taken directly from Dutch:

Want a deeper look at how months of the year work across Creole languages, including Papiamentu? Visit: Creole Languages: Months.

10 Conclusion

Whether you are a Spanish or Portuguese speaker, diving into a language as rich and interesting as Papiamentu will allow you to discover the wonders of this unique Creole language of the Caribbean while simultaneously permitting you to also learn something new about your language.

Want to learn more? Want to learn Papiamentu? Visit: Learn Papiamentu (Papiamento) Basic Vocabulary or if you prefer the page in Spanish you can visit Aprende Vocabulario Básico en Papiamento.