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Ethnologue: Languages of the World
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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Americas > Netherlands Antilles > Papiamentu

Papiamentu

A language of Netherlands Antilles

ISO 639-3: pap

Population  179,000 in Netherlands Antilles (1998). Population total all countries: 320,200.
Region  Curaçao, St. Maarten, Bonaire Islands (off Venezuela coast). Also in Aruba, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, United States, U.S. Virgin Islands.
Language map  Creole Languages of the Eastern Caribbean
Alternate names   Curaçoleño, Curassese, Papiam, Papiamen, Papiamento, Papiamentoe
Dialects  Becoming more like Spanish, which is prestigious.
Classification  Creole, Iberian based
Language use  About 20,000 L2 speakers. Importance varies by island. Not used as widely on St. Maarten, and even less on Saba and Statia. All domains. All ages. Both Papiamentu and Dutch [nld] use does not indicate lack of education. However, inability to use Dutch hinders social and political mobility. On Curaçao and Bonaire Dutch used at school, Spanish with Spanish-speaking persons, English and Dutch with tourists.
Language development  First 2 years of primary school on Curaçao and Bonaire. Newspapers. Dictionary. Grammar. Bible: 1997.
Writing system  Latin script.
Comments  Maximum number of prefixes, 2; word order distinguishes subjects, objects, indirect objects; affixes indicate case of noun phrases; verb affixes mark person, number, gender of subject, object, other noun phrase—not obligatory; passives; causatives; comparatives; CVC. Fishermen. Christian.

Also spoken in:

Aruba

Language name   Papiamentu
Population  60,000 in Aruba (1999).
Language map  Creole Languages of the Eastern Caribbean
Alternate names  Curaçoleño, Curassese, Papiam, Papiamento, Papiamentoe
Language use  National language. Use of both Papiamentu and Dutch [nld] is not considered an indication of lack of education. Dutch use fosters social and political mobility.
 

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

HUTTAR, George L., author. 1995. Review of: Papiamentu, by Silvia Kouwenberg and Eric Murray.