Papiamento is a Creole language containing elements of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English and French, as well as Arawakan and African languages. It is spoken by about 330,000 people in Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba, which were formerly known as the Netherlands Antilles. There are also Papiamento speakers in the Netherlands and Sint Maarten. In Curaçao and Bonaire the language is known as Papiamentu, and it is known as Papiamento in Aruba.
Many Papiamento speakers are multilingual and are also able to speak Dutch, English and Spanish. Papiamento has been an official language of Aruba since May, 2003. In the former Netherlands Antilles (which at the time comprised Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten) Papiamento was made an official language on March 7, 2007. After its dissolution, the language's official status was confirmed in the newly formed Caribbean Netherlands (part of the Netherlands proper, and compromising Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius), until January 1, 2011; since then, Bonaire is the only portion of the Caribbean Netherlands in which it is recognized.,
Papiamentu, Dutch and English are the official languages of Curaçao; Papiamentu and Dutch are official in Bonaire, and in Aruba the official languages are Papiamento and Dutch.
Papiamentu is a moving target. It varies from island to island, neighborhood to neighborhood, generation to generation. Linguists have various opinions about the history, phonology and grammar. Native speakers often disagree about the details.
Although the number of speakers numbers only about 300,000, there are several newspapers published in the language and there has been recent work to standardize the spellings. This dictionary contains 7,500 terms in English and Papiamento. We also publish companion volumes with paired Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese translations.
