Nos ta papeando Pidgins, Creoles, and the Situation of Papiamentu

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Nos ta papeando!Pidgins, Creoles, and the
Situation of Papiamentu

• Presenter Karen Feagin

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Review What are pidgins and creoles?

• Pidgins are languages that are formed when two or
  more groups of people with mutually
  unintelligible languages come into contact (e.g.
  exploration, commerce, colonization, slavery,
  etc.)
• They are usually named for the lexifier language
  (e.g. Chinese Pidgin English)
  
• There are NO native speakers
• They DO have grammatical features, although
  extremely simplified with wide idiolectal
  variation

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Review pidgins and creoles

• Creoles are the languages formed after pidgins
  have become the native language of a generation
  of speakers
  
• More complex grammatical features and less
  speaker-to-speaker variation
  
• They DO have native speakers, with normal
  language acquisition

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Papiamentu

• What? A creole based on Spanish, Portuguese, and
  Dutch, with influences from West African and
  Amerindian languages
  
• Where? The ABC islands of the Caribbean (Aruba,
  Bonaire, and Curaçao)
  
• Who? 329K total speakers, 20K who speak it as a
  second language
  

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Language Characteristics Lexicon

• About 60 of the lexicon comes from Spanish and
  Portuguese (noted as Ib.)
  
• Ex No lubida! Mi ta sinti bo falta
• About 25 comes from Dutch (noted as Du.)
• Ex (Masha) danki, Hende (Hòmber/Muhe)
• The remaining 15 comes from West African
  languages, Arawakan languages, and others
  
• Often in creoles, the superstratum language
  supplies the lexicon, where the substratum
  supplies the structure (and such lexical items as
  toponyms)

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Language Characteristics Phonology

• Some examples
• Emphatic nasalization of vowels before ?
• Lack of word-final voiced obstruents
• Use of tone to distinguish identical words
• Allowance of CC coda clusters, complex onset
  clusters
  
• Phonemic inventory similar to that of a typical
  Romance language, with obvious Germanic
  influences
  
• Ex n (with allophones ? ñ) h x e ? è o ò y ø

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Language Characteristics Grammar

• Language Bioprogramme Hypothesis
• General creole characteristics
• No case system (accusative case as a catch-all)
• mi (from Sp. mi or Port. mim), bo (from
  Port vos) mi ta invitá bo (I am inviting
  you)
  
• Lack of verb conjugation
• Mi bai, bo bai, e bai, nos bai, boso bai, nan bai
  
  
• Tense, aspect, and mode specified with separate
  words, rather than coded into words
  
• Mi ta skirbi, Mi ta skirbiendo, Mi a skirbi, Mi
  tabata skirbiendo, Mi lo skirbi
  
• Word order generally Subject-Verb-Object

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History A Brief Overview

• Earliest inhabitants of the islands were the
  Caiquetio Indians who had come over from northern
  coast of present-day Venezuela and spoke a
  language of the Arawak family
• 1499 Spaniards discover the islands, dub them
  las islas inútiles
  
• 1527 Spain colonizes the islands
• Indians either die from exposure to new diseases,
  are hunted down for cannibalism under decree from
  the church, or are shipped to Hispaniola as
  workers
• However, Indians die too quickly to be effective
  workers, giving rise to the need for African
  slaves

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History A Brief Overview

• Because of the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), the
  Spanish could not explore in Africa, so they had
  to get slaves through the Portuguese
  intermediaries
• The islands functioned as a way-station when
  ships would stop, but were generally left
  sparsely populated (except for the notable
  population of Portuguese-speaking Sephardic Jews)
  and scantily defended
• After the founding of the West Indies Company
  (1621), the Dutch were dedicated to establishing
  themselves militarily and commercially in the New
  World. They landed on Curaçao in 1634, and the
  other two islands within two years, ending
  Spanish domination there.

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History A Brief Overview

• With the Dutch as such a long-lasting influence
  over the islands (all are still possessions of
  the Netherlands), one might expect Papiamentu to
  have developed into a Dutch-based creole, rather
  than Iberian with a certain amount of Dutch
  influence. However, the Dutch were never
  interested in the linguistic aspect of domination
  and slavery, and Spanish remained a lingua franca
  of the area. Also, the Catholic church took
  pains to reach out to the local population in
  their own language, Papiamentu, helping to
  solidify it in the state they found it
  predominantly Iberian-based.

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History A Dispute

• There continues to be a good deal of argument as
  to whether Papiamentu is a Spanish-based creole
  with some Portuguese influence or a
  Portuguese-based creole relexified by Spanish.
  This argument calls into question when Papiamentu
  was formed.
• If it is a Portuguese creole, it would have had
  to have been formed by the African slaves still
  in Africa or in transit to the New World.
  Papiamentu does show similarites to Cape Verdean
  Creole, lending support to this hypothesis.
  During the entirety of the slave trade, Cape
  Verde saw approximately 100,000 slaves pass
  through its ports.

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History A Dispute

• If it is a Spanish creole, it would have had to
  have been formed on the islands themselves
  through direct contact with the Spaniards, of
  which there was little, since they were
  frequently absentee landlords. However, there
  was constant contact with Spanish missionaries
  and Spanish-speaking settlements on the northern
  coast of South America.

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Current Status of Papiamentu

• As it now stands, Papiamentu is in no danger of
  extinction. It is used in all domains, public
  and private. It is taught in primary schools,
  but Spanish, a more prestigious language, and
  Dutch, the official language, are used for later
  education. Although Papiamentu does not have a
  social stigma attached to it, most people on the
  islands are multilingual for commercial purposes.
  It is used in TV (including news broadcasting),
  radio, newspapers, and books, having a long
  literary tradition.
• Orthography in use is a point of contention
  between Aruba and the other two islands, as Aruba
  uses a more etymological orthography, whereas
  Curaçao and Bonaire use one more phonemic.

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Sources

• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papiamento
• http//www.ethnologue.com/14/show_language.asp?cod
  ePAE
  
• http//www.worldscriptures.org/pages/papiamentu.ht
  ml
  
• http//www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/
  nt.html
  
• Fouse, Gary C. (2002) The Story of Papiamentu A
  Study in Slavery and Language. 1st ed. Lanham
  MD University Press of America, Inc.
  
• Howe, Kate. (1993) Papiamentu Reader. 1st ed.
  Kensington, MD Dunwoody Press.
  
• Kouwenberg, S. Murray, E. (1994) Papiamentu.
  1st ed. Munich Lincom Europa.