Papiamento has two standardised orthographies, one used on the island of Aruba and the other on the islands of Curaçao and Bonaire. The Aruban orthography is more etymological in nature, while the other is more phonemic. Among the differences between the two standards, one obvious difference is the way the name of the language is written. In Aruba it is written Papiamento, while in Curaçao and Bonaire it is written Papiamentu. The governments of Curaçao and Aruba formally standardised orthographic rules in 1976 and 1977, respectively.

History

Development

The first efforts to formalise the language began in the early 1970s, with the first step made in 1969 in Curaçao. R.G. Römer presented to the Central Government of the Netherlands Antilles his (Draft of a spelling for Papyamento). In 1970 the Maduro Commission consisting of eight members, R.G. Römer included, was formed. With a modified proposition, they presented their recommendations to the Minister of Education of the Netherlands Antilles. With further revision, the minister's recommendations were passed onto the Deputy of Education of Curaçao in 1975. Here a Jonis Commission was formed to advise the Curaçaoan government on the didactic aspects of the Römer-Maduro orthography. It was also in 1975 that the Central Government decided that each island within the Netherlands Antilles could choose their orthography. In 1976, Curaçao officially adopted the Römer-Maduro-Jonis version while Aruba had approved a version presented by the (Orthography Commission) presided by Jossy Mansur. This was officially adopted in 1977.

After official approval, both islands embarked on programs to promote the language. A commission including Maduro and Jonis of previous commissions was appointed the task of publishing a new version of the Curaçaoan orthography, which appeared in 1983. While interest in the language seemed to grow, problems arose in Aruba. Rules seemed unclear and not comprehensive in certain areas. In 1992 this prompted the Minister of Welfare to name a commission with the purpose of clarification and reform of the Aruban orthography. The commission delivered its findings later that year. Three years later the Aruban government relayed these findings to a number of institutions for analysis and to gather input. In the course of a year, the Government collected the recommendations it had received and in 1997 the Ministry of Education and Labour named a second commission to analyse and incorporate the relevant annotations. Their findings were presented to the ministry later that year. It was near the end of 2006 when the Ministry of Education had inventarised all additional recommendations and the official version which takes these into account was published the next year.

Recognition

Throughout this process of reform of the language's orthography were elevations in formal recognition of the language. The (General administrative law) of the Netherlands was reformed in 1995 in great part to allow the use of the West Frisian language in governmental administration within the province of Friesland. This reform also allowed Papiamento and English to be used alongside Dutch within Aruba and the islands of the Netherlands Antilles. In 2003 the Aruban government passed a law concerning the official language of the island, making Papiamento and Dutch the official languages of Aruba. Four years later in 2007, the government of the Netherlands Antilles passed a similar law making Papiamentu, Dutch and English the official languages of the islands. With the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010, the government of the Netherlands has maintained the official status of Papiamentu, English and Dutch in the Caribbean Netherlands. The official languages of Curaçao since then remain Papiamentu and Dutch.

Alphabet

Papiamento/u AlphabetLetter A B C D E F G H INameabece / sedeeef / èfgehaiLetterJKLMNÑOPQNameyekael / èlem / èmen / èneñeopeku / küLetterRSTUVWXYZNameer / ères / èsteuveweeksigrek / igrèkzet / zèt

Spelling-to-sound correspondences

Vowels and vowel combinations

Spelling Value in Papiamento (Aruba)(IPA) Examples Value in Papiamentu (Curaçao, Bonaire)(IPA) Examples Exceptions a algun, cas, ora antes, banko, dobla ai baile gai In Papiamento, rewritten - when at the end of a word. au aumenta aunke e (often) stressed regla, centro tres, pone unstressed tiger, separabel mangel, agradabel in loan words letter è kèlki, skèr ei feita, reina kabei, preis Pronounced in words incorporating the word ei, meaning there. In Papiamento, - is rewritten - when at the end of a word. eu leu pareu i elsewhere igual, skirbi tin, bini unstressed before vowel papia, ciudad kambio, bientu iau miau ieu bieu pieu iou bakiou o solo, cosdobel toro, otro ò bòl, sòpi oi roi In Papiamento, rewritten - when at the end of a word. òi plòis ou cambou blou, Kòrsou u elsewhere cura, mesunaugustus buki, tur unstressed before vowel pueblo, cuida kuater, fuerte Where and are written, the is silent. In Papiamento, - is rewritten - when at the end of a word. ù bùs, yùfrou ùi brùin, flùit ü hür uai zuai uei zuei y y

, and are not modified in Papiamento (Aruba) to represent the sounds , , or . Provided the frequency with which and appear in Papiamentu (Curaçao, Bonaire), it is not required to use the grave accent, i.e. or when or is heard. The word y (meaning 'and') is the only example of as a vowel and only appears in Papiamento (in Papiamentu, the word is written as i).

Double vowels and diphthongs

+ Diphthongs descendingbaile'dance'fauna'fauna'esei'that (there)'preis'price'leu'far'djòin'join'morkoi'tortoise'abou'down'dùim'thumb' ascendingrabia'anger'suave'smooth'piedra'rock'prueba'proof' ruina'ruin'avion'aeroplane'residuo'residue'viuda'widow' In Papiamento, vowels appear in succession only when each is pronounced separately e.g. (to reeducate). This rule is part of Papiamentu orthography as well. Moreover, in Papiamentu a diaeresis or trema , as may be used in the language of origin of various loan words, is never used to distinguish separate sounds like in Dutch () or Spanish ().

Diphthongs can be categorised as descending or ascending. Both dialects have eight ascending and eight descending, Papiamentu having nine of the latter as is unique to this dialect. The difference is a matter of pronunciation and, in Papiamentu, a matter of accent placement on the stressed syllable.

Semivowels

In the orthographies of both dialects, words beginning with an ascending diphthong, e.g. or , are never written with or , respectively. These are always rewritten with a for and for , e.g. ('key') and not , ('eye') and not (or for that matter). Moreover, is never written between and another vowel, nor is ever written between and another vowel. Few exceptions exist and while in the Aruban dialect words like ('million'), where the substitutes the from the original Spanish word , are considered correct, in Papiamentu they are not and are written without the ().

Modified vowels

Beside the vowels , , , and , the Papiamentu orthography further distinguishes between the -sounds and , -sounds and , and -sounds and through use of the grave accent . The letters , and represent the sounds , and respectively. Moreover, to represent the sound, i.e. in Dutch loan words like ('rent') and ('sour'), the is rewritten as in Papiamentu () to comply with the rule regarding double vowels and the phonemic consistency as a whole. The sounds and appear often in Papiamentu. To reduce the excessive appearance of the grave accent, it is not required to use it in the diphthongs and , nor is it incorrect to omit the accent when the letters are capitalised, e.g. , ('Curaçao').

The orthography of the Aruban dialect makes no use of accents or diaeresis and while the spelling of loan words is adjusted when possible, often it is retained as in their original language.

Consonants and consonant combinations

Spelling Value in Papiamento (Aruba)(IPA) Examples Value in Papiamentu (Curaçao, Bonaire)(IPA) Examples Exceptions b bala, caba bibu, fabor c before , merece, haci Cecilia In Papiamento, the has a sound in words ending in -cion. elsewhere caminda, cla Caracas ch chikito chapi d documento, dal duru, dede In Papiamento, the has a sound when final in words ending in -dad, -tad, -tud. In Papiamentu, they are written as -dat, -tat and -tut. dj djaca djente f fama fòrki g before , , final gesto, mag margen, brùg before unstressed , elsewhere garganta, sanger gosa, mangel h hasta, habilidad hari, heru j jong, jasJuan Jan ThielJulia Some places still maintain their old spelling, e.g. Salinja. Here the is pronounced . k kishiki, kere kenta, sekreto l lista, laba lesa, kla m mucha, premio man, lampi n before , , , ,final except after stressed vowel mango, pan anker, bon In Papiamento, followed by or would be pronounced as a (see below), thus having the same effect on the as would. elsewhere natural, tene, algun nechi, hende, tempran ñ aña, soño baña, ñapa p pipa, adopta palu, sapu q quesillo Quebec r tera, rosa barba, poder s saya, sucu krus, pasa In Papiamento, the has a sound in words ending in -sion. In Papiamentu, it is written as -shon. sc adolescente, piscina sh shimis shete t tin, tata trapi, ritmo v viudadivorcio verbo, vitamina w wega wowo x or examen, conexion, reflexion or y yama, haya yuda, kayente z zona zeta In Papiamento, the has a sound in words ending in -eza, -anza or with a . In Papiamentu, they are written as -esa and -ansa. zj zjeito zjar

The letter (except the digraph ) appears almost only in proper names in Papiamentu. The letters (except the digraphs and ), and are exclusively used in loan words and names in both dialects. , , and are the four official digraphs of Papiamento/u.

Double consonants and digraphs

Consonants are seldom doubled in Papiamento/u. According to the orthographies of both dialects, this only occurs when a word takes on a prefix, e.g. - as in ('unnatural'), or a suffix, e.g. - as in ('breads'). In Papiamentu, numerals are written as one word, e.g. ('two hundred') and are another example of where consonants may appear twice, but in Papiamento they are not, e.g. /. In Papiamento where the letter is often used, the first in words like and is pronounced .

The four official digraphs are , , and , representing , , and respectively. The combination appears in Papiamento in loan words such as , but it is not considered a digraph.

Use of C

The pronunciation of in both dialects follows the general rule of the hard and soft as in Latin-based orthographies of various European languages, i.e. pronounced before and , and elsewhere. However, the use of differs per dialect. As Papiamento is focused more on etymology than phonemic spelling, the is far more commonly used compared to Papiamentu, where its use is limited to proper names.

There is consistency in Papiamento in terms of when a hard is used instead of a and when a soft is used instead of an . Before the vowels , and , a is used instead of a , e.g. ('house'), ('thing') and ('kitchen') instead of , and . Moreover, a is used instead of a when it appears before an , , or . A soft is used instead of an most often in the final syllable, in verbs ending in or , e.g. ('to know'), ('to translate'), or words with or in the final syllable, e.g. , . This extends to derivatives of such words, such as . Less regular examples of the use of a soft instead of an are words like ('blind') and ('pleasure').

Hard and soft G