Language of Curacao

The languages spoken in Curacao are Papiamento, Dutch, English and Spanish. The official language of the island is Dutch, although the native speakers of Papiamento are in majority. The inhabitants of Curacao speak the languages not native to them with varying degrees of fluency. Since the early 1990’s, English and Papiamento have also become the official languages of Curacao.

Prior to 1914, the language of instruction in schools was Spanish and Papiamento. In the early 20^th century, Dutch was made the language of instruction in educational institutions to facilitate the children of executives working in the Royal Dutch Shell to gain education. Papiamento was re-introduced in the school curriculum during the mid 1980’s.

Papiamento is a Creole language spoken in the ABC Islands. It originated around 1634 when Dutch had captured Curacao and Bonaire. It derives almost 2/3^rd of its words from Spanish, Portuguese and Galician and a quarter from Dutch. Several words are borrowed from English, French and various African languages.

In Papiamento language, most nouns do not have special form to indicate gender. Gender is created by adding the words such as homber (man)/machu (male)/muhe(female) behind the noun. For ex: Pushi Machu means cat male and Mucha Homber means child male. The nouns do not denote plurality when prefaced with a word with plural meaning. For Ex: Un Homber means one man, Dos Homber means two man and Hopi Hende means many people. The verbs have no distinction of number. For ex: Ami ta bai means I am going and Nos ta bai means We are not going. Verbs use particles which stand on their own to indicate time and aspect. For ex: Mi ta bai means I am going, Mi tabata bai means I was going and Mi lo bai means I will go.

The most commonly used words and phrases in Papiamento are:

Danki – Thank You

Dushi – Sweet Heart

Kome – Eat

Drumi – Sleep

Bon bini – Welcome

Ayo – Good Bye

Kon ta bai – Hello

Bon dia – Good Morning

Bon tardi – Good Afternoon

Bon nochi – Good Evening