Papiamentu tur dia

still alive

2010-12-05T20:18:00.001-04:00

Not dead. Just thinking. This blog needs a reboot. Perhaps a grand re-opening on January 1st.

Learn Papiamento / Papiamentu

2010-12-01T02:22:00.000-04:00

This is a monthly message explaining the purpose of this blog. You are tuned to ‘Papiamentu tur dia,’ a resource for English-speakers who want to study or learn the language Papiamentu a.k.a. Papiamento.

You can use the categories (kategoria) visible on the right-hand side of the page to find posts about a particular topic. For example, information about pronouncing the language is in the ‘fonologia’ category.

I also maintain a list of links to websites that students will find interesting and/or helpful.

Feel free to post a comment.

baranka, buraku, buriku

2010-11-20T11:44:00.002-04:00

I'm having trouble keeping these three words correct in my memory: baranka, buraku, buriku.

Sometimes I can remember buriku (donkey) by thinking of the Spanish word burro and then thinking of Riku, which is one of my nicknames.

Need to find a memory-hook for baranka (rock) and buraku (hole), something for the memory to hang its hat on.

Buraku probably comes from Portuguese buraco, but what’s the source of baranka?

uTalk HD app

2010-11-18T21:33:00.004-04:00

EuroTalk has an iPhone-iPod-iPad app called uTalk HD. If you go to the App Store and search for Papiamento, it will be the only search result. It costs $9.99 in the US.

In this app you will see Papi words/phrases (Curaçao orthography) and hear them pronounced quickly but clearly. If you tap the same word two times, you will hear it spoken by a man and then by a woman, or vice versa. There are some rudimentary matching games that test your knowledge of the items that have been presented.

The vocabulary presented is pretty small, 275 words/phrases according to the official description, and somewhat tourist-oriented, which might not be a bad thing.

link: Cushina Arubiano

2010-11-14T02:22:00.000-04:00

Cushina Arubiano is a blog of recipes written in the Aruba style of Papiamento. It has not been updated recently but it is still a source of brief and potentially useful texts to study.

false friends

2010-11-11T02:22:00.001-04:00

You can guess the meanings of many Papiamentu words the first time you see them. But there are some boobytraps in the vocabulary. I suppose I should start a list.

bringa means “to fight”
desgrasia means “an accident or tragedy”
sende means “to ignite something”
sonrisa means “a smile”

a Bonaire orthography?

2010-11-09T02:22:00.000-04:00

Now that Bonaire has more autonomy, we students dread the possibility that its government might invent a third system for writing Papiamentu. Radio Netherlands did a brief article about this idea. The page includes an interesting audio clip of an interview with linguist Igma van Putte.

widespread flooding

2010-11-07T02:22:00.000-04:00

Here are links to a few TeleCuracao videos about the effects of Hurricane / Tropical Storm Tomas on Curaçao several days ago.

No words. Just driving around the watery streets.

Rocks attack a house. Some very nice spoken Papiamentu in this clip.

Interviews with two people at Albert Schweitzer College.

Minister Nasser El Hakim speaks slowly and hesitantly, then Minister Charles Cooper speaks more fluently.

weather in Holland

2010-11-06T02:22:00.001-04:00

From the Radio Netherlands website. Just a short, simple text, but every encounter with the language strengthens our vocabulary and grammar.

Wer na Hulanda: Awa ta yobe i ta pasa di parti nort di Hulanda pa parti sùit. Mèrdia ta seku i temperatura ta 15 grado. Bientu ta supla un tiki fuerte for di wèst. Den wikènt ta bira mas seku i solo lo bria.

Words I had to look up:

wer = weather
supla = to blow
bria = to shine (compare to Esperanto brilas)

wikènt (weekend) is a good example of voiced consonants at the ends of syllables becoming voiceless when words are borrowed into Papiamentu. Another example is wepsait (website)

músika: Tur Kos ta Posibel

2010-11-03T02:22:00.001-04:00

Here is an uplifting song with its lyrics displayed on-screen:

link: Mal Prensa

2010-11-01T02:02:00.002-04:00

Malprensa.com is a Papiamentu blog of assorted news and craziness, updated daily. “Nos ta duna e leente news den differente kategoria nan manera: music, sports, gadgets, humor, sarcasme I hopi sorto di bullshit mas.”

Somebody is putting a lot of energy into it so let's give them some appreciation.

a brief ghost story

2010-10-31T11:06:00.003-04:00

Mi tin set. = I am thirsty.
kana keiru = walk around

Here is a very short ghost story – well, more like a report of a ghost, than an actual narrative – from the book Zumbi Spiritu Almasola by Pierre Lauffer (1975).

Parse ku den Sabana di Wespen tin un zumbi bisti tur na pretu, ta kana keiru tur anochi. Anto e ta sklama: “Mi tin set. Dunami poko awa.”

Obensio di Wespen ta kere ku ta un homber ku a kai muri den Sabana di Wespen.

Learn Papiamentu / Papiamento

2010-10-31T02:22:00.000-04:00

dream interpretations

2010-10-30T02:22:00.003-04:00

I just received a copy of Luna i Strea, a small paperback book listing symbols that people frequently see in their dreams along with the future events supposedly predicted by each one. This was published on Korsou sometime in the 1980s. I like it a lot because I can read some of the short entries without looking up any of the words. For example…

Droga: Un soño ku humamentu di droga ta pronostiká un enfermedat grave kombiná ku berguensa.

Manteka: Si bo ta kome manteka ta señal di un salú ekselente.

Papiamentu consonants

2010-10-29T02:22:00.005-04:00

Here are some notes on Papiamentu’s consonants as they are written in the Curaçao spelling system.

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, p, s, t, v and z are pronounced more or less the same in Papiamentu and in English. There may be some small differences in the “place of articulation” and voiced consonants at the end of words may become devoiced, but these are things you will learn automatically by listening to and imitating good speakers of the language. Note that s is always voiceless as in English sissy, it never has the ‘z’ sound that occurs in English rose.

ch as in the English word chip, sh as in ship.

dj has the ‘j’ sound heard in English jump, jam, jive, and zj has the ‘zh’ sound heard in English azure, vision, pleasure.

n as in English now. However, at the end of a word, Papiamentu’s n is usually pronounced like the ng in the English word sing. Papiamentu tin rhymes with English thing. In words of Germanic origin, n at the end of a word is plain old n, as in pèn (which means ‘pen’).

Spanish influences: r is pronounced as an alveolar trill or tap. ñ is like the ‘ny’ in the English word canyon and the ‘ni’ in onion.

• the complicated life of G

g has more variations than the other letters.

When it appears before a, l, o, ò, r and u, g is pronounced as in English go grow goobers.

When g is followed by e, è, or i, the letter g has a “guttural” sound like the ‘ch’ in German achtung and in Scottish loch.

In the letter combinations gue and gui, the u is silent and the g is pronounced as in English guest and guide. If you think of the English words guest and guide or Spanish guerra and guitarra, then you will pronounce gue and gui correctly.

• “other”

Technically these are not really consonants: w as in we want water, y as in your yellow yoyo.

Q and x are not used in the Curaçao spelling system, and c is only used in the letter-pair ch.

buy a notebook

2010-10-28T12:45:00.003-04:00

Kumpra un skref spesial pa nos lenga nobo. Buy a special notebook for our new language. This is something I highly recommend. Go to the journals section of a bookstore, or go to an office supply store, and get something nice. Write down useful phrases, new words, interesting sentence patterns, as you encounter them. Perhaps make a note of the source or the context in which you found the information.

From the book How I Learn Languages by Kato Lomb:

This method, however, has a great advantage. It is you who have compiled the glossary — you have personal experiences associated with it. The terms on its pages crop up in your memory embedded in the context of your self. They recall the setting where you encountered them, the time, and sometimes even the mood in which they were jotted down.

I recommend untidy glossaries with all my heart to everyone. Neatly inscribed lines with uniform pearly letters are like desert landscapes. They mix together and make you sleepy; memory has nothing to cling to. We gain firm and steady footholds if we write with different instruments (pen, pencil, or colored pencils) in various styles (slanting, upright, small letters, capital letters, etc.). The advantage of a glossary, thus, is its personal nature.

link: NY Times article

2010-10-27T02:22:00.000-04:00

In July the New York Times printed a nice article about Papiamento.

TeleCuraçao did a TV news report about the article.

book: Getting Around…

2010-10-26T02:22:00.001-04:00

Getting Around the Islands in Papiamentu is a fairly well written, modern phrasebook for tourists. It also includes bits of folklore and very brief explanations of grammar. See the description and order form at BonaireStuff dot com.

Wikipedia in Papiamentu

2010-10-25T02:22:00.001-04:00

Here are some charts showing the slow growth of the Papiamentu version of Wikipedia. After four and a half years of operation, the project has only attracted 35 people who made more than 10 edits per person. It currently has fewer than 900 articles and half of them are useless "stubs."

The articles that actually have some content and have been edited by multiple people can be a good source of non-fiction reading material.

I have often wondered why the Papiamentu Wikipedia is so small compared to (for example) the Esperanto Wikipedia. Papiamentu speakers are all fluent in languages other than Papiamentu, so they can get their information and edit-war fun from the Spanish, Dutch or English versions of the 'pedia. But a similar situation applies to Esperanto; there are no monolingual Esperanto speakers.

The difference must be psychological, I suppose. Choosing to know Esperanto is different from growing up by happenstance in an area where Papiamentu is spoken. I suppose the intentionalness of Esperanto has something to do with motivating many of its speakers to participate in public spectacles like Wikipedia.

Any other theories? Feel free to comment.

músika: No Wori

2010-10-24T03:21:00.001-04:00

No Wori, a mellow song by Brian D. The lyrics are visible when you expand the description field of this YouTube video.

tone

2010-10-23T02:22:00.003-04:00

In addition to stress, Papiamentu has distinctive patterns of tone.

For a moment let's deviate from the official spelling system and use the accent marks to indicate hígh and lòw tone, and use boldface letters to indicate the stressed syllables. For two-syllable words such as mata, three combinations can occur in Papiamentu:

màtá: to kill (verb)
màtá: killed (past (or passive) participle)
mátà: plant (noun)

The fourth possibility, mátà (with stress and low tone on the second syllable) is not permissible in Papiamentu.

These tones are not randomly assigned; there are patterns. The past participles, for example, have stress and high tone on the final syllable. Most two-syllable verbs have low tone on the first syllable. Learning the tones should be an automatic result of carefully listening to and imitating good teachers of the language.

Most textbooks of Papiamentu ignore the topic of tone entirely or say very little about it. Basiscursus Papiaments by Florimon van Putte and Igma van Putte de Windt is the exception; it uses underscores to mark the low tones of words in which the tones are particularly important.

mixed feelings about the breakup

2010-10-22T02:22:00.002-04:00

The six islands Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, Saba and Sint Maarten used to be grouped together in a Dutch-controlled ‘autonomous country’ called the Netherlands Antilles. Aruba seceded in 1986 and became a separate country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

On October 10th of this year the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. Curaçao and Sint Maarten became ‘countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.’ Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba each became a ‘special municipality.’

Many people are not thrilled about this reorganization. Norwin E. Leito, writing in the Bonaire Reporter, had this to say:

In a way we could say that there was a certain feeling of funeral. It is not that there was never a fight between the islands. However, there was still a feeling of “we.” Now it feels as if the family has been torn apart.
Everyone could see the beautiful fireworks in the sky. But one really could feel the nostalgia among the people. One guy tried to congratulate two other guys who were passing by. But they really did not appreciate this and they said that according to them there was no reason at all for congratulations. They even were ready to fight… There were even some people who could not hold their tears. I am one of those people to be honest. I feel that I have lost my brothers and sisters. In other words: the other islands.

link: Radio Netherlands

2010-10-21T03:21:00.002-04:00

Brief news articles in Papiamentu are available at the Radio Netherlands website. You can also download MP3 files of their Papiamentu radio broadcasts. The address is www.rnw.nl/papiaments

stress

2010-10-20T02:22:00.001-04:00

In this article, stress refers to pronouncing one syllable more loudly than the rest of a word. Papiamentu words have distinctive patterns of stress, as do words in English and many other languages.

In Papiamentu stress is indicated by a combination of changes in loudness, duration, and the actual quality of the vowel itself. Stressed vowels are about 2.5 decibels louder than the mean intensity of the entire sentence. The vowel of a stressed syllable has a longer duration than the vowel of an unstressed syllable: 114 milliseconds compared to 70 milliseconds on average.

Unstressed vowels are more centralized, in other words more schwa-like, than their stressed counterparts. For example, an unstressed i will be slightly more like the vowel in stick and less like the vowel in ski.

(The source of that information is an academic research paper: Stress, tone and discourse prominence in the Curaçao dialect of Papiamentu by Bert Remijsen and Vincent J. van Heuven.)

The following general rules are often given in textbooks and tutorial websites:

Normalmente, na papiamentu e énfasis di un palabra ta kai semper riba e último sílaba di un palabra ku ta kaba ku konsonante, òf riba e penúltimo sílaba di un palabra ku ta kaba ku vokal. (source: Wikipedia)

When a word ends with a vowel, the next-to-last syllable is stressed. Examples: lenga, palabra, papiamentu

When a word ends with a consonant, the final syllable is stressed. Examples: nashonal, popular

There are many exceptions.

In the Curaçao spelling system, exceptions are supposed to be marked with an acute accent: fásil, fonétiko, Perú. Naturally people who are typing or texting in a hurry omit these accents. The official spelling system of Aruba does not use accent marks to indicate stress.(source: www.papiamento.aw)

When the plural suffix -nan is added to a noun the stress does not move onto nan even though it ends with a consonant. For example, the u is stressed in both buki and bukinan.

heads-up

2010-10-19T02:22:00.002-04:00

Goilo's Papiamentu Textbook has been made into a PDF file and posted on one of those file-sharing websites. Here is the link: ifile.it/09todqk/

The book was written in 1962 and still has not been updated to conform to either the Aruba orthography or the Curaçao orthography. The author’s descriptions of the vowel sounds are unconventional and therefore thought-provoking (if not perplexing). Apart from those nit-picks, however, it seems like a pretty good textbook. I regretfully admit I have not found the self-discipline to systematically work my way through the whole text.

book: Papiamentu-English Bilingual Dictionary

2010-10-18T21:57:00.001-04:00

reseña di buki, reposted from 2008-09-30

title: Papiamentu / Ingles Dikshonario Bilingual
author: Betty Ratzlaff-Henriquez
publisher: Stichting Jeugdwerk Jong Bonaire, 2008
ISBN: 978-99904-836-2
468 pages, 23 cm. tall

This book is a very valuable tool for anyone who wants to study Papiamentu. It's about 100 times more useful than the wordlists and wiktionaries that are floating around the internet. For one thing, it labels words that are only used on one or two of the islands. When you look up dakue, this dictionary tells you that the word is mainly used by Curaçao residents.

There are also examples of usage for about 5% of the words. Under lechi you will find listed lechi di bleki canned milk and lechi di pòlbu powdered milk. Many words have synonyms and near-synonyms listed with them to help you find the word with the right connotation.

This second edition has a small list of addenda, a summary of the differences between the Aruba and Curaçao orthographies, and a bilingual biography of the author. Compared to the first edition this new version is printed on thinner paper and is much lighter in weight.

If you are studying Papiamentu or you think you might someday do so, you should grab a copy or two of this dictionary while it's available. You can order it from papiamentudictionary.com

músika: Ephrem J

2010-10-17T18:04:00.003-04:00

Ephrem J sings very mellow songs ranging from slow ballads to funky soul numbers in Papiamentu and Spanish. Speransa, a collection of 6 songs in Papiamentu, is available from Amazon.

Some of his YouTube videos:

Bolbe Dushi soul version

Imaginabu un Amor

Bida sin bo

video: Izaline Calister mensage

2010-10-16T15:56:00.001-04:00

Enjoy some nice scenery and Izaline Calister's beautiful Papiamentu speaking in this YouTube video.

book: Haiku in Papiamentu

2010-10-15T02:22:00.001-04:00

reseña di buki, reposted from 2008-09-22

Haiku in Papiamentu is one of the few bilingual English-Papiamentu books available from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk (ISBN 0888644108)

It features haiku by noted poet Elis Juliana with poetic (not literal) English translations by Hélène Garrett. A sample:

Difísil tende
gritu di stoma bashí
si di bo ta yen.

Easy to ignore
growls of an empty stomach
when your own is full.

A literal translation would have been:

Difficult (to) hear
scream of stomach empty
if yours is full.

And, by the way, that gives us approx 7 more words for our vocabulary…

bashí : empty (can also mean "broke" (penniless) according to Ratzlaff)
difísil : difficult, hard
gritu : a scream
si : if (note: sí = yes, si = if)
stoma : stomach
tende : hear
yen : full

exercise: Translate my stomach is full into Papiamentu.

Anyway, I think it's a good book for students to have: a collection of brief stand-alone Papiamentu texts with English translations.

an easily understood video

2010-10-14T20:37:00.003-04:00

Via YouTube, here is a TV commercial featuring some simple and easily-heard Papiamentu phrases: Baby Tutu's ketchup commercial.

Papiamentu vowels for non-linguists

2010-10-13T20:21:00.003-04:00

Curaçao and Aruba are currently using two very different spelling systems. I prefer the system of Curaçao because it generally has one symbol per distinctive sound. This is especially helpful with the vowels. However, some of the symbols are counter-intuitive to English speakers.

The vowels without accent marks have the sounds that you would probably expect in a “Romance” language. a in Spanish padre, e as in Spanish mesa, i as in English ski or police, o as in note, u as in truth.

When it appears right before another vowel, u often sounds like the English letter w, for example kuadra and kuenta.

And when the letter i appears right before another vowel, it is often like the y in English yes and yoyo, for example: piesa and sabio are both two-syllable words, not three syllables.

The grave accent marks in the Curaçao spelling system (è, ò, ù) do not represent tone or stress. Instead, they represent completely different vowel sounds compared to the unmarked letter.

è is like the e in the English words ten and stem.

Quoting from the Papiamentu Pronunciation & Grammar wiki, “ò (the letter o with a grave accent) represents the vowel that occurs in the Dutch word kok. This vowel is represented by the symbol ɔ in the International Phonetic Alphabet. This sound does not exist as a distinct phoneme in all regional varieties of English, but if you think of the way dog is pronounced in New England (northeastern US), you may get the idea. Papiamentu words containing this vowel include shòt (injection / scene in a film), dòkter (doctor), stòf (dust / drizzling rain).”

There are two vowels in Papiamentu that do not exist in English. It is easy to learn to pronounce them. If you ever studied French or German, you already know them.

ù is like the ö in the German word können, and ü is pronounced like the ü in German.

Alternative viewpoint:

In the tourist phrasebook Getting Around the Islands in Papiamentu (2007), native speaker Geraldine Dammers offers some interesting descriptions of Papiamentu vowels.

The phrasebook says ù should be pronounced like the u in the English word gut. (That vowel is represented by the symbol ʌ in the IPA. Granted, the main difference between ʌ and ɔ is lip-rounding or the lack of it.) The English words get, got, gut are offered as mnemonics for the values of è, ò, ù.

And as for the unaccented vowel e, the phrasebook says “English speakers get closer… if they pronounce it as the ‘i’ in fit.” This very remarkable statement makes me wonder if the actual vowel is halfway between /e/ and /ɪ/. People who grew up in the southeast US pronounce words like ‘pen’ with that intermediate vowel and are often incorrectly accused by northerners of pronouncing ‘pen’ just like ‘pin.’

So, it appears we will have to listen very carefully when we are doing ”listen and repeat” exercises.

Papiamentu vowels

2010-10-12T19:46:00.008-04:00

Here are clippings from three ‘reliable sources’ describing the vowels of Papiamento / Papiamentu. Use these sources for your own studies or as ammunition in Wikipedia edit wars. (Click on the thumbnail images to see larger versions.)

First, from Ortografija di papiamento (1984) by Mario Dijkhoff, a native speaker of the language:

Second, from Die Verschriftung des Papiamentu by Philippe Maurer (appeared in Zum Stand der Kodifizierung Romanischer Kleinsprachen, 1991)

Third, from Observaciones sobre el sistema vocálico del papiamentu by Maxim Kerkhof:

All three of these sources use the symbols of the Alfabèt Fonétiko Internashonal.

"PAPIAMENTU: a ray of hope"

2010-10-11T21:46:00.005-04:00

Romanitas published a joyful article about the relative vitality of Papiamentu compared to most other creoles. PAPIAMENTU: a ray of hope among the creoles of the world by Víctor M. Vázquez-Colón.

drag race commercial

2010-10-11T14:46:00.003-04:00

TV commercial for the 2010 International Drag Fest. Lots of numbers and common words.

10/10/10 News

2010-10-10T16:12:00.003-04:00

Big events today.

Commentary in Papiamentu.

text: Aruba transfixed by US election

2008-11-06T19:41:00.002-04:00

This easy-to-read text from Diario tells of businesses closing early, traffic disappearing from the streets, and tourists scurrying back to their hotel rooms as all the people on Aruba, residents and visitors alike, were unable to think about or do anything other than watch the results of the US presidential election on Tuesday night.

ARUBA TABATA PARALIZA

Cu Arubianonan ta hopi conciente di loke ta pasando na Merca, a keda demostra Diamars riba e isla aki. E enfoke di tur hende tabata pa mira ki rumbo e eleccion presidencial na Merca a tuma, y remarcablemente pa prome biaha esaki a worde nota hasta riba caya!

Atardi ora cu tur trahador tabata rumbo pa cas, e prome prioridad den nan mente ta pa yega y cende TV pa mira con e bataya entre Barack Obama y John McCain ta cristaliza. Turistanan na gran cantidad a keda den nan camber di Hotel pa mira tur cos na TV.

Ya for di 8'or di anochi caba, por a mira un reduccion drastico di auto coriendo rond na Aruba. Varios restaurant a cera nan porta trempan, y trahadornan ya pa 10'or tabata na cas, pa asina mira con Barack Obama a bira e President nobo di Merca.

The complete article is here.

passive voice in Papiamentu

2008-11-05T14:05:00.000-04:00

Most creoles do not have a special word or suffix to indicate the passive voice of verbs. They require you to say “somebody stole my bicycle” rather than “my bicycle was stolen.” And that’s fine; it works okay and it’s one less grammar rule to learn.

According to the sources of information at my disposal, spoken Papiamentu is the same way. The passive voice is uncommon in spontaneous conversation.

Written Papiamentu is very different, and very unusual for a creole language: it has several different ways to express the passive voice:

1) using wòrdu, which is also sometimes written as wordu, worde, wordo, etc.

E hòmber a wòrdu detené ayera.
The man was arrested yesterday.

2) using ser

Sosiedat di Kòrsou a ser transformá radikalmente ora e refineria a ser trahá.
Curaçao society was radically transformed when the refinery was opened.

The Spanish version of Goilo’s textbook gives these paradigms:

e carta ta ser skirbí : the letter is being written
e carta ta skirbí : the letter is (has been) written

3) using keda

Esaki lo keda tratá awe mainta.
This will be handled/dealt-with/addressed this morning.

In an analysis of a large body of texts, linguists have found that all three forms (wordu, ser, keda) are equally popular in Curaçao. Aruba seems to prefer wordu and ser.

Some purists such as Antoine Maduro intensely hate the wordu and ser passives, viewing them as non-creole monstruonan (monstrosities):

worde hañá – C. a worde hañá morto na Amsterdam – E redaktor akí ta skirbi barbaridat akí den su korant; ma na su kas e ta bisa: nan a haña C. morto na Amsterdam.

translation: worde hañá – C was found dead in Amsterdam – The editor writes this barbarity here in his newspaper but at home he says ‘they found C dead in Amsterdam’

random vocabulary expansion

2008-11-05T04:14:00.001-04:00

elekshon presidensial : presidential election
lidernan polítiko : political leaders
institutonan finansiero : financial institutions

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more notes on Goilo's Textbook

2008-11-01T16:43:00.002-04:00

Continuing now with a tour of E.R. Goilo's Papiamentu Textbook. Di cincu les starts with an introduction to elision/sandhi, the changes that Papiamentu makes to its words to cause them to flow more smoothly.

When the direct object of a verb is the pronoun e (he/she/it), the last vowel of the verb is often deleted and the e gets glued onto the verb. Goilo explains the system this way:

“In the case of verbs ending in a, lose a.”

Mi ta tum’é , mi ta cumpr’é

“The verbs ending in e are pronounced with stress on the last e.”

Mi ta com’é , mi ta beb’é

“The verbs ending in i retain this i.”

Mi ta skirbié , mi ta pidié

“Instead of the pronoun é, you may hear the old form ele, e.g. tum’ele, com’ele, skirbiele, etc.”

Sentences like I give it to him are handled this way:

instead of mi ta duna é é “we write and pronounce it mi ta dun’élé (both é's are stressed).”

to be continued…

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learn & study Papiamentu / Papiamento language

2008-11-01T16:36:00.001-04:00

You're reading Papiamentu tur dia, a daily blog in which I share some of the data I've gathered about the Papiamentu language with an emphasis on the Curaçao dialect.

This blog contains vocabulary lists, brief texts, grammar notes, quotations from linguists, references to useful books, and links to online media.

This message will be repeated once a month.

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mi a rabia?

2008-10-31T16:09:00.002-04:00

While looking for examples of rabia (angry) on the web, I found this sentence: Mi a echt rabia ora mi a skucha e noticia.

Is that correct Papiamentu? Seems like that first a be tabata instead???

I know, there's no point in posting questions here because nobody will answer them. (sigh)

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intermediate reading: Dutch language in education

2008-10-29T06:29:00.001-04:00

Part of a news item from the Radio Netherlands website.

denter : within
ensañansa : education
hulandes : Dutch language
keda : remain, stay
mihó : better

Hulandes mester keda é idioma di instrukshon den enseñansa denter di Reino. Minister Plasterk enkargá ku Enseñansa, Kultura i Siensa ta haña ku ta un eksihensia pa studiantenan antiano ta mihó prepará pa kuminsa un estudio na Hulanda.

durante : during
enkuentro : encounter
estudionan : studies
práktika : practice

Minister Plasterk a tene su defensa pa idioma hulandes durante un enkuentro dje asosashon Vereniging Antilliaans Netwerk. “Riba término kòrtiku tin hopi hende na Antia ku ke sigui enseñansa haltu na Hulanda. Esaki ta algu bon, pero estudionan ta pa gran parti na hulandes. A resultá awor den práktika ku dominio di hulandes por ta difísil”, segun Plasterk.

fiha : fixed
ròl : role
serkania : area, neighborhood, region
sostené : sustain, support

Riba término largu tambe Plasterk ta wak ku idioma ta un medio pa sostené e konekshon mutuo den Reino: “Den e sentimentu ku 'nos tin algu ku otro den Reino', idioma ta hunga un ròl importante. E sentimentu ei por eroshoná si mas i mas hende dje paisnan (sur-)amérikano den serkania establesé nan mes na e islanan antiano òf e islanan bai fiha nan mes mas riba e paisnan den serkania. Esaki mi ta haña un punto di preokupashon, pasobra e sentimentu di konekshon ta bisa ménos.”

Click here for the complete article.

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vocabulary expansion

2008-10-28T06:30:00.002-04:00

kama : bed
stul : chair
mesa : table

dak : roof
muraya : wall
bentana : window
porta : door
tapeit : rug

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a blogger's "otro-grafia"

2008-10-27T06:30:00.003-04:00

Papiamentu Bibu is a blog of politics with occasional outbursts of poetry. It is written in an orthography of the author's own design which he calls otrografía (a play on words, otro + ortografia). One article discussing the effort is under this link. His system seems to strive toward an ethnic cleansing of the letter k: “nós a cuminsá, poco-poco, saca tur ‘k’ germano… y reemplasé pa e ‘c’ latino.”

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kid stuff on YouTube

2008-10-26T06:40:00.000-04:00

Just for fun.

the Biba Salú song

Dragonball Antiano

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Chuchubi media

2008-10-23T06:36:00.001-04:00

Here is a link to a YouTube video about the chuchubi. (Good practice for learning how to hear Papiamento spoken in an echo-filled environment.)

And here are two places where you can hear samples of Oswin Chin Behilia singing a song entitled Chuchubi:

Deezer
Amazon

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laga nos

2008-10-22T06:31:00.002-04:00

Some examples of laga nos ("let us...") found on the web.

laga nos kuminsa na e komienso.
let's begin at the beginning

laga nos ta realístiko
laga nos ta honesto ku nos mes
laga nos sa kon nos por yuda bo
laga nos hasi uso di e oportinidat aki
Laga nos pone énfasis na lokual el a hasi bon pa nos isla.
Laga nos sa kiko bo ta pensa di e informashonnan ku bo ta haña riba nos wèpsait.

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random vocabulary expansion

2008-10-21T06:30:00.000-04:00

vokal : vowel
konsonante : consonant
diptongo : diphthong
fonema : phoneme
grafema : grapheme
mayúskulo : upper-case letter
minúskulo : lower-case letter

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corrected link

2008-10-20T11:53:00.001-04:00

Oops. Let me try to give that link again.

PDF file about blood pressure

blood pressure continued

2008-10-20T06:30:00.003-04:00

vocabulary for the following text:

baha : lower, reduce, descend
deskuido : carelessness
dòkter di kas : family doctor
drop salu or dròp salu : unknown; only found one example of the phrase on the web
drumi : sleep
fungi : to act, function
kouteloso : cautious
lema : theme, motto
mayoria biaha : majority of iterations; most often, most times
remedi : medicine, medications
para : stop, stand
pinda : peanuts or peanut butter
salu : salt
sea : be (imperative)
tuma na serio : take it seriously

and now the conclusion of the text:

Tratamentu

Mayoria biaha dòkter ta duna e pashènt remedi i tambe un dieta.

E remedinan ta fungi pa baha e preshon di sanger ora e pashènt ta drumi òf para.

Tin diferente sorto di remedi ku ta baha preshon i kada un tin su afekto. Laga bo dòkter di kas duna bo splikashon.

“Baha man na uzo di salu.” Esaki ta e lema di e dieta. Esaki sigur no ta algu fásil pa hasi, espesialmente si bo ta un hende ku gusta pone hopi salu den i riba sierto kosnan ku bo ta kome, bo gusta drop salu, pinda ku salu, èts èts.

Sea kouteloso, preshon di sanger altu ta algu ku bo mester tuma na serio i no hasi deskuido ku bo remedi ni ku bo dieta.

Equipped with all the vocabulary we've picked up this week, we can read most of the up-to-date blood pressure brochure available under this link (PDF file).

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more notes on Goilo's Textbook

2008-10-19T09:39:00.002-04:00

Di tres les (the third lesson) of Goilo's book covers several important topics.

Verbs that do not use ta to indicate the present tense: tin, por, sa, konosé, ke, mester, and verbs that might or might not use ta: debe, gusta, kosta, bal, stima, etc.

Using esta to form exclamations:

Esta un cas grandi : What a big house!
Esta un homber loco : What a crazy fellow!

Goilo gives some examples of using por, ke, mester in the past tense. I'm not sure his explanation is entirely clear. He gives both mi tabata sa mi les and mi a sa mi les as equivalents for "I knew my lesson." Is there a difference in meaning? In my own studies I have noticed that tabata sa is much more common than a sa.

Goilo also mentions that cu (ku) is used instead of i to conjoin personal pronouns: nan cu nos rather than nan i nos.

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blood pressure continued

2008-10-18T09:05:00.002-04:00

vocabulary for the following text:

haña : find, get, receive
mayó : major, greater; eldest
nir : kidney
okashoná : to induce, cause, bring about
perde : lose
sangramentu : bleeding
seleber or serebro : brain
smal : narrow, small
supel : supple? (not listed in either of the dictionaries I have, but I did find it on a few Papiamentu web pages)
biramentu di kabes : I think this means dizziness/vertigo (not listed in dictionaries)

The text continues…

• bo benanan chikitu a bira mas smal i e sanger ta pasa ku difikultat.

• anemia (“sanger abou”).

• bo nir no ta funshoná bon.

• e bena mayó di bo kurason (“aorta”) no ta funshoná manera mester ta.

Preshon di sanger altu ta okashoná ku bo

• benanan ta perde nan elastisidat i bira menos supel.

• kurason mester bati ku mas forsa.

• ta haña doló di kabes, biramentu di kabes.

• ta haña komplikashonnan na bo selebernan; sangramentu den seleber.

• nirnan no ta funshoná bon, nan no ta limpia bo sanger manera mester ta i bo ta haña “uremie”.

to be continued…

thought for the day

2008-10-17T07:30:00.002-04:00

Henry Habibe is a poet (among other things) born in Aruba in 1940. He was founder of the literary magazine Watapana (1968-72). He wrote the following comment in 1970:

“As someone from the Dutch Antilles, I am engaged in a search for myself, for my own identity. It makes sense to tie oneself to a situation such as this, to something which is entirely one's own. For me as a poet this something of my own is my language; Papiamento is mine, so I search for my own identity in this language.”

source: Callaloo vol.11 no.1, 1988

intermediate reading: blood pressure

2008-10-17T06:10:00.002-04:00

Preshon di sanger ta e preshon ku bo sanger hasi riba bo bena ora e ta pasa aden.

Preshon di sanger ta algu ku ta varia entre dos baluashon.

Na momentu ku bo kurason kontraé e preshon ta mas altu ("systolische druk").

Ora bo kurason rilèks e preshon ta mas abou ("diastolische druk").

Normalmente e "systolische druk" ta mas o menos 160 mm i e "diastolische druk" mas o menos 95 mm.

Algun faktor ku tin influensia riba bo preshon di sanger:

• Un faktor ku ta hasi hopi influensia ta e kantidat di sanger ku ta pasa den bo bena den un minüt ("hartminuutvolume")

vocabulary:
bena : vein
aden : within; inside
(you can figure out the rest)

To be continued.
source: Salú Korsou 1988

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possible 3rd use for "ta"

2008-10-16T09:05:00.001-04:00

Obviously ta is the copula and the present tense marker for other verbs. I think there may be a third usage: at the beginning of a phrase it may be some kind of emphatic particle or signal of “fronting.” Something like this:

Kiko bo ta hasi? What are you doing?
Ta kiko bo ta hasi? WHAT are you doing!?

Djis un teoria. Mi ta buska konfirmashon.

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more notes on Goilo's Textbook

2008-10-15T06:30:00.000-04:00

Continuing now with my notes on E.R. Goilo's Papiamentu Textbook. Di dos les (second lesson). Here are the items that caught my eye for whatever reason.

Kén bo a mira? Whom have you seen?
Kén a mira bo? Who has seen you?

Nos tin algu pa siña. We have something to learn.
Nos no tin nada pa siña. We have nothing to learn.
Anto mi ta bai cas. Then I go home.

Mi ta traha tur día henter día, dies ora pa día.
I work every day all day long, ten hours a day.

Nos no ta ricu, sino pober. We are not rich, but poor.

found another example of sino on the web:

No pasobra nan ta moderno sino pasobra nan ta bon.
Not because they are modern but rather because they are good.

Di dos les contains a page of examples of the double negative: mi no ta mira ningun hende and so forth. This is one element of the language that I will need some time to get accustomed to.

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vocabulary expansion

2008-10-14T06:30:00.003-04:00

para : bird
hala : wing
piku : beak
nèshi : nest
webu : egg
bula : to fly

Chuchubi probablemente ta e para mas konosí riba e islanan.
The Chuchubi is probably the best known bird on the islands.

Unda ku bo bai bo por tende su kanto.
Wherever you go you can hear its song.

See also a Chuchubi webpage.

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notes on Goilo's Textbook part 2

2008-10-12T06:30:00.004-04:00

Lesson one covers the personal pronouns and gives a brief introduction to conjugating verbs and pluralizing nouns. There are a lot of short simple sentences to help the student get a feel for the language. Here are some items that seemed useful or caught my eye for whatever reason.

Pakíko mi ta traha? Pasobra mi ke placa.
Why do I work? Because I want money.
(Hopefully this is a good example of a why-because pattern. Needed: an explanation of the difference between pakiko and di kon. Presumably pakiko means for what purpose and di kon means how did it come to be, or something like that.)

Cuater o cincu. Dos of un.
Four or five. Two or one.
(Interesting switching between o and of. Is that deliberate or a typo? If it was deliberate, is it still common? Is the idea to use of when the next word starts with a vowel and use o when the next word starts with a consonant, or what?)

Mi no ta huma hopi. No mas cu un paki pa día.
I don't smoke much. Not more than a pack a day.
(Hopefully this is a good example of how to express the number of things that happen within a given time period.)

Goilo says “When preceded by a verb bo is pronounced bu (boo). Mi ta dunabo. Mi ta mirabo.” I think that's correct. Some people write bu instead of bo in that situation; try a Google search for ‘stimabu’ and you'll see many examples.

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Goilo notes continued

2008-10-11T15:01:00.002-04:00

One more thing about the pronunciation section. Goilo says v is sometimes pronounced as "a soft b in words of Spanish origin, e.g. vence… venenu… varios." I assume "soft b" refers to the bilabial fricative of Spanish, written as [β] in the International Phonetic Alphabet. I wonder if this phoneme really exists in all Papiamento/u or if it is only used by a few individuals.

Linguist Philippe Maurer makes no mention of the bilabial fricative in the various articles he's published about Papiamento (for example, Die Verschriftung des Papiamentu, published in the book Zum Stand der Kodifizierung romanischer Kleinsprachen.) I'm in the process of obtaining some other books written by linguists; I'll have to remember to search for any allusions to the bilabial fricative.

notes on Goilo's Textbook part 1

2008-10-11T06:30:00.006-04:00

E.R. Goilo's Papiamentu Textbook was written in 1962. It has been reprinted several times and is still in print. (Currently there are several used copies available on amazon.com; just go there and do a search on "papiamentu textbook").

I've owned a copy of this book since 2002 (ninth edition, 1994) but I'm just now getting around to going through it properly, from beginning to end.

Starting with the Preface which covers pronunciation. Here are the items that seemed interesting or questionable.

e is like i in fix in exacto, examen, extremo (Interesting.)

Goilo says i is pronounced like the i in fix in words of Dutch origin such as mik (to aim) and bril (spectacles). But according to Betty Ratzlaff-Henriquez' dictionary these words have become mek and brel. Maybe that only applies to the Curaçao dialect. Jossy Mansur's dictionary of the Aruba dialect lists mik and bril.

As of the 9th edition Goilo does not even mention the letter ü. I suppose that symbol was not being used when he wrote the book and none of the revisers and reprinters since then have added it. His description of u seems to include all of the sounds that are now spelled u, ù and ü.

Goilo says d at the end of a word sometimes sounds like t as in berdad and birtud. Those d's have been changed to t's in the modern Curaçao orthography. Likewise where he mentions that si sounds like sh in words such as siete, there is a trend in Curaçao toward spelling these words the way they sound, shete and so forth.

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word of the day: wandu

2008-10-10T06:31:00.000-04:00

wandu is a word of unknown origin. According to Antoine Maduro* some lexicographers viewed it as an indigenous Carib word, others as a word of African source.

Wandu ta un sorto di bonchi. Wandu is a kind of bean.

Wandu is a species of plant in the legume family. "Pigeon pea" appears to be the English name; the scientific name is Cajanus cajan. It makes seeds that can be cooked and eaten. Roasted seeds can make a sort of coffee that was used for medicinal purposes (according to one list of home remedies that I found on the web).

Photos of the plant and its seeds are visible in Wikipedia. About 200 ways to use the plant's seeds, leaves and stems are described in a webpage at purdue.edu

*Procedencia di palabranan papiamentu i otro anotacionnan, Corsou 1966

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follow-up to newscasts

2008-10-10T06:29:00.000-04:00

I forgot to mention something in yesterday's post. You can open the audio file with Audacity, delete the Dutch portion, and (if you want) slow down the Papiamentu portion. Sometimes I slow it down by about 10%. It helps a little with comprehension.

easy reading: a text about broadcasting

2008-10-09T06:30:00.001-04:00

In late 2001 this text was on the Radio Netherlands website:

Radio Nederland Wereldomroep, e emisora internashonal di Ulanda, e aña aki ta selebrá su di sinkuenta aniversario. Na kabamentu di añanan 50 Radio Nederland a kuminsá transmití programanan speshalmente pa Antia i Aruba. Te dia di awe Radio Nederland diariamente ta traha programanan di notisia na Hulandes speshalmente pa Antia i Aruba. Antiano i Arubanonan renombrá ku a traha pa Radio Nederland ta Stella Priest, Eugenie Herlaar, Yvette Ecury, Sonia Garmers, Reyna Joe, Robby Schouten, Ivy Doorstam i Marielle Capello.

Na yuni 1995 Radio Nederland a kuminsá transmiti notisia na Papiamentu diariamente. Di djaluna te djasabra Radio Nederland ta transmití un boletin di notisia i resumen di korantnan Hulandes na Papiamentu. Un redakshon di kuater traduktor/lokutor ku ta konsistí di Désirée Martis, Chicho Jesurun, Sharon Tellers - Cicilia, Scarlet Windster ta enkargá ku e transmishonnan na Papiamentu.

vocabulary:

e aña aki : this year
aniversario : anniversary
boletin : bulletin
diariamente : daily
emisora : radio station (or TV station)
internashonal : international
kabamentu : completion, finish
konsistí di : consist of
korant : newspaper
kuminsá : begin, commence
lokutor : announcer
notisia : news
programa : program
redakshon : editorship, redaction
renombrá : rename? (not sure what it means in the context above)
resúmen : summary
selebrá : celebrate
speshalmente or spesialmente : especially
traduktor : translator
traha : to work, labor; make, build
transmishon : transmission
transmití : transmit
yüni : June

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more numbers

2008-10-08T06:38:00.002-04:00

The numbers 11 through 19 are predictable: djesun, djesdos, djestres, ets.

ets. = ètsétera

binti : 20
trinta : 30
kuarenta : 40
sinkuenta : 50
sesenta : 60
setenta : 70
ochenta : 80
nobenta : 90

Here's something I've wondered about: how are the names of years pronounced? If something happened na aña 1972 would that be said as "djesnuebe setentidos" similar to how we do it in English? Or would a papiamentista say "mil nuebeshen setentidos" or even "un nuebe shete dos"?

vocabulary expansion

2008-10-07T06:30:00.000-04:00

fruta : fruit

anasa : pineapple
apel : apple
apelsina : orange
koko : coconut
lamunchi : lemon or lime
mango : mango
papaya : papaya

Yes, I'm feeling lazy today, so I picked some items that are easy to memorize. Apelsina is similar to German Apfelsina, and anasa looks like a smoothed-out version of Dutch ananas.

vocabulary expansion

2008-10-06T06:30:00.002-04:00

bai : go
ta bayendo : is going, are going

biento or bientu : wind
bòter : bottle
den : in, within
kènter : tilt, slant
kontra when used as a preposition means against
nan : they, them, their
nort or nòrt : north
obstrukshon : obstruction
para : stop
tempo or tempu : time

ku is a word of many functions; sometimes it translates into English as with.

Equipped with the vocabulary above, plus words we have already encountered in this blog, we can now read the first stanza of a mysterious poem by Pedro R. Velásquez:

Nan ta bayendo nòrt
ku un bòter den nan kurason
Den nan obstrukshon di tempo
nan ta para i kènter kontra biento.

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the best baseball language

2008-10-05T07:14:00.003-04:00

Major league baseball player Jair Jurrjens, in an interview with Baseball America in the spring of '07, said Papiamentu is the best baseball language.

BA: You can speak four languages: English, Spanish, Dutch, and Papiamentu. Which of them is the best baseball language?

JJ: Well, definitely not Dutch! Papiamentu is pretty good if I’m back home, but no one here speaks it. I guess Spanish is maybe a little better than English.

Hmm. I never thought of baseball as a language oriented activity. But it's nice to have an endorsement from a major leaguer!

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easy reading

2008-10-05T06:30:00.003-04:00

A couple of easy-to-read advertisements.

habri tur dia : open every day. (Should that be “habrí” or “habri”?)

tur djadumingo di 12 or pa 3 or : every Sunday from 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock

saka for di laman : I guess this means taken from the sea. Betty Ratzliff-Henriquez' dictionary indicates there are two verbs spelled saka, one meaning take out, remove, oust, and the other meaning vomit. I wonder if they are pronounced differently, tone-wise.

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random vocabulary expansion

2008-10-04T06:30:00.001-04:00

Six words known by every child and songwriter:

kurason : heart
laman : the sea
shelu : the sky, the heavens; heaven
solo : the sun
stima : love (verb)
strea : star

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tin

2008-10-03T05:24:00.002-04:00

A few useful phrases containing tin.

Mi tin hamber.
I am hungry.

Mi tin doló di kabes.
I have a headache.

Tin hopi bientu.
It's very windy.

Mi no tin ningun duda.
I don't have any doubt.

The phrase tin ku means must, have to, got to.

Mi tin ku tuma un desishon.
I've got to make a decision.

Awor nos tin ku kambia e paradigma aki.
Now we must change this paradigm.

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tricky words

2008-10-01T06:30:00.000-04:00

Many words in Papiamentu are recognizable at first sight. When you see fórmula, notabilidat or simbolismo for the first time it is not hard to figure out the meaning especially in context. But there are some words that have tricked me into making wrong guesses and now I'm starting to keep a list of these.

firma means a firm, a business, a company in German, Swedish and Dutch. But in Papiamentu it means signature or to sign one's name. (In Spanish firma can mean either signature or a firm, according to Langenscheidt's New College Dictionary.)

kontestá : I assumed this meant dispute or compete but it actually means reply.

krusada sometimes means a religious crusade (as I assumed at first glance) but it can also mean crossroad, intersection.

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word of the day: loke

2008-09-30T06:31:00.002-04:00

The English word "what" has several different translations into Papiamentu depending on whether it is an interrogative word or a relative pronoun.

"What" can also have an important but seldom-discussed linking function as in I know what you did. In these latter cases "what" can usually by replaced by "that which…" or "the thing which…" And in these cases the Papiamentu equivalent appears to be loke.

Some examples from various sources:

Ya bo sa loke bo ke.
You already know what you want.

Loke mi ke bira: bombero.
What I want to become: fireman.

No yora ora bo no por hasi loke nan sí ta hasi.
Don't weep when you cannot do what they can do.

vocabulary:

bira = become
bombero = firefighter
hasi = do, make, engage in
ke = want
ora = when (in the linking sense of "when", not the interrogative sense)
por = be able to
sa = know
ya = already
yora = weep, cry

Don't forget, I'm just a student, not an expert. I'm always willing to be corrected or disagreed with (but only when it comes to Papiamentu. Generally I get a little annoyed when people correct me or disagree with me :-)

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random vocabulary expansion

2008-09-29T06:30:00.005-04:00

ways to write the word for "Sunday":

diadomingo (9410 Google hits)
djadumingu (6880 Google hits)
diadumingo (327 Google hits)
djadumingo (298 Google hits)
diadumingu (272 Google hits)
djadomingo (220 Google hits)
diadomingu (86 Google hits)

(The words beginning with dia are mostly written by Arubans, methinks.)

Variations like those listed above should not be viewed as a problem or a defect in the language IMHO. Although government-sponsored committees in Aruba and Curacao have published lists of the correct ways to spell words, the language is not completely standardized in actual use. And that's a very good thing for foreigners trying to learn a language. There's more wiggle room, more margin for error.

Some words that are phonetically delightful:

kakalaka = cockroach
dividivi or watapana : a tree/shrub of the islands with a tradewind-governed pattern of growth
kunuku = countryside, rural area, farm
shinishi = ashes; gray

makamba : this means "a Dutch person." I don't know for sure but I think sometimes it is used as a term of dislike. ("Den e konteksto aki e palabra 'makamba' tin konotashon rasista" is one comment I found on the web. Hey, there's another phonetically delightful word:)

palabra = word

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review of one-letter words

2008-09-28T06:30:00.003-04:00

One nice thing about Papiamentu is that common words tend to be very short and less common words tend to be longer. This trend exists in many languages but to me it seems especially strong in Papiamentu. So I take a moment to appreciate the one-letter words.

a : past tense indicator

e : sometimes the definite article, sometimes a third person pronoun

i = and

n : in fluent speech the word no is sometimes shortened to n’ as in Min’ sa (= I don't know).

o : some people write o instead òf meaning "or"

u does not appear to be used as a regular word

y : sometimes people write y instead of i, I think maybe this is more common with Aruban Papiamento

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the anniversary of Papiamento literature

2008-09-27T06:06:00.007-04:00

On 27 September 1905 J.S. Corsen's poem "Atardi" was published in a newspaper called La Cruz. This was, apparently, the first time a piece of secular creative writing in Papiamentu had ever rolled off a printing press.

You can read it (with a Dutch translation) under this link.

Prior to the appearance of "Atardi," the Dutch government had denigrated Papiamentu (and it continued doing so through the first half of the 20th century). Children were forbidden to speak Papiamentu while at school. Dutch officials often expressed their belief that Papiamentu was a lesser form of language, unfit for use in education or official activities.

After "Atardi" appeared, more and more Papiamentu speakers began to realize the beauty and potential of their language.

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web navigation phrases

2008-09-27T05:05:00.000-04:00

Pa bira miembro klik aki.
To become a member, click here.

Klik aki pa mas informashon.
Click here for more information.

primi riba e konopi "send"
Press the "send" button.

kambia kontraseña
change password

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a fragment of poetry

2008-09-26T11:11:00.003-04:00

I spent a great deal of time last night trying to understand a fragment of a Pierre Lauffer poem that I found online. I'm just a beginning student so I really should not be tackling poetry yet; it's way over my head. But I was in the mood for a challenge. Here is the fragment:

Kaminda chapi kai for di mi man,
lant’é
i sigui bòltu tera gordo,
planta, kuida, kosechá
e lenga dardu di nos mama.

Alongside this fragment was a Dutch translation which I ran through Google's automated translator to serve as a starting point. I'm not sure what lant’é means in this context. The Dutch version has pak ’m op which Google translates as get 'em. Maybe the meaning in this situation is "pick it up"?

There are other uncertainties here: the meaning of tera gordo, the combination sigui bòltu, and the meaning of the last line. The Dutch translation contains onze dartele moedertaal. So, my tentative understanding of this fragment at this point is:

Where the hoe falls from my hand,
????
and turn over the fat (potent?) earth,
plant and tend and harvest
the language unruly of our mother. (Our rowdy mother-tongue?)

Hopefully I will be able to look at this a year from now and understand it better.

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vocabulary

2008-09-26T06:30:00.003-04:00

Here's some vocabulary from a fragment of a poem that I was trying to read last night.

for di = out of, from, away from
kai = to fall
kaminda = where, in the place which...
man = hand
sigui = to follow
tera = earth

sigui gives us the adjective siguiente meaning "following, consecutive." I suppose siguiente is sometimes a good translation for the English word "next."

Some examples of siguiente found on the web:

anto e siguiente luna
before the following month

bo por sa e kontesta riba e kuater siguiente preguntanan
you can know the answers to the four following questions

E dia siguiente nos a bishita "la escuela de maestro".
The next day we visited la escuela de maestro.

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more vocabulary

2008-09-25T16:07:00.002-04:00

Well, these words aren't very exciting but I have to learn them.

seis = six
shete = seven
ocho = eight
nuebe = nine
dies or djes = ten

djabièrnè = Friday
djasabra = Saturday

djabièrnè resembles Spanish viernes and djasabra resembles Spanish sábado.

a nonsense sentence

2008-09-25T06:30:00.000-04:00

I made up an absurd sentence and I've been chanting and singing it repeatedly while doing household chores:

Awor mi wowo ta wak awa.
Now my eye(s) watch water.

This sentence is not relevant to anything, and maybe its grammar is incorrect, but right now, for this hour of my life, my brain enjoys the sound of it. I think that's important in studying a language. You have to stay aware of your brain's moods and give it the kind of information it can handle at any given time.

This adds four important words to my personal vocabulary:

awor = now
wowo = eye
wak = watch, look at
awa = water

sintibo liber

2008-09-24T16:07:00.003-04:00

I became curious about the phrase sintibo liber, "feel free (to)," so I googled it. Here are four sentences containing the phrase. See if you can read them without any help. My attempts to translate them into English are down at the bottom of this blog entry.

Note: the first sentence uses the Aruban spelling expresa instead of the Curaçaoan ekspresá.

1. Sintibo liber pa expresa bo mes.

2. Sintibo liber pa duna bo opinion.

3. I si bo ke pa hasi kontakto personal, sintibo liber.

4. Sintibo liber pa kombersa kwalkier topiko interesante na Papiamentu.

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spoiler space

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tentative translations:

1. Feel free to express yourself.

2. Feel free to give your opinion.

3. And if you want to make personal contact, feel free.

4. Feel free to converse any interesting topic in Papiamentu. (Should there be a word like tokante in this sentence before kwalkier, or no?)

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more Papiamentu vocabulary

2008-09-24T06:30:00.003-04:00

djárason = Wednesday
djaweps = Thursday

These are weird words. I'd like to know the source of djárason. I guess djaweps comes from Spanish jueves.

The Aruban equivalents are diarason and diahuebs.

Boring but useful: the numbers one to five:

un = one
dos = two
tres = three
kuater = four
sinku = five

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riba un dia

2008-09-23T16:07:00.005-04:00

Way back in the "item 1" post I cited a Papiamentu sentence that used un dia as an equivalent to the English one day (as in "one day, such and such happened").

Today while looking at articles on the web I noticed the phrase riba un dia. A Google search on the phrase turned up >500 instances of it. I like that better; somehow riba un dia seems more "Papiamentish" than un dia.

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more introductory phrases

2008-09-23T06:30:00.005-04:00

When introducing a friend to a third party, someone might say:

Pèrmiti-mi presentá mi amigu Mario.

If one were introducing a colleague one could say:

Pèrmiti-mi presentá mi kolega, señor Martin Erikson.

The third party might say something like:

Ta un plaser. or Muchu gustu.

(roughly equivalent to English nice to meet you or it's a pleasure). A more formal response would be

Kontentu di sera konosí ku señor Erikson.

(based on information in Basiscursus Papiaments)

Well then, we have a few more words for the vocabulary.

kontentu : glad, contented
plaser : pleasure
pèrmiti-mi : allow me to
presentá : to present
amigu : friend
kolega : colleague, co-worker

Papiamentu has a few nouns that change their final vowel to indicate a person's gender. Amigu is a male friend and amiga is a female friend. But kolega is a colleague of either gender.

muchu gustu : "much enjoyment" or "very happy to be doing (whatever)". Another example: Ku muchu gustu nos ta presentá e promé edishon. "We are very pleased to present the first edition."

The examples of muchu gustu that I've seen to date give the impression that it is mainly used when meeting or introducing people or presenting things to an audience; but I could be wrong about that.

sera konosí : "become acquainted with." Another example: laga nan sera konosí ku su naturalesa i historia, "let them get acquainted with its nature and history."

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random vocabulary expansion

2008-09-22T06:30:00.002-04:00

I'm not skilled at memorizing long lists of related terms. I have learned that I must absorb those lists in bits and pieces.

sèptèmber = September
òktober = October
novèmber = November
desèmber = December

djaluna = Monday
djamars = Tuesday
(The variants dialuna and diamars also exist.)

Monday is named after the moon. Compare French lundi, Spanish lunes, Italian lunedi, and Esperanto lundo.

Tuesday appears to be named after Mars. Compare French mardi, Spanish martes, Italian martedi, and Esperanto mardo.

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item 1

2008-09-20T11:33:00.003-04:00

I decided to begin with part of a sentence in the introduction of Kathy Taylor's book Landscape of my Love (ISBN 99904-0-700-2).

… mi a lanta un dia ku e deseo di siña papiamentu …

vocabulary:

mi : I, me, my
a : past tense indicator
lanta : wake up, awaken
un : one, a, an (numeral or indefinite article)
dia : day
ku : (a multi-purpose word)
e : the (definite article) or he, she, it (pronoun)
deseo : desire (noun)
di : of
siña : learn/teach
papiamentu : the name of the language

This phrase is easy to understand because its syntax is the same as its English translation: I woke up one day with the desire to learn Papiamentu.

Note that Papiamentu does not capitalize the word papiamentu.

According to Betty Ratzlaff's dictionary, siña can correspond to either learn or teach depending on how it is used: mi ta siña = I am learning, e ta siña mi = he is teaching me.

Okay, now I'm going to write the phrase on paper a few times to help memorize it, and start a personal vocabulary file that contains all the words I've encountered.

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