Thoughts on the linguistic history of Curaçao. How Papiamentu got the better of Dutch

Abstract

Papiamentu has borrowed considerably from Dutch with up to 30% of the vocabulary having Dutch roots. However, an important and hitherto insufficiently addressed historical- and socio-linguistic question is why Dutch itself did not creolize on Curaçao or otherwise become the principal language of the island’s society at large, in spite of it being the principal European language on the island from start to present, and even though its presence there (from the 1630s onwards) predates that of Papiamentu (from the 1650s onwards). Most colonial languages in the Caribbean have had a vast, long lasting linguistic impact in their respective colonies, either ‘producing’ creoles (e.g. English on Jamaica or French on Haiti) or otherwise becoming the main vehicle of communication (e.g. Spanish on Cuba). Not, though, on Curaçao. On this island, the language of all social classes and ethnicities is Papiamentu, a creole with an Iberian lexical base. The present article explores this issue which, in the literature, is also known as the ‘Curaçao Paradox’.