Papiamento
| Papiamento | |
|---|---|
| Papiamentu | |
| Native to | Dutch Caribbean |
Native speakers | 350,000 (2025) |
Portuguese Creole
| |
| Latin (Papiamento orthography) | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Aruba Bonaire Curaçao |
| Regulated by | Papiamento Academy Foundation |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | pap |
| ISO 639-3 | pap |
| Glottolog | papi1253 |
| ELP | NE |
| Linguasphere | 51-AAC-be |
Location map of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, where Papiamento is spoken | |
Papiamento (English: /ˌpæpiəˈmɛntoʊ, ˌpɑː-/) or Papiamentu (English: /-tuː/; Dutch: Papiaments [ˌpaːpijaːˈmɛnts]) is a Portuguese-based creole language spoken in the Dutch Caribbean. It is the most widely spoken language on Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao (ABC Islands).
The language, spelled Papiamento in Aruba and Papiamentu in Bonaire and Curaçao, is largely based on Portuguese as spoken in the 15th and 16th centuries, and has been influenced considerably by Dutch and Venezuelan Spanish. Due to lexical similarities between Portuguese and Spanish, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact origin of some words. Though there are different theories about its origins, most linguists now believe that Papiamento emerged from the Portuguese-based creole languages of the West African coasts, as it has many similarities with Cape Verdean Creole and Guinea-Bissau Creole.