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Joyce Pereira Valorization of Papiamento

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Joyce Pereira Valorization of Papiamento Valorization of Papiamento in Aruban society and education, in historical, contemporary and future perspectives 1 2 Valorization of Papiamento in Aruban society and education, in historical, contemporary and future perspectives Proefschrift 3 ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de University of Curaçao dr. Moises da Costa Gomez op gezag van de rector magnificus dr. F.B.G. de Lanoy, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de aula van de universiteit op 15 november 2018 om 16.00 uur precies door Joyce Lomena Pereira geboren op 27 januari 1946 te Willemstad, Curaçao Promotiecommissie Voorzitter: Dr. Francis de Lanoy Rector Magnificus Promotoren: Prof. dr. Ronald Severing University of Curaçao Prof. dr. Ludo Verhoeven University of Curaçao; Radboud University Nijmegen Prof. dr. Nicholas Faraclas University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Leden van de manuscriptcommissie: Prof. dr. Wim Rutgers University of Curaçao Prof. dr. Eliane Segers Radboud University Nijmegen; University of Twente Dr. Elisabeth Echteld Decaan Algemene Faculteit University of Curaçao Overige commissieleden: Prof. dr. Lodewijk Rogier University of Curaçao Prof. dr. Flora Goudappel University of Curaçao; Erasmus University Dr. Rose Mary Allen, University of Curaçao Faculty of Arts; Algemene Faculteit 4 © 2018 Joyce Pereira, Valorization of Papiamento in Aruban society and education, in historical, contemporary and future perspectives ISBN: 978-99904-69-41-7 Cover design: Smile Art & Design Illustration on cover: The Kibrahacha tree, (in Papiamento literally “breaking axes”), the Yel- low Poui or Tabebuia billbergii, Armando Goedgedrag This research was made possible by support from the General Faculty of the University of Curacao Dr. Moises da Costa Gomez, the University of Aruba, the Radboud University and the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 7 1.1 Theoretical framework 11 1.2 Sociolinguistic context 16 1.3 Research design 18 1.4 Outline of this thesis 19 2. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON PAPIAMENTO IN THE ARUBAN COMMUNITY 21 2.1 Language of the original inhabitants of Aruba 22 2.2 The emergence of Papiamento 23 2.3 Dutch colonization and the construction of education 28 2.4 Towards an autonomous position of Papiamento 48 2.5 Impact of Aruba’s Status Aparte on Papiamento 57 2.6 Conclusions and discussion 70 3. CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES ON PAPIAMENTO IN ARUBAN COMMUNITY 73 3.1 Language attitudes 73 3.2 Language rights 80 3.3 Language vitality 86 3.4 Language and education 102 5 3.5 Language activism 106 3.6 Conclusions and discussion 112 4. TEACHER LANGUAGE ATTITUDES TOWARDS PAPIAMENTO IN EDUCATION 115 4.1 Languages and language attitudes in Aruban education 116 4.2 Teacher language attitudes in mainstream schools 125 4.3 Teacher language practices in the Scol Multilingual initiative 141 4.4 Teacher language attitudes in the new Scol Multilingual 146 4.5 General conclusions and discussion 152 5. PARENT LANGUAGE ATTITUDES TOWARDS PAPIAMENTO IN EDUCATION 155 5.1 Research objectives 156 5.2 Method 156 5.3 Data collection and analysis 157 5.4 Results 158 5.5 Conclusions and discussion 172 6. GENERAL DISCUSSION ON THE VALORIZATION OF PAPIAMENTO IN ARUBA 175 6.1 Historical and contemporary perspectives 176 6.2 Educational considerations 178 6.3 Valorization of Papiamento revisited 181 6.4 Limitations and future perspectives 182 6.5 Implications for language planning 185 6.6 Conclusion and recommendations 188 7 SUMMARIES 190 7.1 Resumen na Papiamento 190 7.2 Samenvatting in het Nederlands 194 7.3 Resúmen en español 198 7.4 Summary in English 202 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 206 REFERENCES 208 APPENDICES 231 A Chapter 2 232 6 B Chapter 4 238 C Chapter 5 248 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 255 CURRICULUM VITAE 256 Chapter 1 Introduction In this introductory chapter, a theoretical framework will first be presented (1.1). After giving an impression of the sociolinguistic context of Aruba (1.2), the research design will be discussed (1.3). Finally, an outline of the thesis is given (1.4). In Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, the Leeward Islands of the Dutch Caribbean, Papia- mento or Papiamentu 1 is the generally used vernacular. In the Windward Islands of the Dutch Caribbean St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius, English and Caribbean English lexifier Creole are used in daily communication. However, up until May 2003, Dutch was the official language for all the six islands. In 2003, Aruba opted for two official 7 languages, namely Dutch and Papiamento. And after being tabled for ten years, a bill was passed in March 2008 which designates Dutch, English and Papiamentu as the three official languages in the five islands of the Netherlands Antilles, Curaçao, Bonaire, St. Maarten, Saba, and St. Eustatius. Papiamento The language Papiamento or Papiamentu arose after the conquest of these islands by the Dutch from the Spaniards in 1634 and developed during slavery on Curaçao. By the 18th century, Papiamento became the general language of contact in Curaçao. After 1750 this language also spread to the islands of Aruba and Bonaire. There are various theories on the genesis of Papiamento. In colonial literature it is often characterized as a ‘mishmash, ‘bastard Spanish,’ ‘jargon,’ ‘nigger gibberish,’ a ‘barbaric language’, de- nominations that are indicative of disdain, rather than of insight into the structure and the characteristics of the language. However, there exist hypotheses on the origins of Papiamento that are of higher scientific value. 1 There are two orthographies for Papiamento, an etymological version in Aruba and a phonological version in Curaçao and Bonaire. In Aruba the language is called Papiamento, in Curaçao and Bonaire it is called Papiamentu. The monogenetic view holds that all creole languages, including Papiamento, are de- rived from an Afro-Portuguese proto-creole, which originated in the coastal areas of western Africa as a result of trade contacts between Portuguese and Africans. Through lexification and restructuring the Portuguese characteristics were partially or completely replaced by French, English, Spanish characteristics in several creole lan- guages. Proponents of this theory are among others Lenz (1928), Menkman (1936), Van Wijk (1958), and Martinus (1996). The polygenetic theory holds that many creole lan- guages developed independently of one another. Proponents of this theory are among others Maduro (1965), and Rona (1970). A third theory postulates a Spanish-based Pan- Caribbean creole, originating on a Portuguese substrate. This Spanish-based proto-cre- ole is thought to have existed in the Caribbean in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, and Papiamento, Palenquero of Colombia and Bozal of Puerto Rico are thought to have originated from this language. Bickerton and Escalante (1970) and Wood (1972) are proponents of this theory. These theories contradict each other in some ways, especially with regard to the moment and place of origin and the base language. At any rate, all three theories share a common view on modern Papiamento, namely, that it is a creole language with a vocabulary of mainly Spanish/Portuguese origin (80 to 85%), to which Dutch, English and to a lesser degree African and native Indigenous (Caquetio) languages also have contributed, and that many words have undergone phonological and/or semantic changes (Wood, 1972; 8 Maduro, 1953). Some characteristics of Papiamento The grammar of Papiamento, especially the verbal system and a number of syntactic constructions, have West African features (Martinus, 1996; Todd-Dandaré, 2014b). Here are some examples (Luidens et al., 2010, 2015). 1. As in many West African languages, the basic word order in a Papiamento sentence is subject-predicate. Papiamento is classified as a S-(aux)-V-O language, Subject- (auxiliary)-Verb-Object language. Examples: Papiamento Dutch English Mi ta lesa Ik lees I read S-aux-V S-V S-V Mi ta lesa? Lees ik? Do I read? S-aux-V V-S aux-S-V Awe mi ta lesa Vandaag lees ik Today I read adv-S-aux-V adv-V-S adv-S-V 2. Typical of West African languages, but unlike European languages, Papiamento verbs have no conjugation but are accompanied by tense and aspect particles. The time and aspect particles are: ta for present tense and imperfective (continuous or durative) aspect, tabata for past tense and imperfective (continuous, durative) aspect, a for past tense and perfective aspect, and lo for future tense and the irrealis modality. The combinations lo ta, lo a and lo tabata can express a condition, a wish, a doubt, an appreciation, a possibility. 3. As in most West African languages, in Papiamento generally, no grammatical dis- tinction is made between masculine and feminine forms. These distinctions are made only in a handful of words referring to humans (a) morphologically: maestro - maestra; suegro - suegra or (b) lexically: sua - cuña; yiu muhe - yiu homber; toro - baca; pushi macho - pushi embra. [a: ‘male teacher - female teacher; father in law - mother in law’ or b: ‘brother in law - sister in law; bull - cow; tomcat - female cat’] 4. In Papiamento, as in many West African languages, the plural form -nan is only used if the noun has a definite article or a deictic pronoun. Examples: Papiamento English No definite article nor a Mi tin cinco buki. I have five books. deictic pronoun Mi tin hopi buki. I have many books. A definite article ‘e’ E bukinan ta masha bunita. The books are very nice. E cinco bukinan ta masha The five books a very bunita. nice. 9 A deictic pronoun ‘su’ Su bukinan ta masha bunita. His books are very nice. 5. As do almost all West African languages, Papiamento has lexical and grammatical tone (Römer,1991) with pitch and stress (accent) distinguishing lexical and grammatical meaning. Examples: cacho and mara: Papiamento English first syllable second syllable cach’ō low tone + unstressed high tone + stressed dog ’cācho high tone + stressed low tone + unstressed horn ’marā low tone + stressed high tone + unstressed to tie mar’ā low tone + unstressed high tone + stressed tied (adjective) In these examples, an apostrophe is used before the stressed syllable.
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