Curacao is a heterogeneous community with many immigrants. Several foreign languages are spoken in Curacao. However, the official language used is Dutch. Dutch is the official language used for all public administration and legal affairs in the country. The majority of the people of Curacao speak Papiamentu. Papiamentu is a Portuguese Creole. In 1993, it was introduced as a language used in the primary level of education. The Papiamentu language is very musical and has a remarkable rhythm. This is due to the many languages and dialects that form its composition.
The statistics that was released in 2001 revealed that the Papiamentu language is spoken by almost 81.2% of the Curacao population. The Dutch language comes second with 8%, followed by Spanish with 4% and English, which is spoken by 2.9% people. Dutch is the official language of Curacao, a Dutch colony.
The Papiamentu language is a multifaceted Creole language based on different languages of Dutch, Portuguese, Arawak Indian, French, Spanish, and several African dialects. The language has been in use for the last 300 years especially in the ABC Islands. Some of the common words and phrases include: "mòru’" for "good morning", "bon bini" for ‘"welcome", "danki" for "thank you", ‘"ayo" for "goodbye", and "mi ta stimabo" for ‘I love you’.
Besides Papiamentu, the other commonly spoken languages in Curacao are Spanish, Dutch and English. In fact, most of the people of Curacao can comfortably communicate using all four languages.
This page was last modified on May 1st, 2018
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