A Language Thrives in Its Caribbean Home

[Francis Hult]

New York Times

 

A Language Thrives in Its Caribbean Home

 

Thousands of languages spoken by small numbers of people, including many of the Creole languages born in the last centuries of human history, are facing extinction. But a little-known language spoken on a handful of islands near the coast of Venezuela may be an exception.

 

Papiamentu, a Creole language influenced over the centuries by African slaves, Sephardic merchants and Dutch colonists, is now spoken by only about 250,000 people on the islands of Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba.

 

Full story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/05/world/americas/05curacao.html?_r=1

 

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