Interlinear books are bilingual translations where the original has a translation right below each word or expression. Try them out on Interlinear Books.
For multilingual verb conjugation, try CoolJugator - a tool that can currently conjugate in dozens of different languages. It also recognizes forms and provides examples for each verb.
First an interesting event from yesterday - at the local book store where a section is decked out in Hobbit-related literature and items for the upcoming movie, I found the following:
(Taken with a webcam as can't be bothered to find the real camera in the closet at the moment)
Hobbitus ille - The Hobbit in Latin. After buying it I've read a few reviews that say the translation is lacking in places. I'm not one to judge, though, and I have purchased it more to aid the revival of Latin than anything else, as I have no room to fit Latin into my schedule at the moment. I will skim through it while comparing it to the original English though just to get a feel for it. On that note we get to the next link:
--- Crecé interés por el mandarín - an article on the increasing interest in Mandarin in Paraguay. Slightly different from your average "the Confucius Institute is growing" article because this one is about Taiwan's role in teaching the language abroad.
And finally a link provided by a reader: a simple search displaying language programs for languages that are offered in North America. Entering Uzbek for example turns up 16 schools that offer it in the United States, Kalmyk is non-existent (no surprise), Kyrgyz gives five results, Cree gives 14 results all in Canada, Estonian gives 9 results.
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The spacecraft would use the gravity of Jupiter to initiate a series of close fly-bys around Callisto and Europa, and then finally to put itself in a settled orbit around Ganymede.
I feel bad for the missions that did not get selected (because ideally they would all be funded), but when it comes down to it I will almost always prefer a mission that has more immediate and close appeal. An unmanned dedicated mission to 24 Themis (possibly a good location for human colonization) over Neptune, for example.
--- Dawn is now beginning to spiral upward in its orbit around Vesta after being given an extra 40 days in its current (and lowest) orbit. Departure for Ceres will be in August I believe, and in the meantime it continues to approach Ceres by virtue of being in orbit around Vesta (which is closing in on Ceres at the moment). Current distance: 96 million km.
--- Google's blog in Latin America mentions some challenges for tech companies in Spanish. Two are interesting: 1) Generating content: there is a lack of local content in Portuguese and Spanish. For example, there are 2.5 times more websites in German than Spanish, in spite of the fact that the Spanish-speaking population is much larger than the German-speaking one. 2) Develop e-commerce: in Latin America, electronic commerce represents between 0.3% and 0.6% of GDP, compared to 1% in developed countries.
Intensive, longer-term studies would help halt the slide, he said, adding that eliminating French would help students concentrate on a globally useful language. French is “a beautiful language, [but] not as relevant as it was years ago,” Sakol said. Revised language offerings could include Mandarin, Assistant Superintendent Kim Donahue said. “If you look at the top 10 languages, basically, it’s Mandarin Chinese, English and Spanish,” she said.
Here are my most interesting open tabs at the moment.
--- I'm not sure if I mentioned this one before, but even if I did it deserves another mention - a long, long page about sleep patterns in the British isles before the Industrial Revolution. Most notable is the existence of a "second sleep", which used to be the norm: a first sleep after sunset, then an hour or two of wakefulness in the middle of the night, and then a second sleep. The page has a total of 181 results for the term dream.
--- An article here in the New York Times on what having a Korean son-in-law means to parents in Vietnam. Korea is right on the verge of having its first grown-up generation of half-Korean half-Vietnamese citizens, who mostly live in the southwest part of the country but certainly will begin to move to Seoul and other large cities to attend university, work, etc.
--- An article on which languages are studied in Oklahoma. It comes with a helpful graph, according to which the following languages are studied the most: Spanish (54.96%), French (14.17%), Italian (7.05%), German (7.02%), Chinese (4.79%), Japanese (4.74%), Arabic (3.89%), Russian (2.53%), Hebrew (0.85%). Strangely, Native American languages count as anthropology so they are not ranked.
A lot of interesting news has come in today and the past few days.
This article on French, English and other languages in Montreal is particularly interesting. French is spoken by about 54% of the population at home, and this is set to drop to 47.4%. However, this is not due to English but rather other languages, so-called allophones. This is actually good news for French as long as it is still spoken by more than English is, as speakers of other languages will generally gravitate towards the language spoken in the province they live in.
A post here by a missionary who has translated a pamphlet into Papiamentu, apparently the 125th language.
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A school in Melbourn has elected to discard its Latin motto (nisi Dominus frustra) and replace it with.....a graffiti-style motto that says "Inspiring Minds". Bleh. I would have preferred a new Latin motto if nisi Dominus frustra doesn't really fit the school anymore or comes across as vague.
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In Mondial: le dicionario ha ja atingate plu di 4850 paroles; yo espera que yo povaria finar lo in le fine del semana o le comence del semana prochan. Ora yo ha poco besonia por le dicionario sur paper, solmente cuando yo vola un parol dopo P.
The New York Times today has a feature on Papiamentu, an article as well as an audio slide show. Papiamentu is a language that deserves more attention than it gets so the article is a good thing; unfortunately two people interviewed in the article are...well, you decide for yourself.
Quote 1: "Papiamentu is the only language that gives the human his value as a human." Uh, what? Translation: "Papiamentu is my mother tongue and also my favourite language."
The most moronic comment in the article is this one though:
Helmin Wiels, 51, leader of the leftist party Pueblo Soberano, which favors a complete break from the Netherlands, said that if Curaçao were to achieve full independence, its official language should be Papiamentu, along with English and Spanish. As for Dutch, he said: “No way. Dutch is a dead language the same as Greek or Latin.”
This one is painfully dumb in so many ways. Let's see, where to start... 1) the 13 million speakers of Greek would probably disagree that their language is dead; 2) Same for the 20 ~ 30 million speakers of Dutch; 3) If tens of millions of speakers doesn't qualify a language as alive then what is Papiamentu with 300,000?
I would also question the value of independence from a country as chill as the Netherlands. Having a foot in the door to the EU through being part of the Netherlands is nothing to sneeze at, and discarding this to become a tiny country off the coast of South America all by oneself is IMO not worth the effort.
Besides that though, good article for a great language.
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I often write posts on subjects that I may not entirely support or be currently working towards, but would like to elaborate upon for others to view and comment on. Such was this post from last year on why Papiamentu might be a good solution as a worldwide auxlang. Slightly more difficult than a constructed IAL but still fairly simple, and with a population large enough that there is a body of speakers that can aid new students, but not large enough that it gives a huge group of people an advantage who use it as their L1. That was the general gist of that post.
A year later, it turns out that a group of people have had the same idea. Written in German, this page talks about how Papiamentu would make a good world language, and even gets a dig in at Esperanto (something most new IAL projects just don't see to be able to resist). It alternates between calling it Papiamentu and Papiamundu, but they seem to be the same thing and Papiamundu is just the name for this project here where the language is supposed to be promoted through some method I don't quite follow using four dice over three months, but no information beyond the first page.
So yeah...in spite of the disorderly and scant presentation on the page it's still interesting to see Papiamentu presented as an IAL in this way.
Finding written content in Papiamentu isn't impossible but it's not the easiest task in the world either, and there doesn't seem to be a complete version of the Bible online in Papiamentu as there are in many other languages (40 on this site alone). Even Wikipedia only has a link to this page with a single page excerpt. By coincidence though I came across this page today, and clicking on the fourth link will bring up a pdf of the full Gospel of Luke in Papiamentu. Don't get excited by the audio links though, as they aren't audio files of the same document, just standard radio recordings with some talking and some singing.
Actually, taking a closer look at it it should be Papiamento, as it uses the etymological spelling used in Aruba (lots of q and c) as opposed to the more phonetic one used in Curaçao.
One passage for comparison (English version here, Spanish here):
1. Y a sosode un biáha riba un dia di Sabbat, qu é tawata pasa den un terenu plantá; y su discipelnan tawata coge tapushi di maïshi y come nan fregándo nan cu nan man. 2. Y algun dje Fariseonan a bisa nan: Paquiqu boso ta haci cos, qu riba dia di Sabbat no ta permití pa haci? 3. Y Jesus a contesta nan: Boso no a leza, quiqu David a haci dia qu é tawatin hamber y esnan, qu tawata cu né? 4. Con el a bai den cas di Dios, y tumándo e pannan di proposicion a come nan, y a duna tambe na esnan, qu tawata cu né, qua no tawata permití pa come sino na e sacerdotenan so? 5. Y é dici cu nan: E Yiu di hende ta tambe Señor di Sabbat.
One year ago I wrote a post about how Papiamentu might be able to serve in the same capacity that IALs (international auxiliary languages) have been created for, namely to serve as a means of communication between peoples of different mother tongues. Though Papiamentu isn't a constructed language it is a creole, and creoles like Bislama and Tok Pisin have already been successful in linguistically uniting their respective countries where different languages are spoken on nearly every island. Papiamentu also happens to resemble a lot of European-based IALs (Ido, Occidental, etc.) and since it is already spoken by 300,000 people there is no need to convince anyone that it is a real language, which is a problem that every IAL except sometimes Esperanto has...and even Esperanto often gets thought of as just being an artificial project instead of a real language. So the theory behind the idea is that you get a slightly less easy (but still quite easy) and less regular language in exchange for having already overcome the first hurdle an auxiliary language needs.
Today a new comment was left by someone named Brian, who is 14 years old and has begun studying Papiamentu, and he has started a blog here tracking his progress as he learns the language. Interestingly enough, this was inspired by another blog I've written on before here by Rick Harrison when he learned some of the language.
On top of this though, Brian will also be going to Curaçao in the spring, so when that happens we will be able to get first-hand reports on Papiamentu as spoken in real life too.
Time for another single post composed of subjects I'd been meaning to write about but not long enough on their own to fill up a single post.
Two articles here and here on the new batting coach for the New York Giants who speaks five languages, including Papiamentu (he's from Curacao).
Here's an example (written in Italian) of a free Sardinian course in Sardinia. Sardinian is well known for being the most conservative (conservative = unchanged from Latin) Romance language.
Congestion in Toronto costs Canada a total of $3.3 billion. Time spent in traffic = wasted money, pollution = worse health, etc. Toronto has far too many people still dependent on cars for a city of its size.
An interesting study here on average intelligence among the religious vs. non-religious. Some studies seem to show a positive correlation between a lack of religion and intelligence, but it's not quite that simple - it's true for lifelong theists vs. atheists but converts are the opposite - those that have switched to atheism later on are generally less intelligent, and those that have switched to theism later on are more intelligent. Basically it has to do with: 1) conformity or a lack of it is more of a sign of intelligence, and 2) surprise surprise, switching to or from one religion/philosophy or another doesn't magically increase or decrease one's intelligence.
On a related note, Frank Schaeffer has gotten a lot of attention for an article of his here entitled Are the "New Atheists" as bad as Christian Fundamentalists? Frank Schaeffer is a man that used to be an evangelical fundamentalist but since changed his views, but instead of throwing out religion as well as some might be inclined to do he has since become Greek Orthodox. Here is an interview of his from September that received quite a bit of attention.
The interview went viral, particularly among anti-theist groups, but his now editorial is now receiving flack from them. It's tough to stake out a minority position in between two huge groups and call them both out.
Here's an interesting article on street lights. Traditional street lights are kind of like the Qwerty keyboard - they were created because it looked like the best thing to do at the time with a big bulb that sends out a kind of orangey light in all directions. Recently however, dark sky projects have resulted in street lights that only send light down (because there really is no need to light up the sky at night; nobody lives there) as well as using colours that are more in tune with human sensitivities - thus cooler colours like blue and green instead of orange and yellow. Looks better and saves a considerable amount of energy. Not sure what that note on "it will make greener the Goth subculture" is doing in the article though. Shrug.
Finally, here's a video from a host of a show on NSMBC named Dylan Ratigan that criticizes US bank bailouts and fighting overseas, but has revealed that he really has an agenda behind this: he just wants the US to stop wasting its money on propping up banking and fighting overseas and instead start really exploring space.
Many aren't aware of this, but the world has a language problem: the problem is that there is no universal second language through which everybody can communicate. It's true that basic English will do fine for most airports and a lot of major cities in the world, but this is communication at its most basic level ("one coffee...and big size please"), and not even communication at this level is guaranteed.
Add all this together and you can see that the world is heading for a bit of a linguistic deadlock. One of the problems with the current situation is simply that the most prominent languages in the world are often extremely hard to learn for others - English orthography is a mess, French is only slightly better but has grammatical gender and weird verb conjugation, Spanish has excellent orthography but requires a lot of work on memorizing verb conjugation, Chinese...well, Chinese is written in Chinese.
One solution proposed to this problem is a constructed language, created to be easy for anyone to learn, and thus we have languages like Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua, Lingua Franca Nova, Occidental, Novial, and so on. Though I and a lot of people like me do support this idea, the world on the whole doesn't seem to like constructed languages. The reasons for this are twofold: 1) they come across as being too artificial, and 2) they have very few speakers and thus almost no economic clout. It's hard to say whether any constructed languages will ever succeed.
Luckily, there may be another solution, and it's a language called Papiamentu. Papiamentu is spoken right here:
(plus a few other islands nearby)
This small corner of the world is part of the Netherlands Antilles, an overseas territory of the Netherlands where Papiamentu was born. Papiamentu is a creole, with vocabulary mostly from Portuguese and Spanish, with about another quarter of its vocabulary from Dutch and a few other words from various languages. And because it's a creole that means it has an extremely simplified grammar in addition to the large comprehensibility at first sight.
(the area on conjugation in Papiamentu is less complete than the one for Spanish, but even this small portion shows you how easy it is - conjugation is carried out by simply using an auxiliary in front of the main verb)
In addition to that you now don't have to worry about grammatical gender anymore. In short, Papiamentu is the language you wish you had learned in school instead of Spanish or French. It's not only easy to learn but because its vocabulary comes from prominent European languages it provides a benefit to students who intend to go on to other languages afterwards.
Okay then, what about neutrality? One of the common arguments given for a constructed language is that it provides a neutral playing field in that everyone is using the language as a second language, so those using it as a mother tongue will not be given an unfair advantage. This is true to a certain extent, however:
1) The definition of neutrality is always a pretty vague one. Does a language get to be considered neutral simply because nobody speaks it as a first language, or does the vocabulary itself have to be derived from languages around the world? If a language derives too much of its vocabulary from one source is it then not neutral? Neutrality is good to a certain extent, but focusing too much on the perfect neutral language is an impossible task. In reality, more neutral is about as good as we can hope to get. 2) Certainly Papiamentu would given an unfair advantage to the people that speak it as a mother tongue...but these people live on a few islands close to South America and number only about 300,000, hardly the same thing as giving an advantage to the hundreds of millions of people that speak other languages like English, French or Spanish.
Finally, how complete a language is Papiamentu? Can you do everything you can do with other languages using Papiamentu? The answer is yes. Here are some examples of Papiamentu being used in practice.
Here it is being used to give a code of ethics to journalists:
Here it is being used to give information on a drug bust:
Here it is being used to discuss languages in education:
And here it is sung:
So yes, Papiamentu is as complete and functional as any other language. You'll also notice that if you speak a fair amount of Spanish or Portuguese (and French/Italian/Latin etc. to a certain extent) that this language is already pretty easy to understand at first sight.
There are of course other creole languages in existence, and most of them are fairly easy to learn in comparison with other languages that are usually studied in school. None of these, however, have the advantages that Papiamentu has:
- Tok Pisin and Bislama (Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu) are spoken in a very isolated part of the world, and the countries in which they are spoken are still largely undeveloped - Haiti speaks a creole as well, but once again the country is unstable and undeveloped - Mauritius speaks a French-based creole, but isn't all that interested in promoting it as a written language - Seychelles does a better job at promoting their French-based creole than Mauritius but it's once again quite isolated and the population there is quite low
Whereas Papiamentu is spoken in a stable and well-developed part of the world, is technically a part of the Netherlands which is an EU member, and it's also quite close to both North and South America. It also has a larger amount of non-Romance vocabulary and thus represents a more varied swath of population than other creoles do.
Okay, so Papiamentu is a pretty good candidate for a universal second language, but how could this be accomplished in practice? That's hard to say. At the moment since it's not even considered to be a candidate for a universal second language the best way to get the ball rolling would probably be to conduct studies on the use of the language as a bridge in between English and Spanish speakers in the United States. A few studies showing how easy it is for people with different linguistic backgrounds to learn the language to communicate would probably be the best way to get people thinking about this language's potential as an interlinguistic tool...or you could just write about it on your blog and see whether that gets people interested in the idea.
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This is kind of cool - thanks to Radio Nederland Wereldomroep, which creates news in Papiamentu along with a number of other languages, you can sometimes find news in Papiamentu on Google News. As an example, here are the search results for the word Papiamentu today:
So that's a total of one article in English, one in German, one in Dutch, and two in Papiamentu. The top one in Papiamentu is this article:
Radio Hoyer 2, e promé emisora di radio kompletamente na hulandes na Kòrsou, a kumpli eksaktamente 50 aña dia 10 di mart último. Sinku aña promé a funda Hoyer 1, e emisora mama. Ademas, e luna akí tambe ta hasi 25 aña ku Radio Hoyer a pasa pa energia solar komo promé emisora na mundu, ku su transmishonnan riba FM.
It seems to be about Radio Hoyer 2, a radio station in Cursao which is now 50 years old and has been using solar power for the last 25 years for its world and FM broadcasts.
Unfortunately the mp3 link on these articles is only in Dutch, which is okay if you know Dutch and want to make sure what the article in Papiamentu means, but it would still be nice to see an mp3 of these articles in Papiamentu as well so that people can compare text with the spoken word.
So if you know a bit of Papiamentu and are looking for some information in the language you might want to try doing a search on Google News to see what comes up. Words like otronan (others), trabou (work, I think), and vishon (vision) are only in Papiamentu so you're bound to find something when doing a search with words like these that don't appear in other languages.
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Izaline Calister (Kòrsou, 9 mart 1969) ta un kantante i kompositor di kantika. El a biba na Kòrsou te edat di 18 aña. Awendia e ta biba na Groningen (Hulanda). Su múzika ta kontené un meskla di elementonan karibense i djès. E ta kanta na Papiamentu. Durante tempu di mucha, señora Calister a kanta den e kornan Perlitas i Grupo Forsa. Na 1995 e tabata kantante di Deco Deco, un banda lokal. Di e ora ei el a hasi paseo ku varios banda. Na aña 1998 el a funda The Izaline Callister Band. Su promé álbum, Soño di un muhé (aña 2000), tabata hopi popular na Kòrsou.
I just found a video by a singer named Izaline Calister from Curacao that sings in Papiamentu, and the title of this song is called Sing Hélele.
The lyrics can also be seen at her site here, so I'll reproduce them below as well. Here they are:
Papiamentu
English
Hei, lanta fo’i kama lihé, dia ta pasa un be No, no drumi pèrdè tempu, disfrut’é Bo chèns ta eifó, gar’éle awó No, no keda warda ningun hende no
Hey, quick get out of bed! Days pass before you know it No, don’t waste more time sleeping, enjoy it! Your chance is out there, grab it now! Don’t sit around waiting for anybody
Hei, gosa di loke bo tin Dicha ta bai i e ta bin Danki dios tur tempu malu tin su fin I no lubidá, kon tristu ku bo ta Keda ku speransa kosnan lo solushoná
Hey, enjoy what you have Happiness comes and goes But thank god, all bad times come to an end And don’t forget, even though you are very sad Keep faith, things will work out!
Bo sa ku bo por, no pèrdè balor Mi ta yudabu si bo ke, pa bo komprondé i Lo bo realisá , kon fuerte bo ta Bo duda ta por nada, lanta i bo ta sa
You know you can do it, don’t lose your courage I’ll help you if you want, to make you understand Then you’ll realize, how strong you actually are There is no reason for doubts Get up and you’ll see!
Mi ke pa bo wak, bo bida ku smak Ba pag’é presio di amor, ma bo sa awor Ku felisidat, esun di bèrdat, no ta kosta nada
I want you to look at life, with gusto You paid the price of love But now you know That happiness, the real kind, doesn’t cost anything
Felisidat ta pòrnada, basta bo habri bo bista p’e Den kosnan chikitu, ta bo mes tin ku mir’é Si un hende yudabu, maske ku bo n’ konosé Kanta ku mi: Hélele, Hélele
Happiness is for free, as long as your sight is open to it It’s in the little things, you just have to see If someone you don’t even know, helps you Sing with me Hélele, Hélele
Felisidat ta pòrnada, basta bo habri bo bista p’e Un nechi kantika, mientras ku bo ta baile Si e ta stimabu i abo tambe stim’é Kanta ku mi: Hélele, Hélele
Happiness is for free, as long as your sight is open to it A nice song, while you’re dancing to it If he (she) loves you and you love him (her) back Sing with me Hélele, Hélele
Felisidat ta pòrnada, basta bo habri bo bista p’e Un yu den bo brasa, ku tin bo duru tené Si bo tin amigu, ku bo por konta ku n’e Kanta ku mi: Hélele, Hélele
Happiness is for free, as long as your sight is open to it A child in your arms that is tightly holding on to you If you have friends you can really count on Sing with me Hélele Hélele
Oh, the video has the lyrics in Dutch below as well so I'll type them out...done. Here they are:
hé, kom gauw je bed uit voor je het weet gaan de dagen voorbij verspil je tijd niet met slapen maar geniet je kansen liggen voor het grijpen, ga ervoor blijf niet staan wachten op wie dan ook hé, wees blij met wat je hebt geluk komt en gaat maar godzijdank komt er ook een einde aan slechte tijden en vergeet niet zelfs als je heel verdrietig bent blijf erin geloven, het komt weer goed je weet dat je het kan verlies de moed niet als je wilt zal ik je helpen zodat je begrijpt hoe sterk je bent er is geen reden voor twijfel sta op en je zult het zien ik wil dat je met plezier naar je leven kijkt je hebt gemerkt dat liefde een prijs heeft maar nu weet je dat geluk, echt geluk, niets kost geluk is gratis zolang je geest er open voor staat het zit in een klein hoekje je moet het alleen willen zien als iemand die je niet eens kent jou helpt je moet het alleen willen zien als iemand die je niet eens kent jou helpt zing met mij mee: Hélele, Hélele geluk is gratis zolang je geest er open voor staat een mooi lied terwijl je op de muziek danst als hij van jou houdt en jij houdt ook van hem zing met mij mee: Hélele, Hélele geluk is gratis zolang je geest er open voor staat een kind in je armen dat zich stevig aan je vasthoudt als je vrienden hebt op wie je echt kunt rekenen zing met mij mee: Hélele, Hélele
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Here's a bit of info on travel intentions of US citizens, as reported by Telecuracao in Papiamentu. This station always has a ton of content on YouTube and every once in a while you can find a video with a certain amount of written Papiamentu as well which is a good way to get a feel for the language compared to its orthography. This video has a small part with a written section (slightly different from what is actually spoken but still helpful in following along) starting at about 0:50:
78% ta pensa ku ekonomia sea ta kaba, of lo kai den un periodo di reseshon den e siguiente seis lunanan. Kasi 50 porshentu di e populashon tin impreshon ku nan situashon finansiero a deteroria kompara ku un ana pasa. 57% di e populashon a kambia nan plan di vakashon. 70% ta plania pa pasa nan vakashon na Merka mes. 36% ta opta pa un trep ku barku pa Karibe of Mexico.
Make sure to note that of comes from Dutch and means or, not of. E also means the, not and.
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Here's an example from Wikipedia of the two orthographies of Papiamento and Papiamentu. The latter is generally preferred by auxlangers for its closer proximity of one letter to one sound, but one advantage the former has is that it doesn't use accents and is probably slightly easier to understand at first sight. I've bolded and enlarged the areas where the two orthographies differ.
Papiamento
Papiamentu
Introduccion na Papiamento
Wikipedia ta un proyecto cu un comunidad mundial. E tin e meta pa crea un encyclopedia, den tur idioma, riba internet.
E proyecto aki ta habri, esei ta nificacu tur hende por contribui na e proyecto aki. Actualmente nos ta buscando hende cu den nan tempo liber por traha articulo y asina contribui na e Wikipedia na papiamento. Tambe por traduci un articulo for di un otro idioma pa e Wikipedia na Papiamento.
E Wikipedia na Papiamento ta oficial for di 26 di maart 2006.
Introdukshon na Papiamentu
Wikipedia ta un proyekto ku un komunidat mundial. E tin e meta pa krea un ensiklopedia, den tur idioma, riba internet.
E proyekto akí ta habrí, esei ta nifikáku tur hende por kontribuí na e proyekto akí. Aktualmente nos ta buskando hende ku den nan tempu liber por traha artíkulo i asina kontribuí na e Wikipedia na papiamentu. Tambe por tradusí un artíkulo for di un otro idioma den wikipedia na papiamentu.
E Wikipedia na papiamentu ta ofisial desde 26 di mart 2006.
A few days ago I mentioned that Rick Harrison has started a new blog as he begins to learn Papiamentu. It turns out that just a few days ago as well a person that speaks Papiamentu as a first language has started a blog too. I think I'm going to bug him/her to see if (s)he'd ever be willing to transcribe some of these videos that there are so many of on YouTube from telecuracao that I'd love to see transcribed, like this one:
I'm glad you guys reminded me of Papiamentu; I've been meaning to study it for several years. I've started a blog about my own efforts to learn it. I hope to have at least one update every day. http://papiamentu-tur-dia.blogspot.com/
So keep an eye on that if you know Papiamentu or are interested in learning it yourself. He's also looking for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Papiamentu; I can't find it online either.
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Keep an eye on this wiki. It was created just a few days ago by Franz Sledge on Auxlang and he's been putting up quite a bit of information on it, so in a short time it could become one of the best resources online to learn the language.
You can edit it by sending an email to him and asking to be added to the list of editors, or if you want to add something but don't feel like going through that, just leave a message below this post and I'll add it for you.
E palabra literatura cu ta provini di latin, traduciendo e directamente e ta significa "conocimento di cartanan" (for di e palabra di latin littera, cu ta significa carta).
Someone left a reply on a post yesterday on Papiamentu with a link here to the entire Bible online in Papiamentu. Wikipedia only has a link to a single sample page in Papiamentu so I had assumed that the Bible in Papiamentu wasn't available online, but it turns out that it is. That makes it that much easier to compare it to Latin to ascertain whether it could appeal to the Latin revival advocates, as I suspect that any possible 2nd language for the world that resembles Latin more than English does would at least be an improvement in the world's overall understanding of Latin terminology, and therefore a slight improvement over the status quo.
Here's the Lord's Prayer in English, Latin and Papiamentu. Some of the words that are similar in Latin and Papiamentu but different in English are:
Nos for Latin noster, our
Santifiká for L. sanctificetur, hallowed/holy/sanctify
Reino for L. regnum, kingdom
Boluntat for voluntas, will
Pan for panem (panis), bread
Libra for libera, deliver/liberate
Malbado for malo, evil
There are quite a few others that resemble Latin a bit less, or resemble it only about as well as the English term does. I'm not sure what the exact number is re: similarity to Latin, but it's probably only a little bit less similar to Latin than Spanish is. Verb conjugation is an entirely different matter, however.
English
Latin
Papiamentu
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name.
Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur Nomen Tuum;
Nos Tata ku ta den shelu, Bo nòmber sea santifiká.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Adveniat Regnum Tuum; fiat voluntasTua, sicut in caelo, et in terra.
Ku Bo reino bin. Ku Bo boluntat sosodé na tera meskos ku den shelu.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
Duna nos awe nos pan di kada dia.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Et dimitte nobis debita nostra, Sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
I pordoná nos nos debenan, meskos ku nos tambe ta pordoná nos debedónan.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
et ne nos inducas in tentationem; sed libera nos a Malo.
I no hiba nos den tentashon, ma libra nos for di e malbado.
There's a TV station called Telecuraçao that has a lot of videos on YouTube in Papiamentu (and sometimes Dutch), usually about local events like some new cultural centre, events, weather, some drug bust, interview with government people, and so on. None of them have transcripts though, until now when I noticed this one they put up just six days ago:
It's a code of ethics for the reporters at the station. The transcript on the video is pretty hard to see though, so I typed it out. The actual recording is slightly different in some areas, but for the most part it's the same.
International Auxiliary Language users and people who know Spanish/Portuguese etc. will probably understand most of it, but if you're not sure this automatic translator can help sometimes too. As far as I know Papiamentu is the only creole that has any sort of automatic translation service available online.
Here it is:
E periodista ta respetá bérdat i derechi di publiko di sa bérdat.
E periodista ta raportá informashon basá riba echo di kua e sá nan origen.
E periodista no ta skonde informashon esensial pa públiko óf falsifiká dokumento ni manipulá ku grabashon.
E periodista ta skucha tur banda e ta informá públiko i nunka ta ninga un dje aktornan embolbí chèns pa reakshoná riba e otro.
E periodista ta rektifiká informashon eróneo ku por perhudiká hende óf un instansia ínnesesariamente.
E periodista ta respetá deseo di su informante pa keda anónimo òf inkógnito.
E periodista ta dispuesto pa konsiderá e posibilidat di evitá publikashon di algu si esaki ta na interes general, por ehèmpel si esaki ta empugna di seguridat nashonal òf si stabilidat di pais ta rekerí esei.
E periodista ta konsiente di e echo ku su trabou mester tin un balor informative i den sierto aspekto edukativo tambe.
E periodista ta hasi su máksimo estuerso pa hasi uso korekto di e idioma den kua e ta informá su públiko.
E periodista ta respetá su profeshon i no ta hasi su mes kulpabel na praktika deshonesto manera: mentira, ofensa, akusashon infundá, soborno, plagia, intimidashon ni instigashon di hende òf gruponan di hende kontra otro.
E periodista di TeleNotisia no ta afiliá su mes aktívamente na ningun partido polítiko i/òf organisashon di preshon i/òf interes.
E periodista di TeleNotisia no ta partisipá a base personal den ningun manifestashon, demonstrashon i akshon públiko, ku tin komo meta pa pone preshon i/òf influensha opinion públiko.
E periodista semper bai ta defendé kredibilidat i promové bon funshonamentu di TeleNotisia i koleganan, basá riba ophetividat, sinseridat i buena fe.
E periodista ta identitiká komentario i opinion na un manera adekuá.
E periodista ta defendé e prinsipio di libertat di buska, publiká i no publiká notisia, i e derechi di komentá i kritiká honéstamente, sin ningun klase di intervenshon òf influensha di tersera.
Relashon di trabou, komersial, personal i amistoso ku TeleCuraçao no ta duna ningun sorto di derecho, influensha, preferensha òf bentaha den kontenido di TeleNotisia.
E periodista ta ventilá e informashon na públiko ku e ta sirbi semper dor di apliká reglanan profeshonal ora di redaktá òf editá notisia, semper ku e Kódiga di Etika i Honor den mente.
E periodista ta sensurá i purba prevení violashon di e Kódiga di Etika i Honor aki i alabes stimulá otro periodistanan pa kumpli ku esaki.
Hefe di Redakshon di TeleNotisia tin e última palabra den kualke disishon ku tin ku tuma ku ta regardá kontenido di TeleNotisia.
On this site here in German that I've never heard of there's a page introducing the language Papiamentu / Papiamento, the creole spoken in the Netherlands Antilles which is mostly a blend of Portuguese and Spanish plus a lot of Dutch, a number of African words, and a much simpler grammar. I'm not that good at German but with an automatic translator and some knowledge of German I've made this rough translation. Hopefully I can get it checked and improved.
Edit: Olivier Simon, who seems to know just about every language, has checked the German and now it's probably okay.
There's also a short sound file if you want to hear a quick explanation as well. It's different from the written text.
Edit September 10th: The translator himself has written me about the interview which has a few inaccuracies, so I'm adding them here in red. Also a bit of extra information in addition to simple corrections. The extra red is not part of the original German text (which is the one with the inaccuracies), so if you are simply comparing the English and German texts for language practice just look at the black text.
Curacao spricht Papiamentu
Curacao speaks Papiamentu
Viele Sprachen vereint
Many languages united
Jan van der Brugge erklärt Papiamentu
Jan van der Brugge explains Papiamentu
Länge: 0:28 min
Length: 0:28 min
Es ist eine sehr junge Sprache, dieses Papiamentu, sogar eine der jüngsten Amtssprachen dieser Erde. Es wird auf den Niederländischen Antillen gesprochen, die nahe der venezolanischen Küste liegen. Und "die Sprache ist noch nicht fertig", sagt Jan van der Brugge, "sie arbeitet noch, sie ist ein Work in Progress. Man sieht, oder hört förmlich, wie sich die Wörter weiterentwickeln." Jan van der Brugge muss es wissen: Er ist der erste und einzige Übersetzer, der die Sprache Curacaos, das Papiamentu, ins Deutsche übertragen hat. Und: Papiamentu ist die Sprache seiner Kindheit: Er ist auf Curacao aufgewachsen.
It is a very young language, this Papiamentu, even one of the youngest official languages in this world. It is spoken in the Netharlands Antilles, located near the Venezuelan coast. And "the language is not finished yet", says Jan van der Brugge, "it is still working, it is a work in progress. You see, or hear formally, how the words are evolving." Jan van der Brugge should know: He is the first and only translator that has translated Papiamentu, the language of Curacao, into German. (In a bilingual edition, he translated "Katibu di Shon" by Carel de Haseth into German, a book greatly appreciated in the meantime also by students of Creolistics in Germany and Austria, being the first time they can really "read" Papiamentu. An English translation is also being made.) And: Papiamentu is the language of his childhood: He grew up in Curacao.
Eigentlich "Seeländisch"
It's really "Zealandic"
Die Geschichte dieser Sprache ist vielschichtig wie die Geschichte der Karibik: Ausgangspunkt war die Lingua Franca, das Genee, mit der sich die aus Afrika verschleppten Sklaven verständigt hatten, die ja aus den unterschiedlichsten Gebieten des Schwarzen Kontinents kamen. Dann wurden die afrikanischen Worte immer mehr durch spanische Worte verdrängt, portugiesische Worte kamen dazu, Englisch, Französisch und schließlich Holländisch.
The history of this language is as complicated as the history of the Caribbean: The starting point was the lingua franca, Guene, with which the slaves deported from Africa understood each other, though they came from the most diverse parts of the Black Continent. Then the African words were increasingly squeezed by Spanish words, Portuguese words came, English, French, and finally Dutch.
"Genau genommen muss man vom Seeländischen sprechen, der niederländischen Provinz, von der aus zum Beispiel Neuseeland besiedelt wurde", erklärt Jan van der Brugge. "Es ist, vom Grammatikalischen her betrachtet, eine einfache Sprache, aber der Satzbau, der hat es in sich. Die Vorbilder dazu findet man im antiken Europa."
"Strictly speaking one would have to speak of Zealandic, the Dutch province from which for example New Zealand was settled," explains Jan van der Brugge. "It is, from a grammatical view, a simple language, but the syntax is rather difficult. The models can be found in ancient Europe."
Erste Heimatsprache
First native language
Anders als sonst in der Karibik üblich gilt das Papiamentu nicht als Sprache der Schlechtergestellten. "Jeder auf Curacao kann diese Sprache, verständigt sich auf Papiamentu, egal ob Bankdirektor oder Kellner", erzählt Jan van der Brugge. "Es war immer so, dass die Schulkinder in ihren ersten vier Jahren in Papiamentu unterrichtet werden und dann erst die mittlerweile andere offizielle Sprache Curacaos erlernen: Niederländisch."
Unlike as usual elsewhere in the Caribbean, Papiamentu is not considered as the language of the lower class. "Everyone in Curacao can understand this language, whether bank manager or waiter", says Jan van der Brugge. "It was always so, that the schoolchildren in their first four years were taught in Papiamentu and then for the first time learn the other official language of Curacao: Dutch."
(The paragraph above is slightly inaccurate, and should be something along these lines: "Everyone in Curacao speaks this language, whether a bank manager or waiter", says Jan van der Brugge. "Some people recommend that the schoolchildren in their first four years should be taught in Papiamentu and then for the first time learn the other official language of Curacao, Dutch, as a foreign language, as this is what it is for children there who don't speak it at home.")
Und das mit der Rechtschreibung ist auch geregelt: Auf Curacao und Bonaire schreibt man die Worte so wie man sie spricht, ein "U" also mit u, und nicht auf holländisch "OU". Auf Aruba, wo die Menschen "immer ein wenig weißer und ein wenig arroganter waren" - so Jan van der Brugge - nahm man sich das Spanische zum Vorbild. Hier lässt man K-Worte mit "C" schreiben, wie im Spanischen üblich.
And the spelling is also regulated: In Curacao and Bonaire one writes the words as spoken in a phonetic way, a "u" then with a u, and not "oe" in Dutch. In Aruba, where the people are "always a little whiter and a little more arrogant toward people in Curacao" - so says Jan van der Brugge - one uses Spanish as a model. Here one is allowed to write K words with "C", like usual in Spanish.
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Comparison of vocabulary from the English Wikipedia:
