Papiamento means conversation or talking. It's a mixture of Portugese, Spanish, African, Indian, Dutch and now in modern times English. Papiamento is a very dinamic language, it adapts new words or sayings that come from abroad immediatly into a local version. One of the funniest examples would be the word "osterizer". This is a brand that makes blenders. So the first blenders to arrive on the islands were of the osterizer brand. Now blenders, even if they are manufactured by another brand, are called "osterizer". Furthermore a lot of words can be pronounced in different ways, which will change their meaning. For example "dushi" means sweet or when you call a loved one dear. It all depends what part of the word you accentuate.

Visitors in the Ducth Caribbean often say that when natives are speaking papiamento they tend to sing. This is the result of the excotic pronounciation of the words mixed with the caribbean flair and passion of the speaking persons. And never forget to make a lot of use of your arms, for gestures are an important part of expressing oneself in papiamento.

Papiamento has become an official language a couple of years ago. It is now taught in public schools on the islands. There are books and dictionaries available: