Hello everyone
This is my first post here at unlilang and since I'm a native Papiamentu speaker I though this might be the place to start. I will begin by answering some questions I read on the first and last page.
NOTE: I haven't followed any formal papiamentu or language courses after high school. I'm currently studying engineering in the Netherlands and the only language theory I've had since high school is some technical writing classes. So I will always try to make sure that what I'm posting is correct, but I can't guarantee it.
Ok. The first question is a question from "E}{pugnator" about an article on the first page (question on the second page). Its why is the word santana used for cemetery? This actually always puzzled me, until I found out. I'm still not sure its true, seems though, its more of a story.
One of the first Spanish villages the dutch occupied on Curaçao was Santa Anna (Now Willemstad). In response the Spanish organized a violent counter attacked in which allot of the dutch settlers died (Spain and the Netherlands where at war at the time). After the Dutch regained control back and renamed the settlement the name of Santa Anna reminded them of what had happened or more probable, the cemetery at the former Santa Anna kept its name (As the basilica also did) and eventually Santa Anna or santana became synonymous to cemetery and finally replaced it.
The second question asked by "Jnɨɨñɨ" on page 7 is about the passive form in Papiamentu.
"The house has been sold" would be: "Nan a bende e kas", or according to this: "Se a bende e kas".
But what is the correct form?
Short answer: Neither.
The first one is just the past. {Nan: They} {a bende: sold} {e: the} {kas: house}. The second one is kind of in the right direction, but still wrong. First, the word is not "se", iťs "ser", although "ser" is not the most commonly used word in this case, "wòrdu" is more common, but more on this later. Secondly the structure of the phrase is completely wrong.
Ok so, how is the passive done in Papiamentu?
Actually quite easy (as everything else in Papiamentu).
First the active phrase.
Eng: Martin sold the house.
Pap: Martin a bende e kas.
Now the passive.
Eng: The house was sold by Martin.
Pap: E kas a wòrdu bendé dor di Martin.
{E: The} {kas: house} {a wòrdu: to become} {bendé: sold} {dor di: by} Martin.
As you can see its simple and quite similar to English. In short you move the object (the house) in front of the verb (sold) and move the subject(Martin) behind the verb. Then you put a form of "to become" in front of the verb and finally add some emphasis on the last vowel in the verb ("bendé", note the acute accent on the second e).
You might have noticed that the verb "wòrdu" is not the usually used papiamentu verb for "to become" (bira). Instead you can consider "wòrdu" as a pacifier (pacifier seems the only word that fits). The reason is because the passive form is borrowed (big surprise) from dutch, from which an example is shown below.
"De huis werd verkocht door Martin."
Note the similarities. "Werd" is the past form of the dutch verb "worden", which you might have guessed by now means "to become".
As shown in Jnɨɨñɨ's example "wòrdu" is not the only pacifier. "Ser" (to be) and "keda" (to stay) are other pacifiers used by some people, although "wórdu" is the most commonly used, at least on Curaçao. I believe that "ser" is the most commonly used in Aruba, but I'm not sure. I hope there is an Aruban over here who can answer this. As far as I know there is no actual difference between them and you can just choose one and use it always. I would choose "wórdu" or "ser" since these are the ones I most commonly hear. I've only heard seniors using "Keda", meaning that it probably won't be used anymore.
And finally you can change the time of the passive by just changing the form of "to be" in front of the pacifier as you would normally do.
Examples:
Future (would)
The house would be sold by Martin.
E kas lo por ser bendé dor di Martin.
Future (will)
The house will be sold by Martin.
E kas tei wòrdu bendé dor di Martin.
Present
The house is sold by Martin.
E kas ta keda bendé dor di Martin.
Ok this was all for now. I hope you people enjoyed it, I'll try to post here more often i mi kera agradesé bosnan tur pa bosnan atenshon.