Language/Papiamento/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation

Papiamento is a Creole language containing characteristics of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English and French.

It is spoken in Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba, the Netherlands and Sint Maarten.

In this lesson, you will learn how to write and pronounce each letter of its alphabet.

Vowels

Letter	IPA	English approximant
A a	[ a ]	as a in "arm"
E e	[ e ] [ ε ] [ ə ]	as e in "end" as a in ''fat'' (New Zealand) as a in ''a dog''
I i	[ i ]	as ee in "teeth"
O o	[ o ] [ ɔ ]	as o in "orange" as ough in ''thought''
U u	[ u ] [ ʌ ]	as oo in "boot'' as u in "ugly"

Consonants

Letter	IPA	English approximant
B b	[ b ]	as b in "bite"
C c	[ k ]	as c in "cat"
D d	[ d ]	as d in "dog"
F f	[ f ]	as f in "feet"
G g	[ g ]	as g in "gone"
H h	[ h~x ]	as h in "hill"
J j	[ j ]	as y in "yes"
K k	[ k ]	as k in "key"
L l	[ l ]	as l in "lap"
M m	[ m ]	as m in "moon"
N n	[ n ]	as n in "noon"
Ñ ñ	[ ɲ ]	as ny in "canyon"
P p	[ p ]	as p in "problem"
Q q	[ k ]	as q in "quip"
R r	[ r ]	as r in the Spanish word "rosa"
S s	[ s ]	as s in "sand"
T t	[ t ]	as t in "top"
V v	[ v ]	as v in "very"
W w	[ w ]	as w in "wall"
X x	[ ks ] [ kʃ ]	as x in "box" as ct in "reflection"
Y y	[ j ]	as y in "yell"
Z z	[ z ]	as z in "zoo"

Double Letters

Letters	IPA	English approximant
uu	[ y ]	as u in Portugese word "tudo"
ch	[ tʃ ]	as ch in "cheese"
dj	[ dʒ ]	as j in "jog"
sc	[ s ]	same as s
sh	[ ʃ ]	as sh in "sheep"
zj	[ ʒ ]	as si in "vision"

Tones

Papiamento is a tonal language which uses tones to differentiate between words, with a high and a low tone.

1. When the stress on the words falls on the stem (main) syllable, there is no accent.
2. Deviations from it are marked with an accent over vowels:

• high tone (´)
• low tone (`).

Vowels	Samples
á	altá, evitá
é	étiko, platé
í	asistí, tíket
ó	holó, ferfdó
ú	baúl, sunú
è	agènda, balèt
ò	blònt, fòndo
ù	drùif, bùs