Palenquero (sometimes spelled Palenkero) or Palenque ( pln, Lengua) is a
Spanish-based creole language
A Spanish creole, or Spanish-based creole language, is a creole language (contact language with native speakers) for which Spanish serves as its substantial ''lexifier''.
A number of creole languages are influenced to varying degrees by the Spa ...
spoken in
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
. It is believed to be a mixture of
Kikongo
Kongo or Kikongo is one of the Bantu languages spoken by the Kongo people living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Angola. It is a tonal language. It was spoken by many of those who were taken from th ...
(a language spoken in central Africa in the current countries of
Congo,
DRC
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
,
Gabon
Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...
, and
Angola
, national_anthem = " Angola Avante"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
, religion_ref =
, coordina ...
, former member states of
Kongo
Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa:
* Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...
) and Spanish. However, there is no sufficient evidence to indicate that Palenquero is strictly the result of a two-language contact. Palenquero is the only surviving Spanish-based
creole language
A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...
in
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
, if
Papiamento
Papiamento () or Papiamentu (; nl, Papiaments) is a Portuguese-based creole language spoken in the Dutch Caribbean. It is the most widely spoken language on the Caribbean ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao), with official status in Arub ...
(which is often considered to be Portuguese-based) is excluded. Over 6,600 people spoke this language in 2018.
It is primarily spoken in the village of
San Basilio de Palenque
San Basilio de Palenque or Palenque de San Basilio, often referred to by the locals simply as Palenke, is a Palenque village and corregimiento in the Municipality of Mahates, Bolivar in northern Colombia. Palenque was the first free African to ...
which is southeast of
Cartagena, and in some neighbourhoods of
Barranquilla
Barranquilla () is the capital district of Atlántico Department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean Coast region; as of 2018 it had a population of 1,206,319, making it Col ...
.
History
Origin
The formation of Palenquero is recorded from the
17th century
The 17th century lasted from January 1, 1601 ( MDCI), to December 31, 1700 ( MDCC). It falls into the early modern period of Europe and in that continent (whose impact on the world was increasing) was characterized by the Baroque cultural moveme ...
with the dilution of the
Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
and the increase of
maroon
Maroon ( US/ UK , Australia ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word ''marron'', or chestnut. "Marron" is also one of the French translations for "brown".
According to multiple dictionaries, there are var ...
activity.
There are existing records dating from the era of Cartagena’s slave trade that allude to the
pidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...
from which Palenquero evolved. As illustrated in the ethnographic text of ''De Instauranda Aethiopum Salute (1627)'', the priest
Alonso de Sandoval
Alonso de Sandoval (7 December 1576 - 25 December 1652) was a Spanish Jesuit priest and missionary in Colombia. He devoted most of his life to the evangelization of Black slaves arriving in the Colombian port city of Cartagena, and was the mento ...
refers to the ‘corruption of our Spanish language’ commonly spoken amongst African slaves.
Palenquero's origins are unclear; it does not appear explicitly in print until 1772.
Palenque de San Basilio
Palenque de San Basilio or
San Basilio de Palenque
San Basilio de Palenque or Palenque de San Basilio, often referred to by the locals simply as Palenke, is a Palenque village and corregimiento in the Municipality of Mahates, Bolivar in northern Colombia. Palenque was the first free African to ...
is the village from which Palenquero originated from and in which it is most commonly spoken. The village was formed in the early 17th century on the south of Cartagena by fugitive slaves from surrounding districts under the leadership of
Benkos Biohó
Benkos Biohó (late 16th century — 1621), also known as Domingo Biohó was a Mandinka and South American leader who escaped from the slave port of Cartagena with ten others and founded San Basilio de Palenque, then known as the "village of th ...
.
The dissolution of the Spanish language thus intensified with the arrival of maroons that escaped slavery and settled in armed fortified territories. Palenqueros maintained their physical distance from others as a form of anti colonial resistance, and as result, developed a creole mostly based on their own African languages and Spanish. Residents have also been noted to be bilingual in both Palenquero and Spanish, with a mention in 1913 of Palenque de San Basilio as having a 'guttural
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
that some believe to be the very African language, if not in all its purity at least with some variations'.
Decline
For almost two decades, Palenquero has been classified as an
endangered language
An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...
. Although spoken in parallel to each other, Spanish has dominated the linguistic activity of Palenque de San Basilio, with 53% of residents being unable to speak Palenquero.The decline of Palenquero can be traced back to the establishment of sugar and banana plantations with many of its natives leaving the village in order to find work either in the
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...
or the
Department of Magdalena.
and coming into contact with other languages. In the 20th century, with the introduction of a standard Spanish educational system, Palenquero was often criticized and mocked, as Spanish became the supra regional prescriptive speech.
Racial discrimination furthered the deterioration of Palenquero as parents did not feel comfortable continuing to teach their children the language.
Revitalization
A legacy of cultural resistance, Palenquero has managed to remain active since the early 17th century despite the many challenges. In recent years, Palenquero has undergone a significant renovation through 'community activism' and 'educational programs' as an attempt to bring pride to native speakers. Three major events have contributed to the revived interest in the Palenquero creole:
Antonio Cervantes
Antonio Cervantes
Antonio Cervantes (born December 23, 1945) is a Colombian boxing trainer and former professional boxer who competed from 1961 to 1983. He held the WBA and ''The Ring'' light welterweight title twice between 1972 and 1980.
In 2002, Cervantes ...
, also known as Kid Pambelé, is an internationally recognized boxing champion born in Palenque de San Basilio. After winning the
1972 world Jr. Welterweight championship, a sense of pride for both the village and Palenquero as a language emerged. As result, Palenque de San Basilio became the interest of many journalists and politicians,
which consequently brought lots of cultural and foreign attention.
UNESCO Heritage of Humanity
In 2005, Palenque was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations. The recognition led to appreciation for Palenquero culture as films, documentaries and music festivals have brought upon more attention to the community.
These type of cultural programs have successfully appealed to Colombian youth, to whom the Palenquero language is mostly lost upon.
Academic Interest
Beginning in 1992, the educational system in Palenque de San Basilio started reintroducing Palenquero in the curriculum. Children resumed their learning of Palenquero, as it was introduced in preschool and a fully equipped cultural centre was constructed to promote the language and culture.
Additionally, academic research, conferences and activism has increased the desirability to learn Palenquero and continue to pass it down generations.
Grammar
Similar to several other creole languages, Palenquero grammar lacks inflectional morphology, meaning that nouns, adjectives, verbs and determiners are almost always invariant.
Gender
Grammatical gender is non-existent, and adjectives derived from Spanish default to the masculine form: ' ‘African language’.
Plurality
Plurality is marked with the particle '. (for example: ' is "houses"). This particle is believed to derive from Kikongo, a Bantu language, and is the sole Kikongo-derived inflection present in Palenquero. The younger speakers of Palenquero utilize ' for plurality more so than the speakers that came before them.
This particle is usually dropped with cardinal numbers greater than two: ' "two cows" but ' "13 years".
Verbs
Copula
There are four copulas in Palenquero: ', ', ', and '. ' roughly corresponds to ' in Spanish and is used for permanent states, and ' is similar to the Spanish in that it used for temporary states and locatives. ' is used as a copula for nouns and ' is only found with predicative nouns and adjectives referring to permanent states.
Examples:
* (You are not my mother)
* ' (My wife is black and I am black)
* (I will be a doctor)
* (That woman is fat)
Vocabulary
Some 300 words of African origin have been identified in Palenquero,
with many believed to originate in the
Kikongo
Kongo or Kikongo is one of the Bantu languages spoken by the Kongo people living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Angola. It is a tonal language. It was spoken by many of those who were taken from th ...
language. A comprehensive list and proposed etymologies are provided in Moñino and Schwegler's "Palenque, Cartagena y Afro-Caribe: historia y lengua" (2002). Many of the words that come from African origin, include plant, animal, insect and landscape names.
Another handful of words are believed to originate from Portuguese (''for example: mai 'mother'; ten 'has'; ele 'he/she'; bae 'go').''
Sample
See also
*
References
External links
Colombian varieties of Spanishby Richard J. File-Muriel, Rafael Orozco (eds.), (2012)
Misa andi lengua ri palenque - Katajena, mayo 21 ri 2000
{{Authority control
Spanish-based pidgins and creoles
Endangered diaspora languages
Languages of Colombia
Afro-Colombian
Languages of the African diaspora
Barranquilla
Mahates
Languages attested from the 17th century
Spanish language in South America