Council of Europe says “bon biní” to Papiamento

Papiamento, a language spoken in the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, has been given the same status as Frisian as a European minority language, by the Council of Europe. Both languages now fall under the so-called part III status of the Charter of Regional and Minority Languages, which promotes European minority and regional languages in public life. Like Friesian, Papiamento will be “anchored” in education, the media, at government level and in society as a whole. All three islands…