Review of "A Description of Papiamentu. A Creole Language of the Caribbean Area," by Yolanda Rivera Castillo. Leiden: Brill, 2022.

Abstract

The volume under review is a formal descriptive grammar of Papiamentu, the Iberian-lexified creole language spoken by the majority of inhabitants of the ABC islands of the Caribbean (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao). The grammar reviews previous work on the morphology, syntax, phonology, and semantics of Papiamentu and analyzes and discusses published and new data with the scope of confirming or challenging previously published findings. The work particularly focuses on typological features of Papiamentu and of the purported creole type in general, and positions these features as unexceptional within the panorama of world languages.

Keywords

• Papiamentu
• creoles
• language typology
• Ibero-Romance
• grammar
• contact languages