MORE THAN WORDS

If you thought you knew most of the languages around the world, you might be mistaken. A new language has been discovered in the northern part of Colombia. It is called Palenquero. The village, where this language is spoken, is known as Palenque. It was founded by fugitive slaves from Africa.

This language is only spoken in this village and less than half of the community’s 3,000 residents actively speak Palenquero. It is thought to be the only Spanish-based Creole language in Latin America. But its grammar is so different that Spanish speakers can understand almost nothing of it. Its closest relative may be Papiamento, spoken on the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, which draws largely from Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch, linguists say.

The colony of San Basilio de Palenque is said to have been founded

after revolts led by Benkos Biohó, a 17th-century African resistance leader who organized guerrilla attacks on the nearby port of Cartagena with fighters armed with stolen blunderbusses.

It is also important to say that Palenquero is the last remain of a Sanish-based lingua franca used by slaves in Latin America.

Nowadays the Palenque village is no longer isolated from the world because villagers have electric light, Internet connection in a schoolhouse, television and many other facilities.

On the other hand, Palenqueros, the community’s residents say the biggest threat to their language’s survival comes from direct contact with outsiders. Many here have had to venture to nearby banana plantations or cities for work, and then found themselves ostracized because of the way they spoke. One defender of Palenquero said: “We are the strongest of the strongest” . “No matter what happens, our language will live on within us.”

In my opinion, this languge will continue to be preserved by its natives because it is very difficult to understant unless you were born in the community. And these villagers are eagered to keep it in this way.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/world/americas

Date: October 18th, 2007.

Title: A Language, Not Quite Spanish, With African Echoes.