THE QUESTION OF DECREOLIZATION IN PAPIAMENTU PHONOLOGY.

Although modern urban Papiamento almost passes for a dialect of Spanish, older traditions and rural usage indicate originally great differences. Hyper corrections fre&qdot;uently carry Papiamento even further in the direction of Spanish. Minimal contrasts by tone are, however, characteristic of native speakers of Papiamento at all socio-cultural levels and do not disappear in hypercorrect speech. Penetration of Spanish and Dutch phonology into Papiamento is exemplified by such phonological factors as slight palatalization (rather than complete palatalization), use of a velar fricative rather than a glottal fricative, and the occurrence of a wide variety of consonants in final position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]