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LOCAL Wednesday 16 OctOber 2024

Aruba to me

ORANJESTAD — You are back and we would purposes without compensation.
like to portrait you! By inviting you to send us Last but not least: check out our website, Insta-
your favorite vacation picture while enjoying gram and Facebook page! Thank you for sup-
our Happy Island. porting our free newspaper, we strive to make
you a happy reader every day again.
Complete the sentence: Aruba to me is ……. For today we received a lovely message from
Send your picture with that text (including your Gerald and Gina from New Smyrna Beach, Flor-
name and where you are from) to: news@aru- ida, USA.
batoday.com and we will publish your vaca-
tion memory. Isn’t that a special way to keep Gerald wrote to us saying: “Aruba to me is en-
your best moments alive? Please do note: By joying evenings on the sand catching a beauti-
submitting photos, text or any other materials, ful sunset with my wife…”
you give permission to The Aruba Today News-
paper, Caribbean Speed Printers and any of Thank you for sending us this wonderful mes-
its affiliated companies to use said materials, sage sharing what Aruba means to you with us
as well as names, likeness, etc. for promotional and our readers!q

Papiamento words and phrases you may want to know!

(Oranjestad)—Aruba is a melting the most famous Papiamento When we say goodbye, we use last greeting of the day.
pot of different nationalities, cul- word for tourists. the word “ayo” (not like the Ayo 3. Bon nochi. You guessed it, “bon
tures and languages. Primarily for Rock Formation, but also…kinda?). nochi” means “good night”.
this reason, the average Aruban Hi! Bye! We may also use “te oro”, which Just like “tardi”, “nochi” is ac-
can understand and speak Dutch, To be fair, there is no unique way means “see you later”. tually the shortened version of
English and Spanish relatively well. to say “hello” in Papiamento. At the word “anochi”.
However, as much as we pride least, not officially. We often just Greetings during the day
ourselves in being able to com- use the English “hello” or “hey”, or Most, if not all, languages have dif- Yes…no…maybe?
municate with almost everyone, Dutch “hallo” to greet someone. ferent ways to greet according to The affirmative and negative ex-
we cherish our native tongue Pa- We do however, always follow it up the time of day, and Papiamento pression is very simple in Papia-
piamento above all else. Want to with “con bay?” or “con ta?” Con is no different. Since Papiamento is mento. Just like Spanish, our yeses
learn some common words in our bay is a shortened version of “con heavily influences from Portuguese are “si” and our no’s are “no”. Pret-
language? Here are a few basic ta bay?”, which essentially means and Spanish, some of these phras- ty easy right? If you want to gain
words and phrases that can get “how are you?” es may look very familiar. some extra points from younger lo-
you a hat tip from an Aruban. cals, you can also say “se”, which
The word “con” in Papiamento 1. Bon dia is used in the morning, is a more casual affirmative used
When you arrive at the airport in means “how?” and is pronounced up to about noon. Bon dia es- mostly by the younger generation.
Aruba, one of the first words in Pa- with a rounder “o” sounds, like in sentially means good morn- However, do note: some older
piamento you may encounter is the English word “cone”. “Ta bay” ing. The word “bon” means generations may find this improper
“Bon bini.” Bon bini in Papiamento refers to how you are doing. “good”, and while “dia” does and not respectful, so keep that in
means welcome, and is probably not directly mean “morning” in mind.
English, it is used often to refer
to the morning time. Thanks man…
2. Bon tardi. In the afternoon to Lastly, a word that we can also
early evening hours, we use say more often is “danki”, which
“bon tardi” to greet people, means literally “thank you”. “Dan-
which means “good after- ki” is derived from the Dutch word
noon”. “Tardi” actually comes “bedankt”. Though we don’t really
from the word “atardi”, which have a translation for “I appreci-
directly translates to “after- ate it” in English, we do use “masha
noon”. However, the short- danki” to convey the message.
ened “tardi” is used to keep “Masha” means “a lot” or “very”,
the rhythm on the phrase. And so “masha danki” means “thank
the same could be said for our you very much”. q