viña
[VEE-njah]
Literally: vine
Yep. As in the vine that gives vineyards their name. In context, however, it does not mean vine -- it means wine.
Is it weird that, whenever I hear people order wine in Papiamentu -- red (viña korá) or white (viña blanku) -- I still half expect the waiter to come back with a strand of something leafy and green?
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| Vines growing at an alarmingly fast rate in Curaçao's first vineyard. |
Guilie, how widely used is Papamientu
ReplyDeleteSadly, Bob, not very. Curaçao has a population of 150K (half of which are foreigners, either Dutch or Latin or American or... whatever, but not Papiamentu speakers). Aruba has around 100K, and also a good chunk of those aren't native Papiamentu speakers. Bonaire has about 16K, but the percentage of foreigners there--either Dutch or otherwise--is much larger. St. Maarten hardly uses Papiamentu (English is the lingua franca there), and Saba and St. Eustatius have a combined population of less than 6K. So... Yeah. Not many people speak Papiamentu. It's actually a wonder that it's managed to survive so long, and so healthy; even in spite of the many influences, the language has kept a certain integrity that makes it special. It's syncretism made speech--and I love it for that.
DeleteHow cool! I would not have guessed Curacao had it's own winery. Definitely give us a report when you get to try it. (For research purposes, of course.) :)
ReplyDeleteYes, all in the name of research, haha :D The winery's actually pretty new, Chuck, and I think it took many of us by surprise. Who would've thunk a rock full of cacti and thorn bushes would yield WINE? But apparently it's not the soil that's the challenge; as long as you find terrain that's not salty, the soil is not just good but excellent. The challenge, according to the winery's owners, is water. De-salinizing ocean water is way too expensive (witness our water bill), so you have to find land that has good underground water supply--natural springs, wells, etc. Oh, and then you have to figure out how to keep the iguanas away from the fruit... They demolished my cherry tomatoes :D
DeleteHi Guilie - well yes please do and report back ... I imagine the setting is fantastic ... and vino - wherever suits me!! - raise a glass for me at the same time .. cheers Hilary
ReplyDelete