Palenquero

Palenquero (sometimes spelled Palenkero) or Palenque is a Spanish-based creole language spoken in Colombia. It is believed to be a mixture of Kikongo (a language spoken in central Africa in the current countries of Congo, DRC, Gabon, and Angola, former member states of Kongo) and Spanish. However, there is no sufficient evidence to indicate that Palenquero is strictly the result of a two-language contact. Palenquero is the only surviving Spanish-based creole language in Latin America, if Papiamento (which is often considered to be Portuguese-based) is excluded. Over 6,600 people spoke this language in 2018. It is primarily spoken in the village of San Basilio de Palenque which is southeast of Cartagena, and in some neighbourhoods of Barranquilla. History Origin The formation of Palenquero is recorded from the 17th century with the dilution of the Spanish language and the increase of maroon activity. There are existing records dating from the era of Cartagena’s slave trade that allude to the pidgin from which Palenquero evolved. As illustrated in the ethnographic text of De Instauranda Aethiopum Salute (1627), the priest Alonso de Sandoval refers to the ‘corruption of our Spanish language’ commonly spoken amongst African slaves. Palenquero's origins are unclear; it does not appear explicitly in print until 1772. Palenque de San Basilio Palenque de San Basilio or San Basilio de Palenque is the village from which Palenquero originated from and in which it is most commonly spoken. The village was formed in the early 17th century on the south of Cartagena by fugitive slaves from surrounding districts under the leadership of Benkos Biohó. The dissolution of the Spanish language thus intensified with the arrival of maroons that escaped slavery and settled in armed fortified territories. Palenqueros maintained their physical distance from others as a form of anti colonial resistance, and as result, developed a creole mostly based on their own African languages and Spanish. Residents have also been noted to be bilingual in both Palenquero and Spanish, with a mention in 1913 of Palenque de San Basilio as having a 'guttural dialect that some believe to be the very African language, if not in all its purity at least with some variations'.