An important acquisition for Aruba’s legal sector as well After years of intense and meticulous work, Prof. Mr. Lodewijk Rogier, Prof. dr. Ronald Severing, Mr. dr. Annemarie Marchena-Slot, Drs. Ithel Brute, and Manuel Maduro from the University of Curaçao have presented a dictionary to the public of Curaçao, Bonaire, and Aruba—one that many working in the legal sector have long yearned for.
It is the Dikshonario hurídiko / Juridisch woordenboek: Hulandes – Papiamentu (Legal Dictionary: Dutch – Papiamento).
This bilingual dictionary contains a collection of more than 2,500 entries of basic legal concepts in Dutch and Papiamento, along with their corresponding descriptions. Therefore, the dictionary is both explanatory and translatival.
The authors carefully selected the legal terms “based on their use in law, jurisprudence, legal science, the business world, and the community.” This makes the dictionary an excellent tool for court and government officials, police officers, customs officers, interpreters, translators, law students, legal professionals in general, and the press.
This dictionary meets a great demand and contributes to a more uniform use of legal terminology.
It could be an important step leading to a significant change in the 2003 Language Officialization Act (Landsverordening Officiële Talen di 2003), which currently excludes Papiamento as a language of the law in Aruba, allowing only Dutch.
The dictionary is written in the phonological orthography (spelling system) of Curaçao and Bonaire, but anyone in Aruba who uses Aruba’s etymological orthography can easily read it and adapt the spelling.
Notably, at the launch event, there were no representatives present from the Faculty of Law of the University of Aruba, nor from the Court. However, some court interpreters did make an appearance.
This legal dictionary is of high quality and will surely contribute to the proper use of Papiamento in the courtroom and in justice-related publications written in Papiamento.
Congratulations to the authors. They deserve great praise.
