Judeao-Papiamento is generally mutually intelligible with Papiamento, the main language of most Curaçaoans, locally known as Papiamentu.
Oftentimes, the Judeao-Papiamento versions of these words are closer to their Spanish or Portuguese counterparts, hinting at a possible process of decreolization.
When speakers of any Papiamento variety talk in the more formal registers, they often use certain words from its lexifier languages almost unchanged.
Jewish speakers of Papiamento tend to prefer Portuguese and French, whereas non-Jewish Curaçaoans typically use Spanish words in the same settings.
[3] In one of her books, May Henriquez provides a table that shows some of the lexical contrasts between the speech of Jewish and non-Jewish Curaҫaoans.