São Nicolau Creole
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São Nicolau Creole is the variant of
Barlavento Creoles branch. The speakers of this form of Cape Verdean Creole are 15,000[citation needed] and it is the fifth most spoken form of Creole in the language. Literature is rarely recorded but the form of the Capeverdean Creole has been recorded in music.[1]
Characteristics
Besides the main characteristics of
Barlavento Creoles
the São Nicolau Creole has also the following ones:
- The progressive aspect of the present is formed by putting tâ tâ before the verbs: tâ + tâ + V.
- In the verbs that end by ~a, that sound /ɐ/ is represented by /ɔ/ when the verb is conjugated with the first person of the singular pronoun. Ex.: panhó-m’ /pɐˈɲɔm/ instead of panhâ-m’ /pɐˈɲɐm/ “to catch me”, levó-m’ /leˈvɔm/ instead of levâ-m’ /leˈvɐm/ “to take me”, coçó-m’ /koˈsɔm/ instead of coçâ-m’ /koˈsɐm/ “to scratch me”.
- The sounds /k/ and /ɡ/ are pronounced by some speakers as /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ when they are before palatal vowels. Ex.: f’djêra /ˈfdʒeɾɐ/ instead of f’guêra /ˈfɡeɾɐ/ “fig tree”, patchê /pɐˈtʃe/ instead of paquê /pɐˈke/ “because”, Pr’djíça /pɾˈdʒisɐ/ instead of Pr’guiíça /pɾˈɡisɐ/ “Preguiça” (place name), tchím /tʃĩ/ instead of quêm /kẽ/ “who”.
- The sound /dʒ/ (that originates from old Portuguese, written j in the beginning of words) is partially represented by /ʒ/. Ex. jantâ /ʒɐ̃ˈtɐ/ instead of djantâ /dʒɐ̃ˈtɐ/ “to dine”, jôg’ /ʒoɡ/ instead of djôgu /ˈdʒoɡu/ “game”, but in words like djâ /dʒɐ/ “already”, Djõ /dʒõ/ “John” the sound /dʒ/ remains.
- The unstressed final vowel /u/ does not disappear when it follows the sounds /k/ or /ɡ/. Ex.: tabácu /tɐˈbaku/ instead of tabóc’ /tɐˈbɔk/ “tobacco”, frángu /ˈfɾãɡu/ instead of fróng’ /ˈfɾɔ̃ɡ/ “chicken”.
Vocabulary
Grammar
Phonology
Alphabet
References
- ^ caboverde.com
Further reading
- A Parábola do Filho Pródigo no crioulo de Santiago, do Fogo, da Brava, de Santo Antão, de S. Nicolau e da Boa Vista: O crioulo de Cabo Verde (Botelho da Costa, Joaquim Vieira & Custódio José Duarte, 1886)
- O crioulo da ilha de S. Nicolau de Cabo Verde (Cardoso, Eduardo Augusto, 1989)
External links
- Typical figures of São Nicolau - texts in Portuguese with the terms of glossary in São Nicolau Creole