Cape Verdean Portuguese


Cape Verdean Portuguese is a dialect of Portuguese spoken in Cape Verde.

Status

Portuguese is the official language of Cape Verde, and Cape Verdean Creole is the mother tongue of most of the population. Creole is used colloquially, while Portuguese is used for official conversation, including at schools, and in the media. The two languages coexist in a state of diglossia. Code switching occurs between Creole and standard Portuguese in informal speech.
Although there is no official standardization of the language, models concerning what is standard to Cape Verdean Portuguese include:
  1. consensual models among people with more education and/or more exposure to Portuguese;
  2. consensual models among scholars, language teachers, etc.
However, when some linguistic phenomena occur in a systematic and regular way, they are no longer considered deviance to the standard, but rather a genuine expression of a regional community.
During Portuguese colonization in Cape Verde, the reference works of the language including dictionaries and school manuals were from Portugal and teaching European Portuguese.
Cape Verdean Portuguese is also spoken in Portugal, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United States, and purportedly, Spain, specifically Catalonia, and Northern Spain, including Galicia.

Characteristics

The root language of Cape Verden Portuguese is European Portuguese. However, there are small differences that are enough to set Cape Verdean Portuguese apart from European Portuguese. The versions spoke on the northern and southern islands, despite minor differences in the pronunciation, are similar enough to be considered the same dialect.

Phonetics

The phonetics of the Cape Verdean Portuguese and European Portuguese are similar. Here are some notable differences:
  1. Consonants
  2. #
In Cape Verdean Portuguese is laminal dental, pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the upper teeth. It is similar to the "l" sound in Spanish, French or German.
The "l" sound in European Portuguese is velarized alveolar, pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge, well behind the upper teeth, with the tongue making a curve with the concavity pointing up, and the back of the tongue approaching the vellum. It is similar to the in English and Catalan.
  1. #
has the same variability as in European Portuguese. It is either pronounced as an alveolar trill or either as an uvular trill, voiced uvular fricative or voiced velar fricative .
  1. # Intervocalic, and
In Portugal, are realized as the fricatives, and. In Cape Verde they are always pronounced as plosives, and.
  1. Vowels and diphthongs
  2. # Unstressed open vowels
In European Portuguese there are cases when the unstressed is pronounced open :
- when it originates etymologically from ;
- when a final is followed by an initial ;
- when the is followed by a preconsonantal ;
- other cases harder to explain
In Cape Verdean Portuguese there is the tendency to realize these as close :
- vadio, caveira, minha amiga, uma antena, alguém, fa'ltou, are all pronounced with ;
Note that in the educated register some instances of the unstressed are pronounced open : baptismo, fracção, actor.
  1. # Unstressed initial
In Cape Verde, the unstressed initial is always pronounced close.
  1. # Unstressed initial
In Portugal the written unstressed initial is pronounced. In Cape Verde, according to the word it's either pronounced or. Probably, the natural tendency is to pronounce being the pronunciation resulting from European Portuguese pressure. Many Cape Verdean speakers clearly distinguish in the pronunciation certain word pairs: eminência \ iminência, emita \ imita, emigrante \ imigrante, elegível \ ilegível, emergir \ imergir, etc.
  1. # Unstressed initial "e'" before "s" + consonant
In Portugal the unstressed initial "e" before "s" + consonant is pronounced. In Cape Verde, this "e" is not pronounced at all, beginning the word by a voiceless palatal fricative or by a voiced palatal fricative .
  1. #
Some Cape Verdean speakers haves some trouble pronouncing the unstressed sound, pronounced in European Portuguese. This trouble is solved in two different ways:
  1. ## speakers from the Southern Islands pronounce it as ;
  2. ## speakers from the Northern Islands delete it ;
Nevertheless, an epenthetic is never inserted after final and, as it is the case for some speakers in Portugal. Thus, in Cape Verde, normal, barril, cantar, beber are never pronounced normale, barrile, cantare, bebere.
  1. # Unstressed /i/ and /u/
In Cape Verde there is no dissimilation of two /i/ or /u/ as happens in Portugal. Words like medicina, vizinho are actually pronounced me-di-ssi-, vi-zi- and not me-de-ssi-, ve-zi- like in Portugal. Words like futuro, Sofia are actually pronounced fu-tu-, su-fi- and not fe-tu-, Se-fi- like in Portugal.
  1. # Unstressed,,
Speakers from the Northern Islands frequently delete these vowels.
Nevertheless, either what is mentioned in this point as what was mentioned on point 5 are considered pronunciation errors by Cape Verdeans themselves.
  1. # Diphthongs
In standard European Portuguese the orthographical sequence "ei" is pronounced, while the sequence "ou" is pronounced. In Cape Verde these diphthongs are pronounced as the writing suggests: is pronounced, while is pronounced.
In the same way, the sequence is pronounced, and not like in standard European Portuguese.
  1. # Stressed "e" before palatal sounds
In the same way as the previous point, the stressed "e" before the palatals ) is pronounced and not like in standard European Portuguese.
  1. # The sequence
The sequence in the word muito is pronounced as an oral diphthong, rather than a nasalized diphthong.

Morphology and syntax

Morphological differences between European Portuguese and Cape Verdean Portuguese are slight, but they do exist. Some Creole syntax structures have been transposed to Cape Verdean Portuguese.
  1. In Portugal there are several ways for the 2nd person treatment expressed by tu "you ", você "you ", o senhor "sir", a senhora "madam", Sr. Dr. "Doctor", calling the person by name but using the 3rd person, etc. Each of these corresponds to several levels of formality.
The treatment for the 2nd person in Cape Verde is simpler, with only two levels: tu "you" and você "you" that can be used indistinguishably from o senhor "sir" or a senhora "madam".
  1. In Creole there is no specific form for the future tense. The future in Creole is expressed with the auxiliary verb "to go". That is likely why Cape Verdeans prefer using a composite form for the future in Portuguese instead of a simple form.
The same happens with the conditional.
  1. Frequent usage of the interrogative in the negative form, especially when someone offers something: Não queres uma xícara de café? "Don't you want a cup of coffee?"; Não precisas da minha ajuda? "Don't you need my help?".
  2. In Creole there are no definite articles, and the same is occasionally true in Cape Verdean Portuguese. Ex.: Pedro foi instead of O Pedro foi "Pedro went").
  3. The first person of the past plural in verbs from the first conjugation is not pronounced with an open . Cantámos, louvámos, brincámos pronounced with closed.
  4. Since there is no verbal inflection in Creole, the usage of personal pronouns is mandatory. That is likely the reason why in Cape Verdean Portuguese the omission of the personal pronouns is rare. Ex.: Eu desço as escadas more frequently than Desço as escadas "I go down the stairs".
  5. Also because the inflection of words in Creole is weak, the word order is more rigid. Creole does not allow the flexibility, inversions, and word order changes that Portuguese allows.
In everyday usage, it is not natural to a Cape Verdean speaker, when speaking Portuguese, to use inversions and word order changes. For example, what in Portugal could be said espero eu que um dia lá chegues, to a Cape Verdean speaker would be more natural to say eu espero que tu chegues lá um dia.
Nevertheless, it is not an impeachment to, at literary level, use the flexibility mentioned before.
  1. Some frequent mistakes in Portugal, such as póssamos, tu fizestes, tu hades fazer, dei-te a ti are not registered in Cape Verde.

Lexicon and Semantics

In the lexicon and semantics there are strong influences from Creole. A line between a Creole substratum in Cape Verdean Portuguese and a Creole superstratum in Cape Verdean Portuguese can be unclear. Since nearly all the words in Creole originate from Portuguese, the usage of certain forms is not clear if they are Portuguese archaisms that have remained in Cape Verdean Portuguese, or if they are Creole words that were introduced in Portuguese.
In some other cases, even when speaking Portuguese, a Creole word would be used instead of the corresponding Portuguese one.
  1. Some words are specific and reveal some particularities of Cape Verdean fauna, flora, cuisine, or climate.
  2. # azedinha instead of groselha;
  3. # babosa instead of aloe vera;
  4. # bandeja instead of tabuleiro;
  5. # beijo instead of suspiro;
  6. # calabaceira instead of embondeiro;
  7. # carambola instead of berlinde;
  8. # fatia parida instead of rabanada;
  9. # gaita instead of acordeão;
  10. # geada instead of orvalho;
  11. # malagueta instead ofpiri-piri, but the word malagueta is also used in the Portuguese-speaking world;
  12. # mancarra instead of amendoim;
  13. # mel understood as sugarcane honey; the bee honey is known as mel de abelha;
  14. # passarinha instead of martim-pescador;
  15. # tambarina instead of tamarindo;
  16. # tchota instead of pardal;
  17. # violão same usage in Brazil, but different in Portugal ;
  18. Other objects, ideas or expressions are expressed differently. For Example:
  19. # one picks up the phone saying alô, and not estou or está as in Portugal, but the same in Brazil;
  20. # what in Portugal is called indiscriminately mala, in Cape Verde has several denominations accordingly to the object: mala "suitcase", pasta "briefcase", carteira "purse", saco de senhora "handbag", arca "trunk", etc.;
  21. # What in Portugal is called a sobretudo "overcoat", casaco "coat", blusão "jersey", kispo "anorak", blazer, in Cape Verde is simply called casaco;
  22. # máquina de calcular is used, máquina de fotocópias, cartucho de tinta ;
  23. Because the closer neighboring countries of Cape Verde are francophones, in diplomatic environment or in environments more in contact with foreigners some neologisms appear. These are strongly rejected by scholars and purists in Cape Verde. For ex.: engajar, atitude revanchista, adereço meaning "address". However, the fact that in Creole is pronounced "tchanci" makes one believe that the usage of the word chance is an Anglicism, and not a Gallicism ;
  24. In spite of some words being used with exactly the same meaning of European Portuguese, they are also used with the meaning in Creole. Ex.:
  25. # malcriado, rebel, unsubmissive, instead of rude;
  26. # afronta, desperation, instead of outrage;
  27. # pudera!, exclamation meaning "of course!"
  28. # rocha, mountain, instead of rock
  29. # inocente, naïf, instead of innocent;
  30. Some meanings in Portugal are simply not known in Cape Verde. Ex.:
  31. # abalar is only known with the meaning of "to shake", and not with the meaning of "to leave";
  32. # ilhéu is only known with the meaning of "islet", and not with the meaning of "island inhabitant";
  33. # ténis is only used for the sport "tennis", the shoes "sneakers" are known as sapatilhas ;

Orthography

Cape Verde has participated in the elaboration of the Acordo Ortográfico — with a delegation composed of the linguist Manuel Veiga and by the writer Moacyr Rodrigues; and has ratified the document. In 1998 Cape Verde was the host of the II CPLP Summit, held in Praia, where the first "Protocolo Modificativo ao Accordo Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa" was signed, which removed from the original text the original date of enforcement. Cape Verde has ratified this document, as well as the "Segundo Protocolo Modificativo", being the second country to complete the entire procedure for the enforcement of the Spelling Agreement.
According to Prime Minister José Maria Neves, Cape Verde is in favor of a "spell approach" between the existing variants in Portugal and Brazil and sees Portuguese as "an important tool for the development of Cape Verde". Despite the Spelling Agreement 1990 having become effective on October 1, 2015, in the country the rules of Spelling Agreement of 1945 continues to prevail.