Cape Verdean Creole
Cape Verdean Creole is a Portuguese-based creole language spoken on the islands of Cape Verde. It is the native creole language of virtually all Cape Verdeans and is used as a second language by the Cape Verdean diaspora.
The creole has particular importance for creolistics studies since it is the oldest living creole. It is the most widely spoken Portuguese-based creole language.
Name
The full formal name of this creole is Cape Verdean Creole, but in everyday usage the creole is simply called ‘Creole’ by its speakers. The names Cape Verdean and Cape Verdean language have been proposed for whenever the creole will be standardized.Origins
The history of Cape Verdean Creole is hard to trace due to a lack of written documentation and to ostracism during the Portuguese administration of Cape Verde.There are presently three theories about the formation of Cape Verdean Creole. The monogenetic theory claims that the creole was formed by the Portuguese by simplifying the Portuguese language in order to make it accessible to enslaved African people. That is the point of view of authors like Prudent, Waldman, Chaudenson and Lopes da Silva. Authors like Adam and Quint argue that Cape Verdean Creole was formed by enslaved African people using the grammar of Western African languages and replacing the African lexicon with the Portuguese one. Linguists like Chomsky and Bickerton argue that Cape Verdean Creole was formed spontaneously, not by enslaved people from continental Africa, but by the population born in the islands, using universal grammar.
According to A. Carreira, Cape Verdean Creole was formed from a Portuguese pidgin, on the island of Santiago, starting from the 15th century. That pidgin was then transported to the west coast of Africa by the lançados. From there, that pidgin diverged into two proto-creoles, one that was the base of Cape Verdean Creole, and another that was the base of the Guinea-Bissau Creole.
Cross-referencing information regarding the settlement of each island with the linguistic comparisons, it is possible to form some conjectures. The spreading of Cape Verdean Creole within the islands was done in three phases:
- In a first phase, the island of Santiago was occupied, followed by Fogo.
- In a second phase, the island of São Nicolau was occupied, followed by Santo Antão.
- In a third phase, the remaining islands were occupied by settlers from the first islands: Brava was occupied by people from Fogo, Boa Vista by people from São Nicolau and Santiago, Maio by people from Santiago and Boa Vista, São Vicente by people from Santo Antão and São Nicolau, Sal by people from São Nicolau and Boa Vista.
Status
Check in this fictional text:
In this text, several cases of decreolization / Portuguese intromission can be noted:
- ku ken / ke kenPortuguese order of words com quem;
- nkontra / nkontráPortuguese lexicon, in Creole it would be more commonly atxa / otxá;
- priokupadaPortuguese lexicon, in Creole it would be more commonly fadigada;
- purki / purkePortuguese lexicon, in Creole it would be more commonly pamodi / pamode;
- ses mininus / ses mninsPortuguese influence ;
- prokura-s / prokurá-sPortuguese lexicon, in Creole it would be more commonly spia-s / spiá-s;
- olia-s / oliá-sPortuguese phonetics ;
- ki / kePortuguese lexicon, the integrant conjunction in Creole is ma;
- sa-ta prisizaba / tava ta prisizáPortuguese lexicon, in Creole it would be more commonly sa-ta mesteba / tava ta mestê;
- u-ki / u-keintromission of Portuguese o que;
- gradesi a / gradesê awrong preposition, the Portuguese preposition "a" does not exist in Creole;
- falathis form is only used in São Vicente and Santo Antão, in the other islands the word is papiâ ;
- kómu / kómintromission of Portuguese como;
- kurasãuPortuguese phonetics ;
As a consequence there is a continuum between basilectal and acrolectal varieties.
In spite of Creole not being officialized, a 2005 government resolution put forth the necessary conditions for the officialization of Creole, which in turn has been superseded by a 2015 resolution. This officialization has not yet occurred, mostly because the language is not yet standardized, for several reasons:
- There is significant dialectal fragmentation. Speakers are reluctant to speak a variant that is not their own.
- Absence of rules to establish which is the right form to be adopted for each word. For example, for the word corresponding to the Portuguese word algibeira, A. Fernandes records the forms aljibera, ajibera, albijera, aljubera, aljbera, jilbera, julbera, lijbera.
- Absence of rules to establish which are the lexical limits to be adopted. It is frequent for speakers of Creole, when writing, to join different grammatical classes. For ex.: pam... instead of pa N... "for me to...".
- Absence of rules to establish which are the grammatical structures to be adopted. It is not just about dialectal differences; even within a single variant there are fluctuations. For ex.: in the Santiago variant, when there are two sentences and one is subordinated to the other, there is a tense agreement in the verbs, but some speakers do not practice it.
- The writing system has not been well accepted by all Creole users.
- The language levels are not well differentiated yet.
To overcome these problems, some Creole advocates propose the development of two standards: a North standard, centered on the São Vicente variant, and a South standard, centered on that of Santiago. If so, Creole would become a pluricentric language.
There exists no complete translation of the Bible. However, the "Asosiason Kabuverdianu pa Traduson di Bíblia" was established with the goal of translating the entire Bible in Kabuverdianu-Sotaventu and Kabuverdianu-Barlaventu. They have translated approximately 40% of the New Testament in the Kabuverdianu-Sotaventu, and they have published Luke and Acts. The publication of Luke has won two awards in Cape Verde. Sérgio Frusoni translated Bartolomeo Rossetti's version of the Romanesco Italian poem Er Vangelo Seconno Noantri, which is a poem based on the Four Gospels. Frusoni translated the poem in the São Vicente Creole, Vangêle contód d'nôs móda.
Writing system
The only writing system officially recognized by the authorities in Cape Verde is called the Alfabeto Unificado para a Escrita da Língua Cabo-verdiana, which was approved for official use on an experimental basis in 1998 by Decree-Law No. 67/98. In 2009, Decree-Law No. 8/2009 officially institutionalized the use of the ALUPEC.In spite of having been officially recognized by the government, the ALUPEC is neither required nor mandatorily used.
In spite of being the only system officially recognized, the same law allows the use of alternative writing models, "as long as they are presented in a systematic and scientific way". As not all users are familiarized with ALUPEC or the IPA, in this article a slightly different system will be used to make it easier for the reader:
- The sound will be represented in an etymological way instead of ALUPEC always "s".
- The sound will be represented in an etymological way instead of ALUPEC always "z".
- The sound will be represented by "tch" instead of ALUPEC "tx".
- The sound will be represented in an etymological way instead of ALUPEC always "x".
- The sound will be represented in an etymological way instead of ALUPEC always "j".
- The sound will be represented in an etymological way instead of ALUPEC always "k".
- The sound will be represented in an etymological way instead of ALUPEC always "g".
- The nasality of the vowels will be represented by an "m" after the vowel, when this vowel is at the end of the word or before the letters "p" and "b". In the other cases the nasality will be represented by the letter "n".
- The words will always have a graphic accent. This will be an overwhelming use of accents, but it is the only way to effectively represent both the stressed syllable and vowel aperture.
- To show an elided vowel in certain variants an apostrophe will be used.
Vocabulary