São Tomean Portuguese

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

São Tomean Portuguese is a dialect of the Portuguese language spoken in São Tomé and Príncipe.

It contains many archaic features in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. It was once the dialect of the owners of the roças and the middle class, but now it is the dialect of the lower and middle classes, as the upper class often uses modern standard European Portuguese pronunciation, which is now also used by lower and middle classes, although the pronunciation, grammar, and syntax are similar to Brazilian Portuguese. São Tomé is the third country in order of percentage of Portuguese speakers (after Portugal and Brazil), with more than 95% of the population speaking Portuguese, and more than 50% of the population using it as first language.