Annobonese language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fá d'Ambô Fá d'Ambô
Spoken in:	Equatorial Guinea
Region:	Gulf of Guinea Islands
Total speakers:	about 2,000
Language family:	Portuguese Creole Fá d'Ambô
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`cpp`
ISO 639-3:	`fab`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

The Annobonese language, called by its speakers Fá d'Ambô, is spoken by 9,000 in the Annobon and Bioko Islands off the coast of Equatorial Guinea, mostly by people of mixed African, Spanish, and Portuguese descent..

Annobonese is a Portuguese Creole. It is called Falar de Ano Bom or annobonense in Portuguese language, and annobonés in Spanish.

[edit] Origins

The language was spoken originally by the descendants of marriages between Portuguese men and African women slaves imported from other places, especially from São Tomé and Angola, and threfore descends from a mixture of Portuguese and Forro.

[edit] Language features

Annobonese is analogous to Forro. In fact, it must be derived from Forro as it shares the same structure (82% of its lexicon). After Annobón passed to Spain, the language gained some words of Spanish origin (10% of its lexicon), although it is difficult to be sure, given the similarity between Spanish and Portuguese. Today, the Spanish language is the official language of the island. Portuguese is used as liturgical language.