From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Barlavento Creoles is the name given to the group of Cape Verdean Creoles spoken in the Barlavento islands of Cape Verdean Islands.
Some characteristics of Barlavento Creoles:
- The imperfective aspect of the past is formed joining the particle for the past ~va to the verbal actualizer tâ: táva + V.
Note: In São Nicolau, alongside with táva + V also subsists the older form tá V+ba.
- The personal pronoun for the second person of the plural is b’sôt’.
- The unstressed vowels /i/ and /u/ frequently disappear. Ex.: c’mádr’ /kmadɾ/ instead of cumádri /kuˈmadɾi/ “midwife”, v’lúd’ /vlud/ instead of vilúdu /viˈludu/ “velvet”, c’dí /kdi/ instead of cudí /kuˈdi/ “to answer”, tch’gâ /ʧɡɐ/ instead of tchigâ /ʧiˈɡɐ/ “to arrive”.
- Velarization of the stressed /a/ sound (oral or nasal) to /ɔ/ in words that use to end with the sound /u/. Ex.: ólt’ /ɔlt/ instead of áltu /ˈaltu/ “tall”, cónd’ /kɔ̃d/ instead of cándu /ˈkãdu/ “when”, macóc’ /mɐˈkɔk/ instead of macácu /mɐˈkaku/ “monkey”. Also with pronouns: b’tó-b’ /ptɔb/ instead of botá-bu /boˈtabu/ “throw you”.
