São Nicolau Creole

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São Nicolau Creole is the name given to the variant of Cape Verdean Creole spoken mainly in the São Nicolau Island of Cape Verde. It belongs to the Barlavento Creoles branch. The speakers of this form of Cape Verdean Creole are 15,000[citation needed] and is the fifth most spoken form of Creole in the language. Literature is rarely recorded but the form of the Capeverdean Creole has been recorded in music, one of them is on caboverde.com on the page featuring this island.

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[edit] Characteristics

Besides the main characteristics of Barlavento Creoles the São Nicolau Creole has also the following ones:

  • The progressive aspect of the present is formed by putting tâ tâ before the verbs: tâ + tâ + V.
  • In the verbs that end by ~a, that sound /ɐ/ is represented by /ɔ/ when the verb is conjugated with the first person of the singular pronoun. Ex.: panhó-m’ /pɐˈɲɔm/ instead of panhâ-m’ /pɐˈɲɐm/ “to catch me”, levó-m’ /leˈvɔm/ instead of levâ-m’ /leˈvɐm/ “to take me”, coçó-m’ /koˈsɔm/ instead of coçâ-m’ /koˈsɐm/ “to scratch me”.
  • The sounds /k/ and /ɡ/ are pronounced by some speakers as /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ when they are before palatal vowels. Ex.: f’djêra /ˈfʤeɾɐ/ instead of f’guêra /ˈfɡeɾɐ/ “fig tree”, patchê /pɐˈʧe/ instead of paquê /pɐˈke/ “because”, Pr’djíça /pɾˈʤisɐ/ instead of Pr’guiíça /pɾˈɡisɐ/ “Preguiça” (place name), tchím /ʧĩ/ instead of quêm /kẽ/ “who”.
  • The sound /ʤ/ (that originates from old Portuguese, written j in the beginning of words) is partially represented by /ʒ/. Ex. jantâ /ʒɐ̃ˈtɐ/ instead of djantâ /ʤɐ̃ˈtɐ/ “to dine”, jôg’ /ʒoɡ/ instead of djôgu /ˈʤoɡu/ “game”, but in words like djâ /ʤɐ/ “already”, Djõ /ʤõ/ “John” the sound /ʤ/ remains.
  • The unstressed final vowels /i/ and /u/ do not disappear when they follow the sounds /k/ or /ɡ/. Ex.: tabácu /tɐˈbaku/ instead of tabóc’ /tɐˈbɔk/ “tobacco”, frángu /ˈfɾãɡu/ instead of fróng’ /ˈfɾɔ̃ɡ/ “chicken”.

[edit] Vocabulary

Main article: Cape Verdean Creole#Vocabulary

[edit] Grammar

Main article: Cape Verdean Creole#Grammar

[edit] Phonology

Main article: Cape Verdean Creole#Phonology

[edit] Alphabet

Main article: Cape Verdean Creole#Writing_system
The Cape Verdean Creole
Sotavento Creoles
Brava | Fogo | Maio | Santiago
Barlavento Creoles
Boa Vista | Sal | Santo Antão | São Nicolau | São Vicente
Languages