São Tomean Portuguese
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (August 2007) |
São Tomean Portuguese (Português Santomense in Portuguese) is a dialect of Portuguese spoken in São Tomé and Príncipe.
It contains many archaic features in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, similar to Brazilian Portuguese. 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 European Portuguese pronunciation, which is now also used by lower and middle classes, although understandable 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% using it as their first language.
|