Principense Creole, also called ''lunguyê'' creole ("creole of the island") by its native speakers, is a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...

spoken by a community of some four thousand people in

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe (; pt, São Tomé e Príncipe (); English: " Saint Thomas and Prince"), officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe ( pt, República Democrática de São Tomé e Príncipe), is a Portuguese-speaking i ...

, specifically on the island of

Príncipe Príncipe is the smaller, northern major island of the country of São Tomé and Príncipe lying off the west coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea. It has an area of (including offshore islets) and a population of 7,324 at the 2012 Census;

. There are two Portuguese creoles on the island of

São Tomé São Tomé is the capital and largest city of the Central African island country of São Tomé and Príncipe. Its name is Portuguese for " Saint Thomas". Founded in the 15th century, it is one of Africa's oldest colonial cities. History Álva ...

Angolar Angolar Creole ( aoa, n'golá) is a minority Portuguese-based creole language of São Tomé and Príncipe, spoken in the southernmost towns of São Tomé Island and sparsely along the coast, especially by Angolar people. It is also called '' ...

and Forro. Today, younger generations of São Toméans are not likely to speak Principense, which has led to its fast decline and

moribund Moribund refers to a literal or figurative state near death. Moribund may refer to: * ''Moribund'' (album), a 2006 album by the Norwegian black metal band Koldbrann * " Le Moribond", a song by Jacques Brel known in English as "Seasons in the Sun ...

status.Estudo do Léxico do São-Tomense com Dicionário, Carlos Fontes - Universidade de Coimbra.
/ref> It is mostly spoken by the elderly (

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...

gives a figure of approximately 200 native speakers in total), while most of the island's community speaks noncreole

; some also speak another, closely related creole, Forro. Principense presents many similarities with the Forro on

and may be regarded as a Forro dialect. Like Forro, it is a

heavily lexified by

with substrates of

Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for National ...

and Kwa.

References

External links

APiCS Online - Survey chapter: Principense
Lunguye Portuguese-based pidgins and creoles Príncipe Portuguese language in Africa {{SaoTomePrincipe-stub

References

Further reading

External links