São Vicente Creole

São Vicente Creole is the name given to the variant of Cape Verdean Creole spoken mainly in the São Vicente Island of Cape Verde. It belongs to the Barlavento Creoles branch. It is the second most widely spoken Cape Verdean creole. It has produced literature from a lot of writers and musicians including Sergio Frusoni and many more.

Characteristics

Besides the main characteristics of Barlavento Creoles the São Vicente Creole has also the following ones:
* The progressive aspect of the present is formed by putting ''tí tâ'' before the verbs: ''tí'' + ''tâ'' + V.
* The sounds and are palatalized to and when they are at the end of syllables. Ex.: ''fésta'' “party” pronounced instead of , ''gósga'' “tickles” pronounced instead of , ''más'' “more” pronounced instead of .
* The stressed final sound is pronounced . Ex.: ''já'' instead of ''djâ'' “already”, ''lá'' instead of ''lâ'' “there”, and all the verbs that end by ''~â'', ''calcá'' instead of ''calcâ'' “to press”, ''pintchá'' instead of ''pintchâ'' “to push”, etc.
* The sound (that originates from Portuguese , written “lh”) is represented by the sound : ''bói’'' instead of ''bódj’'' “dance (noun)”, ''ôi’'' instead of ''ôdj’'' “eye”, ''spêi’'' instead of ''spêdj’'' “mirror”. When it is after the sound , the sound remains: ''fídj’'' “son”, ''mídj’'' “corn”. When it is immediately after a consonant, the sound remains: ''m’djôr'' “better”, ''c’djêr'' “spoon”.
* The sound (that originates from old Portuguese, written “j” in the beginning of words) is totally represented by . Ex. ''já'' instead of ''djâ'' “already”, ''jantá'' instead of ''djantâ'' “to dine”, ''Jõ’'' instead of ''Djõ’'' “John”.
* Existence of a certain kind of vocabulary (also existing in Santo Antão) that does not exist in the other islands. Ex.: ''dançá'' instead of ''badjâ'' “to dance”, ''dzê'' instead of ''flâ'' “to say”, ''falá'' instead of ''papiâ'' “to speak”, ''guitá'' instead of ''djobê'' “to peek”, ''ruf’ná'' instead of ''fuliâ'' “to throw”, ''stód’'' instead of ''stâ'' “to be”, ''tchocá'' instead of ''furtâ'' “to steal”, ''tchúc’'' instead of ''pôrc’'' “pig”, etc.

Vocabulary

Grammar

Phonology

Alphabet

Examples of São Vicente Creole

External links

Criol de Soncente
a page with sample poems

How do we talk in São Vicente
with a French dictionary



Guidelines for writing the São Vicentean dialect of Criol
pdf - version

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sao Vicente Creole
Cape Verdean Creole