São Nicolau Creole

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 15,000Fact|date=April 2007 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.

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”.

Vocabulary

Grammar

Phonology

Alphabet