São Nicolau Creole is the variant of Cape Verdean Creole spoken mainly in the São Nicolau Island of Cape Verde. It belongs to the Barlavento Creoles branch. Literature is rarely recorded but the form of the Capeverdean Creole has been recorded in music.
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 is represented by when the verb is conjugated with the first person of the singular pronoun. Ex.: panhó-m’ instead of panhâ-m’ “to catch me”, levó-m’ instead of levâ-m’ “to take me”, coçó-m’ instead of coçâ-m’ “to scratch me”. The sounds and are pronounced by some speakers as and when they are before palatal vowels. Ex.: f’djêra instead of f’guêra “fig tree”, patchê instead of paquê “because”, Pr’djíça instead of Pr’guiíça “Preguiça” (place name), tchím instead of quêm “who”. The sound (that originates from old Portuguese, written j in the beginning of words) is partially represented by . Ex. jantâ instead of djantâ “to dine”, jôg’ instead of djôgu “game”, but in words like djâ “already”, Djõ “John” the sound remains. The unstressed final vowel does not disappear when it follows the sounds or . Ex.: tabácu instead of tabóc’ “tobacco”, frángu instead of fróng’ “chicken”.
Vocabulary
Grammar
Phonology
Alphabet
References
Further reading A Parábola do Filho Pródigo no crioulo de Santiago, do Fogo, da Brava, de Santo Antão, de S. Nicolau e da Boa Vista: O crioulo de Cabo Verde (Botelho da Costa, Joaquim Vieira & Custódio José Duarte, 1886) O crioulo da ilha de S. Nicolau de Cabo Verde (Cardoso, Eduardo Augusto, 1989)
External links Typical figures of São Nicolau - texts in Portuguese with the terms of glossary in São Nicolau Creole