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
Kriol de SoncenteEnglishaontyesterdayaoj, hoj'todaymanhãtomorrowplurimmarketSoncenteSão VicenteMindelMindeloMoradaMindelo's historic centrepraçasquarepraiabeachruastreet'm / miI / meboyoubossêyou (polite)elhe/shenô / nôswe / usbzôt / bossêsyou (plural)êstheybá, baito gokrêto wantsabêto knowandáto walkspiáto look, to searchEl ka sabêHe/she doesn't knowUm oiá-'l aont na Praça NovaI saw him yesterday at Praça Nova ( Mindelo's main square)arrozricemontemountain
External links Criol de Soncente, a page with sample poems How do we talk in São Vicente with a French dictionary Storias Mindeleneses by Zizim Figueira Guidelines for writing the São Vicentean dialect of Criol pdf - version
References