Cape Verdean Creole

Cape Verdean Creole is a Portuguese-based creole language spoken on the islands of Cape Verde. It is also called or by its native speakers. It is the native creole language of virtually all Cape Verdeans and is used as a second language by the Cape Verdean diaspora.

The creole has particular importance for creolistics studies since it is the oldest living creole. It is the most widely spoken Portuguese-based creole language.

Name

The formal designation of this creole is Cape Verdean Creole, but in everyday usage the creole is simply called ('Creole') by its speakers. The names Cape Verdean ( in Portuguese, in Cape Verdean Creole) and Cape Verdean language ( in Portuguese, in the Sotavento dialect of Cape Verdean Creole and in the Barlavento dialect) have been proposed for whenever the creole will be standardized.

Origins

The history of Cape Verdean Creole is hard to trace due to a lack of written documentation and to ostracism during the Portuguese administration of Cape Verde.

There are presently three theories about the formation of Creole. The monogenetic theory claims that the creole was formed by the Portuguese by simplifying the Portuguese language in order to make it accessible to African slaves. That is the point of view of authors like Prudent, Waldman, Chaudenson and Lopes da Silva. Authors like Adam and Quint argue that Creole was formed by African slaves using the grammar of Western African languages and replacing the African lexicon with the Portuguese one. Linguists like Chomsky and Bickerton argue that Creole was formed spontaneously, not by slaves from continental Africa, but by the population born in the islands, using the grammar with which all human beings are born; this would explain how creoles located many miles apart have similar grammatical structures, even though they have a different lexical basis.

According to A. Carreira, Cape Verdean Creole was formed from a Portuguese pidgin, on the island of Santiago, starting from the 15th century. That pidgin was then transported to the west coast of Africa by the '' lançados''. From there, that pidgin diverged into two proto-Creoles, one that was the base of all Cape Verdean Creoles, and another that was the base of the Guinea-Bissau Creole.

Cross referencing information regarding the settlement of each island with the linguistic comparisons, it is possible to form some conjectures. The spreading of Cape Verdean Creole within the islands was done in three phases:
* In a first phase, the island of Santiago was occupied (2nd half of the 15th century), followed by Fogo (end of the 16th century).
* In a second phase, the island of São Nicolau was occupied (mostly in the 2nd half of the 17th century), followed by Santo Antão (mostly in the 2nd half of the 17th century).
* In a third phase, the remaining islands were occupied by settlers from the first islands: Brava was occupied by people from Fogo (mostly in the beginning of the 18th century), Boa Vista by people from São Nicolau and Santiago (mostly in the 1st half of the 18th century), Maio by people from Santiago and Boa Vista (mostly in the 2nd half of the 18th century), São Vicente by people from Santo Antão and São Nicolau (mostly in the 19th century), Sal by people from São Nicolau and Boa Vista (mostly in the 19th century).

Status

In spite of Creole being the first language of nearly all the population in Cape Verde, Portuguese is still the official language. As Portuguese is used in everyday life (at school, in administration, in official acts, in relations with foreign countries, etc.), Portuguese and Cape Verdean Creole live in a state of diglossia. Due to this overall presence of Portuguese, a decreolization process occurs for all the different Cape Verdean Creole variants.

Check in this fictional text:
: Santiago variant:
::
: São Vicente variant:
:: ''.''
: Translation to Portuguese:
::
: Translation to English:
:: That woman with whom I met yesterday was worried because she forgot her children at school, and when she went to seek them she didn't see them. Someone reminded her that her children were needing some material for a research, and so she found them at the library searching what they needed. To thank to everyone who helped her, she started speaking, telling how she was glad from the bottom of her heart.

In this text, several situations of decreolization / Portuguese intromission can be noted:
*''cú quêm'' / ''c' quêm''Portuguese order of words ''com quem'';
*''encôntra'' / ''encontrá''Portuguese lexicon, in Creole it would be more commonly ''átcha'' / ''otchá'';
*''priocupáda''Portuguese lexicon, in Creole it would be more commonly ''fadigáda'';
*''púrqui'' / ''púrq''Portuguese lexicon, in Creole it would be more commonly ''pamódi'' / ''pamód'';
*''sês minínus'' / ''sês m'nín's''Portuguese influence (plural marker on both words);
*''procurâ-'s'' / ''procurá-'s''Portuguese lexicon, in Creole it would be more commonly ''spiâ-'s'' / ''spiá-'s'';
*''olhâ-'s'' / ''olhá-'s''Portuguese phonetics (intromission of the phoneme );
*''quí'' / ''qu’''Portuguese lexicon, the integrant conjunction in Creole is ''’mâ'';
*''sâ tâ pricisába'' / ''táva ta pr'cisá''Portuguese lexicon, in Creole it would be more commonly ''sâ tâ mestêba'' / ''táva tâ mestê'';
*''material'', ''pesquisa'', ''biblioteca''words pretty uncommon in a basilect; if they are Portuguese words used when speaking Creole they should be pronounced in Portuguese and written in italic or between quotation marks;
*''úqui'' / ''úqintromission of Portuguese ''o que'';
*''gradêci â'' / ''gradecê â''wrong preposition, the Portuguese preposition "''a''" does not exist in Creole;
*''fála''this form (from contemporary Portuguese ''falar'') is only used in São Vicente and Santo Antão, in the other islands the word is ''papiâ'' (from old Portuguese ''papear'');
*''cômu'' / ''cômintromission of Portuguese ''como'';
*''curaçãu''Portuguese phonetics (reduction of the phoneme to and Portuguese pronunciation instead of Creole );

The same text "corrected":
: Santiago variant:
::
: São Vicente variant:
::

As a consequence there is a continuum between basilectal and acrolectal varieties.

In spite of Creole not being officialized, a 2005 government resolution put forth the necessary conditions for the officialization of Creole, which in turn has been superseded by a 2015 resolution. This officialization has not yet occurred, mostly because the language is not yet standardized, for several reasons:
* There is significant dialectal fragmentation. Speakers are reluctant to speak a variant that is not their own.
* Absence of rules to establish which is the right form (and also the right spelling) to be adopted for each word. For example, for the word corresponding to the Portuguese word ''algibeira'' ("pocket"), A. Fernandes records the forms ''algibêra'', ''agibêra'', ''albigêra'', ''aljubêra'', ''alj'bêra'', ''gilbêra'', ''julbêra'', ''lijbêra''.
* Absence of rules to establish which are the lexical limits to be adopted. It is frequent for speakers of Creole, when writing, to join different grammatical classes. For ex.: ''pâm...'' instead of ''pâ m'...'' "for me to...".
* Absence of rules to establish which are the grammatical structures to be adopted. It is not just about dialectal differences; even within a single variant there are fluctuations. For ex.: in the Santiago variant, when there are two sentences and one is subordinated to the other, there is a tense agreement in the verbs (''bú cría pâ m' dába'' "you wanted me to give"both ''cría'' and ''dába'' are past tense), but some speakers do not practice it (''bú cría pâ m' dâ''past then presentor ''bú crê pâ m' dába''present then past).
* The writing system (ALUPEC) has not been well accepted by all Creole users.
* The language levels (formal, informal, scientific, slang, etc.) are not well differentiated yet.

That is the reason why each speaker when speaking (or writing) uses their own dialect, their own sociolect, and their own idiolect.

To overcome these problems, some Creole advocatesVeiga, M. (2000) propose the development of two standards: a North (Barlavento) standard, centered on the São Vicente variant, and a South (Sotavento) standard, centered on that of Santiago. If so, Creole would become a pluricentric language

There exists no complete translation of the Bible. However, the "Asosiason Kabuverdianu pa Traduson di Bíblia" was established with the goal of translating the entire Bible in Kabuverdianu-Sotaventu and Kabuverdianu-Barlaventu. They have translated approximately 40% of the New Testament in the Kabuverdianu-Sotaventu, and they have published Luke and Acts. The publication of Luke has won two awards in Cape Verde. Sérgio Frusoni translated Bartolomeo Rossetti's version of the Romanesco Italian poem ''Er Vangelo Seconno Noantri'', which is a poem based on the Four Gospels. Frusoni translated the poem in the São Vicente Creole, ''Vangêle contód d'nôs móda''.

Writing system

The only writing system officially recognized by the authorities in Cape Verde is called the ''Alfabeto Unificado para a Escrita da Língua Cabo-verdiana'' (ALUPEC, ), which was approved for official use on an experimental basis in 1998 by Decree-Law No. 67/98.Decreto-Lei n.º 67/98
(published in the Boletim Oficial da República de Cabo Verde – 1998) In 2009, Decree-Law No. 8/2009 officially institutionalized the use of the ALUPEC.
In spite of having been officially recognized by the government, the ALUPEC is neither required nor mandatorily used.

In spite of being the only system officially recognized, the same law allows the use of alternative writing models, "as long as they are presented in a systematic and scientific way". As not all users are familiarized with ALUPEC or the IPA, in this article a slightly different system will be used to make it easier for the reader:
*The sound will be represented in an etymological way ("s" when in Portuguese is "s", "ss" when in Portuguese is "ss", "c" when in Portuguese is "c", "ç" when in Portuguese is "ç") instead of ALUPEC always "s".
*The sound will be represented in an etymological way ("s" when in Portuguese is "s", "z" when in Portuguese is "z") instead of ALUPEC always "z".
*The sound will be represented by "tch" instead of ALUPEC "tx".
*The sound will be represented in an etymological way ("x" when in Portuguese is "x", "ch" when in Portuguese is "ch") instead of ALUPEC always "x".
*The sound will be represented in an etymological way ("j" when in Portuguese is "j", "g" when in Portuguese is "g") instead of ALUPEC always "j".
*The sound will be represented in an etymological way ("c" when in Portuguese is "c", "qu" when in Portuguese is "qu") instead of ALUPEC always "k".
*The sound will be represented in an etymological way ("g" when in Portuguese is "g", "gu" when in Portuguese is "gu") instead of ALUPEC always "g".
*The nasality of the vowels will be represented by an "m" after the vowel, when this vowel is at the end of the word or before the letters "p" and "b". In the other cases the nasality will be represented by the letter "n".
*The words will always have a graphic accent. This will be an overwhelming use of accents, but it is the only way to effectively represent both the stressed syllable and vowel aperture.
*To show an elided vowel in certain variants an apostrophe will be used.

Vocabulary

The vocabulary of Cape Verdean Creole comes mainly from Portuguese. Although several sources do not agree, the figures oscillate between 90 and 95% of words from Portuguese. The remaining comes from several languages from Western Africa ( Mandingo, Wolof, Fulani, Temne, Balanta, Mandjak, etc.), and the vocabulary from other languages (English, French, Latin) is negligible.

Phonology

Cape Verdean Creole's phonological system comes mainly from 15th-through-17th-century Portuguese. In terms of conservative features, Creole has kept the affricate consonants and (written "j" (in the beginning of words) and "ch", in old Portuguese) which are not in use in today's Portuguese, and the pre-tonic vowels were not reduced as in today's European Portuguese. In terms of innovative features, the phoneme (written "lh" in Portuguese) has evolved to and the vowels have undergone several phonetic phenomena.

Vowels

There are eight oral vowels and their corresponding nasal counterparts, making a total of sixteen vowels:

Consonants and semi-vowels

* Note: The sounds , and are variants of the same phoneme .

First-person singular

The personal pronoun that represents the subject form of the first person singular has a variable pronunciation according to the islands.

This pronoun comes from the object form of the first person singular in Portuguese ''mim'', and it is phonetically reduced to the sound .

This pronunciation is nowadays found in the Barlavento variants. In the Sotavento variants that consonant was reduced to a simple nasality . For example: ''m' andâ'' ('I have walked'), ''m' stâ tâ sintí'' ('I am feeling'), ''m' labába'' ('I had washed'). Before plosive or affricate consonants this nasality becomes homorganic nasal of the following consonant. For ex.: ''m' bêm'' ('I came'), ''m' têm'' ('I have'), ''m' tchigâ'' ('I arrived'), ''m' crê'' ('I want').

Speakers who are strongly influenced by the Portuguese language tend to pronounce this pronoun as a nasal vowel ''úm'' instead of ''m'' .

Before some forms of the verb ''sêr'' this pronoun takes back its full form ''mí'' , in whatever variant: ''mí ê'' ('I am'), ''mí éra'' ('I was').

In this article, this pronoun is conventionally written ''m'', no matter the variant.

Grammar

Even though over 90% of Cape Verdean Creole words are derived from Portuguese, the grammar is very different, which makes it extremely difficult for an untrained Portuguese native speaker even to understand a basic conversation. On the other hand, the grammar shows a lot of similarities with other creoles, Portuguese-based or not (see syntactic similarities of creoles).

Sentence structure

The basic sentence structure in Creole is SubjectVerbObject. Ex.:
*''Êl tâ cumê pêxi.'' "He eats fish."

When there are two objects, the indirect object comes first while the direct object comes after, and the sentence structure becomes SubjectVerbIndirect ObjectDirect Object. Ex.:
*''Êl tâ dâ pêxi cumída.'' "He gives food to the fish."

A feature that makes Cape Verdean Creole closer to other creoles is the possibility of double negation (ex.: ''Náda m' câ atchâ.'' liter. "Nothing I didn't find."), or sometimes even triple negation (ex.: ''Núnca ninguêm câ tâ bába lâ.'' liter. "Never nobody didn't go there."). Although double negation is common in Portuguese (e.g. "Nunca ninguém foi lá"), triple negation is a little bit uncommon.

Nouns

Gender inflection

Only the animated nouns (human beings and animals) have gender inflection. Ex.:
*''inglês'' / ''inglésa'' "Englishman / Englishwoman"
*''pôrcu'' / ''pórca'' "pig (male) / pig (female)"

In some cases the distinction between sexes is made putting the adjectives ''mátchu'' "male" and ''fémia'' "female" after the nouns. Ex.:
*''fídju-mátchu'' / ''fídju-fémia'' "son / daughter"
*''catchôrr'-mátchu'' / ''catchôrr'-fémia'' "dog (male) / dog (female)"

Number inflection

The nouns in Creole have number inflection (plural marks) only when they are well determined or known in the context. Ex.:
* ''Minínus dí Bía ê bêm comportádu.'' ("The children of Bia are well behaved.")

When the noun refers to something in general that noun does not have number inflection. Ex.:
* ''Minínu devê ruspetâ alguêm grándi.'' ("Children must respect grown up people.")

If in a sentence there are several grammatical categories, only the first bears the plural marker. Ex.:
* ''minínus'' ("boys")
* ''nhâs minína'' ("my girls")
* ''minínus bunítu'' ("beautiful boys")
* ''nhâs dôs minína buníta í simpática'' ("my two kind and beautiful girls")

:''Further reading:''

Personal pronouns

According to their function, the pronouns can be subject pronouns or object pronouns. Furthermore, in each of these functions, according to the position within the sentence the pronouns can be unstressed or stressed.

The unstressed subject pronouns generally bear the function of the subject and come before the verb. Ex.:
*''Nú crê.'' "We want."

The stressed subject pronouns bear the function of some kind of vocative and usually are separated from the verb (disjunctive pronouns). Ex.:
*''Mí, m' stâ lí, í bô, bú stâ lâ.'' "Me, I am here, and you, you are there."

The object pronouns, as the name shows, bear the function of the object (direct or indirect). The unstressed object pronouns are used with the present-tense forms of verbs. Ex.:
*''M' odjá-'l.'' "I have seen it."
*''M' tâ bejá-bu.'' "I kiss you."

The stressed object pronouns are used with the past-tense forms of verbs, when they are the second pronoun in a series of two pronouns, and after prepositions (prepositional pronouns). Ex.:
*''Ês tâ odjába-êl.'' "They saw it."
*''Bú dâ-m'-êl.'' "You gave it to me."
*''M' stâ fártu dí bô!'' "I'm fed up of you!"

When there are two object pronouns, the indirect pronoun comes first while the direct pronoun comes after, and the sentence structure becomes SubjectVerbIndirect PronounDirect Pronoun.

There are no reflexive pronouns. To indicate reflexivity, Creole uses the expression ''cabéça'' ("head") after the possessive determiner. Ex.:
*''Ês mordê sês cabéça.'' "They have bitten themselves."

There are no reciprocal pronouns. To indicate reciprocity, Creole uses the expression ''cumpanhêru'' ("companion"). Ex.:
*''Ês mordê cumpanhêru.'' "They have bitten each other."

Verbs

The verbs have only minimal inflection (two forms). They have the same form for all the persons, and the notions of tense, mood and aspect are expressed through the presence (or absence) of certain morphemes (called "verbal actualizers" by Veiga), as in the majority of creoles.

The verbs are generally reduced to two base forms, one for the present, another for the past. The form for the present is the same as the form for the infinitive (exception: ''sêr'' "to be"), that in turn comes, in the majority of the verbs, from the infinitive in Portuguese but without the final ''r''. Ex.: ''cantâ'' (from Portuguese ''cantar''), ''mexê'' (from Portuguese ''mexer''), ''partí'' (from Portuguese ''partir''), ''compô'' (from Portuguese ''compor''), ''*lumbú'' (from Portuguese ''lombo''). The form for the past is formed from the infinitive to which is joined the particle for the past ''~ba''. Ex.: ''cantába'' , ''mexêba'' , ''partíba'' , ''compôba'' , ''*lumbúba'' (in the Barlavento variants, the particle for the past ''~va'' (or ''~ba'') is joined to the imperfective actualizer, and not to the verb). It is noteworthy that the Upper Guinea creoles (Cape Verdean Creole and Guinea-Bissau Creole) put the past tense marker after the verbs, and not before like the majority of creoles (check syntactic similarities of creoles).

It is important to mention that in the Santiago variant, the stress goes back to before the last syllable in the present tense forms of the verbs. Therefore, we have: ''cánta'' instead of ''cantâ'' , ''mêxe'' or ''mêxi'' instead of ''mexê'' , ''pârti'' instead of ''partí'' , ''cômpo'' or ''cômpu'' instead of ''compô'' , ''búmbu'' instead of ''bumbú'' . In the pronominal forms, however, the stress remains on the last syllable: ''cantâ-m'' , ''mexê-bu'' , ''partí-'l'' , ''compô-nu'' , ''bumbú-'s'' .

Regular verbs

As said before, the regular verbs are reduced to a form for the present tense and a form for the past tense, and the notions of mood and aspect are expressed through verbal actualizers.

The following table shows a paradigm of the indicative mood with the verb ''dâ'' "to give" in the first-person singular:

The perfective aspect of the present is used when the speech refers to present situations, but that are finished, that are complete. Ex.:
:''M' dâ.'' "I gave. / I have given."
:It corresponds roughly, according to context, to the past tense or present perfect in English.

The imperfective aspect of the present is used when the speech refers to present situations, but that are not finished yet, that are incomplete. Ex.:
:''M' tâ dâ.'' "I give."
:It corresponds roughly to the present tense in English.

The progressive aspect of the present is used when the speech refers to present situations that are happening in a continuous, uninterrupted way. Ex.:
:''M' stâ tâ dâ.'' "I am giving."
:It corresponds roughly to the present continuous tense in English.
::Note: Actually, this model doesn't exist anymore. It has evolved to ''M' stâ dâ.'' in Brava Fogo and Maio, to ''M' sâ tâ dâ.'' in Santiago, to ''M' tâ tâ dâ.'' in Boa Vista, Sal and São Nicolau and to ''M' ti tâ dá.'' in São Vicente and Santo Antão.

There is no specific form for the future. The future of the present may be expressed through three resources:
#Using the imperfective of the present but bearing the function of the future. Ex.: ''M' tâ dâ manhã.'' liter. "I give tomorrow."
#Using the auxiliary verb "to go". Ex.: ''M' tâ bái dâ.'' liter. "I go to give."
#Using a periphrasis showing an eventuality. Ex.: ''M' ál dâ. '' "I will give."
:It corresponds roughly to the future tense in English.

The perfective aspect of the past is used when the speech refers to past situations that were finished, or complete. Ex.:
:''M' dába.'' "I had given."
:It corresponds roughly to the past perfect in English.
::Note: This form does not exist in the Barlavento variants.

The imperfective aspect of the past is used when the speech refers to past situations that were not finished yet, or incomplete. Ex.:
:''M' tâ dába.'' "I gave. / I used to give."
:It corresponds roughly to the past tense in English.
::Note: In the Barlavento variants the particle for the past is joined to the imperfective actualizer and not to the verb: ''M' táva dâ.'' . In São Nicolau, along with ''M' táva dâ'' also subsists the older form ''M' tá dába'' .

The progressive aspect of the past is used when the speech refers to past situations that were happening in a continuous and uninterrupted way. Ex.:
:''M' stába tâ dâ.'' "I was giving."
:It corresponds roughly to the past continuous tense in English.
::Note: Actually, this model only exists in Brava and Fogo. It has evolved to ''M' sâ tâ dába.'' in Santiago and Maio and to ''M' táva tâ dâ.'' in Boa Vista, Sal, São Nicolau, São Vicente and Santo Antão.

There is no specific form for the future. The future of the past may be expressed through three resources:
#Using the imperfective of the past but bearing the function of the future. Ex.: ''M' tâ dába manhã.'' liter. "I gave tomorrow."
#Using the auxiliary verb "to go". Ex.: ''M' tâ bába dâ.'' liter. "I went to give."
#Using a periphrasis showing an eventuality. Ex.: ''M' ál dába. '' [m al "I would give."
:It corresponds roughly to the conditional in English.

The remaining moodssubjunctive, conditional (not the same as "conditional" in English), eventualdo not have different aspects, only present and past tense, except the injunctive (imperative) mood which has only the present tense.

Irregular verbs

There is a group of verbs that do not follow the paradigmatic model presented above. They are the auxiliary verbs ''sêr'' "to be", ''stâ'' "to be", ''têm'' "to have" and ''tenê'' "to have", and the modal verbs ''crê'' "to want", ''sabê'' "to know", ''podê'' "can", ''devê'' "must" and ''mestê'' "to need".
: Note.: The designation "auxiliary verbs" is not consensual.

There exist two registers for these verbs.

In the ''first register'' (in older speakers, in rural areas speakers or in speakers with little exposure to Portuguese) there are only two forms for the verbs: one for the present (''ê'' , ''stâ'' , ''têm'' , ''tenê'' , ''crê'' , ''sabê'' , ''podê'' , ''devê'' , ''mestê'' ) and one for the past (''éra'' , ''stába'' , ''têmba'' /tẽ, ''tenêba'' , ''crêba'' , ''sabêba'' , ''podêba'' , ''devêba'' , ''mestêba'' ). However, on the contrary of regular verbs, when the base form is used alone it represents the imperfective aspect and not the perfective aspect. Therefore, ''mí ê'', ''m' têm'', ''m' crê'', ''m' sabê'' mean "I am, I have, I want, I know", and not "I've been, I've had, I've wanted, I've known", as it would be expected. Parallelly, ''mí éra'', ''m' têmba'', ''m' crêba'', ''m' sabêba'' mean "I was, I had, I wanted, I knew", and not "I had been, I had had, I had wanted, I had known", as would be expected.

In the ''second register'' (among younger speakers, in urban areas or in speakers with more exposure to Portuguese) the system has been enriched with other forms influenced by Portuguese. Therefore, we have:
*''ê'' , ''stâ'' , ''têm'' , ''crê'' , ''sabê'' , ''podê'' , ''devê'' , ''mestê'' for the imperfective of the present;
*''fôi'' , ''stêvi'' evi/, ''têvi'' vi/, ''crís'' , ''sôbi'' bi/, ''púdi'' di/ for the perfective of the present;
*''éra'' , ''stába'' , ''tínha'' , ''cría'' , ''sabía'' , ''pudía'' , ''divía'' , ''mistía'' for the imperfective of the past;
*''sêrba'' , ''stába'' , ''têmba'' ẽ, ''crêba'' , ''sabêba'' , ''podêba'' , ''devêba'' , ''mestêba'' for the perfective of the past;
:Note.: Some authorsQuint, N.2000 call these verbs "stative verbs" and to these verbs they add others: ''gostâ'', ''conxê'', ''merecê'', ''morâ'', ''tchomâ'', ''valê''. However that designation is contested: not all those verbs are in fact stative; not all those verbs are irregular (for ex. ''morâ''); some of those verbs are regular in some variants (''m' tâ gostâ''imperfective of the present with ''tâ''), and irregulars in other variants (''m' gostâ''imperfective of the present but without ''tâ'').

There is a parallelism between the pair of the verbs ''sêr'' / ''stâ'' "to be" and the pair of the verbs ''têm'' / ''tenê'' "to have".
*The verb ''sêr'' is a copulative verb that expresses a permanent quality. Ex.:
::''Mí ê úm ómi.'' "I am (I've always been and I will always be) a man."
*The verb ''stâ'' is a copulative verb that expresses a temporary state. Ex.:
::''Êl stâ trísti.'' "He is (in this precise moment) sad."
*The verb ''têm'' is a possessive verb that expresses a permanent quality. Ex.:
::''M' têm péli scúru.'' "I have (I had and I will always have) dark skin."
*The verb ''tenê'' is a possessive verb that expresses a temporary possession. Ex.:
::''M' tenê úm canéta nâ bôlsu.'' "I have (in this precise moment) a pen in the pocket."

:Note.: The verbs ''stâ'' and ''tenê'' do not have the progressive aspect: forms like ''*m' stâ tâ stâ'' or ''*m' stâ tâ tenê'' do not exist. The verb ''tenê'' does not exist in the Barlavento variants. In São Vicente and Santo Antão the verb ''stâ'' has the form ''stód'' for the infinitive, ''tâ'' for the imperfective of the present, ''tív for the perfective of the present, and ''táva'' for the imperfective of the past.

Passive

Cape Verdean Creole has two voices. The active voice is used when the subject is explicit. The passive voice is used when the subject is indeterminate or unknown. There is also two forms for the passive. The form for the present is made with the infinitive to which is joined the particle ''~du''. The form for the past is made with the infinitive to which is joined the particle ''~da''. Ex.:
* ''Tâ papiádu inglês nâ Mérca.'' "English is spoken in America."
* ''M' inxinádu tâ andâ.'' "I was taught to walk."
* ''Úm vêz, tâ cumêda tchêu mídju.'' "Once, one used to eat a lot of corn."
:Note.: In the Barlavento variants the form for the past does not exist.

Negative

To negate a verb, the negative adverb ''câ'' is used after the subject and before any verbal actualizer. Ex.:
*''Nú câ tâ bebê.'' "We don't drink."
*''Êl câ tâ odjába.'' "He didn't see."
*''Bú câ bái.'' "You haven't gone."

In the Santo Antão variant, the negative adverb is ''n'' . Ex.:
*''Nô n' dâ bibê.'' "We don't drink."
*''Êl n' dáva o'á.'' "He didn't see."
*''Bô n' bé.'' "You haven't gone."

In imperative sentences the negative adverb ''câ'' is always in the beginning. Ex.:
*''Câ bú bái!'' "Don't go!" (yousingular)
*''Câ nhôs fazê!'' (Sotavento), ''Câ b'sôt' fazê!'' (Barlavento) "Don't do!" (you-plural)

And in the Santo Antão variant:
*''N' bô bé!'' /n bo "Don't go!" (yousingular)
*''N' b'sôt' fezê!'' "Don't do!" (youplural)

Adjectives

Adjectives in Creole almost always come after the noun. Only the animated nouns (human beings and animals) demand gender inflection in their adjectives. Ex.:
*''ómi fêiu'' / ''mudjêr fêia'' "ugly man / ugly woman"
*''bódi prêtu'' / ''cábra préta'' "black buck / black goat"

The adjectives for unanimated nouns have the same form as the masculine adjectives. Ex.:
*''bistídu bráncu'' "white dress"
*''camísa bráncu'' "white shirt"

In general the plural marker does not appear on adjectives since it comes in a preceding grammatical category.

Determiners

In Creole there are no definite articles. If it is absolutely necessary to determine the noun, the demonstrative determiners are used instead.

For the indefinite articles there are two forms, one for the singular, another for the plural:
*''úm...'' "a, an (singular)", ''úns...'' "a, an (plural)"

The possessive determiners have number inflexion, but the plural refers to the objects possessed, and not to the owners. Ex.:
*''nhâ cárru'' "my car"
*''nhâs cárru'' "my cars"
*''nôs cárru'' can be either "our car" or "our cars"

The demonstrative determiners have only two degrees of proximity: close to the speaker (''êss'' "this, these") and away from the speaker (''quêl'' "that", ''quês'' "those").
:Note.: Only the São Vicente and Santo Antão Creoles make a phonetic distinction between the singular ''êss'' ("this") and the plural ''ês'' ("these").

Designatives

Creole possesses a special grammatical category for presenting or announcing something. It appears in two forms, one to present something near, (''alí...'' ) and another to present something far (''alâ...'' ). Ex.:
*''Alí nhâ fídju.'' "Here is my son."
*''Alá-'l tâ bái.'' "There he goes."

Dialects

In spite of Cape Verde's small size, each island has developed its own way of speaking Creole. Each of these nine ways (there are 10 islands, one of which is uninhabited) is justifiably a different dialect, but the scholars in Cape Verde usually call them "variants". These variants can be classified into two branches: in the South there are the Sotavento Creoles, which comprise the Brava, Fogo, Santiago and Maio variants; in the North there are the Barlavento Creoles, which comprise the Boa Vista, Sal, São Nicolau, São Vicente and Santo Antão variants.

Since some lexical forms of Cape Verdean Creole can be different according to each variant, the words and the sentences in this article will be presented in compromise model, a kind of "middle Creole", in order to ease the understanding and in order not to favor any variant. Whenever it will be necessary the phonemic transcription (or sometimes the phonetic transcription) will be shown immediately after the word.

For the writing system, check the section Writing system.

From a linguistic point of view, the most important variants are the Fogo, Santiago, São Nicolau and Santo Antão ones, and any deep study of Creole should approach at least these four. They are the only islands that have received slaves directly from the African continent, that possess the most conservative linguistic features, and that are the most distinct from each other.

From a social point of view, the most important variants are the Santiago and São Vicente ones, and any light study of Creole should approach at least these two. They are the variants of the two bigger cities (Praia), the variants with the greatest number of speakers, and the variants with a glottophagist tendency over the neighboring ones.

These variants have significant literature:
* Brava: Eugénio Tavares
* Fogo: Elsie Clews Parsons
* Santiago: Carlos Barbosa, Tomé Varela da Silva, Daniel Spínola
* São Vicente: Sérgio Frusoni, Ovídio Martins
* Santo Antão: Luís Romano Madeira de Melo

Dialectal differences

Sotavento

The Sotavento Creoles are spoken in the Sotavento Islands. Some characteristics:
*The imperfective aspect of the past is formed joining the particle for the past ''~ba'' to the verb: ''tâ'' + V+''ba''.
*The personal pronoun for the second person of the plural is ''nhôs''.
*The subject form of the personal pronoun for the first person of the singular is represented by a nasalization. Ex.: ''m' andâ'' pronounced instead of "I have walked", ''m' stâ tâ sintí'' pronounced instead of "I am feeling", ''m' labába'' pronounced instead of "I had washed".
*The object form of the personal pronoun for the first person of the singular disappears but nasalizes the preceding vowel. Ex.: ''lebâ-m'' pronounced instead of "take me", ''metê-m'' pronounced instead of "put me", ''cudí-m'' pronounced instead of "answer me", ''compô-m'' pronounced instead of "fix me", ''bumbú-m'' pronounced instead of "put me on the back".

Brava

Brava Creole is spoken mainly on Brava Island. Speakers number 8,000. One of the least spoken being seventh place and one of the firsts to have written literature, in which Eugénio Tavares wrote some of his poems.

Besides the main characteristics of Sotavento Creoles, Brava Creole has the following:
* The progressive aspect of the present is formed by putting ''stâ'' before the verbs: ''stâ'' + V.
* The sound that originates from Portuguese (written ''ão'') is rather than . For example, ''coraçã'' , not ''coraçõ'' "heart"; ''mã'' , not ''mõ'' "hand"; ''razã'' , not ''razõ'' "reason".

Fogo

Fogo Creole is spoken mainly in the Fogo of Cape Verde. It has around 50,000 speakers or nearly 5% of Cape Verdean Creole speakers including the diaspora's second language speakers. The rankings of this form of Cape Verdean Creole is fourth after Santo Antão and ahead of Sal.

Besides the main characteristics of Sotavento Creoles, Fogo has the following:
* The progressive aspect of the present is formed by putting ''stâ'' before the verbs: ''stâ'' + V.
* The sound that originates from Portuguese (written ''ão'') is represented by instead of . Ex. ''coraçã'' instead of ''coraçõ'' "heart", ''mã'' instead of ''mõ'' "hand", ''razã'' instead of ''razõ'' "reason".
* The sound switches to when it is at the end of syllables. Ex. ''ártu'' instead of ''áltu'' "tall", ''curpâ'' instead of ''culpâ'' "to blame", ''burcã'' instead of ''vulcõ'' "volcano".
* The sound disappears when it is at the end of words. Ex.: ''lugá'' instead of ''lugár'' "place", ''midjô'' instead of ''midjôr'' "better", ''mudjê'' instead of ''mudjêr'' "woman".
* The diphthongs (oral or nasal) are in general pronounced as vowels. Ex.: ''mã'' instead of ''mãi'' "mother", ''nã'' instead of ''nãu'' "no", ''pá'' instead of ''pái'' "father", ''rê'' instead of ''rêi'' "king", ''tchapê'' instead of ''tchapêu'' "hat".
* The pre-tonic sound is velarized near labial or velar consonants. Ex.: ''badjâ'' "to dance" pronounced , ''cabêlu'' "hair" pronounced , ''catchô'' "dog" pronounced .

Maio

Maio Creole is spoken mainly on Maio Island. It numbers the entire island population which includes a small part which also speaks Portuguese.

It is one of the least spoken Cape Verdean Creole and is after Brava and ahead of Boa Vista.

Besides the main characteristics of Sotavento Creoles, Maio Creole has the following:
* The progressive aspect of the present is formed by putting ''stâ'' before the verbs: ''stâ'' + V.
* The unstressed final vowels and frequently disappear. Ex.: ''cumádr'' instead of ''cumádri'' "midwife", ''vilúd'' instead of ''vilúdu'' "velvet", ''bunít'' instead of ''bunítu'' "beautiful", ''cantád'' instead of ''cantádu'' "sung".
* 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.

Santiago

Santiago Creole is spoken mainly on the Santiago Island of Cape Verde, including the capital of the country, Praia

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