Principense Creole (endonym: ) is a Portuguese-based

creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable form of contact language that develops from the process of different languages simplifying and mixing into a new form (often a pidgin), and then that form expanding and elaborating into a full-fl ...

spoken in

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is an island country in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two archipelagos around the two main isla ...

, specifically the island of

Príncipe Príncipe (; ) is the smaller, northern major island of the country of São Tomé and Príncipe lying off the west coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea. It has an area of (including offshore islets) and a population of 7,324 at the 2012 Cens ...

. There are two

Portuguese creoles Portuguese creoles () are creole languages which have Portuguese as their substantial lexifier. The most widely-spoken creoles influenced by Portuguese are Cape Verdean Creole, Guinea-Bissau Creole and Papiamento. Origins Portuguese overseas ...

on the island of

São Tomé São Tomé is the capital and largest city of the Central African island country of São Tomé and Príncipe. Its name is Portuguese for " Saint Thomas". Founded in the 15th century, it is one of Africa's oldest colonial cities. History Álv ...

, Angolar and Forro. Today, younger generations of São Toméans are not likely to speak Principense, which has led to its fast decline and

moribund Moribund refers to a literal or figurative state near death. Moribund may refer to: * ''Moribund'' (album), a 2006 album by the Norwegian black metal band Koldbrann * " Le Moribond", a song by Jacques Brel known in English as "Seasons in the Sun ...

status.Estudo do Léxico do São-Tomense com Dicionário, Carlos Fontes - Universidade de Coimbra.
/ref> It is mostly spoken by the elderly (

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

gives a figure of approximately 200 native speakers in total), while most of the island's community speaks noncreole Portuguese; some also speak another, closely related creole, Forro. Principense presents many similarities with the Forro on

and may be regarded as a Forro dialect. Like Forro, it is a

heavily lexified by Portuguese with substrates of Bantu and Kwa.

References

External links

APiCS Online - Survey chapter: Principense
Lunguye Portuguese-based pidgins and creoles Príncipe Portuguese language in Africa {{SaoTomePrincipe-stub

References

Further reading

External links