Brava Creole is the name given to the variant of Cape Verdean Creole spoken mainly in the Brava Island

Brava, Cape Verde

Brava is an island in Cape Verde. It is the smallest inhabited island, but at the same time the greenest, of Cape Verde, in the Sotavento group. First settled in the 1540s, its population grew after Mount Fogo on neighbouring Fogo erupted in 1675...

 of Cape Verde

Cape Verde

The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...

. It belongs to the Sotavento Creoles

Sotavento Creoles

Sotavento Creoles is the name given to the group of Cape Verdean Creoles spoken in the Sotavento Islands of Cape Verdean Islands.Some characteristics of Sotavento Creoles:...

 branch. The speakers of this form of Capeverdean Creole are 8,000. One of the least spoken being seventh place and one of the firsts to have written literature, in which Eugénio Tavares

Eugénio Tavares

Eugénio de Paula Tavares was a Cape Verdean poet. He is known through his famous poems , written in the Crioulo of Brava. His name is honored in the name of the town square in Vila Nova Sintra along with a statue.-Mornas:***...

 wrote some of his poems.

Characteristics

Besides the main characteristics of Sotavento Creoles

Sotavento Creoles

Sotavento Creoles is the name given to the group of Cape Verdean Creoles spoken in the Sotavento Islands of Cape Verdean Islands.Some characteristics of Sotavento Creoles:...

the Brava Creole has also the following ones:

• The progressive aspect of the present is formed by putting stâ before the verbs: stâ + V.
• The sound that originates from Portuguese /ɐ̃w/ (written ão) is /ɐ̃/ rather than /õ/. For example, coraçã /koɾɐˈsɐ̃/, not coraçõ /koɾɐˈsõ/ “heart”; mã /ˈmɐ̃/, not mõ /ˈmõ/ “hand”; razã /ʀɐˈzɐ̃/, not razõ /ʀɐˈzõ/ “reason”.

External links

• A short poem in Brava Crioulo on a Cape Verde banknote.