Sotavento Creoles
Encyclopedia
Sotavento Creoles is the name given to the group of Cape Verdean Creoles spoken in the Sotavento Islands of Cape Verdean Islands
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Some characteristics of Sotavento Creoles:
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...
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Some characteristics of Sotavento Creoles:
- 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 /ƞ ɐ̃ˈdɐ/ instead of /m ɐ̃ˈdɐ/ “I have walked”, m’ stâ tâ sintí pronounced /ƞ stɐ tɐ sĩˈti/ instead of /m stɐ tɐ sĩˈti/ “I am feeling”, m’ labába pronounced /ƞ lɐˈbabɐ/ instead of /m lɐˈbabɐ/ “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 /leˈbɐ̃/ instead of /leˈbɐm/ “take me”, metê-m’ pronounced /meˈtẽ/ instead of /meˈtem/ “put me”, cudí-m’ pronounced /kuˈdĩ/ instead of /kuˈdim/ “answer me”, compô-m’ pronounced /kõˈpõ/ instead of /kõˈpom/ “fix me”, bumbú-m’ pronounced /bũˈbũ/ instead of /bũˈbum/ “put me on the back”.