Creole languages ​​of Sao Tome and Principe

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The islands of São Tomé and Príncipe in the Gulf of Guinea

On the two islands that make up the state of São Tomé and Príncipe , three different Creole languages ​​are spoken in addition to the official Portuguese language :

and

This remarkable linguistic peculiarity can largely be explained from the history of São Tomé and Príncipes .

Santomense

Santomenic, also known as Forro (Portuguese: freed slave) or Lungwa di tela ( Portuguese : língua de terra , German  : language of the homeland ), was mainly spoken by the respected Creole class, making it the majority language in both São Tomé and Príncipe has been. Even after Portuguese entrepreneurs bought back most of the land during the coffee boom at the beginning of the 20th century, the Santomense remained a respected language due to the established group identity of the speaker group (cf. Lorenzino 1998: 39).

The fact that the Santomense is structurally very similar to the Principense (see below) is probably due to the fact that Príncipe populated slaves from São Tomé after a malaria epidemic in which only 300 people survived (cf. Günther 1973: 13) as well as the fact that language contact between the Bantu languages ​​and Portuguese was structurally similar on the two islands.

There are various theories about the development of the Portuguese-based Creole languages ​​and the Creole languages ​​in general. One of them says that these languages ​​developed from a lingua franca , a lingua franca between the plantation owners and the slaves, or a Portuguese-based pidgin , which became a Creole language in the second generation, i.e. as soon as it was a mother tongue. This “substrate-theoretical approach” states that slaves who use their mother tongue only to a limited extent, but who do not learn the colonial language completely, fall back on the basic structures of their mother tongue grammar and apply the sometimes misunderstood lexicon of the European language (cf. Boretzky 1994: 147 ). It is characteristic of Creole languages that the lexic is largely taken from the superstrate language of the colonists (here Portuguese ), with many elements of the grammar and syntax of the indigenous substrate languages (here Bantu and Kwa languages ) being taken (such as the duplication of a word, which will be discussed further below) (cf. Günther 1973: 21, 22).

Principense

The Principensic or the lingua le (from Portuguese língua da ilha, German: language of the island) is, as already mentioned, quite similar to the Santomenic, since the smaller of the two islands was settled with slaves from São Tomé in the 16th century (see above).

Angolar

The origin of the group of speakers of this Creole language, the so-called Angolares , is not clearly proven. On the one hand there is the theory that they are descendants of released black slaves, since there were raids on the plantations from 1550 to the 17th century, although the existence of the Angolares is only clearly proven from the early 17th century. On the other hand, it is believed that the Angolares were able to escape from a sunken slave ship to the island of São Tomé and thus establish their society separated from the plantation system (cf. Maurer 1995: 2). The life of the Angolares as fishermen and small farmers in the southeast of the island was relatively free until the booming economy of the island at the beginning of the 19th century made it necessary to develop further areas for cocoa and coffee . Now the plantation owners came across the Angolares, but the contact was relatively peaceful, as the Angolares were willing to work as canoe builders and forest workers in transporting the goods produced on the plantations. From a linguistic point of view, this is where the development known in Angolar culture as "bila folo" (to be forro) begins, which denotes an approach of the Angolar to the santomenic (forro), which is far superior in terms of speakers. For the Angolares, their own language was and is closely linked to the group identity and despite the language contact with the Santomense and Portuguese, the language is still spoken and cultivated, even if the Santomense usually dominates in mixed marriages (cf.Lorenzino 1998: 52, 53) .

Linguistic consideration of the three languages

In order to make this chapter clear, it is structured comparatively. Various important aspects of the three languages ​​are to be contrasted here, both to work out the differences and to clarify general developments and regularities of the Creole languages. First, phonetic peculiarities are considered in order to pick out some aspects of lexico semantics and morphosyntax in the following .

phonetics

The phoneme inventory of all three languages ​​in São Tomé and Príncipe is quite similar to that of Portuguese, for example it also contains nasal vowels like Portuguese. However, certain sounds have developed in different ways based on the phoneme inventory of the Portuguese lexicon . A special feature is that Angolar is the only one of the three languages ​​to use the dental fricatives , which are relatively difficult to realize phonetically and which are comparable to the English voiced and unvoiced [th] (cf. Maurer 1994: 9).

Regular sound developments and liquid clusters

In Angolar and Santomense, the Portuguese fricatives ch and j are replaced. This does not take place regularly in the Principense. The Portuguese words chuva (rain) and já (already, immediately) become Tuba2 and Ua in Angolar, and suva and za in Santomense; thus the articulation type and participation remain the same, but the place of articulation changes (cf. Lorenzino 1998: 74). In terms of principles, three examples are mentioned that demonstrate an irregular development of the sounds ch and j. The Portuguese word chave (key) becomes savi in ​​principals, which suggests a similar regularity as in Santomenic, but the initial fricative is retained in the following two words: gentinho → chici and chifre → sifi (cf. Günther 1973: 268) .

The Santomic is an exception to another phonetic phenomenon. It is the only one of the three Creole languages ​​that has adopted the liquid clusters listed below from Portuguese or has only modified it instead of omitting a consonant, as has happened in the other two languages. The following table shows a list that supports this. The incompleteness is due to the fact that the information is taken from different sources.

Portuguese Angolar Santomense Principense
trabalhar taba tlaba tabyá
casca kachika kachka
desgraça disigaTa dichglasa
preto peetu pletu pÈ´tu
graxa ngaTa nglasa
cruz kuuTu klusu cuzu
falcão fako farkon fákon

This exception to the Santomenic is due to the usual vowel-consonant distribution of the other two Creole languages, which rarely allows two consecutive consonants. The fact that the Liquide r is replaced by l is a widespread alternation that is summarized under the term Rhotazism (cf. Bußmann 1990: 651). If the Portuguese original word of a word in Angolar has r or l in front of a stressed vowel, this doubles, as the following example shows. The Portuguese word fruta (fruit) becomes fuúta in Angolar, which is in opposition to the futá derived from furtar. This is already an anticipation of the following topic of the meaning-distinguishing tone length and pitch (cf. Lorenzino 1998: 91).

Vowel length and toneme

A remarkable peculiarity of two of the three creole languages ​​dealt with here is the tonality of vowels, which has different meanings , which means that they can be counted among the tonal languages . Both in Principal and in Angolar, differences in pitch and pitch have the character of a phoneme. The following table shows the possible tone connections as a minimum pair analysis. H stands for high and is marked in the word with a ´, T for low and is marked in the word with a `.

HH: TT
mámá (breast) màmà (to breastfeed)
HH: HT
mÓCí (a lot) mÓCì (death)
HT: TT
ándà (nevertheless) àndà (chew)
HT: TH
bÓrÒ (edge) bÒrÓ (stick)
TH: TT
màzí (oil) màzì (but)

(see Lorenzino 1998: 92)

The tonality of the main substrate language of Angolar, the Bantu language Kimbundu , can be given as a possible reason for this . In Principal there are even three tones instead of two as in Angolar: high, low and rising. The table below illustrates this with examples. High tones are marked here by ´, low tones by `and ascending tones by ^:

pá (praia, beach) pà (para, for)
fá (falar, to speak) fà (negative particle)
swá (história, story) swâ (suar, to sweat)
pwé (pai, father) pwê (parir, to give birth)

There is no opposition between low and high tones. No information is given about the possible origins of the tonality, but here too an African language can be assumed as a model (cf. Günther 1973: 50, 51).

Lexicon semantics

Substrate language influences using numerals

As far as the lexicon semantics are concerned, a few numbers should first be mentioned in order to then use the numerals to compare the various influences. Angolar is the one of the three languages ​​with the most African-influenced lexicons in which both Kwa and Bantu influences are proven; Santomenic also shows Kwa and Bantu influences, whereas in Principal the Bini language from Nigeria is considered the greatest source of African influence. However, precise figures are missing here (cf. Günther 1973: 32.33; Lorenzino 1998: 99). Based on the Swadesh list, a list of around 200 basic words, based on whose equivalents in the respective languages ​​it is possible to compare different languages ​​and to express the influences of the different substrate and superstrate languages ​​in numbers (cf. digital source g).

language Portuguese words African words
Angolar 77% 23%
Santomense 89% 11%

(see Lorenzino 1998: 100)

This table shows that Santomenic has adopted far more Portuguese lexicons than Angolar. It should also be noted that the Santomenic vocabulary has adopted most of its African words from the Kikongo and Edo, whereas the Angolar Kimbundu and Kikongo are the main substrate sources. As an example of the various developments in the adoption of words, a list of numerals is intended below, on the basis of which general phonetic developments as well as loan translations and amalgamations of African structures and Portuguese lexicons become clear. Two African substrate languages ​​as well as the superstrate language Portuguese are listed in order to illustrate their influence on the Creole languages. This should be underlined by the colored marking:

Angolar Santomense Principense Portuguese Kikongo Kimbundu
1 una una una at / a -mosi came
2 dooTu dósu dósu dois / duas -ole kiiadi
3 teesi tlési téSi três -tatu katatu
4th kuana kwátlu kwátu quatro -ya kwana
5 tanO sínku Sinku cinco -tanu tanu
6th TamanO séSi séy seis -sambanu samanu
7th Tambari sÈtÈ sè´ci sete nsambwadi sambari
8th nake oto wétu oito nana nake
9 uvwa nOvÈ nóvÈ nove vwa vwa
10 kwine dÈsi déSi dec kumi kui3i
11 kwin ne una des-k (u) -una onzÈ our kumi ye mosi kui3i ni kiiadi
12 kwin ne dooTu ... dóze doze kumi ye ole kui3i ni katatu
13 kwin ne teesi tréze treze kumi ye tatu ...
14th kwin ne tanO katóze catorze ...
15th kwin ne kuana kínZi quinze
16 kwin ne TamanO dizaséy dezasseis
17th kwin ne Tambari dizasÈci decassete
18th kwin ne nake dizawétu dezoito
19th kwin ne uvwa dizanóvÈ dezanove
20th makeri dósu dÈSi vinci vinte macumole
24 dósu dÈSi ku kwatlu vinte e quatro makumole ye ya

(Source: Lorenzino 1998: 109, Günther 1973: 63)

Here it becomes clear that the principles of numerals are closest to Portuguese, as the orientation to the Portuguese number system continues up to the numbers above the tens. In contrast to this, the Santomenic also adopts the numerals from Portuguese, but the structure, which can be seen here above the tens range, is strongly reminiscent of the two African languages, which also work with a conjunction (ye, ni: and, plus) . Angolar is clearly the language that has the fewest Portuguese words in the number system; only one, two, three, fifty, one hundred and one thousand are here derived from Portuguese. The structure of the numbers over ten, like the Santomenic, is closer to the African languages, whereby the conjunction ne seems to have been taken from the Kimbundu. It is noteworthy that despite the apparently very strong Kimbundu influence, some Portuguese-inspired numerals have survived (cf. Lorenzino 1998: 107-110).

The already mentioned in chapter 4.2. The above-mentioned liquid clusters, which have been preserved from Portuguese in Santomenic, can also be seen in the numbers (tlési, kwátlu in contrast to teesi / téSi and kwátu). Another phonetic phenomenon that can be observed here is the disappearance or transformation of diphthongs. With the number eight (Portuguese: oito, principense: wétu, santomense: oto) a falling diphthong in Portuguese becomes a rising diphthong in principle and a monophthong in Santomenic (cf. Günther 1973: 38).

doubling

The use of the Portuguese-based lexemes in conjunction with the African structure in Santomenic can be called loan translation. A similar phenomenon is the doubling of individual words in all three languages ​​discussed, which can have different functions and has been adopted from the African Bantu and Kwa languages. Some of the possible functions can be: course, division (each individual), means of transport, identification, frequency, amplification / weakening, uncertainty and plural marking. The following examples make this clear: the santomenic sentence: e pEga-pEga anka (ele / er pegar pegar / to catch carangueijo / crab) is translated as follows: He often catches crabs. The repetition of the verb serves here to mark the frequency of an action. Likewise the Angolar example: nO Ta ka ntete lÈvÈ-lÈvÈ (nós / we-, prematurity marker divertir-se / amusement / leve leve - easy, easy) translates as: We enjoyed ourselves a little. The doubling of the reinforcement or weakening of the adjective leve serves here. Another somewhat more complicated example illustrates what is meant by the above-mentioned "division": Aia familia bila re wala-wala (agora / now família / family vir a mudar / have changed cada-cada / everyone everyone) is translated as: The family has changed since then; everyone goes their own way. In Angolar, however, as in Santomenic, doubling can also serve as a marker, i.e. as a special identifier for a grammatical feature, for repetition, as the following example shows: m bE mu nduku-nduku (eu / ich vir / come tropezar-tropezar / stumble stumble) translated: I stumbled all the time (see Lorenzino 1998: 119-122). This phenomenon of doubling can also be observed in the principle of principle: mígu té vé vé (amigo / friend teu / your velho velho / old old) means your friend is really very old. Likewise, mínu sé bóbo bóbo (menino / child ser / his bobo bobo / simple-minded) means the child is extremely simple-minded (cf. Günther 1973: 62). The doubling can be seen as an expression of insecurity in the following principled example: e vé kwá kwá (ele / he ver / see qual qual / what was), translated: He saw something (cf. Günther 1973: 77). The function of the doubling as a marking of the past in principle will also be explained below.

Morphosyntax

All three STP Creole languages ​​are missing certain articles and there is only one indefinite article. This is the same in all three languages ​​(una), the only difference is that it is placed after the noun in the Principense, whereas in Angolar and Santomense it comes before the noun. The principled sentence means: omi una kõta myé una (homem / man around / one findsra / meets mulher / woman uma / one) in German A man meets a woman. In Angolar, the article comes before the noun, just like in Santomense, as the following sentence shows: N ka tanga una Toya (eu / I contemporaneity marker contar / tell uma história / a story), German: I will tell a story.

Plural

In nouns, the plural is marked by preceding particles (Angolar anE, Santomense ine) or not at all (O), by doubling the noun or adding moci (many) or mútu (a lot) (in Principense). In principle, the sentence lívu sé ki mÈ´ (livro / Buch este / this ser / sein possessive marker eu / I) can mean this book belongs to me or these books belong to me, depending on the context, whereas when doubling it actually indicates a lot of something, as becomes clear in the following sentence: n té lívu lívu (eu / I ter / have livro livro / book): I have many books or in the expression dyá dyá (día día / day day), which means something like sometime , in an (indefinite) number of days. Similar to the reduplication of a word, the equally usable attributes mõci and mutu indicate a lot: ci té livu mõci (tu / du ter / haben livro / book muito / much), German: you have (very) many books (see Günther 1973 : 56, 57).

With the Angolar plural marker anE, the initial sound is often omitted in the sentence: To, 'nE se sor' ngol'E ra m una kore3a pingara E (…); (então / algo plural este soldado angolano / this Angolan soldier present / give eu / I article pancada / blow espingarda / rifle esta / this), German translation: I saw how these Angolan soldiers beat me with this rifle (...) (cf. Lorenzino 1998: 266, 267). The santomenic marker works the same as in Angolar.

Adjectives

In all three Creole languages ​​treated here, no distinction is made between grammatical and biological genera in adjectives. From the Portuguese forms with different endings, one was chosen to cover all of them. There is also no distinction between the plural and the singular (Günther 1973: 61; Lorenzino 1998: 136). There are also two possible positions in the sentence for adjectives. In Santomenic and Angolar adjectives are usually followed, in Principal there are both possible positions, even if the adjective prefix is ​​very rare. For example, with the fixed term sweet guava pear (doSi gáva) the adjective is always in front, whereas with non-fixed phrases or terms such as kwá gáni (coisa / thing grande / big), big thing or kwá bõ (coisa / thing bom / good), good thing or ómi vÈ` (homem / man velho / old), old man, the adjective is always followed (cf. Günther 1973: 60). In Angolar, the correct position of the adjective is always placed afterwards: una panera ngairu (uma panela negro), a black pan or una OmE pobi (um homem / a man pobre / poor), a poor man (cf. Lorenzino 1998: 136).

Participles

The participles of the three languages ​​discussed here are derived from the regular Portuguese participles suffix of the masculine singular -ido, which has changed differently in the various Creoles. In Angolar, for example, the participle is formed with the suffix -ru and added to the verb stem. As in Portuguese Ta, sein serves as an auxiliary verb: una ria, ami ba ngaoaO nTuku. N Ta tEEbeTaru. N ka mata ngapaO (around dia / one day, eu / i ir / go carapau / fish species noite / night. Eu / i ser / be atravessado / defrauded. Eu / i matar / kill carapau / fish species): One day I went at night Catch carapau. I had no luck killing carapau. The participle used here would be tEEbeTaru (cf. pt: atravessado); Another example is ngwEtaru (cf. pt: aguentado), which is formed in the same way. N Ta kw'e ngwEtaru (eu / ich ser / sein com ele / aguentado / endured with him) would then mean: I endured with him (cf. Lorenzino 1998: 137).

In the Santomic either the suffix -du is used or the participle is left unmarked (O). Examples of a participle marked by a suffix would be desididu (cf. pt: decidido / resolutely), the sentence: n sa desisidu (eu / ich ser / sein decidido / resolutely) would mean in the translation: I am determined or I have made a decision. Principal uses the same suffix as Santomenic to mark participles. This is shown by the example of fádu, which is derived from the Portuguese participle falado. Here, too, a simplification has taken place, since the intervowel l has disappeared in the development of the language and of the double a only an accented a remained. Likewise the following sentence: ína té dósu mínu, una samádu zwã, ótu samádu pÈ´du (eles / Pl sie ter / have dois filhos / two sons around / one chamado / called João, outro / the other chamado / called Pedro): They had two sons, one was called João, the other Pedro3 (cf. Günther 1973: 77).

Postponement

The various verb tenses in the Creole languages ​​dealt with here are formed by markers that have developed from Portuguese auxiliary verbs plus participle. The markers for the temporality are in Angolar Ta ka, which can also show the course (but then Te ka is used, which corresponds to the santomic ska), in Santomense ka and in Principense sa kÈ´ (vyâ). The example sentence for Angolar n Ta ka fara kOmpa m una kwa (eu Nachzeitigkeitsmarker companheiro / Kumpan ele / er uma coisa / one thing): translated into German I will say something to my colleague. In Santomense, e ka kuma (ele / er Nachzeitigkeitsmarker comer / essen) means in German: He will eat (cf. Lorenzino 1998: 159). In principle, n sa kÈ´ falá (eu / ich ser / his posterity marker falar / speak) means in German: I will speak (immediately) (cf. Günther 1973: 74) 4.

Prematurity, prematurity

Just as with post-temporality, the creole languages ​​of STP work with markers on prematurity. Here the Portuguese origin (the auxiliary verb estar / sein in the past tense: estava) is still clearly recognizable. The markers for prematurity are ta or an unmarked verb (O) in Angolar, taba in Santomense and té in Principense. A principled example sentence should suffice here: n té fádu (eu / ich prematurity marker falado / spoken), German: I have spoken (cf. Günther 1998: 77).

In the case of prematurity (past perfect) an element is added in Angolar and Santomenic, similar to the Portuguese past perfect, in principle the marker is a derivation of the past tense form of the Portuguese verb estar. In Angolar the marker is ta ka, in Santomenic tava ka and in Principal tava. Example sentences are: Angolar: E ta ma n ta ka taba IOTa Santomense: E sEbE kuma n tava ka tlaba IOsa (ele / er saber / know conjunction eu / I tinha trabalhado / had worked roça / plantation), German: He knew that I worked on the plantation. The principled sentences n tava fádu: I had spoken and e táva kumÈdu zá (ele / er prematurity marker comido / eaten já / already), German: He had already eaten (see Lorenzino 1998: 159; Günther 1973: 77).

Progressive form

The languages ​​discussed here also have one form in common. It is also expressed by markers; These are for Angolar: Ta ka, in Santomensich ska or sa ska and in Principensic sa. These forms of progress occur both in simultaneity and in prematurity. Example sentences are: Angolar: n Ta nge ka lumba ki Alcides; Santomenisch: n sa ai ska fla ku Alcides (eu / I progress marker1 aqui / here progress marker2 falar / speak com / with Alcides): I am currently talking to Alcides (cf. Lorenzino 1998: 161, 162). In principle, one possible sentence reads: n sa dumú (eu / Ich progress marker lavar / wash), which could be translated as: I am doing the washing (cf. Günther 1973: 71).

literature

  • Norbert Boretzky ; Enninger, Werner; Jeßing, Benedikt; Stolz, Thomas: Portuguese and Crioulo in Africa: History - Grammar - Lexicon - Language Development. edited by: Perl, Matthias; Bochum: University Press Dr. N. Brockmeyer, 1994
  • Bußmann, Hadumod: Lexicon of Linguistics; Stuttgart: Kröner, 1990
  • Günther, Winfried: The Portuguese Creole of the Ilha do Príncipe; Marburg an der Lahn: self-published, 1973
  • Lorenzino, Gerardo: The Angolar Creole Portuguese of São Tomé: Its Grammar and Sociolinguistic History; Newcastle: Lincom Europe, 1998
  • Maurer, Philippe: L'angolar: Un créole afro-portugais parlé à São Tomé; Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag, 1995