Principense Creole
| Principense Creole | |
|---|---|
| Lunguyê | |
| Native to | São Tomé and Príncipe |
| Ethnicity | 1,560 (1999)[1] |
Native speakers | (200 cited 1999)[2] |
Portuguese-based creole
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | pre |
| Glottolog | prin1242 |
| Linguasphere | 51-AAC-acb |
 Location of São Tomé and Príncipe | |
Principense Creole, called lunguyê ("language of the island") by its speakers, is a Portuguese creole spoken in a community of some four thousand people in São Tomé and Príncipe, specifically on the island of Príncipe (there are two Portuguese-based creoles on São Tomé, Angolar and São Tomense), according to a 1989 study.[3] Today, younger generations of São Toméans are not likely to speak Principense, which has led to its fast decline and moribund status.[4] It is mostly spoken by the elderly (the Ethnologue entry lists 200 native speakers in total), while most of the island's community speaks noncreolized Portuguese; some also speak another, closely related creole language, Forro.
Principense presents many similarities with the Forro on São Tomé and may be regarded as a Forro dialect. Like Forro, it is a creole language based on Portuguese with substrates of Bantu and Kwa.
References
- ^ Principense Creole[dead link] at Ethnologue (14th ed., 2000).
- ^ Principense Creole at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Holm, John A. (1989). Pidgins and Creoles: Reference Survey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. p. 277. ISBN 978-0-521-35940-5.
- ^ Estudo do Léxico do São-Tomense com Dicionário, Carlos Fontes - Universidade de Coimbra.
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