Capeverdean words derived from Portuguese non-infinitive verbal forms: a descriptive and comparative study

Nicolas Quint (1)

1 LLACAN - Langage, LAngues et Cultures d'Afrique Noire

This article focuses on Santiaguense Capeverdean words derived from Portuguese non-infinitive verbal forms and among these, more specifically on those elements which were not recently borrowed from modern Portuguese and do not compete with Capeverdean more basilectal items. In section 1, the category of Capeverdean words under scrutiny is defined contrastively with other similar types of words. In section 2, all known members of this category are examined in turn and according to the characteristics of their respective Portuguese sources. In section 3, a comparative approach is developed, in which the etymological counterparts of the Capeverdean words presented in the previous sections are systematically investigated for other Upper Guinea Creoles (i.e. Guinea-Bissau Creole, Casamance Creole and Papiamentu). The conclusion section stresses the main points of interest of this study, namely (i) the methodology used herein, which combines historical and comparative linguistics, (ii) the centrality of imperative forms as an input for new lexical verb roots in Upper Guinea Creoles and more generally in situations of language acquisition, and (iii) the scientific prospects that a comparison covering a wider sample of Ibero-Romance-based Creoles could offer concerning words derived from Portuguese non-infinitive verbal forms in these languages.

Mots clés: Capeverdean; Upper Guinea Creoles; Historical Linguistics; Portuguese

Domaines: Linguistique

Nicolas Quint. Capeverdean words derived from Portuguese non-infinitive verbal forms: a descriptive and comparative study. Papia, 2015, 2 (25), pp.189 - 215. ⟨halshs-01482124⟩