Lorenzino Gerardo A. The Angolar Creole Portuguese of São Tomé: Its Grammar and Sociolinguistic History

LINCOM Europa, 1998. — 315 p. — (LINCOM studies in Pidgin & Creole languages 1).The primary goal of this study is to explore the question of the genesis and development of the Angolar Creole Portuguese of São Tomé and Príncipe (Gulf of Guinea), off the coast of West Africa. Angolar is the language spoken by descendants of maroon slaves who escaped from Portuguese plantations on São Tomé beginning in the mid-sixteenth century (1535-1550). Due to the isolation of these maroon communities, their language kept the general structure of Santomense Creole Portuguese, the majority creole spoken on the plantations. Communication between the Portuguese and slaves, and among the slaves themselves, must have been constrained by factors such as first languages (Portuguese as well as Kwa and Bantu languages), exposure to some form of contact Portuguese prior to their arrival of São Tomé (e.g. West African Pidgin Portuguese), their length of stay on the island and their social status (free Afro-Portuguese, houseslaves). Modern divergences between Angolar and Santomense are the outcome of the lexical expansion and further restructuring which Santomense underwent as the result of its closer contact with Portuguese spoken on the plantations as opposed to differences in grammar and pronunciation which Angolar retained from early Santomense.