lingvoj.orgLinked Languages ResourcesA contribution to the Web of Databy Bernard Vatant, Mondeca |
Upper Guinea Crioulo |
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Guinea-Bissau Creole (native name kriol, kiriol or kriolu varying with dialects; crioulo da Guiné in Portuguese) is the lingua
franca of the West African country of Guinea Bissau. It is a Portuguese-based creole language, closely related to Cape Verdean
creole. Kriolu is spoken as a first language by approximately 15% (190,000) of Bissau-Guineans, and as a second language by
approximately 46% (600,000); it is also spoken in parts of Senegal, primarily as a trade language. Portuguese itself is the
official language of Guinea Bissau, although it is not spoken regularly by a majority of the population. Upper Guinea creoles
are the oldest Portuguese-based creoles, first appearing around the Portuguese settlements along the northwest coast of Africa.
Bissau-Guinean Creole is therefore among the first Portuguese Creoles. Portuguese merchants and settlers started to mix with
locals almost immediately; this became a rule among Portuguese explorers and the main reason for the large number of Portuguese
Creoles throughout the world. A small body of settlers called lançados (the thrown out ones), contributed to the spread of
the Portuguese language and influence by being the intermediaries between the Portuguese and natives. There are three main
dialects of this Creole in Guinea-Bissau and Senegal: Bissau and Bolama Bafata Cacheu–Ziguinchor The Creole's substrate language
is the language of the local peoples: Mandingas, Manjacos, Pepéis and others, but most of the lexicon (around 80%) comes from
Portuguese. The dialect of Casamance (Ziguinchor), similar to the one of Cacheu (Guinea-Bissau) has some influence of French.
Fijus di Terra and Fijus di Fidalgu (Port. Filhos de Fidalgo, Eng. Children of Nobles) speak it, all of them are known, locally,
as Portuguis because they adopt European habits, are Catholics and speak a Creole. They are descendants of Portuguese men
and African women. Most of them still have Portuguese surnames, such as da Silva, Carvalho or Fonseca. Ziguinchor was, in
fact, formed by Portugal in 1645, its name is derived from the Portuguese, Cheguei e choram (Eng. I came and they cry), because
the natives assumed that they had come to enslave them. However the Portuguese implemented a base for trade and started to
intermarry with African women. The former Kingdom of Casamance made a friendship alliance with the Portuguese and the local
king adopted European lifestyle and there were Portuguese in his court . In 1899, the city was ceded to France and in the
middle of the 20th century, the language spread to the surrounding area. After Senegal's independence from France, the Creole
people were seen as friends of the French, and discrimination by the more numerous northern Wolof speaking community started,
which has caused Casamance to struggle for independence since 1982. Today, although they continue to struggle, the movement
is more placid and learning Portuguese became popular in Senegal because they see it has a link to their past. In Senegal,
the Creole is the first language of at least 46,500 people (1998), it is mainly spoken in Ziguinchor but also there are speakers
in other Casamance cities and in The Gambia. |
Names (more)[de] Guineabissauisches Kreol[en] Crioulo, Upper Guinea [fr] Créole de Guinée-Bissau [ja] ギニアビサウ・クレオール語 [ko] 기니비사우 크리올 [no] Kriol [pl] Język kreolski Gwinei-Bissau [pt] Crioulo da Guiné-Bissau [es] Criollo bissauguineano |
Language type : Living
Technical notes
This page is providing structured data for the language Upper Guinea Crioulo. |
ISO 639 CodesISO 639-3 : povLinked Data URIshttp://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/povhttp://dbpedia.org/resource/ISO_639:pov More URIs at sameas.org SourcesAuthority documentation for ISO 639 identifier: povFreebase ISO 639-3 : pov GeoNames.org Country Information Publications Office of the European Union Metadata Registry : Countries and Languages |