Fogo Creole is the name given to the variant of Cape Verdean Creole spoken mainly in the Fogo of Cape Verde. It has around 50,000[citation needed] speakers or nearly 5% of Cape Verdean Creole speakers including the diaspora's second language speakers. It belongs to the Sotavento Creoles branch. The rankings of this form of Cape Verdean Creole is fourth after Santo Antão and ahead of Sal.
Characteristics
Besides the main characteristics of Sotavento Creoles the Fogo Creole has also the following ones:
- The progressive aspect of the present is formed by putting stâ before the verbs: stâ + V.
- The sound that originates from Portuguese /ɐ̃w/ (written ão) is represented by /ɐ̃/ instead of /õ/. Ex. coraçã /koɾɐˈsɐ̃/ instead of coraçõ /koɾɐˈsõ/ “heart”, mã /mɐ̃/ instead of mõ /mõ/ “hand”, razã /ʀɐˈzɐ̃/ instead of razõ /ʀɐˈzõ/ “reason”.
- The sound /l/ switches to /ɾ/ when it is at the end of syllables. Ex. ártu /ˈaɾtu/ instead of áltu /ˈaltu/ “tall”, curpâ /kuɾˈpɐ/ instead of culpâ /kulˈpɐ/ “to blame”, burcã /buɾˈkɐ̃/ instead of vulcõ /vulˈkõ/ “volcano”.
- The sound /ɾ/ disappears when it is at the end of words. Ex.: lugá’ /luˈɡa/ instead of lugár /luˈɡaɾ/ “place”, midjô’ /miˈdʒo/ instead of midjôr /miˈdʒoɾ/ “better”, mudjê’ /muˈdʒe/ instead of mudjêr /muˈdʒeɾ/ “woman”.
- The diphthongs (oral or nasal) are in general pronounced as vowels. Ex.: mã’ /mɒ̃/ instead of mãi /mɐ̃j/ “mother”, nã’ /nɐ̃/ instead of nãu /nɐ̃w/ “no”, pá’ /pɒ/ instead of pái /paj/ “father”, rê’ /re/ instead of rêi /rej/ “king”, tchapê’ /tʃɐˈpe/ instead of tchapêu /tʃɐˈpew/ “hat”.
- The pre-tonic sound /a/ is velarized near labial or velar consonants. Ex.: badjâ “to dance” pronounced [bɒˈdʒɐ], cabêlu “hair” pronounced [kɒˈbelu], catchô’ “dog” pronounced [kɒˈtʃo].