Maio Creole Explained

Maio Creole is the name given to the variant of Cape Verdean Creole spoken mainly in the Maio Island of Cape Verde. It belongs to the Sotavento Creoles branch. It numbers the entire island population which includes a small part which also speaks Portuguese, in 2005, the percentage was 1.36%.^[1]

It is the eight and one of the least spoken Cape Verdean Creole and is after Brava and ahead of Boa Vista.

Characteristics

Besides the main characteristics of Sotavento Creoles the Maio Creole has also the following ones:

• The progressive aspect of the present is formed by putting stâ before the verbs: stâ + V.
• The unstressed final vowels pronounced as //i// and pronounced as //u// frequently disappear. Ex.: cumádr’ pronounced as //kuˈmadɾ// instead of cumádri pronounced as //kuˈmadɾi// “midwife”, vilúd’ pronounced as //viˈlud// instead of vilúdu pronounced as //viˈludu// “velvet”, bunít’ pronounced as //buˈnit// instead of bunítu pronounced as //buˈnitu// “beautiful”, cantád’ pronounced as //kɐ̃ˈtad// instead of cantádu pronounced as //kɐ̃ˈtadu// “sung”.
• The sound pronounced as //dʒ// (that originates from old Portuguese, written j in the beginning of words) is partially represented by pronounced as //ʒ//. Ex. jantâ pronounced as //ʒɐ̃ˈtɐ// instead of djantâ pronounced as //dʒɐ̃ˈtɐ// “to dine”, jôg’ pronounced as //ʒoɡ// instead of djôgu pronounced as //ˈdʒoɡu// “game”, but in words like djâ pronounced as //dʒɐ// “already”, Djõ pronounced as //dʒõ// “John” the sound pronounced as //dʒ// remains.

Notes and References

1. http://www.ine.cv/Temas/Demografia/Reparticaopercentual.asp?Choix=1The population who spoke a variant of the Cape Verdean creole in 2005