Principense

Introduction

Principense Creole, also called by its native speakers as lunguyê creole, is a Portuguese creole language spoken by a community of some four thousand people in São Tomé and Príncipe, specifically on the island of Príncipe. There are two Portuguese creoles on the island of São Tomé, Angolar and Forro, according to a 1989 study. Today, younger generations of São Toméans are not likely to speak Principense, which has led to its fast decline and moribund status. It is mostly spoken by the elderly, while most of the island's community speaks noncreole Portuguese; some also speak another, closely related creole, Forro.

The Principense Verb

Principense has three overt tense, aspect, and mood markers (ka, sa, and tava) as well as a zero marker; the following five combinations are possible: tava ka, tava sa, ka sa, ka tava and ka tava sa. For the functional analysis of the markers, three lexical aspects (or aktionsarten) must be distinguished: Dynamic verbs, type-1 statives (i.e. statives which are zero-marked for present reference), and type-2 statives (i.e. statives which are marked by ka for present reference).

Verblist

• rara