Santiago Creole

Santiago Creole is the name given to the Cape Verdean Creole spoken mainly on Santiago Island of Cape Verde. It belongs to the Sotavento Creoles branch of Creole.

Santiago Creole is the linguistic entity of the most important island of Cape Verde, and the linguistic entity of the capital of the country, Praia, situated in the same island.

Characteristics
Besides the main characteristics of Sotavento Creoles the Santiago Creole has also the following ones:
 * The progressive aspect of the present is formed by putting sâ tâ before the verbs: sâ tâ + V.
 * In the verbs, the stress goes back to the before the last syllable in the forms for the present. Ex.: cánta instead of cantâ  “to sing”, mêxe  or mêxi  instead of mexê  “to move”, pârti  instead of partí  “to leave”, cômpo  or cômpu  instead of compô  “to fix”, búmbu  instead of bumbú  “to put on the back”.
 * Some speakers pronounce the voiced sibilants as voiceless. Ex. cássa instead of cása  “house”, ôxi  instead of ôji  “today”.
 * Some speakers pronounce the sound as . Ex.: cáru  instead of cárru  “car”, féru  instead of férru  “iron”, curâl  instead of currál  “corral”.
 * The sound is slightly aspirated.
 * The sounds, and  are pronounced as alveolars , ,  and not as dentals , ,
 * The nasal diphthongs are de-nasalized. Ex.: mâi instead of mãi  “mother”, nâu  instead of nãu  “no”.
 * The stressed sound is pronounced  when it is before the sound  at the end of words. Ex.: curâl  instead of currál  “corral”, mâl  instead of mál  “bad”, Tarrafâl  instead of Tarrafál  “Tarrafal” (place name).