Кабо-вердианский вариант португальского языка

Variety of Portuguese spoken in Cape Verde

Cape Verdean Portuguese (Português cabo verdiano) is the variety of Portuguese spoken in Cape Verde.

The Portuguese spoken in Cape Verde is based on the European Portuguese. That's not too surprising, due to the historical relationship between the two countries, and by the fact that the language standardizing instruments (grammars, dictionaries, school manuals) are based on standards from Portugal. However, there are differences that in spite of being small are enough to set Cape Verdean Portuguese apart from European Portuguese. Despite some minor differences in the pronunciation by speakers of the northern and southern islands (see below), due to the small size of the territory one cannot say that there are dialectal divisions in the Portuguese spoken in Cape Verde, making up the Cape Verdean Portuguese on its whole a dialectal variety of Portuguese.

In the morphology there are not big differences towards European Portuguese, being noted however the preference for some forms. The syntax reveals now and then some Creole structures that are transposed to Portuguese. In Portugal there are several ways for the 2nd person treatment that are expressed by tu "you (familiar)", você "you (respectful)", o senhor "sir", a senhora "madam", Sr. Dr. "Doctor" (or any other professional title), calling the person by its name but using the 3rd person (e. g., O Manuel fazia me isso, por favor? "Manuel would do this for me, please"), etc. Each of those ways corresponds to several levels of intimacy, levels of respect, hierarchy levels, etc. The treatment for the 2nd person in Cape Verde is simpler, there are only two levels: tu "you" (intimacy, familiar or same age treatment) and você "you" (respectful treatment) that can be used indistinguishably from o senhor "sir" or a senhora "madam". In Creole there is no specific form for the future tense. The future in Creole is expressed with the auxiliary verb "to go". That is probably the reason why Cape Verdeans prefer using a composite form for the future in Portuguese instead of a simple form (eu vou fazer "I am going to do instead of eu farei "I will do"). The same happens with the conditional (se chovesse eu não ia sair "if it rained I was not going to leave" instead of se chovesse eu não sairia "if it rained I wouldn’t leave"). Frequent usage of the interrogative in the negative form, especially when someone offers something: Não queres uma xícara de café? "Don’t you want a cup of coffee? "; Não precisas da minha ajuda? "Don’t you need my help?". In Creole there are no definite articles. That is probably the reason why the definite article is sometimes not used. Ex. : Pedro foi instead of O Pedro foi "Pedro went"). The first person of the plural in the past in verbs from the first conjugation is not pronounced with an open (even if the orthography requests that!). Cantámos, louvámos, brincámos pronounced with closed Since there is no verbal inflexion in Creole, the usage of personal pronouns is mandatory. That is probably the reason why in Cape Verdean Portuguese the omission of the personal pronouns is rare. Ex. : Eu desço as escadas more frequently than Desço as escadas "I go down the stairs". Also because the inflexion of words in Creole is weak, the word order is more rigid. Creole does not allow the flexibility, the inversions and word order changes that Portuguese allows. In everyday usage, it is not natural to a Cape Verdean speaker, when speaking Portuguese, to use inversions and word order changes. For example, what in Portugal could be said espero eu que um dia lá chegues (literally "hope I that one day there you arrive"), to a Cape Verdean speaker would be more natural to say eu espero que tu chegues lá um dia (literally "I hope that you arrive there one day"). Nevertheless, it is not an impeachment to, at literary level, be used the flexibility mentioned before. Some frequent mistakes in Portugal, such as póssamos (instead of possamos), tu fizestes (instead of tu fizeste), tu hades fazer (instead of tu hás de fazer), dei te a ti (instead of dei te), etc. are not registered in Cape Verde.

Cape Verde has participated on the works towards the elaboration of the Acordo Ortográfico — with a delegation composed of the linguist Manuel Veiga and by the writer Moacyr Rodrigues — and has ratified the document. In 1998 Cape Verde was the host of the II CPLP Summit, held in Praia, where the first “Protocolo Modificativo ao Acordo Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa” was signed, which removed from the original text the original date of enforcement (1994). Cape Verde has ratified this document, as well as the “Segundo Protocolo Modificativo” (April 2005), being the second country (after Brazil) to complete the entire procedure for the enforcement of the Spelling Agreement. According to Prime Minister José Maria Neves, Cape Verde is in favor of a “spell approach” between the existing variants in Portugal and Brazil and sees Portuguese as “an important tool for the development of Cape Verde”. Despite of the Spelling Agreement 1990 having become effective on October 1, 2015, in the country the rules of Spelling Agreement of 1945 continues to prevail.