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Principense language

Principense Creole
Lunguyê
Native to São Tomé and Príncipe
Ethnicity 1,560 (1999)
Native speakers
200 (1999)
Portuguese-based creole
  • Lower Guinea
    • Principense Creole
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog prin1242
Linguasphere 51-AAC-acb

Principense Creole, called lunguyê ("language of the island") by its speakers, is a Portuguese creole spoken in a community of some four thousand people in São Tomé and Príncipe, specifically on the island of Príncipe (there are two Portuguese-based creoles on São Tomé, Angolar and São Tomense), according to a 1989 study. Today it is mostly spoken by some elderly women (the Ethnologue entry lists 200 native speakers); most of the island's community speaks noncreolized Portuguese; some also speak Forro.

Principense presents many similarities with the Forro on São Tomé and may be regarded as a Forro dialect. Like Forro, it is a creole language based on Portuguese with substrates of Bantu and Kwa.


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Wikipedia

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