Upper Guinea Creole
| Guinea-Bissau Creole | |
|---|---|
| Kriol, Kiriol, Kriolu, Purtuguis | |
| Native to | Guinea-Bissau, Senegal |
|
Native speakers
|
310,000 (2006–2007) L2 speakers: 600,000 in Guinea-Bissau (no date) |
|
Portuguese Creole
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | uppe1455 |
| Linguasphere | 51-AAC-ab |
Guinea-Bissau Creole (native name kriol, kiriol, kriolu and Portuguis varying with dialects; crioulo da Guiné in Portuguese) is the lingua franca of Guinea Bissau. It is also spoken in parts of Senegal, primarily as a trade language where it is also known as "Purtuguis". It is a Portuguese-based creole language, closely related to Cape Verdean creole. Kriol is spoken as a first language by approximately 15% (190,000) of Bissau-Guineans and as a second language by approximately 50%, as of some time before 1992, and is the de facto language of national identity.
Creole is still expanding but with growing interference from Portuguese (decreolization): due to television, literacy, prestige and emigration to Portugal, and the African languages: through migration of speakers of native African languages to the main urban centres where the creole is prevalent. Standard Portuguese is the official language of Guinea-Bissau, but Creole is the language of trade, public services, the parliament, informal literature, entertainment and educational programming. It is not used in news media.
Upper Guinea creoles are the oldest Portuguese-based creoles, first appearing around the Portuguese settlements along the northwest coast of Africa. Guinea-Bissau Creole is therefore among the first Portuguese Creoles. Portuguese merchants and settlers started to mix with locals almost immediately; this became a rule among Portuguese explorers and the main reason for the large number of Portuguese Creoles throughout the world. A small body of settlers called lançados ("the thrown out ones"), contributed to the spread of the Portuguese language and influence by being the intermediaries between the Portuguese and natives.
There are three main dialects of this Creole in Guinea-Bissau and Senegal:
The Creole's substrate language is the language of the local peoples: Mandingas, Manjacos, Pepéis and others, but most of the lexicon (around 80%) comes from Portuguese.
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