Ideophones in Upper Guinea Creoles: a comparative study

Abstract

The Upper Guinea Creoles (UGCs) are a family of closely related Afro-Portuguese languages, comprising three branches: continental (Casamance and Guinea-Bissau), insular (Cape Verde) and ABC (Dutch Antilles). Several continental and insular UGC varieties make use of a specific set of adverbs which can be called “ideophones” following Dingemanse’s (2012) definition of the term. This paper aims at providing a comprehensive study of UGC ideophones. Based on a database collected from native speakers, it characterizes the main phonological, morphosyntactic and semantic features of ideophonic items in UGCs. In addition, it investigates the origins of UGC ideophones and compares the use and behavior of this word class in continental and insular UGCs, showing the degree of both African and Portuguese influence on each UGC variety considered.

Keywords

• afro-portuguese
• ideophones
• language contact
• niger-congo
• upper guinea creoles