Txeka kel muv – Panorama do contato linguístico cabo-verdiano-inglês e integração dos anglicismos no cabo-verdiano

Abstract

This contribution focuses on English loans in the Capeverdean language, in different periods of linguistic contact between these two languages. It addresses the external history of contact, starting with the maritime presence of English ships in the region of West Africa, in th 17th century, through the presence of British and anglophone Kroomen in Mindelo, in the 19th century, due to the importance of its harbour for transtlantic steamers, up until the emigration movements and establishment of Creole-speaking communities in anglophone territories and the current mediatised contact between Capeverdean and English. It also includes metalinguistic comments on the use and acceptance of English loans in different contexts. After some observations about the graphemic and phonetic-phonological adaptation of borrowed English lexical material, the morphological and morphosyntactic integration of these loans is analysed in detail, as well as the semantic changes with respect to their Engish etyma. A list of English loans is included, gathered from various linguistic descriptions, dictionaries, and glossaries, and of more recent loans, from songs, digital and oral sources.

Keywords

• capeverdean
• english loans
• external contact history
• morphological and morphosyntactic integration of loans