Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online

1. Introduction ⇫ ¶

Angolar is a Maroon creole spoken in the western and south-eastern part of the island of São Tomé (Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe). The most important villages where Angolar is spoken are Santa Catarina on the west coast and São João dos Angolares as well as Ribeira Peixe on the east coast.

Angolar is an offshoot of an early stage of Santome (see Hagemeijer 2012, this volume) and is related to the other two Gulf of Guinea creoles (Principense, see Maurer 2012c, this volume, and Fa d’Ambô, see Post 2012, this volume), but differs from these in that it has an important amount of words of Bantu, mostly Kimbundu, origin (about 15% of the lexicon; see Maurer (1992) and below), which are probably due more to adstrate than to substrate influence.

Publications about the language are scarce. Ferraz (1974) offers some information about the history of the Angolar community and some remarks on the language; Ferraz (1976) and (1978) contain some Angolar words, and Hancock (1975) offers a list of about 100 Angolar words which were provided to the author by Ferraz. The first descriptive grammar of Angolar is Maurer (1995), followed by Lorenzino (1998), which contains an extensive section on the social history of the Angolar community and which concentrates on a structural comparison between Angolar and Santome. Maurer (1999) contrasts the serial verb ‘put’ in Angolar with the same verb in Santome and Principense, Maurer (1992) analyzes the origin of the Bantu part of the Angolar lexicon, and Lorenzino (2007) corresponds to the chapter on Angolar in Holm & Patrick (2007).

2. Sociohistorical background¹ ⇫ ¶

The exact origin of the Angolares is not very well known. They are most probably descendants of Maroons who started to escape from the plantations of São Tomé in the first half of the 16th century and who most probably took a primitive form of Santome with them. However, the existence of the Angolares as such is not attested until the first part of the 17th century.

Another scenario for the origin of the Angolares is the so-called shipwreck hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, which plays an important role in Angolar folklore, the Angolares are descendants of slaves from Angola who survived a shipwreck on the southern coast. For this scenario, however, which supposedly took place in the mid-sixteenth century, there is no contemporaneous documentation, since it was mentioned for the first time in a manuscript written in the 1710s. (Lorenzino 1998: 259).

Lorenzino (1978: 45, 53, 64) establishes three basic periods for the history of the Angolares. The first period (1500–1700) is one of confrontation during which the Angolares raided plantations as well as the town of São Tomé.

The second period (1700–1850) is characterized by the normalization of the relationship between the Angolar community on the one hand, and the plantation owners as well as the Portuguese colonial authorities on the other. This period started in 1693, when a truce between the Angolares and the Portuguese authorities was established.

The third period started in 1850 and lasts up to now; its main characteristic is diaspora, first forced and later free. The diaspora commenced when the cultivation of coffee and cocoa was introduced on São Tomé. Until the mid-nineteenth century, the plantations were located in the northern part of the island of São Tomé; but then, the plantation owners started to expand southwards and expelled the Angolares from their lands. Originally, the Angolares had mostly lived on the east coast of São Tomé – although some small communities had settled on the west coast – but then many Angolares were relocated in the south-western part of the island, around São João dos Angolares. After this difficult period for the Angolar community, many Angolares moved northwards in search of a better living.

3. Sociolinguistic situation ⇫ ¶

Angolar, like its speakers, does not enjoy a high prestige, which becomes apparent e.g. in the fact that in the 2006 census, Angolar was not mentioned as a separate category, in contrast to the other national languages Santome and Principense. Angolar was subsumed under the category ‘other languages’, i.e. with foreign languages like Cape Verdean or Bantu languages from Angola and Mozambique. This is the reason why it is difficult to establish the real number of Angolar speakers, which is estimated at around 5,000.

Angolar is not (yet) an endangered language, since it still is the first language of many children; however, the pressure from Santome and Portuguese is very strong.

There are no written documents in the language, but some songs are produced in Angolar, and the radio news flashes have been read in Angolar (as well as in Santome and Principense), with some interruptions, since the 1990s.

4. Phonology ⇫ ¶

Angolar possesses 7 oral and 5 nasal vowels; only the close-mid oral vowels have no nasal counterpart. In contrast to the other Gulf of Guinea creoles, nasal vowels are not very frequent in Angolar; ũ, for example, occurs almost exclusively in ũa ‘one’, but this word is very frequent. Orthographic representations of phonemes which differ from IPA spelling are indicated in angle brackets in Tables 1 and 2.

Besides these oral and nasal vowels, Angolar possesses a syllabic nasal /ṇ/ <n’>, which is realized as [ṃ] <m’> before b, m, p, and [ŋ̭] <n’> before g, k.  Some examples are m’me ‘eat’ (< Portuguese comer), n’kome ‘fist’ (< Kikongo nkome), and n’sikitu ‘mosquito’ (< Portuguese mosquito).

The tonal system of Angolar is not fully investigated, yet a preliminary analysis of disyllabic nouns in subject position followed by a disyllabic verb modified by the future marker ka shows that there exist four different tone melodies (HH, HL, LH, LL), which points to a two-tone system (own fieldwork, 2008):

(1)     áwá         ká     gàʃtà        ‘The water will be wasted.’

         water       fut   waste

         fóθà        ká     kàbà         ‘The energy will come to an end.’

         energy     fut   end

         kàθó        ká     pèndè       ‘The dog will get lost.’

         dog          fut   lose

         àlè           ká     pɛ̀nθà       ‘The king will think.’

         king         fut   think

Tonal distinctions are also used in order to differentiate syntactic categories, especially verbs from nouns, as in ðùrà ‘to help’ vs. ðúrá ‘help’.

Angolar has 30 consonants, of which 7 are prenasalized and 3 glides, as shown in Table 2.

Prenasalized plosives and fricatives are relatively frequent: mbedha ‘table’ (< Portuguese mesa), ndatxi ‘root’ (< Kimbundu ndandji), mpêlu ‘turkey’ (< Portuguese peru), ndjibela ‘pocket’ (< Portuguese algibeira), nfenu ‘hell’ (< Portuguese inferno), or ngaba ‘to praise’ (< Portuguese gabar).

The alveo-palatal and interdental fricatives s vs. θ and z vs. ð are in complementary distribution. s and z occur before i, θ and ð before the other vowels. In loans from Santome and Portuguese, this complementary distribution may be neutralized and forms like Baso instead of Batho ‘Sebastian’ may occur.

(2)     /θ/, /ð/    a   thaguri    ‘shake’             /s/, /z/         i     sikêvê  ‘to write’

                             dhamba   ‘elephant’                                  zina     ‘grandmother’

                        e   thêndê      ‘to switch on’

                             dhêndê     ‘to defecate’

                        ɛ   theku       ‘dry’

                             dhema      ‘to moan’

                        o   thô           ‘only’

                        ɔ   thono       ‘sleep’

                             dholo       ‘fish-hook’

                        u  thudhu    ‘dirty’

                             dhula       ‘help’

The shift from etymological d to r, as in rôthu ‘two’ < Portuguese dois is very frequent; however, there is variation between r, d, and also l (probably because of influence from Santome, which mostly lacks r and replaces etymological r by l, as in alê ‘king’ < Portuguese rei): riba ~ diba ‘top, on top of’ (< Portuguese arriba ‘above’), ruê ~ duê ‘to hurt’ (< Portuguese doer), rêlu ~ dêlu ~ lêlu ‘money’ (< Portuguese dinheiro).  In sentence-initial position, d seems to be preferred over r.

The nasal palatal glide, written <nh>, is always pronounced ȷ̃, never ɲ.

The syllable structure is of the (C)V type; up to four syllables are possible: a-dha ‘wing’, ne-ne-ka ‘to endanger’, or ma-ra-ka-tho ‘demarcation’. Closed syllables only occur word-internally with a nasal in coda position (an-da ‘to chew’).² Consonant clusters exist only in loans (sta-ka ‘stake, pole’) and in onomatopoetic words (tre-tre, which imitates the hopping of a bird and also designates a kind of bird).

5. Noun phrase ⇫ ¶

The noun is invariable. Natural gender is either distinguished by different words, as mama ‘mother’ vs. tata ‘father’ or ome ‘man’ vs. mengai ‘woman’, or by postposed mengai ‘woman’ and ome ‘man’, as in n’na ome ‘son’ vs. n’na mengai ‘daughter’ or bue ome ‘bull’ vs. bue mengai ‘cow’.

Diminutives are built with n’na ‘child’ (< Portuguese menina ‘girl’), as in n’na parô ‘little basket’, and augmentatives with mama ‘mother’, as in mama n’dhonge ‘big basket’.

Plural number is formed with preposed ane ~ ene, which corresponds to the third person plural pronoun, as in ane mengai ‘the women’ or ene kai ‘the houses’. The plural marker is also used as an associative plural marker (ane Maya ‘Maria and her family / her friends’). Note that the plural marker is only used in definite noun phrases; furthermore, proper nouns, unique nouns (tholo ‘sun’), mass nouns (awa ‘water’), generic noun phrases, and indefinite plural noun phrases are not marked by a determiner.

Angolar has no definite article; the indefinite article corresponds to the numeral ũa ‘one’, as in ũa thoya ‘a story’.

The adnominal demonstratives e ~ dhe ~ the ‘this’ (proximal), si ~ si-e ~ si-dhe ‘that’ (distal, not far away), and dha ~ si-dha (distal, far away) follow the noun, as in ngê e ‘this person’, ene mengai dhe ‘these women’, or ome si-dhe ‘that man’. The forms dhe and dha may be reduplicated (dhe-dhe and dha-dha); in this case dhe-dhe refers to an absolute proximity and dha-dha to an absolute remoteness. When the noun is modified by an adjective, the proximal demonstrative is adjacent to the noun, whereas the distal si-e ~ si-dhe may either follow the adjective (example 3a), or si precedes and e ~ dhe follows the adjective (example 3b).

When a noun is modified by a relative clause, si follows the noun and e ~ dhe is located at the end of the relative clause:

(4)     Taba    si        ngaa    si         ma                   ê        tê       pega  e         […].

         plank  dem     place   dem     rel.nsbj         3sg   have  nail   dem

         ‘[Among] the planks of the place where he had to nail them […].’ (Maurer 1995: 168)

The pronominal demonstratives are mostly formed with isi ~ i and the adnominal demonstratives: isi-dhe ‘this’, isi-dha ‘that’, isi-dha-dha ‘that (yonder)’. The adnominal demonstrative is deleted in case the pronoun is modified by an adjective:

(5)     Tambe   Maya  na        ka     kôyê     isi     txororo   fô.

         also        Maria neg      pst    chose   dem   small     neg

         ‘But Maria didn’t chose the smallest one.’ (Maurer 1995: 63)

The adnominal possessives (Table 3) follow the noun, as in kai m ‘my house’. The form r’ê (< ri ‘of’’ + ê ‘3sg’) of the third person suggests that the possessives are – at least underlyingly – prepositional phrases.

The pronominal possessives are formed with the preposition ri ‘of’, which is rarely used in Angolar:

The numerals precede the noun:

1	ũa
2	rôthu
3	têêsi
4	kuana
5	tano
6	thamanô
7	thambari
8	nake
9	uvwa
10	kwin
11	kwin ne ũa
12	kwin ne rôthu
13	kwin ne têêsi
14	kwin ne kuana
15	kwin ne tano
20	makêri
30	maketatu
40	makewana
50	singweta
60	meethamano
70	meethambari
80	makenake
90	makeuvwa
100	ũathentu
1,000	kwin thentu, miri

The numerals 1, 2, 3, 50, 100, and 1000 are of Portuguese origin; the others are derived from Kimbundu. Note that the Kimbundu numerals for 1 (moxi), 2 (iari), and 3 (tatu) are implicitly present in m’mosi ‘at once, immediately’, 20 (makêri; < Kimbundu makuiniari < ma ‘pl’ + kuinii ‘ten’ + iari ‘two’) and 30 (maketatu < Kimbundu makuinia-tatu). Tens and ones are conjoined by ne (< Kimbundu ni, as in kuinii ni tatu ‘thirteen’, literally ‘ten and three’), which is only used in this construction.

Adjectives are invariant and usually follow the noun, as in buru ngai ‘big stone’; ony bwa ~ bo ‘good’ and ma ‘bad’ precede the noun.

Most adjectives may be modified by the past participle -ru (see below examples 100–103); these forms are considered emphatic (example 7) and are therefore more adequate when used in comparisons (example 8):

(7)     M      bê   ũa   buru    ngai- ru.

         1sg    see  a     stone   big-   ptcp

         ‘I saw a big stone.’ (Maurer 1995: 50)

(8)     Peru    masi    peetu-  ru     Toni.

         Pedro  more   black- ptcp Tony

         ‘Pedro is blacker than Tony.’ (Maurer 1995: 50)

The comparison of the adjective is formed as presented in Table 4 (see Maurer 1995:52-4).

Dependent and independent personal pronouns as well as adnominal possessives are presented in Table 5. There are only two independent pronouns which differ from dependent pronouns, namely 1st and 3rd person singular. These independent pronouns can be used as subjects, objects, or in prepositional phrases.

The indefinite pronoun a, of Edo origin, is only used as a subject pronoun and fulfils the function of a generic pronoun:

(9)     Fetha            e,         […]   a            ka      zi           kani     pôkô […].

         celebration   dem               indf       hab   prepare meat    pork

         ‘During these celebrations, one prepares pork.’ (Maurer 1995: 61)

It can also be used instead of a second or third person pronoun:

(10)   A         tha    ku     ê     kikiê    bêndê?

         indf     be     with  it     fish     sell

         ‘Dou you sell fish?’ (Maurer 1995: 62)

(11)   A           ka     be    ne     Diziboa […].

         indf       hab   go   3pl   Lisbon

         ‘They would go to Lisbon […].’ (Maurer 1995: 61)

Note that the verb ‘go, leave’ is an idiomatic combination consisting of the verb stem be (which is realized as bê in certain contexts) and the possessive pronoun (bê r’ê, literally ‘go of.him’, be ne ‘go (of.)them’), and that in example (11) the indefinite pronoun a is coreferential with ne ‘they’.

The third person singular pronoun is also used as an optional expletive pronoun:

(12)   Ê         siga     m.

         expl    arrive  1sg.obj

         ‘It’s enough for me.’ (Maurer 1995: 60)

(13)   Olo      ma    ê          vitxa    kwin    anu […].

         hour    rel   expl    arrive  ten      year

         ‘After ten years […].’ (lit.: ‘When ten years arrived […].’)  (Maurer 1995: 61)

(14)   ___    Siga    têêsi     ria […].

                   arrive  three   day

         ‘The third day arrived […].’ (Maurer 1995: 61)

Modifying nouns or noun phrases follow the modified noun, as in mulu kai ‘the wall of the house’ or ũa kanua dô ome ‘a canoe for two persons’.

Table 6 summarizes word order in the noun phrase: the plural marker ane ~ ene precedes the noun; some determiners precede and some follow the noun; adjectives (except for bwa ~ bo ‘good’ and ma ‘bad’) follow the noun; nouns in apposition and relative clauses also follow the noun.

6. Verb phrase ⇫ ¶

Angolar has three overt tense, aspect and mood markers (imperfective ka, progressive thêka, and past ta) and a zero marker; the following two combinations occur: ta ka and ka thêka. For the functional analysis of the markers, three lexical aspects (or aktionsarten) have to be distinguished: dynamic verbs, type-1 statives (which are zero-marked for present reference) and type-2 statives (which are marked by ka for present reference and by Ø for past perfective reference). The list of the two different types of statives is given in Table 7.

There does not seem to be a semantic reason for differentiating the two stative verb categories; for example, mêthê  ‘want, love’ is a type-1 stative, whereas its antonym, kôntê ‘hate’, is a type-2 stative. However, there is one verb appearing in both categories, pô ‘can’, that shows a semantic difference. As a type-1 stative, pô refers to deontic possibility (permission), but as a type-2 stative, it is an ability verb:

(15)   Odhe   bô     Ø     pô     thata,  n       ga     mat’ô.

         today  2sg   prs    can   jump  1sg    fut   kill=2sg

         ‘Today you can jump (as much as you want), (but) I’m going to kill you.’

         (type-1 stative, present reference, permission) (Maurer 1995: 69)

(16)   Aie       n       na        ka     pô  siê          wa.

         now     1sg   neg      ipfv    can go.out    neg

         ‘Now I cannot go out.’

         (type-2 stative, present reference, participant-external possibility) (Maurer 1995: 70)

The functions of the tense, aspect, and mood markers and their combinations are summarized in Table 8.

The following examples illustrate some uses of Ø, ka, thêka, and ta:

(18)   Kwa     ê        Ø      mêthê?

         thing   3sg   prs    want

         ‘What does he want?’ (stative verb, present reference) (Maurer 1995: 71)

(19)   Têtêuga    Ø      tua    taba     pega.

         turtle       pfv   take  plank  nail

         ‘Turtle took a plank and nailed it.’ (dynamic verb, past perfective) (Maurer 1995: 70) 

(20)   Tepu    nakulu, no     Ngola      ka     zi    kai       no            kota  mionga […].

         time     old         1pl    Angolar  hab   do   house  poss.1pl  side   sea

         ‘In the olden times, we the Angolares used to build our houses at the seaside.’  (habitual) (Maurer 1995: 74)

(21)   N       ga     gotha   ki         mama    m.

         1sg    prs    love     with    mother  poss.1sg

         ‘I love my mother.’ (type-2 statives, present reference) (Maurer 1995: 73)

(23)   […]   n       ta         kwa     ma                Alê      thêka    pensa  dha.

                   1sg   know  thing   rel.nsbj       king    prog      think  already

         ‘[…] I already know what you are thinking.’ (present progressive) (Maurer 1995: 78)

(24)   Ê       ta      mêthê     Maya     naria.

         3sg    pst    love        Maria    formerly

         ‘Formerly, he loved Maria.’ (past of type-1 statives) (Maurer 1995: 81)

Example (20) shows that tense, i.e. ta, does not have to be marked if the context is clearly past.

In the protasis of conditional sentences, Ø refers to hypothetical and ka to counterfactual conditions, present or past, whereas ka is used for both hypothetical and counterfactual consequences in the apodosis:

(25)   Si    Rêthu  Ø         ra      m      lêlu,       n       ga     zi     kwa     ma                m      mêthê.

         if     God    mod     give   1sg   money   1sg   fut   do   thing   rel.nsbj       1sg   want

         ‘If God gives me money, I’ll do what I want.’ (Maurer 1995: 72)

(26)   Si    Rêthu    ka       da     m      lêlu,       n       ga     zi    kwa     ma                m      mêthê.

         if     God       mod     give   1sg   money   1sg   fut    do   thing   rel.nsbj       1sg   want

         ‘If God gave me money (now), I would do what I want.’ ~

         ‘If God had given me money, I would have done what I wanted.’ (Maurer 1995: 128)

Unlike Santome and Principense, Angolar does not permit ta (which is realized tava in Santome and Principense) to combine with dynamic verbs, yielding a pluperfect reading. This means that Angolar lacks the Bickertonian category “anterior”. Because of the impossibility for ta to modify dynamic verbs, it is not possible to combine three overt markers in Angolar; therefore only the combinations ta ka and ka thêka are possible. The functional domain of ta ka shows that the opposition between thêka (progressive) and ka (habitual), which exists in the present, is neutralized in the past and in some other contexts.

(27)   Olo      ma    no     ta    ka     fa,     ê        me     Malê        pua     m’mosi.

         hour    rel   1pl    pst    prog talk   3sg   self    Manuel    appear    at.once

         ‘When we were talking, Manuel suddenly appeared.’ (past progressive) (Maurer 1995: 81)

(28)   Tepu    nakulu  no     ta    ka     vega     kikiê    ra        pato.

         time     old         1pl    pst    hab   bring   fish     give     boss

         ‘Formerly, we would bring fish to the boss.’  (past habitual) (Maurer 1995: 81)

(29)   A         ka    thêka foga.

         indf     hab   prog   dance

         ‘They are always dancing.’ (habitual progressive) (Maurer 1995: 82)

(30)   Aie       ê        ka      thêka   foga.

         now     3sg   mod     prog     dance

         ‘He is probably dancing right now.’ (epistemic modality) (Maurer 1995: 82)

(31)   Ê       ka     thêka    taba     aie,      mazi    ê        na     be   wa.

         3sg    mod     prog      work   now     but      3sg   neg   go   neg

         ‘He should be working right now, but he didn’t go (to work).’ (deontic necessity) (Maurer 1995: 83)

A limited number of adjectives (nhuka ‘beautiful’, fwê ‘ugly’, and bwa ‘good’) may be modified by the progressive marker thêka with the inchoative meaning of ‘become’:

(32)   Ê     thêka fwê    bê    r’ê.

         3sg prog   ugly  go   of=3sg

         ‘He is becoming completely ugly.’ (Maurer 1995: 79)

This and the fact that some adjectives may combine with the marker of the past participle (see examples 7 and 8, above) shows that the drawing line between adjectives and verbs is not clear-cut. However, the adjectives that may be modified by thêka may not be modified by ka, unlike the qualificative verbs commented on below (see examples 50–52); furthermore, they may be headed by the copula when occurring in predicative position, which is not the case with qualificative verbs.

The copula has the form tha (present) or ta (past); it is optional with predicative nouns and adjectives, but obligatory with locative nouns:

(34)   Ê       (tha)   pisikarô.

         3sg    cop     fisherman

         ‘He is a fisherman.’ (Maurer 1995: 92, 94)

(35)   Peru      tha   kai.

         Pedro    cop   house

         ‘Pedro is at home.’ (Maurer 1995: 93)

A semantic difference between the presence and the absence of the copula exists only with past participles. The absence of the copula refers to an inherent property of the subject, and the presence of the copula refers to the result of a previous action:

(36)   Mionga e          ___      bongaru.

         sea         dem                 increase.ptcp

         ‘Here, the sea is deep.’ (inherent property) (Maurer 1995: 94)

The existential can be expressed in four different ways:  tê ‘have’, tha ki ‘be with’, tha ku ê ‘be with it’, and the ‘there is’:

(38)   Tepu    nakulu  kwanda tia            ta       tê        ũa        ome.

         time     old         height    ground    pst    exist   art      man

         ‘In the olden days, on a high ground, there was a man.’ (Maurer 1995: 103)

(39)   Nge     tha    ku     ê       malua. (Or: Nge tha ki malua.)

         here     cop     with    3sg   mud

         ‘There is mud here.’ (Maurer 1995: 103)

(40)   Mungu      kikiê    na     the      wa.

         tomorrow  fish      neg   exist   neg

         ‘Tomorrow, there won’t be fish.’ (Maurer 1995: 101)

Table 9 shows the different functions of modal verbs.

Obligation is expressed by tê ‘have to’, the impersonal thala ‘it is necessary’, and pôdja ‘should’:

(41)   Taba    si         ngaa    si         ma                   ê        tê      pega  e          […].

         plank  dem     place   dem     rel.nsbj         3sg   have  nail   dem

         ‘[Among] the planks of the place where he had to nail them […].’ (Maurer 1995: 168)

(42)   […]   aidhe   thala         no     ba      mionga  mungu       ringi    a!

                   now    necessary   1pl   go      sea         tomorrow  again  pcl

         ‘[…] now it is necessary that tomorrow we go back to sea again!’ (Maurer 1995: 102)

(43)   Ê       pôdja ka      ba   mionga    odhe,   detha     mungu       ta      r’ê.

         3sg    could  fut    go   sea           today  leave      tomorrow  stay  of=3sg

         ‘He should go to sea today, not tomorrow.’ (Maurer 1995: 99)

The verb pô ~ pôi fulfils the functions of deontic possibility, ability, and epistemic possibility. When this verb refers to deontic possibility (permission), it behaves like a type-2 stative verb, i.e. it is modified by Ø for present reference (example 44). When expressing participant external ability and epistemic possibility, it behaves like a type-1 stative verb, being modified by ka for present reference (examples 45 and 46, as stated above).

(44)   Odhe   bô     Ø   pô     thata,  n       ga     mat’ô.

         today  2sg   prs can    jump  1sg    fut   kill.2sg

         ‘Today you can jump (as much as you want), I am going to kill you.’ (permission) (Maurer 1995: 69)

(45)   Aie       n       na        ka     pô  siê          wa.

         now     1sg   neg      ipfv    can go.out    neg

         ‘Now I cannot go out.’ (participant-external possibility) (Maurer 1995: 70)

(46)   I        na     ta         ngê        m’me   minhu   si-e,               ê        ka    pô     tha    Têtêuga.

         and   neg   know  person  eat       corn       dem=dem     expl prs    can   cop   turtle

         ‘And one doesn’t know who ate the corn; it could be Turtle.’ (epistemic possibility) (Maurer 1995: 164)

Participant-internal ability is rendered by eta ‘know’:

(47)   Ê       na     eta      landa  wa.

         3sg    neg   know  swim   neg

         ‘He cannot swim.’ (Maurer 1995: 104)

The form pôdja (< Portuguese podia, which is the pretérito imperfeito of poder ‘can, be able’) may express obligation (see above example 43) and epistemic possibility.

(48)   Minhu   si-e,               bô     pôdja    m’me   kwa     ô.

         corn       dem-dem       2sg   could     eat       thing   poss.2sg

         ‘The corn, maybe it is you who ate it.’ (epistemic possibility) (Maurer 1995: 98)

The behaviour of pôdja is irregular, since it precedes the tense, aspect, and mood markers, as in example 43; moreover, it cannot itself be modified by such markers, which must be related to the fact that it is derived from a Portuguese finite form.

Volition is rendered by the verb mêthê ‘want, love’, derived from the Portuguese noun mester ‘necessity’:

The following qualificative verbs occur in Angolar: dhanga ‘become/be tall’, manga ‘become/be bitter’, kula ‘become/be big’, neta ‘become/be fat’, rema ‘become/be heavy’, txanana ‘become/be slippery’, and txima ‘become/be strong’ (Maurer 1995: 96). Except for manga, which is of Portuguese origin (amargar ‘be bitter’), all qualificative verbs are of Bantu (Kimbundu) origin. To a certain extent, they behave like type-2 statives, with zero-marking fulfilling the function of perfective aspect, ka referring to future, and thêka being progressive:

(51)   Ngê        si-e                ka    rema                n’tu.

         person   dem=dem     fut   become.heavy  very

         ‘This person will be very heavy.’ (Maurer 1995: 96)

(52)   Ê       thêka   rema.

         3sg    prog     become.heavy

         ‘This person is becoming heavy.’ (Maurer 1995: 96)

Serial verb constructions are very frequent in Angolar. The verb ra ‘give’ introduces a recipient or a beneficiary, ba ‘go’ is used as a directional serial verb, bê r’ê ‘leave’ as a telicizer, tambu ‘take’ as a take-serial, and tô as a repetitive:

(53)   No     ka        tega           kikiê    ra     pato.

         1pl    hab     hand.over  fish     give   boss

         ‘We would hand over fish to the boss.’ (Maurer 1995: 111) (recipient)

(54)   Ê       na       tha         tô      taba   ra     ôtô       ngê        wa.

         3sg    neg     prog      rep   work   give   other   people   neg

         ‘He is not going to work for other people again.’ (Maurer 1995: 107) (beneficiary)

(55)   Ê       landa ba  paa.

         3sg    swim   go   beach

         ‘He swam to the beach.’ (own fieldwork, 2008) (directional)

(56)   N       tunda     bê     m.

         1sg    get.tired  go      1sg

         ‘I am totally tired.’ (Maurer 1995: 107) (telicizer)

(57)   Ê       tambu  ninha       pê     thon.

         3sg    take       firewood  put   ground

         ‘He put the firewood on the ground.’ / ‘He took the firewood and put it on the ground.’ (own fieldwork, 2008) (take-serial, argument introducing, may have a literal interpretation)

(58)   Kathô  tambu  n’kila  r’ê         pê     kosi       bega.

         dog      take       tail       of=3sg  put    under    belly

         ‘The dog put its tail under its belly.’ (own fieldwork, 2008) (take-serial, argument introducing, may not have a literal interpretation)

(59)   N       tambu  faka     kota   situ      (ku    ê).

1sg    take       knife   cut      meat    with  3sg

         ‘I cut the meat with the knife.’ / ‘I took the knife and cut the meat with it.’ (own fieldwork, 2008) (take-serial, instrumental, may have a literal interpretation)

 (60)  Tô     sisik’e    txo!

         rep    cut=3sg  a.little

         ‘Cut it a little bit more.’ (Maurer 1995: 106) (repetitive)

The serial verb tô (< Portuguese tornar a fazer ‘do something again’) does not function as a main verb any more in modern Angolar.

The verb fa ~ fala ~ fara ‘say, speak’ is used to introduce indirect or direct speech with verbs of speaking (fala ‘speak’, thama ‘call’, or puta ‘ask’); it may be followed by a complementizer (ma, pa, ya):

(61)   Kompa   ka     fa      ngwara fala  am  fala […].

         friend    fut   say    guard    say    1sg say

         ‘You will tell the guard that I said […].’ (Maurer 1995: 112)

(62)   Ka       fa     m       fala    pa       m       ba   kega    dhumbi […].

         ipfv     say    1sg    say      comp   1sg    go   carry   corpse

         ‘They told me to go and carry the corpse […].’ (Maurer 1995: 113)

(63)   Ê       put’e       fala:   “Maaku  ê!”

         3sg    ask=3sg say      monkey   voc

         ‘He asked him: “Monkey!”’ (Maurer 1995: 113)

The verb pê ‘put’ functions as a locative serial verb and plays an important role in Angolar grammar, because this language lacks a general locative preposition (see below). Examples (64a) and (65a) are ambiguous as to the syntactic status of tholo ‘sun’ (temporal or locative argument) and mo ‘hand’ (modifying noun or locative argument); with serial pê ‘put’, the sentence unambiguously has a locative reading:

(64)   a.  N      thêndê   kwa     bisi      e          tholo.

              3sg   spread  thing   dress   dem     sun

            ‘I spread the clothes in the sun.’ / ‘I spread the clothes during daytime.’ (Maurer 1999: 96)

         b.  N    thêndê kwa     bisi      e          pê     tholo.

              3sg spread  thing   dress   dem     put   sun

              ‘I spread the clothes in the sun.’ (Maurer 1999: 96)

(65)   a.  Ê       kega    n’na    mo.

              3sg   carry   child    arm

              ‘She carried the baby.’ / ‘She carried the child in her arms.’ (Maurer 1999: 96)

         b.  Ê       kega   n’na    pê     mo.

              3sg   carry   child    put   arm

              ‘She carried the child in her arms.’ (Maurer 1999: 96)

If in the preceding examples pê is left out, the same meaning is still possible, but depending on the semantics of the first verb in the series, pê may have a directional reading, in contrast to the absence of pê, which then has a locative reading:

(66)   a.  Ê       thaa kanua    pê     matu.

              3sg   pull   canoe     put   forest

              ‘He pulled the canoe into the forest.’ (Maurer 1999: 94)

         b.  Ê       thaa kanua    matu.

              3sg   pull   canoe     forest

              ‘He pulled the canoe in the forest.’ (Maurer 1999: 95)

Prepositions are relatively rare; as stated above, there is no general locative preposition like ni ~ n in Santome or na in Principense, and the language lacks a genitive preposition as well.⁵ The following examples illustrate prepositional phrases.

(67)   M      ba   potho  ki        ope.

         1sg    go   town   with    foot

         ‘I went to town by foot.’ (Maurer 1995: 126)

(68)   Ê       ka        unfwa    thala  kômbê.

         3sg    ipfv    stink      like      civet.cat

         ‘He stinks like a civet-cat.’ (Maurer 1995: 126)

The absence of a general locative preposition is compensated with the serial verb pê ‘put’, as shown above, and also with locative nouns, as for example:

beega  ‘belly’        ‘close to, next to’

boka    ‘mouth’     ‘close to’

katxi    ‘centre’      ‘in the middle of’

kosi     ‘bottom’    ‘to/at the bottom of’

lêtu      ‘interior’    ‘in, inside’

mema  ‘back’        ‘behind’

riba     ‘top’           ‘on, on top of’

wê       ‘eye’           ‘in front of’

The verb phrase negator is na … wa ~ na ... fô. Na immediately precedes the verb and wa ~ fô is located at the end of the verb phrase. Example (69) shows that the second element of the negation, wa or fô, is placed after an object clause, and example (70) shows that it is placed after a relative clause:

(69)   Kompa   na    thêka   êndê    ma       n       thêka   bana    lêmu    ra      Kompa  wa?

         friend    neg   prog   hear    comp   1sg   prog   fan      oar      give   friend    neg

         ‘Didn’t you notice that I was making a sign to you with the oar?’ (Maurer 1995: 132)

(70)   N       na    mêthê  mazi  si       ma     ene    ka     pê      fôgô    ka     thela    dha   fô […].

         1sg    neg   like      oil     dem   rel    3pl   hab   put    fire      hab   smell   dem   neg

         ‘I don’t like the oil they put on fire and which takes a bad smell […].’ (Maurer 1995: 132)

Furthermore, Angolar has multiple negation:

(71)   Ane   malandu  e          na    tê         nê         txo      risipêtu    wa.

         pl      rascal      dem     neg   have    not.even  little     respect    neg

         ‘These rascals have absolutely no respect.’ (Maurer 1995: 131)

7. Simple sentences ⇫ ¶

Angolar has SVO word order in declarative and non-declarative sentences. No core argument is marked; the indirect object, whether nominal or pronominal, always precedes the direct object.

Subject inversion is found with some non-agentive intransitive verbs like siga or vitxa, both ‘arrive’; the position of the subject may be filled by an expletive pronoun (see examples 12 and 13 above).

The imperative of the second person, singular or plural, may be expressed by the bare verb:

(72)   Ondua   vungu    e          ra      m.

         reinforce  song      dem     give   1sg

         'Sing louder!’ (lit.: ‘Reinforce (sg. or pl.) this song for me.’) (Maurer 1995: 140)

But the second person plural pronoun may be used to disambiguate the second person imperative, as in Thê ondua vungu e ra m. [2pl reinforce song dem give 1sg] 'Sing (pl.) louder!’ (lit.: ‘Reinforce (pl.) this song for me.’)

The first person plural imperative is marked by bon (< Portuguese vamos ‘we go; let’s go’), a marker which is formally different from the two Angolar allomorphs of the verb for ‘go’, ba and be.

(73)   Bon  foga    txo!

         let’s   dance  a.little

         ‘Let’s dance!’ (Maurer 1995: 141)

There is no morphological passive voice. However, a passive-like construction with valency reduction and promotion of the direct object of the transitive verb to subject position is possible:

Reflexive voice is expressed by ôngê ‘body’ with some verbs like mata ‘kill’, foka ‘hang’, or laba ‘wash’ (see 76); with other verbs, the reflexive sense can be expressed by object omission (see 77).

(76)   Ê     mata    ôngê  r’ê.

         3sg kill      body   of=3sg

         ‘He committed suicide.’ (Maurer 1995: 145)

 (77)  a.  M      pêndê  thapatu  m.

              1sg   lose     shoe       poss.1sg

              ‘I lost my shoes.’ (Maurer 1995: 144)

         b.  M      pêndê  ___    matu.

              1sg   lose               forest

              ‘I strayed in the forest.’ (lit.: ‘I lost [myself] in the forest.’) (Maurer 1995: 144)

Causative voice is formed with the verb zi ‘do, make’:

(78)   Muê    mama    r’ê            zi        e        thêka     thua.

         death  mother  of=3sg    make  3sg    prog     cry

         ‘The death of his mother made him cry (lit.: ...that he was crying).’ (Maurer 1995: 148)

Reciprocal voice is formed with ôtô ‘other’ in object position; in subject position, there are different possibilities:

(79)   Nê  ũa  no    a        tha      bê      ôtô      wa.

         no   one 1pl   neg   prog   see    other   neg

         ‘We didn’t see each other.’ (Maurer 1995: 143)

(80)   […]   ôtô      ka      zi    kimini      ra      ôtô.

                   other   hab   do   grimace   give   other

         ‘[…] we used to make grimaces at each other.’ (Maurer 1995: 143)

8. Interrogative sentences and focus constructions ⇫ ¶

Polar questions are differentiated from declarative sentences only by a falling intonation (see Maurer 1995: 21). Given that polar questions typically show rising intonation in other languages, this is unexpected.

(81)   Bô     êndê?

         2sg    hear

         ‘Did you hear?’ (Maurer 1995: 137)

Content questions are formed by sentence-initial interrogative pronouns optionally followed by a relative pronoun. The most used interrogative pronouns are kwai ~ kwa ‘what’, ngêi ~ ngê ‘who’, ola kutxi ‘when’ (literally ‘hour which’), m’ma ‘how’, a ~ andji ‘where’, and ra kwai ‘why’ (literally ‘give what’).

(82)   Kwai  Têtêuga   zi?

         what   Turtle      do

         ‘What did Turtle do?’ (Maurer 1995: 138)

(83)   Kwai  ma                  ene    zi?

         what   rel.nsbj         3pl   do

         ‘What did they do?’ (Maurer 1995: 137)

In focus constructions, the focused element is moved to the left and followed by the focus marker thô ‘only’; the background clause may or may not be headed by a relative pronoun. Not only arguments of a verb may be focused, but verbs too⁶, whereby a copy of the verb is left in the background clause:

(84)   Am    thô     (ki)           m’me.

         1sg    foc     rel.sbj    eat

         ‘It is me who has eaten it.’ (Maurer 1995: 135)

(85)   Maya     thô    (ma)                no     bê.

         Maria    foc   rel.nsbj         1pl   see

         ‘It is Maria that we have seen.’ (Maurer 1995: 136)

(86)   Madho       thô   (ma)                no        bê      txo         fi-fini.

         yesterday   foc   rel.nsbj         1pl      see    a.little    drizzle~red

         ‘It was yesterday that we had a little drizzle.’ (Maurer 1995: 136)

(87)   Ô       thêka     m’me?  –  Inga,   bêbê   thô   ma                n       thêka   bêbê.

         2sg    prog     eat            no       drink  foc   rel.nsbj       1sg   prog   drink

         ‘Are you eating? – No, I’m drinking. ’ (own fieldwork, 2008)

9. Complex sentences ⇫ ¶

The most widely used coordination conjunctions are i ‘and’, mazi ‘but’, and ô ‘or’.

Object clauses are headed by ma (with declarative, epistemic, and perception verbs such as thura ‘think’, eta ‘know’, vatxê  ‘believe’, êndê  ‘hear’, or pia ‘see’), pa (with verbs that refer to or imply a directional speech act, like fa ‘tell to do’, manda ‘order’, or mêsê ‘want’), si ‘whether’, which heads indirect polar interrogative sentences, and ya, which is only used with the verb fa ‘say’ when it functions as declarative verb.

(88)   […]   n     thura ma      n       tha    kagaru       dha.

                   1sg think  comp   1sg   cop   load.ptcp  already

         ‘[…] I thought I was already loaded.’ (Maurer 1995: 114)

(89)   Ê       fa   m      pa       n       tê       ridhu […].

         3sg    say 1sg   comp   1sg   hold  fast

         ‘He told me to hold it fast […].’ (Maurer 1995: 115)

(90)   Ê       fala si         Kompa  m                tha      ki         baburu         a.

         3sg    say    comp   friend    poss.1sg    cop     with    kind.of.fish pcl

         ‘He asked whether you had baburu.’ (Maurer 1995: 115)

Some adverbal subordinating conjunctions are atê ‘until’, kôntu ma ‘since’, masi ma ‘inspite of’, olo (ma) ‘when’, pa ‘in order to’, punda ~ ra punda ‘because’, si ‘if’, thê pa ‘without’, and zina ‘since’.

Relative clauses are headed by ki for subjects and by ma for other syntactic functions of the antecedent within the relative clause.

(92)   ome     si         ki      ba     tamba

         man    dem     rel    go     fish

         ‘the man who went fishing’ (subject) (Maurer 1995: 55)

(93)   ome   si         ma    m      bê

         man  dem     rel    1sg   see

         ‘the man I have seen’ (Direct object) (Maurer 1995: 55)

(94)   ome   si         ma    n       da     livu

         man  dem     rel    1sg   give   book

         ‘the man to whom I gave some books’ (indirect object) (Maurer 1995: 55)

The differentiation of subject vs. non-subject relative pronouns may be due to Kimbundu influence, a language which does not possess relative pronouns but relative concordants which are prefixed to the verb of the relative clause, thus occupying the same syntactic position as relative pronouns in Angolar. These concordants differ according to the noun class of the antecedent, but also regarding the role they play in the relative clause:

Kimbundu (Bantu)

(95)   o        ma-kamba      ma-tu-zola

         art    pl-friend        rel.sbj-1pl-like

         ‘the friends who like us’  (subject relative concordant)  (Chatelain 1888–89: 95)

(96)   o        ma-kamba    mu-tu-zola

         art    pl-friend      rel.obj-1pl-like

         ‘the friends whom we like’  (object relative concordant)  (Chatelain 1888–89: 95)

Locative relative clauses in Angolar are headed by the relative pronoun ma, and in most cases the serial verb pê is used as a trace of the locative argument of the verb:

(97)   ngaa    si         ma                ene    n’dja   karu pê

         place   dem     rel.nsbj       3pl   stop     car    put

         ‘the place where they stopped the car’ (Maurer 1995: 56)

10. Other features ⇫ ¶

Reduplications of nouns, adjectives, and verbs may be total or partial, as in foga-foga ~ fo-foga ‘asthma’, fenge-fenge ~ fe-fenge ‘thin, skinny’, kala-kala ~ ka-kala ‘do the weeding’. In some cases, no simple form exists. But words may also be reduplicated in order to add emphasis:

(98)   No     Ngola      ka      zi         kai       no            be-beega           mionga.

         1pl    Angolar  hab   make  house  poss.1sg  next.to-next.to    sea

         ‘We, the Angolares, build our houses at the seaside.’ (Maurer 1995: 153)

In this function, the word may be repeated more than once:

Ideophones are used in order to modify adjectives and verbs: ziaru fenene ‘snow white’, kuru kwanana ‘very raw’, luzi nge-ngene ‘shine brightly’, or batê mo pa-pa-pa ‘clap hands vigorously’.

There are three sentence-final particles: a, ê, and ô, whose exact meaning still needs investigation. The particle a seems to express astonishment or surprise of the speaker, or respect in interrogative sentences (see examples 42 and 90 above), ô is used to underline the truth value of the utterance, and ê functions as a vocative (see example 63 above).

As already mentioned, there is a substantial Kimbundu (Bantu) adstrate influence on the Angolar lexicon, as could be seen above, e.g. with the numerals or the relative pronouns. The examples in Table 10 show that this influence is not restricted to certain lexical domains nor to certain syntactic categories.

Since Angolar morphosyntax does not differ substantially from the morphology of the other Portuguese-based Gulf of Guinea creoles, Kimbundu influence was not important in this part of the grammar. However, there are at least two examples of Kimbundu fossilized locatives in mondja ‘street’ < Kimbundu mu njila ‘on the street’, and mionga ‘sea’ < Kimbundu mu alunga ‘in the sea’ (kalunga ‘sea’, which loses k- before locative mu, see Chatelain 1888–89: 88).

Derivational morphemes are rare; the most productive are deverbal derivational morphemes. The past participle -ru can be used adnominally, predicatively, and adverbally.

(100) kikiê  thaga-ru

         fish   salt-ptcp

         ‘salted fish’ (adnominal use) (Maurer 1995: 91)

(101) Kan’dha  ô                 tha    minha-ru.

         shirt         poss.2sg    cop   wet-ptcp 

         ‘Your shirt is wet.’ (predicative use) (Maurer 1995: 91)

(102) Kai         e          tha    zi-ru        ki         buru   ki       n’thêkê.

         house    dem     cop   do-ptcp   with    stone   with  sand

         ‘This house is made of stone.’ (Maurer 1995: 91)

(103) Ê       landa  n’dja-ru   […].

         3sg    swim   stand-ptcp

         ‘He swam in upright position […].’ (adverbal use) (Maurer 1995: 91)

Other derivational morphemes are -rô ~ -dô, which derives agent nouns from verbs as in zi-rô taba ‘board maker’ (< zi ‘do’, -rô ‘agentive’, taba ‘board’), and -me(n)tu which yields action nouns, as kadhame(n)tu ‘wedding’ (< kadha ‘get married’).