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Article published In:
Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages
Vol. 37:1 (2022) ► pp.160–188

The vitality of Angolar

A study of attitudes on São Tomé Island

| University of British Columbia, Canada
This article examines Santomeans’ attitudes toward Angolares, a minority creole-speaking community descendant of maroons on São Tomé Island, and their language. The status of Angolar varies from vigorous to shifting, depending on the source, and according to Maurer (2013), it is unclear whether Angolar is being passed on to new generations. In this article, it is argued that Angolares are shifting toward Portuguese, a process that has already commenced among Santomeans living in the capital. Since prevailing attitudes regarding a language are important for its use and maintenance, this study investigates the transmission of attitudes, beliefs and stereotypes as a possible explanation for the actual shift toward Portuguese in the country. Based on ethnography, analysis of interview excerpts, and questionnaires, an account of the attitudes held by Santomeans is provided, showing how different attitudes toward Angolares are intertwined and point toward rural, creole-speaking Angolares as being the lowest on the social scale of the island. This article demonstrates how attitudes held by Forros, the dominant ethnolinguistic group on São Tomé Island, as well as by Angolares themselves, may negatively impact the maintenance of Angolar Creole.
Keywords: language attitudes, language endangerment, Angolar Creole, Angolares, São Tomé Island
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Context of the study: Who are the Angolares?
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Results: Disentangling attitudes toward Angolar and the Angolares
    • 4.1Attitudes toward language
    • 4.2Attitudes toward ethnolinguistic groups
    • 4.3Attitudes toward living environment
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 23 March 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.00089.bou
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