Cover not available

Article published In: Names and Naming
Edited by Philipp Krämer, Eeva M. Sippola and Rachel Selbach
[Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 41:1] 2026
► pp. 81–111

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Naming creole varieties on the Cape Verde Islands and in Upper Guinea from the perspective of language ideologies

ORCiD logo with link | Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany
Published online: 21 November 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.23028.kli
Abstract
The Cape Verde Islands — Upper Guinea contact zone became the first location where Pt. crioulo and its loan translations Sp. criollo, Fr. créole and En. creole were used to designate pidgin or creole varieties. Approaching this issue from the perspective of language ideologies, we differentiate between the perspective of local communities and the perception of European outsiders, and hence between the use of autoglossonyms, i.e., names given by speakers, and the use of alloglossonyms, i.e., names given by outsiders. The paper illustrates how labels for local languages were (mis-)used within the outsiders’ othering strategy, becoming subject to ideological stances.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Language ideologies and language naming
  • 3.Previous research on naming creole varieties in the Upper Guinea region
  • 4.First colonial encounters in West Africa
  • 5.Naming creole varieties
    • 5.1Crioulo in local sources
    • 5.2Communicating with Europeans in Upper Guinea
    • 5.3Creole varieties from the perspective of European outsiders
  • 6.Was crioulo a generic term or a name of specific varieties?
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (70)
References
Almada, André Álvares de. 1994 [1594]. Tratado breve dos Rios de Guiné do Cabo Verde. Luís António Ferronha (ed.). Lisboa: Ed. do Ministério da Educação.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Álvares, Manuel. 1615. Ethiopia Minor and a geographical account of the Province of Sierra Leone. Liverpool: Dept. of History, University of Liverpool, 1990. [URL] (20 September, 2025)
Andrade, Francisco de. 1964 [1582]. Relação de Francisco de Andrade sobre as Ilhas de Cabo Verde. In António Brásio (ed.), Monumenta missionaria africana: África Ocidental, 2a série, vol. III1, 97–107. Lisboa: Agência Geral do Ultramar.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Balam, Osmer. 2013. Overt language attitudes and linguistic identities among multilingual speakers in northern Belize. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 6 (2). 247–277. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bakker, Peter. This volume. Names for contact languages. An historical overview of the evolution of terms in the field of pidgin and creole languages.
. Accepted. Why are there many Spanish pidgins but few Spanish creoles, and few Portuguese pidgins but many Portuguese creoles? In Miguel Gutiérrez Maté & Joachim Steffen (eds.), Continuidades y rupturas en la evolución de ecologías multilingües. Pidgins, criollos y otras variedades ibero-románicas. Madrid/Frankfurt a.M: Iberoamericana/Vervuert.
Barbot, Jean. 1678–1679. Journal d’un voyage de traite en Guinée, à Cayenne et aux Antilles fait par Jean Barbot en 1678–1679. In Gabriel Debien, Maurice Delafosse & Guy Thilmans (eds.). Bulletin de l’IFAN, 1978, 40, no 2. 235–395.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barbot, John. 1732. A description of the coasts of North and South Guinea; and of Ethiopia Inferior; vulgarly Angola […]. In Awnsham Churchill & John Churchill (eds.), A collection of voyages and travels [...], vol. 51. London: Henry Lintot and John Osborn.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bartens, Angela. 2002. Glosónimos, etnónimos e identidad: el glosónimo lengua en palenquero y otras lenguas acriollizadas. In Yves Moñino & Armin Schwegler (eds.), Palenque, Cartagena y Afro-Caribe, 13–20. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bollée, Annegret. 1998. Romanische Kreolsprachen V. Französische Kreolsprachen. In Günter Holtus & Michael Metzeltin & Christian Schmitt (eds.), Lexikon der romanistischen Linguistik. Bd. VII. Kontakt, Migration und Kunstsprachen. Kontrastivität, Klassifikation und Typologie, 662–679. Tübingen: Narr. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boulègue, Jean. 1989. Les luso-africains de Sénégambie XVIè-XIXè siècles. Lisboa: Ministério da educação Instituto de investigação científica tropical.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brásio, António (ed.). 1968. Monumenta missionaria africana: África Ocidental. 2a série, t. IV. Lisboa: Agência Geral do Ultramar.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Camus Bergareche, Bruno. 1993. “El estudio de la lingua franca: cuestiones pendientes”. Revue de linguistique romane 571. 227–454.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carvalho, Ana Maria. 2014. Sociolinguistic continuities in language contact situations: The case of Portuguese in contact with Spanish along the Uruguayan-Brazilian border. In Patrícia Matos Amaral & Ana Maria Carvalho (eds.), Portuguese-Spanish Interfaces: Diachrony, synchrony, and contact, 263–294. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Challe, Robert. 1690–1691 [ed. 1998]. Journal du voyage des Indes Orientales a Monsieur Pierre Raymond. Genève: Librairie Droz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chouin, Gérard. 2004. Minor sources? Two accounts of a 1670–71 French voyage to Guinea: authorship and context. History in Africa, 311, 133–155. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cook, Lexie. 2021. The silent tangomão: fictions of intermediation along the Rivers of Guinea. The Journal For Early Modern Cultural Studies 21:4. 24–62. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Correia Lopes, Edmundo. 1944. A escravatura (subsídios para a sua história). Lisboa: Divisão de publicações e biblioteca agência geral das colónias.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Couto, Hildo Honório do. 2003. Comunidade e linguagem na Costa da Guiné nos séculos XV, XVI y XVII. Polifonia 71. 87–102.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De la Mota, Francisco. 1686. Informe, Relaçion que Fr. Francisco de la Mota, Viçeprefecto de la Mision de Religiosos Capuchinos de las costas de Guinea, e sus compañeros haçen a su Magestad G. Dioz grande el Señor Rey de Portugal del modo con que los negros de destas costas, y rios, se compran, y son reduçidos a cautiverio. 14 de Abril de 1686. — Cód. 54–XIII–15, n 941 (Olim: 52–XI–9, n 94). Bibliotéca de Ajuda, Lisbon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Marees, Pieter. 1602. Description and historical account of the Gold Kingdom of Guine. French trnsl. Description Et Récit Historial Du Riche Royaume d’Or de Guinea. 1605. A Amsterdamme: chez Cornille Claesson.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dictionnaire de L'Académie française, 1st Edition (1694). ARTFL Project, The University of Chicago. [URL] (20 May, 2025)
Dimmock, Matthew & Hadfield, Andrew. 2022. Amazons, savages, and machiavels: travel and colonial writing in English, 1550–1630. An anthology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fayer, Joan M. 2003. African Interpreters in the Atlantic Slave Trade. Anthropological Linguistics 45:3. 281–295.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gamble, David P. & Hair, P. E. H. (1999). Introduction. The Discovery of River Gambia (1623) by Richard Jobson, 1–72. London: The Hakluyt society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hair, P. E. H. 1999. Attitudes to Africans in English primary sources on Guinea up to 1650. History in Africa 261. 43–68. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1991. A note on French and Spanish voyages to Sierra Leone 1550–1585. History in Africa 181. 137–141. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hornsby, Michael. 2015. The “new” and “traditional” speaker dichotomy: bridging the gap. International Journal of Sociolinguistics 2311. 107–125. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huber, Magnus. 2009. Lingua Franca in West Africa? An evaluation of the sociohistorical and metalinguistic evidence. In Rachel Selbach & Hugo C. Cardoso & Margot van den Berg (eds.), Gradual Creolization. Studies celebrating Jacques Arends, 257–278. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huguet, Edmond. 1925–1967. Dictionnaire de la langue française du seizième siècle. T. 41, Fabriqueur-Leucophegmatie. Paris: E. Champion.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Irvine, Judith & Susan Gal. 2000. Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In Paul Kroskrity (ed.), Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities, and identities, 35–84. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Irvine, Judith. 1989. When talk isn’t cheap: language and political economy. American Ethnologist 161. 248–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacobs, Bart. 2010. Upper Guinea Creole: Evidence in favor of a Santiago birth. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 25:1. 289–343. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jansen, Silke. 2009. Das portunhol selvagem im sprachpolitischen Kontext des Mercosur. Romanistik in Geschichte und Gegenwart 15 (2). 1–22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jobson, Richard. 1623. The Golden Trade: or the Discovery of the River Gambra, and the Golden Trade of the Aethiopians. London: Nicholas Okes. David P. Gamble & P. E. H. Hair (eds.). 1999. London: Hakluyt Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klimenkowa, Alla. 2026. Language contact and language ideology. In Leonardo Cerno & Hans-Jörg Döhla & Miguel Gutiérrez Maté & Robert Hesselbach & Joachim Steffen (eds.), Contact varieties of Spanish and Spanish-lexified contact varieties. An International Handbook. Vol. 11. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2024. «La ligne de couleur» dans l’histoire de crioulo, criollo et créole. Études créoles [En ligne] 411:1–2. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. El español entre la lingua franca y la lengua ‘nacional’ mitificada. In Martina Schrader-Kniffki & Julia Montemayor Gracia (eds.), ¿Unidad en la superdiversidad? Lugares de contacto entre el español y las lenguas amerindias en el siglo XXI, 19–44. Berlin: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2018. Identifying kréyòl and criollo in the contemporary French Caribbean and Spanish America”. In Anja Bandau & Anne Brüske & Natascha Ueckmann (eds.), Relaciones y Desconexiones, Relations et Déconnexions, Relations and Disconnections, 367–383. Heidelberg: heiUP. .Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. Sprachkontakt und lexikalische Innovation in der karibischen Kontaktzone: die Beispiele bozal, cimarrón und criollo. Hamburg: Buske.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kramer, Johannes. 2004. Die iberoromanische Kreolsprache Papiamento: eine romanistische Darstellung. Hamburg: Buske.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroskrity, Paul V. 2000. Regimenting languages: languages ideological perspectives. In Paul V. Kroskrity (ed.), Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities, and identities, 1–34. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2021. Covert Linguistic Racisms and the (Re-)Production of White Supremacy. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 31:2. 180–193. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
La Courbe, Sieur Michel Jajolet de. 1913 [1686]. Premier voyage du Sieur de la Courbe fait à la côte d’Afrique en 1685. Publié avec une carte de Delisle et une introduction par P. Cultru. Paris: Champion-Larose.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labat, Jean-Baptiste. 1730. Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais en Guinée, isles voisines, et a Cayenne. Fait en 1725, 1726 et 1727. T. 21. Paris: chez Saugrain.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ladhams, John. 2006. In search of West African Pidgin Portuguese. Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana 4:1(7). 87–105.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lang, Jürgen. 2007. Pg. crioulo, esp. criollo et fr. créole en tant que termes désignant des langues: les premiers témoignages de l’Ouest africain. Creolica. [URL] (25 September, 2025).
Léglise, Isabelle & Migge, Bettina. 2006. Towards a comprehensive description of language varieties: A consideration of naming practices, ideologies and linguistic practices. Language in Society 35(3). 313–339. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lemos Coelho, Francisco de. (1669). Descrição da costa de Guiné desde o Cabo Verde athe Serra Lioa com todas as ilhas e rios que os brancos navegam. Damião Peres (ed.). Lisboa: Academia portuguesa da história.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1684). Discripção da costa de Guiné, e situação de todos os portos e rios della, e roteyro para se poderem navegar todos seus rios. Damião Peres (ed.). Lisboa: Academia portuguesa da história.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mark, Peter. 1999. The evolution of ‘Portuguese’ identity: Luso-Africans on the Upper Guinea coast from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century. Journal of African History 401. 173–191. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mark, Peter & Silva Horta da, José. 2004. Two early seventeenth-century Sephardic communities on Senegal’s Petite Côte. History in Africa 311. 231–256. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Massa, Françoise & Massa, Jean-Michel. 2006. Le créole du Cap-Vert: présences et silences dans les récits des voyageurs portugais et étrangers du XVIe au XIX siècles. In Jürgen Lang & John Holm & Jean-Louis Rougé & Maria João Soares (eds.), Cabo Verde — origens da sua sociedade e do seu crioulo, 221–234. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mollat du Jourdin, Michel. 1993. Europe and the Sea. Oxford & Cambridge: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Naro, Anthony J. 1978. Study on the Origins of Pidginization. Language 54(2). 314–347. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Newitt, Malyn. 2010. The Portuguese in West Africa, 1415–1670: a documentary story. New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pereira, Dulce. 2006. Contributos da História Geral de Cabo Verde para o estúdio da formação e da difusão do crioulo caboverdiano. In Jürgen Lang & John Holm & Jean-Louis Rougé & Maria João Soares (eds.), Cabo Verde — origens da sua sociedade e do seu crioulo, 161–178. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peres, Damião. 1954. Introdução. Duas descrições seiscentistas da Guiné de Francisco de Lemos Coelho. Lisboa: Academia portuguesa da história.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perl, Matthias. 1989. Zur Präsenz des kreolisierten Portugiesisch in der Karibik — ein Beitrag zur Dialektologie des karibischen Spanisch. Beiträge zur Romanischen Philologie 28(1). 131–148.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roberts, George. 1726. The Four Years Voyages of Capt. George Roberts; being a series of uncommon events […] written by himself […]. London: at the Red Lyon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rougé, Jean-Louis. 2006. L’influence manding sur la formation des créoles du Cap-Vert et de Guinée-Bissau et Casamance. In Jürgen Lang & John Holm & Jean-Louis Rougé & Maria João Soares (eds.), Cabo Verde — origens da sua sociedade e do seu crioulo, 63–74. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silva Horta, José da. 2000. Evidence for a Luso-African identity in “Portuguese” accounts on “Guinea of Cape Verde” (sixteenth-seventeenth centuries. History in Africa 271. 99–130. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silva Neto, Serafim da. 1992 [1957]. História da língua portuguesa. Rio de Janeiro: Presença.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Soares, Maria João. 2006. Igreja, crioulo e línguas em Cabo Verde — séculos XV a XVIII. In Jürgen Lang & John Holm & Jean-Louis Rougé & Maria João Soares (eds.), Cabo Verde — origens da sua sociedade e do seu crioulo, 179–198. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schonhorn, Manuel. 1975. Defoe’s Four Years Voyages of Capt. George Roberts and Ashton’s Memorial. Texas Studies in Literature and Language 17(1). 93–102.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schwegler, Armin. 2003. The linguistic geography of ‘criollo’ in Spanish America. A case of enigmatic extension and restriction. In Gordon Collier & Ulrich Fleischmann (eds.), A Pepper-Pot of Cultures: Aspects of Creolization in the Caribbean, 45–65. Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Teixeira da Mota, Avelino (ed.). 1989. As viagens do bispo D. Frei Vitoriano Portuense á Guiné. Lisboa: Alfa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woolard, Kathryn A. 1998. Language ideology as a field of inquiry. In Bambi B. Schieffelin, Kathryn A. Woolard & Paul Kroskrity (eds.), Language ideologies: Practice and Theory, 3–47. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue