ABSTRACT
In this study, we discuss the phonological status of /x/ in Fa d’Ambô (FA), a Portuguese-based Creole language spoken in Ano Bom Island. Based on the analysis of 270 lexical items (SEGORBE, 2007SEGORBE, A. Gramática descriptiva del fa d’ambô. Barcelona: CEIBA Ediciones, 2007.) and 108 sets of cognates that contrast Fa d’Ambô with the Proto-Creole of the Gulf of Guinea (PGG) (BANDEIRA, 2017BANDEIRA, M. Reconstrução fonológica e lexical do protocrioulo do Golfo da Guiné. Orientador: Gabriel Antunes de Araujo. 2016. 439 f. Tese (Doutorado em Filologia e Língua Portuguesa) - Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 2017.), we observed that /x/ could be inserted in Fa d’Ambô as a result of a spirantization process characterized by the lenition of *kPGG into xFA. There is evidence indicating /x/ and /k/ as distinctive phonemes in this language. Considering the phonotactic distribution of /k/ and /x/, we noticed the occurrence of a neutralization process in Fa d’Ambô, in which /k/ is produced as [x] when the stop consonant is preceded by the low vowel [a] in prestressed syllables, as in [pisxaˈdo] ~ [piskaˈdo] ‘fisherman.’ Otherwise, [k] remains as a plosive in stressed syllables, as in [pisˈka] ‘to fish.’ The neutralization of /k/ into [x] corresponds to a synchronous process of Fa d’Ambô. It is characterized by the maintenance of the [dorsal] feature and by the association of the [continuant] feature to the stop (CLEMENTS, 1996CLEMENTS, N. The role of sonority in core syllabification. In: KINGSTON, J.;BECKMAN, M. (ed.). Papers in Laboratory Phonology. Cambridge: CUP, 1996. p. 283-333.). This is the feature responsible for the diachronic speciation of *k into /x/ and for the annulment of the synchronous distinction between /k/ and /x/.
Fa d’Ambô; Phonological Status; Portuguese-based Creole; Spirantization
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Source: Author’s elaboration.