Semantic primes in Atlantic Iberoromance-based Creoles

Much of the literature on Creole languages has focused on their genesis. In this study, we take the Natural Semantic Metalanguage framework as a starting point for yet another genesis-oriented comparative study of five Iberoromance-based Creoles, Kabuverdianu, São-Tomense, Angolar, Papiamentu and Palenquero. The proposal of the NSM framework is to establish a natural semantic metalanguage consisting of a set of semantic primes common to and translatable into all languages. Whether these semantic primes consist of items retained from the lexifier language, or whether they have been taken from the sub- and/or adstrate can be argued to be of certain interest to the debate on the origin and nature of Creole languages. Our results confirm our initial hypothesis that the semantic primes of Creole languages are in their majority derived from the corresponding lexifier language. Differences in the exact amount of non-lexifier-derived primes roughly correspond to the amount of non-lexifier items in the Creole’s lexicon at large.