ALUPEC

The "Alfabeto Unificado para a Escrita do Caboverdiano" (Unified Alphabet for Cape Verdean Writing), commonly known as ALUPEC, is the alphabet that was officially recognized by the Cape Verdean government to write Cape Verdean Creole.

Description

ALUPEC is a phonetic system based on the Latin alphabet and states only which letters should be used to represent each sound. The system does not establish rules for spelling ( [orthography] . For that reason, Cape Verdean creole writing is not standardized; the same word or the same sentence may appear written in different ways. Cape Verdeans, then, write idiosyncratically — that is, each person writes in his or her her own dialect, sociolect, and idiolect.

The descriptive texts concerning the ALUPEC ["O caboverdiano em 45 lições" (Veiga, Manuel – 2002)] ["Proposta de Bases do Alfabeto unificado para a Escrita do Cabo-verdiano" (Grupo para a padronização do alfabeto; Praia: IIPC, 2006)] claim that it is “a system composed by 23 letters and four digraphs”. What those texts do not specify is that ALUPEC also includes the letter "Y" and the digraph "RR".

Older documents, such as the 1994 "Proposed Criteria of the Unified Alphabet for the Cape Verdean Writing System," showed the following order:
A B S D E F G H I J DJ L LH M N NH N^̈ O P K R T U V X TX Z

Later documents (after 1998)" [http://alupec.kauberdi.org/decreto-lei-67-98.html Decreto-Lei n.º 67/98] " (Boletim Oficial da República de Cabo Verde – 1998)] show the following order:
A B D DJ E F G H I J K L LH M N NH N^̈ O P R S T TX U V X Z

The ALUPEC comes close to a perfect phonetic system in that almost every letter represents only one sound and almost every sound is represented by only one letter. The vowels may have a graphic accent, but the system does not consider letters with accents as separate letters.

Additional notes:
*The letter "y" is used only to represent the copulative conjunction (corresponding to «e» in Portuguese).
*The letter "r" has the sound /ʀ/ only in the beginning of the words.
*The letter "n" in the end of the syllables is not pronounced, it only indicates the nasality of the preceding vowel.
*The personal pronoun that represents the subject form of the first person of the singular is always written with the capital letter "N", whatever the pronunciation, whatever the Creole variant.
*The graphic accents are used to indicate the stressed syllable in proparoxitone words, and to indicate the stressed syllable in oxitone words that do not end in a consonant; the acute accent is also used in paroxitone words when the stressed syllable has the sounds /ɛ/ or /ɔ/.

History

The ALUPEC emerged in 1994, from the alphabet proposed by the "Colóquio Linguístico de Mindelo", in 1979.

In July 20th, 1998, the ALUPEC was approved by the "Conselho de Ministros de Cabo Verde", for a five years trial period. According to the same Council, the ALUPEC would “consider the diversity of the Cape Verdean Language in all the islands, and only after that trial period it would be considered its introduction in schools”.

In 2005, the ALUPEC was recognized [" [http://alupec.kauberdi.org/resolucao-48-2005.html Resolução n.º 48/2005] " (Boletim Oficial da República de Cabo Verde – 2005)] by the Cape Verdean government as a viable system for writing the Cape Verdean Creole, being until now the only one officially recognized by the same government. In spite of being the only one officially recognized, the same law allows the usage of alternative writing models, “as long they are presented in a systematized and scientific way”.

Present situation

In spite of having been officially recognized by the Government, the ALUPEC has neither official, neither mandatory usage, being used only by enthusiasts.

References

External links

* [http://www.funana.org/alphtxt.htm Proposed Criteria of the Unified Alphabet for the Cape Verdean Writing System]
* [http://www.umassd.edu/SpecialPrograms/CaboVerde/ibrito1.html Na diféza di un skrita pa kriolu di Kabu Verdi] (in Creole)
* [http://caboverde.vozdipovo-online.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=38&pop=1&page=1&Itemid=30 Pa Nu Skrebe Na Skola] (in Portuguese)
* [http://www.prio.no/private/jorgen/download/Orthographic%20guidelines.pdf Orthographic guidelines for writing São Vicentean Kriol] — a proposal for São Vicente Creole writing