Você + 2SG in Cabindan Portuguese (Angola): Two effects of language contact

This article describes the system of address forms in Cabindan Portuguese (Angola), particularly the widespread use of você (largely displacing both o senhor and tu) and the formation of a paradigm that –only if our interest is diachronic– can be characterized as hybrid. This paradigm is marked by the combination of the independent(/oblique) pronoun você with at least some forms derived from the tu-paradigm (object clitics, possessives, and, to a much lesser extent, verb endings). Additionally, it is proposed that the adaptative success of both features was, to some extent, determined by Kikongo, a continuum of genetically and typologically related Bantu languages, which provides structural and pragmatic models that seem to have been transferred to Portuguese in the usage of bilingual speakers. Finally, it is suggested that these features might be particularly well represented within the Romania Bantu, i.e. the Bantu-influenced areas of the Romance-speaking world.