Location Marking in Helvécian Portuguese

Abstract This paper explores the intricate locative system of Helvécian Portuguese, a lesser-known Afro-Brazilian variety spoken by descendants of formerly enslaved Africans in the rural community of Helvécia, Bahia. The variety offers a comprehensive case of contact-induced change. Unlike Standard Portuguese, which uses prepositions such as em ‘in, on, at’ to encode location, Helvécian Portuguese exhibits a variable system centered around the multifunctional preposition ni . Functionally similar to the Yorùbá preposition ní , ni heads the Basic Locative Construction in Helvécian Portuguese and encodes motion. The results of this study suggest that Helvécian Portuguese was significantly influenced by Yorùbá during its formation period in the 19th century, supported by sociohistorical evidence of a consistent Yorùbá presence in the settlement then known as Colônia Leopoldina. The semantic parallels found between the Yorùbá and Helvécian locative systems reinforce the contact hypothesis, suggesting a language congruence phenomenon in which non-native speakers adopted familiar spatial encoding strategies. This paper contributes to the broader understanding of Afro-Brazilian Portuguese by documenting an innovative locative system shaped by Niger-congo languages within the colonial Brazilian context.