I will soon receive and review for the LINGUIST List the book A Grammar of Fa d’Ambô written by T. Hegemeijer, P. Maurer-Cecchini, and A. Zamora Segourbe. I am looking forward to reading the first grammar of Fa d’Ambô ever written in English. I will post the link to the review as soon as it is published (I guess it will take about 6-8 months)… By the way, what is Fa d’Ambô?
Fa d’Ambô is a Portuguese-based creole language, spoken in the Isle of Ano-Bom, in Equatorial Guinea, and this is its history in a nutshell. As the Portuguese found the island uninhabited in the 15th C., they brought in slaves from São Tomé e Príncipe (and, to a much lesser extent, Angola). With the Tratado de El Pardo, signed in 1778 by King Carlos III of Spain and Queen Maria I of Portugal, Spain gave Portugal lands in South America, receiving territories in the Guinea Gulf in exchange. Consequently, the Isle of Ano-Bom and what is today Equatorial Guinea went under Spanish rule. Over time, the local population adapted to the new culture and the Spanish language, giving rise to a new mixed language. The new language is mostly based on São-tomense, a Portuguese-based creole also known as Forro. However, approximately 10% of its lexicon is based on Spanish, the official language of Equatorial Guinea.
Enrico Torre 