Irrealis Mood in Lung’Ie: Ka

Abstract

This paper describes and analyzes the ka particle in constructions with dynamic predicates in Lung’Ie, an endangered Portuguese-lexifier creole language spoken on Príncipe Island. In contrast with the literature on Lung’Ie (GÜNTHER, 1973; MAURER, 2009), we argue that ka plays one single role in Lung’Ie: marking the irrealis mood (cf. AGOSTINHO; RECH, 2022). Our data shows that ka is found in hypothetical, conditional, and counterfactual constructions, as well as in future and habitual aspect constructions. We also verified that ka is not used in past constructions nor in those that describe events at the time of the speech – prototypical realis contexts.