When speakers of a global language are separated by thousands of miles, and local languages are the most prominent influences, how will the language change? Will speakers adhere to a prescriptive norm of what the language “ought” to be, or will the language evolve and be adapted to suit the needs of the speakers.

This question will be analyzed in the context of the former Portuguese colonies. Examining specifically the use of language in education, whether it be Portuguese a lexically-based Portuguese Creole, or neither of the two.

I wish to investigate the status of Creoles in former Portuguese colonies, focusing on the use of language in education, and how this translates into the use of language in literary expression. This information will be crucial in determining where on the spectrum between a dialect and a language Creoles fall. Both secondary schools and universities will be ideal for interviewing administrators, professors, and authors in regards to language in educational policy. I would also like to conduct interviews with students to gauge their perception of any hierarchy between Portuguese spoken within their own country and that of Portugal, and how they feel about movements to make Creole the national language. With these interviews I hope to gain a broader perspective across age levels in terms of both concrete realizations of dialect-to-language shifting and changes in opinion.