Portuguese-based creole languages used to distinguish locally born black people of African descent from those who had been brought from Africa as slaves. In time, however, this generic sense was lost, and the word "crioulo" or its derivatives (like "Creole" and its equivalents in other languages) became the name of several specific Upper Guinean communities and their languages: the Guinean people and their Kriol language, Cape Verdean people and their Kriolu language, all of which still today have very vigorous use, suppressing the importance of official standard Portuguese. The oldest Portuguese-based creole are the so-called "crioulos" of Upper Guinea, born around the Portuguese
Museum of the Portuguese Language the table is transformed into a screen that runs an animation about the origin and meaning of the given word. This was designed by Marcelo Tas with the support of etymologist Mário Viaro. This interactive display shows the various dialects throughout Brazil. Visitors can navigate the map and access audio clips from speakers in various states of the Federation. In this space there are triangular multimedia totems dedicated to the languages that formed and influenced Brazilian Portuguese, including two totems for African languages, two for South American languages, one for Spanish, one for English and French, one for immigrant languages