Portuguese language in Africa the various Portuguese creoles that have developed there. These creole languages co-exist with Portuguese and, in the countries where they are spoken, form a continuum with the lexifying language. In Cape Verde, refers to a variety of Cape Verdean Creole which takes on various features of Portuguese and is a result of processes of decreolization in the archipelago. In São Tome e Principe, Santomense Portuguese is a variety of Portuguese strongly influenced by Forro in syntax and vocabulary. Since the lexicons of those languages are derived from Portuguese, even creole-speakers who do not speak Portuguese have a passive knowledge of
Portuguese vocabulary brought along by the Suebi who settled in Gallaecia (Northern Portugal and Galicia) in the 5th century, and also by the Visigoths who annexed the Suebic Kingdom in 585 and ruled until the 8th century AD. Other words were incorporated to Portuguese during the Middle Ages, mostly proceeding from French and Occitan languages, as both cultures had a massive impact in Portuguese during the 12th and 13th centuries. Some everyday vocabulary, towns and placenames have Frankish-derived etymology, by influence of French in that period. Examples are: flanco- (flank) from Old French flanc, of Germanic origin, probably Frankish *hlanca, from Proto-Germanic