This article attempts to reconstruct the plausible evolution of inflectional and free-standing morphemes in three historically related lusophone creoles (Cape Verdean Creole, Guinea-Bissau Creole, Papiamentu), and compares their morphological properties to Angolar, believed to have followed an independent developmental path. I examine their synchronic morphological properties and seek insights into their origins by studying Black speech in Portuguese 15th- and 16th-century literature. This reconstruction seeks to address several questions. Within the historically related creoles, is it possible to identify a set of formally and functionally common morphemes? If so, what is their source? Are they likely to have been inherited through diffusion? Are the common morphemes in the three related creoles distinct from those of Angolar or do they overlap?
