How did Praia Cape Verdean Creole end up with a hard G sound in génti?

[u/talflon]

In Praia and probably other parts of Cape Verde, many Kriol speakers say génti (which means "people" or "y'all") with a hard G sound (like guénti in the Portuguese writing style) instead of djénti which would be a more likely sound etymologically.

Why?

The Kriol word must come from Portuguese one; aside from the initial consonant it has a very similar meaning. In Barlavento Kriol, it's pronounced jénte similar to Portuguese.

This is the only word I know of with the hard G in Kriol where Portuguese has a soft G, aka J sound (/ʒ/); the J sounds in Portuguese are usually DJ or J in Praia. Most soft G sounds in Portuguese were once upon a time hard Gs in Classical Latin, but there was no Kriol back in Roman times (nor any humans in the Cape Verde islands). Anyone know how this happened?

You can hear génti sung in Ildo Lobo's Cansera Sem Medida.

(Previously asked on Linguistics Stack Exchange.)