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Portuguese Creole is a creole language based on the Portuguese language.
The Portuguese-based Creoles are classified by geographical order and by substrate language (the language that contacted with Portuguese):
Today, some people believe that in Angola and Mozambique new creoles were created. Also there is a tiny population in northern Brazil speaking a French-Portuguese Creole, the "Lanc-Patuá" (from French Langue Patois).
Later, the Portuguese pidgins were expanded grammatically and lexically, as it became a native language. Today, these languages are known "Portuguese Creoles". The Portuguese Creoles or Portuguese-based Creoles are the ones that have almost all lexical content bases on Portuguese, while grammatically they are very different.
According to the monogenetic theory of pidgins advanced by Hugo Schuchardt , most of the pidgins and creoles of European base in the world derived from a version of Lingua Franca relexified by the Portuguese. This "broken Portuguese" would be used by European sailors whenever they met new peoples. Items like the preposition na would be marks of this common origin.
Spoken in Africa, the Guinean Creoles, are divided by those of High-Guinea, spoken in Cape Verde, Guinea-BissauThe Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a country on the Atlantic coast of western Africa. The small country, a former Portuguese colony, is bounded on the north by Senegal, to the south and east by Guinea, and to the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Its capital is B, SenegalThe Republic of Senegal is a country in western Africa south of Senegal River. Senegal is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south. The Gambia forms a virtual enclave w and Gambia. These creoles are the most ancient Portuguese Creoles. There is also the Creoles of Gulf of Guinea, spoken in São Tomé and PríncipeThe islands of Sao Tome and Principe situated in the equatorial Atlantic about 300 and 250 kilometers (200 and 150 miles), respectively, off the northwestern coast of Gabon, constitute one of Africa's smallest countries. Both are part of an extinct volcan and Equatorial GuineaThe Republic of Equatorial Guinea is a nation of Central Africa. It borders on Cameroon, Gabon, and the Gulf of Guinea. The capital is Malabo. Republica de Guinea Ecuatorial Republique de la Guinee Equatoriale ( In Detail) (Full size) National motto: Unid.
The Creole of Guinea-BissauThe Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a country on the Atlantic coast of western Africa. The small country, a former Portuguese colony, is bounded on the north by Senegal, to the south and east by Guinea, and to the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Its capital is B and SenegalThe Republic of Senegal is a country in western Africa south of Senegal River. Senegal is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south. The Gambia forms a virtual enclave w is known as "Kriol" (also known as "Kriulo" or "Crioulo da Guiné"); it is originated from the Kriol that was spoken mainly in the Portuguese Praças (Eng. Plazas) from SenegalThe Republic of Senegal is a country in western Africa south of Senegal River. Senegal is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south. The Gambia forms a virtual enclave w to Sierra Leone, such as, of Cacheu , Ziguinchor and Geba, in early 16th century. The Creole of Guinea is among the first Portuguese Creoles that came to exist. Portuguese merchants and settlers started to mix with locals almost immediately, this became a rule among Portuguese explorers and the main reason for the large number of Portuguese Creoles throughout the world. This mixed race was called Lançados (Eng. launched) and contributed to the spread of the Portuguese language by a pidgin. There are three main dialects of this Creole in Guinea-Bissau and Senegal: "Bissau and Bolama", "Batafa" and "Cacheu-Ziguinchor". The Creole has as substrate language the language of the local peoples: Mandingas, Manjacos, Pepéis and others, but most of the lexicon (around 80%) comes from Portuguese.
The Creole is used as lingua franca in Guinea-Bissau; it is spoken by 60% of the population. Portuguese itself is spoken by 12-14%. There are 159,000 first language speakers in Guinea-Bissau (1996) and more that 0.6 million that use it as second language.
The dialect of Casamance (Ziguinchor), similar to the one of Cacheu (Guinea-Bissau) has some influence of French; Fijus di Terra (Port. Filhos da Terra, Eng. Land’s Children) and Fijus di Fidalgu (Port. Filhos de Fidalgo, Eng. Noble’s Children) speak it, all of them are known, locally, as Portuguis because they adopt European habits, are catholics and speak a Portuguese Creole. They are descendants of Portuguese men and African women. Most of them still have Portuguese surnames, such as da Silva, Carvalho or Fonseca. Ziguinchor was, in fact, formed by Portugal in 1645, its name is derived from the Portuguese, Cheguei e choram (Eng. I came and they cry), because the natives assumed that they had come to enslave them. However the Portuguese implemented a base for trade and started to intermarriage with African women. The former Kingdom of Casamance made a friendship alliance with the Portuguese and the local king adopted European lifestyle and there were Portuguese in his court . In 1899, the city was ceded to France and in the middle of the 20th century, the language spread to the surrounding area. After Senegal's independence from France, the Creole people were seen as friends of the French, and discrimination by the more numerous northern Wolof speaking community started, which has caused Casamance to struggle for independence since 1982. Today, although they continue to struggle, the movement is more placid and learning Portuguese became popular in Senegal because they see it has a link to their past. In Senegal, the Creole is the first language of at least 46,500 people (1998), it is mainly spoken in Ziguinchor but also there are speakers in other Casamance cities and in The Gambia.
Each inhabited island of Cape Verde has its own creole (crioulo). The greatest differences are between the creole of Santiago and Santo Antão.
"Lungua N'golá" (or "Língua Angolar", in Portuguese) is mainly spoken in south of the São Tomé Island (main island of São Tomé and Príncipe) and by some people on the coast of the same island by Angolar fishermen. The Creole uses, as substrate, a dialect of Umbundo, a Bantu language from inland Angola, but is extensively influenced by Portuguese, mainly in lexicon level. This is not a major São Tomean Creole.
The Creole of the island of Ano Bom ( Equatorial Guinea) acknowledged as "Falar de Ano Bom" ("Fá d’ambô" or even "Fla d’Ambu") is analogous to Forro, spoken by 9,000 people in Ano Bom and Fernando Póo Islands. In fact, Fá d'Ambô is derived from Forro as it shares the same structure (82% of its lexicon). When the island was discovered by Portugal in the 15th century it was uninhabited but in the 18th century, Portugal exchanged it and some other territories in Africa for Uruguay with Spain. Spain wanted to acquire territory in Africa, and Portugal wanted to further enlarge the territory that they saw as the "New Portugal" (Brazil). Nevertheless, the populace of Ano Bom was against the shift and was hostile towards the Spaniards. This, combined with the isolation of mainland Equatorial Guinea and the proximity of São Tomé and Príncipe, just 400 km from the island has assured the maintenance of its identity.
Fá d’ambô has gained some words of Spanish origin (10% of its lexicon), but some words are of dubious origin because Spanish and Portuguese are based on the same language (Spoken Latin or Vulgar Latin).
see also: History of Equatorial Guinea
São Tomé is an island of the Gulf of Guinea, discovered by the Portuguese in the 15th century. It was uninhabited at the time, but Portuguese settlers used the island as a center of the slave trade, and there was a need for slaves in the island. Since both parties needed to communicate, a pidgin was formed. The substrate languages were from the Bantu and Kwa groups. With the arrival of several settlers from Portugal, there was a need for women and the Portuguese quickly began having affairs with free African women. This was not only a cultural matter, even the Portuguese kings supported it for the sake of settlement. The continuous influx of slaves, helped the Portuguese pidgin to become a stable, systematic and structured native language. Later because of Dutch and French pressure to gain the island, many Portuguese settlers left. It must be remembered that children of Portuguese and black women were, eventually, not considered as African or slaves, some were considered as full right Portuguese citizens.
Although the São Tomean Creole had (and still has) a restricted contact with Portuguese (seen as a prestigious language), it did preserve a larger number of the substrate languages elements, more than the Creoles of Cape Verde, that preserve fewer traces. Roughly 93% of São Tomean Creole lexicon is from Portuguese and 7% of African origin. The São tomean Creole is most known as "Forro" 1 , language of the freed slaves or Crioulo Santomense, not to confuse Crioulo Santomense with Santomense (a variety and dialect of Portuguese in São Tomé and Príncipe). Although 95% of São Tomeans speak Portuguese; the islands' national language is Forro (spoken by 85%). Even though it does not have the prestige of the Portuguese language on the islands, it is evident that continuous contact with the large number Portuguese speakers did not destroy Forro, many relearn Forro when they become adults. The rich São Tomean culture also preserves an unique mixture of Portuguese and African cultures.
Examples of Forro 2
Not everything is from Portuguese,
"Lunguyê" is from Portuguese and means Language of the Island (Port. Língua da Ilha), it is sometimes called as Principense. Lunguyê presents many similarities with Forro, the substrate language are the same (Bantu and Kwa). Lunguyê Creole can be seen as a dialect of Forro. This specific Creole is only spoken in Principe Island in São Tomé and Príncipe.
In Asia, there are three groups of Portuguese-Creoles: The "Portuguese-Indian Creoles" that are spoken in India and Sri Lanka. The "Portuguese-Malay Creoles" spoken in Malaysia, Singapore and formerly in Indonesia and East Timor. And, the "Portuguese-Chinese Creole", known as Macaista, spoken in Macao and formely in Hong-Kong.
The interaction of the Portuguese and the Sri Lankans let to the creation of a Creole language, the "Burgher" (or Sri Lanka Portuguese Creole), which was Lingua Franca in the island for 350 years (From 16th to mid-19th century). The interaction also created a Creole people, the "Mestiços" or "Casados" (eng. Married). The Portuguese presence in Sri Lanka was extended to non-urban areas, there is a wide Portuguese heritage in Sri Lankan society, culture and administration. Lexicon of Portuguese origin can be found in the Sinhala language (at least 1,000 words), there may be more but insufficient study has been carried out.
When the Dutch took over Coastal Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), the descendants of the Portuguese took refuge in the central hills of Kandyan Kingdom under Singhalese rule.
After a while, the Dutch and Portuguese descendants started to intermarry. Though under Dutch rule Portuguese was banned; the Portuguese speaking community was so large and natural that even the Dutch started to speak Portuguese. In the 18th century, the Eurasian community (a mixture of Portuguese, Dutch, Singhalese and Tamil) started to grow and they spoke Portuguese or Dutch.
Later, the Burgher community developed into two different communities: the Dutch Burghers and the Portuguese Burghers. The Portuguese Burghers were more mixed, were Catholic and spoke Portuguese Creole. Despite the socio-economic disadvantage, the Burghers maintained their Portuguese cultural identity. In Batticaloa, the Catholic Burgher Union reinforced this. The Portuguese Creole continued to be used amongst the Dutch Burghers families as the informal language until the end of the 19th century.
In today's Sri Lanka, the Creole is limited to the spoken form. Most of the Speakers are the Burghers in the Eastern province ( Batticaloa and Trincomalee). But there are also the Kaffirs (people of African origin) in the Northwestern province ( Puttalam ). The Portuguese, Dutch and British brought the Kaffirs to Sri Lanka, for labour purposes. They have assumed Portuguese culture and religion; later, there was intermarriage between them and the Portuguese Burghers.
At the 1981 Census, the Burghers (Dutch and Portuguese) were almost 40,000 (0,3% of the population of Sri Lanka). But, the Portuguese Creole is losing ground as a spoken language. As Burgher is now only used at home and many are unable to speak the Creole very well, it is nearly extinct. Many Burghers and Kaffirs emigrated to other countries. There are still 100 families in Batticaloa and Trincomalee and 80 Kaffir families in Puttalam that still speak the Portuguese Creole; they have been out of contact with Portugal since 1656. Burgher as syntax and phonology similar to Tamil.
The "Crioulo de Diu" of Diu, Daman and Diu, India is rapidly disappearing because Gujarati is more widely spoken and is the main language of education there. Only the less educated elder members of the community speak it at home. In the past there was a vibrant community of Portuguese-Indians who spoke it.
Daman and Korlai are now the only living Portuguese Creoles of India. The Creole of Daman is known as "Língua da Casa" (Eng. Home Language), spoken at home by a community of 2,000 or more Christians. The Creole of Daman is a descendant of the Portuguese-Indian Norteiro Creole of the Coast from Chaul, Bassaim, Bombay, Daman and Diu. Before the Indian annexation of the territory, the Creole of Daman had become more similar to standard Portuguese. The Associação Luso Indiana Damaense (Eng. Portuguese-Indian Association of Daman), to which most Damanian Catholics are members, says that there are 10-12,000 Portuguese speakers (all Christians) in the territory of 110,000 residents. Sunday mass is celebrated in Portuguese. The Portuguese heritage in Daman is more common and living than in Goa and this helped to maintain the Creole. Both the substrate (Gujarati) and superstrate (Portuguese) languages are still found in the territory.
In an isolated Indian village known as Korlai in the District of Kplaba (Bombay), the Portuguese-based Creole known as "Kristi" is the only language of the 1,000 Christian inhabitants. Little is known about Kristi, only that is similar to Papiá Kristang of Malacca. The village is near the ruins of Chaul, a 16th century Portuguese colonial city that was destroyed by the Marathas. The city was abandoned and left in ruins. In the middle of the forest one can see palaces, towers, convents among other ruins. Kristi was recognized because it was very different from the neighbouring languages.
Examples of Kristi
Song of Korlai:
Portuguese translation:
English translation:
Following the take-over of Malacca ( Malaysia) in 1511, the Portuguese were encouraged to marry local women. A Portuguese-based Creole was shaped and is still spoken today by more than 1,000 Christians. It is known as "Papiá Kristang" (Port. Papia Cristã, Eng. Christian Language) in a community known, by themselves, as Gente Kristang (Port. Gente Cristã, Eng. Christian People). Cristão is the Portuguese for Christian. Although written differently, in Portuguese, the sounds for Kristang and Cristão are exactly the same. Kristang reflects how an English speaker would write Portuguese language throw sounds. About 80% of the older residents of the Portuguese settlement in Malacca regularly speak Kristang. There are also some speakers in today's Singapore and Kuala Lumpur due to emigration. Kristang is very close to Malay in its grammatical construction, but its vocabulary is 95% derived from Portuguese.
Even though Portugal lost Malacca and almost all contact in 1641, the Gente Kristang maintained its traditions, religion and language almost unharmed, which is a curiosity and unique in the world; the cultural and linguistic link with today's Portugal (especially, Minho region), is astonishing. Because of some aspects of their language and culture, some Malaysians still refer to the Portuguese-Malay Eurasian community as 'Portuguese'. However, their language is not taught in schools, although in there are still some church services in Portuguese. The existence of Kristang comes as a surprise to Portuguese and Brazilian people when travelling in Malaysia, although it is now in decline.
Examples of Kristang
Poem of Malacca:
Portuguese translation:
English translation:
Known by the Macanese people as "Macaista Chapado", but also known as "Patuá" or "Papiá Cristám di Macau" (Port. Papia Cristã de Macau, Eng. Christian language of Macau) or even "Dóci Língu de Macau" (Port. Doce Língua de Macau, Eng. Sweet language of Macao) is an almost extinct Creole language (spoken by just a few Macanese families), which came to exist in Macao in 1557. It was brought there by the Portuguese from Malacca. Most of the Macaista lexicon is from Malay and from the papiás of Malacca and Indonesia, but also from the Indian and Singhalese languages. The structure of the language is from Portuguese-Malay, but also in a manner Portuguese-Indian with Chinese syntax. There is also a strong influence of the dialects of southern Portugal.
In early 20th century, the language was spoken widely as mother tongue language well differentiated from Portuguese, but with the development of Portuguese teaching a discriolization started after 1850. Macanese people also started to immigrate to Hong Kong. The language was spoken as a community language in Hong Kong, until the Japanese attacks during the Second World War, when the language started to disappear there. In Macao, the language almost disappeared in use aswell because Macao's high society saw the Creole has a peasant's Portuguese dialect. The younger generations are helping to bring back this Creole as they see it has part of their culture and history. Like Língua da Casa, Macaista can be seen as a demi-Creole because of a discriolization process.
Examples of Macaista Chapado: Macanese Poem
Portuguese translation:
English translation:
The "Portuguese-American Creoles" spoken in Antilles and Suriname have been influenced by other languages, Spanish and English, respectively. Yet there is still a strong Portuguese influence. In the past, there were possibly Portuguese Creoles in Brazil; there is a Portuguese dialect in Helvécia, South of Bahia that presents signs of an earlier decreolization. Some say that vernacular Brazilian Portuguese (not the official and standard Brazilian Portuguese) shows signs of decreolization, but most linguists contradict that.
Descendants of fugitive slaves in former Dutch Guyana (today's Suriname) speak "Saramacano". Unlike other Creoles of running slaves that are based on a blend of English, Dutch and Portuguese words, Saramacano had no English base or structure. The Creole contains large numbers of Portuguese origin words; its structure is very similar to other Portuguese Creoles, even to Portuguese-Indian ones. Saramacano was firstly classified has English-based, because the people who studied Surinames Creoles believed that they were all derived from the same language. However in the 19th century, English started to have a strong influence on Saramacano; in the meantime, the structure was maintained has a Portuguese-based Creole. Most Portuguese original elements are verbs, adverbs, pronouns and everyday objects.
25,000 individuals of the Saramacano tribe and 2,000 of the Matawi tribe speak Saramacano. It is not known why Saramacano is Portuguese-based. Some say that they arrived from Western Africa with a Portuguese pidgin or their masters were Portuguese.
In Brazil there is very little left of Portuguese Creoles, but there is one academic study for a Masters Degree that points to one particularly. A rural African community from Cafundó, 150km from São Paulo (city), uses a secret language, spoken by some (40 in 1978). The population is bilingual with Portuguese. It was first thought to be an African language but later study (1986) by Carlos Vogt and Peter Fry indicated that it could be an Anti-Creole , as it presents similarities with the Caipira variety (the Portuguese dialect of Brasil's São Paulo countryside, South of Minas Gerais and North of Paraná). Cafundó posesses Portuguese morphological and syntactic framework with some Bantu lexicon, the opposite of a Creole language.
There were Portuguese Creoles in Brazil's Quilombos, brought from Africa but the Portuguese culturization was so effective that they are all extinct. Also, the large level of immigration played an important role, as almost half of Brazilians are of Portuguese origin. Nothing in Brazilian Portuguese varieties and dialects seem to indicate a creolization, they are, in fact, continuous from European Portuguese and very conservative. In some Afro-Brazilian animist religions there are songs in ancient Portuguese creoles brought from Africa.
In East Timor a variety of Portuguese-based Creole was spoken in Bidau, known as "Português de Bidau". Possibly it became extinct in the 1960s. The Creole was never widespread in the colony. Soldiers and officials from Lifau, and Portuguese settlers and Mestiços of Flores, Indonesia introduced it.
Christians, even in Calcutta, used Portuguese until 1811. A Portuguese Creole was still spoken in the early 20th century. The Creoles of Bengal were found in places such as Balasore, Pipli, Chandernagore, Chittagong, Midnapore and Hugli.
The Creoles of the Coast of Coromandel, India (such as of Meliapor, Madrasta, Tuticorin, Cuddalore, Karikal, Pondicheri, Tranquebar, Manapar, Negapatam) were already extinct by the 19th century, the Portuguese-Indian (known locally as Topasses) shifted to the English when the British conquered their lands.
Most of the Creoles of the coast of Malabar, India ( Cananor , Tellicherry , Mahé, Cochin, Vaipim and Quilom ) had become extinct by the 19th century. The Creole of the island of Vaipim (near Cochin) has prevailed until the present. It is spoken by some families of the Christian community. In Cananor and Tellicherry, some elders still spoke some Creole until the 1980s.
Most of the "Norteiro" Creoles (language of Christian Indo-Portuguese in Northern India) have died, such as of Baçain, Salsete, Thana, Chevai, Mahim, Tecelaria, Dadar, Parel, Cavel, Bandora-Badra, Govai, Morol, Andheri, Versova, Malvan, Manori, Mazagão and Chaul. Only the Creoles of Daman (known as Língua da Casa), Korlai (known as Kristi) and Diu are still living. But the Creole of Diu is in danger of extinction. The two surviving creoles have suffered drastic changes; Standard Portuguese re-influenced the Creole of Daman in the mid-20th century. And Kristi became isolated from Portuguese language and culture in 1739.
In early 16th century, Portuguese traders and missionaries established themselves on the island of Flores, Indonesia after the Dutch attacks in Indonesia. They settled in Larantuca and Sikka. There is still a strong Portuguese influence on the language religion and culture of Sikka. However, in Larantuka the people there only speak the local language or Larantuka Malay. Rituals called Tuan Ma in Larantuka still use Portuguese for praying.
The Mardijkers of Batavia (Today’s Jakarta, Indonesia) are descendant of old slaves from Malacca and India, converted to Protestantism. They spoke a Portuguese Creole and there was also a local Portuguese community. Portuguese was the First language until 1750, in spite of Dutch efforts against it. After 1750, Portuguese was replaced by a kind of Malay which called Betawian Malay or Omong Betawi. It was spoken until the 19th century. All Mardijkers now speak Betawian Malay and Bahasa Indonesia as their daily uses. However, they still maintain old lyrics in their music called Keroncong Moresco or Keroncong Tugu.
In Tugu, village north of Jakarta, descendants of the Portuguese maintained a creole, known as Papiá (similar to Papiá Kristang), as their mother-tongue until the 1940s, the last speaker died in 1978.
In Ambon and Ternate, in the Moluccas Islands ( Indonesia), the Portuguese mixed with locals and created a community of Christians that spoke "Portugis". They spoke it until the middle of the 20th century. When the Dutch conquered the islands, many Portuguese were imprisoned and exported as slaves to Batavia (today's Jakarta), the rest of Indonesia and to South Africa. Because the population still continue to spoke Portugis, the Dutch also started to speak it for communication with locals. Then, gradually replaced by a creolized Malay called Ambonese Malay. Elders still speak Dutch at home, while the younger speak Malay.
Portuguese influenced several languages, such as Japanese, Swahili or Malay, (including Bahasa Indonesia). Some languages are deeply influenced by the Portuguese language, but are not classified as Creoles.
Tetum sometimes, erroneously, described as a Portuguese Creole is, in fact, only heavily influenced by it. Tetum is a co-official language of East Timor with Portuguese.In Brazil, especially in the North (former vice-kingdom of Grão-Pará) but as far down as São Paulo and in the then vice-kingdom of Brazil, Portuguese was used almost exclusively by government officials when in their official capacity and as a group language. The common people, not only Indians but also the Portuguese that immigrated, used either Tupi-Guarani or a pidgin that came to be called (in Portuguese) Língua Geral. This started as Tupi-Guarani with Latin and Portuguese influences by the Portuguese, and was dominant in the North until the Marquis of Pombal, in 1758, officialized the use of Portuguese and in 1759 expelled the Jesuits, who were the major influence in accommodating the native and Portuguese elements in the colonies, and simultaneously enforced the use of Portuguese in both Brazil's vice-kingdons.
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