Kristang language
Encyclopedia
Papiá Kristang or just Kristang, is a creole language
Creole language
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...

. It is spoken by the Kristang
Kristang people
The Kristang are a creole ethnic group of people of mixed Portuguese and Malaccan descent based in Malaysia and Singapore. People of this ethnicity have strong Dutch heritage, some British as well as Chinese and Indian heritage due to intermarriage, which was common among the Kristang...

, a community of people of mixed Portuguese and Asian ancestry, chiefly in Malacca
Malacca
Malacca , dubbed The Historic State or Negeri Bersejarah among locals) is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south...

 (Malaysia) and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

.

The language is also called Cristão or Cristan ("Christian"), Português de Malaca ("Malacca Portuguese"), or simply Papiá.

Distribution

The language has about 5,000 speakers in Malacca and another 400 in Singapore. About 80% of the older Kristang in Malacca regularly speak it. There are also a few speakers in Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...

 due to migration.

Kristang is also spoken by some immigrants and their descendants in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, where some settled after Malaysian independence, and also in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, in particular the city of Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

, which is a popular destination for retirees from this community.

In Pulau Tikus
Pulau Tikus
Pulau Tikus is a small island off the coast of Penang, Malaysia. It should not be confused with a suburb of the same name on the main Penang Island....

, there were more speakers in 1997 than in 1987.

History

The Kristang language originated after the conquest of Malacca (Malaysia) in 1511 by the Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

. The community of speakers descends mainly from marriages between Portuguese settlers and local Malay women, as well as a certain number of migrants from Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...

, themselves of mixed India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n and Portuguese ancestry.

Kristang had a substantial influence on Macanese
Macanese language
Macanese or Macau Creole is a creole language derived mainly from Malay, Sinhalese, Cantonese, and Portuguese, which was originally spoken by the Macanese community of the Portuguese colony of Macau...

, the creole language spoken in Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...

, due to substantial migration from Malacca after its takeover by the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

.

Even after Portugal lost Malacca and almost all contact in 1641, the Kristang community largely preserved its language. The language is not taught at school, although there are still some Church services in Portuguese.

Features

Its grammatical structure is similar to that of the Malay language
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...

.

Because of its largely Portuguese vocabulary, and perhaps also as a result of migrations and cultural exchange along trade routes, Kristang has much in common with other Portuguese-based creoles, as well as with the extinct creoles of Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

 and East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...

.

Grammar

To indicate verb tenses the following adpositions are used: ja (i.e. from the Portuguese já, meaning "already") for past tenses, ta (from the Portuguese está, which means "is") for present continuous tenses and logu for the future tense. These simplified forms correspond with their equivalents in Malay sudah, sedang, and akan, respectively.

Vocabulary

A peculiarity of the language is the pronoun yo (meaning "I") which is used in northern Portuguese dialects as well as Spanish and Italian/Sicilian.

The Kristang lexicon borrowed heavily from Portuguese, but often with drastic truncation; for example, Portuguese padrinho and madrinha ("godfather" and "godmother") became inyu and inya in Kristang.

Metathesis
Metathesis (linguistics)
Metathesis is the re-arranging of sounds or syllables in a word, or of words in a sentence. Most commonly it refers to the switching of two or more contiguous sounds, known as adjacent metathesis or local metathesis:...

 was common: for example, Portuguese gordo "fat" gave Kristang godro. The Portuguese diphthong oi (or ancient ou) was reduced to o, e.g. dois/dous "two" → dos, à noite/à noute "tonight" → anoti.

Many Portuguese words that began with ch, pronounced [ʃ] ("sh") in modern Portuguese, have the pronunciation [tʃ] ("ch" as in "cheese") in Kristang. So, for example, Portuguese chegar "to arrive" and chuva "rain" produced Kristang chegak and chu . This could have been due to Malay
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...

 influence, or it could be that Kristang preserved the original pronunciation [tʃ] of Old Portuguese. (Note that Portuguese "ch" pronounced [tʃ] occurs in Northern Portugal.)

Writing system

Since Kristang was never taught officially in schools, it was largely an oral language. The first proposal for a standard orthography was made in the late 1980s, with the publication of a thesis, “A Grammar of Kristang”, by Alan B. Baxter, in which he emphasizes the use of the Bahasa Malaysia orthography.

The vowel e is usually pronounced [i] when followed by a syllable with /i/; so, for example, penitensia ("penitence") is pronounced [piniˈteɲsia].

In the 1990s, Joan Marbeck's book "Ungua Andanza" was published, with the orthography written in a Luso-Malay context.

Common phrases

Thank You: Mutu Merseh (Port. Muitas mercês)
How Are You?, Teng Bong? (Port. Estás bom?, lit. Têm bom?)
Good Morning, Bong Pamiang (Port. Boa Manhã)
Good Afternoon: Bong Midia (Port. Bom Meio-dia)
Good Evening: Bong Atadi (Port. Boa Tarde)
Good Night: Bong Anuti (Port. Boa Noite)
Me: yo (Port. eu)
You (singular): bos (Port. vós)
You (plural): bolotudu (Port. vós todos)
Mother: mai (Port. mãe)
Father: pai (Port. pai)
Wife: muleh (Port. mulher)
Husband: maridu (Port. marido)
Old Woman: bela (Port. velha)
Old Man: belu (Port. velho)
Little one: Quenino or Kenino (Port. Pequenino)
Mouth: boca (Port. boca)
Fat: godru (Port. gordo)
Beautiful: Bonitu (Port. bonito)
Party: festa (Port. festa)
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten: ungua, dos, tres, kuatu, singku, sez, seti, oitu, novi, des (Port. um, dois, três, quatro, cinco, seis, sete, oito, nove, dez)

Poem of Malacca

Keng teng fortuna ficah na Malaka,
Nang kereh partih bai otru tera.
Pra ki tudu jenti teng amizadi,
Kontu partih logo ficah saudadi.

Ó Malaka, tera di San Francisku,
Nten otru tera ki yo kereh.
Ó Malaka undi teng sempri fresku,
Yo kereh ficah atih moreh.


Portuguese translation:
Quem tem fortuna fica em Malaca,
Não quer partir para outra terra.
Por aqui toda a gente tem amizade,
Quando tu partes logo fica a saudade.

Ó Malaca, terra de São Francisco,
Não tem outra terra que eu queira.
Ó Malaca, onde tem sempre frescura,
Eu quero ficar até morrer.


English translation:
Who is lucky stays in Malacca,
Doesn't want to go to another land.
In here everyone has friendship,
When one leaves soon has saudade
Saudade
Saudade ) is a unique Galician-Portuguese word that has no immediate translation in English. Saudade describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. It often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never return...

.

Oh Malacca, land of Saint Francis,
There is no other land that I want.
Oh Malacca, where there's always freshness,
I want to stay here until I die.

External links

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