Portuguese in Asia and Oceania
Encyclopedia
Compared to Africa
, the Americas
and Europe
, the presence of the Portuguese language in Asia
and Oceania
is quite small. The commercial empire of the Portuguese extended throughout Southeast Asia
.
(Português-padrão) forms the basis for the written and spoken norm, exclusively to East Timor and Macau. Portuguese dialects in Asia are closer to those of Portugal than Brazilian dialects
, although in some aspects of their phonetics, especially the pronunciation of unstressed vowels, they resemble Brazilian Portuguese
more than European Portuguese.
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the presence of the Portuguese language in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
is quite small. The commercial empire of the Portuguese extended throughout Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
.
Geographic distribution
- Sri LankaSri LankaSri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
: Formerly known as Ceylon (Ceilão in Portuguese), the island's first European visitors were Portuguese peoplePortuguese peopleThe Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
, who gave the island its original name. The island is home to a Portuguese BurgherPortuguese BurghersThe Portuguese Burghers are an ethnic group in Sri Lanka, of mixed Portuguese and Sri Lankan descent. They are Roman Catholic and spoke the Sri Lanka Indo-Portuguese language, a creole based on Portuguese. In modern times, English has become the common language while Sinhalese is taught in school...
minority who speaks Sri Lankan Portuguese Creole. Sri Lanka participated in the Jogos da LusofoniaLusophony GamesThe Lusophony Games is a multinational multi-sport event organized by the ACOLOP, which involves athletes coming from Lusophone countries, namely those belonging to the CPLP , but also others where there are significant Portuguese communities or that have a common past with Portugal.Participating...
in 2006
- GoaGoaGoa , 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...
, IndiaIndiaIndia , 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...
: The state of GoaGoaGoa , 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...
was a part of the Portuguese Empire until the mid-twentieth century. India participated in the Jogos da LusofoniaLusophony GamesThe Lusophony Games is a multinational multi-sport event organized by the ACOLOP, which involves athletes coming from Lusophone countries, namely those belonging to the CPLP , but also others where there are significant Portuguese communities or that have a common past with Portugal.Participating...
in 2006. Goa is awaiting the permission of the Indian Government to join the CPLP as an observer. In Goa, most of the relatively few speakers of Portuguese are older people. The Union Territory of Daman and Diu was also a Portuguese colony. As in Goa, the dwindling number of Portuguese speakers are also older people. Daman and Diu are also home to Indo-PortugueseIndo-PortugueseThe expression Indo-Portuguese Creoles may mean any of the creole languages spoken in India or Sri Lanka which had a substantial Portuguese influence in grammar or lexicon, such as* Sri Lanka Indo-Portuguese language* Diu Indo-Portuguese language...
Creoles.
- Malaysia and SingaporeSingaporeSingapore , 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 state of MalaccaMalaccaMalacca , 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...
and Singapore are homes to the Gente KristangKristang peopleThe 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 EurasiansEurasian (mixed ancestry)The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th-century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent....
who claim Portuguese descent and speak Papia Kristang, a Portuguese-lexified Creole. The Portuguese settlement at Malacca is a source of tourism for the state and the Lusophone heritage is visible in cuisine, architecture and folklore of the Gente Kristang. Pending approval from the Malaysian Government, Malacca may join the CPLP as an associate observer.
- MacauMacauMacau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
, The People's Republic of China: Portuguese is a co-official language alongside Chinese in the Special Administrative Region of MacauMacauMacau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
. It has become the centre for Portuguese learning in Asia and has become the focus through which China relates diplomatically to the member states of CPLP. Macau was the host city for the first Lusophone games in 2006. While the Macanese LanguagePatuaThe Patua is a community found in the state of West Bengal in India. Some Patuas are Hindus, while others are Muslims and Buddhists. Hindu Patuas are active in Kalighat and Kumartuli regions of Calcutta, along with some parts of Bengal, where they are reduced in number...
is by now critically endangered with less than a hundred speakers, the number of speakers of Portuguese has also decreased since the handover in 1999. But enrollments for private Portuguese classes have tripled, to 1,000, since 2002; that prompted public schools here to offer Portuguese, drawing more than 5,000 students.
- East TimorEast TimorThe 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...
: The Southeast Asian country added Portuguese as an official language as it gained independence from Indonesia in 2002. According to a 2004 census, 36 percent of respondents said they had "a capability in Portuguese". The inter-ethnic lingua franca, Tetum has a large number of loanwords derived from Portuguese making the latter relatively easy to learn for speakers of the former.
- JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
: There are approximately 300,000 Brazilians of Japanese descent living and working in Japan. This is the largest immigrant community after the Chinese and Korean communities. This 'return migration' to Japan has resulted in the largest Portuguese-speaking community in Asia.
- AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , 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...
: The Portuguese-speaking community in Australia is estimated to be approximately 65,000 people as a result from immigration from Portugal and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the Lusophone world to the OceaniaOceaniaOceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
n country.
CPLP
Various regions in Asia have expressed interest in participating in the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (the CPLP). The state of Malacca, the SAR of Macau and the State of Goa have all applied for observer or associate member status and are awaiting the permission of their governments (Malaysia, China and India respectively). East Timor joined the CPLP shortly after its independence at the turn of the 21st century. Indonesia has also expressed interest in joining the CPLP.Local norms and phonology
In Asia, Standard European PortugueseEuropean Portuguese
European Portuguese refers to the variety of Portuguese spoken in continental Portugal, as well as the Azores and Madeira islands...
(Português-padrão) forms the basis for the written and spoken norm, exclusively to East Timor and Macau. Portuguese dialects in Asia are closer to those of Portugal than Brazilian dialects
Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects written and spoken by most of the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil and by a few million Brazilian emigrants, mainly in the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Canada, Japan and Paraguay....
, although in some aspects of their phonetics, especially the pronunciation of unstressed vowels, they resemble Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects written and spoken by most of the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil and by a few million Brazilian emigrants, mainly in the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Canada, Japan and Paraguay....
more than European Portuguese.
See also
- East Timorese PortugueseEast Timorese PortugueseEast Timorese Portuguese is a Portuguese dialect spoken in East Timor. It is one of the official languages of East Timor alongside Tetum.-History:...
- Goan PortugueseGoan PortugueseGoan Portuguese is the dialect of Portuguese spoken in Goa, India....
- Macanese PortugueseMacanese PortugueseMacanese Portuguese or Patuá is a Portuguese dialect spoken in Macau. It is co-official with Cantonese. It is only spoken by 7% of the residents; less than 2% speak it as first language...
- Portuguese AustralianPortuguese AustralianPortuguese Australians are either Portuguese emigrated to or living in Australia, or native Australians with Portuguese ancestry.Despite their rather modest number compared to the Greek and Italian communities, Portuguese Australians form a very organized, self-conscious and active community in...
- Brazilian AustralianBrazilian AustralianBrazilian Australian is an Australian person who is from or has ancestral ties to Brazil.According to the 2006 Australian census, 6,647 Australians were born in Brazil while 7,491 claimed Brazilian ancestry, either alone or with another ancestry...
- Brazilians in JapanBrazilians in JapanThere is a significant community of Brazilians in Japan, consisting largely but not exclusively of Brazilians of Japanese ethnicity.-Migration history:...
External links
- Issues of Asian Portuguese-Speaking Spaces and Lusotopias
- Is There One Goan Identity,Several or None?
- Papia, Relijang e Tradisang The Portuguese Eurasians in Malaysia : Bumiquest, A Search for Self Identity
- The Portuguese Cultural Imprint on Sri Lanka
- China’s Portuguese Connection
- Talking Portuguese: China and East Timor
- As Maravilhas de Portugal no Mundo - Fortaleza de Damão, Índia
- As Maravilhas de Portugal no Mundo - Basílica do Bom Jesus de Goa