Kristang language

History

Origins

The Kristang language originated after the conquest of Malacca (Malaysia) in 1511 by the Portuguese Empire. Until a takeover by the Dutch in 1642, Malacca served as one of the key ports in the trade and administration network of Portuguese establishments along with Goa and Hormuz, allowing Portugal control over main Asiatic trade routes. The lingua franca of Malacca then was a pidginised form of Malay known as Bazaar Malay or Melayu Pasar, used amongst the resident foreign population which then consisted mainly of Javanese, Tamils and Hokkien Chinese. The constant traffic of Portuguese and traders of other origins such as India eventually gave birth to Papia Kristang, one of many Portuguese-derived contact languages which resulted from Portuguese colonial expansion during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A pidgin Portuguese preceding the Kristang creole has also been proposed, whereby a reduced system based on Portuguese converges with other languages present in the contact situation.

The community of Kristang speakers descends mainly from interracial relationships between Portuguese men and local women, as well as a number of migrants from Portuguese India, themselves of mixed Indo-Portuguese ancestry. This was supported by Portuguese officials who advocated mixed marriages in the face of a labour shortage in the colonies, leading to the very first native speakers of Kristang as well as the development of the creole.

Even after Portugal lost Malacca and almost all contact in 1641, the Kristang community largely preserved its language. The demographics of Malacca in the mid-17th century was still predominantly made up of the Portuguese even under Dutch control. The Irmang di Greza (Brothers of the Church), a manifestation of the bond between language and religion in the Kristang culture, acted as an intermediary between the priest and the remnants of the Portuguese population despite prohibition by the Dutch. Liturgy and pastoral sessions were conducted in Kristang in Malacca, which contributed to the longevity of the language into a period as late as the 20th century.

Kristang also had a substantial influence on Macanese, the creole language spoken in Macau, due to substantial migration from Malacca after its conquest by the Dutch.

Attrition of Kristang

The ceding of Malacca by the Dutch to the British via the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 directly caused the decline of the Kristang language. By the mid 19th century, many Kristangs flocked towards clerical and auxiliary positions provided by their new colonial masters. As such, the Kristang language saw a decline in use compared to English. In addition, the rising affluence of the region meant more job opportunities, resulting in many Kristangs moving away from Malacca. Moreover, the language is not taught at school, although there are still some Church services in Kristang.

In the context of Singapore, Kristang arrived in the 1820s due to the large influx of Eurasian immigrants from Malacca. However, there was little exposure and recognition of Kristang in Singapore, especially when English became entrenched as the sole language of education and the major language used in most spheres of society after the country gained independence in 1965. As a result, the intergenerational transmission of Kristang ceased almost completely.

The upkeep of Kristang can largely be attributed to its connection with the dominant religion of the Portuguese and their relative social standing in their communities between the 1600s to the late 1800s. The core Kristang-speaking communities gradually eroded due to better socioeconomic opportunities elsewhere. Post-World War Two, the new generation of Catholic priests that arrived to replace the pre-war priests who had been executed demonstrated little sensitivity towards the Kristang language and culture. Eventually, the bond between Kristang and religion was severed due to the association of the Portuguese Mission with the St Xavier's Church.

Migration overseas and intermarriage with other nationalities have also led to Kristang speakers leaving the Portuguese Settlement in order to live and work in other parts of Malaysia. Furthermore, the dominantly Kristang-speaking middle-class gradually began to speak English for practical reasons, altering the prestige of English with regards to Kristang. To many in the community, they grew to accept that speaking English was a key to employment instead of Kristang, facilitating a breakdown in the transmission of Kristang.

Revitalisation efforts

Papia Kristang is facing a steep decline in language use within the community. There has been an apparent language shift to English and Malay due to the reduced prestige and accessibility of Kristang. However, revitalization efforts have begun in recent years in both the Portuguese Settlement in Singapore and Malacca. Such efforts have seen some success, nearly tripling the number of Kristang speakers of varying fluency.

Malacca

The Kristang-speaking community located at the Portuguese Settlement, or Padri sa Chang ("The Priest's Land") was able to undertake more sustained revitalisation efforts and publicise itself to non-Eurasian Malaysians, and the language. Notably with texts, stories and phrasebooks in Kristang produced by Joan Margaret Marbeck and through investments and interest from individuals and organisations outside the community. Joan Marbeck has produced three publications: Ungu Adanza (An Inheritance), Linggu Mai (Mother Tongue) and the Kristang Phrasebook. She is also credited with writing probably the only play in Kristang, called Seng Marianne (Without Marianne) and was also instrumental in staging a musical in Kristang – Kazamintu no Praiya which translates to 'Wedding on the beach'. Support was also received from the Lisbon-based Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which funded and published Marbeck's Kristang text.

Within the community, there were efforts made together with the help of academics to promote their culture and the Kristang language. In 1988, Alan Baxter published A Grammar of Kristang based on his fieldwork within the community. This was the first book which focused on the descriptive grammar of Kristang and established many core concept on Kristang linguistics. It also had a significant impact on many later studies on Kristang.

Vocabulary

The Kristang lexicon borrows heavily from Portuguese, but often with drastic truncation. Due to its largely Portuguese vocabulary, the Kristang lexicon has much in common with other Portuguese-based creoles, including the near-extinct creoles of Indonesia and East Timor. As it is primarily a creole, much of its vocabulary is also derived from Chinese, Indian and Malay languages to varying degrees.

Metathesis was common in the derivation of the Kristang lexicon from Portuguese root words. e.g.

• Portuguese gordo → Kristang godru "fat"

Orthography

Polynomy

Kristang is a polynomic language, where standardisation of the language's spoken and written forms is dispreferred and the natural morphophonological and orthographic variation that Kristang developed as a result of its history and sociocultural context is preferred. This variation is usually concentrated around "famililects" spoken by families rather than geographical dialects, with Kristang famililects generally being categorisable into three distinct forms:

1. A system based on Portuguese orthography

The 19th and 20th centuries saw a rise in the use of Modern Portuguese-based orthography (for example, Rego (1942)) due to the perception of Kristang as a variety of Portuguese instead of a distinct creole language partially based on Early Modern Portuguese. This is characterized by the use of diacritics such as acute accents (á, é, í, ó, ú). The system has been adopted by some native Kristang speakers as well.

2. A system based on a mixture of Portuguese, English and Malay

Other speakers have used a system influenced by Portuguese, English and Malay orthography. This creates an issue as the system is inconsistent in the representation of Kristang sounds and are not immediately intelligible to both speakers and non-speakers of Kristang.

3. A system based on Malay orthography

There are many observable parallels between the phonology of Malay and Kristang which has led to inherent similarities in the orthographic representations of the two languages as well. The first proposal for a standard Kristang orthography was made in 1973 by Ian F. Hancock (1973:25) who recognised this quality and advocated the Malay-based system due to the speakers' familiarity with it. This would, therefore, lead to a swift acquisition of literacy in the reading and writing of the Kristang language.

This system to spell Kristang was further expanded on in A Grammar of Kristang by Alan N. Baxter, in which he agreed on and emphasized the use of the Malay orthography. Published in 1995, Joan Margaret Marbeck's book Ungua Andanza also followed this approach, with the orthography written in a Luso-Malay context.

Phonology

The acoustic and articulatory properties of Kristang have not been extensively studied. However, Hancock (1969, 1973), Batalha (1981), and most recently, Baxter (1988) have outlined brief descriptions of its sound system. In general, Kristang's inventory of consonant and vowel phonemes shows a significant parallel to that of Standard Malay.

Consonants

Orthographic note:
The sounds are represented orthographically by their symbols as above, except:

• is written as ⟨ny⟩ in the Malay-inspired orthography, but as ⟨nh⟩ in the Portuguese-based orthography
• is written as ⟨ng⟩ in the Malay-inspired orthography, but as either the letters ⟨n⟩ or ⟨m⟩, or the diphthongs ⟨ã⟩ or ⟨ão⟩ in the Portuguese-based orthography, based on context
• is written as ⟨ch⟩, though it is sometimes written as ⟨c⟩, based on the post-1972 Malay orthography
• is written as ⟨j⟩, though in the Portuguese-based orthography it may be written as ⟨g⟩ depending on context
• is written as ⟨g⟩, though in the Portuguese-based orthography it is written as ⟨gu⟩ before the vowels ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩ or as part of a // glide
• is always written as ⟨k⟩ in the Malay-inspired orthography, while in the Portuguese-based orthography, it is represented with a ⟨c⟩ in most contexts except before the vowels ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩ and as part of a // glide, where it is written ⟨qu⟩ instead
• is always written as ⟨s⟩ in the Malay-inspired orthography. In the Portuguese-based orthography it may be variously rendered as either ⟨s⟩, ⟨ss⟩, ⟨c⟩ or ⟨ç⟩, depending on context
• is always written as ⟨z⟩ in the Malay-inspired orthography, but may be rendered as ⟨s⟩ in the Portuguese-based orthography, depending on context
• is always written as ⟨r⟩ in the Malay-inspired orthography, but may be rendered as ⟨rr⟩ in the Portuguese-based orthography, depending on context
• is sometimes written as ⟨v⟩ in the Portuguese-based orthography, based on context

Portuguese words which begin with ⟨ch⟩, pronounced ("sh") in modern Portuguese, are often pronounced as ("ch") in Kristang, e.g.:

• Portuguese chegar → Kristang chegak "to arrive"
• Portuguese chuva → Kristang chua "rain"

This may be due to Malay influence, or the preservation of an Early Modern Portuguese pronunciation in Kristang. It is also worth noting that Northern Portugal also retains the Portuguese pronunciation.

Phonological contrasts

Baxter (1988), in particular, established various phonemic contrasts in the Kristang consonant system.

Stops and affricates contrast in the initial and medial positions.

Fricatives contrast in the medial positions. No clear distinctions between voiced-voiceless pairs and all fricative counterparts can be drawn as is highly infrequent and restricted in distribution and initial has fallen into disuse.

Nasals contrast do not contrast before a consonant, and no contrasts have been found in identical environments in the final position. In the initial position, only , and contrast, while all nasals contrast in the medial position. Tap, as well as lateral liquid consonants, contrast in all positions.

Vowels

The inventory of vowel phonemes in Kristang is also highly similar to Standard Malay vowel phonemes.

Diphthongs and vowel sequences

Diphthongs in Kristang are formed when either the vowel , or the vowel , occurs in the same syllable as another vowel. The vowel and are pronounced as the semivowels (or glides) and respectively in such cases.

There are 10 word-internal diphthongs in Kristang as outlined by Baxter (1988). Of all 10, 3 ( as in rainya 'queen', as in chua 'rain' and as in dia 'day') may also constitute hiatus, i.e. the vowels in would be pronounced as two distinct syllables in certain environments.

The relatively large number of diphthongs is also in contrast to Malay, whereby only three native diphthong phonemes are described:

1. : kedai ('shop')
2. : kerbau ('buffalo')
3. : dodoi ('lullaby')

These diphthongs also display visible parallels to certain Kristang vowel sequences , and .

The Portuguese diphthong (or archaic ) are often reduced to in Kristang in Portuguese loan words, e.g.:

• Portuguese dois/dous → Kristang dos 'two'
• Portuguese à noite/à noute → Kristang anoti/anuti 'tonight'

Kristang diphthongs are monosyllabic and the vowel sequences are differentiated according to its stress position. For example, the stress in is on the first vowel whereas in , the second vowel is stressed.

Stress and rhythm

Kristang is a syllable-timed language (not unlike Malay which also displays syllable-based rhythm).

According to Baxter (2004), most polysyllabic words in Kristang can be classified into two large groups based on the stress position in the word.

Stress Rule A

Most words which end in a vowel have tonic stress on the penultimate syllable.

• kaza 'house'
• nomi 'name'
• rayu 'wicked'
• apoyu 'support'
• kumeria 'food'
• rua 'street'

Stress Rule B

Most words which end in a consonant have tonic stress on the final syllable.

• landes 'Dutch'
• natal 'Christmas'

However, stress pattern is not completely predictable in Kristang, as there are also certain words which are exceptions to the above two rules.

Exception to Rule A

Verbs which end in a stressed vowel (e.g. kumi 'to eat'). Attention should be paid to the lexical stress in such instances as it brings about a difference in meaning (e.g. kaza 'house' vs kaza 'to marry").

Some vowel-ending words are also stressed on the antepenultimate syllable instead. (such as familia 'family', animu 'valour')

Exception to Rule B

Some consonant-ending words are stressed on the penultimate syllable (such as okel 'spectacles', nobas 'news')

Kristang also displays stress shifting in that many verbs display a tendency to shift their stress from the final syllable to penultimate syllable when followed by a stressed syllable in the next word, especially in rapid speech.

Grammar

The grammatical structure of Kristang is similar to that of the Malay language. The usage of verbs is one of the grammatical features of Kristang that displays this quality. While Portuguese verbs mainly use morphology, or suffixes, to change a verb's tense or for it to match with the person and number of its subject, Malay does not change the form of the verb itself. Instead, it makes use of pre-verbal words to convey tense and does not indicate the person or number of the subject in the form of the verb. Kristang's structure is practically identical to Malay, although the choice of words comes from Portuguese.

Syntax

Papiá Kristang has Subject–Verb–Object (SVO) word order in simple sentences. The direct human objects are case-marked by the preposition ku. The same preposition also marks indirect objects. Intransitive clauses, the case-marked indirect object may precede the direct object, especially when the former is pronominal. Noncore arguments are generally located either at the beginning or at the end of the sentence as shown in example (1).

(1)

Amiang

tomorrow

Diego

Diego

lo

FUT

dá

give

ku

DAT

bos

2SG

aké

that

doi

money

na

LOC

butika

shop

'Tomorrow, Diego will give you that money, at the shop.'

Adversative Passive, which is used to talk about situations where a negative action happens to something, but the person or originator of the negative action is not mentioned, is also present both in Kristang and Malay. The adversative passive is signalled by kena (Malay), and by tokah (Kristang).

For complex sentences, the phrases and clauses are joined by coordinating conjunctions ku "with, and", kě "or", and mas "but". There are also instances where object clauses may be headed by ki; however, this is rare and is only found in traditional formal registers, as in a wedding speech. The most frequent means of expressing nominal subordination is parataxis as shown in example (2) and (3).

(2)

Nus

1PL

pidi

ask

ki

COMP

tudu

all

bolotu

3PL

podi

can

kumí

eat

sabrozu

tasty

'We ask that you may all eat to your satisfaction.'

(3)

Yo

1SG

ja

PFV

skribé

write

ku

ACC

eli

3SG

Ø

Ø

John

John

ja

PFV

kazá.

marry

'I wrote to him that John has married.'

Adverbial clauses are headed by antis di "before", kiora "when", chuma "as", kantu "if", padi "in order to", kauzu ki "because", kifoi "because", etc., yet may also be indicated by parataxis without conjunctions.

Relative clauses are headed by ki "what, who" (and very rarely by keng "who"), yet also commonly occur with a pronoun head or may occur without it. This can be seen in example (4) and (5).

(4)

Tantu

many

yo

1SG

sa

GEN

kambra

friend

kambradu

friend

ki

REL

ja

PFV

bai

go

skola

school

pun.

too

'many of my friends who went to school too.'

(5)

Jenti

person

prenya

pregnant

eli

3SG

parí

bear

muré

die

ja

PFV

fiká

become

pontianak.

vampire

'A pregnant woman who dies in childbirth becomes a vampire.'

In Kristang, The noun phrase (NP) is a structure which can occur as subject of a verb, object of a verb, object of a relator or as a predicate.

There are five types of prenominal determiners in Kristang:

Quantifier:

(6)

kada

each

kaza

house

'Each house’.

Numeral:

(7)

dos

two

prau

boat

'Two boats’.

Interrogative determiner:

(8)

kí

REL

redi

net

?

Q

'What net?’

Demonstrative article:

(9)

aké

DEM

albi

tree

'That tree.’

The demonstratives isi and ake(li) 'that' precede the noun and indicate a distance contrast.

Possessive NP + sa :

(10)

eli

3S

sa

G

irmáng

sibling

femi

female

'His sister.’

Adnominal possessives precede the noun and consist of possessor (noun or pronoun) + genitive marker sa (or sě).

In comparative constructions of equality, the adjective is marked by iguál 'equal' and standard is marked by ku 'with':

(11)

John

John

iguál

equal

grandi

big

ku

with

Peter.

Peter

'John is as big as Peter.’

In the comparative construction of inequality, the adjective is marked by más 'more' and the standard by di 'of':

(12)

Eli

3SG

más

more

altu

tall

di

of

Pio.

Pio

'He is taller than Pio.’

The superlative comparison consists of the comparative of inequality plus a universal standard:

(13)

Maria

Maria

más

more

altu

tall

di

of

tudu

all

mbes

once

aké

DEM

femi

female

femi.

female

'Maria is the tallest of all the girls.’

There is only one set of personal pronouns that occurs in all pronominal functions. The 3SG and 3PL pronouns only refer to animates, principally to humans.

Morphology

Pluralisation is also the same in Malay as in Kristang. For example, in English and Portuguese, an '–s' is added to make cats or gatos, whereas in Kristang and Malay, the entire word is duplicated, such as gatu-gatu in Kristang, and kucing-kucing in Malay. Reduplication is not only a feature of the noun class but also a feature of the adjective, adverb and verb classes. Adjectives and adverbs reduplicate to signify intensity: kěni~kěninu, "quite small, very small", belu belu "quite old", sedu sedu "quite/very early". On the other hand, the interrogative pronouns reduplicate to signify indefiniteness: keng keng (who who) "whoever", ki ki (what what "whatever". As for the reduplication of the numerals, dos "two" and tres "three", it gave the respective readings "in pairs" and "in threes".

With nouns, reduplication can signal plurality, often involving partial reduplication: krenkrensa (= krensa + krensa) 'children', femfemi (= femi + femi) 'women'. However, the reduplication of nouns with non-specific reference in object position may yield the meaning 'all kinds of' or 'lots of':

(14)

Yo

1SG

sa

GEN

sogru

father.in.law

gadrá

keep

pastu

bird

pastu

bird

'My father-in-law keeps all kinds of birds.'

Without reduplication, the above sentence would simply express plural: 'birds'.

To indicate verb tenses, the following appositions are used: jah (i.e. from the Portuguese já, meaning "already", or controversially a corruption of Malay dah, shortened version of sudah, also "already") for past tenses; ta (from está, which means "is") for present continuous tenses and logu or lo (from logo, which means "soon") for the future tense. These simplified forms correspond with their equivalents in Malay sudah, sedang, and akan, respectively.

Papiá Kristang has two overt markers of aspect (ja 'perfective' and ta 'imperfective'), an overt marker of future tense (lo(gu)), and a zero marker.

This table summarised the functions of these markers:

Example (15) shows the zero marker (Ø) with a dynamic verb of past or present habitual representation:

(15)

Yo

1SG

sa

GEN

pai

father

Ø

Ø

fai

do

sibrisu

work

na

LOC

municipal.

municipal

'My father works/used to work in the Municipal.'

Example (16) shows the marker ja with a dynamic verb, with perfective aspect representation:

(16)

Eli

3SG

ja

PFV

bai

go

mar

sea

(onti

yesterday

anoti).

night

'He went fishing (last night).'

The marker ta occurs with dynamic verbs in past or present contexts, with either a progressive reading, as in (17), or an iterative reading, as in (18):

(17)

Diego

Diego

ta

IPFV

les

read

buku.

book

'Diego is/was reading a book.'

(18)

Eli

3SG

ta

IPFV

fai

do

sibrisu

work

na

LOC

Singaporura.

Singapore

'He is/was working in Singapore.'

The marker lo(go) conveys a future or conditional reading, as in examples (19) and (20), respectively where it occurs with a dynamic verb:

(19)

Amiang

tomorrow

out

other

dia,

day

eli

3SG

logu

FUT

bai

go

mar.

sea

'The day after tomorrow, he will go fishing.'

(20)

Kanti

if

yo

1SG

teng

have

doi,

money

yo

1SG

lo

FUT

kompra

buy

kareta.

car

'If I have/had the money I will/would buy a car.'

The Tense-Aspect-Mood (TAM) markers do not normally co-occur. Combinations of markers are very rare and when they do occur they appear to involve an adverbial reading of the initial marker. Thus, when ja is seen to combine with the imperfective marker ta, ja has the adverbial reading 'already' of its Portuguese source:

(21)

Kora

when

yo

1SG

ja

PFV

chegá

arrive

eli

3SG

ja

already

ta

IPFV

kumí

eat

'When I arrived, he was already eating.'

Kristang examples

Numbers

Much of the lexicon for Kristang numbers draws influence from Portuguese, a Romance language. However, unlike Portuguese, which distinguishes between the masculine and feminine forms of "one" (um/uma) and "two" (dois/duas), numbers in Kristang do not inflect for gender.

Pronouns

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

Common phrases

Poem of Malacca