Article published in:
Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages
Vol. 33:2 (2018) ► pp. 247–279

Malacca Creole Portuguese in the 19th century

Evidence of a wider lectal range?

| Universidade Federal da Bahia
Earlier linguistic research suggested that Malacca Creole Portuguese (MCP) had existed without diglossia with Portuguese ever since the Dutch conquest of Portuguese Malacca in 1642, yet it had experienced some contact with Portuguese in the 19th and 20th centuries. The present study adds significantly to this discussion. It considers a range of information from sociohistorical studies and archival sources (including linguistic data) relating to the Dutch (1642–1795, 1818–1823) and early British (1795–1818, 1823–1884) colonial periods. For the Dutch period, it is seen that contact with other Creole Portuguese communities is likely to have persisted for some time. Most significant, however, is the finding that 19th century texts in Portuguese and creole Portuguese, recently identified in archival sources in London and Graz, show that Portuguese continued to be part of the Malacca sociolinguistic setting until the early British period, and that missionary Indo-Portuguese also had a presence at that time. It is concluded that, rather than presenting a narrow lectal range akin to that of the MCP community in the late 20th century, the creole lectal grid in the 19th century was more complex, and included dimensions of a continuum in a diglossic relationship with Portuguese.
Keywords: Malacca Creole Portuguese, historical sociolinguistics, early diglossia, continuum, lectal grid
Published online: 19 October 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.00016.bax
References

References

Abdullah, Munshi
1970 The Hikayat Abdullah: An Annotated Translation. Translated by A. H. Hill. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Andaya, Barbara Watson
1983 Melaka under the Dutch, 1641–1795. In Kernial Sing Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds.) Melaka. The transformation of a Malay capital c. 1400–1980. vol 1:195–241. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Baxter, Alan N.
1988 A Grammar of Kristang (Malacca Creole Portuguese). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
[ p. 276 ]
1996 Portuguese in the Pacific and Pacific Rim”. In S. A. Wurm and P. Mühlhäusler (eds.), Language Atlas for Intercultural Communication in the Pacific Rim Area. Stuttgart: Geocenter, pp. 299–338.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2009 “Causative and facilitative serial verbs in Asian Ibero-romance Creoles – a convergence of substrate and superstrate systems?” Journal of Portuguese Linguistics 8(2):65–90.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2012 The Creole Portuguese Language of Malacca: a delicate ecology. In Laura Jarnagin (ed.), Portuguese and Luso-Asian legacies in Southeast Asia, 1511–2011 – Volume 2: Culture and Identity in the Luso-Asian World, 115–142. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Baxter, Alan N. and Augusta Bastos
2012 A closer look at the post-nominal genitive determiner in Asian Creole Portuguese. In Hugo C. Cardoso, Alan N. Baxter, and Mário Pinharanda Nunes (eds.), Ibero-Asian Creoles: Comparative Perspectives, 47–79. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Baxter, Ian
1983 Dutch records from Malacca in the India Office’, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 56 (2): 105–133..Google Scholar
Bible, N. T. Matthew
1851 O Evangelho conforme de Santo Mattheos. Traduzido ne Indo-Portugueza. Londres: R. Clay.Google Scholar
Borschberg, Peter
2010 Ethnicity, Language and Culture in Melaka after the Transition from Portuguese to Dutch Rule (Seventeenth Century). Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 83(2): 93–117.Google Scholar
Bort, Bathasar
1927[1678] Report of Governor Balthasar Bort on Malacca 1678. (Trans. M. J. Bremmer). Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 5(1):9–232.Google Scholar
Boss, James Newton
2009 The Portuguese Mission in Singapore (1825–1999). Singapore: ST Commercial Print.Google Scholar
Cardoso, Hugo C.
2014 Factoring sociolinguistic variation into the history of Indo-Portuguese. Revista de Crioulos de Base Lexical Portuguesa e Espanhola 5: 87–114.Google Scholar
Chan, Kok Eng
1969 A study in the social geography of the Malacca Portuguese Eurasians. M.A. thesis, University of Malaya.Google Scholar
1983 The Eurasians in Melaka. In Kernial Sing Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds.) Melaka. The transformation of a Malay capital c. 1400–1980, vol 2:264–281. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clements, J. Clancy
2014 Lectal differences in Daman Indo-Portuguese. Revista de Crioulos de Base Lexical Portuguesa e Espanhola 5: 115–156Google Scholar
Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo
1906 Dialecto indo-português do Norte. Revista Lusitana 9: 142–166; 193–228.Google Scholar
Dickenson, A. H.
1941 The history of the creation of the Malacca police. Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 19(2): 251–283.Google Scholar
Fernando, Radin
2004 Metamorphosis of the Luso-Asian Diaspora en the Malay Archipelago, 1640–1795. In Peter Borschberg (ed.) Iberians in the Singapore-Melaka Area and Adjacent Regions (16th to 18th Century), 161–184. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.Google Scholar
2005 The lost archives of Malacca: are they really lost? Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 78(1): 1–36.Google Scholar
Findlay, G. G. and W. W. Holdsworth
1924 The history of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. Volume V. London: Epworth Press.Google Scholar
Gallop, Annabel Teh
2006 Malay documents in the Melaka Records in the British Library. Itinerario 30 (2): 54–77.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
[ p. 277 ]
Hancock, Ian F.
1969 The Malacca Creoles and their language. Afrasian 3:38–45.Google Scholar
1973 Malacca Creole Portuguese: a brief transformational account. Te Reo 16: 23–44.Google Scholar
1975 Malacca Creole Portuguese: Asian, African or European? Anthropological Linguistics 17(5):211–236.Google Scholar
Harrison, Brian
1979 Waiting for China: the Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca, 1818–1843, and early 19th century missions. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
1983 The Anglo-Chinese College and early modern education. In Kernial Sing Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds.) Melaka. The transformation of a Malay capital c. 1400–1980, vol 1:297–310. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Huet, G.
1909 La communauté portugaise de Batavia. Revista Lusitana 12: 149–170.Google Scholar
Hussin, Nordin
2007 Trade and society in the Straits of Melaka: Dutch Melaka and English Penang, 1780–1830. Singapore: NUSPress.Google Scholar
Irwin, G. I.
1956 Governor Couperus and the surrender of Malacca, 1795. Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 19(3): 86–113.Google Scholar
Knowlton, J. Edgar Jr.
1964 Malaysian Portuguese. The Linguist 26:211–213, 239–241.Google Scholar
Leupe, P. A.
1936 (1859) The siege and capture of Malacca from the Portuguese in 1640–41. Extracts from the Archives of the Dutch East India Company. (Translation by Mac Hacobian 1936) Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 14(1): 1–178.Google Scholar
Lloyd, W. J.
1827 Catechismo de Biblia de W. J. Lloyd, – Hum Curto –. Traducio em Indo-Portugeza de R. Newstead. Londres.Google Scholar
Lopes, David
1936 A expansão da Língua Portuguesa no oriente durante od séculos XVI, XVII e XVIII. 2ª edição. Porto: Portucalense Editora.Google Scholar
Maurer, Philippe
2011 The former Portuguese Creole of Batavia and Tugu (Indonesia). London: Battlebridge.Google Scholar
Maxwell, G.
1911 Barreto de Resende’s account of Malacca: 1636. Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 60:1–24.Google Scholar
McPherson, Kenneth
2004 Staying on: Reflecions on the Survival of Portuguese Enterprise in the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia from the Seventeenth to the Eighteenth Century. In Peter Borschberg (ed.) 2004 Iberians in the Singapore-Melaka Area and Adjacent Regions (16th to 18th Century), 63–91. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.Google Scholar
Muller, H. P. N.
1914 The Malay peninsula and Europe in the past. Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 67: 57–84.Google Scholar
Newbold, T. J.
1839 Political and statistical account of the British settlements in the Straits of Malacca. 2 vols. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
O’Sullivan, Ronnie Leona
1986 A history of the London Missionary Society in the Straits Settlements (c. 1815–1847). Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of London 1986 (School of Oriental and African Studies)Google Scholar
Rêgo, A. da Silva
1998 [1942] Dialecto Português de Malaca – e outros escritos. Lisboa: Commissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses.Google Scholar
Reinecke, John E., De Camp, David., Hancock, Ian F., Tsuzaki, Stanley M., Wood, Richard E.
1975 A Bibliography of Pidgin and Creole Languages. Honolulu: The University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Sandhu, Kernial Singh
1983 From Capital to Municipality. In Kernial Sing Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds.), Melaka: The Transformation of a Malay Capital, vol. 2, pp. 495–600.Google Scholar
[ p. 278 ]
Schuchardt, Hugo
1882 Kreolische Studien II. Über das Indoportugiesische von Cochim. Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wien (Philosophisch-historische Klasse) 102: 799–816.Google Scholar
1883 Kreolische Studien VI. Über das Indoportugiesische von Mangalore. Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wien (Philosophisch-historische Klasse) 105(III). 882–904.Google Scholar
1889 Beiträge zur Kenntnis des kreolischen Romanisch: VI. Zum Indoportugiesischen von Mahé und Cannanore. Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie 13. 516–524.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Smith, W. H. C.
1961 The Portuguese in Malacca during the Dutch period. STVDIA 7: 87–106.Google Scholar
Sta Maria, Bernard
1982 My people, my country. The story of the Malacca Portuguese community. Malacca: The Malacca Portuguese Development Centre.Google Scholar
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay
1985 Staying on: The Portuguese of southern Coromandel in the late seventeenth century. The Indian Economic and Social History Review 22(4): 445–463.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Teixeira, Manuel
1963 Macau e a sua diocese, VI: A Missão Portuguesa de Malacca. Lisboa: Agência Geral do Ultramar.Google Scholar
1987a The Portuguese Missions in Malacca and Singapore (1511–1958), Vol II: Malacca. Lisboa: Agência Geral do Ultramar.Google Scholar
1987b The Portuguese Missions in Malacca and Singapore (1511–1958), Vol III: Singapore. Lisboa: Agência Geral do Ultramar.Google Scholar
Thomaz, Luís Felipe Reis
2000 Early Portuguese Malacca. Macau: Macau Territorial Commission for the Commemorations of the Portuguese Discoveries & Instituto Politécnico de Macau.Google Scholar
Turnbull, C. M.
1983 Melaka under British colonial rule. In Kernial Sing Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds.) Melaka. The transformation of a Malay capital c. 1400–1980, vol 1:242–296. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Verhoeven, F. R. J.
1964 The Lost Archives of Dutch Malacca 1641–1824. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 37 (2): 11–27.Google Scholar
Ward, T. M. & J. P. & Grant
1830 Official papers on the medical statistics and topography of Malacca and Prince of Wales Island and on the prevailing diseases of the Tenasserim Coast. Penang: Government Press.Google Scholar

Archival sources

India Office Records (Malacca Dutch Archive) – British Library

IOR-9-29-3 – Goverment Proclamations and Public Notices

IOR-9-12-37 – Estate papers of Johannes Rodrigues who died at Malacca on 28 Aug 1823 (in Dutch and Portuguese),

IOR-9-12-26 – Estate papers of Jacob Dusker, 3 Nov 1818–25 May 1819 (in Dutch and Portuguese)

IOR-9-12-36 – Papers regarding the bankrupt estate of the late Bernaldus Bruijns, 30 May 1804–30 Aug 1823.

IOR R/9/36/5 and IOR/9/36/6 – housing surveys of Malacca in 1826/1827[ p. 279 ]

London Missionary Society Missionaries at Malacca. Council for World Mission Archives, Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London

Anon. 1829. De os principios de Religião: com Orações Curtos. Printed at the Malacca Mission Press.

Garling 1830 – Letter from Mrs Garling, dated March. 28.1830. Malacca – Incoming letters, Box 3.

Report 1830. Report of the Chinese Mission at Malacca. Printed at the Mission Press.

Hugo Schuchardt Archiv. Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Austria

Nr. 11.23.6.1 – New Testament chapters; Mattheus, Lucas, João.

Nr. 2614 – New Testament: First Epistle of Corinthians.

Nr. 8844 – Letter from Fr Nicolau Inácio Teófilo Pinto to Prof Hugo Schuchardt, 17th March 1884, with annexes.

Nr. 10725 – Personal letter dated 11/10/1883.

Nr. 9684.1 – Personal letter, dated 10/2/1884.

Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Wong, Kevin Martens
2019. Na kaza, greza kung stradu. Language Ecology 3:2 ► pp. 157 ff. Crossref logo
Ziegeler, Debra
2020. Changes in the functions of already in Singapore English. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 35:2 ► pp. 293 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 august 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.