Article published In:
Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages: Online-First Articles

Speaking with attitude

Language attitudes in comic literature in Macanese Creole

ORCID logo | Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP)Lisbon, Portugal
Applying a qualitative discourse-based analysis, this paper discusses the attitudes towards the languages spoken in Macao based on their representation in the comic literature written in Macanese Creole. The texts consist of those collected by Leopoldo Danilo Barreiros and those written by José dos Santos Ferreira. They originated from the mid-1800s to the 1990s, just before the creation of the special administrative region of Macao in 1999. The attitudes towards different languages vary according to the ethnicity, gender, age and socioeconomic status of the characters. While celebrating the ethnic and linguistic diversity of Macao, the authors of the texts performatively express nostalgia about Macanese Creole and the Macao of the olden days with which the language is associated, as well as concern about the decreasing Portuguese influence on Macanese culture and fear about growing Chinese influence.
Keywords: Macanese Creole, Patuá , Leopoldo Danilo Barreiros, José dos Santos Ferreira, Chacha
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Comic literature in MC
  • Social categories in comic literature in MC
    • Age
    • Gender
  • Attitudes towards language and ethnicity
    • Malay
    • Cantonese
    • English
    • Portuguese and MC
    • Latin
    • French
  • Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 3 September 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.23025.oli
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