Kristang, a unique Malaccan Portuguese creole that was born over 500 years ago, is now endangered, and with its low level of transmission, it is continuously on the path to extinction, a linguistic expert has warned.
According to Stefanie Sharmila Pillai, Kristang is listed as endangered in Unesco's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger since the 1980s.
Based on her research, families in the Portuguese Settlement in Malacca have increasingly adopted English as their main language of communication.
"Most of the (children nowadays) are not fluent (in Kristang).
"They may know it because they live in the settlement and therefore they can hear the language, but they are not fluent, and they speak English more frequently," the linguistics professor told Malaysiakini.
Part of the issue may also be the size of the Kristang community in Malacca, as she estimated only 1,500 to 2,000 remain alive.
In comparison, the bumiputera category comprises 20.6 million people, while there are around 6.9 million Chinese and 2.0 million Indians, as per the 2020 census.
Centuries of history, traditions, songs
On June 29, the Melaka Portuguese-Eurasian Heritage Arts and Cultural Society organised a "Kambateh Papiah Kristang" (Speak Kristang) competition at the Portuguese Settlement in conjunction with Festa San Pedro, an annual celebration of great importance to the small coastal village.
"The Kristang language represents far more than a means of communication. It embodies centuries of history, traditions, songs, stories, values, and collective memories that form an integral part of Malacca's multicultural heritage.
"If meaningful action is not taken today, future generations may inherit only fragments of this rich linguistic heritage," the organisation said in a statement after the event.
Community activist Martin Theseira, who helped organise the competition, told Malaysiakini that out of 10 children who were shortlisted for the competition, only three had cleared the audition process.
Most of the children knew isolated words, he said, but were unable to string them together to form a sentence.
Because of this, he expressed worries that Kristang would completely die out soon.
"The next generation will be struggling to keep the culture and language alive," he lamented.
Pointing to the urgency of the matter, he called on the government to provide greater institutional support for ethnic minorities in Malaysia, especially to help preserve intangible aspects of their culture.
Diminishing Portuguese vocabulary
According to Stefanie, Kristang's emergence in Malacca - after the Portuguese conquest of the state in 1511 - marked a shift from the Portuguese language.
While Portuguese words form the base of Kristang’s vocabulary, she said certain aspects of the language have evolved over the centuries to more closely resemble Malay.
She explained that this includes pronunciation and grammar, with Kristang having fewer vowel sounds than Portuguese, along with adopting Malay's word reduplication process.
On top of that, she said Kristang’s Portuguese vocabulary has also gradually diminished.
"Every time we look at it, we will find that it's declining further, and more words will be lost, or not used anymore, as English words would take their place.
"Because if English is the dominant language, then people start replacing Kristang words with English words.
"Maybe now it (the Portuguese content) is about 80 percent," Stefanie said.
For now, community activists are creating more opportunities for children to learn and speak Kristang, including through language competitions and cultural programmes.
Whether those efforts can reverse decades of decline remains uncertain, but Martin believes there is still time.
"We still have a chance," he added. - Mkini
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