Malacca Creole Portuguese in the 19th century: Evidence of a wider lectal range?

Resource type
Author/contributor
Title
Malacca Creole Portuguese in the 19th century: Evidence of a wider lectal range?
Abstract
Abstract 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.
Publication
Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages
Volume
33
Issue
2
Pages
247-279
Date
2018
Language
en
DOI
10.1075/jpcl.00016.bax
ISSN
0920-9034, 1569-9870
Short Title
Malacca Creole Portuguese in the 19th century
Accessed
1/28/21, 9:46 AM
Library Catalog
Extra
2 citations (Crossref) [2022-09-21] Publisher: John Benjamins
Citation
Baxter, A. N. (2018). Malacca Creole Portuguese in the 19th century: Evidence of a wider lectal range? Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 33(2), 247–279. https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.00016.bax