MELAKA: This year’s National Day could mark a new beginning for Kristang, with the Portuguese-Eurasian community hoping the celebration will inspire efforts to revive the centuries-old language for a new generation of speakers.
Melaka Portuguese Eurasian Heritage, Arts and Cultural Society president Martin Theseira said the community’s wish is for the language to receive greater recognition as a treasured part of Malaysia’s multicultural heritage.
“The language represents far more than a means of communication as it embodies centuries of history, traditions, songs, stories, values and collective memories that form an integral part of the historic city’s multicultural heritage,” he said in an interview.
Theseira said Kristang, also known as “Papia Kristang” or Melaka Creole Portuguese, was developed through interactions between Portuguese settlers and local communities following the Portuguese conquest of Melaka in 1511.
Although much of its vocabulary is rooted in Portuguese, the language evolved in South-East Asia and incorporated grammatical and linguistic influences from regional languages.
“Kristang reflects the historical and cultural changes that we have undergone as a nation,” he said.
Theseira said linguistic research has traced the use of Kristang at the Portuguese Settlement for at least five centuries, making it one of the enduring legacies of Melaka’s historical role as a meeting point for different civilisations.
Kristang was listed in the Unesco Red Book of Endangered Languages in 1984, but the continued decline in the number of fluent speakers showed that more extensive and sustained efforts are needed to save it from dying out.
Theseira said English increasingly replaced Kristang in some households because it was regarded as more useful for education and employment, while Bahasa Malaysia was widely used in schools, public administration and daily communication.
“As Kristang loses its place in everyday conversations, some younger members of the community grow up understanding only fragments of the language, while others are unable to speak it at all.
“If the language is no longer spoken at home, there will eventually be no generation left to inherit it,” he said.
Theseira said commonly used Malay words with Portuguese origins include almari, derived from armario, baldi from balde, bangku from banco, tuala from toalha and jendela from janela.
Tommy Savage, 66, said Kristang had been spoken by the Portuguese community in Melaka for centuries and deserved to be celebrated as part of Malaysia’s national heritage.
“As we celebrate the 69th National Day, our hope is for Kristang to be recognised and celebrated as part of the nation’s pride,” he said.
