Portuguese Creole

This article is primarily about the language. See also a summary in the context of the other creole people.

Portuguese Creole is a creole language based on the Portuguese language.

The Portuguese-based Creoles are classified by geographical order and by substrate language (the language that contacted with Portuguese):

• Portuguese-African Creoles. It includes the High-Guinean and Gulf of Guinea Creoles.
• Portuguese-Asian Creoles. These Creoles are divided into Portuguese-Indian and Portuguese-Malay (including the Portuguese-Chinese).
• Portuguese-American Creoles. Spoken the Antilles and Suriname.

Today, Portuguese pidgins still exist in Angola and Mozambique, uncreolized. A Portuguese pidgin, known as 'Pequeno Português' (Simple Portuguese, literely "little Portuguese") is still used has lingua franca between distinct Angolan tribes.

Origins

Portugal in the period of discoveries and colonization created a linguistic contact with native languages and people of the discovered lands and thus pidgins were formed. Until the 18th century, these Portuguese pidgins were used as Lingua Franca in Asia and Africa.

Later, the Portuguese pidgins were expanded grammatically and lexically, as it became a native language. Today, these languages are known "Portuguese Creoles". The Portuguese Creoles or Portuguese-based Creoles are the ones that have almost all lexical content bases on Portuguese, while grammatically they are very different.

According to the monogenetic theory of pidgins advanced by Hugo Schuchardt, most of the pidgins and creoles of European base in the world derived from a version of Lingua Franca relexified by the Portuguese. This "broken Portuguese" would be used by European sailors whenever they met new peoples. Items like the preposition na (Portuguese word for "in" feminine) would be marks of this common origin.

The Portuguese word for "creole" is crioulo, it derives from criar (to raise) and olo (house - a typical African house in the Portuguese African colonies). Since most of the African creole speakers had a Portuguese father and an African mother, they were raised (criados) by their African mother, not as slaves, in the "olos", thus "crioulos", and were servants in the house of their fathers. Thus the Creole was left free to develop into a stable language. While the Africans were often deported to the Americas, the mixed raced were not.

In Portugal and the African Portuguese language countries, the word "crioulo" is often a synonym of "Cape Verdean", where the large majority of the population is mixed raced. The word "crioulo" for the language is only used for the Guinean Portuguese Creoles. In these countries the word "Crioulo" does not have the same connotation it has in Brazil.

At first, the proper Africans were prohibited to speak an African language, because their master did not understand it, so they should speak a Portuguese African Pidgin, because it would be easier for them to understand it. Although the pidgnins would eventually evolve in a way that today is very hard for a Portuguese speaker to understand it due to significant erosion of most words and simple and often very different grammar.

Portuguese-African Creoles

Spoken in Africa, the Guinean Creoles, are divided by those of High-Guinea, spoken in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Gambia. These creoles are the most ancient Portuguese Creoles. There is also the Creoles of Gulf of Guinea, spoken in São Tomé and Príncipe and Equatorial Guinea.

Kriol

The Creole of Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, Upper Guinea Creole, is often known as Kriol or "Kriulo" or even "Crioulo da Guiné"; it is originated from the Kriol that was spoken mainly in the Portuguese Praças (Plazas) from Senegal to Sierra Leone, such as, of Cacheu, Ziguinchor and Geba, in early 16th century. The Creole of Guinea is among the first Portuguese Creoles that came to exist. Portuguese merchants and settlers started to mix with locals almost immediately, this became a rule among Portuguese explorers and the main reason for the large number of Portuguese Creoles throughout the world. This mixed race was called Lançados (launched) and contributed to the spread of the Portuguese language by a pidgin. There are three main dialects of this Creole in Guinea-Bissau and Senegal: "Bissau and Bolama", "Batafa" and "Cacheu-Ziguinchor". The Creole has as substrate language the language of the local peoples: Mandingas, Manjacos, Pepéis and others, but most of the lexicon (around 80%) comes from Portuguese.

The Creole is used as lingua franca in Guinea-Bissau; it is spoken by 60% of the population. Portuguese itself is spoken by 12-14%. There are 159,000 first language speakers in Guinea-Bissau (1996) and more that 0.6 million that use it as second language.

The dialect of Casamance (Ziguinchor), similar to the one of Cacheu (Guinea-Bissau) has some influence of French; Fijus di Terra (Port. Filhos da Terra, Eng. Land’s Children) and Fijus di Fidalgu (Port. Filhos de Fidalgo, Eng. Noble’s Children) speak it, all of them are known, locally, as Portuguis because they adopt European habits, are catholics and speak a Portuguese Creole. They are descendants of Portuguese men and African women. Most of them still have Portuguese surnames, such as da Silva, Carvalho or Fonseca. Ziguinchor was, in fact, formed by Portugal in 1645, its name is derived from the Portuguese, Cheguei e choram (Eng. I came and they cry), because the natives assumed that they had come to enslave them. However the Portuguese implemented a base for trade and started to intermarriage with African women. The former Kingdom of Casamance made a friendship alliance with the Portuguese and the local king adopted European lifestyle and there were Portuguese in his court . In 1899, the city was ceded to France and in the middle of the 20th century, the language spread to the surrounding area. After Senegal's independence from France, the Creole people were seen as friends of the French, and discrimination by the more numerous northern Wolof speaking community started, which has caused Casamance to struggle for independence since 1982. Today, although they continue to struggle, the movement is more placid and learning Portuguese became popular in Senegal because they see it has a link to their past. In Senegal, the Creole is the first language of at least 46,500 people (1998), it is mainly spoken in Ziguinchor but also there are speakers in other Casamance cities and in The Gambia.

Crioulo (Creoles of Cape Verde)

Each inhabited island of Cape Verde has its own creole (crioulo). The greatest differences are between the creole of Santiago and Santo Antão.

• The Sotavento Creoles: Creole (Kriolu) of Santiago (http://www.priberam.pt/dcvpo/dcvpo.aspx), Maio, Fogo and Brava (http://www.bcv.cv/_conteudo/dinheiro/nota/1999/2000.htm#).
• The Barlavento Creoles: Creole (Criol) of São Vicente (Criol de Soncente (http://www.unb.br/il/liv/public/frusoni.htm)), São Nicolau (http://www.terravista.pt/fernoronha/2651/crioulo.html), Sal, Boavista and Santo Antão (http://membres.lycos.fr/pontadosol/pontadosol/presentsite.htm)

see also the external link: A Perspective on Capeverdean Crioulo by Robert French (http://www.clubetabanka.com/cv/creole.asp)

Angolar

"Lungua N'golá" (or "Língua Angolar", in Portuguese) is mainly spoken in south of the São Tomé Island (main island of São Tomé and Príncipe) and by some people on the coast of the same island by Angolar fishermen. The Creole uses, as substrate, a dialect of Umbundo, a Bantu language from inland Angola, but is extensively influenced by Portuguese, mainly in lexicon level. This is not a major São Tomean Creole.

Annobonnese

The Creole of the island of Ano Bom (Equatorial Guinea) acknowledged as "Falar de Ano Bom" (Fá d'Ambô or even Fla d'Ambu) is analogous to Forro, spoken by 9,000 people in Ano Bom and Fernando Póo Islands. In fact, Fá d'Ambô is derived from Forro as it shares the same structure (82% of its lexicon). When the island was discovered by Portugal in the 15th century it was uninhabited, but in the 18th century, Portugal exchanged it and some other territories in Africa for Uruguay with Spain. Spain wanted to acquire territory in Africa, and Portugal wanted to further enlarge the territory that they saw as the "New Portugal" (Brazil). Nevertheless, the populace of Ano Bom was against the shift and was hostile toward the Spaniards. This, combined with the isolation of mainland Equatorial Guinea and the proximity of São Tomé and Príncipe — just 400 km from the island — has assured the maintenance of its identity.

Fá d'Ambô has gained some words of Spanish origin (10% of its lexicon), but some words are of dubious origin because both Spanish and Portuguese are based on the same language (Spoken or Vulgar Latin).

Forro

São Tomé is an island of the Gulf of Guinea, discovered by the Portuguese in the 15th century. It was uninhabited at the time, but Portuguese settlers used the island as a center of the slave trade, and there was a need for slaves in the island. Since both parties needed to communicate, a pidgin was formed. The substrate languages were from the Bantu and Kwa groups. With the arrival of several settlers from Portugal, there was a need for women and the Portuguese quickly began having affairs with free African women. The continuous influx of slaves, helped the Portuguese pidgin to become a stable, systematic and structured native language.

Although the São Tomean Creole had (and still has) a restricted contact with Portuguese (seen as a prestigious language), it did preserve a larger number of the substrate languages elements, more than the Creoles of Cape Verde, that preserve fewer traces. Roughly 93% of São Tomean Creole lexicon is from Portuguese and 7% of African origin. The São tomean Creole is most known as "Forro"¹, language of the freed slaves or Crioulo Santomense, not to confuse Crioulo Santomense with Santomense (a variety and dialect of Portuguese in São Tomé and Príncipe). Portuguese is the main language for children and until early 20's, but relearn Forro when they become adults. The rich São Tomean culture also preserves an unique mixture of Portuguese and African cultures.

Lunguyê

"Lunguyê" is from Portuguese and means Language of the Island (Port. Língua da Ilha), it is sometimes called as Principense. Lunguyê presents many similarities with Forro, the substrate language are the same (Bantu and Kwa). Lunguyê Creole can be seen as a dialect of Forro. This specific Creole is only spoken in Principe Island in São Tomé and Príncipe. This creole is only spoken by some elder people, mainly women.

Portuguese-Asian Creoles

Southeast Asia Portuguese creoles: Papiá Kristang of Malaysia (1) and Macaista Chapado of Macao, SAR (2).

Missing image South_asia_portuguese_creoles.png South Asia Portuguese creoles: Indian Creoles (1) and Burgher of Sri Lanka (2).

In Asia, there are three groups of Portuguese-Creoles: The "Portuguese-Indian Creoles" that are spoken in India and Sri Lanka. The "Portuguese-Malay Creoles" spoken in Malaysia, Singapore and formerly in Indonesia and East Timor. And, the "Portuguese-Chinese Creole", known as Macaista, spoken in Macao and formely in Hong-Kong.

Sri Lanka Portuguese Creole

The interaction of the Portuguese and the Sri Lankans let to the creation of a Creole language, the Sri Lanka Portuguese Creole, which was Lingua Franca in the island for 350 years (From 16th to mid-19th century). The interaction also created a Creole people, the "Mestiços" or "Casados" (Married). The Portuguese presence in Sri Lanka was extended to non-urban areas, there is a wide Portuguese heritage in Sri Lankan society, culture and administration. Lexicon of Portuguese origin can be found in the Sinhala language (at least 1,000 words), there may be more but insufficient study has been carried out.

When the Dutch took over Coastal Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), the descendants of the Portuguese took refuge in the central hills of Kandyan Kingdom under Singhalese rule.

After a while, the Dutch and Portuguese descendants started to intermarry. Though under Dutch rule Portuguese was banned; the Portuguese speaking community was so widespread that even the Dutch started to speak Portuguese. In the 18th century, the Eurasian community (a mixture of Portuguese, Dutch, Singhalese and Tamil), known as the Burgher, started to grow and they spoke Portuguese or Dutch.

Later, the Burgher community developed into two different communities: the Dutch Burghers and the Portuguese Burghers. The Portuguese Burghers were more mixed, were Catholic and spoke Portuguese Creole. Despite the socio-economic disadvantage, the Burghers maintained their Portuguese cultural identity. In Batticaloa, the Catholic Burgher Union reinforced this. The Portuguese Creole continued to be used amongst the Dutch Burghers families as the informal language until the end of the 19th century.

In today's Sri Lanka, the Creole is limited to the spoken form. Most of the speakers are the Burghers in the Eastern province (Batticaloa and Trincomalee). But there are also the Kaffirs (people of African origin) in the Northwestern province (Puttalam). The Portuguese, Dutch and British brought the Kaffirs to Sri Lanka, for labour purposes. They have assumed Portuguese culture and religion; later, there was intermarriage between them and the Portuguese Burghers.

At the 1981 Census, the Burghers (Dutch and Portuguese) were almost 40,000 (0,3% of the population of Sri Lanka). But, the Portuguese Creole is losing ground as a spoken language. As the Sri Lanka Portuguese Creole is now only used at home and many are unable to speak the Creole very well, it is endangered.

Many Burghers and Kaffirs emigrated to other countries. There are still 100 families in Batticaloa and Trincomalee and 80 Kaffir families in Puttalam that still speak the Portuguese Creole; they have been out of contact with Portugal since 1656.

Burgher as syntax and phonology similar to Tamil.

Diu Indo-Portuguese

The Diu Indo-Portuguese, Daman and Diu, India is rapidly disappearing because Gujarati is more widely spoken and is the main language of education there. Only the less educated elder members of the community speak it at home. In the past there was a vibrant community of Portuguese-Indians who spoke it.

Língua da Casa

Daman and Korlai are now the only living Portuguese Creoles of India. The Creole of Daman is known as "Língua da Casa" (Eng. Home Language), spoken at home by a community of 2,000 or more Christians. The Creole of Daman is a descendant of the Portuguese-Indian Norteiro Creole of the Coast from Chaul, Baçaim, Bombay, Daman and Diu. Before the Indian annexation of the territory, the Creole of Daman had become more similar to standard Portuguese. The Associação Luso Indiana Damaense (Eng. Portuguese-Indian Association of Daman), to which most Damanian Catholics are members, says that there are 10-12,000 Portuguese speakers (all Christians) in the territory of 110,000 residents. Sunday mass is celebrated in Portuguese. The Portuguese heritage in Daman is more common and living than in Goa and this helped to maintain the Creole. Both the substrate (Gujarati) and superstrate (Portuguese) languages are still found in the territory.

Kristi

In an isolated Indian village known as Korlai in the Raigarh District, the Portuguese-based Creole known as "Kristi" is the only language of the 1,000 Christian inhabitants. Little is known about Kristi, only that is similar to Papiá Kristang of Malacca. The village is near the ruins of Chaul, a 16th century Portuguese colonial city that was destroyed by the Marathas. The city was abandoned and left in ruins. In the middle of the forest one can see palaces, towers, convents among other ruins. Kristi was recognized because it was very different from the neighbouring languages.

Examples of Kristi

Thanks a lot: Muit'obrigad! From Port. Muito Obrigado

Me: io; From Port. eu

You (singular): vo; From Port. Você

You (plural): uzo; Port. Vocês, vós

First, Second: Primer, Sigun; From Port. Primeiro, Segundo

Everyone eat and drink a lot: tud gent cumen beben tem fart; From Port. toda a gente come e bebe com fartura

Song of Korlai:

Maldita Maria Madulena,

Maldita firmosa,

Ai, contra ma ja foi a Madulena,

Vastida de mata!

Portuguese translation:

Maldita Maria Madalena,

Maldita Formosa,

Ai, contra minha vontade foi a Madalena,

Vestida de matar!

English translation:

Cursed Maria Madalena,

Cursed Beautiful one,

Oh, against my will it was Madalena,

Dressed to Kill!

Kristang

Following the take-over of Malacca (Malaysia) in 1511, the Portuguese were encouraged to marry local women. A Portuguese-based Creole was shaped and is still spoken today by more than 1,000 Christians. It is known as "Papiá Kristang" or "Cristão". Cristão is the Portuguese for Christian. Although written differently, in Portuguese, the sounds for Kristang and Cristão are exactly the same in some Portuguese dialects. Kristang reflects how an English speaker would write Portuguese language throw sounds. About 80% of the older residents of the Portuguese settlement in Malacca regularly speak Kristang. There are also some speakers in today's Singapore and Kuala Lumpur due to emigration. Kristang is very close to Malay in its grammatical construction, but its vocabulary is 95% derived from Portuguese.

Even though Portugal lost Malacca and almost all contact in 1641, the Gente Kristang maintained its traditions, religion and language almost unharmed, which is a curiosity and unique in the world; the cultural and linguistic link with today's Portugal (especially, Minho region), is astonishing. Because of some aspects of their language and culture, some Malaysians still refer to the Portuguese-Malay Eurasian community as 'Portuguese'. However, their language is not taught in schools, although in there are still some church services in Portuguese. The existence of Kristang comes as a surprise to Portuguese and Brazilian people when travelling in Malaysia.

Macanese

Known by the Macanese people as "Macaista Chapado", but also known as "Patuá" is an almost extinct Creole language (spoken by just a few Macanese families), which came to exist in Macao in 1557. It was brought there by the Portuguese from Malacca.

Most of the Macanese lexicon is from Malay and from the papiás of Malacca and Indonesia, but also from the Indian and Singhalese languages. This makes it the dialect of Papia Kristang. The structure of the language is from Portuguese-Malay, but also in a manner Portuguese-Indian with Chinese syntax. There is also a strong influence of the dialects of southern Portugal.

Portuguese-American Creoles

The "Portuguese-American Creoles" spoken in Antilles and Suriname have been influenced by other languages — Dutch, Spanish, and English — respectively. Yet there is still a strong Portuguese influence. In the past, there were possibly Portuguese Creoles in Brazil; there is a Portuguese dialect in Helvécia, South of Bahia that presents signs of an earlier decreolization. Some say that vernacular Brazilian Portuguese (not the official and standard Brazilian Portuguese) shows signs of decreolization, but most linguists contradict that.

There are two non Portuguese-based creoles spoken in Brazil, in the state of Amapá, both French-based: Lanc-Patuá and Karipuna Creole. Both are recently (20th century) transplanted varieties of Caribbean French creoles, and the Portuguese influence on them is minor, and in vocabulary. Relatively little is known about them.

Papiamento

Papiamento or Papiamentu is a Creole language and it is the primary language spoken on the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire. Papiamento grew out of the pidgin Portuguese spoken among Sephardic Jews and their slaves who had fled from Brazil. Also a Portuguese Creole (or pidgin) from Cape Verde reached these island, it was brought by the Sephardic Portuguese jews of Cape Verde, and it was a mixture of the Mina Portuguese Creole/Pidgin (a mixture of Cape Verdean Creole/Pidgin with Twi) and "Angolar" Portuguese Creoles/Pidgins (areas of Angola and Congo).

Most of the vocabulary is derived from Portuguese and Spanish, and most of them the real origin is unknown due to the great similarity between the two Iberian languages. Linguistic studies have shown that roughly two thirds of the words in Papiamento's present vocabulary are of Spanish or Portuguese origin, a quarter are of Dutch origin, and the rest come from other tongues.

Saramaccan (Portuguese/English creole)

Descendants of fugitive slaves in former Dutch Guyana (today's Suriname) speak Saramaccan. Like other runaway slaves' Creoles, it combines English, Dutch, Portuguese, and African words; however, it contains a much larger number of words of Portuguese origin than these. Its structure exhibits many similarities to other Portuguese Creoles, even to Portuguese-Indian ones.

Jan Voorhoeve (1973), N. Smith (1987), M. F. Goodman (1987), John McWhorter (1996), Salikoko Mufwene (2002 (http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mufwene/pidginCreoleLanguage.html)), and Derek Bickerton consider Saramaccan to be an English-based creole. SIL Suriname's website and Ian Hancock calls it a Portuguese-based creole. The issue is complicated by the fact that, in the 19th century, English started to have a strong influence on Saramaccan. Most Portuguese original elements are verbs, adverbs, pronouns and everyday objects.

25,000 individuals of the Saramacano tribe and 2,000 of the Matawi tribe speak Saramaccan. It is not known why Saramaccan has Portuguese influence. Some say that they arrived from Western Africa with a Portuguese pidgin or their masters were Portuguese.

Portuguese anti-Creole

In Brazil there is very little left of Portuguese Creoles, but there is one academic study for a Masters Degree that points to one particularly. A rural African community from Cafundó, 150km from São Paulo (city), uses a secret language, spoken by some (40 in 1978). The population is bilingual with Portuguese. It was first thought to be an African language but later study (1986) by Carlos Vogt and Peter Fry indicated that it could be an Anti-Creole, as it presents similarities with the Caipira variety (the Portuguese dialect of Brasil's São Paulo countryside, South of Minas Gerais and North of Paraná). Cafundó posesses Portuguese morphological and syntactic framework with some Bantu lexicon, the opposite of a Creole language.

Extinct Portuguese Creoles

Africa

There were possibly many creoles in Africa, especially in Congo region and former Portuguese feitorias in the Golf of Guinea. The Upper Guinea Creole was spoken in all the upper Guinea, today it is only spoken in Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and The Gambia.

Brazil

There were Portuguese Creoles in Brazil's Quilombos brought from Africa, but the Portuguese acculturation was so effective that they are all extinct. Also, the large level of immigration played an important role, as almost half of Brazilians are of Portuguese origin. Nothing in Brazilian Portuguese varieties and dialects seem to indicate a creolization; they are, in fact, continuous from European Portuguese and very conservative. In some Afro-Brazilian animist religions there are songs in ancient Portuguese creoles brought from Africa.

East Timor

In East Timor a variety of Portuguese-based Creole known as "Português de Bidau", was spoken in the Bidau area of Dili, but it had became extinct in the 1960s. The Creole was never widespread in the colony. Soldiers and officials from Lifau, and Portuguese settlers and Mestiços of Flores, Indonesia introduced it.

India

Christians, even in Calcutta, used Portuguese until 1811. A Portuguese Creole was still spoken in the early 20th century. The Creoles of Bengal were found in places such as Balasore, Pipli, Chandernagore, Chittagong, Midnapore and Hugli.

The Creoles of the Coast of Coromandel, India (such as of Meliapor, Madrasta, Tuticorin, Cuddalore, Karikal, Pondicheri, Tranquebar, Manapar, Negapatam) were already extinct by the 19th century, the Portuguese-Indian (known locally as Topasses) shifted to the English when the British conquered their lands.

Most of the Creoles of the coast of Malabar, India (Cananor, Tellicherry, Mahé, Cochin, Vaipim and Quilom) had become extinct by the 19th century. The Creole of the island of Vaipim (near Cochin) has prevailed until the present. It is spoken by some families of the Christian community. In Cananor and Tellicherry, some elders still spoke some Creole until the 1980s.

Most of the "Norteiro" Creoles (language of Christian Indo-Portuguese in Northern India) have died, such as of Baçain, Salsete, Thana, Chevai, Mahim, Tecelaria, Dadar, Parel, Cavel, Bandora-Badra, Govai, Morol, Andheri, Versova, Malvan, Manori, Mazagão and Chaul. Only the Creoles of Daman (known as Língua da Casa), Korlai (known as Kristi) and Diu are still living. But the Creole of Diu is in danger of extinction. The two surviving creoles have suffered drastic changes; Standard Portuguese re-influenced the Creole of Daman in the mid-20th century. And Kristi became isolated from Portuguese language and culture in 1739.

Indonesia

In early 16th century, Portuguese traders and missionaries established themselves on the island of Flores, Indonesia after the Dutch attacks in Indonesia. They settled in Larantuka and Sikka. There is still a strong Portuguese influence on the language religion and culture of Sikka. However, in Larantuka the people there only speak the local language or Larantuka Malay. Rituals called Tuan Ma in Larantuka still use Portuguese for praying.

The Mardijkers of Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia) are descendant of old slaves from Malacca and India, converted to Protestantism. They spoke a Portuguese Creole and there was also a local Portuguese community. Portuguese was the First language until 1750, in spite of Dutch efforts against it. After 1750, Portuguese was replaced by a kind of Malay which called Betawian Malay or Omong Betawi. It was spoken until the 19th century. All Mardijkers now speak Betawian Malay and Bahasa Indonesia as their daily uses. However, they still maintain old lyrics in their music called Keroncong Moresco or Keroncong Tugu.

In Tugu, village north of Jakarta, descendants of the Portuguese maintained a creole, known as Papiá (similar to Papiá Kristang), as their mother-tongue until the1940s, the last speaker died in 1978.

In Ambon and Ternate, in the Moluccas Islands (Indonesia), the Portuguese mixed with locals and created a community of Christians that spoke "Portugis". They spoke it until the middle of the 20th century. When the Dutch conquered the islands, many Portuguese were imprisoned and exported as slaves to Batavia, the rest of Indonesia and to South Africa. Because the population still continue to spoke Portugis, the Dutch also started to speak it for communication with locals. Then, gradually replaced by a creolized Malay called Ambonese Malay. Elders still speak Dutch at home, while the younger speak Malay.

Portuguese-influenced Creoles

A tiny population in northern Brazil speaks a French Creole, the Lanc-Patuá (from French Langue Patois), it has numerous influences from the Portuguese language.

Sranang Tongo is a creole spoken in Suriname. It has a number of Portuguese loanwords, which makes it the a Portuguese-influenced creole in Suriname. But it is originally an English creole. Like Saramacano, it has also borrowed Dutch and English words.

Portuguese-influenced indigenous languages

Portuguese influenced several languages, such as Japanese, Swahili or Malay, (including Bahasa Indonesia). Some languages are deeply influenced by the Portuguese language, but are not classified as Creoles.

Tetum is heavily influenced by Portuguese, but it is not a Portuguese Creole. Tetum is a co-official language of East Timor with Portuguese.

In Brazil, especially in the North (former vice-kingdom of Grão-Pará) but as far down as São Paulo and in the then vice-kingdom of Brazil, Portuguese was used almost exclusively by government officials when in their official capacity and as a group language. The common people, not only Indians but also the Portuguese that immigrated, used either Tupi-Guarani or a pidgin that came to be called (in Portuguese) Língua Geral. This started as Tupi-Guarani with Latin and Portuguese influences by the Portuguese, and was dominant in the North until the Marquis of Pombal, in 1758, officialized the use of Portuguese and in 1759 expelled the Jesuits, who were the major influence in accommodating the native and Portuguese elements in the colonies, and simultaneously enforced the use of Portuguese in both Brazil's vice-kingdons.

See also

• Creole language
• Pidgin
• Portuguese language
• Linguistics

Notes

• [1] Forro was a declaration of freedom of a specific slave used in Portugal and its colonies. These were the most wished documents for the enslaved population.

External links

• The Origins of Negation in the Gulf of Guinea Creoles (http://www.udc.es/dep/lx/acblpe/comunicaciones/Hagemeijer.htm)
• Reconstructing Kriol syllable structures (http://www.unb.br/il/liv/papers/syllab.htm)
• The Portuguese language heritage in the East (http://www.colonialvoyage.com/Planguage.html)
• The Portuguese Cultural Imprint on Sri Lanka (http://www.lusotopie.sciencespobordeaux.fr/jayasuriya.pdf)
• Papia, Relijang e Tradisang, The Portuguese Eurasians in Malaysia (http://www.lusotopie.sciencespobordeaux.fr/fernandis.pdf)
• Malacca Portuguese Eurasian Association (http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Paradise/9221/)
• Malacca Portuguese Settlement (http://www.malaccacom.net/malaccaportuguese/)
• Declaraçon di mundo intêro di Dréto di tudo homi co tudo mudjer (http://www.gddc.pt/direitos-humanos/50anos-decl-univ-dh/CRIOULO%20CABO%20VERDE.html) Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Kriolu of Santiago
• Declaraçom Universal di Diritu di Omis (http://www.gddc.pt/direitos-humanos/50anos-decl-univ-dh/Crioulo%20Guin%E9.html) Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Kriol
• Declaraçón Universal di Dirêtu di Hómé (http://www.gddc.pt/direitos-humanos/50anos-decl-univ-dh/FORRO.html) Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Forro
• Dutch Portuguese Colonial History (http://www.colonialvoyage.com/)Dutch Portuguese Colonial Historyde:Portugiesisches Kreolisch

pt:Crioulo português