Language Maintenance or Language Shift in the Portuguese Settlement of Malacca in Malaysia

Abstract

This paper discusses the status of Kristang, a creole among the Portuguese Eurasians of Malaysia.The study focuses on members of the Portuguese Eurasian community who live in the Portuguese Settlement of Malacca.To determine whether community members are maintaining Kristang, a 47-item questionnaire was given to 62 of the 120 homes in the Settlement.To ascertain the future of Kristang, language choice and use between older and younger community members is compared.Over 70% of the respondents indicated Kristang as their mother tongue, although the younger members of the community had a more diverse range of languages which they considered as their mother tongue.Code mixing is prevalent in the speech of younger community members.The use of Kristang is dominant in older age groups and English in the younger ones.The author concludes that it is inevitable that language shift for the Portuguese community will take place.

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