Language shift and revitalization in the Kristang community, Portuguese settlement, Malacca

Working within a critical ethnographic framework and drawing from the disciplines of sociology, social psychology, and bilingualism, the study
investigates the causes for the shift of Papia Kristang (PK) in the Kristang
community at the Portuguese Settlement (PS) and the community’s response to
its language situation. The main research questions are ‘What is the actual
linguistic behaviour of the Creoles at the PS?’ and ‘How is the community
responding to the language shift (LS) taking place?’
Through methodological triangulation, a variety of data was obtained: self-reported data from a questionnaire, audio-recordings o f six pairs of parentchildren and three pairs of grandparent-grandchildren interactions in the home
domain, recordings of naturally-occurring conversations in the neighbourhood
domain and responses from fourteen interviews. Participant-observation of local
culture, village life and celebration of festivals provided further ethnographic,
qualitative data.
The study argues strongly that the shift of PK and the community’s response to
its language situation is an ongoing negotiation of the people’s needs and
priorities. The needs and priorities o f the community are shaped by the sociohistorical background of the community and further circumscribed by the sociopolitical dynamics of majority-minority relations in Malaysia. This being the
case, both the etic/outsider (the researcher) and the emic/insider (the researched)
perspectives need to be taken into consideration to comprehend the shift taking
place and the people’s response.
In addition, a corpus of actual language use data provided empirical evidence of
bilingual language mixing behaviour, namely codeswitching (CS), borrowing,
and the use of a mixed code for communication. Instances of polyglossic
language use provide insights into the long term language contacts and the type
of bilingualism that exist in Malaysia, particularly Malacca.
Beginning in the mid- eighties there has been an increase in the number of
studies on endangered languages but according to MuhM usIer (2003), one o f the
dangers associated with work on endangered languages is that there may be a
tendency to focus on the languages of tribal people and ignore the loss o f contact
languages such as pidgins and creoles. In its own way, this study of PK, a
Portuguese-based creole, adds to the list of much needed research on endangered
contact languages.