Indo-Portuguese (IP) is normally used as a cover term for a number of Portuguese-based creoles once widely spoken along the coasts of India and Sri Lanka, some of which have been studied at the turn of the 19th century (e.g. Schuchardt 1883, Dalgado 1903) or more recently (e.g. Tomás 1992, Clements 1996). At present, IP is known to survive in Diu and Daman (Union Territory), Korlai (Maharashtra), Cannanore and Cochin (Kerala), as well as in Sri Lanka.

This talk contrasts the historical longevity of IP with its present-day status in order to explore the recent developments responsible for its serious endangerment. It is argued that multilingualism per se does not pose a threat to the maintenance of minority languages until two or more languages compete for the same domain(s) of usage or social function(s). Despite IP’s geographic dispersion, data for this study is primarily drawn from Diu where, in keeping with LePage & Tabouret-Keller’s suggestion that several social groupings (e.g. ethnic, racial, cultural, religious, age) ‘are liable to have linguistic connotations’ (LePage & Tabouret-Keller, 1985:248), it is shown that allegiance to IP operates on different levels:

a) Religion;
b) Social status;
c) Ideology;
d) Age;
e) Economic affluence;
f) Education.

Among these, religion emerges as a central element unifying the various native-speaker communities of IP in India (v. Cardoso 2006), and is therefore an essential domain of intervention for preservation-oriented linguistic policies.

A crucial distinction must be made between the challenges faced by IP in areas where Portuguese rule was short-lived (e.g. Cannanore or Korlai) and in territories with a longer-standing colonial presence (Diu as well as Daman), in which standard Portuguese (SP) enters the competitor language pool alongside the national and state languages (Hindi and Gujarati) as well as English. Given the status of IP as the result of language contact, continuing co-existence with its lexifier language and a conspicuous differential in prestige between the two codes conspire not only to shape Diu IP’s synchronic pattern of variation but also to append an additional factor of endangerment that needs to be separately addressed by policy-makers.

References:

Cardoso, Hugo C. (2006) ‘Linguistic traces of colonial structure’, TRANS 16.
Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1903) ‘Dialecto Indo-Português de Damão’, re-printed in idem (1998) Estudos sobe os Crioulos Indo-Portugueses, intro. Maria Isabel Tomás. Lisbon: Comissão para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses.
Clements, Joseph Clancy (1996) The genesis of a language: the formation and development of Korlai Portuguese. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
LePage, Robert B. & Andrée Tabouret-Keller (1985) Acts of identity: Creole-based approaches to language and ethnicity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schuchardt, Hugo (1883) ‘Kreolische Studies III. Ueber das Indoportugiesische von Diu’, in Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaft zu Wien (philosophisch-historische Klasse) 103:3-18.
Tomás, Maria Isabel (1992) Os crioulos portugueses do oriente; uma bibliografia. Macau: Instituto Cultural de Macau.