Macau’s ‘sweet language’ on verge of disappearing
| FEATURE |
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MACAU — Dona Aida de Jesus is 96 years old and still runs the family restaurant in Macau. She is also something even more remarkable: one of the last custodians of a dying language.
“My friends all died, nobody speaks Patua with me any more,” says De Jesus, as she helps serve Brazilian black beans, Portuguese stewed fish and Chinese choi sum to customers in her restaurant, Riquexo.
De Jesus’ mother tongue is Patua, once also known as “Christian speech” or the “sweet language of Macau” — a creole that blends Portuguese with Cantonese and Malay, plus traces of Hindi, Japanese and the languages of other stops on the travels of the Portuguese over the past few centuries.
It was once the language of Macau’s Eurasians, called the Macanese: people who served as interpreters and cadres for the Portuguese colonisers in the Chinese territory, and who still hold onto a distinct social identity..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111101com3.html
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