The Portuguese Settlement

A Few Streets In Melaka Where A Creole Descended From Sixteenth Century Portuguese Is Still Spoken By A Few Hundred People, And Is Dying · Melaka, Melaka

THE PORTUGUESE LOST MELAKA TO THE DUTCH IN 1641 AND SOME OF THEM STAYED. Their descendants are still here, and so, barely, is their language: KRISTANG IS A CREOLE BUILT ON SIXTEENTH-CENTURY PORTUGUESE WITH MALAY GRAMMAR, AND IT IS SPOKEN NOW BY PERHAPS A FEW HUNDRED PEOPLE - one of the most endangered languages in the world, in a country that mostly does not know it exists. THE SETTLEMENT ITSELF IS NOT OLD: it was laid out in the 1930s to gather a scattered community onto one piece of ground, and it looks like an ordinary residential estate with a seafood restaurant strip along the waterfront. THAT IS THE HONEST DESCRIPTION AND IT IS WHY MOST VISITORS LEAVE DISAPPOINTED. COME FOR THE FESTIVALS INSTEAD - INTRUDU, a water free-for-all before Lent, and FESTA SAN PEDRO in June, when the fishing boats are blessed and decorated. Otherwise the waterfront seafood restaurants are the honest reason to come in the evening, and curry debal is the dish that the language has outlived everything else with.

Portuguese Settlement, Ujong Pasir, Melaka, Melaka, Melaka, Malaysia

THE SETTLEMENT IS AT UJONG PASIR, about ten minutes by car or a long walk from Melaka's heritage core - THERE IS NO GATE, NO TICKET AND NOTHING TO OPEN OR CLOSE, because it is a residential neighbourhood. THE SEAFOOD RESTAURANTS along the waterfront square are the everyday reason people come and are EVENING PLACES. TWO DATES CHANGE EVERYTHING: INTRUDU, on the Sunday before Lent, when the community throws water at everyone including visitors, and FESTA SAN PEDRO AROUND THE END OF JUNE, when the boats are blessed and there is music and dancing for days. OUTSIDE THOSE, SET YOUR EXPECTATIONS LOW - it is a quiet estate. THE KRISTANG LANGUAGE IS DYING and there are community efforts to teach it; ask rather than assume you will hear it.

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