The Macau dialect is on the verge of disappearing. What kind of language is it?

British media said that Macau’s native language has become an extinct language. This language originated in the 16th century and is a mixture of Portuguese and Cantonese. Currently, there are less than 50 people who speak Macau dialect. Personal, listed as an endangered language by UNESCO.

The Macau dialect is a language mixed with Portuguese, Malay, Cantonese, English, ancient Portuguese and a little Dutch, Spanish and Italian. The Portuguese is called "Patuá" ), was once a language commonly used by the Macanese people in Macau. Macau dialect, also known as Macanese. The basic vocabulary of Macau dialect is based on Portuguese, and is formed by adding words from Malay, Sinhala, and Cantonese. Macau dialect has always been the synonym of the Macau Portuguese community in the past.

In 2009, UNESCO listed Macau’s indigenous language (Patua) as an “endangered language” and was about to be on the verge of “extinction.” The language is now almost extinct.

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Nowadays, Cantonese (like Hong Kong, Cantonese usually refers to the Cantonese dialect of Cantonese) is the lingua franca of Macau society and is used by ordinary people in their daily lives. It is widely used in life, work, government offices, school education, news media, culture and entertainment; Portuguese is mostly popular in government, legal departments, merchants or bookstores and communities related to Portugal; and tourist attractions, in order to facilitate explanations to foreign tourists, Taking into account communication issues, Cantonese, English, and Mandarin will also be used.

Macau uses traditional Traditional Chinese. Since, like Hong Kong, Cantonese has an absolute dominance in society, the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set is also adopted by Macau.

Macau folk often use Cantonese vernacular, which is close to the spoken Cantonese. For example, "getting off the car" is written as "getting off the car", "loading and unloading goods" is written as "loading and unloading goods", etc.

Macanese is a Macanese dialect that is a mixture of Portuguese, Malay, Cantonese, English, ancient Portuguese and a little Dutch, Spanish and Italian. The Portuguese name is "Badu" "Patuá" (Patuá) was once a language commonly used by the Macanese people in Macau. The language is now almost extinct. The last Macanese writer in Macau to write in the Macanese dialect was Joseph Santos Ferrera.

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Characteristics of Macao dialect

Macao dialect does not distinguish between n and l. For example, "you" nei13 is pronounced as lei13 in Macao dialect. The Macao dialect has a rising tone. There is no distinction between yin and yang, but the upper tones of Guangzhou and Hong Kong are divided into yin and yang, with key values ??of 35 and 13 respectively. Therefore, "Yin" and "Yin", "Yi" and "Yi" in Macau all have the same pronunciation. In addition, Yinping only has 55 tones in Macau, while Yinping in Guangzhou and Hong Kong is divided into two tones, 55 and 53.

Macau dialect has two tones, Gaosheng tone 35 and Gaoping tone 55. Both types of changes are related to lexical and grammatical meanings, and they only occur in low-key types. High-key types (Yinping and Yinru) do not have these two types of changes. For example, "Egg Yolk" k^ei55 tan22 wong35 "Yellow" changes from 21 to 35, "Moon Appreciation" Soeng13 jyt35 "Moon" changes from 22 to 35 generally appears at the end of spoken words and is used to express familiar things.

The Macau dialect is on the verge of disappearing

Aida de Jesus, 102, said: "Now, few people speak Macau dialect, only the elderly speak it." She and herself The daughters sat across from each other at a table in the Riquexo restaurant. What is unusual is that despite being over 100 years old, De Jesus still frequents this Portuguese-Macau-style restaurant.

De Jesus’ mother tongue is Macanese Portuguese, and she is also one of the last living guardians of this language. Macau native speakers call it "Maquista", a Creole language that was formed in Malacca, Portugal's main base in Southeast Asia, in the first half of the 16th century, and was later introduced to Macau with the settled Portuguese. It is a blend of Portuguese, Cantonese and Malay, with traces of other languages ??spoken along the Portuguese trade routes.

Macau Portuguese eventually developed into the language of the local Eurasian ethnic group in Macau. This group was first the product of intermarriage between Portuguese colonists and Chinese, mainly Portuguese men marrying Chinese women and forming families.

However, by the 1830s and 1940s, the strengthening of Portuguese-speaking public education and the socio-economic advantages brought by Portuguese led to the stigmatization of Macau dialect. Macau dialect was once regarded as "Pidgin Portuguese" and was avoided, and it became a language mainly restricted to family use.

De Jesus said: “In school, I learned Portuguese and was told not to speak Macanese. If I spoke Macanese in school, others would not understand, so we had to speak Portuguese. ”

My mother once told me: ‘Our parents gave up our own language to speak other people’s languages; now we can only take back the language that truly represents us. Something about culture and our spirit. Macanese is our language; it is our past and if you speak Macanese you are not seen as lacking in education so I can understand why parents in the past prohibited their children from learning their own. Macau native Portuguese.

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The Macau dialect is on the verge of disappearing, and the language should be protected and passed on by the local people.< /p>

Speaking and protecting dialects are also preserving our memories of our hometown. On a larger scale, the intangible cultural heritage derived from dialects also needs to be protected and passed on, such as operas and folk activities in various places. Take Fujian as an example, there are Fujian opera, dazui drum, cake betting, Nanyin, etc., which are important parts of local culture. Furthermore, if there is only Mandarin, all cities will have the same accent, although it is convenient for people from different regions to communicate. , but it also makes China’s vast city have no characteristics. Even the architecture of some cities cannot be understood without the local dialect environment.