Macanese Portuguese
| Macanese Portuguese | |
|---|---|
| Português macaense | |
|
Native speakers
|
2,800 in Macao (2001 census) |
|
Indo-European
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | None |
Macanese Portuguese (Portuguese: Português macaense) is a Portuguese dialect spoken in Macau, where Portuguese is co-official with Cantonese. Portuguese is the first language of roughly 3% of the population, while 7% claim fluency. It is distinct from the Macanese language (or Patuá), a Portuguese Creole in Macau.
Macau had its first contact with the Portuguese language in 1557 when the territory was established as a trade center of Portugal to other parts of Asia. The language largely entered Macau in the 19th century when China ceded Macau to Portugal and Macau was declared a formal Portuguese province. At that time, it was made an official language along with Cantonese. Currently, there is only one school in Macau where Portuguese is the medium of instruction, the Macau Portuguese School.
Macau was transferred sovereignty from Portugal to People's Republic of China in 1999, but Portuguese remained an official language. There has been an increase in the teaching of Portuguese owing to the growing trade links between China and lusophone nations such as Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, and East Timor, with 5,000 students learning the language.
The Macanese dialect was traditionally an Old Portuguese variety, in some aspects similar to Brazilian Portuguese in pronunciation; for example, the word pôde is pronounced [ˈpodʒi] in most parts of Brazil instead of [ˈpoðɨ] in the standard European Portuguese dialect. However, nowadays, it closely follows the standard European dialect in pronunciation and vocabulary. The only Portuguese-medium school teaches the standard European dialect, as with most of the CPLP like in East Timor. There are still some phonological differences affected by Cantonese phonology made by those who speak Portuguese as a second language, such as a non-rhotic accent: final /r/ is dropped, as in African Portuguese and most Brazilian dialects and [ʒ] is devoiced to [ʃ]. These phonological differences do not apply to Chinese who have higher education in Portuguese.
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