Macau 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. Despite being a Portuguese colony for over four centuries, the Portuguese language was never widely spoken in Macau and remained limited to administration and higher education and was spoken primarily by the Portuguese colonists, Macanese people of mixed ancestry, and elites and middle-class people of pure Chinese blood. Currently, there is only one school in Macau where Portuguese is the medium of instruction, the Macau Portuguese School. Many Macanese people of mixed ancestry since Portuguese time never speak Portuguese and speak only Cantonese as first language; if other Macanese people of mixed ancestry speak Portuguese, they speak it as second language, thus affected by Cantonese accent.
Macau was transferred sovereignty from Portugal to People's Republic of China in 1999, but Portuguese remained an official language. Although Portuguese use was in decline in Asia in the early 21st century after Macau was ceded to China in 1999, there has been an increase in the teaching of Portuguese, mostly due to East Timor's boost in the number of speakers in the last five years, but also the Chinese authorities' protection of Portuguese as official language in Macau, 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.
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