Korlai Portuguese Creole

Korlai Indo-Portuguese
Kristi
Nou Ling
Native to	India
Native speakers	(750 cited 1998)
Language family	Portuguese Creole Indo-Portuguese Northern Indo-Portuguese Korlai Indo-Portuguese
Language codes
ISO 639-3	vkp
Glottolog	korl1238
Linguasphere	51-AAC-agc
Korlai Indo-Portuguese Korlai Indo-Portuguese
Coordinates: 18.5232°N 72.9195°E / 18.5232; 72.9195

Korlai Indo-Portuguese is a creole language based on Portuguese, spoken by less than 1,000 Luso-Indian Christians of Korlai in the Raigad District (Colaba District) of the Konkan region, in Maharashtra, India. It is located between Goa and Damaon. It has vigorous use and it is also known as Kristi ("Christian"), Korlai Creole Portuguese, Korlai Portuguese, or as Nou Ling by the creole people of Korlai themselves, which literally means "our language".

== Distribution and number of speakers ==

The village of Korlai viewed from Korlai Fort

The village of Korlai lies on the mouth of Kundalika River, across from the ruins of a large Portuguese fort, which is located in Revdanda. Until the 20th century, Korlai, its Christian inhabitants, and its language were relatively isolated from the Marathi-speaking Hindus and Muslims surrounding them. Since 1986, there is a bridge across the Kundalika River, because of which industry has now moved into the area.

What is known about the history and the grammar of No Ling can be found in the 1996 book The Genesis of a Language: Formation and Development of Korlai Portuguese written by J. Clancy Clements.

Portuguese colonisation in the 15th and 16th centuries gave rise to Portuguese-controlled trading posts, forts, and colonies in the Subcontinent. This led to the birth of some interesting pidgins and creoles for which Portuguese was the lexifier language (a language from which pidgins/creoles derive their core lexicon).

One of the Portuguese lexified creoles still spoken in India is Korlai Creole Portuguese. Spoken by around 800 people of the coastal village of Korlai, located about 150 kilometres south of Mumbai, Korlai Creole was formed between the 16th to 18th century when Portuguese came in contact with Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Also known as Kristy or Nau lin, what sets Korlai Creole and the other Indo-Portuguese creoles apart from their Portuguese-lexified Atlantic counterparts is the nature of the contact situations prevalent in Southasia compared to the Atlantic world. While Portuguese-based Atlantic creoles formed in situations in which several languages were in contact with each other, Indo-Portuguese creoles formed in two-language contact situations. A majority of Korlai Creole’s core lexicon is from Portuguese. Due to the Catholic church in Mumbai adopting Marathi post 1964, and it being the medium of education in schools, the Korlai has become highly endangered and may become extinct in a few decades.

Portuguese creoles in northern areas (Diu and Korlai) had Indo-Aryan substrate in the form of Gujarati and Marathi, respectively.

Examples of No Ling

Thanks a lot: Muit'obrigad! From Port. Muito Obrigado

I: yo; From Port. eu

You (singular): wo; From Port. vós

You (formal): usé; From Port. você

He and She: el; From Port. ele (he) and ela (she)

We: no; From Port. nós

You (plural): udzó; From Port. vós outros

They: eló; from Port. eles outros

Numerals: ũ, doy, tre, kwat, sink, sey, set, oyt, nob, dey; From Port. um, dois, três, quatro, cinco, seis, sete, oito, nove, dez

First, Second: Primer, Sigun; From Port. Primeiro, Segundo

How are you?: Use, kile te?

All are eating and drinking their fill: tud gent cumen beben tem fart; From Port. toda a gente come e bebe até farta

Song of Korlai:

Maldita Maria Madulena,

Maldita firmosa,

Ai, contra ma ja foi a Madulena,

Vastida de mata!

Portuguese translation:

Maldita Maria Madalena,

Maldita Formosa,

Ai, contra minha vontade foi a Madalena,

Vestida de mata!

English translation:

Cursed Maria Madalena,

Cursed Beautiful one,

Oh, against my will it was Madalena,

Dressed in leaves and branches!

Further reading

• Clements, J. Clancy (1996). The Genesis of a Language: the formation and development of Korlai Portuguese. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ISBN 9789027252388.
• Clements, J. Clancy (2015). "Portuguese Settlement of the Chaul/Korlai area and the Formation of Korlai Creole Portuguese". Journal of Language Contact. 8 (1): 13–35. doi:10.1163/19552629-00801002.