Mardijker Creole


Mardijker 'Creole also called Batavian Creole' was a Portuguese-based creole of Jakarta. It was the native tongue of the Mardijker people. The language was introduced with the establishment of the Dutch settlement of Batavia ; the Dutch brought in slaves from the colonies they had recently acquired from the Portuguese, and the slaves' Portuguese creole became the lingua franca of the new city. The name is Dutch for "freeman", as the slaves were freed soon after their settlement. The language was replaced by Betawi creole Malay in Batavia by the end of the 18th century, as the Mardijker intermarried and lost their distinct identity. However, around 1670 a group of 150 were moved to what is now the village and suburb of Tugu, where they continued to speak an offshoot of the language, there known as Tugu Creole, until the 1940s.
The earliest known record of the language is documented in a wordlist published in Batavia in 1780, the Nieuwe Woordenschat. The last competent speaker, Oma Mimi Abrahams, died in 2012, and the language survives only in the lyrics of old Keroncong Moresco songs.

Phonology

FrontCentralBack
Closeiu
Mideo
Opena

Relevant literature

  • Baxter, Alan N. "The former Portuguese Creole of Batavia and Tugu. By Philippe Maurer." Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 30, no. 2 : 379-384.
  • Suratminto, Lilie. "Creol Potuguese of the Tugu Village: Colonial Heritage in Jakarta based on the historical and linguistic review." TAWARIKH 3, no. 1.
  • Suratminto, Lilie. "Bahasa Tugu: Bahasa Kreol yang Punah." Jurnal Melayu 13 : 85-100.
  • Taufiqurrahman, Febri. "Vocabulary of The Extinct Tugu Portuguese Creole Dialect Used by The Portuguese Descendants In Tugu Village, North Jakarta." Jurnal Pembahsi 13, no. 2 : 226-240.