Macanese creole Patuá seeks consensus on its writing

Miguel de Senna Fernandes

The endangered Patuá language (a Macanese creole) is going to change its orthography in order to seek consensus among the community. This statement was made by the president of the board of the Macanese Association (ADM) and president of the Association for Macanese Education (APIM), Miguel de Senna Fernandes yesterday on the sidelines of a conference on language contact in Asia and the Pacific held by the University of Macau (UM).
The so-called “spelling agreement” is based on the fact that the current orthographic system is based on the Portuguese language and not all people who are interested in the language are able to read it.
“Maybe this will shock some people a bit but I propose a new orthography for the Patuá,” he said.
“There current writing does not convey the phonetics that  should be in the language for people interested in learning,” he added, concluding that the task will involve “new mental gymnastics and a new technique to approach the language.”
However, he reaffirmed that the adoption of a new system should not be “that difficult” as other forms of creole language have successfully undergone similar transitions, such as in Cape Verde.
There is currently no concrete timeline for the plan that is supported by  Alan Baxter, who recently returned to Macau and is an expert in Portuguese-based creoles in Asia.
Senna Fernandes – one of the faces of the Patuá dialect revival and member of theater group “Dóci Papiaçám di Macau”, which has performed on stage for every Macau Arts Festival to date – recalled that the language “fell into profound disuse” but had its importance shifted from practicality to a “deeper meaning related to the identity [of the community].”
In his opinion, the importance of the language is not restricted to the Macanese people but also for many others who are “interested in the multiculturalism of Macau.”
The motivation for the preservation of the language is not in terms of retaining its “utility ” or even any “nostalgic feeling”, he said, but as “something that we preserve from our ancestors, the same way we keep some of their objects to recall where we came from.”
Senna Fernandes claims that there is a rising interest in the language, even among those who are not learning it to regain their own heritage.
“There are people totally new [to the language] that want to learn it. Naturally they learn [from] it a totally different perspective of the Macanese people,” he said, commenting that for the time being, “my answers to these people are never satisfactory, since we do not have much resources and hardware to offer them in order to support a learning method as I wish to do.”
For the stage director of the “Dóci Papiaçám di Macau” group, “if people laugh [in our shows, it] is because somehow they got touched by the message and they understood it and that’s very important.”
For him, the efforts to protect the creole language are necessary and become even more important in times when the “[Macanese] community is shrinking and losing its characteristics.”
In order to protect that language, he added, “collective memory” is more important than any “ textbooks, grammar or even pronunciation.”
“Our community is a statement and should prevail. We want to give to the young generations enough materials so they can ‘dig up’ about their roots,” he said, when asked about the goals of the theatrical group.
Elisabela Larrea, who is studying the shift of the Patuá from a “home language to a performing language”, addressed the same topic.
According to her study, there are fewer than 50 confident, fluent, Patuá speakers.

Teaching Cantonese is a matter of ‘good sense’

Miguel de Senna Fernandes, the president of the Association for Macanese Education (APIM), said that the decision to teach Cantonese at the D. Jose da Costa Nunes Kindergarten – a Portuguese school – this year was “a matter of good sense.”
“It’s a strategy … focused on people’s integration into the [local] environment,” he said.
“I’m going to propose that the Macau Portuguese School (EPM) do the same [implementing the language teaching] and I’m certain that there will be no arguments against it.”
The APIM president explained that the classes have been planned as an extracurricular activity, which he thinks is the best approach.
“[The] campaign in favor of the Cantonese is not a matter of position or attitude, but an imperative matter, so the communities that do not have the Chinese language as their mother tongue can help integrate their children.” Senna Fernandes added  that not teaching a dialect spoken by the majority of the population would be the loss of “a golden opportunity”, as the students are at the right age to learn new languages.

Elisabela Larrea