Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya
The first Portu guese visit to Sri Lanka (known as Taprobane) was in 1505, when they were accidentally windswept into Galle harbour during their voyage to the Maldive islands. They returned later to erect trading posts and fortresses. Cinnamon was the most attractive commodity on the island, and renowned to be the best in the world. Verse LI from The Lusiads (given below), the epic poem of Portugal, illustrates this. The Lusiads, the epic poem of Portugal written by Luis de Camoes narrates the heroic achievements of the Sons of Lusus, the mythical first settler, and eponymous hero of Lusitania (which later become Portugal).

A nober ilha tambem de Taprobana,
Ja pelo nome antigo tao famosa,
Quanto agora soberba e soberana
Pela cortica calida, cheirosa,
Della dara tributo a Lusitana
Bandeira, quando excelsa, e gloriosa,
Vencendo, se erguera na torre erguida
Em Columbo, dos proprios tao temida

The noble island to Taprobane,
Presently famous by its ancient name,
How magnificent and supreme now,
From the warm smell of the bark,
That will give tribute to the Portuguese flag,
When raised high, and glorious,
Triumphing, uplifted on the towar,

In Colombo itself, so very feared. [My Translation]

Contact between the Portuguese and the Sri Lankans led to the development of a contact language, which is currently called Sri Lanka Portuguese Creole (SLPC). Pidgins and Creoles are contact languages. They are languages that evolve in order to solve the intercommunication problems that arise when people who do not speak each other's mother-tongue come into contact. A Creole is a nativized Pidgin. It is a Pidgin which has become the mother-tongue of a speech community.

SLPC served as a lingual France for more than three centuries (from the 16th to the mid-19th century), until English took over this role (due to English colonization from 1796 to 1948). Although the Portuguese never colonized the Kandyan Kingdom, the Kandyan elite also learnt Portuguese. In fact, Rajasingha II, King of the Kandyan Kingdom (1635-87) requested the Dutch (who displaced the Portuguese from the island and colonized the coastal ares from 1658 to 1796) to translate all the official documents into Portuguese, as he was fluent in the language. The offspring of the Portuguese, who were bilingual, often served as translators and bridge the linguistic gap.

SLPC which initially evolved due to the intermediation of Portuguese and Sinhala was subsequently influenced by Tamil, Dutch and English. It cannot be overemphasized that SLPC is neither a dialect of Portuguese nor an inferior version of the Portuguese language. It is a language in its own right with a unique grammar. For example, SLPC denotes tens with proverbal free morphemes (te, ja, lo), in contrast to Portuguese which employs verbal inflections.

SLPC is important as it is a Portuguese-based creole, the oldest contact languages based on an European language. Some 19th century literary SLPC documents have survived: O Novo Testamento (The New Testament), O Bruffador (a magazine), the Hugh Nevill Manuscript (a collection of songs and verses), for example. The etyma of most SLPC words is Portuguese. The following verse from the Hugh Nevill Collection in the British Musuem London illustrates this point. In this verse, the Portuguese hero is addressing the Sri Lankan heroine.

In contemporary Sri Lanka, the creole is limited to the colloquial version. The largest identifiable groups of SLPS speakers are in the east coast cities of Batticaloa and Trincomalee, and near the west coast city of Puttalam. The SLPC speakers in Puttalam are Kaffirs (of African origin), while those on the east coast are Burghers (descendants of the Portuguese and Dutch). The number of creole speakers on the island today are not numerous. It is almost 350 years since contact with Portugal was severed. Therefore the survival of SLPC is an interesting socio-linguistic phenomenon.

The Portuguese-based Creoles in India, on the other hand, are spoken by fewer people today. SLPC and the Portuguese-based creoles in India belong to a group of languages named Indo-Portuguese. There are some Indo-Portuguese speakers in Damao, Diu, Korlai and Cochin. When Creoles are incorporated into the main stream of education they are ensured of longevity. Afrikans (a Dutchbased Creole in South Africa) is one such example.

The Sinhala language is well-stocked with borrowings from Portuguese such as saya (skirt), janelaya (window), mesaya (table) which have Portuguese etyma, saja, janela, mesa respectively. SLPC has been the medium through which Portuguese words passed into Sinhala, a process which has been enhancd by Sri Lankans bilingual in SLPC and Sinhala.

In some instances, the Portuguese equivalent is used in preference to the Sinhala synonyms that existed before the Portuguese era, particularly in colloquial Sinhala. For example, sumanaya (week), soldaduva (soldier) are used instead of satiya and sebala, the Portuguese etyma being semana and soldado respectively. Although SLPC is becoming moribund, Portuguese influence on the Sinhala vocabulary will ensure that Sri Lankan linguistic with Lusitania will continue.