Macanese Patois

Macanese patois(endonym:Patuá) is aPortuguese-based creole languagewith a substrate fromCantonese,MalayandSinhala, which was originally spoken by theMacanese communityof thePortuguesecolony ofMacau. It is now spoken by a few families in Macau and in the Macanesediaspora.
UNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Dangerclassifies Patua as a "Critically Endangered" and places the number of speakers at 50 as of 2000.
The language is also called by its speakers aspapia Cristam di Macau("Christian speech of Macau") and has been nicknameddóci língu di Macau("Sweet Language of Macau") anddoci papiaçam("sweet speech") by poets. In Chinese it is called "澳門土生土語" ("Macanese native-born native language"). InPortuguese, it is calledmacaense,Macaista chapado("pure Macanese"), oro patuá(fromFrenchpatois).
The terms "澳門話" ("Macanese speak") and "澳門土生土語" ("Macanese native-born native language") in Chinese (Cantonese), thelingua francaof Macau, refers to any language of Macau (such as theTanka dialectofYue Chinese,Standard CantonesewithMacau unique phrases and expressions, Macanese, Portuguese with Macau accent, Hakka, etc.) and the Macanese language, respectively. Although there have been attempts by thePortuguese Macaugovernment in the mid-1990s to redefine the Portuguese and English term "Macanese" asMacau Permanent Resident (anyone born in Macau regardless of ethnicity, language, religion or nationality), in accordance with the Chinese (Cantonese) usage, this did not succeed.Consequently, the Portuguese and English term "Macanese" refers neither to the indigenous people of Macau (Tanka people) nor to thedemonymof Macau, but to a distinctive ethnicity (1.2% of the population) special to Macau.
Patuá arose inMacauafter the territory was leased by Portugal in the mid-16th century and became a major hub of the Portuguese naval, commercial, and religious activities in East Asia.
The language developed first mainly among the descendants of Portuguese settlers. These often married women fromPortuguese Malacca,Portuguese IndiaandPortuguese Ceylonrather than from neighbouringChina, so the language had strongMalayandSinhalainfluence from the beginning. In the 17th century, it was further influenced by the influx of immigrants from other Portuguese colonies in Asia, especially from Portuguese Malacca,Indonesia, and Portuguese Ceylon, that had been displaced by theDutchexpansion in theEast Indies, andJapanese Christianrefugees.
Like any other language, Macanese underwent extensive changes in usage, grammar, syntax, and vocabulary over the centuries, in response to changes in Macau's demographics and cultural contacts. Some linguists see a sharp distinction between the "archaic" Macanese, spoken until the early 19th century, and the "modern" form that was strongly influenced byCantonese. The modern version arose in the late 19th century, when Macanese men began marrying Chinese women from Macau and its hinterland in thePearl Riverdelta. The British rule ofHong Kongfrom the mid-19th century also added many English words to the lexicon.
Over its history the language also acquired elements from several other Indian tongues and a string of other European and Asian languages. These varied influences made Macanese a unique "cocktail" of European and Asian languages.
Macanese lawyer and Patuá supporterMiguel Senna Fernandeshas said that Patuá was "not yet dead, but the archaic form of Patuá has already died," adding that "modern" Patuá could be considered a "dialect derived from archaic Patuá." He also underlined the fact that "modern" Patuá has been strongly influenced by Cantonese, namely since the beginning of the 20th century, adding that it was "quite a miracle" that Patuá has been able to survive for four centuries in Macau, considering that "Chinese culture is quite absorbing."
"Let's revive an almost lost memory," Fernandes said about efforts by Patuá aficionados to ensure the survival of Macau's "sweet language" that, after all, is part of its unique history.
The language played an important role in Macau's social and commercial development between the 16th and 19th centuries, when it was the main language of communication among Macau's Eurasian residents. However, even during that period the total number of speakers was relatively small, probably always amounting to just thousands, not tens of thousands of people.
Macanese continued to be spoken as the mother tongue of several thousand of people, in Macau,Hong Kongand elsewhere, through 19th and early 20th century. At that time, Macanese speakers were consciously using the language in opposition to the standard Portuguese of the metropolitan administration. In the early 20th century, for example, it was the vehicle of satirical sketches poking fun at Portuguese authorities. A few writers, such as the late poetJosé dos Santos Ferreira("Adé"), chose the "sweet language" as their creative medium.
On the other hand, Macanese never enjoyed any official status, and was never formally taught in Macau. Starting in the late 19th century, its role in the life of the colony was greatly diminished by the central government's drive to establish standard Portuguese throughout its territories. High-society Macanese gradually stopped using it in the early 20th century, because of its perceived "low class" status as a "primitive Portuguese". All people, including many Chinese learning Portuguese as their second or third language, are required to learn standardEuropean Portuguese. Other Macanese people learn Cantonese, another language with co-official status with Portuguese in Macau. Because of this, code switching even occurs between the Creole, standard Portuguese, and Cantonese in informal speech.
Macanese use was already in decline while Macau was a Portuguese territory, and that situation is unlikely to improve now that the territory is underChineseadministration. Still, its speakers take great pride in the fact that Macau has its own local language, something thatHong Kongdoes not have. They argue that Macau's unique status as a 500-year-old bridge between Orient and the Occident justifies deliberate efforts to preserve the Macanese language. The language is included inUNESCO'sAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger.
In spite of its unique character and centuries-old history, Macanese has received scant attention from linguists. PhilologistGraciete Nogueira Batalha(1925–1992) published a number of papers on the language. A Macanese-Portuguese glossary was published in 2001.
In the 21st century, some younger Macanese are making efforts to rejuvenate Patuá, especially by using it in original music and drama.
Macanese is the now nearly extinct native language of the so-calledMacanese people, Macau's Eurasian minority, which presently comprises some 8,000 residents inMacau(about 2% of its population), and an estimated 20,000 emigrants and their descendants, especially inHong Kong,Brazil,California,Canada,Peru,Costa Rica,Australia,PortugalandPariapeninsula ofVenezuela. Even within that community, Macanese is actively spoken by just several dozen elderly individuals, mostly women in their eighties or nineties, inMacauandHong Kong, and only a few hundred people among the Macanese Diaspora overseas, namely in California.
Macanese is a creole language, that is, the result of a fusion of several languages and local innovations that became the mother tongue of a community. As such, it is difficult to classify within any major family.
Because of its historical development, it is closely related to other Portuguese- and Malay-influenced creoles of Southeast Asia, notably theKristang languageof Malacca and the extinct Portuguese-influenced creoles ofIndonesiaandFlores, as well as to theIndo-Portuguesecreoles ofSri LankaandIndia.
A sizeable amount of the Macanese lexicon derives from Malay, through various Portuguese-influenced creoles (papiás) like theKristangof Malacca and the creole spoken in the Indonesian island ofFlores. Words of Malay origin includesapeca("coin; money"),copo-copo("butterfly"), andsantám("coconut milk").
Many words also came fromSinhala, through theIndo-Portuguese creolesof theKaffirandPortuguese Burghercommunities ofSri Lanka. Some terms are derived from otherIndian languagesthrough other Indo-Portuguese creoles brought by natives of Portuguese India, these includeKonkaniandMarathi languages. Examples of words from these sources includefula("flower") andlacassá("vermicelli").
A few words in Macanese also come fromDutch, likely through Malay or Indonesian. An example iscacús("toilet, outhouse") deriving from Dutchkakhuis, probably via Indonesiankakus.
There are also a few words in common Macanese use that are ultimately of Japanese origin, for examplesutate("soy sauce"), possibly derived fromすったて(suttate), a regional dish fromShirakawaprepared by mixing stone-ground soybeans with a miso and soy-sauce-based broth.Such words may have entered Macanese through the Japanese Catholic population which settled in thePátio do Espinhoduring the 17th and 18th centuries. For instance,miçó("salt and soybean paste"), from Japanesemiso, was recorded in theOu-Mun Kei-Leokpublished in 1751.
Cantonese contributions includeamui("(Chinese) girl") coming from阿妹("little sister") andlaissi("gift of cash") coming from利是("red packets").
In some cases, there may be two words in Macanese meaning the same thing but of different origins, for examplepâm(from Portuguesepão) andmin-pau(from Cantonese麵包) both meaning "bread". In this particular case,min-pauis the more common word, however this may vary with other cases. In addition,pâmis also used in some fixed phrases, such aspâm-di-casa(lit. "home bread"), a type of sweet bread that is/was typically baked at home by Macanese.
In addition to directly borrowing words, one somewhat common feature is the calquing of phrases from Cantonese into Macanese, for examplenê-bôm(negative imperative particle, "don't") derived from Portuguesenão é bom("it is not good"), but actually semantically being a calque of唔好("don't", lit. "not good").
Some words may be derived from (Indo-)Portuguese but take on senses of related words from Cantonese, for examplevangueâ("to faint; to feel dizzy") originally coming from Indo-Portuguesebangueiro("drunk; high") but being supplanted semantically by Cantonese暈("dizzy; to feel dizzy"); orcaréta("car; any kind of vehicle") coming from Portuguesecarreta("cart") but being semantically supplanted by Cantonese車, with the same meaning as the Macanese term. Even the word for "money",sapeca, may be a semantic loan from Cantonese錢, as the term used to only refer to coins with square holes in the middle (compare French cognatesapèque).
Aspirationis usually not taken into account when loaning Cantonese words into Macanese, that is, words with[pʰ],[tʰ],[kʰ](Jyutping:p, t, k) and[p],[t],[k](Jyutping:b, d, g) are both borrowed asp, t, c/qu, making the aspirated consonants [pʰ,tʰ,kʰ] assimilate to the unaspirated ones. For example, 「算盤」 (Jyutping:syunpun) and 「麵包」(Jyutping:minbaau) are borrowed into Macanese assin-punandmin-paurespectively, noting that both words use ⟨p⟩ as opposed to the latter being borrowed as*min-bau. Likewise, [t͡s] (Jyutping:z) and [t͡sʰ] (Jyutping:c) are usually both borrowed into Macanese asch, for example 「瓜子」 (Jyutping:gwaazi) and「吵吵鬧鬧」(Jyutping:caaucaaunaaunaau) are borrowed into Macanese asquachíandchau-chau-lau-laurespectively, rather than the former being borrowed as*guazí. Note however that the syllable-initial N-L alternation as displayed by 「鬧」 in 「吵吵鬧鬧」 (naau→lau) is a regularallophonic phenomenon in Cantonese, rather than a specific effect arisen from the Macanese orthographic merging of aspirants and non-aspirants.
English-derived terms includeadap(from "hard-up", meaning "short of money"),afêt("fat"),anidiu("honeydew (melon)"), and possiblygudám("store", "shop" from Malaygudang, but also the sense "downstairs" possibly deriving from Englishgo down).
There are also a few terms calqued from English, for exampletiro-grandi("an important person") being a calque ofbig shot.
Older terms may have entered Macanese through Indo-Portuguese, for exampletifinâ("to have lunch") coming from Englishtiffinwhich is an especially commonplace term inIndian English, while newer English-derived terms have almost certainly entered Macanese throughHong Kong English, such aschoporchopein the sense of "stamp" or "seal", which is not only found in Hong Kong English but also inHong Kong Cantonese.
The Portuguese contribution to the lexicon came mainly from the dialects of southernPortugal. For example,chomâ("to call") likely deriving from a dialectal variant of standard Portuguesechamar.
Otherwise, verbs derived from Portuguese tend to lose their-rendings.-ar,-erand-irusually become-â,-êand-í. In some cases, verbs may be derived from the first- or third-person singular present form rather than the infinitive, for examplevivo("to live") coming from Portuguesevivo("I live, I am living") rather than the infinitiveviver. Likewise,vêm("to come") andtêm("to have") deriving from Portuguesevem("he/she/it/they (sg.) is/are coming") andtem("he/she/it/they (sg.) have"), rather than the infinitivesvirandter, which would have yielded*víand*tê. On the other hand, comparerí("to laugh") andcrê("to believe") from Portugueserirandcrerrespectively. Depending on the age of a Macanese derivation, it may also lose⟨-r-⟩after a consonant as well, for example Portugueseescreverbecame Macaneseisquevê("to write").
Some Macanese formations are derived from Portuguese (or older Galician-Portuguese) terms that are not found in modern standard Portuguese, for examplenádi(negative future particle, "will not") deriving from Portuguesenão há-de("(there) will not be"). Portuguese words may also be used in different and/or expanded senses, for examplenunca(Portuguese "never") being used with a more general sense of "not" as well as the interjection "no", whilenunca-si(lit. "no if") is used for "never"; orolâ(from Portugueseolhar, "to look") also bearing the meanings of "to see", "to watch", and even sometimes "to understand". There are also some particles found in Macanese which are not found in modern Portuguese, but which survives in other Romance languages; for example,namásorna-más("just; only; no more") corresponding to Asturiannamás, Catalannomés, Romaniannumai, and Latin American Spanishnomás.
Some words with now-obsolete senses in Portuguese may retain those senses in Macanese. For example,azinhameans "quickly" in Macanese, and derives from Portugueseasinha, which is speculated to have gone out of common Portuguese use after the 18th century. Depending on the case, Portuguese slang and jargon word variants may become the most common form used in Macanese, for examplepuliça("police officer") derived from Portuguesepolícia.
In addition to inherited terms fromIndo-Portuguese, it is also speculated that Macanese has been influenced by Portuguese varieties and creoles spoken in Africa. For example, Portuguesedireito("fair, just") becomesdrêtoin Macanese, very similar in form to theKabuverdianudretu("correct"), also descended from the same Portuguese word.
In some cases, non-Portuguese terms may be combined with Portuguese-derived grammatical particles to form terms unique to Macanese, for example Englishpark+ Macanese-â(from Portuguese-ar) →parcâ("to park (a vehicle)"). Conversely, Portuguese-derived terms may also combine with non-Portuguese grammatical particles to form Macanese terms, for exampleamor(Macanese, Portuguese "love") + Cantonese-仔zai(diminutive suffix) →amochâi("sweetie, darling").
Depending on the scenario, some speakers may performcode-switching, where certain (usually more complicated) concepts are expressed using Portuguese; or Portuguese interjections may be used in a Macanese sentence, for exampleCalôr qui pidímisericórdia("it's so hot", lit. "heat asking for mercy"), wheremisericórdiacomes from Portuguese. Otherwise, nationalities and names of countries are generally directly borrowed from Portuguese.
In Macanese, to speak in a Portuguese-influenced manner, i.e. to use Portuguese expressions or a Portuguese accent, is referred to asportuguesadoorportuguezado, which for instance may be used in the phrasefalâ portuguesado("to speak in a Portuguese way").
Where Portuguese has influenced Macanese, Macanese may also influence thePortuguesedialect as spoken by ethnic Macanese. Reportedly, words likechuchumeca("troublemaker") andvangueado("fainted") may be used by (especially older) Macanese when speaking Portuguese.
Some words were also derived from Spanish. Words of Spanish origin came via a small number of Latinos who settled in the ports of Macau amidst the Manila Galleon trade. Because Spanish and Portuguese are bothIberian Romance languages, many words may be similar and the real origin may not be clear. For instance,adiós("goodbye") may directly derive from the Spanishadióswith no apparent intermediate in Portugueseadeus; orchiste("joke") deriving from Galician or Spanishchiste. Some words may instead derive from Spanish via Portuguese, for instancepanhâ("to take") from Spanishapañarvia Portugueseapanhar; orxicra("teacup") from Spanishjícara(ultimately of Nahuatl origin) via Portuguesexícara.
While certain de-diphthongized words exist in forms similar to their Spanish counterparts, such as Portuguesedous("two") becomingdôsin Macanese (compare Spanishdos), it is uncertain the extent to which Spanish may have actually influenced said de-diphthongization process, and the similar resultant vowel may largely be a coincidence.
There is also some backslang in Macanese, for examplenáchideriving fromchina, both meaning "a Chinese thing/person".
The phonology of Macanese is relatively similar toEuropean Portuguese, however there is a slightly tonal or sing-songy quality, possibly as an influence of Malay and/or Cantonese. Unlike Cantonese however, the tones largely do not differentiate otherwise homophones. In addition, spoken Macanese appears to besyllable-timed, likeBrazilian Portuguese, but unlike European Portuguese which isstress-timed.
⟨s⟩ before a consonant or word-finally may be pronounced either as/s/or/ʃ/, the latter a feature influenced by European Portuguese. The usage of/ʃ/is recorded at least as early as the 1980s, as recorded in theGlossário Do Dialecto Macaense(1988). ⟨s⟩ between vowels is usually pronounced/z/, same as in Portuguese; and word-initial ⟨s⟩ followed by a vowel, ⟨-ss-⟩, and ⟨ç⟩ are all pronounced/s/.
Portuguese ⟨lh⟩/ʎ/tends to become just/l/, for example Macanesemulé("woman") derived from Portuguesemulher, although the variationmulier/-lj-/also exists, cf. Kristangmuleh. In some cases, this may be due to Macanese inheriting directly from Old Galician-Portuguese ⟨ll⟩.⟨Nh⟩/ɲ/however is generally retained, for examplefucinho/fuˈsiɲu/("snout") from Portuguesefocinho, although some speakers may use/nj/instead.
Also,/ʃ/and/ʒ/generally tend to be pronounced as/t͡ʃ/and/d͡ʒ/respectively, although/t͡ʃ/is always used for words of Cantonese or Malay origin containing⟨ch⟩(c/t͡ʃ/in Malay,/t͡sʰʲ/[t͡ɕʰ]or/t͡sʲ/[t͡ɕ]in Cantonese). Another difference is that⟨d⟩is almost exclusively pronounced as[d](or even un-aspirated[t]as in Cantonese), as opposed to/ð/in European Portuguese or/d͡ʒ/in Brazilian Portuguese in certain positions.
⟨h⟩ is treated differently depending on the borrowing source (if any); for Portuguese words, it is generally spelled but not pronounced in full Portuguese words, for examplehómifrom Portuguesehomem, but tends to be dropped in compound words, e.g.amestêfrom Portuguesehámester. For English words, the ⟨h⟩ is also silent, but is generally also not written out at all, for exampleanidiufromhoneydew, orambâcfromhumbug. The only case in which ⟨h⟩ is not silent is with Cantonese loanwords, for examplehám-chóifrom Cantonese鹹菜(Jyutping:haamcoi). In this case, ⟨h⟩ is simply pronounced/h/, a sound familiar to almost all Macanese, as modern Macanese still living in Macau are all proficient in Cantonese to some degree.
In terms of vowels, the first syllable in Macanese is usually pronounced openly even when unstressed. For example,comê(from Portuguesecomer/kuˈmeɾ/) is pronounced/kɔˈme/rather than/kuˈme/, as if it were spelt*cómê.This however does not apply to unstressed final vowels; unstressed ⟨o⟩ in the final syllable of a word is generally still pronounced as/u/. And as seen with the example offucinho, if non-final/o/shifts to/u/in a Macanese word, it is almost always reflected in spelling. Similarly, if non-final/e/shifts to/i/, it is often (but not always) reflected in spelling, e.g. Macanesefiliz/fiˈliz/from Portuguesefeliz, orizizífrom Portugueseexigir.
The pronunciation of nasal vowels may differ between different speakers, as there is no standardized pronunciation; for example,sâm("to be", from Portuguesesão("they (pl.) are") may be pronounced either as/sɐŋ/or/sɐ̃(ŋ)/, hence the alternative spellingsã./-ŋ/is more common.
⟨a⟩ and ⟨â⟩ are usually but not always pronounced as /a/, even in stressed positions; for example,reportâ("to file a complaint") may be pronounced /ɾɛpɔ(ɾ)ˈtɐ/ or even /ɾɛpɔ(ɾ)ˈtʌ/ by some speakers rather than /ɾɛpɔ(ɾ)ˈta/. ⟨á⟩ however is generally pronounced as /a/, with the exception of the-(ç)ámsuffix derived from Portuguese-(ç)ão.
In addition, initial unstressed vowels may be dropped entirely, for example Portugueseacabarandalugarbecomingcavâandlugârespectively.
Diphthongs from Portuguese are often not present or reduced in Macanese; for example, Portuguesecousa(archaic form ofcoisa("thing")) becomes Macanesecuza("what; why"), Portuguesedous("two", modern termdois) becomes Macanesedôs, and Portuguese-eirobecomes-êroor-éroin Macanese. In some cases, this is due to Macanese inheriting a pre-Portuguese form; for example,nôm("not") derived from Old Galician-Portuguesenon(compare Galiciannon), becoming a doublet ofnâmwhich comes from Portuguesenão. Otherwise, the diphthong reduction may take place internally in Macanese, or in earlier Indo-Portuguese. Such de-diphthongization may sometimes render Macanese words closer toSpanishwords, such as the aforementioneddôsand-êro(cf. Spanishdos,-ero), and alsorópa("clothes") from Portugueseroupa(cf. Spanishropa).
In certain cases, even diphthongs from Cantonese may be reduced; Cantonese 「豆腐」(Jyutping:daufu) may be rendered astafúrather thantaufú; and 「快艇」(Jyutping:faaiteng) may becomefatiámrather thanfaitiám. Nonetheless, both forms are in common use.
The pronunciation of ⟨r⟩ depends on the speaker; before a vowel or between vowels, it is almost always pronounced /ɾ/, although /ʁ/ may be found word-initially with some speakers. After a vowel word-finally or before a consonant, it is always dropped in verbs and reflected as such in writing (cf.lugâabove, although older texts from the 20th century may still retain the-rin writing), and depending on the speaker, it may be dropped when used in less common Portuguese words even with ⟨r⟩ retained in spelling, or simply pronounced /ɾ/ as previous.
As mentioned earlier, words such asisquevêmay lose-r-even after a consonant, although those tend to be older words since modern Macanese are usually fully capable of pronouncing /ɾ/ before or after a consonant. This phenomenon sometimes results in multiple forms of a word; for example, Portugueseobrigado("thank you") manifests in Macanese both asobigado(with R-dropping) andbrigado, with ⟨r⟩ retained but with the initial unstressed vowel dropped instead.
One phenomenon with older words is when /kɾi/ is reduced to /ki/, for example Portuguesecriança("child") becomingquiança. Though there are exceptions to this even in older words, for examplecristám("Catholic; Christian") rather thanquistám.
R-dropping in Macanese parallelsHong Kong English, where ⟨r⟩ is generally also not pronounced after a vowel, and sometimes realized as /w/ word-initially and after a consonant.
There has been little scientific research of Macanese grammar, much less on its development between the 16th and 20th centuries. Its grammatical structure seems to incorporate both European and Asian elements.
Like most Asian languages, Macanese lacks definite articles (but has an indefinite articleunga), and does not inflect verbs: for example,iou sâmmeans "I am," andêle sâmmeans "he/she is". The indefinite articleungais also used to create qualifiers, such asqualunga("which"),estunga("this"), orcadunga("each").
Macanese also lackspronoun cases(ioorioumeans "I," "me" and "mine"), and forms possessive pronouns using the suffix-suaor-sa; for example,ilôtro-suaorilôtro-sameans "theirs", whileiou-suaorio-sameans "my". Certain possessive pronouns are however retained from Portuguese;minhais used as a synonym toiou-sain emotional situations as well as in the header of letters, whilenôssoandvôssoare also used in Macanese for the first-person plural possessive pronoun and the second-person singular possessive pronoun respectively, in addition tonôs-saandvôs-sa.su, from Indo-Portuguesesuand earlier Galician-Portugueseseu, is also used in Macanese as a third-person (and rarely, second-person) reflexive possessive pronoun, used standalone instead of as a particle attached to a pronoun. In both speech and literature,-sais more common than-sua, and theGlossário do dialecto macaense(1988) has-saas one of its entries, only mentioning-suain its description.
In general, pronouns in Macanese are not gendered, that is,êleis used as the universal third-person singular pronoun. Macanese is also nominallypro-drop, even despite the lack of verb conjugations; the subject of a sentence must therefore be inferred through context. Both pronoun features (gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun, pro-drop) are likely influences from Cantonese, with the former being a calque of Cantonese 「佢」, which is gender-neutral unlike the Mandarin and Standard Chinese「他」, 「她」, etc..
While Macanese nominally uses a gender-neutral third-person pronoun, some speakers may useêlato indicate "she" or "her", as opposed to usingêlefor all genders. This is likely due to influence from modern Portuguese.
In very rare cases, adjectives may also have feminine forms depending on the former gender of the noun in Portuguese. For example,bô-quiança("good child") rather thanbôm-quiança, withbôpossibly deriving from Portugueseboa, feminine form ofbom(whence Macanesebôm); ormaquiaçám("spoiling (e.g. a child)") from Portuguesemá criação, rather thanmauquiaçám, despite the existence ofmauin Macanese.
Progressive action (denoted in English by the "-ing" verbal forms) is denoted by a separate particletâ, presumably derived from Portugueseestá("it is"). Completed actions are likewise indicated by the particlejá, presumably from Portuguesejá("right now" or "already"), whilenuncais used for things in the past which did not happen.lôgo(from Portugueselogo("soon")) may be used for the positive future tense, whilenádiis used for the negative future tense. In some cases, two time particles can be used in the same clause, for example in the sentence "Lôgoioutâvai chuchumecâ co vôs" ("I'll be gossiping with you"), but this is relatively rare. But in general, grammatical tense may not be indicated at all, and would require a listener or reader to infer from either context or time words such asonte("yesterday") oramanhâm("tomorrow").
Participles are generally formed by appending-doto the verb root, same as in Portuguese. However, participles in Macanese are relatively rare and often only serve as adjectives denoting the current state and change in state of something, for exampleestricâ rópa("to iron clothes") →rópa estricado("ironed clothes, clothes that have been ironed"), ordurmí("to sleep") →ficâ durmido("to fall asleep", lit. "to become asleep"). Otherwise, some participles, especially irregular ones, may be inherited directly from Portuguese, for examplefêto("done") from Portuguesefeitorather than forming*fazidofromfazê("to do").
Reduplicationis used to make plural nouns (casa-casa= "houses"), plural adjectives (china-china= "several Chinese people or things"), and emphatic adverbs (cedo-cedo= "very early"), a pattern also found in Malay grammar. Otherwise, some nouns may be pluralized with no reduplication, especially when the amount of the noun is not important to the main idea of the sentence, and the pluralization is instead implied through context.
In older Macanese, it was more common for partial reduplication to take place, where only the first syllable of a multisyllabic word, or the first consonant (if any) + first vowel in a monosyllabic word, would be duplicated, for examplefu-fula("flowers") fromfula("flower"). This has nearly disappeared in modern Macanese in favour of full reduplication, that is a duplication of the entire word, i.e.fula-fulafor "flowers". Among the most common Macanese words, only two still use partial reduplication:nhunhum("men") fromnhum("man"), andnhonhônha("women") fromnhonha("woman"). In other cases, partial reduplication has formed words with entirely different meanings to the original word, for examplechuchupa("paper cone used to hold roasted peanuts or chestnuts") fromchupa, a (traditionally cylindrical) cubic measure descended from Malaycupak.
Similarly toChavacano,nais used to indicate "in", "at", or "on"; but unlike Chavacano,pa(from Portuguesepara) is used to indicate "to" or "towards".
di(literally "of", from Portuguesede) can also be used to connect nouns with adjectives, for examplecasa qui di largomeaning "large house", or combined withbêm("well") to mean "very", for examplebêm-di filizmeaning "very happy".
Superlative and comparative forms are usually simply created by usingmás("more; most") before the adjective or adverb, for examplemás bôm(lit. "more good") andmás bêm(lit. "more well") meaning "better". Some irregular comparative forms may be inherited from Portuguese, such aspió("worse") from Portuguesepior.
Common function words (time words, indefinite article, etc.) may sometimes haveapocopicorapheticforms. For example,abríungajanela("open a window") may becomeabrí'ngajanela,tudoora("always", literally "all time") may becometud'ora, orjáuví?("did you hear?") may becomej'uví?. This however depends on the speaker and is not standard or mandatory, unlike in French.
There are also some other less significant grammatical constructions derived from Cantonese, for example the usage ofverb-not-verbfor asking yes-no questions, e.g.(vôs) quêro-nôm-quêromeaning "do you want".
Patuá has no standardized orthography. A common orthography was first proposed byJosé dos Santos Ferreira, and the current most common orthography is largely based on Ferreira's 1996Papiaçám di Macau, itself based mostly on the Portuguese orthography.
In the de-facto standard orthography, the circumflex (â, ê, ô) or acute accent (á, é, í, ó, ú) are used to indicate syllable stress and open-vowel pronunciation, especially in the case of monosyllabic words. This contrasts with the Malay-based orthography of Kristang, which often uses-hafter a vowel to indicate stress. The tilde is generally not used, except sometimes in the wordssã, usually written assâmorsam, ornã, written in modern Macanese asnâmornam.
Maquista Chapado(2004) recommends using the circumflex for closed stresseda, eando, the acute accent for (semi-)open stresseda, eando, as well as stressedi, uin a word-final position,although this is not always followed in practice. For example, the word meaning "bread" (which descends from Portuguesepão) is recommended to be written aspám, however other sources (including but not limited to certain parts inMaquista Chapadoitself) may instead usepâm.
The-ãosuffix in Portuguese usually becomes-ámin Macanese if stressed, for examplecoraçám("heart") from Portuguesecoração; or-aif unstressed, for examplebênçafrom Portuguesebênção, although-âmis generally more common in monosyllabic words descended from-ão, as outlined withpâmearlier.-ámis also used to spell-angfrom Malay/Indonesian or Cantonese, for examplesaiám("what a pity!; missing") from Malaysayang.-âmis sometimes also used in multisyllabic words if the Portuguese word ends in a non-diphthongal nasal vowel, for exampleamanhâmfrom Portugueseamanhã.
In general, it is recommended both by Ferreira andMaquista Chapadoto use-mfor the word-final nasal consonant /-ŋ/, while-nmay be used to denote a nasal consonant when following a vowel and preceding a consonant, for example /aŋˈkuza/ →ancusarather thanamcusaorangcusa.
One exception is the indefinite articleunga, pronounced /ˈuŋa/, same as the Galicianunha. Some Macanese sources may spell it instead asung'a, to prevent the word from being pronounced as /ˈuŋɡa/ (which some speakers do anyway). This also applies to its derived terms, such asestunga("this") orcadunga("each"). Multi-word Cantonese loanwords may also retainng, but monosyllabic Cantonese words generally still use-m, for examplesôm("food; a dish") from Cantonese 「餸」 (Jyutping:sung), ortôm-tôm("a piece of candy") from reduplication of Cantonese 「糖」 ("sugar; candy", Jyutping:tong).
When /e/ is reduced or otherwise morphed into /i/ or /ɪ/, it is often spelt phonetically with ⟨i⟩, for examplefichâandquicompared to Portuguesefecharandque. Likewise, when /o/ becomes /u/ in Macanese, or when Macanese inherits a dialectal Portuguese form which uses /u/ instead of /o/, it is also directly spelt as ⟨u⟩, such asdurmí("to sleep") from Portuguesedormir. Etymological ⟨s⟩ pronounced as /z/ may be written either as ⟨s⟩ or ⟨z⟩, for examplecuza("what, which") andancusa("thing") both derive from dated Portuguesecousa, but are spelt differently. /s/ between vowels is often written as "ss" like in Swiss German, for example in the wordbassâ/baˈsa/ ("to lower").
Portuguese /ʒ/, pronounced variously as /z/ or /d͡ʒ/, may be written as either ⟨g⟩, ⟨j⟩ or ⟨z⟩, the former two deriving from Portuguese orthography, for example Portuguesefingirmay becomefingíorfinzí. This sometimes leads to inconsistencies between the most common spelling and actual pronunciation, for examplehoze("today", from Portuguesehoje) may be pronounced /ˈɔd͡ʒi/ by some speakers.
Otherwise, the de-facto standard orthography tends to follow Portuguese orthographic rules, for example silent ⟨h⟩ in Portuguese words,-nor-mafter a vowel to indicate nasalization (although-nmay simply be /n/, especially in Cantonese loanwords), ⟨i⟩ before/after a vowel to represent /j/, or using ⟨c⟩ for /k/ before ⟨a⟩, ⟨o⟩, and ⟨u⟩ (compare Macanesecacúswith Indonesiankakus), and ⟨ç⟩ for non-word-initial /s/ before those vowels, even in foreign words. Words borrowed from Cantonese may use an orthography similar to theHong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation, for exampleleong-fan("grass jelly") borrowed from Cantonese涼粉.
Modern Macanese differs rather greatly from Macanese spoken during and before the first half of the 20th Century. The modern variety can be said to have taken its shape after the 1950s, with Macanese literature of the time still more or less recognizable today. In addition to strong influences from Cantonese, Portuguese has re-asserted its influence to a degree, both in vocabulary and in phonology.
Older words borrowed from Malay or South Asian sources may be supplanted by Portuguese words. For example,sezâ("sun") fromMarathiसूर्य(sūrya) appears to have become all but archaic even in the later half of the 20th century, replaced by the Portuguesesol. Other such words may take on extended meanings, such assapeca, from Malaysa+paku(lit. "one coin thread"), which formerly only meant "coin", but is now the most common word meaning "money".
In other cases, Macanese has undergone a certain degree ofdecreolization, with Portuguese-derived words losing their extended meanings; for exampleagora, from Portugueseagora("now"), formerly also had the senses of "at the same time" and "since", however modern Macanese almost exclusively uses the word simply to mean "now". In other cases of decreolization, a word derived from a Portuguese regional variant may be discarded in favour of the modern standard Portuguese word, such asjanelareplacing olderjinela, meaning "window".
Increasingly, ⟨m⟩ before a consonant is also simply pronounced /m/ rather than as /ŋ/, despite ⟨m⟩ being a nasalizing consonant in Portuguese. For example,empê("to stand up"), from Portugueseem pé/ɐ̃j̃ ˈpɛ/, is more likely to be pronounced /emˈpɛ/ or /imˈpɛ/ rather than /eŋˈpɛ/ or /iŋˈpɛ/. ⟨n⟩ before a consonant however generally remains nasalized as /ŋ/, with the exception of most Cantonese loanwords. It has also been found that in the consonant clusters ⟨nd⟩, ⟨nj⟩, ⟨nt⟩, and ⟨nz⟩ where ⟨z⟩ is pronounced [d͡ʒ], the pronunciation of ⟨n⟩ also becomes  [n], for exampleúndi("where") being pronounced /ˈun.di/ rather than /ˈuŋ.di/. Older dictionaries, such as theGlossário Do Dialecto Macaense(1988), generally record pre-consonant ⟨m⟩ with nasalization, such as notatingambáas [ą̃bą́]rather than say [ąmbą́], despiteambá(modernambâorambâc) deriving from Englishhumbugwhere /m/ is not nasalized.
In addition to lexical contributions, Cantonese has also significantly influenced the grammar of modern Macanese; one example is the common usage ofvai(lit. "to go") before verbs, which parallels the Cantonese usage of去, which in addition to "to go" can also mean "to go in order to do something".
Younger Macanese (under the age of 60), who may be less fluent in Macanese and more fluent in Cantonese, may even write full sentences using outright Cantonese syntax. For example, the sentenceÊle falâ amanhâm vai Hotê Lisboa dále dôs mám("He says that tomorrow he will go to Hotel Lisboa to gamble") may be translated word for word into/from Cantonese as佢話聼日去葡京酒店賭兩手, with the exact same syntax. In addition, de-diphthongized words may sometimes be re-diphthongized in alignment with the Portuguese origin word, for example sayinglei("law") rather than the expected de-diphthongized form*lê; compare this with the wordrê("king"), from Portugueserei.
Here is an example of a Patuá poem:
Note thatnhonhais cognate withnyonyainMalay/Kristang, both being derived from Portuguesedona'lady'. In addition, due to the lack of a standardized orthography, various words may be spelled differently from person to person, such ascobeing written ascô.
N.B. A major part of the above article (excluding the "Description" section) is based on a feature story by Harald Bruning that was published in the Chinese edition of Macau Magazine, produced by Sinofare Co. Ltd for the Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS), in June 2004.