Portuguese as a language of diplomacy in the Indian Ocean: new 18th-century evidence

After its arrival in Asia in the late 15th century, the Portuguese language came to perform the role of a língua franca of coastal Asia, especially whenever communication concerned European agents. One dimension of this was its use as a language of diplomacy. In this talk, we will explore, from a linguistic as well as historical perspective, a set of 5 unpublished manuscripts which show the use of Portuguese in diplomatic correspondence between the Dutch East Indies (VOC) headquartered in Batavia (Jakarta) and the court of Southwest India’s Kingdom of Cochin (Kochi), produced between 1771 and 1789. These documents currently integrate the collection of “Dutch Records” of the Ernakulam Regional Archives, a branch of the Kerala State Arhives (see Bes 2012). These rare records allow us a glimpse of the type of expertise in Portuguese as a second/foreign language to be found in 18th century colonial Batavia, which adds to a complex linguistic picture that also included the use of a Portuguese-lexified creole in the city and its vicinity (see Maurer 2011). This study therefore contributes to an understanding of the actual diffusion and impact of Portuguese in Java, and Indonesia at large.

References

- Bes, Lennart. 2012. Gold-leaf flattery, Calcuttan dust, and a brand new flagpole: Five little-known VOC collections in Asia on India and Ceylon. Itinerario 36(1): 91-106.

- Maurer, Philippe. 2011. The former Portuguese Creole of Batavia and Tugu (Indonesia). London/Colombo: Battlebridge.