Romance-speaking Asian countries
Encyclopedia
Romance-speaking Asian countries are those whose official or main languages are Romance
ones, namely French
, Portuguese
, or Spanish
, or countries which have significant populations that speak a Romance language.
During the Roman Empire
Latin was used by soldiers, government officials, traders and other Romans
in the Eastern Mediterranean, but the strong presence of widespread languages such as Greek
and Aramaic prevented the assimilation of Latin by the local population, consequently the Latin in that area did not develop into Romance languages
. In the Middle Ages, Romance languages (notably the French dialects) were widely used in the Levant
during the crusades, but eventually died out.
Colonialism and trade brought the Romance language to many coastal areas and islands in Asia, but today the only places with official Romance languages in the continent are limited to East Timor
(Portuguese), Macau
(Portuguese), Pondicherry (French), and administrative status in Cambodia
(French) and Laos
(French), and yet in those places they compete with much numerically stronger languages.
French is the largest European language spoken in Asia after English
. Asia is smallest French-speaking continent after South America
and is used in Vietnam
, Laos
and Cambodia
. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia and is a diplomatic language in Vietnam. In colonial Vietnam
, a French creole known as "Tây Bồi" was spoken (now extinct). French is the principal language of higher education in these three countries and is spoken by elite and elderly populations.
French was the official language in Lebanon
, along with Arabic
, until 1941, when the country declared independence from France
. French is widely used by the Lebanese, specially among Christian Maronites, and for administrative purposes. It is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic, but it is losing terrain for English as second language.
In China the language was also spoken by the elite in the Shanghai French Concession
and other concessions in Guangzhou
(Shamian Island
), Hankou
, Tianjin
, Kwang-Chou-Wan
and in the French zone of influence over the provinces of Yunnan
, Guangxi
, Hainan
, and Guangdong
.
In Burma, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered in the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon
offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance Francaise has an active centre each in Yangon and Mandalay
. The Francophone community is estimated to number between 25,000 to 50,000+.
In Singapore
, the top 10% of Primary School Leaving Examination
graduates may choose to opt for French as a second or third language in secondary school, however this language is not an official language in Singapore
, and is hardly spoken among locals.
French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory
of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil
, Telugu
and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their third or fourth language (usually behind English, Tamil and Hindi
).
French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra
, including Mumbai
, as part of the preparation for the secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR
offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9 the students are asked to drop either French or Hindi
, which is their native language.
In China
, Taiwan
, Japan
, and South Korea
, there also are communities of returned immigrants from France
or Quebec
who speak French.
originated with crusaders, merchants, clerics establishing outpost in the area. Today Italian is spoken by nearly 2,000 people within families, social clubs, and churches in Turkey. According to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Israel there are 11,288 Italian citizens or descendents registered in the consulate rolls.
In China during the Italian concession (1901–1947) in Tianjin
the language was spoken among administrators and traders, but vanished after 1947.
, Portuguese is spoken in East Timor
, Goa, Daman and Diu in India, and Macau
in China, as the small pockets of a once widespread language in the continent and employed as lingua franca
. Today it is one of the official languages of East Timor and Macau, and many creoles
survive in small communities.
In East Timor
, while the most spoken language is Tetum, an Austronesian
language heavily influenced by Portuguese, the East Timor government asked the other Community of Portuguese Language Countries to help it to reintroduce Portuguese as an official language. East Timor uses Portuguese to link itself to a larger international community and to differentiate itself from Indonesia. Xanana Gusmão
, president of East Timor, believes that Portuguese will be widely spoken again within 10 years.
Portuguese in East Timor is spoken by less than 20% of its population, mostly the elder generation, though this percentage is increasing as Portuguese is being taught to the younger generation and to interested adults. The reintroduction of Portuguese as an official language has caused suspicion and resentment among some younger East Timorese who have been educated under the Indonesian system and do not speak it. Recent numbers made in Asian Lusophone meetings showed that the language almost tripled the number of speakers from 1999 to 2005.
In the Chinese special administrative region of Macau, Portuguese is a co-official language with Cantonese
. It is predominately spoken by the Macanese
(Eurasian
) and Portuguese
minorities, who comprise 5% of Macau's population, although there are Portuguese-speaking ethnic Chinese
and there is only one school where Portuguese is the language of instruction, due to strong immigration from mainland China since the 20th century.
Macau has a number of Portuguese-language radio and television stations, which existed before the return to the People's Republic of China. Some Brazilian television stations air in Macau, but the only Portuguese-language school said that European Portuguese must be taught to students. Although Portuguese use was in decline in Asia in the early 21st century after Macau was ceded to China in 1999, it is becoming a language for opportunity there, mostly due to East Timor's boost in the number of speakers in the last five years, but also the Chinese authorities' protection of Portuguese as official language in Macau due to increased Chinese diplomatic and financial ties with Portuguese-speaking countries.
The Macanese
formerly spoke a Portuguese-based creole, the Macanese language
or Patuá which is almost extinct.
Along the Indian shores, there were about 44 communities where Portuguese was spoken, today there are few communities left.
In Goa, where it is spoken by an increasingly small minority, it is seen as the 'language of grandparents' because it is no longer taught in schools, nor is it an official language.
In Daman, the Portuguese heritage is more lively than Goa, and that is also seen in the language use; about 10% of the population uses Portuguese or a Portuguese semi-Creole, called Língua da Casa. Most of the Indo-Portuguese creoles are already extinct. Aside from that of Daman, the other existing Indo-Portuguese creole is Kristi
in Korlai.
In Japan
, Portuguese is spoken as a home language
by Brazilians of Japanese descent, known as dekassegui
, who number approximately 270,000 - 280,000 (in 2005) people, making Japan the Asian nation with the largest number of Portuguese speakers.
In Malacca
(Malaysia), there is a Portuguese creole
known as Papiá Kristang
or Cristão, still spoken by some of the Eurasian population. Throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, Formosa, South Japan, coastal China, Myanma, Thailand, Ormuz strait Portuguese was once the language of the trade, but eventually was replaced by other languages after the decay of the Portuguese Empire.
There are also several Portuguese creole
s especially in India
and Sri Lanka
.
In Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Asian Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan there are small communities of Moldovan Romanian-speakers (about 100,000 people), displaced during the Soviet area.
In Turkey the Romanian-speaking community came during the Ottoman Empire, today it is estimated to be around 30,000 people.
, and kept their language that evolved in distinct form today called Ladino
.
Nowadays there are 15,000 Ladino speakers in Turkey
and nearly 100,000 in Israel
.
Once the colonial language of the Philippines
, Spanish in its pure form was spoken mainly by the upper classes and the church, while the majority of the native population spoke native languages interspersed with Spanish loanwords. Its importance fell in the first half of the 20th century following the U.S. occupation and administration of the islands and the substitution of English as the language of higher learning. Spanish ceased to be an official language in 1973. In 1990, the population whose first language was Spanish was about 2,658 including mestizos
. However, there is a significant Spanish vocabulary superstratum in Filipino languages
and creole language
s such as Chavacano
, contributing the largest number of foreign-derived words to native vocabularies.
Spanish was used during the colonial presence in Northern Taiwan
, Palau
, Guam
and in the Marianas.
In China
, Taiwan
, Japan
, and South Korea
, there also are communities of returned immigrants from Latin America
who speak Spanish.
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
ones, namely French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, or Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, or countries which have significant populations that speak a Romance language.
During the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
Latin was used by soldiers, government officials, traders and other Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
in the Eastern Mediterranean, but the strong presence of widespread languages such as Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
and Aramaic prevented the assimilation of Latin by the local population, consequently the Latin in that area did not develop into Romance languages
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
. In the Middle Ages, Romance languages (notably the French dialects) were widely used in the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
during the crusades, but eventually died out.
Colonialism and trade brought the Romance language to many coastal areas and islands in Asia, but today the only places with official Romance languages in the continent are limited to East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
(Portuguese), Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
(Portuguese), Pondicherry (French), and administrative status in Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
(French) and Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
(French), and yet in those places they compete with much numerically stronger languages.
French in Asia
The French colonial and trade expansion in the late 19th century brought the language to Asia, with some remnant usage in the present.French is the largest European language spoken in Asia after English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. Asia is smallest French-speaking continent after South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
and is used in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
and Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia and is a diplomatic language in Vietnam. In colonial Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, a French creole known as "Tây Bồi" was spoken (now extinct). French is the principal language of higher education in these three countries and is spoken by elite and elderly populations.
French was the official language in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, along with Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, until 1941, when the country declared independence from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. French is widely used by the Lebanese, specially among Christian Maronites, and for administrative purposes. It is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic, but it is losing terrain for English as second language.
In China the language was also spoken by the elite in the Shanghai French Concession
Shanghai French Concession
The Shanghai French Concession was a foreign concession in Shanghai, China from 1849 until 1946, and it was progressively expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The concession came to an end in practice in 1943 when the Vichy French government signed it over to the pro-Japanese puppet...
and other concessions in Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
(Shamian Island
Shamian Island
Shamian Island , formerly known as Shameen Island or Shamin Island, from its Cantonese pronunciation, is a sandbank island in the Liwan District of Guangzhou city, Guangdong province, China...
), Hankou
Hankou
Hankou was one of the three cities whose merging formed modern-day Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers where the Han falls into the Yangtze...
, Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
, Kwang-Chou-Wan
Kwang-Chou-Wan
Kwang-Chou-Wan was a small enclave on the south coast of China ceded by Qing China to France as a leased territory, and ruled by France as an outlier of French Indo-China...
and in the French zone of influence over the provinces of Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
, Guangxi
Guangxi
Guangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
, Hainan
Hainan
Hainan is the smallest province of the People's Republic of China . Although the province comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, of its land mass is Hainan Island , from which the province takes its name...
, and Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
.
In Burma, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered in the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon
Yangon
Yangon is a former capital of Burma and the capital of Yangon Region . Although the military government has officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw since March 2006, Yangon, with a population of over four million, continues to be the country's largest city and the most important commercial...
offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance Francaise has an active centre each in Yangon and Mandalay
Mandalay
Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of one million, and is the capital of Mandalay Region ....
. The Francophone community is estimated to number between 25,000 to 50,000+.
In Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, the top 10% of Primary School Leaving Examination
Primary School Leaving Examination
The Primary School Leaving Examination is a national examination taken by all students in Singapore near the end of primary six in primary school, which is also their last year in Primary school before they leave for secondary school. It is administered by the Ministry of Education...
graduates may choose to opt for French as a second or third language in secondary school, however this language is not an official language in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, and is hardly spoken among locals.
French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory
Union Territory
A Union Territory is a sub-national administrative division of India, in the federal framework of governance. Unlike the states of India, which have their own elected governments, union territories are ruled directly by the federal government; the President of India appoints an Administrator or...
of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
, Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their third or fourth language (usually behind English, Tamil and Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
).
French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
, including Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, as part of the preparation for the secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR
National Capital Region (India)
The National Capital Region in India is a name for the conurbation or metropolitan area which encompasses the entire National Capital Territory of Delhi as well as urban areas ringing it in neighbouring states of Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan...
offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9 the students are asked to drop either French or Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
, which is their native language.
In China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, there also are communities of returned immigrants from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
or Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
who speak French.
Italian
There is a small Italian Levantine community in Eastern Mediterranean, notably in TurkeyTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
originated with crusaders, merchants, clerics establishing outpost in the area. Today Italian is spoken by nearly 2,000 people within families, social clubs, and churches in Turkey. According to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Israel there are 11,288 Italian citizens or descendents registered in the consulate rolls.
In China during the Italian concession (1901–1947) in Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
the language was spoken among administrators and traders, but vanished after 1947.
Portuguese
In AsiaAsia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Portuguese is spoken in East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
, Goa, Daman and Diu in India, and Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
in China, as the small pockets of a once widespread language in the continent and employed as lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
. Today it is one of the official languages of East Timor and Macau, and many creoles
Creole language
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
survive in small communities.
In East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
, while the most spoken language is Tetum, an Austronesian
Austronesian languages
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
language heavily influenced by Portuguese, the East Timor government asked the other Community of Portuguese Language Countries to help it to reintroduce Portuguese as an official language. East Timor uses Portuguese to link itself to a larger international community and to differentiate itself from Indonesia. Xanana Gusmão
Xanana Gusmão
Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão GCL is a former militant who was the first President of East Timor, serving from May 2002 to May 2007...
, president of East Timor, believes that Portuguese will be widely spoken again within 10 years.
Portuguese in East Timor is spoken by less than 20% of its population, mostly the elder generation, though this percentage is increasing as Portuguese is being taught to the younger generation and to interested adults. The reintroduction of Portuguese as an official language has caused suspicion and resentment among some younger East Timorese who have been educated under the Indonesian system and do not speak it. Recent numbers made in Asian Lusophone meetings showed that the language almost tripled the number of speakers from 1999 to 2005.
In the Chinese special administrative region of Macau, Portuguese is a co-official language with Cantonese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
. It is predominately spoken by the Macanese
Macanese people
The Macanese-born Portuguese people or simply the Macanese people refer to an ethnic group which originated in Macau since the 16th century, consisting mostly of people with some Portuguese ancestry.-Culture:...
(Eurasian
Eurasian (mixed ancestry)
The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th-century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent....
) and Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
minorities, who comprise 5% of Macau's population, although there are Portuguese-speaking ethnic Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
and there is only one school where Portuguese is the language of instruction, due to strong immigration from mainland China since the 20th century.
Macau has a number of Portuguese-language radio and television stations, which existed before the return to the People's Republic of China. Some Brazilian television stations air in Macau, but the only Portuguese-language school said that European Portuguese must be taught to students. Although Portuguese use was in decline in Asia in the early 21st century after Macau was ceded to China in 1999, it is becoming a language for opportunity there, mostly due to East Timor's boost in the number of speakers in the last five years, but also the Chinese authorities' protection of Portuguese as official language in Macau due to increased Chinese diplomatic and financial ties with Portuguese-speaking countries.
The Macanese
Macanese people
The Macanese-born Portuguese people or simply the Macanese people refer to an ethnic group which originated in Macau since the 16th century, consisting mostly of people with some Portuguese ancestry.-Culture:...
formerly spoke a Portuguese-based creole, the Macanese language
Macanese language
Macanese or Macau Creole is a creole language derived mainly from Malay, Sinhalese, Cantonese, and Portuguese, which was originally spoken by the Macanese community of the Portuguese colony of Macau...
or Patuá which is almost extinct.
Along the Indian shores, there were about 44 communities where Portuguese was spoken, today there are few communities left.
In Goa, where it is spoken by an increasingly small minority, it is seen as the 'language of grandparents' because it is no longer taught in schools, nor is it an official language.
In Daman, the Portuguese heritage is more lively than Goa, and that is also seen in the language use; about 10% of the population uses Portuguese or a Portuguese semi-Creole, called Língua da Casa. Most of the Indo-Portuguese creoles are already extinct. Aside from that of Daman, the other existing Indo-Portuguese creole is Kristi
Kristi language
Korlai Indo-Portuguese is the language of some 1,000 Christians in an isolated area around the village of Korlai in Raigad District of Maharashtra state, India...
in Korlai.
In Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Portuguese is spoken as a home language
Home language
Following a widely accepted definition by Valdes , a heritage language is a language that is acquired by individuals raised in homes where the dominant language of the region, such as English in the United States, is not spoken or not exclusively spoken...
by Brazilians of Japanese descent, known as dekassegui
Dekasegi
Dekasegi is a term used in Latin American cultures to refer to ethnic Japanese people who have migrated to Japan, having taken advantage of Japanese citizenship or nisei visa and immigration laws to escape from economic instability in South America...
, who number approximately 270,000 - 280,000 (in 2005) people, making Japan the Asian nation with the largest number of Portuguese speakers.
In Malacca
Malacca
Malacca , dubbed The Historic State or Negeri Bersejarah among locals) is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south...
(Malaysia), there is a Portuguese creole
Portuguese Creole
Portuguese creoles are creole languages which have been significantly influenced by Portuguese.- Origins :Portuguese overseas exploration in the 15th and 16th century's led to the establishment of a Portuguese Empire with trading posts, forts and colonies in the Americas, Asia and Africa...
known as Papiá Kristang
Kristang language
Papiá Kristang , or just Kristang, is a creole language. It is spoken by the Kristang, a community of people of mixed Portuguese and Asian ancestry, chiefly in Malacca and Singapore....
or Cristão, still spoken by some of the Eurasian population. Throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, Formosa, South Japan, coastal China, Myanma, Thailand, Ormuz strait Portuguese was once the language of the trade, but eventually was replaced by other languages after the decay of the Portuguese Empire.
There are also several Portuguese creole
Portuguese Creole
Portuguese creoles are creole languages which have been significantly influenced by Portuguese.- Origins :Portuguese overseas exploration in the 15th and 16th century's led to the establishment of a Portuguese Empire with trading posts, forts and colonies in the Americas, Asia and Africa...
s especially in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
.
Romanian
Israel received nearly 450,000 immigrants from Romania and Moldova. Today there are 250,000 speakers of Romanian (according to 1993 Statistical Abstract of Israel), older adult speakers use Hebrew as second language, but prefer Romanian.In Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Asian Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan there are small communities of Moldovan Romanian-speakers (about 100,000 people), displaced during the Soviet area.
In Turkey the Romanian-speaking community came during the Ottoman Empire, today it is estimated to be around 30,000 people.
Spanish
The first Spanish-speaking community in Asia was the town of Safad in upper Galilea, where Sephardic Jews established. After the Jews expulsion from Spain in 1492, many of them found refuge in the realms of the Ottoman EmpireOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, and kept their language that evolved in distinct form today called Ladino
Judaeo-Spanish
Judaeo-Spanish , in Israel commonly referred to as Ladino, and known locally as Judezmo, Djudeo-Espanyol, Djudezmo, Djudeo-Kasteyano, Spaniolit and other names, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish...
.
Nowadays there are 15,000 Ladino speakers in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and nearly 100,000 in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
Once the colonial language of the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Spanish in its pure form was spoken mainly by the upper classes and the church, while the majority of the native population spoke native languages interspersed with Spanish loanwords. Its importance fell in the first half of the 20th century following the U.S. occupation and administration of the islands and the substitution of English as the language of higher learning. Spanish ceased to be an official language in 1973. In 1990, the population whose first language was Spanish was about 2,658 including mestizos
Filipino mestizo
Filipino mestizo is a term used in the Philippines to describe people of mixed Filipino and foreign ancestry. The word mestizo is of Spanish origin, and was originally used in the Americas to only describe people of mixed European and Native American ancestry.- History :Spanish periodThe Spanish...
. However, there is a significant Spanish vocabulary superstratum in Filipino languages
Philippine languages
The Philippine languages are a 1991 proposal by Robert Blust that all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi—except Sama–Bajaw and a few languages of Palawan—form a subfamily of Austronesian languages...
and creole language
Creole language
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
s such as Chavacano
Chavacano language
Chavacano or Chabacano, sometimes referred to by linguists as Philippine Creole Spanish, is a Spanish-based creole language spoken in the Philippines...
, contributing the largest number of foreign-derived words to native vocabularies.
Spanish was used during the colonial presence in Northern Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, Palau
Palau
Palau , officially the Republic of Palau , is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines and south of Tokyo. In 1978, after three decades as being part of the United Nations trusteeship, Palau chose independence instead of becoming part of the Federated States of Micronesia, a...
, Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
and in the Marianas.
In China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, there also are communities of returned immigrants from Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
who speak Spanish.