Mardijker was a
Portuguese-based creole of
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...
. It was the native tongue of the
Mardijker people. The language was introduced with the establishment of the Dutch settlement of
Batavia (present-day Jakarta); the Dutch brought in slaves from the colonies they had recently acquired from the Portuguese (especially Malacca), and the slaves' Portuguese creole became the
lingua franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...
of the new city. The name is Dutch for "freeman", as the slaves were freed soon after their settlement. The language was replaced by
Betawi creole Malay in Batavia by the end of the 18th century, as the Mardijker intermarried and lost their distinct identity. However, around 1670 a group of 150 were moved to what is now the village and suburb of
Tugu, where they retained their language, there known as , until the 1940s.
The earliest known record of the language is documented in a wordlist published in Batavia in 1780, the . The last competent speaker, Oma Mimi Abrahams, died in 2012, and the language survives only in the lyrics of old ''
Keroncong Moresco (Keroncong Tugu)'' songs.
References
Bibliography
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External links
*John Holm, 1989, ''Pidgins and Creoles: Volume 2, Reference Survey''
Batavia Creole by Maurer Philippe at apics-online.info
Portuguese-based pidgins and creoles
Languages of Indonesia
Languages extinct in the 2010s
Portuguese language in Asia
Languages attested from the 18th century
Culture of Jakarta
North Jakarta
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