Beyond Tamil : Identifying the Indo-Portuguese layer of Pondicherry French

Abstract

In Pondicherry, the community known as Créoles preserves the French language to this day. Pondicherry French [PF] is as stratified as the community, with Haut Créoles ‘High Creoles’ speaking a variety close to Standard French and Bas Créoles’ ‘Low Creoles’ speech departing more from the standard (Kelkar-Stephan 2010). PF has been the object of few descriptive studies (Tirouvanziam-Louis 1994; Kelkar-Stephan 2005; 2010) which, justifiably, explore the influence of Tamil – the dominant language in the region for centuries – on the emergence of particular PF structures. However, the linguistic history of Pondicherry is more complex: historical accounts record the vital use of a variety of (Indo-)Portuguese by part of the community until the late 19th century. In a letter to Hugo Schuchardt, the Pondicherry-born linguist Julien Vinson (1882) attested its currency in 19th-century French India, affirming “Almost all mulattoes speak an Indo-Portuguese dialect”.