Introduction

This project studies the Portuguese-based Creoles which developed from the early 16^th-century in the Dravidian-majority regions of Southern India and Eastern Sri Lanka – a subset of the Asian-Portuguese creoles which, despite having been the very first, remain understudied - from a diachronic and a synchronic perspective.

- Diachronic research involves the collection, edition and analysis of primary written sources produced in Portuguese, in South India, during and after Portuguese colonial rule

- Synchronic research involves the linguistic documentation and description of the surviving Dravido-Portuguese creoles of Kerala [India] and Eastern Sri Lanka

Results

1. The production of annotated corpora of the Portuguese-based creoles of South India

          Oral Corpus of Cannanore Indo-Portuguese Creole (2006-2015) - available soon

          Oral Corpus of Cochin Indo-Portuguese Creole (2007-2010) - available soon

2. The production of an annotated corpus of the Portuguese-based creole of Sri Lanka

Research in Sri Lanka has resulted in a spin-off project dedicated entirely to the documentation of Sri Lanka Portuguese:

3. Portuguese-language manuscripts from South India: Ernakulam Regional Archives

Collection and transcription of documents written in Portuguese (17th-19th centuries) - available soon