Salikoko S. Mufwene

Mondes francophones (2023-2024)

Collège de France

Année 2023-2024

Colloque - Hugo C. Cardoso : An Indo-Portuguese Undercurrent in Pondichéri French

Intervenant(s)

Hugo C. Cardoso

Associate professor, Universidade de Lisboa

Résumé

The territory of Pondichéri, a former French colony in Southeast India, is home to a community that self-identifies with the term Créole and has historically been characterised by a social stratification encompassing two subgroups: the Haut Créoles and the Bas Créoles. Tamil and French contributions are particularly evident in many domains of Pondichéri Créole culture and language, but, in this instance, we will explore the historical role of another community in the territory – the Indo-Portuguese – and its impact on the variety of French associated with the Pondichéri Créoles. This study adds a layer of complexity to the history of Indian varieties of French and highlights how easy it may be to overlook relevant cultural and linguistic agents in colonial societies.

Hugo Cardoso

Hugo C. Cardoso is associate professor of Linguistics at the University of Lisbon and a researcher of the Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, having earlier worked in Macau, Hong Kong, and Coimbra. He is a researcher of language contact, with a particular focus on the Portuguese-lexified creole languages of South Asia (India and Sri Lanka) and a secondary one on those of Insular Southeast Asia. His research combines a synchronic (descriptive) perspective with an interest in the history of these languages and in comparative approaches to their study.