Daman and Diu Portuguese

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Daman and Diu Portuguese
Língua da Casa
Native to India
Native speakers
4,000 (in Daman) ca. 180 (in Diu)  (2010)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog dama1278  (Daman-Diu Portuguese)[2]
Linguasphere 51-AAC-agb

The Daman and Diu Portuguese or Daman and Diu Indo-Portuguese, known to its speakers as Língua da Casa (Portuguese for "Home language"), is a Portuguese-based creole spoken in Daman and Diu. Before the Indian annexation of the territory, the Daman creole went throw a profound decreolization by Standard Portuguese of Goa, a phenomenon whereby the Indo-Portuguese creole reconverged with Standard Portuguese.


The Daman creole is a descendant of the Norteiro creole, spoken originally by the Norteiros on the Coast from Chaul, Baçaim, Bombay, Daman and Diu.

The superstrate language is Portuguese. The substrate of the Daman creole is likely to be Konkani. Gujarati has also been suggested as a possible substrate, but this is doubtful, since the Gujarati people moved into the region only after the Portuguese arrived.

Diu Indo-Portuguese[edit]

The Diu Indo-Portuguese or Diu Portuguese is spoken in Diu, India. It is a creole language based mainly on Portuguese and Gujarati. It is a member of the larger family of Indo-Portuguese creoles, particularly close to the variety of Daman.[1] There is a considerably vital oral tradition in this language, with songs regularly performed in Diu, elsewhere in India and among Indo-Portuguese communities abroad.

Widely spoken in the past, it was first documented in the 19th-century by the initiative of Hugo Schuchardt.[3] At present, the language is spoken natively by most of the local Catholics, numbering about 180, but is potentially endangered by the pressure of other languages such as Gujarati, English and standard Portuguese.[1] [4]

Number of speakers[edit]

The Portuguese heritage in Daman is more common and lively than in Goa and this helped to keep the language alive. Even so, the language is rapidly disappearing because Gujarati is becoming more widely spoken and has become the main language of education. Only the older members of the community speak it at home now. In the past there was a vibrant community of Damanese who spoke it.

The language is spoken by an estimated number of 2,000 Damanese. However, the Damanese Portuguese-Indian Association says that there are 10– 12,000 Portuguese speakers in the territory of 110,000 residents. Sunday Mass is celebrated in Portuguese.

Besides the lingua da casa, Gujarati and Portuguese are also found in the territory.


  1. ^ a b c Hugo Cardoso, The Death of an Indian-born Language, Open Magazine, October 30, 2010.
  2. ^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Daman-Diu Portuguese". Glottolog 2.2. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. 
  3. ^ Hugo Schuchardt, 1883 Kreolische Studien. III. Ueber das Indoportugiesische von Diu, Sitzungsberichte der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wien
  4. ^ Hugo Cardoso, 2009 The Indo-Portuguese language of Diu, LOT publishers, [ISBN] 9078328878

See also[edit]