Has anyone heard of this? >From OUTLOOK Traveller Getaways: Beach Holidays in India
Page 415 Mind your language: Korlai's tradition The few people who visit Korlai [in Maharashtra] usually go there to see the impressively located fort and the amazing views it offers. However, the Korlai village below the fort has another bit of history hidden among its people. The less than thousand people who inhabit Korlai speak a language this is unique to them, a Portuguese Creole called Kristi that is spoken nowhere else. They call it No Ling, that is, Our Language. The Portuguese left Korlai in 1740 after having been there for more than two centuries. Kristi developed during the interaction between the Portuguese and the local population. Till the 1980s, when the Revdanda creek was bridged by a road, the small peninsula of Korlai was relatively isolated from the surrounding communities, and thus the language survived the last few centuries. Now the tongue is fast disappearing under the influence of Marathi and Hindi. But if you roam around the concrete streets of Korlai and visit its small church you can still hear snatches of Kristi. -- Frederick FN Noronha * Independent Journalist http://fn.goa-india.org * Phone +91-832-2409490 Cell +91-9970157402 (sometimes out of range) http://www.youtube.com/user/fredericknoronha
