Diu Indo-Portuguese
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Diu Indo-Portuguese is a Portuguese Creole spoken in Daman and Diu, India. It is rapidly disappearing because Gujarati is more widely spoken and is the main language of education there. Only the less educated elder members of the community speak it at home. In the past there was a vibrant community of Portuguese-Indians who spoke it. It is one of the two living Portuguese Creoles of India. The Creole of Daman is known as "Língua da Casa" (Eng. Home Language), spoken at home by a community of 2,000 or more Christians. The Creole of Daman is a descendant of the Portuguese-Indian Norteiro Creole of the Coast from Chaul, Baçaim, Bombay, Daman and Diu. Before the Indian annexation of the territory, the Creole of Daman had become more similar to standard Portuguese. The Associação Luso Indiana Damaense (Eng. Portuguese-Indian Association of Daman), to which most Damanian Catholics are members, says that there are 10-12,000 Portuguese speakers (all Christians) in the territory of 110,000 residents. Sunday mass is celebrated in Portuguese. The Portuguese heritage in Daman is more common and living than in Goa and this helped to maintain the Creole. Both the substrate (Gujarati) and superstrate (Portuguese) languages are still found in the territory.
