Bengali Portuguese Creole

Bengali Portuguese Creole (Portuguese: Crioulo português bengali) was an Indo-Portuguese creole that developed in the Bengal delta from the sixteenth century onward through prolonged contact between the Portuguese language and Bengali. It was spoken across the principal urban centres and riverine ports of the region, including Calcutta, Dacca, Balasore, Pipli, Chandernagore, Chittagong, Midnapore, and Hooghly. Its speakers were primarily Luso-Asians, individuals of mixed Portuguese and Bengali descent known locally as Feringhis, as well as local Roman Catholic converts. More than a community vernacular, the language served as a pivotal lingua franca for trade, diplomacy, and religious proselytisation across the Bay of Bengal for over two centuries.

Bengali Portuguese Creole is now extinct, with its functional disappearance generally dated to the early decades of the twentieth century; 1911 is often cited as the approximate terminus of active use in the region. The pioneering creolist Hugo Schuchardt grouped the creoles of this region under the heading "Gauro-Portuguese," a sub-branch of Indo-Portuguese creoles found in the Indo-Aryan-majority areas of northern India and the Bay of Bengal littoral.