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As of Wednesday 18 September 2025 09:21 SGT, Kabesa Kevin Martens Wong has overall Ethics Review Committee (DERC) clearance from the National University of Singapore to conduct his PhD thesis research project formally documenting and consolidating the Kristang language as it is currently spoken in 2025 in Malacca, Singapore, Perth, Kuala Lumpur and worldwide. Kevin is collecting data about the Kristang language for one and a half years from September 2025 to March 2027, and compiling the data into a particular form of Western academic PhD thesis known as a reference grammar.
Kevin’s reference grammar will be the first Kristang reference grammar written by a Kristang academic and a native Kristang speaker, and one of the very few reference grammars worldwide written by a native speaker or scholar of their own Creole and/or Indigenous language (reference grammars historically were written by Western/outsider linguists and anthropologists). Kevin has also acquired DERC approval to allow all members of the Kristang and Eurasian communities participating in the research to view draft versions of his dissertation before it is submitted for NUS review in March 2027, and formal support from his own department to publish and convert the final dissertation for general non-academic use by the Kristang and Eurasian communities as part of ongoing linguistic and cultural revitalisation once he has defended it successfully by August 2027.
Who Kevin needs to interview
Kevin is interviewing all Kristang and Eurasian people who trace their lineage in some form to Singapore or Malaysia of all ages and backgrounds and Kristang speakers of all ages and backgrounds – as long as you are part of the Kristang or Eurasian communities in Singapore or Malaysia or speak Kristang, your voice is valuable and Kevin wants to include what you have to say about the Kristang language in his PhD. This includes people who learned Kristang later in life, who married or assimilated into either community, and people who no longer live in Singapore or Malaysia but trace their roots to the Kristang and/or Eurasian communities in Singapore or Malaysia, including Kristang and/or Eurasians now resident in Perth and other parts of Australia. You do not need to be a fluent speaker of Kristang to be part of the project, as your independent observations about Kristang and memories of Kristang are also very helpful for the research. Kevin is able to interview all Kristang and Eurasian people between the ages of 12 and 90, with people between the ages of 12 and 21 requiring the consent of a parent or guardian to participate.
How the interviews will be conducted
Interviews for this project commenced on Tuesday, 30 September 2025 and are currently being conducted online or face-to-face based on where you live, can last between 45 minutes to 2 hours per session based on your own comfort, availability and schedule, and can be held once or multiple times, again at your comfort and interest level. Here are some topics Kevin is asking Kristang and Eurasian people about:
· Historical events related to the Kristang language
· Grammar and vocabulary of Kristang
· Adding new words to Kristang
· What you notice about how people used Kristang in the past and/or how they use it today
· Suggestions for how Kristang can be more powerfully revitalised
When the interview is underway, you care able to decline to answer questions in any of these areas if you do not feel comfortable. It helps Kevin greatly if the interview was recorded, but if you do not wish it to be recorded, the interview can still be conducted without a recording if you do not feel comfortable being recorded. There is no monetary compensation for this interview. Kevin is able to interview people for this project until March 2027.
Sign up to support the project here (NUS server recruitment form; approx. 3-5 minutes to complete).