Keeping Kirinda vital: The endangerment-empowerment dilemma in the documentation of Sri Lanka Malay 1 Lisa Lim University of Amsterdam Umberto Ansaldo University of Amsterdam The diasporic Malay communities of Sri Lanka were brought to Sri Lanka through various waves of deportation from Indonesia by the Dutch and British colonial powers. Though lacking official identity, the Sri Lanka Malays (SLM) are characterised by a unique mixed language of trilingual base, often referred to as Sri Lanka Malay creole. In the past, pressure from the country's dominant languages (Sinhala, Tamil and English), as well as negative stigma associated with their own 'creole', has led to different degrees of attrition in the SLM communities. Most recently, a new tendency can be detected: the desire to acquire standard Malay, the national language of Malaysia. From the point of view of language preservation, the tendency of shift towards a standard variety can be seen as yet a higher degree of endangerment for the SLM; at the same time, within an ethnography of empowerment such a shift could mean acquiring a useful economic tool while still preserving their identity in assuming a global Malay one. This paper explores the tension created by these different linguistic ideologies and offers possible resolutions for the field linguist. 1 Earlier incarnations of this paper were first presented at a number of seminars and workshops (Ansaldo & Lim 2006a, b; Ansaldo et al. 2006), and a version appears in the proceedings of FEL X (Ansaldo & Lim 2006e). We thank Chris Stroud for his always thought-provoking reflections and constructive feedback on our paper and our work, as well as colleagues at the various presentations and the anonymous reviewer of this paper for their reactions. We express our gratitude to all Sri Lanka Malays we have encountered over the years, who have always shown a keen understanding for the work we are doing and a joyful readiness to participate. We lack space to name every individual in Colombo, Hambantota and Kirinda whom we have had the pleasure of meeting, but for their constant help and hospitality we mention in particular: Upali and Salma Peiris and the entire Suhood family; B.D.K. and Sheila Saldin; T.M. Muhaj Hamin and T.K. Azoor; B. Jalaldeen and all the teachers at the Kirinda Muslim Maha Vidyalaya school; and all the Kirinda families who let us into their homes and spoke with us, especially T.M. Rihan and Faizal Cassim. Even after all that the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004 took away from them, Kirinda still had time and hospitality to give; we are humbled by their spirit, and by the dedication of the SLM communities in general to the aid they provide to each other and to their cohesion as a community. We hope that one day our work on their language can play some small role in the community’s continuing vitality. ACLC Working Papers 1, 2006: 51-66 © Lisa Lim and Umberto Ansaldo