Family language policy and heritage language maintenance of Malacca Portuguese Creole

•We examine the role of family language policy (FLP) in relation to Malacca Portuguese Creole (MPC).•We looked at two main areas of FLP: language ideology and language practice.•Beliefs about MPC and home language practices of family members were not always consistent.•Inconsistent MPC language practices were reflected in the younger generation’s shift to English.

One of the key drivers for maintaining the use of a heritage language is its use in the family domain. Within this context, this paper examines the role of family language policy (FLP) in relation to an endangered language, Malacca Portuguese Creole (MPC). Five families in the Portuguese Settlement in Malacca were interviewed about their family language policies. Based on Spolsky’s (2004) language policy model, two areas of FLP were examined: language ideology and language practice. The results indicate that although there is a general sense of MPC being an ethnic and cultural identity marker for the Portuguese Eurasians, this is not directly translated into the transmission of the language in the family domain.