Portuguese vocabulary

Most of the Portuguese vocabulary comes from Latin, since Portuguese is a Romance language. However, other languages that came into contact with it have also left their mark. In the 13th century, the lexicon of Portuguese had about 80% words of Latin origin and 20% of pre-Roman, Germanic and Arabic origin.[1]

Contents

Pre-Roman languages of Iberia

Very few traces of the languages of the native peoples of western Iberia (Celtici, Lusitanians, Conii, or Gallaeci), or of pre-Roman settlers like the Phoenicians or Carthaginians who settled in eastern Iberia, persist in the language, but there are some exceptions (most are unconfirmed). Many places in Portugal have pre-Roman names, such as the cities of Braga and Coimbra and the rivers Minho and Tâmega.

Iberian

From Iberian:

Celtic

See also: List of Celtic place names in Portugal

Continental Celtic languages were also spoken in the peninsula, before the arrival of Latin.[2]

Germanic languages

Main article: List of Portuguese words of Germanic origin

The Germanic influence (Buri, Suebi, Visigoth, Vandal) in Portuguese was small, restricted to warfare and related topics. The influence also exists in placenames such has Ermesinde and Esposende, where sinde and sende are derived from the Germanic "sinths" (military expedition). Toponym and toponymic surname Resende comes from "reths sinths", path to the council, the expedition's council.

Arabic

Main article: List of Portuguese words of Arabic origin

Projections indicate 1000 Arabic loan words. In old Portuguese this represented 25% of the literary lexicon, today its importance has decreased as the language became richer and reinfluenced by Greek, Latin and other languages.

The Mozambican currency Metical was derived from the word mitqāl ( مطقال ), an Arabic unit of weight. Mozambique's Portuguese name, Moçambique, itself was from Arabic name, Muça Alebique (Musa Alibiki), a sultan.

Influences from outside Europe

With the Portuguese discoveries linguistic contact was made, and the Portuguese language became influenced by other languages with which it came into contact outside Europe. In Brazil, many placenames and local animals have Amerindian names, the same occurring with the local Bantu languages in Angola and Mozambique.

Africa

The country name "Angola" is from a Bantu word, N'gola.

Americas

Asia

The country name Macau is from Chinese A-mok, name of the city's temple.

See also

References

  1. ^ Manzolillo, Vito. ASPECTOS DA CONSTITUIÇÃO DO LÉXICO PORTUGUÊS
  2. ^ Ethnologic Map of Pre-Roman Iberia (circa 200 B.C.)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Priberam. Língua Portuguesa On-Line

External links