{"id":2508,"date":"2024-12-31T17:00:03","date_gmt":"2024-12-31T17:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/?p=2508"},"modified":"2025-07-09T00:43:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T00:43:20","slug":"the-history-of-the-portuguese-language-in-ten-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/2024\/12\/31\/the-history-of-the-portuguese-language-in-ten-words\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of the Portuguese Language in Ten Words"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>ANA ARA\u00daJO<\/h3>\n<p>Translation: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jeffrey-ds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jeffrey D. Stewart<\/a><br \/>\nRevision: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/lynnea-hansen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lynnea Hansen<\/a><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2509\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2509\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2509 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Etienne-Girardet-on-Unsplash-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"The word &quot;Obrigado&quot; written in orange on a wall.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Etienne-Girardet-on-Unsplash-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Etienne-Girardet-on-Unsplash-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Etienne-Girardet-on-Unsplash-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Etienne-Girardet-on-Unsplash-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Etienne-Girardet-on-Unsplash-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2509\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Etienne Girardet on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>On May 6, 2024, the PLD celebrated World Portuguese Language Day by embarking on a journey around the world with Marco Neves as he traced the history of the Portuguese language. In this session, we looked at words that have come from distant lands and are used daily by Portuguese speakers, in addition to words that came from our language and have reached the rest of the world, revealing the history of not just the Portuguese language but of the world itself.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Below is a summary of the ten words Marco revealed to us.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>1. Esquerda<br \/>\n<\/em>The word <em>ezker<\/em> in Basque is one of the few terms derived from that language, and the only surviving word from the Iberian Peninsula before Latin. The region\u2019s Latin languages have original terms for \u201cleft,\u201d such as <em>izquierda<\/em> in Spanish, <em>esquerra<\/em> in Catalan, and <em>esquerda<\/em> in Galician and Portuguese.<\/p>\n<p><em>2. Lua<br \/>\n<\/em>Of Latin origin, this word has a particularly interesting feature. In Portuguese and Galician, the word doesn\u2019t have the sound of the letter \u201cn.\u201d However, in Castilian, it is <em>luna<\/em>, and in French, <em>lune<\/em>. In the early stages of Latin in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula, speakers began omitting the sounds represented by the letters \u201cn\u201d and \u201cl.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>3. Luva<\/em><br \/>\nThis word has ancient Germanic roots, derived from the language of the Goths and what we know today as \u201cglove\u201d in English.<\/p>\n<p><em>4. Azul<br \/>\n<\/em>Tracing back to Persian origins from a rock mined in Afghanistan known today as <em>lapis-laz\u00fali<\/em>, the term made its way to Arabic and then to Latin with the same name. <em>Laz\u00fali<\/em> became what is now <em>azul<\/em>, or the color blue in Portuguese.<\/p>\n<p><em>5. Portugu\u00eas<br \/>\n<\/em>The Kingdom of Portugal adopted this northwestern Romance language, native to present-day Galicia and northern Portugal, as its official language, especially during the reign of King Dinis. The term <em>portugu\u00eas<\/em> as a reference to the actual language was first used in the 15<sup>th<\/sup> century by Dom Pedro\u2019s translator in the preface to his translation of Cicero.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Portuguese Beyond the Iberian Peninsula<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>6. Papiar<br \/>\n<\/em>The diffusion of the Portuguese language throughout the world influenced many other regions and languages. One prime example is Cape Verde, where Cape Verdean Creole emerged out of a necessity for enslaved individuals to communicate with each other. This language then developed its own grammatical structures. Based in Cape Verdean Creole, the term <em>papiar<\/em> (to talk or speak) evolved into Papiamento, the official language of present-day Cura\u00e7ao and Aruba.<\/p>\n<p><em>7. Ureno<br \/>\n<\/em>Swahili for \u201cPortugal,\u201d <em>Ureno<\/em> is what you would hear from more than 50 million people where this African language is spoken, including in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, where Swahili is an official language. All indications seem to point to the words \u201c18<sup>th<\/sup> Kingdom,\u201d which is what local inhabitants heard from the Portuguese navigators who had come from the Kingdom of Portugal. Across the Indian Ocean, Portuguese became a common language used not only by the Portuguese people but by other Europeans and local populations to communicate with the Europeans. To this day, we see Portuguese influence in countries like Sri Lanka and hundreds of Portuguese words incorporated into other languages like Indonesian.<\/p>\n<p><em>8. Anan\u00e1s<br \/>\n<\/em>This word is an umbrella term for all words that came from Brazil through the indigenous Tupi language. What\u2019s curious about this term is that despite its Brazilian origins, it comes off as more banal in Portugal than in Brazil. Nonetheless, <em>anan\u00e1s<\/em> represents the use of the Portuguese language in South America.<\/p>\n<p><em>9. Fetiche<br \/>\n<\/em>Deriving from <em>feiti\u00e7o<\/em> in Portuguese, this term has had different meanings over time. While it was originally used in association with idolized objects discovered by Portuguese navigators along the Gold Coast, it became a term to describe magical effects. Following its adoption by Northern European writers and its dissemination to other languages, <em>fetiche<\/em> evolved into <em>f\u00e9tiche<\/em> and <em>fetish<\/em>, respectively. The term then acquired more sexual connotations, and even broader meanings later.<\/p>\n<p><em>10. Bu\u00e9<br \/>\n<\/em>Probably originating from Kimbundu, a Bantu language spoken in Angola, this term means abundance and prosperity. This term is very informal, and it gained prominence in Portugal during decolonization efforts as a reflection of population changes and 20<sup>th<\/sup>-century independence movements. The term\u2019s presence in Lisbon demonstrates the Portuguese language\u2019s intrinsic connection with Africa, where it only continues to grow. From the Roman Empire to the history of Africa, <em>bu\u00e9<\/em> is a testament to how the Portuguese language reflects old narratives and how words are witnesses of world history.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1980 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/PLD-LC-Ana-Araujo-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Headshot of Ana Ara\u00fajo.\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/PLD-LC-Ana-Araujo-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/PLD-LC-Ana-Araujo-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Ana Ara\u00fajo is a certified Cape Verdean Creole&lt;&gt;Portuguese interpreter with over 14 years of experience in the field. Prior to her career in interpretation, she worked in the international and finance department at a bank for 11 years across multiple continents. Ana holds a Bachelor&#8217;s degree in Portuguese with a minor in Business Administration from Florida International University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANA ARA\u00daJO Translation: Jeffrey D. Stewart Revision: Lynnea Hansen On May 6, 2024, the PLD celebrated World Portuguese Language Day by embarking on a journey around the world with Marco Neves as he traced the history of the Portuguese language. In this session, we looked at words that have come from distant lands and are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blog-posts","7":"category-education-and-awareness","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2508"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2517,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508\/revisions\/2517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}