Fala português?

[klaus]

The famous Portuguese explorer we know as "Ferdinand Magellan" was really not named this. His real Portuguese name was Fernão de Magalhães. OK, I can see why his name was changed in the Anglo world to accommodate English-speaking tongues. Those tildes over the a's represent nasalization, so they're pronounced more or less like uh through the nose, followed by nasalization of the following vowels as well, creating nasalized diphthongs. (Portuguese is notorious for nasal vowel sounds, having even more of those than French, and is one of the primary distinguishing features of Portuguese pronunciation from Spanish, which it deceivingly resembles closely in writing.) For ease of pronunciation, other Portuguese explorers have also had their names changed to fit foreign tongues, including João Cabrilho, who most people would now recognize as Juan Cabrillo. This of course is a case of Hispanicization, since the Spanish version, lacking nasal vowels, is easier to pronounce than the Portuguese original (and since he was popular for exploring California, he got readily subsumed into the predominantly Spanish culture of the time).


For those of you unfamiliar with Portuguese pronunciation, try this: tres escudos. (Escudo "shield" was the name of the Portuguese currency before the EU's euro.) If you're familiar with Spanish, it looks relatively easy to pronounce, right? But, you may be surprised to learn that, in conversational Lisbon Portuguese, it's actually pronounced more like: trayshkootch !

Oh, and if you order salsa in a Portuguese restaurant, don't expect the saucy tomatoey stuff you're used to dipping chips into. Instead, you'll get parsley. Yes, that's right, parsley. Parsley in Spanish = perejil, but in Portuguese = salsa. And for those who think Spanish and Portuguese are nearly the same language, look at the following basic vocabulary that is quite different between them: Eng. window, Sp. ventana, Port. janela; Eng. street, Sp. calle, Port. rua; Eng. dog, Sp. perro, Port. cão (although some may be familiar with the lesser used Sp. can); Eng. boy, Sp. muchacho, Port. rapaz; Eng. girl, Sp. muchacha, Port. rapariga. Oh, and another pet peeve. People who have not studied Portuguese should quit trying to mold Portuguese words to fit Spanish pronunciation. For instance, the final unaccented -o of Portuguese words is never pronounced like the Spanish or Italian o. Instead, it comes out more like u. Thus the word for book, livro, which looks much like its Spanish counterpart libro, is not pronounced lee-vroh (like the Spanish), but like lee-vroo.

The apparent close resemblance between Portuguese and Spanish can be devilishly deceiving! It's fun!

http://anthro-ling.blogspot.com/

[andrewsiak]

Текст для "лингвистически примитивных" людей.