Eduardo- PracticePortuguese.com PracticePortuguese.com
- Durante séculos, mouros e cristãos For centuries, Moors and Christians
- conviveram na Península Ibérica. lived together on the Iberian Peninsula.
- Dessa mistura de culturas nasceu um legado From this mix of cultures a legacy was born
- que ainda hoje molda a nossa língua, that today still shapes our language,
- a cultura e o cotidiano português. culture, and everyday Portuguese life.
- Deixaram-nos castelos, sistemas de irrigação, They left us castles, irrigation systems,
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Vocabulary
a aldeiasmall town, village a alfacelettuce a alfândegacustoms a almofadapillow o arrozrice o azeiteolive oil os azulejosceramic tiles o açafrãosaffron o açúcarsugar o xadrezchess xaropesyrup xerifesheriff o álcoolalcohol
Expressions
Oxalá!Hopefully!
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Comments
I love this Shorty. I am always interested in etymology and this is a quick snapshot into the influence of Arabic. Surprises? Yes, many. “O sofá” “O barrio”. Wow.
The statement that some words from Arabic lost the “al” definite article prefix In Portuguese is somewhat incorrect. Depending on the word’s starting letter, Some words in Arabic in their definite form are pronounced In such a way that the “L” disappears & The initial letter of the wordis doubled. About 1/2 of the letters in Arabic do this when they appear as the first letter of a word in it’s definite form. So while in Arabic I would write al-sukar to write “the sugar” I would pronounce it a-ssukar, which is exactly the word for sugar in Portuguese, açúcar.
In some cases the “L” does just appear to just be missing. But if you know colloquial Arabic pronunciations it makes sense. For instance Rice in Arabic is “arz” Which in its definite form would be pronounced “al-arz.” But in spoken Arabic the a of arz Tends to get dropped and they Pronounce it “rez” or “ruz” & the “L” Isn’t pronounced in the definite form of a word that starts with r. so In spoken Arabic the L is often dropped & the “r” is doubled – So colloquially if you say “the rice” you do actually say “a-rrez” or “a-rruz”
It’s such fascinating stuff and thank you for talking about it! I do love how Portuguese is so much about the living spoken language, so It makes sense that the spoken sound of the Arabic word is what transfers into Portuguese.
Muito bom