Barbara Tanner
Linguistics 450
March 17, 1998.

When I returned home from a semester in Brazil, I was shocked that some of my friends asked how much Spanish I had learned. I was saddened to realize how little is known about Portuguese, although it is now a language which more than 150 million people throughout the world speak. This vast number of people comes from many areas of the world including Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia. Portuguese is one of the Romance languages, a title which refers to its mother language, Vulgar Latin. I will demonstrate when and how Portuguese developed into a language distinct from Vulgar Latin and from the other Romance languages. In my research, however, I have found that there is too much information available on the history of the Portuguese Language to try to discuss everything in a paper of this size. Therefore, I would like to recognize that this paper is not intended to be exhaustive in its discussion of many aspects of language change which Portuguese has undergone. I would like to focus my paper, instead, on the way contact with various languages has shaped the development of the Portuguese lexicon.

Portuguese, as mentioned above, has its roots in Latin. Latin was the primary language spoken in Rome during the height of the Roman Empire. However, the growth and expansion of the Roman Empire had a tremendous impact on Latin. Two distinct dialects of Latin evolved--namely Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin. Classical Latin was used in the upper class society and in all the administrative and political affairs, where it was fairly stable. Vulgar Latin developed from the more common speech of the people; it was used by soldiers, common citizens, and even by the peoples conquered by Rome. Thus, when the Romans conquered the Iberian Peninsula -- the geographic location where Portuguese eventually developed -- in 218 BC, the soldiers and citizens who were sent to inhabit the land spoke a form of Vulgar Latin ("The Port. Lang.").

The people who inhabited the peninsula prior to Rome’s invasion spoke languages which, unfortunately, we know very little about. Basque is the only language which was spoken on the peninsula before 218 BC which has survived. There is some evidence of the influence of Basque on Portuguese. Words such as cachorro which means dog, and zugur which means astute, are of Basque origin (Camara 172). Due to our limited knowledge of the other preexisting languages, it is difficult to know exactly what impact they may have had on the development of Vulgar Latin into Portuguese. However, J. Mattosso Camara states in his book The Portuguese Language that the influence of these languages on the Portuguese lexicon was "small and very fragmentary" (Camara 172) due to the fact that "the Roman occupation of the Iberian Peninsula was total and permanent" so that "gradually Latin became established in the peninsula and finally replaced the native languages" (Camara 8-9). Rome sent its own citizens to inhabit the land and their residence was permanent enough that by the time the Germans conquered Rome in the fifth century AD, Vulgar Latin was a well-established language in the Iberian Peninsula.

At the time of the Germanic invasions, many dialects of Vulgar Latin were being spoken throughout the different regions of the Roman Empire, including Iberia. Many of the other dialects were heavily influenced by German. Although Portuguese also has some evidence today of contact with the German language, the influence from this time period is really minimal compared to the other Romance languages, due primarily to the geographic isloation of the Iberian Peninsula from Rome which is where the German influence had the most dramatic effect on Latin dialects. There is some evidence, however, of German influence in the Portuguese lexicon. For example, a website entitled "The Portuguese Language" gives the following examples of Portuguese words which are of Germanic origin: roubar which means to steal, guerrear translated to wage war, and branco the word for white. German, as mentioned before, had a relatively small impact on Portuguese during this period; however, it has come in contact with Portuguese through many German immigrants to Brazil, so many of the words in the Portuguese lexicon which come from German are due to the influence of other time periods.

Why, then, did Vulgar Latin develop into so many different languages, instead of simply evolving and changing its form while remaining the same language? One of the main factors which caused the differentiation of the Romance languages is geographic isolation. In fact, Camara says that the word "Romance" is "a technical term used to cover many different regional types of speech that evolved from Latin during the early Middle Ages" (Camara 10). So the distinction between the languages began as regional variation due to the distance of the various groups which spoke Vulgar Latin. Edwin B. Williams backs up this idea in his book From Latin to Portuguese when he states that "the relative geographic isolation of one group from another" was one of the factors which influenced the development of several distinct Romance languages, including Portuguese (11). This initial isolation is one of the reasons Portuguese and Spanish are so closely related even today. Both languages developed on the Iberian Peninsula, somewhat separated from their sister languages.

The differentiation of Portuguese and Spanish is, however, also due to regional dialect differences, as well as varied language contact. For instance, when the Moors invaded the Iberian Peninsula in the eighth century, Vulgar Latin was already somewhat differentiated according to region. The Moors were unable to conquer the northern portion of the peninsula where Spanish has its roots, but they did take control of the southern part of the peninsula which today is the country of Portugal. They then declared Arabic the official language of that part of the peninsula. During this time period, the southern regions began to speak a dialect of Mozarabic--a combination of both Arabic and Vulgar Latin. The impact of Arabic on Portuguese is very significant, particularly on semantic categories which deal with everyday life, such as food, professions, geography, and weights and measures (Camara 173). Some specific examples of Arabic words which were added to Portuguese are arroz (rice), azul (blue), and até (until) (Bueno 34).

The county of Portugal declared its independence from the Moors in 1185 AD, and then began to expand its borders and thus its language to other areas of the peninsula ("The Port. Lang."). Portuguese became further separated from Vulgar Latin as it came in contact with many other dialects along the peninsula. The most influential dialect was Galacian. The language of this time period, in fact, is referred to as Galacian-Portuguese. The first written record of Portuguese, a lyrical poem by Paio Soares de Taveiros, also dates back to 1189 AD (Collier’s Encycl. 289).

This time period is also significant in that the history of Portuguese as an official language dates back to the twelfth century. The history from this time onward is divided by historians into three periods. These three periods may be divided and studied as follows: 1) the Old or National Period from twelfth to the sixteenth century, 2) Classical Period from the sixteenth to the eighth century, and 3) French (or Postclassical) Period from the eighteenth century to the present day (Williams 13).

The Old Period of language development is best explained by Portugal’s desire to expand and enlarge as an empire. This was particularly evident in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The result of consistently exploring, discovering, and colonizing was that Portuguese came in contact with many languages in various parts of the world. Portuguese colonies were set up in parts of Asia, Africa, and the Americas -- the most notable being Brazil, which was discovered in 1500. We can find evidence of language contact with each of these areas of the world in the Portuguese language today. From Africa we find words like, jangada, which means "raft." The African influence on the language is not only from the Old Period, however. Portuguese was also exposed to African languages in the Classical Period due to the importation of slaves to Brazil. Portuguese also picked up words from Asia through colonization. The Oriental languages are the source of words like the word for tea, chá, canja (chicken soup), and bonzo (Buddhist priest) (Camara 175). The expansion of Portuguese territory not only impacted the language then, but continues to impact it today since many of these same areas of the world still use the Portuguese language.

The effect of the colonization of Brazil on the Portuguese language is especially interesting. When Portugal sent citizens to settle in Brazil, there were many indigenous languages with which Portuguese came in contact. However, one group seemed to predominate since they inhabited the coastal area of the country. The language, known as Tupinamba or more simply Tupi, was used simultaneously with Portuguese for a number of years until it was eventually taken over completely by the Portuguese. However, Tupi made quite an impact on the language lexically, particularly in the semantic categories of plants, food and animals. Some of the lexical items from Brazil include words such as abacaxi (pineapple) and mandioca (manioc flour) ("The Port. Lang."). Portuguese also dramatically influenced the language of Tupi. For example, it is from Portuguese that Tupi acquired a second liquid sound, /l/, which was used in phonetic opposition to the one existing liquid, /r/ (Camara 18-19).

The Classical Period is defined by its literary style, which was imitative of Latin. The first official grammar of the Portuguese language was also written down during this period (Camara 11). Another defining circumstance during the Classical Period on Portuguese, in Portugal particularly, was the Renaissance. The Renaissance, and the feelings of nationalism associated with it, pushed people to publish literature in their native language, not just Greek or Latin. Great literature was of particular importance since it was through written works that a country’s fame would be recognized and remembered. At the beginning of the Renaissance, some of the Portuguese writers actually began to publish in Spanish. They saw that their Spanish neighbors had already been very successful and established themselves as a nation of importance through great literature; so in an effort to assimilate their culture into the Renaissance movement, some Portuguese writers tried to mirror the successful Spanish authors (Williams 15). Fortunately, many patriotic Portuguese insisted that their countrymen write in Portuguese not only to preserve their nationalistic pride, but ultimately to save their language which was already very similar to its sister language, Spanish. In the end, the Portuguese won the literary battle and, in effect, actually pushed Portuguese further away from Spanish instead of assimilating it. In order to preserve their tongue, the Portuguese people began doing all they could to make their language as distinct from Spanish as possible. Williams also cites the idea of "variation of cultural and educational circumstances" as a reason that Portuguese was able to survive as a separate language (Williams 11). He says that Portuguese "ultimat[ly] triumph[ed], in spite of literary and political opposition" (Williams 17). He attributes the survival of the language to "the spirit of those sixteenth-century critics who believed that their language was worthy of preservation as a separate tongue" (Williams 17). The desire to keep Portuguese distinct from Spanish is a sentiment which has survived even until today. The people of Portugal, particularly, still strive to imitate French in order to keep the language as different from Spanish as possible.

Modern or Postclassical Portuguese of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has remained relatively stable. At the beginning of the period, the grammar was redefined to reflect the Portuguese which is spoken today. The literary style, in Portugal particularly, also changed through the course of the Renaissance, as I explained previously. The most notable changes which have occurred in the lexicon reflect the need for new technological vocabulary. Those words have come primarily from Greco-Latin and English words. Modern Portuguese is studied, in part, in terms of its similarities and differences with other Romance languages. The relationship of Portuguese with its sister languages is still apparent in its forms today, the similarities are particularly noticeable with Spanish. However, there are some very notable distinctions. For instance, Portuguese has retained the word initial [f] such as in the word falar which was present in Vulgar Latin; Spanish lost this distinction and when it replaced the [f] sound with [h] as in hablar (Collier’s Encycl. 288).

Another approach to the study of Modern Portuguese is to look at its many dialectal differences. Because Portuguese is still spoken today in so many areas of the world, there are many different dialects which exist. I will focus mainly on those of Brazil and Portugal since they are the most common. Many have compared the difference in Brazilian Portuguese and Continental Portuguese to be analogous to the differences between American English and British English. I find this a useful comparison. The dialects are not separate languages; they simply contain variations in pronunciation and definition, in some cases. For example, in Brazil the typical pronunciation of the /s/ in os gatos (the cats) and the /s/ in os cachorros (the dogs) varies only between the two alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/ depending on whether the /s/ is followed by a voiced or voiceless sound. However, in certain areas of Portugal, the /s/ is pronounced as a palatalized fricative /R/ or /z/, depending again on the environment in which it is produced.

These different dialects seem to have developed, in part, because of the geographic separation of the two countries. The differences are also due to the different political and social influences which each has experienced independently. For example, in the Modern Period of development, Portugal continues to be dramatically influenced by the French. So, in this respect, the continental Portuguese has tended to move closer to French. Brazil, on the other hand, has had a great deal of African influence, as well as influence from the multinational immigrants it has received. These differing situations have provided for variation among the spoken and written forms of Portuguese.

Although Portuguese has maintained much of its lexicon from Vulgar Latin, it has been dramatically influenced by other languages in its development as a distinct language. Many other factors have contributed to the development of Portuguese besides language contact, which I have not focused on due to the limited scope of this paper. However, I felt that a study of the way such varied linguistic influences have impacted the development of the Portuguese lexicon has value in demonstrating the history of the language itself. I find the lexicon of Portuguese to be full of beauty and power of expression. In fact, while I was living in Brazil, some people even commented that Portuguese is the language of the angels.

Works Cited

Bueno, Francisco Da Silva. A Formação Historica Da Língua Portuguesa. Edição Saraiva, São Paulo, 1967.

Camara Jr., Mattoso J. The Portuguese Language. University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1972.

Collier’s Encyclopedia. Lauren S. Bahr, Bernard Johnston. Volume 19, Collier’s, New York. 1994.

Dunn, Joseph. Grammar of the Portuguese Language. David Nutt, London, 1930.

"The Portuguese Language" Online. Available on the World Wide Web: http://www.visao.com/portuguese.html

Williams, Edwin B. From Latin to Portuguese. University of Pennsylvania Press, Oxford University Press, 1938.