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New Routes

A rticles by Agenor Soares dos Santos

voltar

English words in Portuguese

A fe w we e k s ago a frie nd of m ine downloade d a le tte r, appare ntly fanciful but in fact se rious and with a tinge of he lple ssne ss: its write r was m ak ing a jok e about the adoption of Am e rican words by the Arge ntine s, his countrym e n. It m ight have originate d in Brazil, and I was rathe r surprise d to le arn that the ir ge ne ral attitude toward loanwords is sim ilar to ours. Howe ve r, while m any words the y use are long fam iliar with us, othe rs are not to be found in our curre nt language : assistant (= se cre tria), boss, burge r (Brazil, ham brgue r), com pact (Brazilian C D following our usual way of borrowing the English abbre viation: AIDS, FBI, VHF, UNIC EF, and othe rs), e ntre pre ne ur, inte rvie w, m ark up, m e e ting (not a substitute for re unio - a discarde d Anglicism as com cio), pin (= our button, ofte n m isspe lle d botton, in political cam paigns), roast-be e f, ste ak , wording, e tc. So, we are not alone in our re m ark able ope nne ss vis--vis English, but in all our case s including the diffe re nt situation of Fre nch - what should first of all be e m phasize d as re gards the so-calle d loanwords (not conside ring syntactic loans, a m uch ne gle cte d thre at to the language whose dange r to Portugue se Be ne de tti e m phasize d in a wise and pe rce ptive pape r, but pe rhaps ove rstating he r case ) is that the ir dire ction and acce ptance has always de pe nde d on e x tralinguistic conditions political powe r, e conom ic supre m acy and the re ach of the cultural influe nce of a pe ople . The he ge m ony of the Unite d State s, surging e spe cially from the e nd of W orld W ar II, and the e x te nt of its m ultifarious contacts in the world, som e thing ne ve r witne sse d in history, is sufficie nt e x planation for the stre ngth of the English language and add to this its wide ly re cognize d supe riority as a quasi ide al lingua franca. In our particular case , shunning outright any ne w loanword is pointle ss since , quippe d Machado, re calling the attitude of C astro Lope s against Gallicism s, de crying borrowings is lik e building on sand. A fair appraisal in the future linguistic and cultural will show the advantage s of this influx be cause , in the words of C hristophe Nyrop, crucial chapte rs of the history of the cultural de ve lopm e nt of a pe ople can be writte n if one only conside rs the fore ign words to which citize nship rights have be e n grante d. The diffe re nce be twe e n fore ign words/phrase s (e strange irism os) and loanwords (e m pr stim os) is m ore cle ar-cut in our vocabulary than in English, which, according to Je spe rse n, has a m uch gre ate r prope nsity to swallowing fore ign words raw. The form e r are basically words of difficult or im possible assim ilation and k e e p the ir fore ign form be cause the ir phone m e s, m orphological structure , or spe lling do not conform to those of the re ce ptor language , whe re as loanwords have be e n, with le ss or no structural difficulty, incorporate d in such a way that in m any case s the ir origin is no longe r pe rce ive d. Som e authors, lik e Be chara, dism iss this distinction, m aintaining that, in Portugue se , `e m pr stim o cove rs the two notions and applie s both to le x ical and syntactic and se m antic `e strange irism os. Howe ve r, for practical purpose s we will k e e p to it, in orde r to highlight two type s of traits (out of so m any that would re quire a full e ssay) of words we have borrowe d from what Bloom fie ld nam e d the uppe r language : a) The m e ntion of burge r points to our pe culiar tre nd of m orphological and spe lling adaptation of fore ign words se e n in ae rbica, bangal, copide sque , coque te l, de strie r, e sporte , faroe ste , fle rte , iate , jngal, lanche , lde r, nocaute , quitine te , soaite , su te r, and m any othe rs - a course that le ads spe lling re form e rs in authority to propose bizarre form ations lik e copirraite or e snobe (and probably the late st cre ation, gu i se e m ingly an atte m pt at affirm ative nationalism , conside ring that gay is now practically a unive rsal te rm ); and othe rs that look so clum sy, or e ve n we ird, that not all of the m have a chance of catching on: ande bol/hande bol, e slaide , e slaque , e slgo (= slogan!), e spiche , e splim , e stafe , le iaute , que que , e tc. b) Se m antic borrowings - translation-loans, i.e ., indire ct borrowings or words m ode le d m ore or le ss close ly on fore ign one s, though consisting of native spe e ch-m ate rial (Je spe rse n)-, calque or loanshift (Hauge n), in Portugue se e m pr stim o se m ntico, de calque , calque or, le ss com m on, calco (Be chara). The y are cognate s that pass unnotice d by m any translators: accurate , appe al, bargain, basically, casual, consiste nt, control, curiously, de cide dly, disorde r, e ffe ctive , e x posure , face value , graphic, im pe rative , industry, lavatory, m ate rialize , out of the que stion, pace m ak e r, pe nalize , qualification, re concile , re quire m e nt, sce nario, sophisticate d, table te nnis, te chnicality, use d to. A com pre he nsive inve ntory of ove r 200 of such calque s with the diffe re nce s in m e aning will be a chapte r in m y dictionary due out shortly. R EFER ENC ES: Be ne de tti, Ivone C astilho, O Tradutor e o Portugu s. Traduo e C om unicao R e vista Brasile ira de Tradutore s, So Paulo: m aio 2000, p. 43-44; Mata Machado Filho, Aire s da, Em Busca do Te rm o Prprio. Grande C ole o da Lngua Portugue sa, So Paulo: GrficaUrup s-Edinal, s/d, c. 1950, 5 vol. p. 1907. ; Nyrop, C hristophe , in C unha, C e lso, Lngua Portugue sa e R e alidade Brasile ira, 6 e dio atualizada, R io: Editora Te m po Brasile iro, 1976, p.106; Be chara, Evanildo, Mode rna Gram tica Portugue sa, 37 e dio, re vista e am pliada, R io: Editora Luce rna, 2000: 599 and 351; Bloom fie ld, Le onard, Language , Ne w York : Holt, R ine hart and W inston: 1965/1933; Je spe rse n, O tto, Language , Its Nature , De ve lopm e nt and O rigin, London: Ge orge Alle n & Unwin, 1949/1922: p. 215.[The translation of Portugue se and Fre nch te x ts is m ine ] The author Age nor Soare s dos Santos is a re tire d diplom at and a form e r te ache r of English and C olle ge Profe ssor in his native town, Be lo Horizonte . He is the author of the we ll-k nown Guia Prtico de Traduo Ingle sa C om parao se m ntica e e stilstica e ntre os cognatos de se ntido dife re nte

Publisher R e nato Guazze lli Editor Ulisse s W e hby de C arvalho A dvisory Board Francisco Gom e s de Matos Jos O lavo de Am orim Lizik a Goldchle ge r Michae l Jacobs Nancy Lak e R on Martne z Sara W alk e r Proofreader Michae l Jacobs This issue had the collaboration of Michae l Jacobs Age nor Soare s dos Santos Julio Me noche lli Alfre do Gonzle z He rm oso Jack Schole s Ian Ne wby Francisco Gom e s de Matos Nancy Lak e Jorge Se tte Ulisse s W e hby de C arvalho A rt and Design Myat C om unicao Printers Prol Grfica Jornalista Responsvel Jos Ne llo Marque s MTP: 14162

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New Routes

Traduo Ingle sa C om parao se m ntica e e stilstica e ntre os cognatos de se ntido dife re nte e m ingl s e portugu s. The book he announce s in this article is de signe d to go we ll be yond the scope of the form e r as an advance d dictionary and guide for translators from English. e -m ail: age nors@portowe b.com .br

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