Texto
escrito para uma colega romena que é professora de japonês num liceu
de Bucareste – 5 de Maio de 2004.
By
1543, Japanese people heard, for the first time, the sounds of a
strange and distant language. This was the beginning of a cooperation
which left a testimony until now.
During
a century, until 1639, Portugal carried to Japan a valuable
contribution in the field of modern sciences and took there the news
about European arts. 1582 is considered the golden period of the
so-called “Portuguese age in Japan”; but in 1623, the conflict
between the two peoples increased in a definitive way, mainly because
of religious reasons, and the separation happened…
However,
if the opportunities were lost, something remained from that period.
It
is historically recognized that the Portuguese let them know the
grape-wine, the bread, the gunpowder, the rifle, the European textiles…
The importation of foreign products means also the importation of its
names and designations. So, Portuguese and Japanese mutually exchanged
words that were adopted in different fields of life such as food,
clothes, commerce, religion, culture, technology, and so on…
From
the Japanese influence, in the Portuguese vocabulary remain words like
“biombo”, “catana”, “quimono”, “chá”,
”haraquiri”, among many others.
In
the Japanese language there are more or less 4000 words with a
Portuguese root and origin, revealing, however, a phonetical
adaptation, although some of them are no longer used in current
language. “Arigatô” is perhaps the most known example. Here are a
few examples picked up from different semantic areas:
Japanese
word |
Portuguese
source |
arigatô
koppu
karuta
haka
orugan
astrorarabyo
kapitan
saya
shuchim
karusan
botan
boro
pan
tempura
kasutera
|
obrigado
(thank you)
copo (glass for
liquid drink)
carta (card)
faca (knife)
órgão
(musical organ)
astrolábio (instrument
for navigation)
capitão
(captain)
saia (skirt)
setim (satin)
calção (short
pants)
botão (button)
bolo (sweet cake)
pão (bread)
têmpora,
tempero
castela
–
it is a quite interesting story about this cake, still made like
in the 16th century! |
bobura
etc.,
etc., etc. |
abóbora
(pumpkin)
etc.,
etc., etc. |
Recently
I read an interesting article about the the Japanese waves of
immigration towards Brazil occurred over 85 years in the last 20th
century – the “Dakasegin”, have you already heard? The author
noticed the adaptation and linguistic importation, by the Japanese
immigrants, of some modern words from the Brazilian/Portuguese
language. I remember a few examples:
Japanese
word |
Portuguese
source |
Nataru
Papainoeru
Santakurosu
garuson |
Natal (Christmas)
Papai
Noel (Santa Klaus)
Papai
Noel (Santa Klaus)
garçon
(waiter) |
I feel this is a quite
interesting subject, about which we could make some investigation…
|