Vocabulary
Like many creoles, SLPC is made up of lexical items from an array of different sources. There is, of course, much influence from the indigenous languages like Tamil and Sinhala. Portuguese had a vast impact on this creole, and there are also traces of Dutch and English. It was also most likely influenced by other creoles and varieties of Indo-Portuguese, as the island was visited frequently by traders from Goa and other Portuguese settlements like Daman, and Diu. The similarities with other Indo-Portuguese creoles may also be, however, due to similar circumstances and traits of the languages from which they stem. There is also some Malay influences and loan words.
Example of Portuguese origin words (traced back to Latin origin)
-nariz = nose -Spanish nariz Portuguese nariz
-besos =lips -Spanish besos (kisses) Portuguese beijos (kisses)
-kum = with -Spanish con Portuguese com
¬-hum(a) = ‘one,’ ‘a/an’ -Spanish un(a) Portuguese um(a)
-sumana = week -Spanish semana Portuguese semana
-mael = honey -Spanish miel -Portuguese mel
Example of Portuguese origin words
-meo = middle -Portuguese meio
-cam = ground, floor -Portuguese chão
-almuça = breakfast -Portuguese almoço (lunch)
-fome = hunger -Portuguese fome
-basu ¬= low -Portuguese baixo
Example of Dutch origin words
-krel = curl -Dutch krul
-rol = roll -Dutch rollen
-gorgel = throat -Dutch gorgel
-ruvin = ruin -Dutch ruïne (ruin)
Example of Tamil/ Sinhala origin words
-pepiya = speak -Tamil pepiya
-podiyas = children -Sinhala podi (small) -Batticaloa Tamil potiyan (small boy)
-nona = lady -Sinhala nona
-sarayatiya = walking stick -Sinhala sarayatiya
Read more about this topic: Sri Lankan Portuguese Creole
Famous quotes containing the word vocabulary:
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—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“I have a vocabulary all my own. I “pass the time” when it is wet and disagreeable. When it is fine I do not wish to pass it; I ruminate it and hold on to it. We should hasten over the bad, and settle upon the good.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“My vocabulary dwells deep in my mind and needs paper to wriggle out into the physical zone. Spontaneous eloquence seems to me a miracle. I have rewritten—often several times—every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)