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:
“One forgets words as one forgets names. One’s vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die.”
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)
“[T]here is no breaking out of the intentional vocabulary by explaining its members in other terms.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“The vocabulary of pleasure depends on the imagery of pain.”
—Marina Warner (b. 1946)