Porglish

Porglish or Portuglish (referred to in Portuguese as portinglês or portunglês) refers to various types of language contact between Portuguese and English which have occurred in regions where the two languages coexist. These range from improvised code-switching between bilingual speakers of each language to more or less stable dialects. The name is a portmanteau of the English words Portuguese and English.

This kind of pidgin is rare but observable in Macau, among the British expatriates in Portugal and Portuguese speakers in North America and Oceania. The best-studied example of this is spoken in the Portuguese communities in California, in Hawaii (pidgin contributions) and in the region between Fall River and New Bedford in Southeastern Massachusetts.

As code-switching

It is the name often given to any unsystematic mixture of Portuguese with English (code-switching). This is sometimes used by speakers of the two languages to talk to each other.

Portuglish is similar to Spanglish, and it is basically composed of English and Portuguese lexicon and a Portuguese grammar.

Examples

Among Brazilian-Americans and the Lusophone diaspora:

• Aplicação - application (instead of Port.formulário)
• Apontamento - appointment (instead of Port.horário, encontro)
• Attachar or Atachar - to attach (instead of Port. anexar)
• Bizado or Bisado - busy (instead of Port. ocupado)
• Bootar or Butar - to boot, usually computers (instead of Port. iniciar)
• Chattear - to chat (instead of Port. conversar, bater papo)
• Dar um Suit - to sue (instead of Port. processar)
• Deletar - to delete (instead of Port. excluir, apagar, suprimir)
• Dropar - to drop (instead of Port. derrubar, descartar, descer, largar)
• Escanear or Scanear - to scan (instead of Port. digitalizar, varrer, ler, examinar)
• Escore - Score (instead of Port. pontuação)
• Espreiar or Spreiar - to spray (instead of Port. pulverizar, borrifar)
• Eslaidar or Slidar - to slide (instead of Port. escorregar, deslizar, resvalar)
• Estartar or Startar - to start (instead of Port. iniciar, inicializar)
• Frizar or Frisar - to freeze (instead of Port. congelar)
• Hoovar - to vacuum, to hoover (UK) (instead of Port. aspirar o pó, passar o aspirador de pó)
• Inicializar - to initialize (instead of Port. iniciar)
• Mopear - to mop (UK) (instead of Port. esfregar, usar o esfregão)
• Ordenar - to place an order (instead of Port. encomendar, pedir, fazer um pedido, requisitar)
• Parkear or Parquear - to park (instead of Port.estacionar)
• Printar - to print out (instead of Port. imprimir)
• Resetar - to reset (instead of Port. reiniciar, reinicializar)
• Ser Suposto a / Estar Suposto a - to be supposed to (instead of Port. dever, dever de)
• Uppar - to up (on a level; slang term used for RPG games by Brazilian players, instead of Port. evoluir)
• Vacuumar or Vequiar - to vacuum (instead of Port. aspirar from aspirador)
• Ligar, chamar, ou telefonar para trás - to call back (instead of Port. "ligar, chamar, ou telefonar de volta")

Among Portuguese Americans (particularly from the Azores islands)

• Friza – freezer (instead of Port. frigorífico, geladeira)
• Calafona – Portuguese immigrant to the USA (from proper noun California; no Port. equivalent)

Bibliography

• Manuel Da Costa Fontes (Oct.,1975). A New Portuguese Ballad Collection from California. Western Folklore, Vol. 34, No. 4. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0043-373X(197510)34%3A4%3C299%3AANPBCF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S. 

• Multiple other citations at the Portuguese-American Historical & Research Foundation: http://www.portuguesefoundation.org/newbooks.htm

See also

• Llanito
• English
• English dialects
• Portuguese dialects
• Code-switching
• Portunhol
• Franglais
• Spanglish

External links

• PORTINGLÊS