Portuguese: the Most Romantic among All Romance Languages
“Um pequenino grão de areia
Que era um pobre sonhador
Olhando o céu viu uma estrela
Imaginou coisas de amor.”
Even a person without much expertise to decipher the Portuguese language can see (and hear) the smoothness, the beauty, the perfect balance in the rhyme of a popular song written in the 40s by two Brazilian songwriters. The verse above opens a quick tale of a grain of sand who was a dreamer; and who fell in love with a star from the sky. At the end of this short poem/song a Portuguese speaking audience has a clear sense of understanding how the sea stars came to be.
The loveliness of the little song above would have been perceived and preserved even if it were only read as poetry. The main reason why it happens is because, unlike the other Romance languages, the Portuguese language, written or spoken, has its own musicality. If read, as in the opportunity given above, the language gives the impression of balance. Whenever the spoken language is heard, the impression for the hearer who does not understand it is of a continuous profusion of sentences, with highs and lows, without pause, that mimics a melody that instantly evolves into a dance. It would not be extreme to affirm that even a political address in Portuguese language, when heard by a non-Portuguese speaker, would sound melodious.
As early as I can remember, I have learned to appreciate languages. I grew up in a metropolitan area, surrounded by people who would come from many different places on earth. Nationals who had a different accent than mine, and internationals that I did not have the slightest impression of what they were saying. But the most beautiful sounds were the ones I heard almost every morning, infiltrating my dreams, waking me up to a happy morning… My mom! Almost as a ritual, my mother began her days with singing while she developed routine activities around the house. From sacred, erudite church music to popular music, in her most expressive high soprano voice, she sang of everything for about two hours. Nothing can be compared to the lyrical splendor of the Portuguese language, which helped her music to simply sound perfect.
Like the other Romance languages, such as Spanish, Italian, French, Romanian, Catalan, etc, Portuguese also comes predominantly from Neo-Latin. But the important factor about the Portuguese language’s harmonious mixture lies in the influence received from pre-Roman languages which were present in the southwestern part of the Iberian Peninsula before Roman domination. This influence can be traced back to millennial civilizations such as the Phoenician and Carthaginian, and later Galician and Lusitanian. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Portuguese language gained many words from Arabic, due to two hundred years of Moorish occupation in Portugal.
While many languages only make use of the mouth (lips and tongue) for elocution, the Portuguese language almost makes complete use of one’s larynx and pharynx and adds to the tongue and lips the nose and the throat. Every time I teach Portuguese or try to help people understand the dynamics of the language, the strongest remark I get from the learners is related to the pronunciation, about the extra effort they need to put into using the jaw, the throat and the nose to properly say some words. I also can feel the difference there is in formulating words in Portuguese in comparison to the absence of jaw, throat and nose’s use when talking in English.
The Portuguese rich vocabulary, with almost six hundred thousand words, is another factor of extreme importance that gives the language a glamorous composition. Each person within the more than two hundred and sixty million people who speak the Portuguese language, in eleven different countries, can consider himself or herself a poet simply for speaking it. Though spoken by so large a crowd in the world, the language still surprises many people who do not know it in America when they hear me speak Portuguese. They acclaim it because of its fluidity and beauty.
It was not until I saw myself out of an environment where the Portuguese language could be heard in a daily basis that I finally gave more thought to it. On the streets of São Paulo city, Brazil, I could interact with the language in its many forms of expression; from arts and street signs to music and people talking and screaming in the language of my heart. The music in the voice of millions of “Paulistanos” around me always gave me the sense of home. I spent uncountable hours observing the crowds invade the streets, corners and parks around the downtown area of the city on frenetic comings and goings like in a giant colony of ants. I can still hear on my head the man reciting the healing power contained in each of his herbs, displayed for sale on a large cloth on the ground; I hear also the silver and gold dealers holding their rate banners, loudly repeating “compro ouro, compro prata, ouro, prata e diamante.”
Called by Miguel de Cervantes “dulce y agradable,” in English sweet and pleasing, and known by many as the language of Luís Vaz de Camões, the greatest Portuguese poet and the author of the epic work Os Lusíadas, the Portuguese language is a manifesto screamed by an unrestrained soul in a quest for radiance and excitement; an unspoken desire for excellence and triumph in collective relationships; it is pain and agony for its absentees, but the joy and vigor for the ones who often have it. It is more than “Fados e Liras,” “Tico-Tico no Fubá” or Carmen Miranda and her fruit hat could ever try to proclaim. Portuguese is more than Bossa Nova and Samba could ever sing…
Portuguese is the language of discoveries, the first one heard by many tribes in Africa, India and in the New World. It is the language of courage and adventure, which was loudly heard through the angry waves, on waters never before navigated by other Europeans, but by the brave Portuguese sailors. It is the language of conquest, which conquered the Far-East and initiated its oceanic trade with Europe. For many, Portuguese is the language of “saudade,” a feeling that does not find a word in any other language to translate it; a deep, happy and sad memory, a paralyzing longing that only translates “saudade.” It is the language of sorrow, which yelled “adeus” on a shore that would never be seen again by the ones departing, and was heard by the sorrowful ears of the ones who stayed. But above all, the Portuguese language is the language of passion, “paixão,” the language of music, “canção,” a real demonstration of emotion, “emoção,” the tongue I can talk in my land, “meu chão,” the pure expression of love, “amor,” the language that lives in my heart, “coração.”
“Português é a língua das descobertas, da coragem e aventura
A língua da conquista
Para muitos a língua da saudade, tristeza
Português é a língua da paixão
Da música, canção, da verdadeira emoção
Português é o que falo em meu chão
A pura expressão do amor…
A língua do meu coração!”
Que era um pobre sonhador
Olhando o céu viu uma estrela
Imaginou coisas de amor.”
Even a person without much expertise to decipher the Portuguese language can see (and hear) the smoothness, the beauty, the perfect balance in the rhyme of a popular song written in the 40s by two Brazilian songwriters. The verse above opens a quick tale of a grain of sand who was a dreamer; and who fell in love with a star from the sky. At the end of this short poem/song a Portuguese speaking audience has a clear sense of understanding how the sea stars came to be.
The loveliness of the little song above would have been perceived and preserved even if it were only read as poetry. The main reason why it happens is because, unlike the other Romance languages, the Portuguese language, written or spoken, has its own musicality. If read, as in the opportunity given above, the language gives the impression of balance. Whenever the spoken language is heard, the impression for the hearer who does not understand it is of a continuous profusion of sentences, with highs and lows, without pause, that mimics a melody that instantly evolves into a dance. It would not be extreme to affirm that even a political address in Portuguese language, when heard by a non-Portuguese speaker, would sound melodious.
As early as I can remember, I have learned to appreciate languages. I grew up in a metropolitan area, surrounded by people who would come from many different places on earth. Nationals who had a different accent than mine, and internationals that I did not have the slightest impression of what they were saying. But the most beautiful sounds were the ones I heard almost every morning, infiltrating my dreams, waking me up to a happy morning… My mom! Almost as a ritual, my mother began her days with singing while she developed routine activities around the house. From sacred, erudite church music to popular music, in her most expressive high soprano voice, she sang of everything for about two hours. Nothing can be compared to the lyrical splendor of the Portuguese language, which helped her music to simply sound perfect.
Like the other Romance languages, such as Spanish, Italian, French, Romanian, Catalan, etc, Portuguese also comes predominantly from Neo-Latin. But the important factor about the Portuguese language’s harmonious mixture lies in the influence received from pre-Roman languages which were present in the southwestern part of the Iberian Peninsula before Roman domination. This influence can be traced back to millennial civilizations such as the Phoenician and Carthaginian, and later Galician and Lusitanian. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Portuguese language gained many words from Arabic, due to two hundred years of Moorish occupation in Portugal.
While many languages only make use of the mouth (lips and tongue) for elocution, the Portuguese language almost makes complete use of one’s larynx and pharynx and adds to the tongue and lips the nose and the throat. Every time I teach Portuguese or try to help people understand the dynamics of the language, the strongest remark I get from the learners is related to the pronunciation, about the extra effort they need to put into using the jaw, the throat and the nose to properly say some words. I also can feel the difference there is in formulating words in Portuguese in comparison to the absence of jaw, throat and nose’s use when talking in English.
The Portuguese rich vocabulary, with almost six hundred thousand words, is another factor of extreme importance that gives the language a glamorous composition. Each person within the more than two hundred and sixty million people who speak the Portuguese language, in eleven different countries, can consider himself or herself a poet simply for speaking it. Though spoken by so large a crowd in the world, the language still surprises many people who do not know it in America when they hear me speak Portuguese. They acclaim it because of its fluidity and beauty.
It was not until I saw myself out of an environment where the Portuguese language could be heard in a daily basis that I finally gave more thought to it. On the streets of São Paulo city, Brazil, I could interact with the language in its many forms of expression; from arts and street signs to music and people talking and screaming in the language of my heart. The music in the voice of millions of “Paulistanos” around me always gave me the sense of home. I spent uncountable hours observing the crowds invade the streets, corners and parks around the downtown area of the city on frenetic comings and goings like in a giant colony of ants. I can still hear on my head the man reciting the healing power contained in each of his herbs, displayed for sale on a large cloth on the ground; I hear also the silver and gold dealers holding their rate banners, loudly repeating “compro ouro, compro prata, ouro, prata e diamante.”
Called by Miguel de Cervantes “dulce y agradable,” in English sweet and pleasing, and known by many as the language of Luís Vaz de Camões, the greatest Portuguese poet and the author of the epic work Os Lusíadas, the Portuguese language is a manifesto screamed by an unrestrained soul in a quest for radiance and excitement; an unspoken desire for excellence and triumph in collective relationships; it is pain and agony for its absentees, but the joy and vigor for the ones who often have it. It is more than “Fados e Liras,” “Tico-Tico no Fubá” or Carmen Miranda and her fruit hat could ever try to proclaim. Portuguese is more than Bossa Nova and Samba could ever sing…
Portuguese is the language of discoveries, the first one heard by many tribes in Africa, India and in the New World. It is the language of courage and adventure, which was loudly heard through the angry waves, on waters never before navigated by other Europeans, but by the brave Portuguese sailors. It is the language of conquest, which conquered the Far-East and initiated its oceanic trade with Europe. For many, Portuguese is the language of “saudade,” a feeling that does not find a word in any other language to translate it; a deep, happy and sad memory, a paralyzing longing that only translates “saudade.” It is the language of sorrow, which yelled “adeus” on a shore that would never be seen again by the ones departing, and was heard by the sorrowful ears of the ones who stayed. But above all, the Portuguese language is the language of passion, “paixão,” the language of music, “canção,” a real demonstration of emotion, “emoção,” the tongue I can talk in my land, “meu chão,” the pure expression of love, “amor,” the language that lives in my heart, “coração.”
“Português é a língua das descobertas, da coragem e aventura
A língua da conquista
Para muitos a língua da saudade, tristeza
Português é a língua da paixão
Da música, canção, da verdadeira emoção
Português é o que falo em meu chão
A pura expressão do amor…
A língua do meu coração!”
posted by ΙΧΘΥΣ at 10:29 AM
1 Comments:
Ola Airton
That was a wonderful story to read. Such true words about how the Portuguese language can pierce the hearts of those who do not hear it enough. Thank you for sharing.
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