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Porglish

Porglish is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Porglish rather than just read about it. In short: Porglish or Portuglish (referred to in Portuguese as portinglês – Brazilian: [pɔʁtʃĩˈɡles], European: [puɾtĩˈɡleʃ] – or portunglês – pt-BR: [poʁtũˈɡles], pt-PT: [puɾtũˈɡleʃ]) is the various types of language contact between Portuguese and English which have occurred in regions where the two languages coexist. These range from improvised macaronic admixture of and code-switching between the languages by bilingual and…

Key takeaways

  • Porglish belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Porglish to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Porglish from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Porglish or Portuglish (referred to in Portuguese as portinglês – Brazilian: [pɔʁtʃĩˈɡles], European: [puɾtĩˈɡleʃ] – or portunglês – pt-BR: [poʁtũˈɡles], pt-PT: [puɾtũˈɡleʃ]) is the various types of language contact between Portuguese and English which have occurred in regions where the two languages coexist. These range from improvised macaronic admixture of and code-switching between the languages by bilingual and partially bilingual users, to more-or-less stable patterns of usage. The words are a blend of Portuguese and English. The earliest is Portuglish first recorded in 1997, followed by Portinglish (2001), Portlish (2005), Pinglish (2004) and Porglish (2006). The Portuguese term is a portmanteau of the Portuguese words português and inglês. Porglish is rare but observable in Macau and other Portuguese-speaking regions in Asia and Oceania, among English-speaking expatriates and tourists in Portugal and Brazil, and Portuguese speakers in countries of the English-speaking world, primarily in North America and Oceania, but also Africa, South America, Caribbean and Asia. 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 combined English and Portuguese lexicon and a Portuguese grammar.

Examples

Among Brazilian Americans and others Many of these examples can also apply to other Lusophone diasporas as Portuguese speakers raised in an English-speaking environment, and English speakers learning Portuguese, or any otherwise native speakers of one language used to the other. Note: Those with ** are generally accepted in colloquial Brazilian Portuguese as this language variety is more open to receive loanwords than its European standard counterpart. Deletar, escanear and resetar are even very unlikely to be deemed as unacceptable words in the standard norm of Brazil as much more recently used bullying, instead of pre-existing Portuguese words as bulimento (bullying), bulir (to bully) and bulidor (bully), has been promoted from slang and now it is accepted in the variety's educated norm, to the dismay of some language purists.

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 – the Portuguese homophone chatear has the meaning of to annoy, to pester someone) Dar um suit – to sue (instead of Port. processar) Deletar** – to delete (instead of Port. excluir, apagar, suprimir, delir – while originally a Latin word as deletare, its popularity revived together with the adoption of the English usage) 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 – the correct use of frisar has the meaning of to emphasize; so it can be the correct Portuguese usage depending on context) 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 – the correct use of ordenar has the meaning of to command, to ordain; so it can be the correct Portuguese usage depending on context) Parkear or parquear – to park (instead of Port. estacionar) Performar - to perform (instead of Port. desempenhar, realizar) Plotar – to plot (instead of Port. traçar, imprimir mapa ou gráfico) Printar – to print out (instead of Port. imprimir); also: to make a screen capture (derived from the computer key "Print Screen") Realizar – to realize/realise (instead of Port. perceber, compreender – the correct use of realizar has the meaning of perform, accomplish, achieve; so it can be the correct Portuguese usage depending on context) Resetar** – to reset (instead of Port. reiniciar, reinicializar) Ser suposto a/estar suposto a** – to be supposed to (also Port. dever, dever de – while very rare and sounding odd to most Portuguese speakers, it is a correct Portuguese usage) Upar** or uppar – to up (on a level; slang term used for RPG games by Brazilian players, instead of Port. evoluir) or to upload (instead of rarely used Port. subir – the opposite of baixar, the literal translation of download) Vacuumar or vequiar – to vacuum (instead of Port. aspirar o pó, passar o aspirador de pó)

See also Llanito English English dialects Portuguese dialects Code-switching Portuñol Franglais Spanglish English As She Is Spoke

References

Further reading Manuel Da Costa Fontes (October 1975). "A New Portuguese Ballad Collection from California". Western Folklore. 34 (4). Western Folklore, Vol. 34, No. 4: 299–310. doi:10.2307/1499294. JSTOR 1499294. Multiple other citations at the Portuguese-American Historical & Research Foundation

External links PORTINGLÊS

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Porglish

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Porglish claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Porglish before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Porglish ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Porglish

In research
Porglish appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Porglish in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Porglish is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Code-switching, Macaronic forms of English, Portuguese language, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Porglish outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Porglish in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Porglish means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Porglish out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Porglish in simple terms?

Porglish or Portuglish (referred to in Portuguese as portinglês – Brazilian: [pɔʁtʃĩˈɡles], European: [puɾtĩˈɡleʃ] – or portunglês – pt-BR: [poʁtũˈɡles], pt-PT: [puɾtũˈɡleʃ]) is the various types of language contact between Portuguese and English which have occurred in regions where the two languag…

Why does Porglish matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Porglish?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Porglish.

Tags

  • Code-switching
  • Macaronic forms of English
  • Portuguese language

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