posted
How different is modern Portuguese from the Portuguese that was spoken in the mid 16th century?
There is a report by Domingos de Seixas, a Portuguese person who lived in Thailand in the mid-16th century, detailing daily life in Ayuthaya during that time. I would absolutely *love* to read this. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be an English translation available. It occurred to me that I could learn Portuguese and translate it, but (aside from the fact that this would take me years) it occurs to me that Portuguese from that time period might be so different as to be untelligible to me even after I'd learned the modern language.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Sorry Noemon- took me a while to see your thread here.
The best answer I can give you is based on a very limited sample (ie one). I have a text of Don Quixote in Portuguese. The book isn't all that old but the language is certainly on the archaic side. I'll have to check to see when the translation was done.
At any rate, the old Portuguese is about what you would expect: roughly comparable to the similarities between modern English and teh King James version of the Bible. There are also a lot more similarities to Spanish in the old Portuguese as compared to modern Brazilian Portuguese.
In general I'd say that with a good Portuguese dictionary (not a Portuguese to English dictionary) and fluent Portuguese one would likely have very little trouble in translating a Portuguese document from the 1500s.
Posts: 4548 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Thanks Jacare. That was about what I figured you'd say, but I thought it would be a good thing to check before I started learning the language or something (note that my learning Portuguese would be quite a long way down the line. Right now I'm working on Spanish, and Thai is next in line behind it).
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Maybe you should learn Spanish and Portuguese at the same time. They are very similar in structure and share a large portion of vocabulary.
Posts: 4548 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah, I know they're pretty similar, and I expect that once I've gotten good at Spanish, Portuguese won't be too difficult. I would think, though, that if I were to start learning both of them at the same time, they'd blur together in my mind, causing me to make mistakes in both languages.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
It's funny--this wouldn't be the first time I've decided to learn a language just to read a particular text. Last time it was The Illiad.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I have to disagree--my Linear A Illiad will blow your Czech Illiad out of the water. All I have to do is crack Linear A and perform the translation, and your Czech translation will be seen as nothing more than a footnote in the history of Illiad translation.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Yeah, I know they're pretty similar, and I expect that once I've gotten good at Spanish, Portuguese won't be too difficult. I would think, though, that if I were to start learning both of them at the same time, they'd blur together in my mind, causing me to make mistakes in both languages.
Possibly true. I learned Spanish first then Portuguese. Now a goodly portion of my Spanish comes out Portuguese. Oh Well, at least I've never had any real trouble being understood. I had to give a sermon to a Spanish speaking audience a few days ago and no one's eyes glazed over any more than would be expected.
Posts: 4548 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged |
Noemon, I decided to learn Greek to read the Iliad, too. I spent maybe 20 hours on it and then gave up. I inquired about taking greek at the local university and I was told I had to have two years of latin first before they would let me into the first greek course. Well, of course that was way more than two years ago and I probably needed latin too but I really wanted to LEARN greek. So I bought some books and a Liddell and Scott and started but didn't get all that far. Did you take a course or teach yourself? I'm really admiring and sort of jealous that you succeeded where I failed. Posts: 968 | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
ok, i can play your silly game. yours is better. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Hail]](graemlins/hail.gif)
