Portuguese Vocables in Asiatic Languages, originally authored by Monsignor Sebastião Rodolfo Dalgado, is a pioneering linguistic study translated and expanded upon by Anthony Xavier Soares. This work explores the profound influence of Portuguese on various Asian languages, tracing the legacy of the Portuguese Empire's presence in Asia from the 16th century onward. Through detailed linguistic analysis, Dalgado identified Portuguese words that were assimilated into local vocabularies, illustrating the cultural and historical interplay between Europe and Asia. The book highlights the Portuguese contribution to Asian languages such as Konkani, Malayalam, Sinhalese, Bengali, and Malay, among others. By providing etymological insights, Dalgado meticulously charts the adoption and adaptation of Portuguese terms into everyday speech, often reflecting specific domains like trade, religion, and technology. Soares' translation further enriches the text, making Dalgado's findings accessible to a broader audience and situating them within a global context. This volume is a treasure trove for linguists, historians, and cultural scholars, as it not only documents linguistic borrowings but also paints a vivid picture of the socio- cultural exchanges that defined the Age of Exploration. Its scholarly rigor and interdisciplinary appeal make it a seminal resource for understanding the enduring impact of Portuguese on Asian linguistic and cultural landscapes.
Msgr Sebastião Rodolfo Dalgado (1855-1922) was a Catholic priest, academic, university professor, theologian, orientalist, and linguist from Portuguese Goa.
Anthony Xavier Soares was a scholar and author known for his contributions to the study of linguistic influences, particularly focusing on the integration of Portuguese vocabulary into Asian languages. His most notable work, Portuguese Vocables in Asiatic Languages, co-authored with M. B. Emeneau, examines the impact of Portuguese colonial presence on local languages across Asia. This seminal study, published in the Journal of the American Oriental Society in 1940, has been influential in understanding linguistic exchanges between Europe and Asia during the colonial period.
Monsignor S. Rodolfo Dalgado's Influencia do Vocabulario Portugues em Linguas Asiaticas (abragendo cerca de cinquenta idiomas) published by the Academy of Sciences, Lisbon, was issued in 1913, and, at once received a very warm welcome from Orientalists all over Europe interested in philological studies.
Sir George Grierson, then in England, thanked the author heartily for his most valuable and interesting work for which, he said, he had been wishing for many years and which would be of the greatest help to him in the linguistic survey of India, just as his excellent Konkani dictionary had been till then. Professors Sylvain Levi and A. Cabaton from Paris, J. Cornu from Austria, and Hugo Schuchardt from Graz, among others, acolaimed the work as an enduring monument to Portugal and a most valuable contribution to Oriental studies, the materials of which, collected with infinite labour, had been put together with great learning and precision.
But except Portuguese India, as was to be expected, no other part of India had heard of the author's name, let alone of this or any other book of his. The irony of the situation is obvious; for though the result of the laborious examination of about fifty different Asiatic languages in search of Portuguese words might make the Portuguese justly and pardonably proud of the part they once played in the cultural history of the East and particularly of India, such a study can have a present- day value and importance only to those in India, Ceylon, Malaya, and other parts of Asia interested in the history and development of their respective vernaculars. The situation was brought about purely because Dr. Dalgado's Vocabulario, to give the work the name by which it is generally known, is in Portuguese, and scarcely any Indian Orientalist to-day possesses a working knowledge of that language.
With the object of introducing Dalgado's work to those interested in such studies, I read before the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society a paper entitled: The Portuguese Legacy to the East or the Influence of Portuguese on the Languages of the East with special reference to the Languages of the Bombay Presidency. This was in 1922. A paragraph from its concluding part will bear quotation here, in as much as it explains my motive in reading it and, at the same time, makes an avowal of my indebtedness for my materials to the Vocabulario.
It remains for me to acknowledge my great and grateful debt to Dr. S. Rodolfo Dalgado's Influencia do Vocabulario Portugues em Linguas Asiaticas (abrangendo cerca de cinquenta idiemas). The student who wishes to study from a scientific and philosophical standpoint the process by which the gradual trans- plantation of the exotic words on Asiatic soil was affected will find the introduction to this great work of absorbing interest. The book which is published by the University Press, Coimbra, and brought out under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences, Lisbon, is in Portuguese, a language unknown to the majority of scholars in India. I am sure that, on this very account, a few brief remarks on the character of this work as well as on the career and achievements of the indefatigable orientalist and philologist, its author, will not be out of place. And the very same reasons have determined the inclusion of a sketch of the author's life and work in this volume.
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