Discussion Post 7

[Nile Harris]

Portuguese belongs to the Indo-European Romance language family. Specifically Western Ibero-Romance. There are a lot of words that show contact with the Arabic world. Words such as Sofá (Al-Suffat) (couch), Bairro (Al-Barri) (neighborhood), Álcool (Al-Kuhul) (alcohol), etc. This is the case because of expansion and trade during the early ages and also because of how close Morocco is to the Iberian peninsula. Portuguese also has vocabulary from germanic, celtic, and slavic origins. These different word origins show the encounters this region has faced over time with other cultures. This is also shows how languages change over time. Through conquest and trade, more and more vocabulary from other languages are perpetually being added to help the language evolve. Linguists track these changes over time by looking at the similarities between different languages, especially those under the same Indo-European umbrella. They also use historical events such as war, conquest, empires, and trade to track the evolution of a language.