Vocabulary
A peculiarity of the language is the pronoun yo (meaning "I") which is used in northern Portuguese dialects (pronounced as yeu) as well as Spanish and Italian/Sicilian.
The Kristang lexicon borrowed heavily from Portuguese, but often with drastic truncation; for example, Portuguese padrinho and madrinha ("godfather" and "godmother") became inyu and inya in Kristang.
Metathesis was common: for example, Portuguese gordo "fat" gave Kristang godro. The Portuguese diphthong oi (or ancient ou) was reduced to o, e.g. dois/dous "two" → dos, à noite/à noute "tonight" → anoti.
Many Portuguese words that began with ch, pronounced ("sh") in modern Portuguese, have the pronunciation ("ch" as in "cheese") in Kristang. So, for example, Portuguese chegar "to arrive" and chuva "rain" produced Kristang chegak and chu (pronounced with ). This could have been due to Malay influence, or it could be that Kristang preserved the original pronunciation of Old Portuguese. (Note that Portuguese "ch" pronounced occurs in Northern Portugal.)
Read more about this topic: Kristang Language
Famous quotes containing the word vocabulary:
“A new talker will often call her caregiver “mommy,” which makes parents worry that the child is confused about who is who. She isn’t. This is a case of limited vocabulary rather than mixed-up identities. When a child has only one word for the female person who takes care of her, calling both of them “mommy” is understandable.”
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