by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist, Read the original column at Noozhawk.com
Now that we’ve entered May gray season in Santa Barbara, I’m reflecting fondly on my recent trip to a small sunny country with a big history.
Portugal is less than one quarter the size of California, but it was once a seafaring and colonizing powerhouse. Today, more than 230 million people around the globe count Portuguese as their first language.
Learning Portuguese as a foreign language is another matter. In print there are similarities with Spanish, but the pronunciation and syntax are tricky.
I dove into language lessons from Pimsleur for a few weeks before our trip. Their “listen and repeat” method, syllable-by-syllable from the back of the word, were a good way to approach the language.
After I’d mastered a few phrases, I learned to smoosh the words together, drop pronouns, and slip off the ends of words. I practiced quietly on the long flight to Europe.
The first day, we were naturally lost in time, place and sound. I approached a young souvenir seller and carefully asked, “Com licenca. Onde e que fica o metro?” (Excuse me, where is the metro located?)
Attempting to cover a smile and failing with an embarrassed laugh, he replied in English, “We don’t say it that way!” Then he graciously directed us.
The lexical differences in the Portuguese language emerge largely from the influence of Arabic, integrated with some Celtic phonology.
Beginning in the Iron Age around 1200 BCE, a group called the Lusitanians inhabited the area now called Portugal. Invasions by other groups began in the third century BCE.
Over the next millennium and a half, Romans, Visigoths, Moors, Vikings, Normans, Spanish, and others charged in.
With blessing from the Holy See, Portugal became a country in 1143, more than 300 years before Spain.
This complex history is preserved not just in the language but in beautiful castles, cities and towns around the country. Popular, spectacular ones such as Sintra are crowded with tourists, but in many others you can let your feet and imagination wander.
The Portuguese were famous wanderers in the 15th and 16th centuries. Their chosen solution to being subjected to periodic invasions was growing their economy by expanding beyond their shores.
Prince Henry (Infante d. Henrique, born 1394) is credited with initiating the Age of Discovery by procuring new caravel ships and gathering global information.
Henry the Navigator, as the English later dubbed Prince Henry, began collecting world maps in the early 1400s. This crucial graphic data allowed the Portuguese to boost maritime trade, explore the world, and establish colonies.
Vasco de Gama and Magellan were the most famous Portuguese explorers to follow Henry’s maps. This led not just to colonization but also the enslavement of native people in diverse countries from Mozambique to Brazil, Goa (India), to Cape Verde.
Portuguese guides are proud of their long history but don’t shy away from addressing their complicity in spreading slavery.
Interestingly, the Portuguese incorporated the native people rather than run them off or kill them, as was the English colonial model. Their African, Asian, and South American descendants form most of the world’s Portuguese speakers. Descendants of former colonies comprise about eight percent of Portugal’s population.
We learned these intriguing points on a former colonies’ food tour. With a small group we explored Lisbon’s narrow cobblestone streets to taste street cuisine and delicacies from Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea and Macao. The daylong world tour was a delicious history and culture lesson.
Lisbon itself called to mind one of my favorite cities: San Francisco. Built on hills, trolley cars and funiculars are regular modes of travel. Their 25 de Abril Bridge, nicknamed the “Golden Gate Little Sister,” was built by the same manufacturer as the Golden Gate Bridge.
One surprise was that, while Portugal is said to be one of the poorest countries in Western Europe, we encountered almost no unhoused people in Lisbon, Portugal’s largest city.
Lisbon metro’s homeless count is about 2,000, while the San Francisco area has 10 times that many with a similar total population of around 3 million.
(For comparison, Santa Barbara’s homeless rate is two-thirds that of San Francisco. On the plus side, our rate is down 3.7% from last year’s count.)
Traveling always gains me food for thought, as well as food for taste buds. Portugal’s beauty and people left me wanting to know more.
I may have to take a few more language lessons to make progress, but with the ultra-polite Portuguese, you can go a long way with just learning to say please (por favor) and thank you (obrigada/o).
Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist
Karen Telleen-Lawton is an eco-writer, sharing information and insights about economics and ecology, finances and the environment. Having recently retired from financial planning and advising, she spends more time exploring the outdoors — and reading and writing about it. The opinions expressed are her own.