Transcripting Asian languages in Portuguese/Spanish langauge

[Caravels of Portugal]

I'm developing a constructed language called Basa Amarelo, the pidgin language of the Kaom Amarelo, or the Asian slaves in America. The language is a pidgin that uses Iberian languages and Malay as base grammar and a variety of Asian languages for vocabulary.

I searched for old spellings of place names and Asian words transliterated into Portuguese and Spanish orthography throughout history and used it as inspiration for Basa Amarelo words. For reference, I'll give you some examples of the old variant spellings and transliterations:

Malay to Portuguese translierations
Bukit (Hill) -> Buquet
Kampung (Village) -> Campon
Nipah (Nipah palm) -> Nypa

Japanese to Portuguese
Nippon (Japan) -> nifon
Kaidan (scary story)-> kwaidan

Others
Khitai (Khitan) -> Cathay
Bandar Gümrük (Bandar Abbas) -> Bamdel Gombruc, Combru, Gomrow, Cummerroon

Any ideas and suggestions?

 

[Lampiao]

Most of the words you mentioned have the same pronunciation, it's only a matter of spelling. Considering that's based on scriptures from the 16th century, it's not a surprise that there's no standardization whatsoever. The only exception is the shift of /i/ to /e/ in bukit, which is very common in every language in the world and somewhat random.

The Japanese transliterations are more interesting. Kwaidan is a very exquisite spelling considering that [w] was never a used in Portuguese words, I think that the natural transliteration for [kwa] would be [gua] or [qua], the former makes it sound more like a century-old loanword.

The transliteration Nifon is very interesting as well. In my opinion, you have to take the word Nihon, not Nippon as a possible origin. /h/ isn't normally present in Portuguese (even though some Brazilian dialects pronounce [r] as /h/) and Spanish is known for /f/ to /h/ shift (see Portuguese fundo, French fond and Spanish hondo). Probably, for the Portuguese sailors of the time, [f] was the closest to /h/, notwithstanding the fact that present day Portuguese speakers probably associate /h/ more with [r].

 

[Lampiao]

By the way, about your constructed language, it would be more realistic, in my opinion, to use Baasa instead of Basa for the Malay word Bahasa - see, for instance, en. Tehran, fr. Téhéran > pt. Teerã/Teerão.

Also, the usage of the word Amarelo (en. Yellow) is also somewhat anachronic in my opinion. The concept of a Yellow Race is connected to 19th century (pseudo)Scientific Racism. Thus, to use the word Amarelo you'd need to establish that the term was adopted during the 1800's and try to come up with an older term as well.

 

[Dan1988]

Likewise, if we use Vietnamese as an example, if your language has retroflex consonants, and since a rhotic consonant tends to be lacking in a good portion of the Mainland Southeast Asia sprachbund, you're probably going to use <s, r> for retroflex consonants (voiceless and voiced, respectively, though the latter case would also see <-s-> with the former as <-ss->) and the non-retroflex consonants using <c/ç, z> (again, voiceless and voiced, respectively), which means your palatals are going to be further back in the mouth than normal for most (Western) European languages (Catalan and a few others excepted) in order to provide balance.

If one wants some fun with this (since I noticed how the pidgin interpreted Bandar-e Abbas), it's also around this time where in rural Portugal itself (and spreading into the Azores) you have some beginnings of a vowel shift which brings front rounded vowels into the feature pool for the first time. While for a koiné (< pidgin/creole) that would not necessarily be the case, as often times koinés go for the basic common denominators, it would be interesting if some of the Portuguese lexicon reflected that to some degree, i.e. words which would be written <u, oi> and pronounced /u/, /oj/ in Classical Portuguese but pronounced with /i/, /e/ in the constructed language.

To the OP: Have you considered taking a look at already existing Indo-Portuguese creoles as well as the other Malay-based Portuguese creoles? That would give some inspiration. Phonology-wise, I'd also take a look at Cape Verdean Creole, as its origins date to around this same period in the Age of Exploration (even with its own innovations like the *<lh> > <dj/j> shit). Ultimately, all that is needed is a basic phonology, some morphology and syntax, and a few other important bits as well, including documenting sound changes. (Also have a look here). Once you have the basics, you can then start building up the lexicon. Do not focus on orthography (writing system) at this early stage; that would probably be the last thing to worry about - in the case of Portuguese, even more so because not only was the language in the midst of major changes but also the Renaissance introduced a lot of distortions into what was a largely fairly phonemic writing system inherited from the medieval period, and it's those distortions from trying to imitate Ancient Greek and Latin that were a source in the past of many of Portuguese orthography's issues.

 

[MorningDew]

Viet Latin alphabet might be a decent example.

 

[Caravels of Portugal]

To make it a reference, I created a sample of the Basa Amarelo sentence months ago.

Base Grammar statement:
"Ku vai semba joss-joss anitao di quil kayanga tockepi kab jimimo-ryo duplam utan" (I will pray to the Joss-Joss Anitao at the shrine because goblins and wilder spirits reside in the forest)

Also, the usage of the word Amarelo (en. Yellow) is also somewhat anachronic in my opinion. The concept of a Yellow Race is connected to 19th century (pseudo)Scientific Racism. Thus, to use the word Amarelo you'd need to establish that the term was adopted during the 1800's and try to come up with an older term as well.

It's a term similar to the Spanish/Portuguese word negro used to refer to black people or rather, West Africans on the basis of skin color. In this case, the word Amarelo fills in a niche of collectively referring all Asian slaves like that and to lose their ethnic identities upon arrival on the Iberian colonies of America. It also used as an ethnic identifier by the Kaom Amarelo, who prefer that over prendiza because it reminds them of enslavement.

 

[Lampiao]

It's a term similar to the Spanish/Portuguese word negro used to refer to black people or rather, West Africans on the basis of skin color. In this case, the word Amarelo fills in a niche of collectively referring all Asian slaves like that and to lose their ethnic identities upon arrival on the Iberian colonies of America. It also used as an ethnic identifier by the Kaom Amarelo, who prefer that over prendiza because it reminds them of enslavement.

The color black as a racial marker has been used since classical times (s. Latin Maurus), during the 16th and 17th century, Portuguese sailors would inadivertedly call Ameridians and Asians 'negros' just like Africans, because, well, all these peoples normally had a darker skin tone. As I said, yellow as a racial marker was invented by late 18th and 19th century scientists. No one in their right mind thinks drops out of their ship "hey, look, this dude's skin is yellow", unless it's from a spaceship. See it more here.

 

[Caravels of Portugal]

@Lampiao
Do you have any suggestions for an older term for Asian slaves in Iberian colonies of America? The word 'prendiza' has negative connotations in the ATL because it reminds the Kaom Amarelo they are slaves to the Iberian masters and they are not human beings at all.

 

[Lampiao]

I'm not saying that you can't use the term. After all, the usage of the term Caucasian for all white people comes from the same pseudoscientific theory and is widely used in English. IMHO it's just important to use it in the correct period, otherwise you'd risk being anachronistic.

 

[Caravels of Portugal]

Another question:
What would the Latinized forms of Chinese deities or Buddhas in Spanish/Portuguese resemble? For example: 地藏菩薩 地藏菩萨 (Pinyin: Dìzàng Púsà), or Jizo Bosatsu in Japanese.

 

[sadurreira]

Another question:
What would the Latinized forms of Chinese deities or Buddhas in Spanish/Portuguese resemble? For example: 地藏菩薩 地藏菩萨 (Pinyin: Dìzàng Púsà), or Jizo Bosatsu in Japanese.

The Latinized form of the Chinese one would probably be something like Tizampúsa or Tezapúsa. As for the Japanese one, probably Jizobosazu or Jibosazu. Those are what I think the Spanish versions would be. The initial J could also end up being Ch, since there’s no “j” sound in Spanish. In Spanish, the “j” makes an “h” sound.