Part III. History
Lesson 20. Portuguese aljamía and Galician
The texts
About eight Portuguese texts in Arabic script are known. Most are early 16th-century letters to the king of Portugal from Moroccans in Portuguese service at Safi (Safim). David Lopes edited them in 1897 [attested, Portuguese].
How they differ from the Spanish texts
From Lopes's notes and table (pp. XXXVI and XXXVII):
| Feature | Portuguese texts | Spanish texts |
|---|---|---|
| p | ب, same as b | بّ |
| doubled letters | no shadda: correr is corer | رّ for rr |
| nh, lh | plain ن, ل: minha is mina, filho is filo | نّ, لّ for ñ, ll |
| s, x | both ش | s ش, x شّ |
| ç | س, rarely ص | س |
| v | ف | ب |
| t | ت or ط | ت |
| e | open e: fatḥa (+ alif); closed e: kasra (+ yāʾ) | fatḥa + alif |
| final nasal vowel | usually oral: capitão without nasal | n/a |
| onset clusters | helper vowel: sempre is sempere | helper vowels too |
Lopes adds that the scribe wrote words as he heard them: as gentes comes out as one word, ajentex.
Open and closed e
Lopes's table lists e under both a and i but doesn't say why. I read the vowel marks on pp. 58 and 60 (one letter, Arabic text) against his Portuguese on p. 59:
| e sound | Written as | Count | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| open /ɛ/, stressed | fatḥa (+ alif) | 7 of 8 | terra تَارَ, guerra غَارَ, era, espero, Fez فَاسْ, até |
| closed /e/, stressed | kasra (+ yāʾ) | 15 of 17 | gente جِنْتِ, merece مِرِشْ, morrer مُرِيرْ, mercê مِرْسِ, alteza |
| diphthong eu | fatḥa | 7 of 8 | eu, meu مَوْ, Deus |
Exceptions: deve (open, kasra), cabeça and aprazer (closed, fatḥa), seus (kasra). Unstressed e is mostly kasra.
How far to trust it: two pages of one letter, read from an 1897 print, assuming modern Portuguese vowel qualities for 16th-century words. A strong tendency, not a proven rule. Maznyak and Tikhonova (2020) also note that kasra often marks e and that the vowel marks are less stable than in the Spanish texts. Teyssier's 1974 study may say more; I couldn't find a copy.
Galician written the Portuguese way
Built with Lopes's correspondences [attested, Portuguese] on Galician words, so the words themselves are modern and non-historical. e is written as fatḥa + alif here; Lopes shows kasra too.
| Word | Portuguese-style |
|---|---|
| miña | مِنَ |
| filla | فِلَ |
| casa | كَشَ |
| branco | بَرَنْكُ |
| porto | بُرْتُ |
| sempre | شَامْبَارَا |
What this means for your journal: the Portuguese way is simpler but loses distinctions (ñ = n, s = x). The journal keeps the Spanish shadda letters because they carry more information.
Exercises 20
Write the Portuguese way.
- filho
- minha
- correr
- praça
- vinho
- Which two Galician sounds merge with n and l in this style?
Answers
- filho · فِلُ
- minha · مِنَ
- correr · كُرَارْ
- praça · بَرَسَ
- vinho · فِنُ
- ñ (nh) and ll (lh).