Research Center for Etymology
and History of the Portuguese Language
versão em português Coordination: Prof. Dr. Mário Eduardo Viaro
Project I
Unlike most European languages (English, French, Spanish and Italian), the dictionaries of Portuguese language have many problems regarding their etymological data. Suffixal/ prefixal derivation and etymology are often mixed, so are etymon and remote origin, the etyma of unwritten languages are dealt with carelessly, Arab influence is greatly unknown, not to mention plenty of fanciful etyma which brings the etymological study out of the scientific spheres. Media and the Internet contribute to the dissemination of imaginative solutions and academic experts in Philology and Historical Linguistics cannot expose their conclusions on the subject. As with Stylistics, scientific etymological research was very productive until the 20’s of the 20th century, when it was at its best. However, historical and ideological events contributed to oblivion of many acquired techniques and results. Grounded in linguistic research, etymological studies returned in the 90's and today there are important tools to develop quality research at the academic level which can contribute to change society's view on the subject. In this sense, this research on dating of the earliest occurrences of Portuguese words, presented by NEHiLP, is the first step in order to create a new etymological dictionary of the Portuguese language.
(1) Development of computer programs allowing to generate word lists from each investigated text by associating them with some of its characteristics (eg, author, page, date of creation and publication of the work). Then it is intended to pull back automatically the first word occurrences by comparing this output with other quite extensive lists (over 200,000 entries) from information obtained in the current etymological dictionaries, which are already available and prepared by the Group of Historical Morphology of the Portuguese;
(2) Formation of groups of experts in:
(a) words of Latin origin or associated with ancient substrates (old Greek, Celtic, Iberian words, etc.) and with Germanic superstrate;
(b) words of Amerindian origin;
(c) words of African origin;
(d) words of Arabic origin;
(e) words of Indian, Chinese and Japanese origin;
(f) words of unknown origin;
(g) international European words from the 17th century (from various sources, mainly: Italian, Spanish, French and English);
(3) Revision of the automatically generated dating, as described in item (1) for each group specified in item (2). Collection of contexts of use in the analyzed texts (excerpt from the investigated work in which the word is mentioned, as well as author, book, page). Studies on the route between the earliest origin and the etymon. Etymological analysis of the existing proposals: confirmation, refutation or indication of need of further investigation;
(4) Creation of an online database with restricted access to NEHiLP researchers, which will be completed by the members during the time of this research. External collaborations will be evaluated by the groups of experts mentioned in item (2) before being included in this database. Once the research is finished, the entries considered 'complete' will be made public through the Internet;
(5) Study of special meanings of the same word involving independent dating, considerations about specific etyma, purposes and inclusion in the database described in item (4). This study will probably need further future investigations but it can simultaneously be started;
(6) Dissemination of research through books, academic papers, articles focusing extra-academical community, websites, workshops, meetings, congresses, conferences, lectures and courses offered by members of NEHiLP or by members of other groups with related research.
Researchers who are dedicated to historical and diachronic aspects of the Portuguese language have been missing, for over twenty years, specialized books with which they can work, as the Oxford Etymological Dictionary of the English language, Le Robert for French, Cortellazzo & Zolli for Italian or Corominas, for Spanish. The most complete works that we have in Portuguese are some publications by Antonio Geraldo Cunha and Houaiss & Villar Dictionary (2001), which is not exactly an etymological dictionary (besides, the etymological data became more simplified in its second edition). The datings in those works, however, have pretty good quality, as concerning the Middle Ages (at this point those ones, especially before the 12th century, José Pedro Machado’s work is also excellent and his solutions are mostly repeated in Houaiss & Villar), but from the 16th century on, the dating in these works are unfortunately very imperfect. There is almost a lack of position for the 17th, 18th and 20th centuries. The researchers of NEHiLP come from several research lines and they can promote a quality study to fill those gaps: there are Arabists (prof. Dr. Federico Corriente, Universidad de Zaragoza/ Spain, prof. Dr. M. Mamede Jarouche and Prof. Dr. Safa A.A.C. Jubran, DLO / FFLCH), Africanists (prof. Dr. Margarida M.T. Petter, DL / FFLCH, Prof. Dr. Francisco da Silva Xavier, Centre de Recherche de la Recherche Cientifique/Sorbonne IV), experts on Sanskrit and Indo-European (prof. Dr. Daniel Kölligan, Universität zu Köln / Germany, prof. Dr. Mário Ferreira, DL / FFLCH, prof. Dr. José M. Marcos de Macedo, DLCV / FFLCH, prof. Dr. Josenir Alcântara de Almeida, UFC ), specialists in Late Latin and Romance Philology, especially in Ibero-Romance languages (Prof. Dr. Valéria G . Condé, DLCV / FFLCH; prof. Artur Costrino, UFPel), linguists who have extensive knowledge in many languages and morphological / stylistic theories, what allows a treatment with a large number of words derived by suffixing and prefixing in Portuguese (prof. Dr. Martin Becker, Universität zu Köln / Germany, Prof. Dr. Graça M.O. S. Rio Torto, University of Coimbra / Portugal, prof. Dr. Bruno O. Maroneze, UFGD; Prof. Dr. Elis C. A. Caretta, DLCV / FFLCH, prof. Dr. Mário Eduardo Viaro, DLCV / FFLCH, prof. Dr. Paulo Chagas, DL / FFLCH, prof. Dr. Aldo L. Bizzocchi, FMU, prof. Andréa Lacotiz, FATEC/SP, Dr. Solange Peixe Pinheiro de Carvalho, FFLCH), philologists and experts on researchs involving historical problems of mediaeval and ancient Brazilian texts ( prof. Manoel M. S. de Almeida, DLCV / FFLCH,prof. Dr. Marcelo Módolo, DLCV / FFLCH, prof. Dr. Phablo R. M. Fachin,DLCV / FFLCH, prof. Dr. Silvio A . Toledo Neto, DLCV / FFLCH, prof. Dr. Carlos Eduardo Mendes de Moraes, UNESP/Assis, prof. Dr. Nelson Papavero, MZ), specialists in digitalized corpora (prof. Dr. Michael J. Ferreira , Georgetown University / USA, www.corpusdoportugues.org; prof. Dr. Clotilde de Almeida Azevedo Murakawa and Dr. Mariana Giacomini Botta, UNESP/Araraquara, Dicionário Histórico do Português do Brasil - DHPB; Prof. Dr. Zwinglio de O.Guimarães-Filho, IF/USP, resercher of the Research Group of the Portuguese Historical Morphology www.usp.br/gmhp/), specialists in Computer Science (Prof. Dr. Marco Dimas Gubitoso, IME / USP). Many of those researchers work in two or more research lines. 48 people altogether, professors, post-doctoral degree and students work on topics that concern directly the etymological study.
Research Center for Etymology and History of the Portuguese Language