Similarities Between Portuguese and Malayalam

In this video, we compare some of the similarities between Portuguese (português) and Malayalam (മലയാളം) with Tiago and Lucas as the Portuguese speakers from Portugal and Brazil, respectively, and Joshin and Prajit as the Malayalam speakers from India.
Be sure to check out a recent video we made featuring Malayalam as well, we compared the mutual intelligibility between Malayalam, Beary, Tulu, and Kodava: • Beary vs Tulu vs Malay...
If you're interested in being part of a future video, please follow and contact me on Instagram: / bahadoralast
Malayalam is a Dravidian language designated as one of the Classical languages of India. It is spoken, primarily spoken in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry in India by the Malayali people. Malayalam has official language status in Kerala and Puducherry (Mahé). There are also significant Malayalam speakers in other Indian states, such as the Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka, and Kanyakumari and Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu.
Portuguese is a West Romance language and the official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Angola, and São Tomé and Príncipe. It also has co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea and Macau in China. A cultural presence of Portuguese and Portuguese creole speakers are also found in Goa, Daman and Diu in India; as well in Batticaloa on the east coast of Sri Lanka, the Indonesian island of Flores, in the Malacca state of Malaysia, and the ABC islands in the Caribbean where Papiamento is spoken, while Cape Verdean Creole is the most widely spoken Portuguese-based Creole.
A lot of Portuguese words entered Malayalam because of the Indian Ocean trade and the Portuguese colonization of the Malabar Coast.

[@Handiled]

In Thrissur, which comes in central Kerala, we call onions sabola, which is very similar to cebola in Portuguese

[@finofran]

Yes..not sawala 😅

[@RAJESHKAINIKKARA]

I am Malayalam native speaker learning Portuguese, contact me if interested

[@Marxy_mick]

​@@finofranSabola aanu

[@rzysf59]

Janala/Janela is Jendela in Bahasa Indonesia, Mesa is Meja in Bahasa Indonesia, Lelam/Leilao is Lelang in Bahasa Indonesia,

[@jcxkzhgco3050]

It’s jannal in Tamil

[@studyandcoffee2211]

Kulam is also kolam/kulam for pond

[@myt7471]

Bhasha meaning same in Malayalam "language" Malayalam - tamil, Arabic, Portuguese, Sanskrit, English etc

[@Learn-Malayalam]

Fantastic to see Malayalam featured here

[@anandantor99]

In Indonesia, we say jendela for window, meja for table, lelang for auction, lemari for cupboard. We have lots of Portuguese loanwords in Indonesian.

[@aravindhrajgowda2446]

Same with Tamil

[@baburamadhikari8487]

Amazing. Same I feel here in Nepal.

[@paulofernandes1375]

Wow that's crazy, I had no idea! Salutations from Portugal

[@nicolas_eg]

Janel for window, mej for table and Almar for cupboard over here

[@joiceleme1269]

As a Brazilian I'm so amazed by the similarities because I would never think that Malayalam and portuguese could share some vocabulary. What a great video !

[@user-he9zt4hj9i]

Because of spice trade between Portuguese and Malayalam Kings.

[@rrebakk]

Vasco da Gama landed in Kerala, India - coast (where Malayalam is spoken) in 1498 (6 years after Columbus landed in Americas - in 1492). There was spice trade between different kingdoms in Kerala and Portuguese for few hundred years. After the Portuguese, Dutch, French and English also came and had trading posts on Kerala coast. The Portuguese destroyed the spice trade between Muslim Arabs and Kerala Kingdoms. There were fights between Portuguese and Arabs, Portuguese and Calicut Kingdom, the different Europeans, etc. Eventually the British colonized whole of Kerala in 1792. Portuguese went a little further north on the coast and colonized Konkani speaking Goa which was a Portuguese colony for 450 years (till 1961).

[@someonejustsomeone1469]

Konkani aside, Bengali and Marathi also share a lot of vocabulary.

[@chandlerminh6230]

jackfruit and manga/mango are loanwords from Malayalam.

[@righttime6186]

Maanga or Maampalam are Tamil Words and derived to english as Mango

[@arjunraj823]

​@@righttime6186but the Portuguese tooj it from Malayalam along with Jacka for Jack fruit

[@MrHazz111]

This is great! Thanks, Bahador!

[@raould2590]

Brilliant! I speak Malayalam and am learning Portuguese, so this was absolutely amazing to know!

[@RAJESHKAINIKKARA]

I am Malayalam native speaker learning Portuguese, contact me if interested

[@bmgy5795]

Awesome video! Thank you bahador!

[@rudro3958]

Similar Words in Bengali: Janala(জানালা)= Window Chabi (চাবি)= Key Mej (মেজ)= Table Nilam (নিলাম) = Auction Kedara (কেদারা) = Chair Camiz (কামিজ) = A kind of Dress Almari (আলমারি)= Cabinet

[@joao13soares]

Very interesting once again everyone. Good one

[@chandlerminh6230]

need a longer version.

[@serge9808]

Incredible video, the similarities between a language from the Romance languages as Portuguese; and Malayalam belonging to a quite different family, the Dravidian Languages. You do know how to put together these languages challenges Bahador, you're quite a good linguist; great and interesting video.

[@serge9808]

there is a saying in linguistics that goes as follows: "The longer the geographical distance, the bigger the linguistics differences" , and yet this proves quite the opposite.

[@cozeamred]

The Portuguese came to in Kerala (Calicut) in 1498, they tried to conquer but never materialised. But they traded with local kings and hence the language.

[@serge9808]

very interesting, I never thought the Portuguese' navigators arrived to India. Than you for that very interesting response @@cozeamred

[@alexj9603]

​@@serge9808Have you ever heard of Vasco da Gama, the first European to reach India by sea? He was from Portugal.

[@ethooruchengayi2586]

@@serge9808 yeah, a Portuguese explorer named Vasco da Gama was the first European explorer to reach Kappad a beach in Kozhikode

[@dasilvarealtygroupllc4599]

Hey Bahador just came across your channel now and I love it... I already subscribed!!! I am Portuguese American (from Portugal)... You should do a video of the similarities between Portugal Portuguese & Italian. Because of the latin influence portugese kept more in common to those roots than that of Spain. It would be interesting to see how similar they are.

[@Ar_Byeswara_prabu]

Its great to see the connections...tamil too have words like...jannal , saavi , mesai , aelam , kathirai...alamari, aaya and rahni.

[@viswamtvp876]

So Basically tamil is regard version of Malayalam

[@thepalebluedot4171]

Not only Malayalam has Portuguese loan words, many Indian languages has it.. Marathi Konkani Kannada Bengali Telugu Tamil Hindi Gujarati Even more...

[@nadeeshaweerasinghe2485]

As Portuguese ruled Sri Lanka in 1505, many words added to Sinhala language as well. We called janela for windows, mesa for tables, kameesa for shirts, Kalisam for trousers, Almaari for wardrobe, rejina for queen and also Veeduru for glass, sapaththu for shoes and many more.. Love from Sri Lanka💚

[@Ameer-dj5gj]

but we Arabs ruled them til then so kameesa is actually arabic. ☮️

[@11naa44]

Meesa kameesa some other words in portugese r actually arabic becus arab moors ruled portugal

[@vinicius7179]

Mesa comes from mensa in latin while camisa comes from gaulish (celtic language from france). There are indeed arabic words in portuguese though: pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_de_palavras_portuguesas_de_origem_%C3%A1rabe

[@anandantor99]

We also say sepatu for shoes in Indonesian

[@nadeeshaweerasinghe2485]

@@Ameer-dj5gj good to know that. thanks!

[@kcvinu]

Mallu guys took some effort to pickup the words originated from Portuguese.

[@zyroxop1482]

😂

[@yesyouareherefinally]

Some of the loan words from arabic to malayalam are : Tarjama(തർജമ) - Translation Radd(റദ്ദ്) - Cancel Kathth (കത്ത്) - Letter Karār(കരാർ) - Contract/Agreement Takarār(തകരാർ) - Defect Bākki(ബാക്കി) - Balance/Remnant/Surplus Jilla(ജില്ല) - District Taluk(താലൂക്ക്) Tahasildar (തഹസിൽദാർ) - Tax collector in Tehsil/Taluk Harji(ഹർജി) - Plea Hājar( ഹാജർ) - Attendance Māpp(മാപ്പ്) - Amnesty/Remission/forgiveness Jāmyam(ജാമ്യം) - Bail/Assurance/Surety Munshi(മുൻഷി) - Hindu interpretor/Language Apart from this there are many words commonly used in malayalam that are loan words from this arabic,then dutch, Portuguese, syriac, persian, some hebrew as well.

[@gokulks97]

Mallus can guess by English-Hindi mix. Sound "Na" means No in hindi "Adora" is similar to Adore in English. Resluting a link with "No" to "jackfruit" and "really like" with "mango".

[@The-min800]

Hello that words come from tamil

[@minikurien9527]

​@@The-min800I'm a kanyakumari malayali

[@Zee-iv9oe]

this was so cool

[@giornoalex9611]

I miss thoses videos thanks

[@baburamadhikari8487]

My mothertongue is Nepali. It's amazing to know that we share so many words with Malayalam and Potrugese.

[@burnere633]

Comrade Lenin speaks Portuguese well.

[@hassanalast6670]

Good to know about similarities between Portuguese and Malayalam

[@DipanjanPaul]

Man in Bengali also janala = window. Didn’t know in Malayali as well. Same for chabi= key and kedara = chair, towale = towel, almari = cupboard/chest, aya= maid

[@unnirajac8617]

We actually use vellakari or panikari for maid. Vellakari is used rarely now I think so as it sounds little disrespectful so we use Panikari (Houseworker)

[@sayajalandanmakan4549]

Bahasa Indonesia : jendela (window), meja (table) , lelang (auction) , kemeja (shirt), tuala -in Bahasa Melayu i think (towel), almari (archaic word) or lemari means wardrobe, padri/paderi also archaic word for religious person yup, also gereja (church), bendera (flag), sepatu (shoes) and many more, because in 1400s or 1500s cmiw, Portuguese and also Spanish sailors , they came to Nusantara for spices trading and we absorbs many words from them

[@infinite5795]

As an Odia, we use Kunja/Kunji for key, but chaabi is also widely understood. Rest other words are even present in Hindi/Urdu like Malayalam. 2) We also call Almirah only. 3) Kamra/room is called Bakhara in Odia. 3) Janela is also used in Bengali. In Odia, the word for window is Baatasaraw or Jharaka. 4) Mej is used in Hindi, its called Bedha( ବେଢ଼ା/बेढ़ा) in Odia.

[@righttime6186]

Kunja and kunji means in Tamil is dick male sexual part

[@pranavjadhav6861]

In marathi ue use 'killi' for key...

[@ronaldmueller1847]

The Portuguese word for Mango originated from the Malay word Mangga which itself originated from Tamil Mankay and Jaca from the Malayalam Chakka

[@otikrakosnik]

Bro I am shocked. I am Czech and I understand the word for onion which in Czech is cibule and cabinet which is almara.

[@anilfeb19]

Jak se mas? The reason why Indian languages have many loaned words from Portuguese due to their trade and rule in India, many of those items probably never existed in India before the Portuguese arrival, and the people had to use new words from Portuguese when they introduced these items in India.Cebule was brought to India by the Portuguese and the Indians didn't have any name for it.

[@tonymaliyekkal]

Some nice colonization things. Just wanted to add up FYI Portuguese invasion destroyed the unity of Marthoma Christians ( the traditional St Thomas Christian denomination which existed since 1st century in Kerala).They destroyed their churches and burnt their ancient liturgical texts and forcefully under gunpoint tried to establish Catholicism here.

[@lani6647]

Really didn’t see this one coming. They’re not even from the same language family.

[@latheefabdulla3722]

Those are Portuguese loan words to Malayalam language (south India )

[@chakattack99]

Have you considered a video comparing Yiddish and Pennsylvania Dutch?

[@shrikantapatra5203]

Something more interesting is that even in bengali we say 'jalna' for window. It might have some connection with the discussed word

[@maryjemyfreeman7639]

Bahador means brave, really bshador

[@omieyadav638]

Bahador,, try to get Sankrit and Russian..🎉

[@Fariz-nu4kk]

Hai can you do Malay and Chinese?

[@pranavjadhav6861]

After marathi-Portuguese, Malayalam-Portuguese we also wants kannada-Portuguese...

[@sakondo789]

Nanny vs Granny, the things we pronounce and listen to. Engineering grads also know about sound engineering, editing and overhearing

[@Florafauna616]

Laranja for orange in Portuguese? In Malayalam, it's Naranga and Naranja in Spanish.

[@ashwinsuresh2787]

But the difference is , naranga in Malayalam means lemon not orange...

[@kilanspeaks]

In Indonesian: Janela = jendela Chave = 🤷‍♂️ Mesa = meja Leilão = lelang Cadeira = kadera (chiefly in eastern Indonesia) Calção = 🤷‍♂️ Camisa = kamisa, less common than kemeja Cebola = 🤷‍♂️

[@newmaryadi]

Manga = Mangga

[@user-vz1wk1oi4s]

It’s similar to Turkish masa which means table

[@cheerful_crop_circle]

yes

[@nikunjarya9641]

Except for one or two words, all others are used in Hindi and some other North Indian languages as well.

[@11naa44]

The first guy did say he has a neutral accent so maybe thats why

[@CJ-ud8nf]

​@@11naa44 *He said his mother is from central Keralam and father is from southern Keralam. Not north India.*

[@johnchristopher2403]

Don't tell me that these guys have NOT shared notes before hand. I am shocked! Please can someone confirm

[@mogambo4565]

All these are common in hindi as well.

[@minikurien9527]

Im a kanyakumari malayali...

[@kirupagajan]

Srilankan Tamil use those Portuguese words.

[@IFFASIDHIk]

Malayali pwoli alle 💪

[@The-min800]

Useless all words are tamil words

[@maryjemyfreeman7639]

Portugal was the first colonial power in Kerala hence the influence

[@osmanawad6323]

This means that all the languages has the same root

[@s.keikhosro_5555]

azaries like iranian face genetic is sane but language is turkik because pure turk like chinese is ghazaghestan and gherghizestanian and turkmanestan.... and we have turkman in iran copy of chinese but azarbaigan is persian race or iranic race

[@maryjemyfreeman7639]

Kamees malayalam

[@hishamsalim4908]

Kamees an arabic word.... Shirt

[@latheefabdulla3722]

These are Portuguese loan words to Malayalam language..

[@MariahGessinger]

The Brazilian language is a derivation of the Portuguese language

[@angelgomez4632]

Ola

[@CJ-ud8nf]

In Malayalam ola means palm leaf or coconut leaf.

[@ashokshenoy4831]

Both languages have sanskrit influence too. So...

[@lani6647]

I’m not sure how Portuguese has “Sanskrit Influences”.

[@Chachus-vy1xw]

Sanskrit have no influence in Portuguese

[@samkupp1390]

@@lani6647 Yes, Portuguese doesn't have Sanskrit influence, this guy is just blowing his trumpet. The only thing common between Sanskrit and Portuguese is that they both belong to the Indo-European family of languages.

[@cheerful_crop_circle]

​@@samkupp1390Malayalam isnt Indo-European though

[@osmanawad6323]

That is why we call Portuguese an Indo-European language

[@mohakmilindsingh999]

*🕉️ 🚩 🇮🇳 INDIA 🇮🇳 🚩 🕉️*

[@finofran]

In our locality in thrissur/kerala we say sabola not sawala

[@malithaw]

You can do this with Sinhala as Sinhala has a lot of Portuguese loan words.