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

[@Asthra_op]

​@@Marxy_mick mikka idathum sabola thanneya ..south area yil Savala ennu പറയും എന്ന് തോന്നുന്നു

[@darsanmprasad1741]

Its sawals😅

[@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 !

[@SharpingThelife]

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.

[@poopsicklebumpkins]

@@someonejustsomeone1469 like adoro is like the word aador in bengali, which means adore or affection. Janela (window) is Janla. Chair/Kasera/Cadeira is Kedara. Floor is Meje, like Mesa...kamij is also shirt/kurti but rarely used...Leilao or Lelam is Nilaam..Chaavi/Chave is Chaabi...alamari is Aalmari...Aya (aia) and Rani (rainha)...

[@ak.v7]

Cringe Bengali has nothing related to Portugese ​@@someonejustsomeone1469

[@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

[@Learn-Malayalam]

Fantastic to see Malayalam featured here

[@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

[@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

[@ascsascs2679]

ජනේලය,janelaya in Sinhala මේසය,mesaya =table ලෙල්ලම lellama = where the fish selling or auctioning. All the above words came from Portuguese language,I suppose.

[@ascsascs2679]

Janelaya means window

[@MrHazz111]

This is great! Thanks, Bahador!

[@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

[@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

[@baburamadhikari8487]

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

[@bmgy5795]

Awesome video! Thank you bahador!

[@chandlerminh6230]

need a longer version.

[@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.

[@joalexsg9741]

That was awesome! I always give the due thumbs-up by the way. Greetings from Brazil!

[@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)

[@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

[@poopsicklebumpkins]

also, adoro is like the word aador in bengali, which means adore or affection.

[@siimplykittxie8469]

In Urdu we also have chabi, mez, kameez, and almari even though my country didn't have as much of a Portuguese presence compared to India. I always assumed kameez and almari came from Persian and Arabic, because my language borrowed a lot from Persian and also Arabic like Portuguese and Spanish.

[@pkmuhammedhisan]

Khangir Chele

[@ronaldmueller1847]

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

[@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

[@solowolf023]

This is so interesting to learn about the Portuguese influence in Malayalam language! I have a BA in History and my husband's family speaks Malayalam, so as an American I'm still learning the language of Malayalam.

[@joao13soares]

Very interesting once again everyone. Good one

[@subramanianakhileswaran1910]

Excellent .Could easily understand the similarities

[@thepalebluedot4171]

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

[@aswinuk5571]

Are you a joke 😂

[@aswinuk5571]

😂😂

[@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.

[@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 )

[@satipy]

Theses words have portuguese origin. During portuguese empire, we changed many words with Asia.

[@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.

[@_gokz]

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

[@hassanalast6670]

Good to know about similarities between Portuguese and Malayalam

[@hadhamalnam]

Aside from the loan words between the two languages, there were also some less recognizable indo-european cognates due to Sanskrit loan words. Reinha is cognate with rajñi for queen in malayalam, and divasam is cognate with dia for day.

[@FuriousGuy2024]

I am from Kerala Palakad and I am shocked to see that Malayalam and Protugese are sounding same and it has a same vocabulary I am very shocked.

[@burnere633]

Comrade Lenin speaks Portuguese well.

[@ZakariaAli-v2w]

It’s similar to Turkish masa which means table

[@cheerful_crop_circle]

yes

[@johnchristopher2403]

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

[@pranavjadhav6861]

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

[@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

[@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...

[@MariannaD934]

Cebola/savala is cipolla in Italian, very similar sound!

[@sumaliharshani118]

Some of words same like sinhala words which is Native language in Sri Lanka

[@PenguinPlayz12]

As a Bangali, we use chabi and Janala too! Kamees may be understood as well.

[@shrikantapatra5203]

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

[@priyanshusharma9669]

Even in bhojpuri we say jangla

[@rabbythemixgamer3756]

surprisingly as a Bengali 🇧🇩 speaker I can figure out lots of words which are very much similar with my language; Window= Janaala Key's= Chabee Table= Mejee Auction= Neelam Chair= Cedaraa Shirts= Kameez

[@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...

[@siimplykittxie8469]

That's because they are all cognates. Naranja and laranja both came from naranj (Arabic) which in turn came from narang (Persian) which in turn is related to naranga (Sanskrit word for orange tree), so it's possible that other Indian languages used a word similar to naranga even before the Portuguese arrived on the subcontinent (for example, in my language the word for orange is narangi, but I don't really use it that much). Actually, that Arabic word naranj isn't used to refer to sweet oranges, but rather it was an older word referring to bitter oranges, and I'm pretty sure no one uses that word anymore in Arabic. Ironically, the modern Arabic word for sweet oranges is burtuqal (literally means Portugal) because the Portuguese introduced the sweet oranges to the Mediterranean. There are other languages that also named the sweet orange after Portugal, for example Greek, Turkish, Albanian, and even some languages/dialects in southern Italy.

[@Zee-iv9oe]

this was so cool

[@omieyadav638]

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

[@indikarathnayake4837]

Iam SriLankan all this words use Sinhala Languages as same meaning Jannel = window cames = shirt

[@Fariz-nu4kk]

Hai can you do Malay and Chinese?

[@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.*

[@finofran]

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

[@TheEaglePana]

I miss thoses videos thanks

[@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.

[@rogeriomonteiro760]

Yes, (unfortunately), as an Portuguese History teacher I know that too well. I hope that the Marthoma Christians keep their heritage.

[@chakattack99]

Have you considered a video comparing Yiddish and Pennsylvania Dutch?

[@maryjemyfreeman7639]

Portugal was the first colonial power in Kerala hence the influence

[@mogambo4565]

All these are common in hindi as well.

[@ishwarbhat1876]

Should have added goan konkani also.

[@Aalampara]

Portuguese and Jaffnese ( Tamil ) has a lot if similarities

[@Asthra_op]

Portugal came here kerala india🇮🇳 we copied so many words from portugal

[@IFFASIDHIk]

Malayali pwoli alle 💪

[@The-min800]

Useless all words are tamil words

[@sakondo789]

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

[@maryjemyfreeman7639]

Bahador means brave, really bshador

[@kirupagajan]

Srilankan Tamil use those Portuguese words.

[@osmanawad6323]

This means that all the languages has the same root

[@ShashidharAshok]

Please make sanskritham vs malayalam

[@latheefabdulla3722]

These are Portuguese loan words to Malayalam language..

[@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

[@flawyerlawyertv7454]

780th like. Wed, 05th February 2024. 12:41 PM.

[@minikurien9527]

Im a kanyakumari malayali...

[@pkmuhammedhisan]

Vasco Da Gama did arrive on the coasts of Kozhikode (Calicut)

[@psyzaak-]

Guy's it will help me 😂❤

[@maryjemyfreeman7639]

Kamees malayalam

[@sajeevkumbhen8381]

Salvar Kamees

[@hishamsalim4908]

Kamees an arabic word.... Shirt

[@priyanshusharma9669]

Tami is older

[@vinicius7179]

Ot os a celtic word. Not every influence is arabic, tamil or sanskrit even though you guys are taught that

[@psyzaak-]

എനിക്കും പോർച്ചുഗീസ് പടിക്കനം

[@priyanshusharma9669]

Almari bhojpuri

[@MariahGessinger]

The Brazilian language is a derivation of the Portuguese language

[@frapiment6239]

Portuguese is portuguese, European or Brazilian are only the accents and some regional slang

[@ThomasMiller-tp2uv]

Both countries speak Portuguese

[@yuminsama1301]

they are the same language

[@sngtfrk1661]

Omg??

[@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 🇮🇳 🚩 🕉️*

[@malithaw]

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

[@SnowLionCub]

ചാവി- 🔑 പോർചുഗീസ് 🇵🇹 (key) അലമാര - 🇵🇹 (Cupboard ) ജനാല -🪟 🇵🇹 (window) പൂർ - 🌼 (Vagina )🇵🇹 ലേലഠ- 🇵🇹 (Bargain) ചക്ക - 🇵🇹 (jackfruit) സവാള - 🧅 🇵🇹 (onion)