Why so many Portuguese words start with 'al-'
What's happening in my life this week?
I am currently in the UK having some fish and chips and I have to say that being on vacation was a very much needed point in my life after doing 2 major launches on my website in the last 8 months. Got any recommendations while I'm here?
Fun fact
For almost 500 years — from 711 to 1249 — most of what's now Portugal was under Moorish rule. Longer than Portugal has existed as an independent, unified country in its current borders. And you can still hear it every time you go grocery shopping.
Look for the al- prefix. In Arabic, al- just means "the." When Arabic words got absorbed into Portuguese, the "the" came along for the ride and fused permanently onto the noun — so Portuguese ended up with words that are technically saying "the-lettuce" and "the-pillow" without anyone noticing:
- alface — lettuce (from al-khass)
- almofada — pillow/cushion (from al-mikhadda)
- azeite — olive oil (from az-zayt — the "the" fused as az- here instead of al-, same root)
- algodão — cotton (from al-qutun — this is also where English "cotton" comes from, same root, different route)
- armazém — warehouse (from al-makhzan — also the root of English "magazine")
- oxalá — "hopefully" / "if only" (from in sha'Allah, "God willing" — still said constantly, completely secular now)
That last one is the one that gets people. Oxalá chova amanhã — "hopefully it rains tomorrow" — is a completely ordinary sentence a Portuguese grandmother might say about her garden, carrying eight centuries of religious history nobody talks about anymore.
This isn't a handful of loanwords. Linguists estimate somewhere around 1,000+ Portuguese words trace back to Arabic — concentrated exactly where you'd expect from 500 years of shared agriculture, architecture, and trade: food, farming, building, commerce. The Moorish period didn't just leave castles in the Algarve — it also left many new words in your kitchen and day to day.
I find it fascinating how Portuguese has become like a pool of words from many different languages, and how we managed to adapt it into our lives and experiences.
Casa Portuguesa catch-up
This past week I had the happy moment of launching the B1-B2 course in Casa Portuguesa. I'm currently also migrating the A1-A2 level course into the same platform, and I'm planning on finishing it by the end of this year!
On the Speaking Club we worked on defending statements and discussing opinions as a group. The outcomes have been amazing and I'm very proud of the accomplishments of my students! Great job everyone.
Portuguese in a nutshell
Five more al- words to listen for once you know to catch them: alcachofra (artichoke), alfândega (customs, at the airport), aldeia (village), alicerce (foundation, as in a building's), alfaiate (tailor).
If you are starting out your Portuguese journey and don't know where to start, Casa Portuguesa's first week is built around exactly this: getting you to take your first steps so that you can feel confident and ready to go!
Com café e caos, Catarina Bento
P.S. — We have launched a few workbooks you might like covering topics like reflexives and the future tense!
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