Can anyone guess what the word "bugina" (or buginas, plural) means? I'll give you a clue: it's a portuguese word, a contraction from the portuguese pronunciation of the original english word and it was used across central Portugal in the 60's and 70's to designate a type of clothes.
A riddle
Requirements to answer:
1-To know Portuguese.
2-To be over 50 years old.
3-To have lived in central Portugal in the 60's or 70's.
4-To be interested enough about clothes to know the word "bugina".
1-To know Portuguese.
2-To be over 50 years old.
3-To have lived in central Portugal in the 60's or 70's.
4-To be interested enough about clothes to know the word "bugina".
Well, ok, I'll give you the answer, the odds someone knowing this are very low.
"Buginas" means "blue jeans". It's a contraction of some portuguese pronouncing "blue jeans" and then mangling it as they kept saying the word.
This story was told by a friend of my father, as one day, in the late 60's he went into a store in downtown Coimbra to buy a pair of jeans (in those days, "blue jeans").
He asked the owner of the store for a pair of "blue jeans" and the man didn't understand what the request was.
When after a couple of atempts to make himself understood my father's friend pointed to a pair of jeans hanging in the wall, together with other articles, the owner of the store told him, finally having understood the request:
"Ah, o que o senhor quer são umas buginas!" ("Ah, I see that you're looking for some "buginas"!)
We all found this little story very funny and I thought sharing it with everybody.
"Buginas" means "blue jeans". It's a contraction of some portuguese pronouncing "blue jeans" and then mangling it as they kept saying the word.
This story was told by a friend of my father, as one day, in the late 60's he went into a store in downtown Coimbra to buy a pair of jeans (in those days, "blue jeans").
He asked the owner of the store for a pair of "blue jeans" and the man didn't understand what the request was.
When after a couple of atempts to make himself understood my father's friend pointed to a pair of jeans hanging in the wall, together with other articles, the owner of the store told him, finally having understood the request:
"Ah, o que o senhor quer são umas buginas!" ("Ah, I see that you're looking for some "buginas"!)
We all found this little story very funny and I thought sharing it with everybody.
Well, that's a real bad mispronounciation.
In that case the Danish word for blue jeans are far better:
Cowboy-bukser = cowboy pants!
In that case the Danish word for blue jeans are far better:
Cowboy-bukser = cowboy pants!
There is no good mispronounciation anyway. This occurs all the time and I'd bet, in all the languages. I remember "green grows" became "gringo" for example.
««"Buginas" means "blue jeans". It's a contraction of some portuguese pronouncing "blue jeans" and then mangling it as they kept saying the word.
This story was told by a friend of my father, as one day, in the late 60's he went into a store in downtown Coimbra to buy a pair of jeans (in those days, "blue jeans").»»
I think that was told as a joke. Bugina would not be understood by anyone in Portugal. Portuguese have no problem pronouncing consonants or nazal sounds. No one would say "blue jeans", the words used would be "jeans" or "ganga".
Where was the friend of your father from? He did not know the the other word, ganga, that is much more used.
This story was told by a friend of my father, as one day, in the late 60's he went into a store in downtown Coimbra to buy a pair of jeans (in those days, "blue jeans").»»
I think that was told as a joke. Bugina would not be understood by anyone in Portugal. Portuguese have no problem pronouncing consonants or nazal sounds. No one would say "blue jeans", the words used would be "jeans" or "ganga".
Where was the friend of your father from? He did not know the the other word, ganga, that is much more used.
Hei, Gringo.
I know nowadays we use "calças de ganga" and "jeans" but in those days aparently many people used "blue jeans" instead. Specialy if someone was born in Mozambique (where people used more english words, via South Africa and drank Coke, unlike people in Portugal), as my father's friend was, spent part of his childhood in Goa (Índia Portuguesa) and came to the Metrópole to study (late 60's and very early 70's).
This story was real, not a joke. Nobody said buginas, that was just the funny mispronounciation of that particular man at that store, that's why the story was told.
Anyway, that story and others made me think how foreign words after being used for some time in a given language community get to adapt and change, usually when used by the less educated and/or less exposed to foreign ways/accents.
I remember a few years ago there was this urban project in the Lisbon area, in Cacilhas, when some architects wanted to revitalize an industrial area by building, among other things, very tall skyscrapers. The media quickly dubbed the project "A Manhattan de Cacilhas" (The Manhattan of Cacilhas). Then someday I was watching on TV some local people being asked about the project and they kept refering to it as "A Manata de Cacilhas".
I found this very interesting and made me start thinking about how words change when pronounced over and over again by different language speakers. Then I proceeded to imagine how Manhattan would have been baptized if other Europeans had got there before the Dutch and English:
English/Dutch? - Manhattan Island
Portuguese - Ilha da Manata
French - Ile de Manoutin (I took inspiration from the Manitoulin Islands in Canada); perhaps also Ile de la Manate
German - Manhaten Insel (?)
Can anyone, of any other language, imagine how Manhattan (or other native names) would sound if those Indians were taliking to say Hungarians, Norwegians, Romanians, Italians back in the XVI century?...
I know nowadays we use "calças de ganga" and "jeans" but in those days aparently many people used "blue jeans" instead. Specialy if someone was born in Mozambique (where people used more english words, via South Africa and drank Coke, unlike people in Portugal), as my father's friend was, spent part of his childhood in Goa (Índia Portuguesa) and came to the Metrópole to study (late 60's and very early 70's).
This story was real, not a joke. Nobody said buginas, that was just the funny mispronounciation of that particular man at that store, that's why the story was told.
Anyway, that story and others made me think how foreign words after being used for some time in a given language community get to adapt and change, usually when used by the less educated and/or less exposed to foreign ways/accents.
I remember a few years ago there was this urban project in the Lisbon area, in Cacilhas, when some architects wanted to revitalize an industrial area by building, among other things, very tall skyscrapers. The media quickly dubbed the project "A Manhattan de Cacilhas" (The Manhattan of Cacilhas). Then someday I was watching on TV some local people being asked about the project and they kept refering to it as "A Manata de Cacilhas".
I found this very interesting and made me start thinking about how words change when pronounced over and over again by different language speakers. Then I proceeded to imagine how Manhattan would have been baptized if other Europeans had got there before the Dutch and English:
English/Dutch? - Manhattan Island
Portuguese - Ilha da Manata
French - Ile de Manoutin (I took inspiration from the Manitoulin Islands in Canada); perhaps also Ile de la Manate
German - Manhaten Insel (?)
Can anyone, of any other language, imagine how Manhattan (or other native names) would sound if those Indians were taliking to say Hungarians, Norwegians, Romanians, Italians back in the XVI century?...
Peut-être « Manhattes » en français, du nom de la tribu à laquelle le Wallon Pierre Minuit a fondé La Nouvelle-Amsterdam (1624) sur le territoire de la Nouvelle-Belgique. Mais le site avait été baptisé Nouvelle-Angoulême en 1524 par Giovanni da Verrazano.
Nova Belgica : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Map-Novi_Belgii_Nov%C3%A6que_Angli%C3%A6_%28Amsterdam%2C_1685%29.jpg .
Nova Belgica : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Map-Novi_Belgii_Nov%C3%A6que_Angli%C3%A6_%28Amsterdam%2C_1685%29.jpg .
««I know nowadays we use "calças de ganga" and "jeans" but in those days apparently many people used "blue jeans" instead. »»
I do not think so, and blue Jeans were used only by young people, English was not much heard. "ganga" had a meaning blue jeans did not. As you said:
««He asked the owner of the store for a pair of "blue jeans" and the man didn't understand what the request was.
When after a couple of attempts to make himself understood my father's friend pointed to a pair of jeans hanging in the wall, together with other articles, the owner of the store told him, finally having understood the request: »»
He did not know what the word "blue jeans" meant; the man had to point to the trousers to be understood. (You have to take in consideration he had an accent that was not English but from Goa, India, and he said "blue jeans with his accent").The word may have sounded like buginas to the owner of the shop which repeated what it sounded to him.
Notice that no one would understand him if he was selling buginas to his regular costumers, he was just repeating what he heard from the customer.
««Then someday I was watching on TV some local people being asked about the project and they kept referring to it as "A Manata de Cacilhas". »»
" A Manata de Cacilhas" (from Maná) or "A Magnata de Cacilhas"? People generally make relationships with known words.
I know that vacuum cleaner can just sound "vaca Miquelina" and spoken that way because it sounds more like it or ketchup that sounds like "cachopa". When you do not know the language you have to make some relationships or visual cues. That is also used by visual learners only for a first stage of learning; some people do not go any further than that, if they only learn a few words.
I do not think so, and blue Jeans were used only by young people, English was not much heard. "ganga" had a meaning blue jeans did not. As you said:
««He asked the owner of the store for a pair of "blue jeans" and the man didn't understand what the request was.
When after a couple of attempts to make himself understood my father's friend pointed to a pair of jeans hanging in the wall, together with other articles, the owner of the store told him, finally having understood the request: »»
He did not know what the word "blue jeans" meant; the man had to point to the trousers to be understood. (You have to take in consideration he had an accent that was not English but from Goa, India, and he said "blue jeans with his accent").The word may have sounded like buginas to the owner of the shop which repeated what it sounded to him.
Notice that no one would understand him if he was selling buginas to his regular costumers, he was just repeating what he heard from the customer.
««Then someday I was watching on TV some local people being asked about the project and they kept referring to it as "A Manata de Cacilhas". »»
" A Manata de Cacilhas" (from Maná) or "A Magnata de Cacilhas"? People generally make relationships with known words.
I know that vacuum cleaner can just sound "vaca Miquelina" and spoken that way because it sounds more like it or ketchup that sounds like "cachopa". When you do not know the language you have to make some relationships or visual cues. That is also used by visual learners only for a first stage of learning; some people do not go any further than that, if they only learn a few words.
I don't think you understood my post. You're not portuguese, are you?
My father's friend is not from Goa, he just spent a few years there as a child. He is portuguese, white portuguese born in Africa. His accent is not african or goan, is portuguese as anyone else's. The story is that the man in the store wasn't used to hear proper english pronounced. It was the man in the store that "adapted" blue jeans into buginas, not the other way around.
As for "Manata de Cacilhas", that's just the way common people in the area said "Manhattan", just like some farmers I once heard on TV refering to the "Kennebec" variety of potatoes as "batata canabeca" (around the Zona do Oeste, I think).
I don't know how you came up with "Maná" or "Magnata"(rich woman??).
My father's friend is not from Goa, he just spent a few years there as a child. He is portuguese, white portuguese born in Africa. His accent is not african or goan, is portuguese as anyone else's. The story is that the man in the store wasn't used to hear proper english pronounced. It was the man in the store that "adapted" blue jeans into buginas, not the other way around.
As for "Manata de Cacilhas", that's just the way common people in the area said "Manhattan", just like some farmers I once heard on TV refering to the "Kennebec" variety of potatoes as "batata canabeca" (around the Zona do Oeste, I think).
I don't know how you came up with "Maná" or "Magnata"(rich woman??).
««I don't think you understood my post. You're not portuguese, are you?»»
One has to be Portuguese to understand what you wrote in English?
««My father's friend is not from Goa, he just spent a few years there as a child. He is portuguese, white portuguese born in Africa. His accent is not african or goan, is portuguese as anyone else's. The story is that the man in the store wasn't used to hear proper english pronounced. It was the man in the store that "adapted" blue jeans into buginas, not the other way around.»»
1-I asked where your father's friend was from because he did not say the word “ganga” and had to point to the Jeans as a person that does not know all the local names for that type of trousers.
2- Coimbra is where the most well know Portuguese University is. It is always full of students. It did not make any sense to me that, if the word Blue Jeans was used, someone selling trousers would have not understood it in a town full of students. The use of the word Bugina, spoken by the local people, would make the students laugh. I do not think the local people used it or that "was used across central Portugal in the 60's and 70's". (Just because one person said the word this way does not mean half the country did the same, even less for two decades.)
3- “Ganga” is not a Portuguese word but derived from the Chinese Yang (so says my dictionary) and it is a well known example of how a word can change. The same for almukhadda that became almofada.
««I don't know how you came up with "Maná" or "Magnata"(rich woman??).»»
As I said before, because people relate unknown words with words they already know. “A manata de Cacilhas”, looks like a Portuguese phrase with no sense, it is not just one word like “canabeca”.
One has to be Portuguese to understand what you wrote in English?
««My father's friend is not from Goa, he just spent a few years there as a child. He is portuguese, white portuguese born in Africa. His accent is not african or goan, is portuguese as anyone else's. The story is that the man in the store wasn't used to hear proper english pronounced. It was the man in the store that "adapted" blue jeans into buginas, not the other way around.»»
1-I asked where your father's friend was from because he did not say the word “ganga” and had to point to the Jeans as a person that does not know all the local names for that type of trousers.
2- Coimbra is where the most well know Portuguese University is. It is always full of students. It did not make any sense to me that, if the word Blue Jeans was used, someone selling trousers would have not understood it in a town full of students. The use of the word Bugina, spoken by the local people, would make the students laugh. I do not think the local people used it or that "was used across central Portugal in the 60's and 70's". (Just because one person said the word this way does not mean half the country did the same, even less for two decades.)
3- “Ganga” is not a Portuguese word but derived from the Chinese Yang (so says my dictionary) and it is a well known example of how a word can change. The same for almukhadda that became almofada.
««I don't know how you came up with "Maná" or "Magnata"(rich woman??).»»
As I said before, because people relate unknown words with words they already know. “A manata de Cacilhas”, looks like a Portuguese phrase with no sense, it is not just one word like “canabeca”.
««it was used across central Portugal in the 60's and 70's to designate a type of clothes»»
««This story was real, not a joke. Nobody said buginas, that was just the funny mispronounciation of that particular man at that store, that's why the story was told.»»
Full of contradictions...
««This story was real, not a joke. Nobody said buginas, that was just the funny mispronounciation of that particular man at that store, that's why the story was told.»»
Full of contradictions...
You shouldn't take it personally, I just tell the story as it was told to me and watch people discuss it, even when the native-speaker-born-there context might be important.
I'm sure there is a lot of things in your language that a non-native speaker misses.
I'm sure there is a lot of things in your language that a non-native speaker misses.
Don't worry I am not taking it personally.
You know the saying " Quem conta um conto acrescenta um ponto"?
Se a historia rola desde os anos 60 dá-lhe um desconto, já foi contada e remendada muitas vezes.
You know the saying " Quem conta um conto acrescenta um ponto"?
Se a historia rola desde os anos 60 dá-lhe um desconto, já foi contada e remendada muitas vezes.