GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 287 Hugli, their central colony in West Bengal, was named Porto Pequeno. Portuguese language came naturally with the Portuguese power and for about two centuries and a half even survived its extinction. “It was,’ to quote Marsh- man,! “the Lingua Franca of all foreign settlements around the Bay of Bengal and was the ordinary medium of conversation between the European and their domes- ties” even down to so late a period as 1828. It is easy to see that such ne’er-do-well adventurers as Portuguese pirates could hardly ever be expected to exert any properly literary influence, and their only point of contact with Bengali was through the medium of language.? They supplied its vocabulary with appellation of European arts and invention, names of many fruits, herbs, and trees (আনারস, ete.) which they had brought over from South America or elsewhere, certain terms of gambling ,Primero caaai, ete.) and even common everyday expressions like কেদারা, জানালা, ফিতা, গির্জা, জোলাপ, আলমারি, আলপিন, ধাল্তি, গামলা, প্রেক, চাবি, বরগা, ০০. 1109 common form 0109 ০96) « মাইরি”? is even supposed to be a corrupt form of the name of the Virgin. It will be seen, however, that this Portuguese influence on Bengali was, on the whole, comparatively slight, and it never succeeded in changing the current mode of expression nor went beyond introducing certain’ fresh terms into its vocabulary. 1 History of Serampore Mission, vol. i, pp. 21-22.
- For an account of Portugnese inflaence and Portuguese element
in Bengali, see Sahitya Parigat Patrika, vol. xviii, p. 45 et seq. where a good list of Portnguese words naturalised in Bengali will also be fonnd. See also Hobson-Jobson ed. Yule and Burnell. J. A. Campos in his recent History of the Portuguese in Bengal (1919) has also given a list of Portuguese words in Bengali.
- The first Bengali Grammar and Dictionary was in Portoguese,
See p. 75, ante,
