The «Observatorio de portuguesismos» («OPORT»). A resource for the history of Portuguese loanwords in Spanish

Abstract

Among the foreign lexical contributions to Spanish, those from Portuguese exhibit unique characteristics due to the permeability between the two languages, which have influenced each other throughout history. This mutual influence is rooted in their shared common backgrounds, forged during different historical moments of the Iberian Peninsula. Furthermore, during the era of maritime expansion, the Canary Islands became a conduit for numerous Portuguese words that later spread throughout the Americas, converging with the new center of lexical dissemination that is Brazil. The OPORT project aims to compile research on the history of Portuguese influence on the Spanish lexicon and culture, making it accessible on the web. To this end, a website has been established to bring together the available information on this shared lexical heritage and offer cartographic visualization of the data.