Do any of you entertain yourself by glancing at other translations while you're looking for something in your dictionary? Like, you're looking for a word that starts with "N" and you pass the N word in English and think to yourself, "hmm, I wonder how they translate that into Portuguese?"
Well, I do, and my dictionary translates the N word as "baianao/a". (For the Non-Portuguese speakers reading this, "Baiano/a" is "a person from Bahia."
OH MY GOD, SO OFFENSIVE TO PEOPLE FROM BAHIA!
Even Alexandre was offended, on behalf of his family from Bahia, and it takes a lot to offend Alexandre.
I'm gonna write a letter to the dictionary company to complain. Usually its translations are excellent and it's very well-made, unlike almost all of the dictionaries that I find in bookstores in Brazil. (There are quite a few dictionaries that I've picked up here (and promptly put down) that give only one translation for every word, like this:
pegar -to get
negocio - business
em - in
Terrible!
Apparently, this one isn't as good as I thought.
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wooooooow, that's crazy! That's pretty ridiculous... but hey, there's no racism in Brazil, right?! At least according to some. Good for your for writing a letter. And yeah, I sometimes entertain myself the same way, but have never had such a shocking find!
ReplyDeleteOuch. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteOffensive of not, you are really close to the real translation.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it is worth to remember that "Baiano" or "Bainada" is actually applied towards a behavior that brings cultural shock, not necessarily to racial features.
You could say the Mexicans in the US are "Baianos" because they do provoke cultural shock in many cases...but it is definitely used in a condescending way and it is a pejorative word use to offend and should be avoided anyway.
I have a good example for you, the cities of Rivera ( URUGUAY) and Santana do Livramento ( Rio Grande do Sul -Brazil), their people have for centuries now developed a new dialect, mixed from Portuguese and Spanish, a TRUE portunhol, they are called "BAIANOS" by the people of Uruguay and by the Gauchos, they provoke cultural shock on both sides of the border.
The N word is strictly associated to race.