What is it about?
MS-804 is the unique copy known of the journal of the first voyage to India under Vasco da Gama’s (ca. 1460–1524) command. It describes the voyage subsequent to the departure from the Tagus River, Portugal, on 8 July 1497, until the return up the shallows of the Grande River de Buba, Guinea, on 25 April 1499. This paper discusses its authorship and presents a new semidiplomatic edition of a final list with 122 useful daily words and expressions in Portuguese and their translation into Malayalam, a provincial Dravidian language spoken in Kerala State, India, adding English translations.
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Why is it important?
The great merit of this document is the fact that the author was a direct eyewitness of all events and is a relevant testimony of a variety of Malayalam at the end of the 15th century, despite certain transcription mistakes and the scribe’s censorship of some vulgarisms.
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This page is a summary of: The first list of Malayalam words at the end of 15th century by a Portuguese seaman, Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi Ciências Humanas, December 2016, FapUNIFESP (SciELO),
DOI: 10.1590/1981.81222016000300014.
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