any portuguese speakers here?

[pelham456]

so i'm watching a guinean movie and one guy keeps calling god "Nha Padidor".

bit of googling reveals "nha" is short for "minha" (my) -- is that obvious to any portuguese speaker, or just a local thing? or not even local but just coined for this film? (i note that most google hits on "nha padidor" point right back to this film!)

and yet "minha padidor" gets NO hits! how can that be?? is padidor itself not a legit word?!

online translator tells me padidor is "patron", but going the other way, says the word for patron is "patrono". so wassa diff padidor vs patrono? "identical", "similar but with some distinction", or "one or the other is a typo/slang/dialect"?

again, he's shouting it at the heavens in most cases. "O Father!" type lines.

[alexora]

Equatorial Guinea's (not Guinea, which is a totally different country) languages are French, Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

Spanish is the language most spoken over there.

I'm sure many of our Portuguese or Brazilian member can help out.

[pelham456]

talking guinea-bissau, as should be obvi from me STATING portuguese up front!

[alexora]

Originally Posted by pelham456

talking guinea-bissau, as should be obvi from me STATING portuguese up front!

Guinea-Bissau in not the same as Guinea.

Assume nothing, just be precise in your posts.

[pelham456]

"guinean movie" encompases all 3. like saying "asian movie" or "scandanavian movie". so there is nothing wrong with my post.

but, hey, thanks for the lecture on EQUATORIAL GUINEA...a third country which is neither here nor there!

[maxhitman]

I was born in Africa (I am tarzan´s son ), so one gets to know that those people usually mix
their own native language(s) with another foreign language. This due to their
countries having been colonized from centuries ago and their culture
being mixed with European cultures. So in a way, we get
a mix of diferent words and some are even "invented" to form a whole
new vocabulary.

Around the Guinea region (West Africa) there were Portuguese sailors
who introduced their language to the locals. So I would not be surprised that
the word "Nha" is very closely associated to the Portuguese word "Minha", which means My, or Mine... Like some thing belonging to "me", or saying in a plural manner "our".

The word "Padidor" has no meaning in the Portuguese dictionary so it might
be a local native word.
If it does mean "Patron", and the speaker is looking at the sky while saying the
words "Nha Padidor" , one could translate this as aperson saying "My Lord",
or "My Saviour". Like in a religious way.
I could even say that the word "Padidor" might come from a mix of local speak
and the english language. A word meaning "Saviour". This because in the
region of West Africa, there are alot of English missionaries and other Church
associations (for example, The Society of Jesus -or the "Jesuits" for short)
trying to convert the locals to their religion.

There is a closely sounding word in Portuguese which is "Pregador".
(say it as I write it... Pree-Gha-Door... now say it really fast)
It means some one who "prays" in a very devout way.
Like a very religious person.
This one word has two meanings in the Portuguese language...
... depending on how you use it in a sentence or in a story.
(1) It can be a religious and devout "praying" person...
or
(2) it can also mean someone who "Nails something" to a wall or
a piece of wood. Like putting or hammering nails into wood, or wall.

Hope this helps you Pelham456

[pelham456]

i doubt it's from english; it still has the "pad-" root for father from romance langs. one of the synonyms for patrono is "padrinho", in fact.

so either the "-idor" suffix is specific to guinean portuguese, or the word itself is a contraction of some compound term "padrinho ---dor". anything fit?

still need a native speaker!