tom_in_bahia
Senior Member
South Florida/Phoenix-Tucson/the Adirondacks. Native of North American English
This seems like a strange title for a thread, but I have a theory that I would like to prove or disprove and the internet has not proved resourceful to achieve this goal.
Bunda - Brazilian Portuguese
Bounda - Haitian Creole
Booty/Boody - BVE (and Contemporary Standard American English)
Clearly the BP and HC words for "rear" or "butt" are related and almost pronounced identically, which to me is not enough to prove their relation, in general. Nevertheless, slave diaspora from West Africa clearly proves the mass human movement from West African sovereign states and colonies to Brazil and subsequently to the Caribbean and the Southern US. I do not know which African Language these words come from, but my guess would be one from the region Côte D'Ivoire/Nigeria (perhaps Yoruba?).
The thing I don't know for sure is the relationship with BVE "booty/boody" - if there is one. Online and in dictionaries, the etymology of the word booty has been attested as the corruption of "body" by African descendent populations in the Southern US. I don't know if I accept that, as I've never seen an example that proves this connection in an etymological dictionary or resource. Today, our vowel medial d/dd/t/tt are consistently being pronounced as a tap/flap in SAE and the BVE word does not have a nasal in the first syllable. In this way, I would accept the theory that booty is an approximation or relation between "body" in English and /bunda/ (?) in the original West African language it came from. Perhaps, the proximity in body (pronounced with a /d/) with bunda was enough to make that connection in early undereducated/illiterate people.
We know other words traveled with the slave populations. I think the BP word for Okra, quiabo is related to the French/HC gumbo. Also, the (now derogatory) SSE word pickaninny (and pikny [sp?] in Jamaican English for child) comes originally from the Portuguese “pequeninho”, or little one.
Bunda - Brazilian Portuguese
Bounda - Haitian Creole
Booty/Boody - BVE (and Contemporary Standard American English)
Clearly the BP and HC words for "rear" or "butt" are related and almost pronounced identically, which to me is not enough to prove their relation, in general. Nevertheless, slave diaspora from West Africa clearly proves the mass human movement from West African sovereign states and colonies to Brazil and subsequently to the Caribbean and the Southern US. I do not know which African Language these words come from, but my guess would be one from the region Côte D'Ivoire/Nigeria (perhaps Yoruba?).
The thing I don't know for sure is the relationship with BVE "booty/boody" - if there is one. Online and in dictionaries, the etymology of the word booty has been attested as the corruption of "body" by African descendent populations in the Southern US. I don't know if I accept that, as I've never seen an example that proves this connection in an etymological dictionary or resource. Today, our vowel medial d/dd/t/tt are consistently being pronounced as a tap/flap in SAE and the BVE word does not have a nasal in the first syllable. In this way, I would accept the theory that booty is an approximation or relation between "body" in English and /bunda/ (?) in the original West African language it came from. Perhaps, the proximity in body (pronounced with a /d/) with bunda was enough to make that connection in early undereducated/illiterate people.
We know other words traveled with the slave populations. I think the BP word for Okra, quiabo is related to the French/HC gumbo. Also, the (now derogatory) SSE word pickaninny (and pikny [sp?] in Jamaican English for child) comes originally from the Portuguese “pequeninho”, or little one.