Analysis of a sample of Portuguese proper names in East Timor: Anthroponymy, Linguistic Patrimony-Heritage and linguistic variation

Abstract

In East Timor, in the twenty-first century, the anthroponyms – patrimonial linguistic assets that pass from generation to generation – reveal the presence of the Portuguese language, used in the territory for centuries, and its predictable permanence in future generations. It is a Linguistic Heritage-Patrimony of Portuguese in Southeast Asia, in the Pacific Ocean. Aiming at the linguistic description, a sample of this Portuguese Linguistic Heritage-Patrimony is analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, through a list of 40 names – composed by juxtaposition with a hundred elements – of students belonging to a class of a Portuguese Course in SDK Canossiana Balide, at the beginning of Independence. How are the names of young Timorese presented? What linguistic variation is registered in the Portuguese anthroponyms and, simultaneously, Timorese inherited over centuries? From the data analyzed and described, it is believed that people’s names, contrary to Timorese toponyms, are a resistant mark of the influence of the Portuguese language and culture that will persist. It will endure if, in the families, the children continue to receive names of Portuguese influence, valuing the Timorese community, especially in urban centers, its linguistic-cultural past and its history.