Talk:corral

Etym

From Portuguese? Says who? In Portuguese spelling it is "curral" (sounds "oo", not "aw"). In Spanish it is spelled "corral" and it makes more snce to assume this is a borrowing from Spanish, considering where the word appeared in English: SW United States, where Spanish was/is widely spoken, while the nearest Portuguese speakers are in Brazil or Azores… (BTW, I'm Portuguese myself.) 194.65.103.1 07:51, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

If it is from the Spanish word, wouldn't it be probable that the Spanish word was in turn derived from the Portuguese? Or visa versa? The two countries are, after all, next to each other? Terry Thorgaard (talk) 18:07, 16 November 2013 (UTC)

Not probable, just possible. It's usually simpler to assume shared inheritance rather than borrowing when there's nothing that marks it as more characteristic of one or the other. In this case, I suspect it may have been borrowed into English more than once: first in the 1500s from either Spanish or Portuguese, then again in the US southwest from Spanish. Modern usage seems to mostly be derived from the US southwest. Chuck Entz (talk) 18:34, 16 November 2013 (UTC)

It was also spelled corral in Portuguese in the past. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 18:57, 16 November 2013 (UTC)