In 1855Pedro Carolinoset out to write an English phrasebook for Portuguese travelers visiting England. The only problem was that he couldn’t speak English. Undeterred by this minor setback, Carolino decided to base his guide on a respected Portuguese–French phrasebook written byJosé da Fonseca. He took the French translations of Portuguese, and used a French–English dictionary to translatethoseto English.
The result was an unintentional comedy of literal translation, as English phrases like...