This is also what I've heard, that Taigi 'phang' comes from Portuguese through Japanese.

As for the differences between 'phang' and Portuguese 'pa̍o,' here are
some possible explanations:

(1) (as Babuza said) The Japanese do not distinguish between -n and
-ng...what they have is an /-ng/ ending that is a syllable in itself. 
And when they heard 'pa̍o,' /pa-ng/ was as close as they could get.

(2) The loanword might not have come from standard Portuguese. It
might even have come from a Spanish or Provencal dialect, etc., either
through Spanish-Japanese contact or because Portuguese ships hired
Spanish or Provencal sailors.

Just a guess.

TBT

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 10:47:49 +0800,   wrote:
>  
> To be frank, I'm afraid no one can give you a definite answer.
> I usually say 
> phang comes from Europe, possibly from  Portuguese.
> It was assumed that the Japanese briught the term to Taiwan after 1895.
> And the Japanese got it from Europe, probably during the Meji Restoration.
> Japanese seemed unable to ditinguish between 'ng' and 'n' quite well.
> For example, sir/MR is written as sang & san.
> Those speaking Mandarin have same problems.
> Frequently 興趣/性趣; 禁止/靜止; alwaus sounds the same on TV/Radio.
> Any comment from TGB will be highly appreciated.
>                                 Babuza

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