The Language of the "Pas Compris": The Linguistic "getting by" of the Portuguese in the Trenches of the Great War

Abstract

The Portuguese army soldiers sent to the World War Itrenches, pieces of the rural Portugal of the beginning of the 20thcentury, were mostly illiterate or uneducatedmen. The military action in foreign territories,in a context that led to the communication with troops of other nationalities, provided the creation of communicative bridges which were made invariably throughthelinguistic transposition. However, theimprovised, inventive and/or creative way the Portuguese expressed themselves to the military or civil French people, despite being erroneous and sometimes grammatically confusing, did not revealitself as an obstacle tothe understanding and comprehension.