This research project was inspired by the increasing importance wine trade has
acquired on the economic scene worldwide. In particular, the most traded and
renowned Portuguese wine is port, whose history dates back to the 17th century.
In its producing country, this long tradition brought about a related special
language very rich in popular influences. Research was therefore undertaken to
verify whether port language is domain-specific as opposed to the more general
Portuguese terminology of wine-making. As Italy and Portugal are both wineproducing
countries, this research aimed also at comparing wine terminology in
Italian and Portuguese, creating a term collection and finding possible
translating solutions for port domain-specific terms. The starting point was a
visit to the port production areas. Interviews with local wine makers and
marketing technicians were carried out and recorded on tape to be analysed
from a terminological viewpoint. The information gathered was used as
teaching material during the 2004/2005 academic course of Portuguese-Italian
Liaison Interpreting 2 in the third year of the degree in Translation and
Interpreting at the University of Trieste in order to train future interpreters to
handle domain-specific terminology.
