> There are enough similarities to pick up a few words of -any- Latin-based
> language on the basis of having studied other Latin-based languages. It's
> also very easy to see obscure "similarities" when a phrase is translated
for
> you (as in my earlier examples, in which only one word in the Italian was
> actually similar to the Portuguese). That's a far cry from being able to
> "read/understand" a language. The reason that "Italians" and "Portuguese"
> seem to understand each other at international conferences, is because the
> typical educated European (such as would attend such conferences) is
> multi-lingual.
>
> Butter is "burro" in Italian, somewhat similar to "beurre" in French. If
you
> know that the two have the same meaning, it is easy to see the
"similarity".
> If you did not already know this, I doubt you would derive the meaning of
> one from the other. "Burro" is quite different than "manteiga" in
Portuguese
> (although "manteiga" is somewhat similar to "mantequilla" in Spanish).
It's
> always amusing to see an Italian tourist in Spain or Portugal requesting
> "burro" in a restaurant.

I remember sitting down for breakfast in a Portuguese hotel once and looked
at the sachets of butter/jam.
I picked up one which said burro, spread it onto my roll with some Jam, then
took a bite and yukkk... Burro is a brand of soft cheese.