Portuguese-based creole languages meaning "in" and/or "on", which would come from the Portuguese contraction "na" meaning "in the" (feminine singular). The Portuguese word for "creole" is "crioulo", which derives from the verb "criar" ("to raise", "to bring up") and a suffix "-oulo" of debated origin. Originally the word was used to distinguish the members of any ethnic group who were born and raised in the colonies from those who were born in their homeland. In Africa it was often applied to locally born people of (wholly or partly) Portuguese descent, as opposed to those born in Portugal; whereas in Brazil it was also
Portuguese vocabulary brought along by the Suebi who settled in Gallaecia (Northern Portugal and Galicia) in the 5th century, and also by the Visigoths who annexed the Suebic Kingdom in 585 and ruled until the 8th century AD. Other words were incorporated to Portuguese during the Middle Ages, mostly proceeding from French and Occitan languages, as both cultures had a massive impact in Portuguese during the 12th and 13th centuries. Some everyday vocabulary, towns and placenames have Frankish-derived etymology, by influence of French in that period. Examples are: flanco- (flank) from Old French flanc, of Germanic origin, probably Frankish *hlanca, from Proto-Germanic