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January 5th, 2011
Brazilian Portuguese Language
Portuguese is the eighth most spoken language and the third
most spoken European language in the world (after English and
Spanish) and, together with Spanish, French, Italian and
Romanian, comprise the five modern Romance languages.
While the Portuguese language has its roots firmly in Europe,
most of the world's 210+ million Portuguese speaking people
live elsewhere. In fact, non European speakers of the language
outnumber their European cousins by over twenty to one. Many
are surprised to learn that there are more Portuguese speaking
people in South America than those who speak Spanish. But
this is understandable when one realizes that Brazil is larger
than the continental United States and has the largest
population of any country in South America. There are different
regional dialects spoken in Brazil.
When Portugal first colonized Brazil in 1500, Tupi or Tupinambá
(a language of the Tupi-Guarani family spoken by natives living
on the Brazilian seacoast) was used along with Portuguese as
the general language of the colony.
In 1757, Tupi was banned by royal decree even though it had
already been overshadowed by Portuguese. However, the
Portuguese language in Brazil adopted numerous geographical
names as well as words for plants (including medicinal) and
animals from Tupi and other indigenous languages; among
these words are abacaxi (pineapple), mandioca (manioc), caju
(cashew), tatu (armadillo), piranha (the fish).
The Portuguese language in Brazil received new contributions
with the influx of the 3.6+ million African slaves forcibly brought
to Brazil from 1500 until 1850. The African influence came
primarily from the Lorubá spoken by slaves from Nigeria.
Lorubá contributions to the language primarily involved words
connected with religion and cuisine. From the Angolan
Quimbundo language came such words as caçula (youngest
child), moleque (street child) and samba.
During the 18th century, differences between the Brazilian and
European Portuguese widened as Brazil became isolated from
the linguistic changes occurring in Portugal as a result of
French influence.
Brazilian Portuguese remained loyal to the pronunciation used
at the time of its discovery. However, when Don João (the
Portuguese king) took refuge in Brazil in 1808 (following
Napoleon's invasion of Portugal), his presence helped to
reintroduce the Portuguese spoken in Brazilian cities to the
Portuguese of Portugal––especially Rio de Janeiro.
Following Brazilian independence in 1822, Brazilian Portuguese
became influenced by Italian and other European immigrants
migrating to the central and southern parts of the country.
These changes reflect the various nationalities settling in each
area.
In the 20th century, the split between European and Brazilian
Portuguese widened as the result of new technological words
and the Brazilian propensity for using idiomatic expressions.
This occurred primarily because European Portuguese lacked a
uniform procedure for adopting new words while the Brazilians
eagerly embraced almost anything that worked. They still do.
As a result, many words took different forms in the two
countries. For example, in Portugal it's comboio (train),
autocarro (bus), rato (computer mouse) and ecrã (screen) while
in Brazil it's trem (train), ônibus (bus), mouse (computer) and
tela (screen).
In Portugal, the noun disquete (diskette) is a feminine noun
while in Brazil it's masculine. Portuguese spelling such as facto
(fact) and baptismo (baptism) become fato and batismo in
Brazil. Idiomatic expressions further confuse the issue, for
example, the common Brazilian expression bate-boca (noun =
argument, quarrel) assumes the literal, confusing and
nonsensical translation of the verb form beat mouth in Portugal.
With different spelling, pronouns and idiomatic expressions,
some believe that the difference between Brazilian and Luso,
Continental or European (whichever you prefer to call it)
Portuguese may be in excess of 25%.
Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation is more consistent
throughout Brazil than the Portuguese spoken in Portugal. This
surprises many people considering the fact that Brazil is so
much larger in both area and population. Even then, almost all
the regional traits and characteristics of European Portuguese
are present either in standard Brazilian Portuguese or in one or
more of the regional Brazilian dialects.
Because there is a lack of scientific data describing the
differences between various regional dialects spoken in Brazil,
they cannot be classified in the same manner as the dialects of
European Portuguese.
There is a proposal to classify Brazilian Portuguese dialects
along pronunciation lines, a method similar to the one used to
classify European Portuguese. This method is based on vowel
pronunciation and speech cadence. For example, pegar (to
take) can be pronounced with an open or closed e. Using this
method, it is possible to differentiate somewhat between the
two major Brazilian dialects (northern and southern) as well as
their respective sub dialects:
What does Wikipedia says about the Portuguese language:
Portuguese (português (help•info) or língua portuguesa) is a
Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia
(Spain) and northern Portugal from the Latin spoken by
romanized Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula (namely
the Gallaeci , the Lusitanians , the Celtici and the Conii) about
2000 years ago. It spread worldwide in the 15th and 16th
centuries as Portugal established a colonial and commercial
empire (1415–1999) which spanned from Brazil in the Americas
to Goa in India and Macau in China. During that time, many
creole languages based on Portuguese also appeared around
the world, especially in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
Today it is one of the world's major languages, ranked sixth
according to number of native speakers (approximately 250
million). It is the language with the largest number of speakers
in South America, spoken by nearly all of Brazil's approximately
183 million population, which amounts to over 51% of the
continent's population even though it is the only Portuguese-
speaking nation in the Americas. It is also a major lingua franca
in Portugal's former colonial possessions in Africa. It is the
official language of ten countries (see the table on the right),
being co-official with Spanish and French in Equatorial Guinea,
with Chinese in the Chinese special administrative region of
Macau, and with Tetum in Timor-Leste, which makes it official
in all continents with the exception of North America, where it
does not have any official status.
Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes once called Portuguese
"the sweet language", while Brazilian writer Olavo Bilac
poetically described it as a última flor do Lácio, inculta e bela:
"the last flower of Latium, wild and beautiful".
January 24th, 2012
Brazilian Portuguese Language
Portuguese is the eighth most spoken language and the third
most spoken European language in the world (after English and
Spanish) and, together with Spanish, French, Italian and
Romanian, comprise the five modern Romance languages.
While the Portuguese language has its roots firmly in Europe,
most of the world's 210+ million Portuguese speaking people
live elsewhere. In fact, non European speakers of the language
outnumber their European cousins by over twenty to one. Many
are surprised to learn that there are more Portuguese speaking
people in South America than those who speak Spanish. But
this is understandable when one realizes that Brazil is larger
than the continental United States and has the largest
population of any country in South America. There are different
regional dialects spoken in Brazil.
When Portugal first colonized Brazil in 1500, Tupi or Tupinambá
(a language of the Tupi-Guarani family spoken by natives living
on the Brazilian seacoast) was used along with Portuguese as
the general language of the colony.
In 1757, Tupi was banned by royal decree even though it had
already been overshadowed by Portuguese. However, the
Portuguese language in Brazil adopted numerous geographical
names as well as words for plants (including medicinal) and
animals from Tupi and other indigenous languages; among
these words are abacaxi (pineapple), mandioca (manioc), caju
(cashew), tatu (armadillo), piranha (the fish).
The Portuguese language in Brazil received new contributions
with the influx of the 3.6+ million African slaves forcibly brought
to Brazil from 1500 until 1850. The African influence came
primarily from the Lorubá spoken by slaves from Nigeria.
Lorubá contributions to the language primarily involved words
connected with religion and cuisine. From the Angolan
Quimbundo language came such words as caçula (youngest
child), moleque (street child) and samba.
During the 18th century, differences between the Brazilian and
European Portuguese widened as Brazil became isolated from
the linguistic changes occurring in Portugal as a result of
French influence.
Brazilian Portuguese remained loyal to the pronunciation used
at the time of its discovery. However, when Don João (the
Portuguese king) took refuge in Brazil in 1808 (following
Napoleon's invasion of Portugal), his presence helped to
reintroduce the Portuguese spoken in Brazilian cities to the
Portuguese of Portugal––especially Rio de Janeiro.
Following Brazilian independence in 1822, Brazilian Portuguese
became influenced by Italian and other European immigrants
migrating to the central and southern parts of the country.
These changes reflect the various nationalities settling in each
area.
In the 20th century, the split between European and Brazilian
Portuguese widened as the result of new technological words
and the Brazilian propensity for using idiomatic expressions.
This occurred primarily because European Portuguese lacked a
uniform procedure for adopting new words while the Brazilians
eagerly embraced almost anything that worked. They still do.
As a result, many words took different forms in the two
countries. For example, in Portugal it's comboio (train),
autocarro (bus), rato (computer mouse) and ecrã (screen) while
in Brazil it's trem (train), ônibus (bus), mouse (computer) and
tela (screen).
In Portugal, the noun disquete (diskette) is a feminine noun
while in Brazil it's masculine. Portuguese spelling such as facto
(fact) and baptismo (baptism) become fato and batismo in
Brazil. Idiomatic expressions further confuse the issue, for
example, the common Brazilian expression bate-boca (noun =
argument, quarrel) assumes the literal, confusing and
nonsensical translation of the verb form beat mouth in Portugal.
With different spelling, pronouns and idiomatic expressions,
some believe that the difference between Brazilian and Luso,
Continental or European (whichever you prefer to call it)
Portuguese may be in excess of 25%.
Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation is more consistent
throughout Brazil than the Portuguese spoken in Portugal. This
surprises many people considering the fact that Brazil is so
much larger in both area and population. Even then, almost all
the regional traits and characteristics of European Portuguese
are present either in standard Brazilian Portuguese or in one or
more of the regional Brazilian dialects.
Because there is a lack of scientific data describing the
differences between various regional dialects spoken in Brazil,
they cannot be classified in the same manner as the dialects of
European Portuguese.
There is a proposal to classify Brazilian Portuguese dialects
along pronunciation lines, a method similar to the one used to
classify European Portuguese. This method is based on vowel
pronunciation and speech cadence. For example, pegar (to
take) can be pronounced with an open or closed e. Using this
method, it is possible to differentiate somewhat between the
two major Brazilian dialects (northern and southern) as well as
their respective sub dialects:
What does Wikipedia says about the Portuguese language:
Portuguese (português (help•info) or língua portuguesa) is a
Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia
(Spain) and northern Portugal from the Latin spoken by
romanized Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula (namely
the Gallaeci , the Lusitanians , the Celtici and the Conii) about
2000 years ago. It spread worldwide in the 15th and 16th
centuries as Portugal established a colonial and commercial
empire (1415–1999) which spanned from Brazil in the Americas
to Goa in India and Macau in China. During that time, many
creole languages based on Portuguese also appeared around
the world, especially in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
Today it is one of the world's major languages, ranked sixth
according to number of native speakers (approximately 250
million). It is the language with the largest number of speakers
in South America, spoken by nearly all of Brazil's approximately
183 million population, which amounts to over 51% of the
continent's population even though it is the only Portuguese-
speaking nation in the Americas. It is also a major lingua franca
in Portugal's former colonial possessions in Africa. It is the
official language of ten countries (see the table on the right),
being co-official with Spanish and French in Equatorial Guinea,
with Chinese in the Chinese special administrative region of
Macau, and with Tetum in Timor-Leste, which makes it official
in all continents with the exception of North America, where it
does not have any official status.
Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes once called Portuguese
"the sweet language", while Brazilian writer Olavo Bilac
poetically described it as a última flor do Lácio, inculta e bela:
"the last flower of Latium, wild and beautiful".
January 24th, 2012
