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| Portuguese legacy | |
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The existence of Portuguese in Brazil is a legacy of Portuguese colonization of the Americas. The first wave of Portuguese-speaking immigrants settled in Brazil in the 16th century, yet the language was not widely used then. For a time Portuguese coexisted with Língua Geral, a lingua franca based on Amerindian languages that was used by the Jesuit missionaries; as well as with various African languages spoken by thousands of slaves brought to the country between the 16th and 19th centuries.
By the end of the 18th century, however, Portuguese had affirmed itself as the national language. Some of the main contributions to that swift change were the expansion of colonization to the Brazilian inlands, and the huge immigration of Portuguese during that time, who brought their language and became a much more important ethnic group in Brazil. Besides, they brought millions of slaves, who were in general more likely to learn Portuguese, since the Africans would speak lots of different languages that were mutually unintelligible and had more contact (even if forcedly) with the Portuguese speakers.
Since the early 18th century, Portugal's government had made many efforts to expand the use of Portuguese in all the colony, particularly because its consolidation in Brazil would help guarantee to them the lands in dispute with Spain (according to various treaties signed in the 18th century, those lands would be ceded to the people who effectively occupied them). Under the Marquis of Pombal administration (1750–1777), Brazil started to use only Portuguese, for he expelled the Jesuit missionares – who taught the Língua Geral – and prohibited the use of Nhengatu, or Lingua Franca.[5]
The aborted colonization attempts by the French in Rio de Janeiro in the 16th century and the Dutch in the Northeast in the 17th century had negligible effect on Portuguese. Even the substantial non-Portuguese-speaking immigration waves of the late 19th and early 20th century (mostly from Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Japan and Lebanon) were linguistically integrated into the Portuguese-speaking majority within very few generations, except for some areas of the three southern states (in the case of Germans, Italians and Slavs) and rural corners of São Paulo (Italians and Japanese).
Nowadays the overwhelming majority of Brazilians speak Portuguese as their mother tongue, with the exception of small communities of descendants of European and Japanese immigrants – mostly in the South and Southeast – and Amerindian villages, who make up for an extremely minor part of the population. However, even in those cases, the populations use Portuguese frequently as a means of communication with other people and to understand television and radio programs, for example.
[edit] Tags:Portuguese,Brazil,Japan,Portugal,Rio De Janeiro,São Paulo,Portuguese Colonization Of The Americas,Língua Geral,Lingua Franca,Amerindian Languages,Jesuit,African,Colonization,Spain,Marquis Of Pombal,Nhengatu,French,Dutch,Italy,Germany,Poland,Lebanon,Jesuit Missionaries,African Languages,European,German,Italian,Japanese, | |
| Influences from other languages | |
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The evolution of Brazilian Portuguese has certainly been influenced by the languages it supplanted: first the Amerindian tongues of the natives, then the various African languages brought by the slaves, and finally those of later European and Asian immigrants. The influence is clearly detected in the Brazilian lexicon, which today has hundreds of words of Tupi–Guarani and Yoruba origin, among others. However, the vocabulary is still predominately Portuguese, since the contributions of other languages were restricted to a few subjects or areas of knowledge.
From South America, words deriving from the Tupi–Guarani language family are particularly prevalent in place names (Itaquaquecetuba, Pindamonhangaba, Caruaru, Ipanema, Paraíba). The native languages also contributed for the names of most of the plants and animals found in Brazil, such as arara ("macaw"), jacaré ("South American alligator"), tucano ("toucan"), mandioca ("manioc"), abacaxi ("pineapple"), and many more. However, it should be noted that many Tupi–Guarani toponyms did not derive directly from Amerindian expressions, but were in fact coined by European settlers and Jesuit missionaries, who used the Língua Geral extensively in the first centuries of colonization. Many of the Amerindian words entered the Brazilian Portuguese lexicon as early as in the 16th century, and some of them were eventually borrowed by European Portuguese and later even into other European languages.
The African languages provided hundreds of words too, especially in the following subjects: food (e.g. quitute, quindim, acarajé, moqueca), religious concepts (mandinga, macumba, orixá, axé), African-Brazilian music (samba, lundu, maxixe, berimbau), body-related parts and diseases (banguela, bunda, capenga, caxumba), places (cacimba, quilombo, senzala, mocambo), objects (miçanga, abadá, tanga) and household concepts, such as cafuné ("caress on the head"), curinga ("joker card"), caçula ("youngest child"), and moleque ("brat, spoiled child"). Though the African slaves had various ethnic origins, the Bantu and Guinean-Sudanese groups contributed by far to most of the borrowings, above all the Kimbundu (from Angola), Kikongo (from Angola, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo[6]), Yoruba/Nagô (from Nigeria), and Jeje/Ewe language (from Benin).
There are also many borrowings from other European languages such as English, specially words connected to technology, modern science and finance, like app, mod, layout, briefing, designer, slideshow, mouse (computing), forward, commodities, commercial terms like kingsize, fast food (ˈfɛstʃ ˈfudʒɪ), delivery service, self service, drive-thru, telemarketing, franchise, merchandise, but also cultural aspects such as okay, gay, vintage, junk food, hot dog, pet, lol, nerd (ˈnɛʁdʒi, rarely ˈnɐɻdz), geek (sometimes ˈʒiki, but also ˈɡiki and rarely ˈɡik), noob, punk, skinhead (skĩˈχɛdʒi), emo (ˈẽmu), indie (ˈĩdʒi), hooligan, cool, vibe, hype, rocker, hippie, yuppie, bobo, hipster, overdose, junkie, cowboy, mullet, country, sex appeal, drag queen, queer, bro, rapper, mc, surf, skating, gospel, praise, bullying (ˈbuljĩɡɪ, but much often the closer to native pronounce ˈbɐlĩ(ŋ)), stalking (ˈstawkĩ, much often closer ˈstɔwkĩ(ŋ)), etc.
French (food, furniture, luxurious fabrics and abstract concepts). Examples are hors-concours, chic, metrô (with the French inflection), batom, soutien, buquê, abajur, purê, petit gâteau, pot-pourri, ménage, enfant gâté, enfant terrible, garçonnière, patati-patata, parvenu, détraqué, femme fatale, noir, rendez-vous, chez..., partouse, pédé, à la carte, à la .... Scholars affirm that even now, French remains as the largest foreign influence in Portuguese due to the fact that French borrowings were adopted by a strong cultural affinity. Brazilian Portuguese tends to adopt French suffixes as in aterrissagem, differently from European Portuguese. Brazilian Pt. also tends to adopt culture-bound concepts from French, but when it comes to technology, the major influence is the English, while European Pt. tends to adopt technological terms from French. That is the difference between estação and gare. An evident example of the dichotomy between English and French influences is the use of the expressions know-how, used in a technical context, and savoir-faire, in literal Portuguese saber-fazer, proficiência-da-feitura, saber-como), German and Italian (mostly food, music, arts and architecture), and, to a lesser extent, Asian languages such as Japanese. The latter borrowings are also mostly related to food and drinks or culture-bound concepts, such as quimono, from Japanese kimono. Besides strudel, pretzel, bratwurst, sauerkraut (spelled chucrute and pronunced Portuguese pronunciation: [ʃuˈkɾutʃi]), Oktoberfest, biergarten, there are also abstract terms from German like encrenca or blitz. A significant number of beer brands in Brazil are named after German culture-bound concepts due the fact that the brewing process was brought by German immigrants. Besides, there were many Italian loan words and expressions which are not related to food or music: (italianisms) like tchau, imbróglio, bisonho, panetone, è vero, cicerone, male male, terra roxa, capisce, mezzo, va bene, ecco, ecco fatto, ecco qui, caspita, cavolo, incavolarsi, engrouvinhado, andiamo via. Due to its large Italian diaspora, parts of the Southern and Southeast states have an Italian influence over the prosody, the vocal patterns of the language, with an Italian sounding stress.[7]
The influence of these languages in the phonology and grammar of Brazilian Portuguese have been very minor.[citation needed] Some authors claim the loss of initial es in the verb estar – now widespread in Brazil – is an influence from African slaves' speech,[8] and it is also claimed that some common factors of BP – such as the near-complete disappearance of certain verb inflections and the marked preference for compound tenses – recall the grammatical simplification typical of pidgins. However, the same or similar processes can be verified in the European variant, and such theories have not yet been proved.[9] Regardless of these borrowings and changes, it must be kept in mind that Brazilian Portuguese is not a Portuguese creole, since it can be traced as a direct evolution from 16th century European Portuguese.[9]
[edit] Tags:European Portuguese,Lexicon,Grammar,Amerindian Tongues,Tupi–guarani,Yoruba,South America,Itaquaquecetuba,Pindamonhangaba,Caruaru,Ipanema,Paraíba,Macaw,Alligator,Toucan,Manioc,Pineapple,Toponyms,Quindim,Acarajé,Moqueca,Joker Card,Bantu,Guinean,Sudanese,Kimbundu, | |
| Written and spoken languages | |
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The written language taught in Brazilian schools has historically been based on the standard of Portugal, and until the 19th century, Portuguese writers have often been regarded as models by some Brazilian authors and university professors. Nonetheless, this closeness and aspiration to unity was severely weakened in the 20th century by nationalist movements in literature and the arts, which awakened in many Brazilians the desire for true (own) national writing uninfluenced by standards in Portugal. Later on, agreements were made as to preserve at least the orthographical unity throughout the Portuguese-speaking world, including the African and Asian variants of the language (which are typically more similar to EP, due to a Portuguese presence lasting into the end of the 20th century).
On the other hand, the spoken language suffered none of the constraints that applied to the written language. Brazilians, when concerned with pronunciation, look up to what is considered the national standard variety, and never the European one. Moreover, Brazilians in general have had very little exposure to European speech, even after the advent of radio, TV, and movies. The language spoken in Brazil has evolved largely independently of that spoken in Portugal. To many Brazilians, the language spoken in Portugal is almost unintelligible.[citation needed]
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| Formal writing | |
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The written Brazilian standard differs from the European one to about the same extent that written American English differs from written British English. The differences extend to spelling, lexicon, and grammar. Several Brazilian writers were awarded with the highest prize of the Portuguese language. The Camões Prize awarded annually by Portuguese and Brazilians is often regarded as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in Literature for works in Portuguese.
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, João Guimarães Rosa, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Graciliano Ramos, João Cabral de Melo Neto, Cecília Meireles, Clarice Lispector, José de Alencar, Rachel de Queiroz, Jorge Amado, Castro Alves, Antonio Candido, Autran Dourado, Rubem Fonseca, Lygia Fagundes Telles and Euclides da Cunha are Brazilian writers recognized for writing the most outstanding work in the Portuguese language.
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| Spelling differences | |
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Further information: Spelling reforms of Portuguese
The Brazilian spellings of certain words differ from those used in Portugal and the other Portuguese-speaking countries. Some of these differences are merely orthographic, but others reflect true differences in pronunciation. They are similar to how the English spellings of certain words in the United States differ from the spellings used in other English-speaking countries.
A major subset of the differences relates to words with c and p followed by c, ç, or t. In many cases, the letters c or p have become silent in all varieties of Portuguese, a common phonetic change in Romance languages (cf. Spanish objeto, French objet). Accordingly, they stopped being written down in BP, similar to Italian spelling standards, but are still written in other countries. For example, we have EP acção / BP ação ("action"), EP óptimo / BP ótimo ("optimum"), and so on, where the consonant is silent both in BP and EP, but the words are spelled differently. Only in a small number of words is the consonant silent in Brazil and pronounced elsewhere or vice versa, as in the case of BP fato, but EP facto.
However, BP has retained those silent consonants in a few cases, such as detectar ("to detect"). In particular, BP generally distinguishes in sound and writing between secção ("section" as in anatomy or drafting) and seção ("section" of an organization); whereas EP uses secção for both senses.
Another major set of differences is the BP usage of ô or ê in many words where EP has ó or é, such as BP neurônio / EP neurónio ("neuron") and BP arsênico / EP arsénico ("arsenic"). These spelling differences are due to genuinely different pronunciations. In EP, the vowels e and o may be open (é or ó) or closed (ê or ô) when they are stressed before one of the nasal consonants m, n followed by a vowel, but in BP they are always closed in this environment. The variant spellings are necessary in those cases because the general Portuguese spelling rules mandate a stress diacritic in those words, and the Portuguese diacritics also encode vowel quality.
Another source of variation is the spelling of the [ʒ] sound before e and i. By Portuguese spelling rules, that sound can be written either as j (favored in BP for certain words) or g (favored in EP). Thus, for example, we have BP berinjela / EP beringela ("eggplant").
[edit] Tags:United States, | |
| Formal versus informal registers | |
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This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (September 2007)
The linguistic situation of the BP informal speech in relation to the standard language is controversial. There are authors who describe it as a case of diglossia, considering that informal BP has developed – both in phonetics and grammar – in its own way and now constitutes a different, albeit quite similar, language, which would explain the unease that many Brazilians have when learning standard Portuguese. According to them, while diglossia inevitably develops in every literate society, it is much more striking in Brazil than in English or in European Portuguese.
According to that theory, the formal register of Brazilian Portuguese has a written and spoken form. The written formal register (FW) is used in almost all printed media and written communication, is uniform throughout the country, and is the "Portuguese" officially taught at school. The spoken formal register (FS) is basically a phonetic rendering of the written form; it is used only in very formal situations like speeches or ceremonies, by educated people who wish to stress their education, or when reading directly out of a text. While FS is necessarily uniform in lexicon and grammar, it shows noticeable regional variations in pronunciation. Finally the informal register (IS) is almost never written down (basically only in artistic works or very informal contexts such as adolescent chat rooms). It is used to some extent in virtually all oral communication outside of those formal contexts – even by well educated speakers – and shows considerable regional variations in pronunciation, lexicon, and even grammar.
However, the theory of diglossia in BP finds many oppositions, since diglossia does not mean simply the coexistence of different varieties or "registers" of the language – formal and informal – . It means, in fact, the situation in which there are two (often related) languages: a formal one and an informal one, which is the spoken tongue. Opposers of that theory argue that the various aspects that separate the informal register and the formal one in Brazil cannot be compared with the numerous differences of standard Italian or German and their national dialects. Besides, the relatively "simplified" grammar of BP – actually, many different levels of informal BP with distinct alterations in grammar and pronunciation – would be a reflex of the formation of informal speeches, which happens in every language in the world.[citation needed]
The discussion remains whether informal BP has enough differences in order to be actually considered a low-prestige language, spoken by the Brazilian people, who, therefore, must learn a language that is not their own, the Portuguese language. Thus, opposing to that theory, many arguments have been used:
even in the most informal and low-prestige varieties of BP, almost the entirety of the lexicon is Portuguese, with few differences of pronunciation in comparison to the standard BP, especially in what refers to the basic vocabulary;
there are several different aspects in the grammar, but many authors argue they are very minor (besides, some of those differences also arose during the recent development of European Portuguese);
the fact that the informal vocabulary is much smaller than the formal one happens in every literate language, so it cannot be used to prove the low-prestige variety constitutes another language in a typical situation of diglossia;
the preference for another form that is also considered correct by the standard/classical grammar also does not justify the existence of diglossia (e.g. preferred compound tense vai faltar and faltará – "will lack" – are both standard BP; the common expression ter que is standard and equivalent to the verb dever);
the phonetic aspects of the informal language are mostly a matter of preference or accent, since the standard language, in general, accepts most of them (for example, the devoicing of final r, which is accepted by standard BP, as well as the common contraction of words in Portuguese, such as para os becoming pros, as long as it is not written that way).
[edit] Tags:Dialects,Diglossia, | |
| Characteristics of informal BP | |
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The main and most general (i.e. not considering various regional variations) characteristics of the informal variant of BP are the following (note that some of them may occur in EP, too):
dropping the first syllable of the verb estar ("to be") throughout the conjugation (ele tá ("he's") instead of ele está ("he is"), nós táva(mos/mo) ("we were") instead of nós estávamos ("we were")); (Exactly the same in EP)
dropping prepositions before subordinate and relative clauses beginning with conjunctions (Ele precisa que vocês ajudem instead of Ele precisa de que vocês ajudem); (Exactly the same in EP)
replacing haver when it means "to exist" with ter ("to have"): há muitos problemas na cidade ("there are many problems in the city") can be heard, but is much rarer than tem muitos problema(s) na cidade
lack of third-person object pronouns, which may be omitted completely or replaced by their respective personal pronouns (eu vi ele or even just eu vi instead of eu o vi for "I saw him/it") (may occur in EP as well)
lack of second-person verb forms (except for a few parts of Brazil) and, in various regions, plural third-person forms as well (mostly lower-class speakers) (tu cantas becomes tu canta or você canta (Brazilian uses the pronoun "você" a lot but rarely uses "tu")
lack of the relative pronoun cujo/cuja ("whose"), which is replaced by que ("that/which"), either alone (the possession being implied) or along with a possessive pronoun or expression, such as dele/dela (A mulher cujo filho morreu ("the woman whose son died") becomes A mulher que o filho [dela] morreu ("the woman that [her] son died"))
frequent use of the pronoun a gente ("the people") with 3rd p. sg verb forms instead of the 1st p. pl verb forms and pronoun nós ("we/us"), though both are formally correct and nós is still much used (uneducated speakers may contaminate the two forms, e.g. say a gente fazemos instead of a gente faz); (Occurs in EP as well)
obligatory proclisis in all cases (always me disseram, rarely disseram-me), as well as use of the pronoun amidst two verbs in a verbal expression (always vem me treinando, never me vem treinando or vem treinando-me)
contracting certain high-frequency phrases, which is not necessarily unacceptable in standard BP and is often restricted to certain regions or circumstances[clarification needed] (para > pra; vamos em boa hora > vamos embora > bora; em vocês, para vocês > n'ocês, p'r'ocês; dependo de ele ajudar > dependo d'ele ajudar; com as > c'as ; deixa eu ver > 'x'o vê; você está > cê tá etc.)
preference for para over a in the directional meaning (Para onde você vai? instead of Aonde você vai? ("Where are you going?"))
use of certain idiomatic expressions, such as Cadê o carro? instead of Onde está o carro? ("Where is the car?")
lack of indirect object pronouns, especially lhe, which are replaced by para plus their respective personal pronoun (Dê um copo de agua para ele instead of Dê-lhe um copo de agua ("Give him a glass of water"); Quero mandar uma carta para você instead of Quero te mandar uma carta ("I want to give you a letter"))
use of dele and dela instead of seu when it means "his" or "her" (o marido dela instead of o seu marido ("her husband")); (Occurs in EP as well)
use of aí as a pronoun for indefinite direct objects (similar to French 'en'). Examples: falaí (fala + aí) ("say it"), esconde aí ("hide it"), per aí (espere aí = "wait a moment"); (Occurs in EP as well)
impersonal use of the verb dar ("to give") to express that something is feasible or permissible. Example: dá pra eu comer? ("can/may I eat it?") ; deu pra eu entender ("I was able to understand"); (Occurs in EP as well)
[edit] Tags: | |
| Lexicon | |
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This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2006)
The vocabularies of Brazilian and European Portuguese also differ in a couple of thousand words, many of which refer to concepts that were introduced separately in BP and EP.
Since Brazilian independence in 1822, BP has tended to borrow words from English and French. However, BP generally adopts foreign words with minimal adjustments, while EP tends to apply deeper morphological changes. However, there are instances of BP adapting English words, whereas EP retains the original form – hence estoque and stock. Finally, one dialect often borrowed a word while the other coined a new one from native elements. So one has, for example
BP mouse ← English "(computer) mouse" versus EP rato ← literal translation of "mouse" in Portuguese (in EP, the word "mouse" is also commonly used)
BP esporte (alternatives: desporto, desporte) ← English "sport" versus EP desporto ← Spanish deporte
BP jaqueta ← English "jacket" versus EP blusão ← EP blusa ← French blouse (also used in BP)
BP concreto ← English "concrete" versus EP betão ← French beton (in BP, a concrete truck is still called "betoneira")
BP grampeador ("stapler") ← grapadora ← Spanish grapa versus EP agrafador ← agrafo ← French agrafe.
A few other examples are given in the following table:
Brazil
Portugal
English
abridor de latas
abre-latas
can opener
aeromoça, comissária de bordo
aeromoça, hospedeira
flight stewardess
água-viva, medusa
alforreca
jellyfish
AIDS
SIDA (Síndrome da Imunodeficiência Adquirida)
AIDS
alho poró
alho-porro
leek
aquarela
aguarela
watercolor
amerissagem
amaragem
landing on the sea, splash-down
aterrissagem
aterragem
landing
Band-Aid
penso rápido
band-aid (US), plaster (UK)
banheiro, toalete, toilettes, sanitário
casa de banho, lavabos, sanitários
bathroom, toilet
bonde, bonde elétrico
eléctrico
streetcar (US), tram (UK)
brócolis
brócolos
broccoli
cílio (Classical Latin "cilium"), pestana, celha
pestana
eyelash
café da manhã, desjejum, parva
pequeno almoço, desjejum
breakfast
caminhonete, van, perua (informal)
camioneta
station wagon (US), estate car (UK)
câncer
cancro
cancer (the disease)
carona
boleia
ride, hitchhiking
carteira de habilitação, carteira de motorista, carta
carta de condução
driver's license (US), driving licence (UK)
carteira de identidade, RG (from "Registro Geral")
bilhete de identidade
ID card
telefone celular (or simply and most common "celular"), aparelho de telefonia celular
telemóvel
cell phone (US), mobile phone (UK)
canadense
canadiano
Canadian
caqui (from Japanese 柿 kaki)
dióspiro
persimmon
dublagem
dobragem
dubbing
durex, fita adesiva
fita gomada, fita-cola, fita adesiva
Scotch Tape (US), Sellotape (UK)
time, equipe
equipa, equipe
team Tags: | |
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