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Do you like Brazilian Portuguese?
Brazilian Portuguese
General Overview
Portuguese has undergone many transformations, both in the mother country and in its former colony, since the language was first introduced into Brazil in the 16th century. Although the two countries have, from time to time, standardized their spelling so that the written word remains mutually intelligible, pronunciations, vocabularies, and the meanings of words have diverged so widely that, it has been said, it is easier for some Brazilians to understand films in Spanish from other Latin-American countries than those from Portugal. New words and expressions in Brazilian Portuguese have been introduced by Italians, Germans, Japanese, and other immigrants and from across the borders with Spanish-speaking countries. One notable example is the universal use in Brazil of tchau, for farewell, adopted from the Italian ciao. Other words have entered through contact with foreign products and technologies.
Some authorities, however, suggest that the greatest divergence of the Brazilian language from the Portuguese goes back to contact with the Indians. The principal language spoken by the tropical forest peoples of Brazil, Tupian, or Tupí-Guaraní, became the lingua franca between the natives and the Portuguese traders, missionaries, adventurers, and administrators; it continued to be used similarly in the Amazon and western Brazil until the 19th century. The Tupian influence in Brazilian place-names is overwhelming, and it is estimated that thousands of indigenous words and expressions have entered the Brazilian Portuguese language. More generally, as a result of the Tupian influence Brazilian Portuguese became more nasal than that of the homeland, and Brazilians generally speak more slowly, pronouncing all the vowels.
European vs. Brazilian Portuguese:
A Small Differentiating Glossary
by Bruno Oliveira Maroneze
There are many words and expressions which differ in meaning and usage in both sides of the Atlantic. Many of them are popular, colloquial and obscene words (which can cause serious misunderstandings!). But in both countries there are various regional peculiarities, and it is not rare for a word to be used both in Brazil and in some particular regions of Portugal (and vice-versa). So, in this small glossary, you may find words which are used, for example, in Portugal, and also dialectally in Brazil.
absolutamente: EP: “absolutely”. BP: “absolutely not”.
bizarro: EP: “smart”, “elegant”, or “kind”. BP: “weird”, “bizarre”.
cacete: EP: a kind of bread (French stick). BP: obscene word, meaning “penis”.
fa(c)to: a phonetic-phonological problem. In BP, the group [ct] was reduced to [t]. So, the word which in EP is pronounced ['faktu], in Brazil is pronounced ['fatu]. In EP, facto means “event”, and fato means “costume”, “suit”. In BP, fato (<= facto) means only “event”; for “costume” or “suit” the word terno is used.
freguesia: EP: an administrative division of the towns. BP: “clientele”, “customers”.
fresco and frio: two words that refer to low temperatures. In general, frio means “cold”, and fresco means “fresh”; frio is colder than fresco. But in EP, when one asks for água fresca, he wants “cold water”.
lousa: EP: “gravestone”. BP: “blackboard”
mama and peito: these words refer to the breasts. Peito may also refer to the chest (also for men). In BP, mama is a technical term (cáncer de mama: breast cancer); peito is an obscene word (que peitos grandes!: what huge tits!). In EP, mama is used in this obscene sense (que grandes mamas!: what huge tits!)
moça and rapariga: in BP, moça is used to refer to young ladies (aquela moça: that young lady); in EP, the word is considered rude (because it was used to refer to servants); instead, the words senhorita (little lady), menina (girl) or rapariga may be used. Rapariga means “young lady” in EP, but in BP, means “concubine” (in an offensive sense) or even “prostitute”.
puto: EP: “boy”. BP: “male homosexual” (in BP, puto is considered the masculine form of puta “prostitute”); also used to offend a man (aquele puto!: that son of a b****!); puto may also mean “money” in negative emphatic sentences like não tenho um puto!: “I don’t have any money!)
seis and meia: seis is the common word for “six”; meia (litterally “half”) is used only in BP, particularly when saying phone numbers (meia comes from the expression meia dúzia, “half dozen”).
talho: EP: “butcher’s shop”. BP: “cutting”
tamanduá and papa-formigas: this example illustrates the utilisation of indian names in BP. These two words refer to the mammal known in English as “ant-eater”. Tamanduá comes from Tupi, and is used only in BP; in EP, the animal is called papa-formigas (literally, “ant-eater”, “the one who eats ants”).
trem and comboio: in BP, trem means “train”, and comboio means “a group of transport vehicles”, “a convoy” (um comboio de ônibus: a group of buses). In EP, trem is not used; instead, they use comboio for “train”.
© 2001 Written for Orbis Latinus by Bruno Oliveira Maroneze.
Vale lembrar que grande parte dos colonos vinham para o Brasil sem mulheres e viviam com mulheres indígenas, assim, a língua "brasílica" (nheengatu) passou a ser a língua materna de seus filhos, especialmente nas áreas mais afastadas do centro administrativo da colônia, a Bahia. O nheengatu era língua comum entre os portugueses, descendentes, e também seus escravos, inclusive os africanos. A partir da segunda metade do século 17, a língua "brasílica" sofreu várias modificações, passando a ser chamada de língua geral, que foi falada até 1758. Este ano é considerado a morte do tupi no Brasil, que foi quando o Marquês de Pombal, em nome do rei Dom José I, proibiu o ensino e o uso do tupi em todo o território nacional, instituindo o português como única língua do Brasil.
Depois disso é que houve uma retomada do português na colônia com seu ensino normativo, provavelmente. Mas vale a pena também lembrar que o sistema educacional brasileiro praticamente foi a zero na época Pombalina.
I don't think those differences listed above are great enough to classify it as a separate language. Please look at the numerous varitions in Spanish even just across Latin America. You don't even have to include Castellano, but if you did, there would be variation there too. However, are any of the citizens of these countires trying to declare it a separte language? No. Because they know it isn't.
Once again, I feel all this talk of Brazilian Portuguese being a separate language is mostly connected to the irrational hatred some Brazilians have for Portugal. Thank your lucky stars that most Brazilians are rational.
By the way mjd ! Do you speak any foreign languages? If so, how many? I bet you struggle with your broken Portuguese!
But anyway, I can really help you learning Spanish, Italian, and some German...
-If you can handle that!
Remember !
Knowing your native language, doesn’t make you a polyglot or a “big deal” at all. So step down a bit and keep learning your Portuguese !
Are we ready for Brazuguese!
Some Brazilian linguists (e.g. MARCOS BAGNO, Revista Galileu,
fev/2002.) are claiming that the Brazilian press is "elitist" and does not reflect the real Brazilian vernacular. He claims that there is the language of the media, which is the language of the elites, versus the Brazilian vernacular.
Bagno escreve "A grande maioria dos brasileiros rejeita sua maneira de falar, porque tenta ouvir e ver sua língua com ouvidos e olhos do Outro, do português, suposto "dono" da língua"(Revista Galileu,
fev/2002.)
Apparently, many Brazilians are agreeing with him and there is a movement to validate the Brazilian vernacular. This implies denouncing Brazilian Portuguese as a language imposed on the Brazilian people, first by the colonists and now by the Brazilian media and the Brazilian elites. They claim that Brazilian vernacular is not Portuguese any longer. They don't care about the "historic" Portuguese language because they believe that they have arrived to their own national language.
Those Brazilians want their language to go loose. They want to write it as they speak it, and they want to speak it as they please. In Brazil, those Brazilians say, there is the Brazilian language which is not Portuguese.
They have a point. They want to move from a situation of diglossia to a situation of de facto.
It can be done. We have the example of Cape Verde, where, after gaining independence from Portugal, the people rebelled against the Portuguese language imposed on them by the colonial power, the media and the elites. They suceeded in validating their vernacular which, now, they call "Kaboverdeanu", their de facto language. They developed the Kaboverdeanu grammar and they feel very empowered about the whole thing. The following proves that Brazilians can do it to.
Kaboverdeanu Sample:
Ensinu di lingua Kriolu na Kabuverdi ta ba toma dos vertenti varianti ki ta izisti na Arkipélagu - di Santiagu y di Sanbisenti - y pode pasa pa speriensia pilotu, sima linguista y Ministru di Kultura, Manuel Veiga, fla na sumana pasadu, tersa y kuarta-fera, 11 y 12 di Janeru di 2005, na un intrevista transmitidu pa Radiu Komersial, na prugrama "Actualidade em Perspectiva" na Praia. Manuel Veiga ta rakunhise variadadi di nuansis linguistiku na ilhas, ma el insisti ki ka ta podedu nxina-s es tudu. Sugundu Ministru di Kultura, es dos varianti - Santiagu/Sanbisenti ta bazia na zóna jeografiku Sotaventu/Barlaventu. Manuel Veiga inda afirma ki, pur izénplu, óki ta nxinadu lingua kabuverdianu na varianti "Barlaventu" ta partidu di varianti di Sanbisenti, ma ki alunus debe sabe ki ta izisti korrespondensia na varianti Santiagu y vise-versa na spasu Sotaventu.
For more see
http://www.capeverdeancreoleinstitute.org/cv_kriolu.htm
Boaá nouitchi Brasiu!E boaá sortchi!
Note "In linguistics, diglossia is a situation where, in a given society, there are two (often) closely-related languages, one of high prestige, which is generally used by the government and in formal texts, and one of low prestige, which is usually the spoken vernacular tongue. The high-prestige language tends to be the more formalised, and its forms and vocabulary often 'filter down' into the vernacular, though often in a changed form".(Wikipedia)
Correction of “A Small Differentiating Glossary”
cacete: EP: a kind of bread (French stick). BP: obscene word, meaning “penis”.
BP: is using slang
EP: is a kind of bread and can also be a stick.
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freguesia: EP: an administrative division of the towns. BP: “clientele”, “customers”.
EP: it also means customers or a Parish.
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fresco and frio: two words that refer to low temperatures. In general, frio means “cold”, and fresco means “fresh”; frio is colder than fresco. But in EP, when one asks for água fresca, he wants “cold water”.
EP: you can say both ways in Eu Portuguese it depends where you live. As it snows in the north fresco my mean a lot colder than in the south of Portugal.
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lousa: EP: “gravestone”. BP: “blackboard”
EP: lousa or loisa is also blackboard. Lamina de pedra, ardosia, lura(toca ou lora), armadilha de pedra.
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mama and peito: these words refer to the breasts. Peito may also refer to the chest (also for men). In BP, mama is a technical term (cáncer de mama: breast cancer); peito is an obscene word (que peitos grandes!: what huge tits!). In EP, mama is used in this obscene sense (que grandes mamas!: what huge tits!)
Since when “peito” in Brazil is an obscene word and “mamas” in Portugal is an obscene word? What a nonsense!
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moça and rapariga: in BP, moça is used to refer to young ladies (aquela moça: that young lady); in EP, the word is considered rude (because it was used to refer to servants); instead, the words senhorita (little lady), menina (girl) or rapariga may be used. Rapariga means “young lady” in EP, but in BP, means “concubine” (in an offensive sense) or even “prostitute”.
EP: the word moça is not considered rude! It is more used in the countryside. We do not use senhorita only senhora (but it can be used in other regions of Portugal). Rapariga means girl.
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talho: EP: “butcher’s shop”. BP: “cutting”
EP: means also to cut. Compartimento das salinas. Corte de carne no açougue. Desbaste de ramos das arvores.Talhão,leira. Acto de atalhar ou reprimir. O mesmo que açougue. Feição.
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trem and comboio: in BP, trem means “train”, and comboio means “a group of transport vehicles”, “a convoy” (um comboio de ônibus: a group of buses). In EP, trem is not used; instead, they use comboio for “train”.
EP: trem is used: it means any carriage but is used by old people and came from French. Comitiva (old), conjunto de utensilios, conjunto de malas (old).
EP: comboio means “a group of transport vehicles”, “a convoy” porção de carros que se dirigem ao mesmo destino.Navio carregado e escoltado por embarcaçõs de guerra. Serie de carruagens engatadas.
I don’t know why people do not check the dictionary and keep inventing things about Eu Portuguese. Most words in Portugal have several meanings and Brazilians only use one of them, when they hear a different meaning from what they use they think we only use that one. That is a tremendous lack of vocabulary. Synonims are becoming a major confusion for Brazilians.
Mariana wrote:
>>>Are we ready for Brazuguese!<<<
:D
Alison
Good Job!
I was thinking the same as you. All these words have multiple meanings for both languages but they all work well for both languages. Your notes are to the point.
Many Brazilians are shooting themselves on the foot by not doing their homework. This "glossary" is wrong and misleading!Unbelievable that someone could write it down and be taken seriously.
Thank you.
Viva Tupy! wrote:
>>>Este ano é considerado a morte do tupi no Brasil, que foi quando o Marquês de Pombal, em nome do rei Dom José I, proibiu o ensino e o uso do tupi em todo o território nacional, instituindo o português como única língua do Brasil.<<<
The death of Tupi in Brazil?Tupi was only Nhengatu? Nhengatu was created by the Portuguese Jesuits. The Indians kept speaking Tupi.
“The Tupi language subgroup consists of 6 languages in the Tupi-Guarani language family: Tupi Antigo, Nhengatu, Tupinkin, Potiguara, Omagua, and Cocoma.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupi_language
''Two changes clearly inter-related in Brazilian Portuguese are the loss of null pronominal subjects and the loss of VS order, either the verb second constraint (German inversion) or the ‘stylistic inversion’ (Kato and Duarte 1998). In fact, the rate of null subjects in speech today (an average of 25%, according to Duarte 1995 and 2003) is incompatible with the rates found for Romance null subject languages, such as Spanish, Italian and European Portuguese (an average of 72% null subjects, according to Duarte 1995), languages in which a null subject is the unmarked realization of a pronominal subject. In the same way,the occurrence of VS in Brazilian Portuguese seems to be restricted to unaccusative verbs (cf. Votre and Naro 1986; Spano 2002), which could not be considered a prototypical case of inversion, since these verbs lack an external argument. This paper will present an analysis of the VS order with unaccusative verbs, considering only NP arguments, under the hypothesis that, as a consequence of the change in the Null Subject Parameter and in the VS/SV Parameter, the occurrence of VS with unaccusatives has become a variable rule in Brazilian Portuguese and the new SV order is gradually replacing VS. In this way, sentences such as English ‘A boy arrived’ and French ‘Un garçon est arrivé’ are getting more and more usual in BP: ‘Um rapaz chegou’ instead of ‘Chegou um rapaz’. Empirical evidence for the change in progress is based on a trend study (Labov 1994) of Rio de Janeiro speakers with low or mid levels of formal education, comparing results from the early 80’s and the late 90’s. The variable analysis shows that there is still significant occurrence of VS, but it is restricted to a group of unaccusative verbs, such as ‘acontecer’ (happen) and ‘existir’ (exist), whose internal argument is invariably [- animate]. On the other hand, unaccusative verbs with a [+ animate] argument, such as ‘crescer’ (grow), ‘morrer’ (die), ‘nascer’ (be born), which usually present VS order in modern Romance null subject languages in “presentational” sentences, already show preferably SV order in Brazilian Portuguese. ''
References
DUARTE, M. E. L. 1995. A perda do princípio “Evite Pronome” no português brasileiro. PhD Dissertation, UNICAMP, Campinas, São Paulo. DUARTE, M. E. L. 2003. A evolução na representação do sujeito pronominal em dois tempos. Em Paiva, M. da Conceição & M. E. L. Duarte (orgs.) Mudança lingüística em tempo real. Rio de Janeiro: Contra Capa/Faperj. 115-128. KATO, M. A. & DUARTE, M. E. L. 1998. A diachronic analysis of Brazilian Portuguese WH-questions. Paper presented at NWAV27, Univ. of Georgia, Athens. LABOV, W. 1994. Principles of Linguistic Change: Internal Factors. Oxford, Blackwell. SPANO, M. 2002. A ordem V SN em construções monoargumentais na fala culta do português brasileiro e europeu. MS Thesis, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. VOTRE, S. & NARO, A. 1986. Emergência da sintaxe como efeito discursivo. Final report of the Project Censo à Educação.
Source: http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/lingu/events/nwav34/Abstracts/Duarte&Soares.pdf
''The variety of Portuguese spoken in Brazil (BP) has been shown to be undergoing substantive changes in its grammar since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Three of them involve the pronominal system: (a) substantial decrease of referential null subjects (Duarte 1993, 1995): (1)a. __ chegou tarde (arrived late) b. Ele chegou tarde (He arrived late) (b) loss of third person accusative clitics o/a and the consequent introduction of non-clitic suppletive forms ele/ela (he/she) (Kato, 1993; Cyrino, 1994): (2) a. Pedro não o/a viu (Pedro not him/her saw) b. Pedro não viu ele/ela ( Pedro not saw he/she) ‘Pedro hasn’t seen him/her’and (c) the replacement of the weak pre-nominal possessive seu/sua for the post-nominal forms dele/dela (Oliveira e Silva 1996; Cerqueira, 1993): (3)a. Pedro trouxe sua mala (Pedro brought his bag) a. Pedro trouxe a mala dele (Pedro brought the bag of he) ‘Pedro brought his bag’ Three distinct forms (zero subject, o/a and seu/sua) are collapsed into a single form (ele/ela), turning the paradigms of object and possessive pronouns “defective”. In this paper we will study these changes, which affected the third person, and will show that they are ‘embedded’ in the change that affected BP regarding the setting of the null subject parameter ( Kato, 1999). In the first part of the presentation we will show the correlation of the changes that ultimately turned the non-clitic pronouns ele/ela into the suppletive forms for (a) the previous third person null subject, (b) the previous accusative clitics o/a, and (c) the previous weak possessive forms seu/sua . In the second part we will present the theoretical assumptions, distinguishing two classes of pronouns (strong and weak , the latter including free weak pronouns, clitics and pronominal agreement apud Kato, 1999) , and the process of doubling strong pronouns with weak ones (Kato, 2002). The third part will contain our analysis. Our first claim will be that while in older periods BP had a) pronominal agreement as subject (=null subject) , b) accusative clitics and c) weak possessives, these weak forms could appear in doubling patterns with strong pronouns when the referent was [+animate]. With the loss of the agreement affix as a weak pronominal, BP creates a paradigm of weak pronouns, and, as a consequence , ele/ela become weak pronouns, homophonous clones of the strong ELE/ELA, and as such without the restriction regarding animacy. The weak ele/ela have no inherent case and have case assigned structurally, which enables them to appear as subject (assigned nominative case), as object (assigned accusative case) and possessive (assigned genitive case). Empirical evidence comes from a quantitative analysis of sociolinguistic interviews with speakers from Rio de Janeiro, which confirms the unrestricted appearance of ele/ela with both [+animate] and [-animate] referents, in a clear contrast with previous periods. ''
REFERENCES
CERQUEIRA , V. (1993) A forma genitiva dele e a categoria de concordância (AGR) no português brasileiro. In Roberts & Kato (orgs) , 129-163. CYRINO, S.M.L. (1994) O Objeto nulo no Português do Brasil: um estudo sintático- diacrônico., UNICAMP: Tese de doutorado. DUARTE, MARIA EUGENIA.L. 1993. Do pronome nulo ao pronome pleno. In: I.ROBERTS & M.A Kato (eds) Português Brasileiro: Uma viagem diacrônica (Homenagem a Fernando Tarallo). Campinas: Editora da UNICAMP: 107-128. ____________1995. A Perda do Princípio „Evite pronome“ no Português Brasileiro. UNICAMP: Doctoral Dissertation. KATO, Mary A. (1993) The distribution of null and pronominal objects in Brazilian Portuguese. Linguistic Perspectives on the Romance Languages: Selected Papers from the XXI Linguistic
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2Symposium on Romance Languages (Currents Issues in Linguistic Theory Series), 225 235, Amsterdam:John Benjamins. ______________ (1999) Strong pronouns, weak pronominals and the null subject parameter. PROBUS, 11,1:-38 _____________ (2002) Pronomes fortes e fracos na gramática do português brasileiro. Revista Portuguesa de Filologia.Vol XXIV: 101-122, Coimbra. OLIVEIRA E SILVA, G. M. 1996. Estertores da forma seu de terceira pessoa na língua oral. In: G. M. Oliveira e Silva & M. Scherre (orgs) Padrões Sociolingüísticos. Rio de Janeiro: Tempo Brasileiro.
source: http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/lingu/events/nwav34/Abstracts/Kato&Duarte.pdf
Pronomes oblíquos de terceira pessoa
(Hélio Consolaro* )
Com o objetivo de lutar para que o ensino do português escrito fique mais fácil, esta coluna vem publicando alguns artificialismos da gramática tradicional que continuam sendo ensinados nas escolas, numa dissociação gritante entre escola e realidade lingüística.
A distância entre a língua falada e a escrita sempre existirá, porque esta é mais conservadora, enquanto aquela é o motor das mudanças, mas não é mais possível tolerar essa distância quilométrica no português, dificultando sobremaneira o trabalho do professor em sala de aula no processo de alfabetização, fazendo que sejamos bilíngües, embora falemos e escrevamos uma só língua.
Reli recentemente o conto O Colocador de Pronomes, de Monteiro Lobato, e a questão no livro Português ou Brasileiro? - Um Convite à Pesquisa, de Marcos Bagno, para abordar o assunto nesta coluna.
O conto foi escrito em 1916, quando Lobato satirizou os gramáticos. Quase um século depois, o problema continua o mesmo.
O lingüista Bagno anuncia a morte dos pronomes oblíquos de 3ª pessoa, pois eles só existem nas gramáticas. Eis os exemplos, para que se entenda melhor:
Conheço Pedro, mas tem muito tempo que não o vejo.(Como querem os gramáticos.)
Conheço Pedro, mas tem muito tempo que não vejo ele.(Como se fala no cotidiano.)
O próprio filólogo Silveira Bueno, em 1955, já dizia isso: "Proíbe-se no português clássico e moderno, que se empreguem as formas retas dos pronomes em função complementar, como objeto direto, mormente não preposicionado. Tal proibição que é dogma de gramática e do ensino oficial tanto em Portugal como no Brasil, encontra numerosas exceções no português arcaico e, em nossa pátria, é de todo transgredida na língua familiar e vida da sociedade".
No livro A Hora da Estrela, Clarice Lispector escreve:
Se sei quase tudo de Macabéa é que já peguei uma vez de relance o olhar de uma nordestina amarelada. Esse relance me deu ela de corpo inteiro.
Tão artificial ficaria se Clarice tivesse escrito:
Esse relance ma deu de corpo inteiro.
Jornalistas e escritores avançam o sinal vermelho dos gramáticos, acelerando as mudanças. Isso traz algum alento.
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