The Language of Brazil

History of Brazilian Portuguese

The official language of Brazil is Portuguese. It is believed that the earliest of inhabitants arrived in Brazil somewhere around 60,000 BC. The Portuguese first set foot in Brazil back in the 1500's. According to researchers from the Northeastern state of Piauí, there has been evidence found near Belém suggesting the presence of an earlier expedition as far back as 50,000 years ago to the Amazon region of Brazil. In these early days, the people spoke a mixture of idioms. The Tupi or Tuinambá was spoken by ethnic groups of Brazil's Amazonian coastal areas. It wasn't until the 1800's when the king Don João of Portugal arrived that Portuguese became the official language of Brazil. Today, some 193 million Brazilians speak the language of Brazil.

Brazilian Portuguese vs European Portuguese

It is different from its European counterpart - European Portuguese of Portual - in that, the sounds are more open. The Portuguese tend to swallow emphases of certain vowels while Brazilians are more stressed. As a result, Brazilians have a more pronounced tone when they speak. So, it is, theoretically speaking, easier to understand. Also, the Portuguese are stricter in grammar usage, where as, Brazilians are more simplified in their choice of vocabulary.

Language Structure

There are more forms of conjugation in Brazilian Portuguese than the English language. The conditional tense would be one. It is formed by appending ia to the infinitive form of a verb. The most common tenses are:

1. Present
2. Simple Past
3. Past Imperfect
4. Past Perfect
5. Future
6. Past Future
7. Present - Subjunctive
8. Past Imperfect - subjunctive
9. Future - Subjunctive
10. Personal Infinitive
11. Gerund

Of those previously mentioned, the simple past is the most common. The "compound tense" is a form created by incorporating the verb to go along with the infinitive of a verb. It is a conjugation of the future tense. For the sake of practice, let's say; I am wanting to express - in the future tense - that I'd like to speak with John. In English, would be: I am going to speak to John; however, In Portuguese, would be: Eu vou falar com o john. This could also be thought of as the "present future tense" because the verb to go is always used in the present.

Genders of Nouns

Brazilians are serious when it comes to genders. Menino vs Menina. In fact, most words in Portuguese are of one gender or the other. It is for this reason, that one must know the genders of these words when learning. Words which fall in the "gender" category are: nouns, ordinals & some numbers. To know a word's gender requires knowing the various masculine or feminine word endings:

MASCULINE ENDINGS

• L
• O
• M
• R
• Á

FEMININE ENDINGS

• SSÃO
• GEM
• ADE
• ZÃO
• SÃO
• ÇÃO
• A

Adjective Subject Agreement

As you already learned about genders of nouns, adjectives too are "gender sensitive". In the adjective subject agreement, an adjective must agree with its subject in terms of gender. If car is relegated as feminine, then the adjective must agree i.e. changed to match its gender: The red car = O carro vermelho. Brazilian Portuguese is also highly into anastrophe. In fact, it is necessary that adjectives be placed after its subject: O carro vermelho = The car red - as apposed to... The red car.

Variety at Large

Yes, like a valet de chambre has a suit for every occasion, Brazilians carry an assemblage of vocabulary for every conversation. For example; the various forms of pronouns can be used to articulate you, he, him, her, she, ect, ect:

• You = Você, tu, te
• Me = Mim, me, eu
• We = Nós, gente

Then there are the possessives:

• Mine = Minha, meu
• Yours = Seu, teu

Omittance of the Pronoun

A lot of times when Brazilians speak, they omit the pronouns. This is because, conjugations of verbs tell the listener who is doing, did, or will do the action. In Poruguese, the infinitive form of "to speak" is falar. Any verb in Portuguese is conjugated by first removing the ar, er, ir. This then gives you the stem: fal. Now, if I were to add the letter o to that: falo = I speak. You see? In the conjugated form of: falo = I speak. I just omitted the pronoun; however, the sentence still remains complete.

The language of Brazil is unique in its own way. As unique as the people who speak it. In case your next travel plans suggests a stop in Brazil, you might want to consider a visit to "The Brazilian Language" to gain a better insight into Brazil's idiom and its culture.