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Italian & Portugese Lexical Similarities
I also tend to the think that going through this kind of effort to keep Brazil on the lusophone train might reinforce the dysfunctional nature of Brazilian society (small elite, big underclass).
By all accounts, Brazil is a _lot_ more diglossic than Portugal and statistic on literacy (and reading) are a lot worse. I can't help but wonder if that isn't used to keep the underclass big and politically powerless. If Brazil were to cut itself free linguistically there would be less justification for the diglossia.
That said, all in all I prefer written Iberian Portuguese and hope they don't start modifying the written syntax to correspond to Brazilian usage.
The problem of teaching Portuguese as L2
I was recently looking for a textbook of Portuguese for foreigners, which I intended to buy for a friend of mine who wanted to learn the language.
Unfortunately, after looking at several popular textbooks available in the
US market, I couldn't find one I would consider adequate. Most texts
had either linguistic or factual errors, in addition to cultural "cliches"
and misunderstandings about Brazil. Putting the cultural content aside
(since that is part of a wider discussion about Brazil's image
abroad), I believe that, as far as the linguistic content is concerned,
there is an intrinsic problem associated with the teaching of Brazilian
POrtuguese as second language which must be addressed in order to improve
the quality of Portuguese instruction, particularly in the United States.
The teaching of Portuguese as a foreign language implies an important
question: which variety of the language should be taught and why. Unlike
English, German, French or Spanish, there is no standard Portuguese uniformly
adopted across the Portuguese-speaking countries. Roughly speaking , the
different dialects of Portuguese are grouped into two varieties: European
and American. The European variety includes both contemporary Lusitanian
Portuguese and the educated language of the former Portuguese colonies in
Africa (Angola, Mozambique, etc...), while the label "American" is used to
refer to the different regional (and social) dialects spoken in Brazil.
In general, Portuguese L2 courses in European universities tend to focus on
the European variety, which is somewhat more clearly standardized and defined.
US Universities, however, tend to focus on American (or Brazilian) Portuguese,
which is far from definitive standardization. In Brazil, linguistic
varieties vary not so much across regional lines (despite the continental
size of the country), but rather depend heavily on the social and educational
background of the speaker and on the degree of formality of the situation in
which a spoken utterance or written text is produced. One can find roughly
4 levels of register in Brazilian Portuguese:
1) The so-called "literary" language, which was originally fairly close to
standard European Portuguese with minor "Brazilianisms" in vocabulary and
grammar, but which has recently been increasingly influenced by
colloquialisms and even substandard speech.
2) The "standard" formal written language, used in the printed newspapers and
magazines, whose grammar follows closely standard European Portuguese (again
with room for some typical "Brazilianisms"), but whose syntax and vocabulary
are less elaborated than in the literary styles. The "standard" formal
written language has a spoken counterpart, generally used in TV newscasts
and formal settings (speeches, university lectures, etc...).
3) The "educated colloquial" language, used by the urban middle-class of the
big cities at home, among friends or colleagues, and in
most social gatherings. The "educated colloquial" register, also known as the
Brazilian "familiar" language, is the core of contemporary spoken Brazilian
Portuguese. Not only is it the variety a foreigner is most likely to hear in
his day-to-day life in a big Brazilian city, but also it is the language used
in TV soap operas and TV talk shows. Its grammar differs in some significant
and noticeable points from the grammar of both standard spoken European
Portuguese and standard formal written Brazilian Portuguese (ie, newspaper
language).(*)
4) The "uneducated" or "substandard" speech, which encompasses all the
linguistics varieties used by the urban working classes and, in general, by
the rural population. The "substandard" speech, including rural dialects such
as the so-called "caipira" dialect, shares some common traits with the
"educated colloquial" register, but differs from the latter, in the sense that
uneducated speech shows wider deviations from the standard written language,
including possible loss of nominal and verbal agreement and more
frequent regularization of verbal paradigms.
Some foreign L2 teachers of Brazilian Portuguese, particularly in the US,
support the position that students should be primarily exposed to the
"educated colloquial" language as the main model for language acquisition,
This essentially ideological position, which is well enshrined in Portuguese
textbooks for foreigners written in the US, has resulted in considerable
damage to Portuguese instruction in this country.
Becoming fluent in a foreign language implies the ability to communicate on
different levels of register and switch from one register to the
other, conditioned on social and environmental circumstances. The easiest way
to achieve that goal is to expose the foreign student of BP to the standard
formal language and once he/she masters it, introduce him/her to the
peculiarities of the colloquial speech, in the points in which it differs or
deviates from the standard speech. For example, in the case of pronouns, the
natural sequence would be to introduce first the formal standard pronominal
system (including 2nd person singular forms and unstressed 3rd person object
pronouns) and, then, later, introduce students to Brazilian
colloquialisms , such as the use of "te" with "voce", or the use of stressed
3rd person subject pronouns ("ele", "ela") as direct objects. The student
should get a feeling of the social context and situations in which these
nonstandard forms are acceptable or not.
On the hand, there is no point in teaching substandard (basilectal)
varieties to a foreign learner of the language, since those varieties have
low social prestige in Brazil and therefore should be avoided in most
situations in which the foreign learner will find him/herself. Besides, with
a through command of the standard formal language and of the main
peculiarities of the colloquial "familiar" language, the foreign student of
BP can easily understand "caipira" or other varieties of substandard speech,
without great trouble.
Notice that I am not urging that colloquial speech be neglected in BP
courses for foreigners. I am just suggesting that learning a more standard
(written) variety of the language helps the student to understand better the
colloquial varieties and increases his/her ability to function adequately in
different linguistic contexts and registers.
Marcelo Bruno
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PS:
(*) In general, urban middle-class and upper-class Brazilians are taught
"standard" prescriptive grammar at school. In fact, Brazilian private
secondary schools (attented by most middle-class kids in cities like Sao
Paulo or Rio) are known for their *very* conservative grammatical tradition
in the teaching of Portuguese. The result is a situation of near
"diglossia", where members of affluent and middle-income social groups will
invariably speak "familiar" language among themselves, but, when required to
write an essay, an article or any text for professional purposes, will
employ a more formal grammar and vocabulary.
Now that Portuguese written standard will be almost 100% uniform in all Portuguese speaking countries, much of this hysterical talk will disappear about differences. Just listen to a Cuban person speaking Spanish and compare it to the Spanish of Madrid - distinct in most respects, except in written. This is how it will be now between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese. So don't worry folks, there are far greater problems in the world.
They made another spelling reform in German but nobody follows it. I think that Brazilians will countinue writing their language like in the past in spite of that reform.
''Now that Portuguese written standard will be almost 100% uniform in all Portuguese speaking countries''
this is not true at all
Brazilians will continue writing: Antônio, anônimo, exôfago, deságua, aspecto, fato
while Portuguese will be writing: António, anónimo, exófago, desagua, aspeto, facto
it looks pretty different to me
^it's "esófago" with S and not X...
And "aspecto" is written like that in Portugal, not Brazil.
Thank you for pointing that out Zatsu...that's how we know that so called "California Love" is not a Portuguese language speaker, but a phony. Nice try "California Love". As Samantha correctly pointed out, the writing differences are going to be greatly reduced, and those that remain will be insignificant. One Portuguese language writing standard, will be a reality very soon. I think they are saying that the Portuguese speaking countries just need to work out the logistics of printing new dictionaries, and books, etc, which will naturally take a few years.
aspect
before the spelling agreement: aspecto ([kt]) (BR), aspecto ([t])(PT)
after the spelling agreement: aspecto ([kt) (BR), aspeto ([t]) (PT)
As was said many times before, the spelling differences that remain are insignificant.
United States English and British English have spelling differences too, to say nothing of differences in vocabulary and accent. But at the end of the day, it's no big deal, because in the greater scheme of things, English is English, Portuguese is Portuguese, Spanish is Spanish, French is French.
We should support our Brazilian language which was forbidden by Portuguese slaughter-makers.
Viva tupinikins. Viva Macunaima! Cristiano Ronaldo, screw u!
É isso aí galera
Tá aí a solução di todos nossos probrema
Só vamo falá Tupi e Língua Geral e tudo vai ficá legal
Falô bicho
I'm from Venezuela and been in U.S.A 10 years. My opinion: some Brazilian people should not say they have their own language, because they are using Portuguese. It sounds so foolish. And, as much I hate to admit, the Spanish did the 'real' blood-shed in Spanish America. At least in Brasil that did no happen, or at least it was much, much, much, much less by comparison. Brasilians, you have your beautiful Portuguese language spoken with your own exotic flavor, so don't disrespect and dishonor it every chance you get.
<<the Spanish did the 'real' blood-shed in Spanish America. At least in Brasil that did no happen, or at least it was much, much, much, much less by comparison.>>
You don't know what you are talking. Spanish did the 'real' blood-shed but now this is history. Not so in Brazil. Even today indians in Mato Grosso are killed, sometimes let to be eaten alive by animals. Here, some good news for you:
http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/9058/
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