BRAZIL LANGUAGES |
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Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking nation in the Americas, giving it a
distinct national culture separate from its Spanish-speaking neighbors.
Portuguese is the only language with full official status in Brazil; it is
virtually the only language used in schools, newspapers, radio and TV, and
for all business and administrative purposes.
However, many minority languages are spoken daily throughout the vast
national territory of Brazil. Some of these minority languages are spoken by
indigenous peoples. Others yet are spoken by people who are for the most
part bilingual (i.e. speakers of both Portuguese and German or Italian and
Portuguese or Japanese and Portuguese, etc.). |
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Many of the indigenous people speak languages like: Mbyá-Guaraní (or simply
Guaraní), Kaingang, Nadëb, Carajá, Caribe, Tucano, Arára, Terêna, Borôro,
Apalaí, Canela and many others. Not all amerindians desire to become part of
the mainstream culture of Brazil. Even though minorities are what they are,
that is minorities, cultural conflicts cannot be dismisses as insignificant
or unimportant based what percentage of the national population they are.
Interestingly enough some of these minority languages recently have obtained
local co-official status — e.g. Nheengatu, Tukano, and Baniwa in São Gabriel
da Cachoeira, Amazonas (2003).
The Língua Geral which is now almost extinct, at one time, until the
seventeenth century, was the common language used by indigenous and African
and African descendent captives throughout the coast of Brazil - in other
words, it was spoken by the majority of the population in the land. Today,
in the Amazon Basin, politica campaigning is still printed in this rare
language.
Other languages such as German, Italian, Polish and Japanese are spoken in
southern Brazil. There are whole regions in southern Brazil where people
speak both Portuguese and one or more of these languages. For example, it is
reported that more than 90% of the residents of the small city of Presidente
Lucena, located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, speak Riograndenser
Hunsrückisch, a Brazilian form of the Hunsrückisch German dialect.
Although they have been rapidly replaced by Portuguese in the last few
decades, today states like Rio Grande do Sul are trying to reverse that
trend and Immigrant Languages such as German and Italian are being
reintroduced into the curriculum again in communities where they were
originally thrived. Meanwhile, on the Argentine and Uruguayan border regions
Brazilian students are being introduced (formally) to the Spanish language.
More and more people are realizing in Brazil that a person can master and
carry more than one language throughout their lives. In other words,
integration into mainstream society does not mean that one has to become
monolingual. More and more the reasoning is that if languages are a human
capital of great value to some, perhaps they should be considered valuable
to one all.
Some immigrant communities in southern Brazil, chiefly German and Italians
ones, have lasted long enough to develop distinctive dialects from their
original European sources — for example Riograndenser Hunsrückisch or
Hunsrückisch and Talian. These are not languages per se but distinct
dialects (from their original European counterparts).
Other transplanted German dialects to this part of the world have not under
gone the same level of changes. For example, the Austrian dialect spoken in
Dreizenlinden ou Trezetílias in the state of Santa Catarina; or the dialect
of the Donauschwaben spoken in Entre Rios, in the state of Paraná; or the
Pommeranian (Pommersch) dialect spoken in many different parts of southern
Brasil (Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, Espírito Santo, etc.).
A Japanese-language newspaper, the São Paulo Shinbun, is published in São
Paulo. There is a significant community of Japanese speakers in Paraná and
Amazonas. Much smaller groups exist in Santa Catarina, Riogrande do Sul and
other parts of Brazil.
In São Paulo, the German-Brazilian newspaper Brasil-Post has been published
for over fifty years. The Livraria Alemã of Blumenau was a fixture in the
city for a long time. There are many other media organizations throughout
the land specializing either in church issues, music, language, etc. The
German-Brazilian community in Brazil is estimated to be in the millions.
The Italian online newspaper La Rena offers Brazilian-Italian or Talian
lessons...
There are many other non-portuguese publications, bilingual web sites, radio
and television programs throughout the country. For example, TV GALEGA from
Blumenau shows German-language programming on their channel on a weekly
basis.
The English-language daily Brazil Herald is directed mostly to tourists,
foreign executives and expatriates.
Most major foreign newspapers can be obtained in larger Brazilian cities
(Frankfurter-Algemeine; Le Monde; The New York Times; etc.)
Portuguese is the first language of almost 99% of the population but Brazil
is a very rich cultural and linguistic mosaic. There are many bilingual
people in the country. The few who cannot speak the national language are
the more precious for it and to be recognized and appreciated for their
unique status. |
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