Portuguese is the official and national language of Brazil[5] being widely spoken by most of the population. Brazil is the most populous Portuguese-speaking country in the world, with its lands comprising the majority of Portugal's former colonial holdings in the Americas.
Aside from Portuguese, the country also has numerous minority languages, including indigenous languages, such as Nheengatu (a descendant of Tupi), and languages of more recent European and Asian immigrants, such as Italian, German and Japanese. In some municipalities, those minor languages have official status: Nheengatu, for example, is an official language in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, while a number of German dialects are official in nine southern municipalities.
As of 2023, the population of Brazil speaks or signs 238 languages, of which approximately 217 are indigenous and others are non-indigenous.[11] In 2005, no indigenous language was spoken by more than 40,000 people.[12]
With the implementation of the Orthographic Agreement of 1990, the orthographic norms of Brazil and Portugal have been largely unified, but still have some minor differences. Brazil enacted these changes in 2009 and Portugal enacted them in 2012.
In 2002, Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) was made the official language of the Brazilian deaf community. The Brazilian Sign Language also has official status at the federal level.[13]
On December 9, 2010, the National Inventory of Linguistic Diversity was created,[14] which will analyze proposals for revitalizing minority languages in the country.[15] In 2019, the Technical Commission of the National Inventory of Linguistic Diversity was established.[16][17]
Overview
Colonial Portuguese house in the Brazilian city of Florianópolis.
Before the first Portuguese explorers arrived in 1500, what is now Brazil was inhabited by several Amerindian peoples that spoke many different languages. According to Aryon Dall'Igna Rodrigues[18] there were six million Indians in Brazil speaking over 1,000 different languages. When the Portuguese settlers arrived, they encountered the Tupi people, who dominated most of the Brazilian coast and spoke a set of closely related languages.
The Tupi called the non-Tupi peoples "Tapuias", a designation that the Portuguese adopted; however, there was little unity among the diverse Tapuia tribes other than their not being Tupi. In the first two centuries of colonization, a language based on Tupian languages known as Língua Geral ("General Language") was widely spoken in the colony,[19] not only by the Amerindians, but also by the Portuguese settlers, the Africans and their descendants.
This language was spoken in a vast area from São Paulo to Maranhão, as an informal language for domestic use, while Portuguese was the language used for public purposes. Língua Geral was spread by the Jesuitmissionaries and Bandeirantes to other areas of Brazil where the Tupi language was not spoken. In 1775, Marquis of Pombal prohibited the use of Língua Geral or any other indigenous language in Brazil. However, as late as the 1940s, Língua Geral was widely spoken in some Northern Amazonian areas where the Tupi people were not present.[20]
However, before that prohibition, the Portuguese language was dominant in Brazil. Most of the other Amerindian languages gradually disappeared as the populations that spoke them were integrated or decimated when the Portuguese-speaking population expanded to most of Brazil. The several African languages spoken[21] in Brazil also disappeared. Since the 20th century there are no more records of speakers of African languages in the country. However, in some isolated communities settled by escaped slaves (Quilombo), the Portuguese language spoken by its inhabitants still preserves some lexicon of African origin, which is not understood by other Brazilians.[22]
Due to the contact with several European, Amerindian and African languages, the Portuguese spoken in Brazil absorbed many influences from these languages, which led to a notable differentiation from the Portuguese spoken in Portugal.[23] Examples of widely used words of Tupi origin in Brazilian Portuguese include abacaxi ("pineapple"), pipoca ("popcorn"), catapora ("chickenpox"), and siri ("crab"). The names of thirteen of Brazil's twenty six states also have Amerindian origin.
Starting in the early 19th century, Brazil started to receive substantial immigration of non-Portuguese-speaking people from Europe and Asia. Most immigrants, particularly Italians[24] and Spaniards, adopted the Portuguese language after a few generations. Other immigrants, particularly Germans, Japanese, Poles and Ukrainians,[24][25] preserved their languages for more generations. German-speaking[26] immigrants started arriving in 1824. They came not only from Germany, but also from other countries that had a substantial German-speaking population (Switzerland, Poland, Austria, Romania and Russia (Volga Germans).
During over 100 years of continuous emigration, it is estimated that some 300,000 German-speaking immigrants settled in Brazil. Italian immigration started in 1875 and about 1.5 million Italians immigrated to Brazil until World War II. They spoke several dialects from Italy. Other sources of immigration to Brazil included Spaniards, Poles, Ukrainians, Japanese and Middle-easterns. With the notable exception of the Germans, who preserved their language for several generations, and in some degree the Japanese, Poles, Ukrainians, Arabs, Kurds and Italians, most of the immigrants in Brazil adopted Portuguese as their mother tongue after a few generations.[27][28]
Brazilian Portuguese is the official language of Brazil and the primary language used in most schools and media. It is also used for all business and administrative purposes. Brazilian Portuguese has had its own development, influenced by the other European languages such as Italian and German in the South and Southeast, and several indigenous languages all across the country.
The Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) is the sign language used by deaf people in Brazilian urban centers[29] and legally recognized as a means of communication and expression.[30][31] It is derived both from an autochthonous sign language, which is native to the region or territory in which it lives, and from French sign language; therefore, it is similar to other European and American sign languages. Libras is not the simple sign language of the Portuguese language, but a separate language, as evidenced by the fact that in Portugal a different sign language is used, Portuguese Sign Language (LGP).
Like the various existing natural and human languages, it is composed of linguistic levels such as: phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Just as in oral-auditory languages there are words, in sign languages there are also lexical items, which are called signs. The difference is its modality of articulation, namely visual-spatial, or kinesic-visual, for others. Therefore, to communicate in Libras, it is not enough just to know signs. It is necessary to know your grammar to combine sentences, establishing communication correctly, avoiding the use of "signaled Portuguese".
Signals arise from the combination of hand configurations, movements, and points of articulation — places in space or on the body where signals are made — and also from facial and body expressions that convey the feelings that are conveyed to listeners by voice intonation, which together make up the basic units of this language.[32] Thus, Libras presents itself as a linguistic system for the transmission of ideas and facts, coming from communities of deaf people in Brazil. As with any language, there are also regional differences in Libras. Therefore, attention should be paid to its variations in each federative unit of Brazil.
Despite the fact that Portuguese is the official language of Brazil and the vast majority of Brazilians speak only Portuguese, there are several other languages spoken in the country. According to the president of IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) there are an estimated 210 languages spoken in Brazil. 154 are Amerindian languages,[49] while the others are languages brought by immigrants.
The 1950 census was the last one to ask Brazilians which language they speak at home. Since then, the census does not ask about language. However, the census of 2010 asked respondents which languages they speak, allowing a better analysis of the languages spoken in Brazil.[50]
The first municipality to co-officialize other languages alongside Portuguese was São Gabriel da Cachoeira, in the state of Amazonas, with the languages Nheengatu, Tukano and Baniwa.[51][52] Since then, other Brazilian municipalities have co-officialized other languages.[53]
According to the 1940 census, after Portuguese, German was the most widely spoken language in Brazil. Although the Italian immigration to Brazil was much more significant than the German one, the German language had many more speakers than the Italian one, according to the census. The census revealed that two-thirds of the children of German immigrants spoke German at home. In comparison, half of the children of Italians spoke Portuguese at home. The stronger preservation of the German language when compared to the Italian one has many factors: Italian is closer to Portuguese than German, leading to a faster assimilation of the Italian speakers. Also, the German immigrants used to educate their children in German schools. The Italians, on the other hand, had less organized ethnic schools and the cultural formation was centered in church, not in schools. Most of the children of Italians went to public schools, where Portuguese was spoken.[54] Until World War II, some 1.5 million Italians had immigrated to Brazil, compared to only 250,000 Germans. However, the 1940 census revealed that German was spoken as a home language by 644,458 people, compared to only 458,054 speakers of Italian.[55]
Spaniards, who formed the third largest immigrant group in Brazil (after the Portuguese and Italians) were also quickly assimilated into the Portuguese-speaking majority. Spanish is similar to Portuguese, which led to a fast assimilation. Moreover, many of the Spanish immigrants were from Galicia, where they also speak Galician, which is closer to Portuguese, sometimes even being considered two dialects of the same language.[56][57] Despite the large influx of Spanish immigrants to Brazil from 1880 to 1930 (over 700,000 people) the census of 1940 revealed that only 74,000 people spoke Spanish in Brazil.
Other languages such as Polish and Ukrainian, along with German and Italian, are spoken in rural areas of Southern Brazil, by small communities of descendants of immigrants, who are for the most part bilingual. 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 Hunsrik, a language[6] derived from the Hunsrückisch dialect of German.[58] Hunsrik, or Riograndenser Hunsrückisch, has around 3,000,000[59] native speakers in Brazil, while also having some speakers in Argentina, Paraguay and Venezuela. The language is most used in the countryside of the South Region states of Brazil, with a considerable amount of native speakers using it as their main or even only language.[6]
Liberdade, São Paulo, has the largest concentration of ethnic Japanese outside Japan.
Some immigrant communities in southern Brazil, chiefly the German and the Italian ones, have lasted long enough to develop distinctive dialects from their original European sources. For example, Brazilian German, a broad category which includes the Hunsrik language, but also East Pomerian and Plautdietsch dialects. In the Serra Gaúcha region, we can find Italian dialects such as Talian or italiano riograndense, based on the Venetian language.
Plautdietsch is spoken by the descendants of Russian Mennonites. However, these languages have been rapidly replaced by Portuguese in the last few decades, partly due to a government decision to integrate immigrant populations. 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 originally thrived. Meanwhile, on the Argentinian and Uruguayan border regions, Brazilian students are being introduced to the Spanish language.[60]
Asian languages
In the city of São Paulo, Korean, Chinese and Japanese can be heard in the immigrants districts, like Liberdade.
A Japanese-language newspaper, the São Paulo Shinbun, had been published in the city of São Paulo since 1946, still printing paper editions until January 2019.[61][62] There is a significant community of Japanese speakers in São Paulo, Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará and Amazonas. Much smaller groups exist in Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and other parts of Brazil. Some Chinese, especially from Macau, speak a Portuguese-based creole language called Macanese (patuá or macaísta), aside from Hakka, Mandarin and Cantonese.
Japanese immigration to Brazil started on June 18, 1908, when the Japanese ship Kasato-Maru arrived in the Port of Santos, south of São Paulo, carrying the first 781 people to take advantage of a bilateral agreement promoting immigration. Half of them were from the southern part of the Okinawa Island, located about 640km (400mi) south of the rest of Japan, which had its own distinct language and culture dating back to before the island's annexation by Tokyo in 1879. The names on shop fronts are in Japanese and selling everything from Japanese food and kitchen utensils to traditional home decorations. Red painted archways, Japanese temples and a Japanese garden are present in this little Japanese corner of Brazil. Today, Brazil is home to the world's largest community of Japanese descendants outside of Japan, numbering about 1.5 million people.[63]
Spanish is understood to various degrees by many but not all Brazilians, due to the similarities of the languages. However, it is hardly spoken well by individuals who have not taken specific education in the language, due to the substantial differences in phonology between the two languages.
In São Paulo, the German-Brazilian newspaper Brasil-Post has been published for over fifty years. There are many other media organizations throughout the country specializing in church issues, music, language etc.
The online newspaper La Rena is in Talian dialect and it offers Talian lessons. There are many other non-Portuguese publications, bilingual web sites, radio and television programs throughout the country.
In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, there are several cities and communities colonized by Germans and Italians. Most small towns have German or Italian as their second language. In the state capital, Porto Alegre, it is easy to find people who speak one or both of them.
The 21st century has seen the growth of a trend of co-official languages in cities populated by immigrants (such as Italian and German) or indigenous in the north, both with support from the Ministry of Tourism, as was recently established in Santa Maria de Jetibá, Pomerode and Vila Pavão,[74] where East Pomeranian also has co-official status.[75]
The first municipality to adopt a co-official language in Brazil was São Gabriel da Cachoeira, in 2002.[76][77] Since then, other municipalities have attempted to adopt their own co-official languages.
Also in production is the documentary video Brasil Talian,[78] with directed and written by André Costantin and executive producer of the historian Fernando Roveda.[79] The pre-launch occurred on 18 November 2011, the date that marked the start of production of the documentary.[80]
In 2019, Bill No. 489 was drafted, authored by Chico d'Ângelo, which provides linguistic rights for Brazilians, especially communities that use minority languages as their mother tongue.[89] The Project was attached to Bill 304 of 2015, which establishes knowledge about the language, uses, customs and culture of the traditional peoples and communities and ethical minorities that form the Brazilian peoples in elementary school curricula.[90] The Culture Commission approved the project on September 21, 2021.[91]
Many Amerindian minority languages are spoken throughout Brazil, mostly in Northern Brazil. Indigenous languages with about 10,000 speakers or more are Ticuna (language isolate), Kaingang (Gean family), Kaiwá Guarani, Nheengatu (Tupian), Guajajára (Tupian), Macushi (Cariban), Terena (Arawakan), Xavante (Gean) and Mawé (Tupian). Tucano (Tucanoan) has half that number, but is widely used as a second language in the Amazon.[274]
One of the two Brazilian línguas gerais (general languages), Nheengatu, was until the late 19th century the common language used by a large number of indigenous, European, African, and African-descendant peoples throughout the coast of Brazil—it was spoken by the majority of the population in the land. It was proscribed by the Marquis of Pombal for its association with the Jesuit missions. A recent resurgence in popularity of this language occurred, and it is now an official language in the city of São Gabriel da Cachoeira. Today, in the Amazon Basin, political campaigning is still printed in this Tupian language.[275]
Below is a full list of indigenous language families and isolates of Brazil based on Campbell (2012).[284] The Macro-Jê classification follows that of Nikulin (2020).[285] Additional extinct languages of Northeast Brazil have also been included from Meader (1978) and other sources.[286]
Rio Grande do Sul is a state in the southern region of Brazil. It is the fifth-most populous state and the ninth-largest by area. Located in the southernmost part of the country, Rio Grande do Sul is bordered clockwise by Santa Catarina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Uruguayan departments of Rocha, Treinta y Tres, Cerro Largo, Rivera, and Artigas to the south and southwest, and the Argentine provinces of Corrientes and Misiones to the west and northwest. The capital and largest city is Porto Alegre. The state has the highest life expectancy in Brazil, and the crime rate is relatively low compared to the Brazilian national average. The state has 5.4% of the Brazilian population and it is responsible for 6.6% of the Brazilian GDP.
Santa Catarina is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil. It is located in the centre of the country's Southern region. It is bordered to the north by the state of Paraná, to the south by the state of Rio Grande do Sul, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the west by the Argentine province of Misiones.
Hunsrik, also called Riograndese Hunsrik, Riograndenser Hunsrückisch or Katharinensisch, is a Moselle Franconian language derived primarily from the Hunsrückisch dialect of West Central German which is spoken in parts of South America. A co-official language in the Brazilian municipalities of Antônio Carlos, Santa Maria do Herval, and São João do Oeste, Hunsrik is spoken in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Paraná, as well as some regions of neighboring Paraguay and Argentina. It has been an integral part of the historical and cultural heritage of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul since 2012, and considered an intangible cultural heritage of Santa Catarina state since 2016.
German Brazilians refers to Brazilians of full or partial German ancestry. German Brazilians live mostly in the country's South Region, with a smaller but still significant percentage living in the Southeast Region.
Talian, or Brazilian Venetian, or Vêneto is a Venetian dialect spoken primarily in the Serra Gaúcha region in the northeast of the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. It is also spoken in other parts of Rio Grande do Sul, as well as in parts of Espírito Santo and of Santa Catarina.
The German-based varieties spoken by German Brazilians together form a significant minority language in Brazil. "Brazilian German" is strongly influenced by Portuguese and to a lesser extent by Italian dialects as well as indigenous languages. High German and Low Saxon/German dialects and Germanic languages are particularly strong in Brazil's South and Southeast Regions.
Immigration to Brazil is the movement to Brazil of foreign peoples to reside permanently. It should not be confused with the forcible bringing of people from Africa as slaves. Latin Europe accounted for four-fifths of the arrivals. This engendered a strikingly multicultural society. Yet over a few generations, Brazil absorbed these new populations in a manner that resembles the experience of the rest of the New World.
East Pomeranian or Farther Pomeranian is an East Low German dialect moribund in Europe, which used to be spoken in the region of Farther Pomerania when it was part of the German Province of Pomerania, until World War II, and today is part of Poland. Currently, the language survives mainly in Brazil, where it is spoken by descendants of German immigrants of the 19th century and where it was given its own script by the linguist Ismael Tressmann. It has co-official status in 11 Brazilian municipalities and has been recognized as a historical and cultural heritage of the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo. East Pomeranian is also spoken in central Wisconsin and parts of Iowa, in the United States.
Brazilian Sign Language is the sign language used by deaf communities of Brazil. It is commonly known in short as Libras.
The languages of South America can be divided into three broad groups:
Antônio Prado is a municipality located in the Serra Gaúcha regionin The city is in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It boasts the largest collection of architectural heritage designated by IPHAN related to Italian colonization in Brazil. Its population is estimated at 13,045 people.
Flores da Cunha is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It is the largest producer of wines inside Brazil. The Venetian language in its Brazilian form Talian is co-official with Portuguese in Flores da Cunha.
Serafina Corrêa is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
São Pedro de Alcântara, Santa Catarina is a municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil.
The Italo-Paulista (Íntalo-baolista), also known as Paulistalian, is a language that blends Italian dialects with the Caipira dialect. It was widely spoken by Italian immigrants and their descendants until the early 1960s in São Paulo State, especially in the Greater São Paulo region. Italo-Paulista or Paulistalian was commonly spoken on the streets of São Paulo.
Events in the year 1956 in Brazil.
The German colonization in Rio Grande do Sul was a large-scale and long-term project of the Brazilian government, motivated initially by the desire to populate the south of Brazil, ensuring the possession of the territory, threatened by Spanish neighbors. In addition, the search for Germans intended to recruit mercenary soldiers to reinforce the Brazilian army. The immigrants would also be important to improve the domestic supply of basic goods, since they would settle on the land as owners of productive small farms. Furthermore, the Germans would help to "whiten" the Brazilian population.
The Italian language in Brazil has been widespread since the second half of the 19th century, particularly due to Italian emigration to Brazil. Today there are an estimated 26 million descendants of Italians residing in the country; among them, Italian is estimated to be spoken as a first language by about 50,000 people. On the other hand, there were 407,924 Italian citizens residing in Brazil in 2013. In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, a Venetian linguistic island is still active, whose language is called talian. Italian is also being learned as a foreign language in Brazil by tens of thousands of students a year, partly due to the descendants of immigrants gradually recovering their origins.
The caramelo dog is a mixed-breed dog originating in Brazil, known for its caramel-colored coat. It is also considered a national symbol of Brazil.
↑ Aryon Dall'Igna Rodrigues (April 2005). "Sobre as línguas indígenas e sua pesquisa no Brasil". Ciência e Cultura (in Portuguese). 57 (2). Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência: 35–38. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
↑ Decreto nº 5.626, de 22 de dezembro de 2005 — Regulamenta a Lei no 10.436, de 24 de abril de 2002, que dispõe sobre a Língua Brasileira de Sinais - Libras, e o art. 18 da Lei no 10.098, de 19 de dezembro de 2000.
↑ Quintela, Antón Corbacho (2002). Os periódicos dos imigrantes espanhóis. Paper presented at the 2. Congresso Brasileiro de Hispanistas, 2002, São Paulo (SP) (in Portuguese). Retrieved 27 February 2022– via proceedings.scielo.br.
↑ Lei Ordinária Nº 20655, de 28 de julho de 2021, Concede o Título de Capital Paranaense Polonesa ao Município de São Mateus do Sul e insere no Calendário Oficial de Eventos no Estado do Paraná a Festa Tradyejie Polskie, a ser realizada anualmente no último sábado do mês de agosto. Leis Estaduais
1 2 GABINETE DO DEPUTADO SOLDADO SAMPAIO - PROJETO DE LEI Nº 310/2023, Dispõe sobre o reconhecimento das línguas indígenas faladas no Estado de Roraima como patrimônio cultural imaterial, e estabelece a cooficialização de línguas indígenas e institui a Política Estadual de Proteção das Línguas Indígenas do Estado de Roraima.
↑ Lei n. 3.496/2023 - Do Município de Capinzal, dispõe sobre o reconhecimento da Língua "Talian" e da cultura "Taliana" como Patrimônio Histórico Imaterial do Município de Capinzal - SC. Repositório Brasileiro de Legislações Linguísticas
↑ PROJETO DE LEI LEGISLATIVO Nº 0009/2020, Torna a Língua Alemã Patrimônio Cultural do Município de Nova Hartz, prevê ações de valorização, e dá outras providências
↑ Lei n. 595/2023 - Do Município de Itacajá / TO, dispõe sobre a cooficialização da Língua Krahô, junto a Língua Portuguesa, no Município de Itacajá/TO, e dá outras providências. Repositório Brasileiro de Legislações Linguísticas
1 2 LEI Nº 1.676/2024, DISPÕE SOBRE A COOFICIALIZAÇÃO DA LÍNGUA ITALIANA E O DIALETO TALIAN, À LÍNGUA PORTUGUESA, NO MUNICÍPIO DE VENDA NOVA DO IMIGRANTE/ES. Prefeitura Municipal de Venda Nova do Imigrante
↑ Lei n. 1.315/2016 - Do Município de Guabiju, Dispõe sobre a cooficialização da Língua do "Talian", à Língua Portuguesa, no Município de Guabiju/RS. Repositório Brasileiro de Legislações Linguísticas (RBLL)
↑ LEI Nº 1.272, DE 10 DE ABRIL DE 2024, cooficializa a língua germânica "hunsrik plat taytx", patrimônio cultural e imaterial do município de Santa Maria do Herval, e prevê ações de valorização e dá outras providências
1 2 LEI Nº 1.603/2022 - DE 09 DE NOVEMBRO DE 2022, dispõe sobre a cooficilialização da Língua Polonesa e a Língua Ucraniana à língua portuguesa, no Município de Paula Freitas, e dá outras providências
↑ Lei n. 1.294/2022 - Do Município de Sete de Setembro, Dispõe sobre a cooficialização da Língua Polonesa no Município de Sete de Setembro-RS, e dá outras providências. Repositório Brasileiro de Legislações Linguísticas (RBLL)
↑ Lei nº 3.043(PDF) (in Portuguese). Archived from the original(PDF) on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022– via saomateusdosul.pr.gov.br.
↑ Cristiano, Almir (19 March 2020). "Urubu-Kaapor". libras.com.br (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 12 April 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
↑ Campbell, Lyle (2012). "Classification of the indigenous languages of South America". In Grondona, Verónica; Campbell, Lyle (eds.). The Indigenous Languages of South America. The World of Linguistics. Vol.2. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp.59–166. ISBN978-3-11-025513-3.
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