English 
Spanish 
4 min read
329 comments
Brazil may stop speaking Portuguese and adopt a new language! Understand how historical and cultural roots are shaping the future of this surprising and inevitable transformation.
Brazil could stop speaking Portuguese and adopt a new language! Understand how historical and cultural roots are shaping a future for this surprising and inevitable transformation.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if, all of a sudden, the language you know so well started to disappear, being replaced by something completely new?
Brazil, with its rich cultural diversity and historical influences, may be heading towards a scenario where Portuguese, as we know it, is replaced by a new form of expression.
- Chilean scientists discover an active 'predatory' crustacean that inhabits depths of more than 8.000 meters below sea level
- It's Not Nuclear! The Amazing Energy Source That Could Provide Enough Power to Power the United States Thousands of Times Over
- Robot bird that flies, walks and jumps promises to revolutionize rescue and monitoring missions in extreme terrains with cutting-edge technology!
- INTERNET disconnection: Russia successfully tests blocking millions of users and prepares a global alternative system
According to the Portuguese linguist Fernando Venâncio, in an interview given to BBC Brazil, the language spoken in Brazil is in such a profound process of transformation that it may soon be considered a new language: “Brazilian”.
According to Venancio, this change is not just a matter of regional variations or slang; it is a natural evolution that began centuries ago, long before Brazil became a Portuguese colony.
The historical roots of the language
The language we call Portuguese today has its origins in a territory very different from the one we now know as Portugal.
The true “homeland” of Portuguese is the ancient Kingdom of Galicia, founded in the 5th century AD, after the dissolution of the Roman Empire.
This kingdom, which today is part of Spain, was the birthplace of the Galician language, which, over time, evolved and gave rise to what we know as Portuguese.
Lisbon, the current center of Portuguese life, spent centuries under Arab rule, where Mozarabic was spoken, a dialect influenced by Arabic and Latin.
In this period, the Galician language was already forming and influencing the region.
The tension between Galician and Portuguese
Over the centuries, Galicia and its language were gradually absorbed into the Spain and Portugal we know today.
The result was a process of cultural and linguistic erasure, where Galician was relegated to an inferior status, being considered a rural language with little prestige.
Today, movements in Galicia fight to preserve the use of Galician, but face the hegemony of Castilian, widely preferred by the local population, especially in large cities.
The history of Galician and its relationship with Portuguese is complex and reveals the shared roots that many Portuguese and Brazilians are unaware of.
Venâncio points out that the idea of a “Galician-Portuguese” is an attempt to disguise the true origins of the Portuguese language. He argues that Portuguese was essentially born as Galician and only later did it acquire its unique characteristics when it spread across the south of the Iberian Peninsula.
Linguistic transformations: Is the future Brazilian?
For Venâncio, the differences between the Portuguese spoken in Brazil and that of Portugal are so significant that it is only a matter of time before “Brazilian” is recognized as a distinct language.
One of the most notable examples of this transformation is the presence of typically Brazilian words and expressions, such as “geladeira” instead of “frigorífico”.
These changes, according to the linguist, do not represent a tragedy, but rather a natural evolution of language.
Venâncio also highlights that expressions like “inho”, in words like “cafezinho” and “Ronaldinho”, have their roots in Galician.
Likewise, the famous northeastern “oxente” is another example of how Galician influenced the Brazilian language, albeit indirectly.
There is no definitive record of the origin of “oxente”, but evidence points to the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula., where Galician uses the word “xente” for “people”.
The cultural impact of this separation
The separation between Portuguese and “Brazilian” is an inevitable process, and we are living in a time of acceleration of this change.
Although the grammatical rules are still similar, the way Brazilians use the language is increasingly distant from European Portuguese.
He believes that soon, we will be able to see the emergence of a new language, the result of this natural evolution.
However, many linguists and grammarians, both in Brazil and Portugal, argue that there is still sufficient unity between the two variants so that we can speak one language.
They point out that morphological elements, such as articles, prepositions and pronouns, remain practically the same, and that formal Portuguese, spoken in formal settings, is almost identical in both countries.
Somehow, the idea that Brazil might adopt a new language may seem shocking, but, as we have seen, this possibility is rooted in historical and linguistic processes that have been occurring for centuries.
According to Fernando Venâncio, the evolution of “Brazilian” is a natural consequence of the cultural and geographical distance between Brazil and Portugal.
The question remains: Are we really prepared for this change? What would this linguistic separation mean for our national identity? Leave your opinion in the comments!
Definitely most likely.
There may be inclusion of written facts, changes in language and even acceptance that we are Brazilian. But Brazilian and Portuguese will always be brothers in language.
Every group of languages has a base, this same base, it also had a base and so on, successively, since man exists.
Latin, which the Catholic religion spread throughout the world, was the basis of Castilian, French, Galician, Portuguese and even the language spoken in Catalonia, grammatically, a mixture of Spanish and French…
French was the language of the salons, it was replaced by English, thanks to the evolution of American cinema, which spread talking films all over the world!
But in the world of satellites, television is a disseminator of new pronunciations and words, Brazilian soap operas influence the speech of Portuguese-speaking countries so much that
the “Brazilian” is not that different anymore…
But after all, is your positioning favorable or not?
Please, no one wants to change anything. Stop creating factoids. Go find something interesting to do. English and Americans speak English and have different words. But it's still English for all of them. Don't complicate things.
How did you ignore this citizen on our planet who is commenting on the Portuguese language suit? He certainly doesn't know the dictionary of the language. Portuguese, he is saying that in Brazil we say frio and in Portuguese lands frio. In the other dictionaries we have the Porto Editora and onAurelio, the iOS ones say that. Geladeira and frio. In Portugal we use the word aluguel and in BRAZIL ALUGEL both are correct.
We are almost **** people, however there are Portuguese teachers who are more **** than us. How sad!!!!!!!
Please write correctly before criticizing someone else, dear sir, who knows the dictionary of the “Portuguese language”, only the greatest linguists would be able to guess what your message was trying to convey. How sad!!!!!!
And what is the name of this horrible language you are trying to communicate with?
I would call your text “extermination of logic” or “abortion of language”.
What would “you” be?
You
True, José. That is tremendous ignorance.
That's right, they're trying to invent a conversation, to put the language of the animals... I'm fine if the guy wants to be a butterfly, but, changing language because of that is ****mule
Nobody wants to change the language, it's just the natural course due to the differences between Brazil and Portugal.
And if you open ****, all of you and your friends will be part of the dictionary. Please don't touch the quiet one. LOL
Do you remember Bolsonaro's (future prisoner) minister of miseducation?
I swear I thought the same thing when I started reading the article, the country is already a total mess, where many elementary school students can't even spell their full name and still want to mess with what's left of our wealth, the Portuguese language, that's where it really complicates the little heads of this TikTok dancing generation.
More than twenty years ago, I graduated in Literature and the Portuguese Language teachers were already warning that one day, they would invent an “evolution” of our language, wanting to force a “lost or acquired originality” under pretty and well-crafted names, in order to finally introduce a neutral language. We will all be mischaracterized within our own language, to benefit a social ideology, which, let’s face it, should be a matter for each person to decide for themselves and not forced down our throats.
No one is talking about “todes” or “todis”, I think you are confusing things… There are many differences between the language spoken in Brazil and in Portugal.
Simone, I also studied Literature like you, with some differences due to the great cultural distance between our generations, mine and yours. I would like you to take a look at this case that I am submitting to you, namely: There have been many attempts in the past to make the language of the Portuguese language of Brazil independent from the Portuguese language of Portugal, merging them into one in the end, because no matter how hard you try, you will never achieve that. There is a curious case in which a thesis on the Brazilian language was even approved, whose language would be exactly the same as Brazilian language, and it was rejected by an Examining Board of the former University of Brazil, formed by renowned Professors and professors from the Pedro II College. The examining board put the candidate to the test by submitting him to translate an original text written in Portuguese into Brazilian language. However, as he was unable to achieve the feat of translating the text from Portuguese to his Brazilian language, which was his disproved thesis, the Examining Board of professors from the former University of Brazil, originally from Colégio Pedro II, in Rio de Janeiro, immediately failed him.
What if the National Anthem was in “Brazilian”? With the so-called “você” instead of the glorious and beautiful TU?
How bizarre that would be!
Unthinkable!
Remembering that the aberration called “you” is a reduction of a reduction of a reduction!
It will be reduced to the so-called “cê”, which will be – finally reduced – to the letter “C”!!!!
This has already happened... At least in the interior of Minas Gerais 🤭🤣🤣🤣 my dear mother, who is from Minas Gerais, says this: – If you go, if you come, if you want... LOL
Hello, dear ones.
You have a degree in literature, so it is important that you write in accordance with grammatical rules, especially since you are discussing the Portuguese language. In the first paragraph of Simone's text there is an excess of commas, which also happens, to a lesser extent, in yours, as can be seen right after the initial vocative. Furthermore, you used a crase where there is none!
Hug
This talk of changing the name of our Portuguese language to another name has been going on for a while! It has nothing to do with the current government, it comes from before!! This is news to become controversial and test the Brazilian people!!
So the spelling agreement was really nonsense, as I always thought. And it was forced down our throats, none of the countries were very interested.
But why don’t linguists criticize when people use “você” indiscriminately?
I'm tired of reading and seeing sentences in which people write "teu", "tua", "contigo", "te" and - in the same sentence - write "sua", "seu", "para si"...? And this referring to the same "interlocutor"! There are those, among linguists, who already state that the so-called "você" is a personal pronoun!!!
Correcting:
“There are those among linguists who already state (…)”.
Exactly this!!!!!
It's inevitable, just accept that in the future Brazil will speak Brazilian and Portugal will speak Portuguese.
Exactly…
I agree that there is no need for this.
It's a joke to wish and want to change something that has already been built through the roots of our history! We have a deep relationship with Portuguese and Portugal, it has been rooted in us since Brazil was discovered, that's why we speak Portuguese, which is a language identical to that of Portugal, only a few small things are different, like the rest of the world, but the language is the same, and they don't change because of that!
Brazilians don't want to lose our Portuguese language, because it is part of our roots, our history!! How annoying this desire to force something to change
that is ours, almost like us
forcing us to abandon what belongs to us! It's as if there were a rivalry between
governments and start a war, and the people are the ones who pay for it, they start to lose everything… Lives, families, properties, dreams, everything they built
and conquered their entire lives and left them without ground, without life, without history, out in the open, in the void!! 🥺 We have many more relevant things to worry about, such as personal growth, inner peace, physical and mental health, the joy and pride of living in a country of nature, peace, in growth and development. That is what we want and we must worry about and go after it!
Since the tradition of Galician in the History of Galatia???
I've been telling my students for a long time that “I don't speak Portuguese, because this isn't Portugal, because I wasn't born there, I speak: BRAZILIAN!”
How silly!
You talk shit to your students and it seems like you're proud of it. Be careful! If you fall on all fours, you'll start to graze and not even a crane can pick you up.
Shut up, ****! YOU IDIOT AND IMBECOL. YOU'RE NOT TALKING TO A CREATURE LIKE YOUR OWN OR YOUR FAMILY!
We speak Brazilian
These variations occur in European and Quebec French, as well as in German and English. The Portuguese can fully understand our variation, and we can understand the same thing when we live with them.
Only after living with it. When I arrived in Portugal, it was another language for me. Until my ears got used to it.
Did you notice that we Portuguese understand you without any problem? Why is that?
Really?
Not getting used to it, learning the meaning of some words that are totally different from the Portuguese we speak here in Brazil.
Congratulations On.
Well, l. By your reasoning, Americans speak American, in Austria they speak Austrian, in Switzerland they speak Swiss, in Uruguay they speak Uruguayan and so on.
Oh, I see. Very shallow form from the point of view.
It depends, show us that Austrian German is sufficiently different from German in Germany, Uruguayan from Spanish in Spain and American English from British English, if so then it is in line with the text
But does any Austrian say he speaks “Austrian”? Or does a Uruguayan deny that his language is Spanish? And does any American have any doubt that English is not his language (Although English is not the official language of the country there!)?
This is the kind of teaching we have to escape from…ignorance in revolt😌!!! So Americans don't speak English??!! LOL
Just the name tuga says it all!!
You speak Portuguese even if the country doesn't represent you in any way!!!!
You're doing well, I hope your students know Brazilian grammar well,
I hope they are already reading the Brazilian Dictionary
I've already looked for it and haven't found it yet, does it exist?
It seems like someone missed the text interpretation classes, right, Portuguese?
Even if they try to impose an ideology, it is a fact that the official language of Brazil is Portuguese, whether they like it or not.
Very good, Elizabeth! Thank you very much!
Exactly!!!
How ridiculous, changing the language? They don't even know how to speak and write correctly what is in force, just like the articles that say, cars will only be electric, put out the devil's cigarette and put fresh air in those heads and come back to reality.
“…like the articles that say, cars will only be electric…” I think they will be at least hybrid-electric.
And who said you have to speak like the standard language to be another language? You just show that you are an elitist and it is only valid if people speak like a newspaper article.