Brazilian Portugese
Portuguese is the official language of Brazil, and the colonization of Brazil by Portugal has had lasting and profound effects on the country. Brazil was a colony of Portugal from 1500 to 1822, and in fact the government of Portugal was forced to move to Brazil from the years 1808 to 1815. Most people would not be aware of the fact that a European nation was ruled from South America for a seven year period.
Before the Portuguese set foot on Brazil, the population was made up of Amerindian people, thought to have arrived there some 11,000 years ago across from what is now Siberia. There were many different dialects, and in fact most of them were different from each other just as they are today. They only exist in the rarest and most remote areas and most of the people that use these dialects as their mother tongue can also speak and understand Portuguese to a certain extent. Portuguese is the language that they hear on the radio and see on television so almost everyone in the country understands it a little.
When the Portuguese came, the language did not catch on immediately but soon there were so many Portuguese coming over from Europe that it started to become the language spoken. This actually increased as African slaves were brought to Brazil by the Europeans. It might seem that this would have made it more difficult to make the Portuguese language more widespread but the reality was that most of the Africans could not understand each others’ native dialects. They spent time with the Portuguese and picked up some of the language and in time it was easier for them to try and speak to one another in Portuguese.
While Portuguese is the official language, it is not exactly the same as Portuguese that is spoken in Portugal. The way that it is written is very similar, and many of the grammatical rules remain the same. Where the two differ the most are in the slang and the common vernacular. Influences from other languages like the Amerindian, English, German and Italian to name a few have changed the spoken language somewhat. The words that are borrowed depend on the influencing language; much of the English that is borrowed is related to technical terms. If it is a borrowed word from Italian, French or German it is likely to refer to music, food or the arts in some way.
The difference between the Brazilian Portuguese and that of Portugal is probably comparable to the difference between English in the United Kingdom and the United States. If you were an American reading a British newspaper it would make sense to you, but if you were talking to someone from Britain on the phone they might be a little hard to understand. The rules are the same, but the accent and the slang or local terms would take you a little while to comprehend.
Brazilian Portuguese is a rich and beautiful language, like the people of the country. It is influenced by many different cultures and as