Brazilian-Portuguese - History - Influences From Other Languages

Influences From Other Languages

The evolution of Brazilian Portuguese has certainly been influenced by the languages it supplanted: first the Amerindian tongues of the natives, then the various African languages brought by the slaves, and finally those of later European and Asian immigrants. The influence is clearly detected in the Brazilian lexicon, which today has hundreds of words of Tupi–Guarani and Yoruba origin, among others. However, the vocabulary is still predominately Portuguese, since the contributions of other languages were restricted to a few subjects or areas of knowledge.

From South America, words deriving from the Tupi–Guarani language family are particularly prevalent in place names (Itaquaquecetuba, Pindamonhangaba, Caruaru, Ipanema, Paraíba). The native languages also contributed for the names of most of the plants and animals found in Brazil, such as arara ("macaw"), jacaré ("South American alligator"), tucano ("toucan"), mandioca ("cassava"), abacaxi ("pineapple"), and many more. However, many Tupi–Guarani toponyms did not derive directly from Amerindian expressions, but were in fact coined by European settlers and Jesuit missionaries, who used the Língua Geral extensively in the first centuries of colonization. Many of the Amerindian words entered the Brazilian Portuguese lexicon as early as in the 16th century, and some of them were eventually borrowed by European Portuguese and later even into other European languages.

The African languages provided hundreds of words too, especially in the following subjects: food (e.g., quitute, quindim, acarajé, moqueca), religious concepts (mandinga, macumba, orixá, axé), African-Brazilian music (samba, lundu, maxixe, berimbau), body-related parts and diseases (banguela, bunda, capenga, caxumba), places (cacimba, quilombo, senzala, mocambo), objects (miçanga, abadá, tanga) and household concepts, such as cafuné ("caress on the head"), curinga ("joker card"), caçula ("youngest child"), and moleque ("brat, spoiled child"). Though the African slaves had various ethnic origins, the Bantu and Guinean-Sudanese groups contributed by far to most of the borrowings, above all the Kimbundu (from Angola), Kikongo (from Angola, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Yoruba/Nagô (from Nigeria), and Jeje/Ewe language (from Benin).

There are also many borrowings from other European languages such as English, specially words connected to technology, modern science and finance, like app, mod, layout, briefing, designer, slideshow, mouse (computing), forward, commodities, commercial terms like kingsize, fast food (ˈfɛstʃ ˈfudʒɪ), delivery service, self service, drive-thru, telemarketing, franchise, merchandise, but also cultural aspects such as okay, gay, vintage, junk food, hot dog, pet, lol, nerd (ˈnɛʁdʒi, rarely ˈnɐɻdz), geek (sometimes ˈʒiki, but also ˈɡiki and rarely ˈɡik), noob, punk, skinhead (skĩˈχɛdʒi), emo (ˈẽmu), indie (ˈĩdʒi), hooligan, cool, vibe, hype, rocker, hippie, yuppie, bobo, hipster, overdose, junkie, cowboy, mullet, country, sex appeal, drag queen, queer, bro, rapper, mc, surf, skating, gospel, praise, bullying (ˈbuljĩɡɪ, but much often the closer to native pronounce ˈbɐlĩ(ŋ)), stalking (ˈstawkĩ, much often closer ˈstɔwkĩ(ŋ)), etc.

French (food, furniture, luxurious fabrics and abstract concepts). Examples are hors-concours, chic, metrô (with the French inflection), batom, soutien, buquê, abajur, purê, petit gâteau, pot-pourri, ménage, enfant gâté, enfant terrible, garçonnière, patati-patata, parvenu, détraqué, femme fatale, noir, rendez-vous, chez..., partouse, pédé, à la carte, à la .... Scholars affirm that even now, French remains as the largest foreign influence in Portuguese due to the fact that French borrowings were adopted by a strong cultural affinity. Brazilian Portuguese tends to adopt French suffixes as in aterrissagem, differently from European Portuguese. Brazilian Pt. also tends to adopt culture-bound concepts from French, but when it comes to technology, the major influence is the English, while European Pt. tends to adopt technological terms from French. That is the difference between estação and gare. An evident example of the dichotomy between English and French influences is the use of the expressions know-how, used in a technical context, and savoir-faire, in literal Portuguese saber-fazer, proficiência-da-feitura, saber-como), German and Italian (mostly food, music, arts and architecture), and, to a lesser extent, Asian languages such as Japanese. The latter borrowings are also mostly related to food and drinks or culture-bound concepts, such as quimono, from Japanese kimono. Besides strudel, pretzel, bratwurst, sauerkraut (spelled chucrute and pronounced ), Oktoberfest, biergarten, there are also abstract terms from German like encrenca or blitz. A significant number of beer brands in Brazil are named after German culture-bound concepts due the fact that the brewing process was brought by German immigrants. Besides, there were many Italian loan words and expressions which are not related to food or music: (italianisms) like tchau, imbróglio, bisonho, panetone, è vero, cicerone, male male, terra roxa, capisce, mezzo, va bene, ecco, ecco fatto, ecco qui, caspita, cavolo, incavolarsi, engrouvinhado, andiamo via. Due to its large Italian diaspora, parts of the Southern and Southeast states have an Italian influence over the prosody, the vocal patterns of the language, with an Italian sounding stress.

The influence of these languages in the phonology and grammar of Brazilian Portuguese have been very minor. Some authors claim the loss of initial es in the verb estar – now widespread in Brazil – is an influence from African slaves' speech, and it is also claimed that some common factors of BP – such as the near-complete disappearance of certain verb inflections and the marked preference for compound tenses – recall the grammatical simplification typical of pidgins. However, the same or similar processes can be verified in the European variant, and such theories have not yet been proved. Regardless of these borrowings and changes, it must be kept in mind that Brazilian Portuguese is not a Portuguese creole, since it can be traced as a direct evolution from 16th century European Portuguese.