Brazil is a wonderful country. We all know about her success in football and remember the bright flag. This country can hardly leave anyone indifferent. I would like to get to know the culture of Brazil. And, of course, it should start with the language. So what is the language in Brazil?
Official language
Brazil is a country in South America. The only official language in Brazil is Portuguese. Moreover, Brazil is considered the only Portuguese-speaking state in America. It is easy to guess that Portugal used to be a metropolis in relation to Brazil. We can talk about the use of a specific Brazilian version of the Portuguese language.
According to one version, even the name of the country is associated with the Portuguese language. Allegedly, the Portuguese discovered trees on the coast, and the wood began to be exported in large quantities to Europe. This tree was called by the Portuguese "pau-brazil", which means "brazil tree". The word "brasil" comes from the Portuguese "brasa". And it in turn means "heat" or "hot coals." The Portuguese thought that they had found a place where the commercially valuable brazil tree, which was traded by the Arabs, grows. From this tree, valuable redwood was obtained, which was used to make paints, furniture and musical instruments. However, they were mistaken - Arab traders brought a tree related to this species, but a different one. But the name, nevertheless, could perhaps be fixed.
Aboriginal and immigrant languages
However, Brazil can be considered a multilingual country. Now 175 languages are spoken in it, among them there are both aboriginal and immigrant languages. It is indicated that there were another 120 languages that were formerly spoken, but they disappeared. True, those who speak an unofficial language are less than 1 percent. There are native Indian languages in Brazil Nyengatu, Tukano, Boniva. They are notable for having become the second official languages of one of the municipalities in the state of Amazonas. There are also a huge number of Indian languages. Also in Brazil they speak European and Asian languages, which were brought with them by immigrants from these countries.
After learning Portuguese, you can feel at home in Brazil, "where there are many wild monkeys in the forests," according to Aunt Charlie from the movie "Hello, I'm your aunt!". Ah, this bright country Brazil! What language is spoken there, you now know.
On April 22, 1500, the Portuguese Pedro Alvares Cabral landed for the first time on the Brazilian coast and took possession of it. To get ahead of the Spaniards and the French, King João III of Portugal, starting in 1531, forced the colonization of the country. The indigenous population - the Indians, who did not die in battles and from infectious diseases, were turned into slaves or forced out into the interior of the country. From 1574, Negro slaves were brought in to work on the plantations where cotton and sugar cane were grown.
In 1822, Brazil gained independence from Portugal and became an empire in its own right. In 1850, slavery was banned by law. And in 1889, the monarchy form of government ceased to exist in Brazil. In accordance with the Constitution adopted on February 24, 1891, Brazil became a federal republic. It currently consists of 26 states and 1 federal (capital) district. Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, covering an area of 8,515,770 km2 and having (2017 estimate) 207,350,000 inhabitants.
The population of Brazil is 47.73% white, 43.13% mestizo, 7.61% black and 1.5% Amerindian and Asian. The Indian indigenous population mixed with the Portuguese who arrived there first, and then the Negroes and representatives of other peoples who arrived in Brazil for five centuries.
The Portuguese language of Brazil and Portugal has certain differences in spelling, pronunciation, syntax and vocabulary, which are explained, on the one hand, by geographical remoteness, and, on the other hand, by the special ethnic composition of the Brazilian population. So, from the language of the most important groups of the Tupi-Guarani Indians, thousands of words passed into the Brazilian version of the Portuguese language. First of all, this applies to words denoting the names of persons, places, certain trees, plants, animals, objects, dishes and diseases. In a similar way, words were also borrowed from the language of the African Negroes brought to Brazil.
Linguistic scholars believe that the Portuguese language of Brazil contains some syntactic constructions and pronunciation norms that were previously used equally in Portugal and Brazil. However, over time they have received a different development in Portugal. On the other hand, in Brazilian Romantic literature, there were aspirations against the conservative adherence to Portuguese grammatical norms and a mixture of the norms of the traditional solemn (high) style in the language, various forms of colloquial speech and expressions from the vernacular language of all regions of Brazil was promoted. In the 20th century, Brazilian writers sought to avoid significant differences between literary and spoken language. In literary works and in the speech of all segments of the Brazilian population, there are word usages that are a vivid example of non-compliance with the literary norms of the Portuguese language in Portugal. In the Portuguese language of Portugal and Brazil, there are sometimes two completely different words for the same object, for example:
tram: Braz. bonde m.r., port. electrical m.r.; bus: braz. onibus m.r., port. autocarro m.r.; train: braz. trem m.r., port. comboio m.r.; stewardess: bro. aeromoca railway, port. hospedeira zh.r.
Pronunciation of Portuguese in Brazil
The discrepancies between the pronunciation of Portuguese in Portugal and in Brazil (where several regions of the country have their own local dialects) are not so great as to be a serious obstacle to understanding spoken language.
Attention! The information below is intended for those who have studied at least the first 5 lessons of this course.
Differences are observed in the following cases:
Unstressed vowels in Brazil are pronounced clearer, so in general the difference between stressed and unstressed syllables is not as strong as in Portugal.
Nasal vowels and diphthongs in Brazil more nasalized than in Portugal.
Features of the pronunciation of vowels:
Unstressed e in end of word pronounced not like [(ə)], but like [i].
Example:
diss e[ˈdʒisi]
Unstressed e inside word it is not pronounced like [(ə)], but like [e].
Example:
b e ber
Unstressed o in end of word it is not pronounced as a mandatory [u] in Portugal, but as [o] pronounced in some areas of Brazil.
Example:
group o[ˈgrupo]
Unstressed o inside a word pronounced not like [u], but like [o].
Example:
rec o mecar
Features of the pronunciation of diphthongs:
Diphthong [ɐj̃], in writing em, en or ãe, pronounced in Brazil more closedly, namely as [ẽj̃].
Example:
order em[ˈɔrdẽj̃]
Diphthong ei it is not pronounced like [ɐj], but like or like [e].
Example:
ters ei ro
Features of the pronunciation of consonants:
Before a vowel pronounced like [i], d and t in Brazil they are not pronounced like [d] and [t], but like [ʤ] and like [ʧ].
Example:
vin t e [ˈvĩʧi]
At the end of a word and syllable l pronounced not like [l], but like a weak [u].
Example:
fina l mente
At the end of a word r pronounced either very weakly or not at all. In some areas of Brazil r it is pronounced like a posterior uvular [ʀ], and in some - as an anterior lingual accepted in Portugal, or even like [x], i.e. as a voiceless velar fricative.
Only in certain areas of Brazil s at the end of a word or syllable is pronounced as in Portugal, i.e. like [ʃ] or like [ʒ] (see Activity 3). Much more often s pronounced like [s] or like [z].
Example:
bu s car
Before m and n vowels e, o and a always pronounced in brazil closed.
Example:
Quil ô
metro instead of Quil ó
metro
Therefore, root vowels e or o and following them m or n are pronounced differently than in Portugal (see lesson 2), - in the 2nd person singular. numbers and in the 3rd person singular. and many others. numbers - closed.
Example:
c o mes [ˈkomis] instead of c o mes [ˈkɔm(ə)ʃ]
Whereas in Portugal the verbs in -ar in the 1st person pl. numbers Presente and PPS distinguish between open and closed pronunciation a before -mos, in Brazil in both cases they pronounce closed a.
Example:
in Portugal: cheg a mos [ʃ (ə) ˈgɐmuʃ] - cheg á
mos [ʃ(ə)ˈgɐmuʃ]
in Brazil: cheg a mos [ʃ (ə) ˈgɐmos] - cheg a mos [ʃ(ə)ˈgɐmos]
Spelling of Portuguese in Brazil
In cases where in Portugal the vowel is before m or n is pronounced openly and above it in writing is placed acento agudo, in Brazil this vowel is pronounced closed (see Activity 5: accent marks) and is written above it acento circumflexo.
Examples:
in Portugal
Quil ó
metro
t é
nis
ir ó
Nico
in Brazil
Quil ô
metro
t ê
nis
ir ô
Nico
In Brazil, unlike Portugal, the letter c before s, c or t written only when it should be spoken. In many words c is omitted, despite the fact that in Portugal it is pronounced in these words.
This also applies to p before s, c and t.
Examples:
in Portugal
a c tividade
arquite c to
dire cção
egi p to
espe c tador
espe c taculo
eucali p to
exa c to
exce p to
fa c to
in Brazil
antividade
arquiteto
direçao
Egito
espetador
espetaculo
eucalito
exato
exceto
fato
The only word that spells two in Portugal n, connosco, in Brazil spelled with one n, i.e. conosco. In other cases, both in Portugal and in Brazil, doubled can only be s or r.
Features of the spoken pronunciation of the Portuguese language in Brazil are partially reflected in writing. So, in Brazil you can sometimes find the spelling pra instead of para. Verb forms estar sometimes written without initials es-, i.e. instead of esta spelled ta.
In colloquial language, instead of address Senhor often used Seu, if it is immediately followed by the last name or first name.
Grammatical features of the Portuguese language in Brazil
Gerund
A construction with a preposition that has become very common in Portugal a and infinitive estar + a + infinitivo is not typical for Brazil. Instead, the gerund is predominantly used there:
estar + gerúndio.
Use of the definite article
Unlike Portugal, in Brazil, the definite article is usually not used before possessive pronouns, before proper names, before names used to indicate position and degree of kinship. In Brazil, the definite article is omitted more often than in Portugal.
Diminutive forms
Diminutive forms in Brazil are used much more often than in Portugal.
Contact in Brazil
Contrary to Portuguese tradition (see Lesson 7), address in Brazil is greatly simplified. Respectful treatment is limited to words about senhor or a senhora, as well as senhorita against a young unmarried woman. Used as an informal address voce, which corresponds to the Russian pronoun you. In the south of Brazil, the pronoun is partially used as such an address. tu. Unlike Portugal, in Brazil official and honorary titles, as a rule, are not used. Despite the fact that every graduate of the university has the title of doctor, in Brazil this title is not given such great social significance as in Portugal. Teachers are addressed with the words professor or professora, regardless of whether they work at a school, gymnasium, institute or university, whether they teach schoolchildren or students.
Prepositions
The use of a number of prepositions in combination with certain verbs in Brazil differs in some cases from their use in Portugal. Some stable prepositional combinations characteristic of Portugal do not exist in Brazil and vice versa. Here we will not give examples for each individual case, we will only say that where in Brazil the preposition is used with the verb denoting purposeful movement em, in Portugal the preposition would be used a or para(cm.
Let's take a brief detour into history and find out why did Portuguese become the official language of the country in Brazil, and not in its pure form, but with the addition of a local dialect.
Local and immigrant languages
Brazil is a multilingual country.
To date it speaks 175 languages, among which are the languages of the local aborigines, the languages and dialects of immigrants. There were 120 more languages, but they disappeared over time.
Now those who speak the unofficial language of Brazil are less than 1%.
After all earlier, the indigenous Indians of Brazil spoke their own languages. That is why the natives and the population of the new formation did not understand each other.
As a result of these metamorphoses a language called "Lunga-Jeral" was obtained, which became the language of transition, and subsequently - and common in the state of Brazil.
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There are also several Aboriginal languages in Brazil.
These include the languages of the Indian tribes Boniva, Tukano, Nyengatu. These three languages are famous because they are officially recognized as the second languages of one of the municipalities in the Amazons. 
There are other, lesser known Indian languages and dialects. Such languages, for example, include the language of the Matses (Majoruna) Indians. They speak a similar language of the Mathis and Korubo Indians.
The Indians of this tribe are the largest group, which forms the northern group of the Panno language.
There are Kulina Pano, Marubo, and Kanamari tribes. But this tribe belongs to the Katukin language group.
The remaining peoples and their languages are practically not studied.
State language of Brazil
Brazil is one of the states of South America.
After colonization by Europeans, Portuguese became the official language.
It is the only country in Latin America that speaks Portuguese. All other states speak Spanish.
Brazilian Portuguese is a specific variant of Classical Portuguese.
For its long history of development the language absorbed the vocabulary of Indian and African tribes. This is very clearly seen in the names of local dishes, plants, animals.
But even in this version there are dialects. In the north and south of the country, the language differs in the pronunciation of consonants.
Portuguese in its purest form is more closed, it has more hissing sounds. The grammar hasn't changed much.
Or get acquainted with the sights of the amazingly beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro
In addition to the official Portuguese language, other languages are also spoken in Brazil.
After all until the middle of the 19th century, the majority of the population was a Caucasoid race from Portugal, and only then the Germans, Italians, Spaniards, Russians, Arabs, residents of the Balkan countries began to join.
For a hundred years Between 1850 and 1965, approximately 5 million immigrants moved to Brazil. The bulk were Italians, Lebanese and Germans.
And after the Second World War ended, the Japanese poured into the country. 
Recently the Brazilian dialect of Portuguese has become more studied than Portuguese itself in its purest form.
When traveling in Brazil, you can use English or the services of an interpreter.
After all, English is now the most widely spoken in the world, so in hotels, restaurants, airports there will always be people who know English.
At the household level it is better to learn a few common phrases in Portuguese, well, be able to count from one to ten or a little more.
Here is a short list of key phrases:
- Ola! - Hey!
- Bom dia! - Good afternoon! / Good morning! (before noon)
- Boa tarde! - Good evening! / Good afternoon! (from noon to 18.00)
- Boa noite! - Good evening! / Goodnight! (from 18.00 to midnight)
- A te avista - Goodbye!
- Adeus! - Till!
- Kuantu kushta? - What is the price?
- Obrigado - Thank you (men say).
- Eu so de Moshkov - I'm from Moscow.
- Eu nay fala purtugesh - I don't speak Portuguese.
- Si - Yes.
- Naw - No.
- Fala inglash/russu? – Do you speak English/Russian?
- Shamo me... - My name is...
- Pur Favor - Please.
- Onda shta...? - Where is…?
- Obrigada - Thank you (women say).
- Tenya, and bondade - Be kind.
- un - 1;
- doish - 2;
- trash - 3;
- quatro - 4;
- blue - 5;
- seiches - 6;
- sete - 7;
- oitu - 8;
- new - 9;
- desh - 10.
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The widespread opinion about the same root origin of the language that people speak and where they live is, in general, quite true. In Russia they speak Russian, in China - in Chinese, in France - also in their native language. When asked "What language is spoken in Brazil?" The answer immediately comes to mind - in Brazilian. No, this is wrong. This country is a former colony, which means that much here is not the same as in other states.
The presence of one’s own language, native to countless generations of inhabitants, is more relevant to those countries whose history spans from a thousand years or more, where their territory was not completely captured and alien tribes and peoples remained forever with their absolute alien culture and speech. As it happened, for example, in one of the oldest states on the planet - ancient Egypt, which remembered the pharaohs, commanders and emperors of Rome, and eventually turned into an Arab republic. Now, of their own free will, with songs, dances of tolerant citizens at demonstrations, ritual rituals, who sold their souls to who knows who, politicians in the stands, a united Europe is striving for this by leaps and bounds, but that's another story...
The fact that this is Portuguese is probably not known only by completely illiterate people. And the reason for this on the surface is the miraculous heroes sailors from enlightened medieval Europe, blessed by the Pope and other adherents of the Western Church, who drove the local population into the bosom of the Catholic Church with sword and fire, forcing them to speak exclusively in their native Spanish, Portuguese, and also English, Dutch, French.
As a result of their geographical discoveries, a huge number of colonies appeared on the world map, where the native dialects of the conquerors became the official languages in which the entire state document flow was conducted:
In addition to the former metropolis and Brazil itself, most Portuguese is spoken in 10 countries, including Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea. Up to 240 million people recognize him as his family.
It is considered by linguistic scholars to be closely related to Spanish, which, interestingly, is spoken by many more people in the world than English - 427 million against 339 million people, according to 2016 statistics.
Another interesting fact: Brazil is the only country in the Americas where Portuguese is spoken.
And a lot of things:
For those who were firmly confident in their knowledge of what language is spoken in Brazil, or found out after reading this article, it may not be without interest that since 1996 there has been an international organization - the Commonwealth of Portuguese-Speaking Countries, and since 2005 - May 5 declared the Day of the Portuguese language, culture.
Brazil - a country located in South America, occupies the eastern part of this tropical continent. The official language of Brazil is Portuguese. The full original name of the language is língua portuguesa. This is the language of the Western Romance group, which is spoken by more than two hundred million people in South America and Europe. This article is devoted to the official language of the country Brazil.
Brazilian language
What is the official language in the Portuguese variant is a set of Portuguese dialects used mainly in Brazil. It is spoken by almost all 200 million inhabitants of the country. It is widespread in the Brazilian diaspora, which currently consists of about two million people who have emigrated to other countries.
This variety of Portuguese differs, especially in phonetics and word stress, from the varieties spoken in Portugal and Portuguese-speaking African countries. In African countries, it tends to be more closely related to modern European Portuguese, in part because Portuguese colonial rule ended much later in them than in Brazil. Despite these differences between spoken varieties, Brazilian and European Portuguese differ little in formal writing. This phenomenon is in many ways similar to the differences between American and British English.
Portuguese language reform
In 1990, the community of Portuguese-speaking countries, which included representatives of all countries whose official language was Portuguese, reached an agreement on spelling reform in order to unify the two standards that were then used by Brazil, on the one hand, and the rest of the Portuguese-speaking countries, on the other. . This spelling reform went into effect in Brazil on January 1, 2009. In Portugal, the reform was signed by the President on 21 July 2008 and included a six-year adaptation period during which both spellings coexisted. All countries of this community have signed the text of this document. In Brazil, this reform has been in effect since January 2016. Portugal and other Portuguese-speaking countries also started using the new orthography.
Regional varieties of Brazilian Portuguese, while remaining mutually intelligible, may differ from each other in such matters as vowel pronunciation and speech intonation.
Portuguese variant
The question is often asked: what is the official language in Brazil? Since there is no Brazilian language, Brazilians speak their own version of Portuguese.
The use of Portuguese in Brazil is a legacy of the colonization of the Americas. The first wave of Portuguese-speaking immigrants settled in Brazil in the 16th century, but the language was not then widely used. For a time, the Portuguese coexisted with a lingua franca called lingua geral, based on the Indian languages used by the Jesuit missionaries, as well as various African languages spoken by the millions of slaves brought into the country between the 16th and 19th centuries. By the end of the eighteenth century, Portuguese had established itself as the national language. One of the main factors contributing to this rapid change was the spread of colonization into the interior of Brazil and the increase in the number of Portuguese settlers who brought their language and became the most important ethnic group in Brazil.
Beginning in the early 18th century, efforts were made by the Portuguese government to expand the use of the Portuguese language throughout the colony. Especially because its use in Brazil could guarantee Portugal the lands claimed by the Spaniards (according to various treaties signed in the 18th century, these lands could be transferred to the people who actually occupied them). Under the leadership of the Marquis of Pombal (1750-1777), Portuguese began to be preferred by the Brazilians, as he expelled the Jesuit missionaries who taught the lingua geral and forbade the use of other vernaculars.
The failed attempts at colonization by the French of the city of Rio de Janeiro in the 16th century and by the Dutch of the northeast of the country in the 17th century had little effect on Portuguese. Substantial waves of non-Portuguese-speaking settlers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (mostly from Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Japan, and Lebanon) were linguistically integrated into the Portuguese-speaking majority over several generations, with the exception of some regions from three southern states (Parana, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul). What is the official language spoken in Brazil? Of course, this is the Portuguese language, which is spoken by 97 percent of the country's population.
The current position of the language
Currently, the vast majority of Brazilians speak Portuguese as their first language, with the exception of small island communities of descendants of European (German, Polish, Ukrainian, Italian) and Japanese immigrants - mainly in the south and southeast of the country, as well as villages and reservations inhabited by Native Americans. And even these population groups use the Portuguese language to communicate with strangers, watch and listen to television and radio programs in it. In addition, there is a community of Brazilian sign language users, whose number, according to experts, reaches 3 million.
Where they speak Portuguese
As a result of territorial expansion during the period of colonial conquest, speakers of Portuguese and mixed Creole are found in Goa, Daman and Diu in India, in Batticaloa on the east coast of Sri Lanka; on the Indonesian island of Flores; in the Malacca state of Malaysia, on the islands in the Caribbean, where Portuguese-based creoles are spoken. Cape Verde Islands - the most widely known Portuguese Creole. Portuguese speakers are commonly referred to as lusophones in both English and Portuguese.
Influence
Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that developed from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval kingdom of Galicia and retained some of the phonetic and lexical features of the Celtic languages. This is a general description of the official language of Brazil.
Portuguese is the mother tongue of approximately 215-220 million people. The total number of speakers is 260 million. This language is the sixth most spoken in the world, the third most common European and one of the main ones in the Southern Hemisphere. It is also one of the most widely spoken languages in South America and the second most spoken language in Latin America after Spanish. It is the official language of the European Union and the African Union.
Portuguese is a rapidly developing language
According to UNESCO, Portuguese is the fastest growing European language after English. According to The Portugal News, which published the UNESCO figures, it has the highest growth potential as an international in southern Africa and South America. Portuguese is a global language that is officially spoken on five continents.
Since 1991, when Brazil joined the Mercosur economic community with other South American countries, namely Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, Portuguese has been either compulsory or taught in the schools of these South American countries.
At the start of the 21st century, after Macau was ceded to China and Brazilian immigration to Japan slowed, the use of Portuguese in Asia declined. It is again becoming the language of opportunity there mainly due to the expansion of diplomatic and financial ties with the economically powerful Portuguese speaking countries (Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, etc.) in the world.
Number of media
How many speakers does the official language of Brazil have? In July 2017, the total number of Portuguese speakers is estimated at 279 million. This number does not include the Lusophone diaspora, which is estimated at about 10 million people (including 4.5 million Portuguese, 3 million Brazilians and half a million Creoles, etc.). It is difficult to give an official exact number of Portuguese speakers, since a significant proportion of these people are naturalized citizens born outside the territory of Brazil and Portugal, and the children of immigrants may have only a basic knowledge of the language. It is also important to note that a significant part of the diaspora is part of the already counted population of Portuguese-speaking countries and territories.
Therefore, the Portuguese language is used by more than 250 million people daily who have direct or indirect, legal and social contact with it. Portuguese can be the only language of communication, or is used only for certain purposes: for education, communication with local or international administration, for trade and the purchase of various services.
Portuguese vocabulary
Most of the words in Portuguese come from Latin. Either it was a direct borrowing or Latin terms came through other Romance languages. However, due to its original Celtic heritage and later Portuguese involvement in the Age of Discovery, it has some Celtic words and also borrowed vocabulary from all over the world.
The development of the Portuguese language in Brazil (and therefore in the rest of the areas where it is spoken) has been influenced by other languages with which it has come into contact, mainly in vocabulary: first the native Amerindian vernaculars, then the various African languages spoken slaves, and finally the languages of later European and Asian immigrants. Although the vocabulary is still predominantly Portuguese, the influence of other languages is evident in the Brazilian lexicon, which today includes, for example:
Words borrowed from the Tupi Indian language are especially common in toponyms (place names). Also, Portuguese adopted the names of most of the plants and animals found in Brazil in this language. Most official animal names in Portuguese-speaking countries are also Amerindian in origin. However, many Tupi-Guarani place names are not a direct consequence of Native American expressions, but were actually invented by European settlers and Jesuit missionaries, who widely used the lingua geral in the first centuries of colonization. Many of the American words entered the Portuguese lexicon as early as the 16th century, and some were eventually borrowed into other European languages.
Between the ninth and early thirteenth centuries, the Portuguese acquired nearly 800 words from Arabic under the influence of Moorish Iberia. They are often recognizable by the original Arabic article "al". This category of words includes many general terms such as village, olive oil, hotel. Thus, the official language of Brazil contains many loanwords.
Languages of South America
In fact, two languages are used in South America - Spanish and Portuguese, which are closely related. Spanish does not have official status in Brazil. However, it is widely studied in schools and universities across the country. There is a close linguistic interaction. Thus, Portuguese is the only official language of Brazil. Venezuela and Peru use Spanish as their official language. The number of speakers of these languages in South America is approximately equal.
Unlike Spanish, Portuguese has retained older speech forms on the one hand, and on the other hand contains a huge amount of sound innovations of an indeterminate (most likely Celtic) origin. The set of vowel sounds, the specificity of the pronunciation of certain sounds, the change in open-closed vowels make it close to French and Catalan. However, the vocabulary of Portuguese, as well as the grammatical system, is closer to Spanish. At the same time, due to the specifics of the pronunciation of vowels, Portuguese speakers understand spoken Spanish better than vice versa.
In areas of strong Spanish influence, such as southern Brazil, Portuguese speakers understand Spanish almost completely. In the nearby territories of Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia, a mixed Portuguese-Spanish language portuñol arose. Classical Castilian speakers do not understand spoken Portuguese very well, although written Portuguese is usually understood by ninety percent.
Grade 7 students who have such a task in geography contour maps: "Sign the official languages of Brazil, Venezuela and Peru" should keep in mind that this is Spanish and Portuguese.