Amazonico Dialect of Brazil

Dialect of Brazil

Before I begin, for those who are not familiar with the term “Dialect,” let me start off by explaining a little in detail exactly what are dialects when referring to a language. I’m sure you know someone who lives in the South of the US or know someone who knows someone that lives there. You know? like in “The Dukes of Hazard”? Boss Hog & Roscoe P. Coltrane – “Them Dukes, them Dukes, them Dukes. Luke and Bo Duke and Daisy too.” Or from the famous hit TV show Flo? Or how about Larry the Cable Guy? “Git er done!”. Yeah, they all speak with that Southern Drawl, if “ya’ll from the South.” And then, let us not forget about the TV show “cheers” with Cliffy and his Boston accent.

These are known as dialects. And much like the US, other countries too have different dialects depending on where you happen to be in the country. People in different parts of the US have a different brand of speech. The same holds true for the rest of the world. People speak a different tongue depending on which part of a country they might be in. Now I will talk about a particular dialect of Brazil – Amazonico.

Amazonico

Map of Amapá

I live in the Northern Brazil state of Amapá. Here, the dialect is called Amazonico. From what I know, there are at least 6 different dialectal zones in Brazil. They are: Amazonico, Nordestino, Baiano, Sulista, Mineiro, and Fluminense (the Dialect of Rio de Janeiro).

The biggest difference here in Amapá is that Brazilians pronounce the S a little stronger on consonant endings than in other regions of Brazil. For example; the word mais (more) is pronounced like “maish.”

Brazilians in Amapá also tend to open their mouths more for certain vowels. However, they don’t strongly pronounce the R when followed by another consonant. For example; in porta (door). In other dialects of Brazil, people tend to emphasize the R a little stronger – like a strong H sound.

Speaking in Amazonico, Brazilians also have a different taste for the combinations of DE and TE. The word, Te (you), is pronounced like “Chi.”

How about the consonant Z on final endings? Like the Amazonico S, the Z is also strongly pronounced. The Z ending often sounds like “sh.” For example, the number 10 or dez is pronounced “desh” and faz (you do) is “faish.” For some people here, there is a preference for the vowel E. For example, I have heard people say the word peru (turkey) pronounced like “piru.”

It is interesting hearing the different sounds in the Amazonico dialect. I have been to Belem as well as the city of Fortaleza. They are relatively close to one another, the latter being on the coast. I have also been down South to Sau Paulo. So I have had the chance to hear a little mixture of the different dialects of Brazil. I go into a little more detail with the Brazilian Portuguese language on my website. Until next time…I’m out of here.