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Choosing a Portuguese dialect

  Tags: Dialect | Portuguese
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
11 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
Jake Day
Newbie
United States
Joined 5029 days ago

30 posts - 35 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 1 of 11
04 March 2014 at 1:28am | IP Logged 
I would like some guidance regarding which dialect of Portuguese I should study, if I were to study Portuguese. (I'm
currently debating it in my head.)

Pt-br has the most speakers, but pt-pt has a history I find more interesting. I already know some Spanish--both
the Mexican and Iberian dialects. Is pt-pt close to Iberian Spanish linguistically? Is pt-br close to South American
Spanish linguistically? (I'm fully aware that other dialects of Portuguese exist in Africa and Asia, but there aren't
many learning materials for them.)

My interest in Portuguese is partially for pleasure (I really like the sound of the language), partially for business (I
think it might look good on my resume to have more than just English and Spanish), and partially for religion (I find
the Marian phenomena at Fátima, Portugal interesting).
1 person has voted this message useful



iguanamon
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Senior Member
Virgin Islands
Speaks: Ladino
Joined 5262 days ago

2241 posts - 6731 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)

 
 Message 2 of 11
04 March 2014 at 2:28am | IP Logged 
My advice is to pick whichever variety you want and be familiar with the other. A balance of 70/30 will be enough to be familiar but not enough to mess with your target accent. There are plenty of materials available for Brazilian Portuguese and enough, but fewer, for Iberian Portuguese as well. What is your level of Spanish and do you intend to be active in both languages? Learning Portuguese can seriously mess with your Spanish if you aren't careful or aren't at a high level in the language. If you aren't at at least an intermediate level in Spanish, I'd stay away from Portuguese until you are. When you're ready for resources let us know.
4 persons have voted this message useful



fabriciocarraro
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Brazil
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 Message 3 of 11
04 March 2014 at 6:52am | IP Logged 
Jake Day wrote:
Is pt-pt close to Iberian Spanish linguistically? Is pt-br close to South American Spanish linguistically?


I wouldn't say that...
On a quick overview, for speakers of English and other Latin languages:
- Pronunciation: PT-BR is considered to be easier to produce and comprehend, since its sounds are more open.
- Grammar/Verb conjugation: PT-BR is much easier, since the there's no more "tu" or "vós" (2nd person singular and plural), which were replaced with "você" and "vocês" (using the same conjugation as the 3rd person singular and plural). That means you only need to learn 4 conjugations for each verb, instead of 6. I heard that "vós" is not so widely used in Portugal nowadays as well.
- Vocabulary: Mostly the same, with some differences that can be easily learned.
- Number of speakers: You said it yourself. =)

So, if you're just learning for fun, pick the one you're more interested in (PT-PT apparently), but if you want to go for the easier one, I'd definitely say PT-BR.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Medulin
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Senior Member
Croatia
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Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali

 
 Message 4 of 11
04 March 2014 at 12:46pm | IP Logged 
There is no single Brazilian dialect, there are like zillions of dialects in Brazil:

I can recommend the soteropolitano dialect,
it is the most pleasing of the main dialects (other being: paulistano, carioca, bh, recifense, candango)...
furthermore it does not shy from away subjunctive infinitives (me siga!, me diga!, venha! all sound colloquial and informal). It's the dialect spoken by people from Salvador (either born there like Daniela Mercury
or who lived there for the most time of their life like Ivete Sangalo or Claudia Leitte)...

Carioca, recifense and candango have a lot of tu (tu viu, tu falou, te liga!...)
Carioca and recifense have too much chiado (sh and zh's sounds).
Paulistano has a harsh r sound (and being a large city it has at least 10 different accents within the city).
BH accent has no i-de-apoio so it sounds dry to the palate: portugues [pohtuges], três [tres], vocês [voses].

Edited by Medulin on 04 March 2014 at 12:57pm

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fabriciocarraro
Hexaglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
Brazil
russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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989 posts - 1454 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French
Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese

 
 Message 5 of 11
04 March 2014 at 3:20pm | IP Logged 
I think he'll have a very very hard time finding resources to learn regional Brazilian accents hahaha

Considering that he'll get a regular course (either for PT-PT or PT-BR), he'll probably get a "standard accent", which in Brazil can be a standardized São Paulo or Rio accent, without too much "sh's" or "r's".
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Serpent
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Russian Federation
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 Message 6 of 11
04 March 2014 at 5:00pm | IP Logged 
I'm learning European Portuguese and I'm basically ignoring the vós forms. They are obvious enough to understand, and I did learn them when I took a class for about a month or two, but in these 5-6 years I've only encountered them in a description of a mystical ritual in a book by Coelho.
2 persons have voted this message useful



osoymar
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Pro Member
United States
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Speaks: English*, German, Portuguese, Japanese
Studies: Spanish, French
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 Message 7 of 11
04 March 2014 at 7:16pm | IP Logged 
I think the most important element by far is to know which dialect and which culture will
interest you more.

If you really can't make up your mind based on that, I would pick the variant that I
consider harder, European Portuguese. It seems that it would be easier to pick up a
passive understanding of Brazilian Portuguese after studying the European variant
actively, rather than the other way around.

But really, don't stress too much over the choice and pick whichever interests you more.
4 persons have voted this message useful



tarvos
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China
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 Message 8 of 11
04 March 2014 at 10:35pm | IP Logged 
I'm studying the variant from Portugal, but I will probably have to do something with the
variant from Brazil sooner or later. And that of Capo Verde as well.


1 person has voted this message useful



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