3.3.b. Brazilian dialectal zones
The common Brazilian speech is more consistent throughout the
country than what is spoken in Portugal. This surprises many people,
considering that Brazil is such a large country. Comparing the various
Brazilian dialects with those of the Portuguese spoken in Portugal
leads us to conclude that they are fusions of different inflectional
forms of the mother tongue. Almost all the regional traits or
characteristics of the standard Portuguese in Portugal are present
either in the standard Brazilian Portuguese or in some dialect in
Brazil.
Because there is a lack of complete scientific data describing the
differences between various regional dialects spoken in Brazil, we
cannot classify them in the manner that the dialects of continental
Portuguese were classified. There is a proposal for classifying the
Brazilian differences along pronunciation lines, a methodology that is
similar to the one used to classify European Portuguese. This method
is based on vowel pronunciation (for example, pEgar
(to take) can be pronounced with an open or closed "e") and speech
cadence. According to this proposal, it is possible to distinguish two
groups of Brazilian dialects: those of the North and those of the
South. In the dialect of the North, one can also distinguish two
varieties: the Amazonan and the Northeastern. In the South, we find
four varieties: the Bahian, Fluminense, Mineira and the Sulina.
Esta proposta, embora tenha o mérito de ser a primeira
tentativa de classificação global dos dialetos
portugueses no Brasil, é evidentemente simplificadora. Alguns
dos casos mais evidentes de variações dialectais
não representadas nessa classificação seriam:
This proposal, even if it has the merit of being the first attempt
of a global classification of the Portuguese dialects in Brazil, is
clearly simplified. Some of the more evident cases of dialectal
variations non-represented in this classification would be:
- the different pronunciation between the coast and the interior
of the Northeast region; the dialect from the region of Recife, in
Pernambuco (PE) is particularly distinct;
- the dialect from the city of Rio de Janeiro (RJ);
- the dialect from the heartland of the state of São Paulo (SP); e
- the own characteristics of the three states in the South region
(PR, SC and RS), particularly the dialect used in the state of
Rio Grande do Sul (RS)
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