Languages of Brazil
| Languages of Brazil | |
|---|---|
| Official languages | Portuguese language, Brazilian Sign Language |
| Indigenous languages | Apalaí, Arára, Bororo, Canela, Carajá, Carib, Guarani, Kaingang, Nadëb, Nheengatu, Pirahã, Terena, Tucano, Tupiniquim |
| Regional languages | German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish (border areas), English,Pomeranian, Chinese |
| Sign languages |
Brazilian Sign Language Ka'apor Sign Language |
| Common keyboard layouts |
|
Portuguese is the official language of Brazil, and is widely spoken by most of population. Brazilian Sign Language is also an official language, minority languages include indigenous languages, and languages of more recent European and Asian immigrants. The population speaks or signs approximately 210 languages, of which 180 are indigenous. Less than forty thousand people actually speak any one of the indigenous languages in the Brazilian territory.
Language is one of the strongest elements of Brazil's national . The only groups, and pockets of immigrants who maintain their heritage languages. Within Brazil, there is no major dialect variation of the Portuguese, only moderate regional variation in accent, vocabulary, and use of personal nouns, pronouns, and verb conjugations. Variations are diminishing as a result of mass media, especially national television networks that are viewed by the majority of Brazilians.
The written language, which is uniform across Brazil, follows national rules of spelling and accentuation that are revised from time to time for simplification. With the implementation of the Orthographic Agreement of 1990, the orthographic norms of Brazil and Portugal were made virtually identical, with some minor differences. Brazil enacted these changes in 2009, and Portugal enacted them in 2012.
Written Brazilian Portuguese differs significantly from the spoken language, with only an educated subsection of the population adhering to prescriptive norms. The rules of grammar are complex and allow more flexibility than English or Spanish. Many foreigners who speak Portuguese fluently have difficulty writing it properly. Because of Brazil's size, self-sufficiency, and relative isolation, foreign languages are not widely spoken. English is often studied in school and is increasingly studied in private courses. It has replaced French as the principal second language among educated people. Spanish is mutually intelligible with Portuguese to a certain degree, allowing Brazilians to considerably understand written and spoken Spanish without prior study, but finding difficulty in oral communication, while Spanish speakers usually have difficulty to understand spoken Portuguese.
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Wikipedia