How well do you know Portuguese dialects?

Overview of Portuguese Dialects

• Portuguese has two standard forms of writing, European and Brazilian Portuguese, and numerous regional spoken variations.

• European Portuguese is regulated by the Sciences Academy of Lisbon, Class of Letters, and its national dialect is called European Portuguese.

• The written form of Portuguese used in Brazil is regulated by the Brazilian Academy of Letters and is called Brazilian Portuguese.

• Differences between European and Brazilian written forms of Portuguese occur in a similar way to those of British English and American English.

• Attempts have been made to unify the two written variations, the most recent of them being the Orthographic Agreement of 1990.

• All Portuguese dialects are mutually intelligible, although phonological changes may make it difficult for speakers to understand rapid speech.

• The dialects of Portugal can be divided into two major groups: Northern and Southern.

• In Barrancos, a dialect of Portuguese heavily influenced by Southern Spanish dialects, known as barranquenho is spoken by a small community of 1500 people.

• Brazilian dialects are divided into northern and southern groups, with the dialects of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro having some influence on the rest of the country.

• African and Asian Portuguese dialects are generally closer to those of Portugal than the Brazilian dialects, but in some aspects of their phonology, they resemble Brazilian Portuguese more than European Portuguese.

• Terms for modern elements often differ between variations of Portuguese, sometimes even taking different genders.

• The different dialects and accents do not block cross-understanding among the educated, and the unity of the language is reflected in the fact that early imported sound films were dubbed into one version for the entire Portuguese-speaking market.The Origin of the São Miguel Dialect

• The Knights Templar were replaced by the Order of Christ in Portugal, which became a Portuguese Crown military order.

• The Order of Christ played an important role in the settlement of Madeira and Azores islands, with Gonçalo Velho Cabral being appointed hereditary landowner responsible for administering Crown lands of São Miguel and Santa Maria islands.

• The people who went to settle in São Miguel island were mainly from Beira Baixa and spoke the ancestor of the dialect of São Miguel island.

• The São Miguel island dialect is the result of the settlement, in the 15th and 16th centuries, of people who spoke a dialect that was a descendant from a Gallo-Romance phonetically influenced Galician-Portuguese dialect that formed in the Middle Ages.

• The São Miguel island dialect is not the result of any 15th century French settlement in the island.

• The other islands in the Azores were largely populated by Portuguese from other regions.

• A small minority of Flemish were present in the initial settlement of Central Group islands of the Azores, mostly in Faial, and some also in Pico and São Jorge, but were rapidly surpassed in number and assimilated by the Portuguese settlers.

• Flemish did not phonetically influence the Portuguese dialects of these islands.

• Faial island dialect is close to the dialect that is the basis of standard Portuguese.

• The São Miguel dialect is still spoken by a significant portion of the population on the island.

• The dialect is recognized as a part of the cultural heritage of the Azores.

• Efforts are being made to preserve and promote the dialect.