The Portuguese spoken in Brazil, Portugal’s largest former colony, is constantly changing and, within a few decades, it may be recognized as “Brazilian” instead of “Portuguese”. This is the thesis defended by Fernando Venâncio, a Portuguese linguist, in his recent work This is how a language was born (publisher Tinta da China), where he explores the origins and evolution of the Portuguese language. In this article, we present the reasons that lead linguists to believe in this possibility, with the collaboration of .
Venâncio argues, based on academic studies and historical documents, that Portuguese was not born in Portugal, but in the Kingdom of Galicia, a region that encompassed the territory currently known as Galicia, in Spain. This kingdom was founded in the 5th century, after the fall of the Roman Empire. “The simple idea that, one day, a foreign language could have been the language of Portugal is unbearable to us”, writes Venâncio, questioning the ‘Lusitanian pride’.
In addition to analyzing the historical roots of the language, the linguist anticipates a future in which the Brazilian variant of Portuguese will move so far away from the European variant that it will end up being recognized as an autonomous language. “There is no way to go back, there is no way to stop this process of separation between Portuguese and Brazilian”, says Venâncio, predicting that, in the not too distant future, the language spoken in Brazil will be known simply as “Brazilian”.
This prediction is based on the growing linguistic divergence between the Brazilian and Portuguese variants, despite mutual influences. Venâncio exemplifies this separation with the adoption, by Portuguese children, of Brazilian terms such as “refrigerator” instead of “refrigerator”. “The child is not speaking Brazilian, he is speaking a little Brazilian, and, in real life, that is not important”, comments Venâncio, minimizing the immediate impact, but recognizing the relevance of this trend in the long term.
However, many linguists and grammarians, both in Brazil and Portugal, consider that there is still significant unity between the two variants. They point out that essential elements such as morphemes (articles, prepositions, pronouns, among others) remain identical, and that educated Portuguese in Brazil is practically indistinguishable from educated Portuguese in Portugal. These factors, according to these experts, would prevent the complete separation into a distinct “Brazilian language”.
For Venâncio, however, the “spontaneous” language used in Brazil, which deviates from the cultured norm, is one of the factors that contribute to the distance between the variants. “There will be a move away from European Portuguese. We don’t know when, but we know it’s inevitable”, he concludes.
Not end of This is how a language was bornVenâncio reflects on the future of Portuguese and suggests that it could fragment into other languages, just as happened with Latin, the language of the Romans. “Does knowing this make us happier? It’s right”, he writes, leaving open the inevitability of linguistic evolution that accompanies the history of nations.
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