Brazil Languages

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Brazil

Languages

Description

Portuguese is the official and national language of Brazil[6] and is widely spoken by most of the population. The Portuguese dialects spoken in Brazil are collectively known as Brazilian Portuguese. The Brazilian Sign Language also has official status at the federal level. As of 2019, the population of Brazil speaks or signs approximately 228 languages, of which 217 are indigenous and 11 came with immigrants.

Because of the importance of the Roman Catholic Church to Brazil’s history, you may find several other languages in Brazilian records. These include Latin, German, Italian, Polish, and other languages of European ethnic immigrants. Also, some records may be in Japanese.

Portuguese grammar may affect the way names appear in genealogical records. For help in understanding name variations, see Brazil Names, Personal.

Many Amerindian minority languages are spoken throughout Brazil, mostly in Northern Brazil. See more details on Indigenous languages

Word List(s)

Most materials used in Brazilian research are written in Portuguese, but you do not need to speak or read Portuguese to do research in Brazilian records. However, you will need to know some key words and phrases to understand the records.

For word list and help researching in Brazilian records, see:

• Various Word Lists at BYU Script Tutorial
• Portuguese Genealogical Word List
• 1000 Most Common Portuguese Words

Alphabet and Pronunciation

The Brazilian spelling of Portuguese is distinct from that of other Portuguese-speaking countries and is uniform across the country. With the implementation of the Orthographic Agreement of 1990, the orthographic norms of Brazil and Portugal have been largely unified, but still have some minor differences. Brazil enacted these changes in 2009 and Portugal enacted them in 2012.

Brazilian Portuguese (spoken in Brazil) and European Portuguese (spoken in many countries in Europe, including Portugal) are the two main types. Read this article to better understand the key differences

To better understand the differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese (alphabet, pronunciation, etc.)

• Omniglot - the online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages
• Wikipedia - Portuguese orthography
• FluentU - Portuguese language and Culture Blog

Language Aids and Dictionaries

The FamilySearch Wiki has genealogical word lists for Portuguese, German, Latin, Polish, and Spanish. There is also a Portuguese Letter-writing Guide to help write to Brazil.

The following books and English-Portuguese dictionaries can also aid you in your research. You can find these and similar material at many research libraries.

• Ferreira, Júlio Albino. Dicionário Inglês- português, Português-inglês. Porto, Portugal: Edit. Domingos Barreira, 1979. FS Library 469.321 F413d; film FS Library 1181702 item 1
• Vieyra, Anthony. Dictionary of Portuguese and English languages. London: 1827. FS Library 1181694 item 5 The FamilySearch Library has only part two, English- Portuguese.
• Tyson-Ward, Sue. Brazilian Portuguese. Blacklick, Ohio: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Available at: WorldCat.
• Kamimura, Yukiyoshi, and Marcia Monje de Castro. Brazilian Portuguese phrasebook & dictionary. Footscray, Victoria, Australia: Lonely Planet Publications, 2014. Available at: WorldCat.

Additional language aids, including dictionaries of various dialects and time periods, are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog in the "Subjects" search for BRAZIL- LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGES or PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE- DICTIONARIES.

Additional Resources

Study and Teaching Aids

• Gruneberg, Michael M. Portuguese. Chicago, Ill.: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Available at: WorldCat.
• Berlitz, Charles. Portuguese. Washington, D.C.: Educational Services, 1995. Available at: WorldCat.

Reading Aids

• Reading Braziian Records in Portuguese - Part 6 of 8 in a series on Brazil Research with the Wiki. Access the lesson
• BYU Script Tutorial: Making sense of old handwriting, The Portuguese Script Tutorial, Access the tutorial
• Reading Aid for Brazilian Birth Certificates
• Reading Aid for Brazilian Marriage Certificates
• Reading Aid for Brazilian Death Certificates