European languages besides Portuguese in Brazil (best, country, people, move)
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I am very interested in the uniquely developed cultures of the European diaspora. In high school I took Anthropology as an elective and the teacher said that the best way to get an accurate idea of what a culture was like, is too look at the cultures settler colonies. That's because in the mother country the culture evolves and changes, but when settlers (especially settlers that came when the world wasn't as connected as it is today) move to an area the culture gets preserved. Two examples in North America are the Spaniards in the northern rural half of the state of New Mexico in my country the USA. Apparently when a census was done of the New Spain, New Mexico had the largest criollo (purely Spaniard descent) percentage in all of the Spanish colonies at 75%, that area is very isolated in mountains and when Mexico became independent they became completely shut from Spain, and eventually when NM became part of a America it was cut off from the Spanish speaking world for a long time. Apparently their dialect never evolved and is still the same language that was spoken in the 1600s in Spain. Same with Quebec in Canada's dialect of French which apparently is closer to the French of the 17th century settlers than it is to modern France French.
Sorry for rambling but I wanted to give context for what I am asking.
I know that Brazil had large waves of Italian and German migration even through the post WW2 period, that either settled in São Paulo or in the rural areas of the southern states of Parana, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. I also know that there is a unique dialect of German spoken in communities in southern Brazil. I wanted to ask if any of you guys have ever been to or experienced German Brazilian culture, even better if you are German Brazilian. I know that São Paulo got a lot of Italians in particular as well and it influenced the culture...how much remnants of Italian culture is in Brazil? Is there still areas or neighborhoods of São Paulo with Italian influence like how little italies exist in the United States? Is there any communities that still speak the language like how Germans passed down their language?
I am fascinated by Brazil especially from SP province city down south to the border and I just would like to learn more especially from actual Brazilians.
Im descendent from germans, italians, portugueses and swisses.
The first three groups, with africans and native indians are considered the ones that most influenced the formation of the brazilian culture.
Most brazilians have descendence of at least two of these groups.
During WWII, italian, japanese and german languages were forbidden and the generations after this period didnt learn the language of their parents.
You still find some rural areas and small towns where some people speak old dialects of german, but in general foreing languages are not spoken in Brazil.
In my town, Petrópolis, we have the second largest german party of the country, celebrated from the last weekend of june until the first weekend of july. Due to the popularity of this party, folcloric groups has grown teaching old germanic dances to the youth. German food and of course, beer are very consumed at the party.
Pastas are very popular in Brazil due to our italian descendence. Some popular soap operas have been produced about specifically the italian immigration.
However strong waves of immigration stopped beyond 1950, so most brazilians are children of brazilians nowadays. People have if so just grandparents that are foreing. The connection to foreing cultures are mixed forming the brazilian culture itself.
Unlike in the US, Brazilians usually don't have that obsession with ethnic heritage, not least because many of them are quite mixed. People don't care if they were from Italy or Portugal or wherever.
Brazilians like their country and the Portuguese language, there is no reason for immigrants to keep their former language alive. In Brazil you have to speak Portuguese, else you can't be part of society.
I know that there is a huge Japanese community in Brazil (the world's largest outside Japan), which is an exception in that some of them do try to keep their Japanese heritage alive (alongside the Brazilian one), not least because some of them might go [back] to Japan one day.
My mother-in-law was born in a small southern villlage called Panambi. Her parents were German immigrants, as were most people in the town. My understanding is that although school was in Portuguese, and she considers Portuguese her native language, her parents spoke German at home and to their friends, and the church was also in German.
Father-in-law was born in Germany but came to Panambi at the age of 9, in 1949. The two of them then emigrated to the US around 1963. They have quite a few friends from that part of Brazil who now live in the US, as well as some who still live in Brazil, and when they get together, they speak the most extraordinary blend of German and Portuguese. I can understand German, and I can pick up some Portuguese because of my knowledge of Spanish, but put them together and I can hardly get a word.
Most of these families still consider that they have strong ties to Germany. Some have moved there, and some of their now-adult children have moved there. So how much German the generation now growing up can speak, I don't know, but the language was kept alive for quite a long time--certainly much later than WWII.
In the state of EspÃrito Santo, there are communities of Pomeraneos, an slavic ethnicity in old Prussia that doesnt exist in Europe anymore. The pomeranea lnaguage is teached for the children, as well other parts of the culture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomeranians_(Slavic_tribe)
I know that there is a huge Japanese community in Brazil (the world's largest outside Japan), which is an exception in that some of them do try to keep their Japanese heritage alive (alongside the Brazilian one), not least because some of them might go [back] to Japan one day.
The main difference brazilians japaneses have comparing to the others is that they do go to Japan to work for some years. But its the same in the rest. Generally they come back to Brasil to open their own business.
Unlike in the US, Brazilians usually don't have that obsession with ethnic heritage, not least because many of them are quite mixed. People don't care if they were from Italy or Portugal or wherever.
Brazilians like their country and the Portuguese language, there is no reason for immigrants to keep their former language alive. In Brazil you have to speak Portuguese, else you can't be part of society.
I know that there is a huge Japanese community in Brazil (the world's largest outside Japan), which is an exception in that some of them do try to keep their Japanese heritage alive (alongside the Brazilian one), not least because some of them might go [back] to Japan one day.
Funny how you contradicted everything actual Brazilians said. I am not talking about mixed Brazilians I was talking about European White Brazilians.
German as a second language you mean. More than 99%, actually almost 100%, of Brazilians have Portuguese as their mother tongue.
And when you look at the German some Brazilians speak, you will notice that it is a creole language, a mix of German and Portuguese. A German understands little of that pseudo-German. So one can't compare Brazilian German in any way to, say, Spanish in the US.
Re: Portuguese in Brazil, is there different accents in different areas? Like would someone from Parana speak different than someone from Bahia? Here in the USA different accents in different areas are dependent on who settled the area. Here in New York we were originally settled by the Dutch so our accent is affected by that, same with Chicago and Germans.
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