Countries never developed own languages

[Fabio SBA]

Brazil had historically its own language. It was the Old Tupi, used as lingua franca even by the europeans themselves until it was forbidden in the late 18th century by the 1st Marquis of Pombal, in favour of Portuguese. Old Tupi evolved into two dialects (Northern Tupi, later called Nheengatu - still spoken by some communities in the Amazon basin; and Southern Tupi or Paulista Language) and continued to be spoken in much of the brazilian countryside until the late 19th century.

The contemporary Brazilian Portuguese differs from the european variety more or less in the same extent of American and British English. There are a lot of regional expressions, differences in the spelling and even minor grammar changes, but we can understand each other without problems. Perhaps the words related to technology are the exception; we use for example "arquivo", "tela", "celular" for respectively "file", "screen", "mobile phone"; while in Portugal it's "ficheiro", "ecrã", "telemóvel", amongst many other differences; which explains the existence of two distinct versions for Portuguese in almost all of the software packages and manuals. Indeed, both brazilians and portugueses agree that the two countries speak the same language.

[Pueblofuerte]

Originally Posted by Fabio SBA

Brazil had historically its own language. It was the Old Tupi, used as lingua franca even by the europeans themselves until it was forbidden in the late 18th century by the 1st Marquis of Pombal, in favour of Portuguese. Old Tupi evolved into two dialects (Northern Tupi, later called Nheengatu - still spoken by some communities in the Amazon basin; and Southern Tupi or Paulista Language) and continued to be spoken in much of the brazilian countryside until the late 19th century.

Incredible to think a lingua franca evolved over such a huge area in those times outside of the Andes. What an interesting insight.

[Fabio SBA]

Originally Posted by Pueblofuerte

Incredible to think a lingua franca evolved over such a huge area in those times outside of the Andes. What an interesting insight.

Yes, it's a fact. Old Tupi was one of the languages with largest geographic extent - from the Amazon Basin until River Plate, in part due to the jesuitic missions, but also because Brazil has no huge natural barriers preventing expansion. However, Brazil had and still has also a lot of other indigenous languages unrelated to Tupi, like every other country in Latin America.