Where the heck does Brazilian Portuguese come from?

The Portuguese language, not only the Brazilian one, is part of a linguistic group called Romance language so as to French, Spanish and Romanian (which makes learning them easier… #noway). They all come from Latin. Latin??? Yes! If we think of the Roman Empire which was running the world in the past, already spreading not only their culture but also their language,  it is not too hard to imagine neighbor countries absorbing all this new information. 

But how did it come to Brazil? Pedro Álvares Cabral, the Portuguese conquistador Who “discovered” Brazil in 1500 brought his Latin-based language to the new country. However, the indigenous who lived here already had their own language known as “Tupi - Guarani”.
Which it is officially also considered a mother-tongue of Brazil besides Portuguese. Nowadays, just a few people can speak it, even though you can find some Tupi courses at some public universities, for the ones who want to study it as a matter of curiosity.

The point is that some name of animals, plants, and cities are Tupi-based, so in this case, we pronounce Tupi words. We also have some African words used in the Brazilian Portuguese vocabulary referring to the time some Africans were brought to this country to work and had to communicate, mixing up the languages. 

Besides all that we can also include English words that are used in the Brazilians Portuguese vocabulary and didn’t get any translation, like “play”, “shopping” (in this case, in Portuguese shopping means shopping mall), e-mail, etc. 

This might look confusing and difficult, too many different languages brought together to form a new one… what a mess! But despite the fact the accent marks on the top of the words in Portuguese (which helps us to know how to pronounce each word) look odd and harsh to the freshman, there are many similarities to the Roman languages decedents. 

So if you are from a country which has this Latin-based form, Lucky you! If you are not, also no problem! I am sure we can have fun learning this beautiful language while discovering the culture and history it brings!