Portuguese parents are worried because their children are learning Brazilian

[Red Velvet]

This is because there’s much more Portuguese content on the internet coming from Brazil, especially on YouTube, so the kids end up watching Brazilian content and catching Brazilian accent and also some of the BR Portuguese words that are different from EU Portuguese (ex: ônibus instead of autocarro).

While I understand cultural and language protectionism in some cases (not wanting it to disappear, like what happens with Indigenous groups), I think people are largely exaggerating their worries in this situation. Like the news said, this always comes when some Brazilian content gets widely seen in Portugal, it was the same thing with the soap operas. EU Portuguese isn’t under any risk just because their kids are watching Brazilian YouTubers content. I also hate how some act like theirs is the “correct” version of the language and look down on the Portuguese kids talking with Brazilian accent as if they were saying some dirty or wrong language. It’s all Portuguese anyway, there’s no correct version!

If I had a child who started talking with the Portugal accent I would think it is actually quite charming lol, the European Portuguese accent always sounds so formal and ultra-polite to me. This actually reminds me of the many different accents we have on Brazil and the prejudice we even see on the inside with some of them (Northeastern accent is looked down by Southerners) and that’s dumb. All different ways of speaking the language are correct.

It’s sad to me to read this because you don’t see that kind of stuff happening in the anglophone world, the British embraced and get along with people using the US English pretty well for example. Too bad the lusophone community as a whole isn’t as united.

[Red Velvet]

It’s sad to me to read this because you don’t see that kind of stuff happening in the anglophone world, the British embraced and get along with people using the US English pretty well for example. Too bad the lusophone community as a whole isn’t as united.

Canadians are prickly when they see product labels spelled in the US convention rather than the British/Canadian convention. So much so, that writing in the US convention leads to embarrassment.

Here's a question for Brazilians: the British accent (stereotypical "proper" one) is seen as sexy in the US, so that a British man visiting a bar in the US is sure to pick up lots of ladies. Is the same thing true in Brazil with the Portuguese accent?

Idk about sexier, it may sound more formal and old school to Brazilians. As if the person was too concerned about being polite. There’s some people who may find this sexier, some who may not just like the opposite could be true. That’s more subjectively personal.

Portuguese language evolved a lot in Brazil and it was naturally closer to the European Portuguese at the start because well, that was the version brought here by the immigrants. If you read 19th century Brazilian literature you will notice verbal conjugation was closer to the way Portugal speaks than Brazil nowadays for example. That’s why Brazilians might have the impression the Portuguese accent is more formal (or even snobbish in more negative perceptions). Meanwhile, I guess the Portuguese see the Brazilian accent as more casual and laid-back (or lazy and uneducated in cases of more negative perception).

If someone wants to say they’re watching something, Portuguese would use something like “estou a ver” while Brazilians would say “estou vendo”. Like, the Portuguese first will present the verb with the “a” while Brazilians will combine everything with one word. That’s what makes it sound more formal to a Brazilian.

Portuguese also put more emphasis on the consonants while speaking, while Brazilians are much more vowel-oriented. The European Portuguese sounds more poetic and serious in my opinion, while the Brazilian Portuguese sounds more musical and relaxed.

Some words are also different between the two places. But those differences happen on a regional scale too (there are variations of Brazilian Portuguese inside Brazil like I said). Usually what people internationally perceive as the Brazilian way of speaking is mostly the Rio de Janeiro accent because of the telenovelas (which mostly happen to be set or at least be produced in Rio with actors from there).

[Red Velvet]

To my American ear, Brazilian Portuguese sounds like a mixture of Spanish and French, while European Portuguese sounds like Latin and some Scandinavian language.

The European Portuguese pronunciation actually reminds me a bit of Russian.

I feel like the Portuguese are able to understand most of spoken Brazilian Portuguese, but Brazilians have a harsher time understanding most of European Portuguese at least in their first experiences. But once you familiarize your ear with it, it’s not really hard at all unless they start speaking too fast.

This video shows some of the few differences in words/expressions, with the female Brazilian interviewer talking with a Portuguese guy:

[Red Velvet]

I find this really interesting given that there is no such phenomenon happening here with variations of Spanish spoken in Latin America, not even in clickbait articles.

I guess it could be that Latin American Spanish isn't really a unified accent at all (Mexican Spanish and Argentinian Spanish are nothing alike) plus possibly Spain having a bigger population than Portugal? Idk

There is such a thing, although it might have lesser, bigger or the same proportions. Probably many different factors. Spain doesn’t consume as much content produced in Mexico or Argentina in the same way like Portugal consumes Brazilian ones. If it did, I’m pretty sure it would be a thing too because there’s some level of language pride and protectionism too. The Portugal population being smaller also stimulates more these reactions.

But Spain also has multiple different languages inside of it, Galego, Basque, Catalan… Even though some of those were repressed during Spanish dictatorship, Spain maybe has developed by force some adaptability to different accents and languages. The fact there’s multiple Spanish speaking countries also stimulates this kind of perception

That doesn’t mean this doesn’t exist on Spain though. Like I said, I’ve seen examples of protectionism. I remember there was some controversy that came around when the movie Coco came out for example and it was released in Spain with the Latin American dubbing. Some people (likely same way in this clickbait report) complained about it and said they weren’t going to watch the film because of that.

I was surprised when I heard this, like an open prejudice against the Mexican Spanish. It’s very different from Portugal, which always openly consumed tons of Brazilian media, or even UK with American one, without this type of boycott reaction. Like, the Portuguese are boycotting Brazilian YouTubers ONLY AFTER their kids start talking like them lol

So I remember thinking (but that was only a theory) that Spain might actually be even MORE protectionist, because of lesser exposure to one single different way of speaking, which makes them more comfortable with seeing and treating their accent as the “pattern” to be followed. Or at least it’s around the same level, but gets diluted because of the multiple variations of Latino Spanish.

Another thing, although it might be only a perception of mine and not really true. Latino Spanish and European Spanish are way more similar between themselves than Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese are.