Portuguese P1.A3: Contrastive Analysis between

Linguistic and Cultural Features

Catherine BoscoNaugatuck Public Schools

http://languagetsar.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Map-Lisbon-Brasilia.jpgublic Schools

BackgroundPortuguese is:

● The official language in Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tome and Principe

● The co-official language in East Timor, Equitorial Guinea and Macau● Derives from Vulgar Latin with roots in Castillian Spanish and Gaelic● Called Galician-Portuguese or “Old Portuguese”● Spoken by almost 220 million people

The Portuguese Language and What Makes it IntriguingA History in the Language and How it Developed

https://youtu.be/Nur6WwpmyBo

More Background...Linguistic affiliation: Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Western Romance, Ibero-Romance, West Iberian, Galician-Portuguese

Portuguese is a descendent of Latin, which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by Roman soldiers, settlers and merchants from 218 BC. The earliest records of a distinctly Portuguese language appear in administrative documents dating from the 9th century AD. In 1290 King Denis decreed that Portuguese, then simply called the "Vulgar language" should be known as the Portuguese language and should be officially used.

WritingFirst written: 9th centuryWriting system: Latin script

A reformed Portuguese orthography (nova ortografia), in which words were spelled more in accordance with their pronunciation, was adopted is Portugal in 1916. A slightly modified form was adopted in Brazil in 1943 and revised in 1970. A new orthography which aims to unify the written Portuguese of all the lusophone countries was adopted in Brazil in 2009. Dates have yet to be set for its adoption in the other Portuguese-speaking countries.

Portuguese Alphabet

Portuguese (Portugal) Sounds

Portugal - click here to hear the sounds of the alphabet

Portuguese (Brazil) Sounds Brazil - click here to hear the alphabet

A comparison of sounds between the two...

Portuguese - click to listen

Todos os seres humanos nascem livres e iguais em dignidade e em direitos. Dotados de razão e de consciência, devem agir uns para com os outros em espírito de fraternidade.

Brazilian Portuguese - click to listen

Todos os seres humanos nascem livres e iguais em dignidade e direitos. São dotados de razão e consciência e devem agir em relação uns aos outros com espírito de fraternidade.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Analysis and comparison of linguistic features and anticipated difficulties

Both Portuguese and English have common roots (Indo-European). Other languages, like Japanese, have a different structure when comparing with romance or other European languages.

The similarities mainly are evident in vocabulary when written. The phrasal structure and

pronunciation have many contrasts.

comunicacao/communication

natural/natural

velocidade/velocity

Language Family

Portuguese English

Indo-European Indo-European

Italic Germanic

Romance Western Germanic

Western Romance Ingvaeonic

Ibero-Romance Anglo-Frisian

Western Iberian Anglic

Galician-Portuguese English

Portuguese

Pronunciation and SpellingThe phonetic interpretation is very different in comparison. Portuguese is clear and constant, while English is more irregular.

boot/book/blood/brooch/door

make/cat/car/ball/global

check/machine/chaos

bota/livro/broche/porta

fazer/gato/carro/global

chegar/chorar/cachorro/boliche

“The tables of common English spellings found in many unabridged dictionaries show that as many as 340 to 360 spellings are listed for the 44 phonemes these dictionaries typically use.” (D’Eugenio, Antonio. Major Problems of English Phonology.)

PhonemesPortuguese has 7 vowel phonemes. English has at least 12 vowel phonemes. This makes English a complicated language due to hearing accuracy, as well as production of the speaker.

English Portuguese

Vowels and Consonants

● December is the twelfth month of the year

● This machine has strong springs● triumph/glimpse/northern/sightseeing

● Eu sou europeu● Quais são suas músicas preferidas● Saguão/espião/enxaguei/assembléia

English has rich consonants and the Portuguese has a large number of vowels and vowel combinations (dipthongs and trithongs). This requires different muscular effort and movement. This may make it complicated to produce certain sounds when learning to speak the other language.

Phonetic InformationPhonetic information can be measured by the average number of syllables in a word. The syllable is a sound unit. Phonetic information is much higher in the Portuguese language.

air/ar ball/bo-la com-pu-ter/com-pu-ta-dor

I/eu car/car-ro air-plane/a-vi-ão

one/um sleep/dor-mir de-part-ment/de-par-ta-men-to

good/bom tree/ár-vo-re mo-dern/mo-der-no

sky/céu wall/pa-re-de tem-pera-ture/tem-pe-ra-tu-ra

Difficulties in second language speech recognition are strongly influenced by the quantity of phonetic information of the target language as compared to the learner’s mother tongue. It may be hard for a Portuguese speaker to understand and speak English.

Conclusions● It is essential for the full learning of English to have contact with the language

in its spoken form;● The unstable correlation between the written and spoken language makes it

an obstacle to learn English; ● Only learning English based on the written language will be a disservice to the

learner because he will base the phonetic sounds on his mother language rules;

● Using resources will help when trying to achieve accurate pronunciation of the spoken language.

Implications for Teaching… ● Formulation of interrogative and negative ideas

■ He’s a student - Ele é um aluno.■ Is he a student? - Ele é um aluno?

● Subjectless sentences and subject positioning■ Tive um problema. - I had a problem■ Está chovendo. - It’s raining.

● Verb conjugation● Gender of nouns● Adjectives● Countable and uncountable contrasts with Portuguese

■ Eu quero uma água - I’d like a glass of water. ●

Implications for Teaching ● Spelling ● Collocations

■ Vamos dar uma festá. - Let’s have a party.

■ Eu vou fazer a barba. - I’m going to shave the beard. ● Cognates - original term, meaning, mistranslation

■ Actually - na verdade - atualmente■ Orchard - pomar - orquidário

● Idioms ■ I have cold feet. - Eu estou com medo. ■ Your friends beat up on mine. - Seus amigos bateram no meu.

Between Cultures… Portugal Brazil United States

Facts & Statistics Pop: 10,823,834 (2014)Ethnic Make-up: homogeneous Mediterranean stock Religions: Roman Catholic 94% Government:: Constitutional Republic

Pop: 202,656,788 (2014)Ethnic Make-up: white 55%, mixed black & white 38%, black 6%, other 1%Religions: Roman Catholic 80%Government:: federative republic

Pop: 318,892,103 (2014)Ethnic Make-up: white 81.7%, black 12.9%, Asian 4.2%, Alaska/Amerindian Native 1%, native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander .2%Religions: Protestant 52%, Roman Catholic 24%, Mormon 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 1%, other 10%, none 10%Government:: Constitution-based federal republic

Communication Formal Formal until relationship made Informal and Friendly

Class/Hierarchy Titles are honored Handshakes and direct eye contact

Great disparity between middle/high and low class

Great disparity between middle/high and low class

Culture CollectiveTraditional and conservative

Collective Nepotism is +

IndividualisticNuclear family - typically small

Resources ● Boykova, Kirina. "Culture and Social Etiquette in Portugal." About Portugal | Expatica Portugal. Expatica, 25

Aug. 2011. Web. 19 Nov. 2016. <http://www.expatica.com/pt/about/Culture-and-social-etiquette-in-Portugal_106561.html>.

● Braggio, Evandro. "Portuguese & English Differences." Portuguese & English Differences :: B R A G G I O. N.p., 10 Oct. 2010. Web. 15 Nov. 2016. <http://braggio.webnode.com.br/news/portuguese-english-differences/>.

● "Home." Portugal - Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette. Commisceo Global, 2014. Web. 20 Nov. 2016. <http://www.commisceo-global.com/country-guides/portugal-guide>.

● Manschein, Marcelo, Mario Andre Coelho Da Silva, Heitor De Moreas, and Renato Serdio. "Portuguese (Português)." Portuguese Language, Alphabet and Pronunciation. N.p., 1998. Web. 16 Nov. 2016. <http://omniglot.com/writing/portuguese.htm>.

● Wikepedia, "List of Territorial Entities Where Portuguese Is an Official Language." Wikipedia. N.p., 13 Nov. 2016. Web. 17 Nov. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_territorial_entities_where_Portuguese_is_an_official_language>.