Tag Archives: cultural shock

The Fraiburguese Dialect 01

In the last 100 years, the region where Fraiburgo is located has witnessed people communicating in at least six languages (Portuguese, Italian, German, Polish, French and Tupi-Guarani).  Nowadays what we have is a consolidation of the Portuguese with an increasing English influence. Portuguese is similar to Spanish, which is a kind of Portuguese with a funny Maradona accent and a different grammar hehe.

In Fraiburgo the official language is Portuguese however, every time I visit the city I have some reverse cultural shocks regarding to the language when I hear my own dialect, which is funny. In fact, there is a huge gap between the official Brazilian Portuguese and what they speak there (Fraiburguese). This post is an attempt to show a bit some characteristics of our dialect. If you know some Spanish you might be able to read some of our words. If you don’t, it is still interesting to see that many Portuguese words are virtually the same as English because of their Latin base (See around the blog).

English bandeira-do-brasilBrazilian Portuguese Fraiburguese – Fraiburguês
How are you? – Como vai? Bão?*Para qualquer gênero ou idade.
*The pronunciation of “ão” is
the similar to letters “ou”
in the word “sound”.
-A Guy
-A little guy
– A group of guys
– Um Rapaz
-Um Rapazinho
– Rapaziada
-Um tchô.
-Um tchozinho.
-Tchozedo
 A girl  Uma moça. Uma tchoa.
 Where is it?  Onde está? Cadele?
 Lock the door  Trancar a porta  Chaviá porta.
 To put Colocar
Ex. – Onde eu coloco?
Ponhar
Ex. -Onde eu ponho?
 Fast  Rápido
Ex. Vai lá rápido!
 Ligero
Ex. Vai lá ligero!
 The Boy(s) O(s) Menino(s) O(s) Piá -*A palavra piá não aceita plural.
O conjunto de piá é “piazada”.
To be looking at Estar olhando – Estar de butuca
– Estar negaciando
 To jump the queue  Furar a fila  Atorar a fila.
*Essa é até meio agressiva.
* Pronuncia-se “atorá fila”
 Dry the dishes Secar a louça  Enxugá loça.
 To look for  Procurar – Percurá
– Campiá

Observations 

  • The Fraiburguese dictionary that is being developed is composed of words and expressions that take place randomly without any sort of classification just as it happens in the reality of an average person from Fraiburgo.
  • The Fraiburguese dialect is shared amogst other cities in the southern region, however, there might exist expressions that are well understood nation-wide. Only with evolution of this project we will be able to spot what is exclusively from Fraiburgo.
  • In Fraiburgo we drink the traditional mate “Chimarrão”, which is predominantly from the Gaucho culture, nonetheless the accent is not similar to gaucho accent.
  • Fraiburgo, likewise the rest of the country, has several social classes and races which generates a great degree of vocabulary variation.
  • This blog will always be a subject of changes and grammar improvements.