The Most Important Word in Brazil

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The British (and English speakers in general) are not renowned for their knowledge of other languages. So many people in non-English speaking countries speak our language that our need just isn’t as pressing as that of, say, a Hungarian. So we’re lazy. 

I remember encountering a couple of 40 something English guys living in Medellin, Colombia. Although they had been living there for more than a year, their profound lack of Spanish was astounding. When they wanted to do their weekly shop at the local supermarket, they would hail a cab, get in and then hold up an empty supermarket carrier bag and point at the logo! Amazingly bad!

“Erm, you take-o me here-o?…”

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Quiz – Brazilian Hand Gestures 2

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Everyone likes a quizinho on a Friday don’t they? Well today that’s what you’re getting – it’s the return of the Brazilian Hand Gesture videos! (The first one is here) 


I’m afraid that if you’re Brazilian, or you’ve lived here for a while, then this will be mamão com açucar for you. For the non-Brazilians, you may find it a little more challenging (and in case you’re wondering, that phrase I just used literally means ‘papaya with sugar’ and signifies that it will be very easy, like shooting fish in a barrel). 
So without any further ado, let’s get started with the first video:


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Little EENYO

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One of the things that that I find endearing about the Brazilians is their love of diminutives. These typically involve adding an “inho” (EEN-yo) or “inha” (EEN-ya) to the end of words. For example, although the Portuguese for ‘bill’ is conta, you will often hear people ask the waiter to bring the continha (con-CHEEN-ya). Perhaps this is wishful thinking that the bill will be small? I don’t think we really have an equivalent in English. Well, certainly nothing that doesn’t make us sound ridiculous (“Waiter, please bring me the billykins”).


The name Manuela is often shortened to Manu, but this is then paradoxically lengthened with an affectionate diminutive to make Manuzinha. 


Diminutives are also commonly used in *footballers’ names. My understanding of this is simply that their real names don’t exactly trip off the tongue. Compare Ronaldinho to Ronaldo de Assis Moreira. Or Pelé to Edison Arantes do Nascimento. 


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Oh No She Didn’t and the One Hand Clap.

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Portuguese is something that anyone serious about spending time in Brazil will need to get to grips with. In The Strange Sounds of Brazil, I described some of the difficulties I have when communicating with Brazilians. But as well as the words and phrases, the strange vowel sounds, the accents and verbal expressions, there is another aspect of communication which I have so far not covered. Non-verbal communication. 


Specifically, I am talking about hand gestures. I have noticed that Brazilians like to use their hands as they speak in much the same way that southern Europeans do. But they also have some specific signs which are far more than simple gesticulation. Often the sign will be used to finish a sentence without any further words which can be confusing if you don’t know the meaning of the signal. Imagine it: “So he told her he’d see her later and she was like [weird hand gesture here]!”. I have had to say to my wife “and this [copying weird hand gesture] means what?”.
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Hippy-hoppy and Hugby

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Hi people. Apologies for paucity of posts recently – this week I’ve been knocked out with some kind of flu that shared many symptoms with Dengue Fever: high temperature, achy joints, swollen glands, intense headache – yeuch! Luckily it wasn’t Dengue, but all the same it was very unpleasant. I’ve been spending most of my time sleeping and complaining (…my poor wife) and so there’s been no time for blogging. But I’m feeling mostly better now, so I hope to get things back up to speed shortly.

During my delirium a memory from a while back popped into my head and made me chuckle, so I thought I’d share:

One of the strange idiosyncrasies of Brazilian pronunciation of English words is that in some contexts an “Eee” sound is added to the end of a word. For example, “i-Phone” sounds like “i-fonee”, “Bob” becomes “Bobby”.

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