Brazilian Portuguese Voice Over Agency

They speak Portuguese in Brazil
Portuguese is the official language of Brazil. The country was colonised by Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral in 1500. It stayed a Portuguese colony until 1822 when it gained its independence. Other languages spoken are Spanish and English.

Brazil’s name comes from a tree
When the Portuguese colonised Brazil they took the name of the country from the Brazilwood tree which grows in abundance in Brazil. The wood from the tree is used a lot to make bows for stringed instruments such as violins, cellos, violas, and bass.

The Portuguese language used to only have 23 letters
Up until 2009 the Portuguese language didn’t have the letters W, Y OR K. These letters were only added when all Portuguese speaking countries signed a new Orthographic Agreement so that spelling would be standardised across the different variations of Portuguese.

You can see the sunset before anyone else in Brazil
If you visit the easternmost city in Brazil which is Joao Pessoa, you can see the sun rising before anyone in other parts of the country. That’s because Joao Pessoa is the city furthest to the East and of course the sun rises in the East.

Rio de Janeiro isn’t the country’s capital city
Many people assume Rio de Janeiro is the capital because it is probably the most well-known place in Brazil. It was the capital between 1822 and 1960 but it was then moved to a new city called Brasilia, which remains the capital to this day.

Brazil invented the Walkman
You might think of Sony when you talk about the Walkman. But the machine was invented by a Brazilian called Andreas Pavel. Sony copied the design, and the Sony Walkman was born. Pavel though did get royalties from Sony in the form of a cash settlement and ongoing royalties of the sale of some Walkman models.

The word embarrassed comes from the Portuguese language
Lots of English words are borrowed from other languages. The word embarrassed comes from the Portuguese word ‘embaracar’ which means to tie in knots. So the next time you use that word you’re using Portuguese!

There’s a place you can’t go to in Brazil
Unless you get official approval, you can’t visit the island of Ilha de Queimada Grande. But you might not want to pay it is a visit. It’s also known as Snake Island because it’s estimated there is one snake for every square metre of the island and the island has 430,000 Square metres – That’s a lot of snakes!

Brazil produces more coffee than anywhere else
There are around 30,000 coffee plantations in Brazil and it’s the world’s largest coffee producer. It’s main buyers are Japan and the United States. Local Brazilians prefer to drink their coffee without milk, but with plenty of sugar.

Brazil is a great place to party
If you love carnival time, then Brazil is the place to go. It has the largest carnival in the world with more than 6 million people taking part. It’s held in Rio de Janeiro on the Friday before Ash Wednesday which is normally in February or March.

A short history on the Brazilian Portuguese language

Brazilian Portuguese, spoken by the vast majority of the Brazilian population, is a set of dialects of the Portuguese language that have evolved since the first wave of Portuguese colonisation in Brazil in the 16th century.

In the early days, the language existed alongside others, including the Amerindian languages of the original inhabitants of Brazil. But by the end of the 18th century, due to increasing numbers of Portuguese immigrants and expansion into the country’s interior, Portuguese had established itself as Brazil’s national language.

During its evolution, Brazilian Portuguese has been influenced by various other languages, most notably the indigenous Amerindian languages as well as the African languages spoken by thousands of slaves brought to the country between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Brazilian Portuguese differs from European Portuguese in terms of spelling, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. There is less variation between the written versions of the two languages than the spoken ones. The difference between written Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese is similar to the difference between American and British English.

Which countries have Brazilian Portuguese as a national language?

Portuguese is the official language of Brazil. More than 99% of the population speaks Brazilian Portuguese; the rest are either Amerindian communities who speak indigenous languages, or immigrant communities who speak their own native languages.

How many people speak Brazilian Portuguese as their first language?

Around 200 million people speak Brazilian Portuguese as their first language. Brazil is the top Portuguese-speaking country in the world, in terms of numbers of speakers (the next three are Mozambique, Angola and Portugal itself).

Did you know…

• While Brazilian people sometimes have a little trouble understanding Portuguese people, the opposite doesn’t tend to be true – this is largely down to the huge influence of Brazilian soap operas and music.
• Although there are variations in accent throughout Brazil, the proliferation of TV networks based in the southeast of the country (eg in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo) means that the southeast regional accent has become standard in the media.
• Adopted words derived from Amerindian languages are particularly common in place, plant and animal names. Words adopted from African languages are often related to food and music.

The Brazilian economy

Brazil has the sixth largest economy by nominal GDP in the world, and the seventh largest by purchasing power parity. It is the largest economy in Latin America and the second largest in the western hemisphere.

Brazil made a good recovery after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, but recently growth has slowed dramatically, leading many to speculate that its predicted surge up the economic leader board may have stalled.

Around 70% of Brazilians are employed in the service sector, 19% in industry and 10% in agriculture. Brazil is a member of various economic organisations including G20, WTO, G8+5, Mercosur, Unasul and the Cairns Group.