I say “Morgen“, they say “Moin“!
Nov 22nd, 2011 | By Virginia | Category: English
My building is under construction again, so every morning, when passing by the workers as a sign of good manners, I say "Morgen" – “Good Morning” in German - and they invariably answer "Moin" – “Good Morning” in Hamburg! This expression is almost a trademark of northern Germany, as well as "Zum Wohl!" - "Prost" or "Cheers” - is typical of Munich region. I still don’t know many German regionalisms, but I know very well the Brazilian ones - or not, considering that there are so many!
Brazil is a vast country, divided into five regions, with 27 federal units and more than 5,000 municipalities. Imagine how many different dialects and accents we have! Before I start this article I must say that our Portuguese does have a very different accent from the Portuguese of Portugal, but I won’t go into the merits of this issue yet - maybe in the next text. Today the theme is Brazilian dialects; some regions have so many curious expressions that even regionalisms’ dictionaries were created. On the internet you can find the slang dictionary from Sao Paulo, mineiro’s dictionary, gaúchos’ dictionary and a few more.
While the natives from Minas Gerais say "Uai!”, the natives from South say "Bah!" and the ones from Bahia say "Oxe." I believe that all these expressions are interjections of surprise, but as the dictionary from the natives of Bahia says "Every native from Bahia uses the expression “Oxe” at anytime, but an outlander never guesses when to use it properly". I should point out that when it comes to regionalism, "outlander" can be any other Brazilian state that is not yours! We are all Brazilians and many of us love Brazil, but I dare say that before our country comes our state. I remember those times of Orkut (social network still popular in Brazil) and the communities that said "Before Brazilian, I am gaucho" - and yes, I was part of this community!
I dare to say that the dawn of many neologisms is related to the manner we pronounce the words. I think it's a little bit hard to exemplify each accent, but in general the natives from São Paulo carry the pronunciation of the letter "r", the residents of the North speak fairly quickly and, by contrast, they say that are the Southerners who speak “as if singing”. Usually the natives from Minas Gerais shorten the pronunciation of many words and sometimes phrases sound like a single word! About the pronunciation of the letter "D" and the prefix "DE", I will not even get into this issue! Each city speaks in a different way! I could feel the difference by moving from a small town to another inside the same state!
However, if you are studying Portuguese and want to visit Brazil one day, you don’t need to worry about the dialects. Certainly in any corner of the country people will understand you, and even if they don’t, I'm sure the Brazilians will make an effort to understand you.
Finally, these observations were from a Southern Brazilian and probably people from other states can contribute with different expressions. Hope you have enjoyed!
