What does spoken (Brazilian) Portuguese sound like?

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Thanks to a thread on Auxlang I found the perfect video for anyone that just wants a quick introduction to exactly what spoken Portuguese sounds like, along with a transcript. This is a video of just under a minute of the late Brazilian sociologist Herbert Jose "Betinho" de Souza, talking about changing the country.



Now here's the transcript:

"Nós temos condições de mudar o país. Mas é preciso ter confiança um que essa mudança vai partir de nós. Ela não vai cair do céu. Ela não vai ser feita pelos outros para nós. Ela vai ser feita de nós para os outros. E isso é para mim uma convicção muito profunda. Se a nossa geração, se nós que estamos vivos ainda decidirmos mudar o país, nós vamos acabar com a fome e com a miséria, nós vamos fazer um país democrático. Eu tenho a absoluta convicção disso. Tem só um "se", e o "se" é você. Se você decidir fazer isso acontecer."
Here it is automatically translated into Spanish (I noticed it has a problem with the 'vai' which it didn't understand and 'disso' which I assume corresponds to 'de esto' so I fixed those parts up), so probably awkward in a few places but still :
"Tenemos las condiciones para cambiar el país. Pero debemos tener confianza en que ese cambio va de nosotros. No caerán del cielo. No va a ser hecho por otros para nosotros. Ella será de nosotros a los demás. Y esto es para mí una muy profunda convicción. Si nuestra generación, si decidimos que todavía vivimos cambiar el país, vamos a acabar con el hambre y la miseria, nos hará un país democrático. Tengo la absoluta convicción de esto. Tiene sólo un "si", y "si" es usted. Si usted decide hacer que esto ocurra. "
Lastly, here it is translated into English with the
"We have conditions to change the country. But we must have confidence that such a change will come from us. It will not not fall from heaven. It will not be made by others for us. It will be made from us for others. And this is for me a very deep conviction. If our generation, if we who are living decide to change the country, we will end the hunger and misery, we will make a democratic country. I have absolute conviction of that. It has only an "if", and "if" is you. If you decide to make this happen."
Lastly, let's translate it into Interlingua as well, a language I have much more confidence in than Occidental (though not quite as good as I am at Ido).
Nos ha le conditiones a cambiar le pais. Ma nos debe haber confidentia que iste cambiamento partira de nos. Illo non cadera del celo. Illo essera facite per nos pro le alteres. E isto es pro me un conviction multe profunde. Si nostre generation, si nos que es vivente ancora decide cambiar le pais, nos finira con fame e con miseria, nos facera un pais democratic. Io ha absolute conviction de isto. Il ha solo un "si", e le "si" es vos. Si vos decide facer isto evenir.
I noticed that se sounds like si, and this is an example of the difference between the two countries, says Wiktionary:
  • (Portugal) IPA: /sə/
  • (Brazil) IPA: /si/

4 comments:

Romane said...

Yes, its pt-BR, but there are many words terminating with "s" in the beginning, you might think that those s`s are predominant in brazilian-pt but its actualy not. To be really accurrate try to show another speach, I suggest something by Jornal Nacional (tv news, easy to find) they have absolutely no accent.

And PLEASE, post this music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL6zdEwRKws , its 10 mins of unrepeating lyrics and a masterpiece by Legiao Urbana, absolutely best brazilian band in history IMO.

oh, Im brazilian ;-)

Rômulo said...

nossa... eu q postei o video e fiz a transcrição. nunca imaginei q seria usado com esse fim. pelo menos a mensagem do Betinho está por aí. abraços.

Rômulo said...

nossa... eu q postei o video e fiz a transcrição. nunca imaginei q seria usado com esse fim. pelo menos a mensagem do Betinho está por aí. abraços.

Romane said...

Yes, its pt-BR, but there are many words terminating with "s" in the beginning, you might think that those s`s are predominant in brazilian-pt but its actualy not. To be really accurrate try to show another speach, I suggest something by Jornal Nacional (tv news, easy to find) they have absolutely no accent.

And PLEASE, post this music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL6zdEwRKws , its 10 mins of unrepeating lyrics and a masterpiece by Legiao Urbana, absolutely best brazilian band in history IMO.

oh, Im brazilian ;-)

  © Blogger templates Newspaper by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP