Gaúcho dialect

Gaúcho dialect
Gaúcho dialect
Gaúcho / Gauchês / Guasca
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latin Romance Western Romance Ibero-Romance West-Iberian Galician-Portuguese Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese Gaúcho dialect; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
IETF	pt-u-sd-brrs
	Rio Grande do Sul
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Gaúcho (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɡaˈuʃu]), more rarely called Sulriograndense, is the Brazilian Portuguese term for the characteristic accent spoken in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state, including its capital, Porto Alegre. It is heavily influenced by Spanish and somewhat influenced by Guarani, Hunsrückisch, Venetian and other native languages.

Phonology

Its phonology is heavily similar to Rioplatense Spanish, including its characteristics of the speaking syllabic rhythm, use of L-vocalization in the syllable coda, and little use of nasal vowels, basically restricted to the monophthong /ɐ̃/ and the diphthongs /ɐ̃w̃, õj̃/.

In the western and some central varieties there is the absence of vowel reduction with word-final ⟨e⟩ and ⟨o⟩ (for example, leite is /ˈlejte/ instead of /ˈlejt^(ʃ)i/ and tudo is /ˈtu.do/ instead of /ˈtu.du/). In some other cities of the region, the nasal monophthong /ɐ̃/ is heightened to /ə̃/, and in the metropolitan region final /ɐ/ may be realised as /ə/.

The "hard" rhotic usually registers in western varieties as [r] medially and [ʁ] initially or following /l/, /s/, /n/ or /m/. In eastern varieties /ʁ/ has lenitioned into /ɦ/, /h/ or /x/ and /r/ is not found.

The "soft" rhotic tends to register as either a short trill or [ɾ]. Although finally in eastern varieties, due to influence from Paulistano, it is sometimes realised as [ɹ].

Grammar

Grammatically, one of its most notable features is the use of tu, instead of você, with the verb conjugating differently: e.g. tu corre and tu lava instead of *tu corres and *tu lavas. However, use of the standard você is also not rare. The same feature also occurs in other dialects of Brazilian Portuguese.

Vocabulary

Gaúcho	Standard Brazilian Portuguese	Meaning
aspa	chifre	horn
avio	isqueiro	lighter
bá!	puxa!, nossa!	exclamation of surprise
bagual	excelente, ótimo	excellent, very good
bergamota	tangerina, mexerica	tangerine
bodoque	estilingue	slingshot
campear	procurar	to look for
chavear	trancar	to lock
chimia	geleia	jam
cusco	cachorro, cão	dog
fatiota	terno	suit (noun)
inticar	provocar	to provoke
remolacha	beterraba	beetroot
tchê!	cacilda!, caramba!	sentence intensifier or you (i.e. "Hey, you name")
terneiro	bezerro	calf
tri	legal, bacana	nice, cool
vivente	ser, pessoa	living being
a la pucha!		praises what was heard^[1]^[2]
querência	pátria	fatherland, homeland

Regional differences

The Gaúcho dialect ranges in features as the western variations have stronger influence from Rioplatense Spanish and the eastern, especially the ones spoken in the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre, stronger influence of the Paulistano dialect, resulting in differing features depending on the region the dialect is spoken.

References

^ Nunes, Zeno Cardoso; Nunes, Rui Cardoso (1984). Dicionário de regionalismos do Rio Grande do Sul [Dictionary of Rio Grande do Sul Regionalisms] (in Portuguese). Porto Alegre, Brazil: Martins Livreiro.
^ Possenti, Sírio (2012-12-27). "Sírio Possenti explica o que são dialetos" [Sírio Possenti Explains what Dialects Are] (in Portuguese). Revista Ciência Hoje. Retrieved 2013-01-03.