Gaúcho (), more rarely called , is the
Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese (; ; also known as pt-BR) is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of Portuguese language native to Brazil. It is spoken by almost all of the 203 million inhabitants of Brazil and widely across the Brazilian diaspora ...
term for the characteristic accent spoken in
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...
, Brazil's southernmost state, including its capital,
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre (, ; , ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian Federative units of Brazil, state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of roughly 1.4 million inhabitants (2022) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, 11th-most p ...
. It is heavily influenced by Spanish and somewhat influenced by
Hunsrückisch,
Venetian,
Guarani and other native languages.
Phonology
Its phonology is heavily similar to
Rioplatense Spanish
Rioplatense Spanish ( , ), also known as Rioplatense Castilian, or River Plate Spanish, is a variety of SpanishAlvar, Manuel, "''Manual de dialectología hispánica. El español de América''", ("Handbook of Hispanic Dialectology. Spanish Lan ...
, including its characteristics of the speaking syllabic rhythm, use of
''L''-vocalization in the
syllable coda
A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
, and little use of
nasal vowel
A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel /ɑ̃/ () or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are p ...
s, basically restricted to the monophthong and the diphthongs .
In the western and some central varieties there is the absence of vowel reduction with word-final and (for example, is instead of and is instead of ). In some other cities of the region, the nasal monophthong is heightened to , and in the metropolitan region final may be realised as .
The "hard" rhotic usually registers in western varieties as
r.html" ;"title="/nowiki> r">/nowiki>alveolar trill, r/nowiki> medially and voiced uvular fricative">ʁ/nowiki> initially or following . In eastern varieties /ʁ/ has lenitioned into 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 , instead of , with the verb conjugating differently: e.g. and instead of and . However, use of the standard ''você'' is also not rare. The same feature also occurs in other dialects of Brazilian Portuguese.
Vocabulary
Regional differences
The Gaúcho dialect ranges in features as the western variations have stronger influence from Rioplatense Spanish
Rioplatense Spanish ( , ), also known as Rioplatense Castilian, or River Plate Spanish, is a variety of SpanishAlvar, Manuel, "''Manual de dialectología hispánica. El español de América''", ("Handbook of Hispanic Dialectology. Spanish Lan ...
and the eastern, especially the ones spoken in the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre, stronger influence of the Paulistano dialect
Paulistano () is the Portuguese language, Brazilian Portuguese term for the characteristic accent spoken in São Paulo, Brazil's largest and richest city, and some neighboring areas in the São Paulo Macrometropolis. It is the most influential acc ...
, resulting in differing features depending on the region the dialect is spoken.
See also
* Gaucho
A gaucho () or gaúcho () is a skilled horseman, reputed to be brave and unruly. The figure of the gaucho is a folk symbol of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, the southern part of Bolivia, and the south of Chilean Patago ...
* Portuguese dialects
Portuguese dialects are the mutually intelligible variations of the Portuguese language in Portuguese-speaking countries and other areas holding some degree of cultural bond with the language. Portuguese has two standard forms of writing and nu ...
* Portuguese phonology
The phonology of Portuguese varies among dialects, in extreme cases leading to some difficulties in mutual intelligibility. This article on phonology focuses on the pronunciations that are generally regarded as standard. Since Portuguese is a ...
References
{{Portuguese dialects
Brazilian Portuguese