Im typing this whilst away for a holiday with the family - we are in Madeira, which is lovely although there are wildfires v close to our location and lots of smoke and ash around. Thankfully for the locals - and us - it seems to be under control since we arrived at the weekend, although still burning.
Anyway. Its the second time weve been to Madeira - we tried last year and had to cancel due to my wife being ill, and sadly missed dog, Luna, passing. So we came this year, and it is a beautiful island - the views are spectacular!
But what struck me last time was the Portuguese accent and language. Im amazed as i was last time I came that it sounds so Slavic. Its explained away as European Portuguese and Russian are stress-timed languages and their rhythms sound similar. The fact that Portuguese uses the sound sh a lot also contributes to the similarity to Russian. In fact, most Slavic languages are stress-timed and this is the main reason why European Portuguese sounds like a Slavic language. (Quoted from a website)
Which made me wonder - does Brazilian Portuguese sound different, therefore, to European Portuguese and more Spanish than Slavic sounding ?
Im typing this whilst away for a holiday with the family - we are in Madeira, which is lovely although there are wildfires v close to our location and lots of smoke and ash around. Thankfully for the locals - and us - it seems to be under control since we arrived at the weekend, although still burning.
Anyway. Its the second time weve been to Madeira - we tried last year and had to cancel due to my wife being ill, and sadly missed dog, Luna, passing. So we came this year, and it is a beautiful island - the views are spectacular!
But what struck me last time was the Portuguese accent and language. Im amazed as i was last time I came that it sounds so Slavic. Its explained away as European Portuguese and Russian are stress-timed languages and their rhythms sound similar. The fact that Portuguese uses the sound sh a lot also contributes to the similarity to Russian. In fact, most Slavic languages are stress-timed and this is the main reason why European Portuguese sounds like a Slavic language. (Quoted from a website)
Which made me wonder - does Brazilian Portuguese sound different, therefore, to European Portuguese and more Spanish than Slavic sounding ?
Yes. Very different. It's like Portuguese but with a softer Spanish accent. Our Brazilian manager can't understand our Portuguese Sales manager when he goes 'native' with his language.