Here is another question from our friend Ihsan, to be answered by Rui:
Q: I was wondering if Portugal had different accents according to region like in Brazil…and if they varied greatly or differ only subtly? If there are different accents, which one does Rui speak?
Rui: Sim Portugal tem diferentes pronúncias que variam de acordo com as diferentes zonas. Os Açores têm a pronúncia mais marcada de todo o País (continente e ilhas) e talvez a que menos portugueses entendem.
Depois temos a região da Madeira com uma pronúncia bastante diferente do continente também, o norte do país, embora esta já seja mais fácil de entender que as duas últimas.
E por fim a pronúncia do Sul. Supostamente é na zona do Centro, na cidade de Coimbra, que se fala o português padrão e “neutro”. As diferenças são maioritariamente a nível sonoro, na forma como algumas palavras são ditas, embora algumas regiões também tenham expressões próprias. A nível de gramática a diferença mais notável é o uso do gerúndio no sul do país (Alentejo e Algarve).
(from Joel: To answer the last part of Ihsan’s question, Rui’s dialect that you hear in our podcast is the standard accent you’ll hear right in Lisbon)
It would be great to give some audio examples of how the Portuguese sounds in Acores vs Madeira as well as Porto vs Lisboa. I remember meeting a friend’s parents who grew up in Viseu. They traded all the “v” sounds in a word with the “b” sound. It was difficult to understand at first until I learned what was happening. I wondered if this sotaque (accent) still exists. I know that people from Tras-os-montes speak with a different accent as well as possibly a different language (Mireandes)….but it’d be great to hear an example of how it sounds.
In US, there are different distinct accents….Massachusetts and New York tend to be distinct, southern US with a southern drawal, Midwest (Great Lakes area) tend to have a neutral accent…though some areas have distinct vowel sounds like was seen/heard in Movie Fargo. As well as vocabulary differences….meaning half of country call a sandwich…a submarine sandwich and some say grinder. Some say soda vs pop vs coke (for any soda like Sprite, 7Up, Coke, Pepsi, Rootbeer, etc). I would suspect that these differences exist in Portugal too (saying nothing about the islands which I would expect much more variation).
That’s a wonderful idea, Mary! It’s actually something we thought about doing. Unfortunately, we don’t have that many variety of accents on our team. But we all have friends from different parts of Portugal, so maybe one day we can do something like that.
The trading of “V” sounds for the “B” sound is a linguistic mystery that is still very present in the northern accent! It’ll surely be around for many many years to come. And let me tell you that some people, being aware of their own accent, end up trading the “B” sounds for the “V” sound which is even more confusing! For example: “Vais beber vinho?” (“Are you going to drink wine?”) not only can sound “Bais beber binho?” but also may end up sounding like “Bais vever binho?”. Not everyone does it, but it happens! All these little nuances and details just make this wonderful language even more fun and beautiful!
As for Mirandês – língua mirandesa, to be more precise – only a few thousand people living in that specific region can speak this dialect. Most of us don’t even know how to speak it! But it’s something we can think about for a future Shorty. Who knows? 🙂