Brazil is often called the “Russia of South America” due to it being the only Portuguese-speaking country on the continent, as well as their refusal to adopt Spanish. This got me thinking, what are the languages of Brazil like?
For the most part, the languages spoken in Brazil are split into two categories: foreign and indigenous. As you’d probably expect, the foreign languages are more well spoken than the indigenous ones!
Official Languages of Brazil
According to the Constitution of Brazil, there is only one official language…
Portuguese
Having been discovered by Portuguese explorer and diplomat, Pedro Álvares Cabral, in 1500, what’s now called Brazil (then called Terra do Brasil or Brasileiros), soon became a Portuguese (not Spanish!) colony.
Unlike other empires of the day, Portugal had an outpost-based empire, clustering around ports that it built (and alliances with the local native populations for gold and protection).
As a Portuguese colony, Portugal sent across many Portuguese-speaking immigrants, most of whom moved to Brazil in the hopes of gaining employment. Due to this, Portuguese was the official language of Brazil.
Even after Brazil gained its independence from Portugal in 1822 (with the Portuguese king remaining as the king of Brazil), Brazil would continue to speak Portuguese.
This continues to this day.
Today, the Brazilian government estimate that approximately 97.9% of the Brazilian population (roughly 206.57 million people) speak Brazilian as a native language.
However, the dialect of Portuguese they speak in Brazil is slightly different to the one spoken in Portugal.
Much British and American English, the main difference is mostly colloquial, with most European-Portuguese speakers understanding Brazilian-Portuguese and vice-versa!
Indigenous Languages of Brazil
As with other countries in the New World, Brazil had a number of indigenous languages before the Portuguese conquests. Whilst many of them have been wiped out, a few still remain, with the most spoken being:
Nheengatu
The Nheengatu (otherwise known as the Nhengatu) are one of the largest Amerindian tribes in Brazil. Perhaps not surprisingly, their language, Nheengatu, is one of the most spoken indigenous languages in all of Brazil!
As a member of the Tupi-Guarani language family, Nheengatu is closely related to other languages like Guarani (more on them later) Tupi, Kaapor, Xeta and Awá, all of which are languages located in the Rio Negro region (as in Nheengatu).
Unlike many of the other indigenous languages spoken in Brazil, Nheengatu has been documented for centuries, with it having literally hundreds of books originally published in the language – with roughly 100 original texts have been published up until today!
Since the Portuguese made contact with the Nheengatu in the 16th century, much of the Nheengatu have been wiped out. Many of those who remained tried to assimilate to Brazilian life by adopting Portuguese, thus forgetting Nheengatu.
Although once viewed with disdain by the Brazilian government, Nheengatu has seen a revival in recent years, mostly thanks to the government, who’ve promoted it in schools and areas predominantly made up of Nheengatu peoples.
To make it even more accessible, Nheengatu was even made an official language in the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira.
Against all odds, this has actually worked, with Nheengatu currently having around 20,000 speakers, with almost 75% of them being located in Brazil.
Tikuna
Behind the Nheengatu, one of the other major Brazilian Amerindian tribes are the Tikuna people (otherwise known as the Ticuna, Tucuna and/or Tukuna) who were similarly one of the largest tribes in Brazil before Portugal arrived.
Much like the Nheengatu, the arrival of the Portuguese spelled doom for Tikuna, who were nearly wiped out by Portuguese colonists, and their language eradicated.
However, whilst Nheengatu is related to several other languages, Tikuna is a language isolate – there is no other language related to it whatsoever. In laymen’s terms, if we lose Tikuna, we lose an entire language family.
Just as with the Nheengatu, the Tikuna were forced to abandon their language in favor of Portuguese and occasionally Spanish too. Recent years have also seen the Brazilian government try to revive the language.
Although a success with Nheengatu, success with Tikuna has been slower, mostly owing to the Amazonas regional government’s refusal to make it an official language, and the Tikuna people’s apprehensiveness to learn the language again.
Currently, the Brazilian government estimates that there are 40,000 native Tikuna speakers in Brazil, almost all of whom are ethnic Tikuna peoples and are thus located in the Brazilian Amazon.
Guarani
For the most part, Guarani is spoken in Paraguay. However, as the Guarani people pre-date the modern countries of South American, there is a sizeable Guarani-speaking population in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul.
Much like other indigenous languages, the Portuguese colonists, and later the Brazilian government tried to eradicate the Guarani people, and thus their “crude” language.
Whilst devastating to the Guarani people in Brazil, they managed to survive. Struggling to survive for years, the Brazilian government later helped to revive the language (as they did with other indigenous languages).
As with other indigenous languages, Guarani saw a massive revival, with it soon becoming one of the most spoken languages in the Mato Grosso do Sul region, where lawmakers soon made it an official language of.
Thanks to this, as well as (mostly) positive Paraguayan-Brazilian relations, the Guarani population in Brazil has skyrocketed, with their language becoming even more well spoken as a result.
All in all, there are an estimated 30,000 Guarani speakers in Brazil today (according to the most recent surveys and estimates anyway).
Xavante
Whilst most of Brazil’s native people’s welcomed Portuguese explorers, only to have their kindness repaid through death, disease and conquest, the Xavante people avoided the Portuguese at all costs, often killing them to prevent their discovery.
As such, they didn’t experience the near-extinction in the 17th and 18th centuries that other tribes did. However, they couldn’t seem to outrun it, as the Brazilian government stripped them of their land in the 1940’s and 1950’s rehousing them elsewhere.
It was here where the tribe of nearly 50,000 were systematically killed through massacre and disease, reducing their numbers down to between 7,500 and 10,000 at its worst, with their language being on the verge of extinction.
Later governments would restore the Xavante’s land back to them, however, squatters had destroyed the land their ancestors had lived on for centuries, making it virtually untenable. In turn, this has led to even more death, mostly through war, disease and famine.
Despite this, the Xavante have managed to grow their numbers, and bring their language off the verge of extinction. Currently, their numbers are estimated to be at about 15,300 strong, although the Xavante understandably don’t trust the government anymore.
Thanks to their numbers growing, the Brazil government believe (but can’t prove definitively) that there are between 9,000 and 12,000 native Xavante speakers, with the remainder speaking it as a second language!
Kaingang
Related to the Xavante language is the Kaingang language, with both languages being a part of the Jê language family. Just as with Xavante, Kaingang similarly saw its numbers diminish greatly thanks to the Brazilian government.
Spoken by the Kaingang people, the Kaingang language is mostly spoken in the south of Brazil, particularly in the regions of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, with most speakers being located in the city of São Paulo.
As with other languages, including many of Brazil’s indigenous languages, Kaingang had several dialects, most of which went extinct when most of the Kaingang speakers were wiped out.
Unlike Brazil’s other indigenous languages, Kaingang has managed to develop two distinct variants – Loukotka and Mason, which have developed due to geography (Mason is spoken in the city, whilst Loukotka is spoken in the countryside).
As of the time of writing, the Brazilian government estimates that there are 22,000 Kaingang speakers in Brazil, up from 18,000 in 1989.
Despite the resurgence Kaingang has seen in recent years, many linguists still class Kaingang as an endangered language, with there still being compelling evidence to suggest that Kaingang will go extinct by 2050…
Mainly because young Kaingang people are still refusing to learn the language.
Foreign Languages of Brazil
Beyond Portuguese and the various indigenous languages, Brazil is also home to a number of foreign languages, most of whom are from Europe, but also other areas of the world. By far the most spoken are:
English
Following the defeat of the Confederacy in the Civil War, many ardent Confederates (especially those from Texas) would flee southwards, in the hopes of creating a second Confederacy to attack the Union.
The country they chose as their refuge was Brazil.
Arriving in the late 1860’s, these English-speaking Confederates would create mini enclaves that still practiced slavery (as slavery was still legal in Brazil at the time), acquiring millions to stage a second Civil War.
Alas, this never happened, although their descendants continue to run coffee plantations and speak English as their primary language!
Beyond the Confederates, the early 1900’s would see other English-speaking immigrants, primarily from Britain, Canada and Australia, arrive in the country, many of whom went on to have important roles in the Brazilian military and industry.
In more recent years, Brazil has become home to English-speaking retirees, who’ve been attracted to the country for its comparably low cost of living and good weather.
Owing to the large English-speaking population in Brazil, and the fact that English is the world’s lingua franca, many Brazilians are taught it in school, with many more paying for private lessons to further their career chances.
All in all, roughly 10.55 million people in Brazil (around 5% of the Brazilian population) speak English as either a primary of secondary language (mostly the latter) to a high degree.
French
The first Frenchmen settled in Brazil in 1819. Although they came in sporadically from then on, the majority of Brazil’s Frenchmen would migrate between 1850 and 1964, with there 100,000 French immigrants moving to Brazil in this time.
Although most of them learned Portuguese for employment reasons, the French immigrants didn’t give up speaking French entirely. Instead, they spoke French at home and with their family, whilst speaking Portuguese at work, school etc.
Despite over 200 having passed since the first French immigrants arrived in Brazil, French is still incredibly widespread.
Between 1850 and 1964, 100,000 French-speaking immigrants arrived in Brazil, most of whom had children. Today, there are now well over one million French-Brazilians, who are native speakers of both French and Portuguese!
Unlike other mass-migrations of people to one specific area, the Frenchmen who moved to Brazil did so in an unorganized manner, some moving to the French colonies in Brazil (which were later ceded to Brazil) whilst others moved to Portuguese-speaking Brazil directly.
Perhaps not surprisingly, French has become quite a popular second language taught in schools, where it is often offered by schools as an alternative to English. In some schools, it’s even preferred over English!
Spanish
Being located in South America – a continent that was famous for having been mostly colonized by Spain – many people tend to believe that Brazil is another Spanish-speaking country.
Although it isn’t, you’d probably still think that there are at least some Spanish speakers in the country. Indeed, there are. Just not as many as you’d think…
For the most part, Brazil’s Spanish speakers are immigrants who’ve come to Brazil from other parts of Latin America (mainly Argentina, Venezuela and Peru) in search of a better life.
Other Spanish speakers in Brazil have come mostly from Spain, particularly Catalonia (which also gives Brazil a sizeable Catalan-speaking community too!), often fleeing the partial civil unrest in the country.
Along the Brazilian borders, there are also a number of villages where the populace speak both Spanish and Portuguese to a native level, often having one Brazilian (and thus Portuguese-speaking) parent and another Spanish-speaking one.
To date, there are roughly 500,000 native Spanish speakers in Brazil, with a further 8.44 million Brazilians (4% of the country’s entire population) having learned Spanish as a second language language.
German
Following Brazil’s independence from Portugal in 1822, the new Brazilian government soon realized that southern Brazil had a rather low population density, that would make it an easy staging ground for invasion by one of Brazil’s southern neighbors.
Wanting to strengthen this, Brazil would begin looking at filling the south with immigrants. Now being a separate country to Portugal, Brazil couldn’t attract Portuguese immigrants like it could before. Instead, it turned to Germany.
You see, what’s now called Germany (then the Holy Roman Empire) was being ravaged by the Napoleonic Wars, with millions starving and living in poverty. As such, when Brazil offered them a home and farmland to make money on, many took this offer.
Settling in the south of the country, there would be a steady stream of German immigrants to Brazil for the next 150 years.
Unlike other languages that have since lost their touch, German Brazilians have continued to teach their children and grandchildren the language, which has become the second most common language spoken at home behind only Portuguese.
All in all, estimates actually differ considerably in regards to the actual number of Brazilians who can speak German. On the low-end, estimates claim that four million Brazilians can speak German, whilst others claim as much as 12 million!
Indeed, German is so common in certain areas of Brazil that it has been given co-official status (alongside Portuguese) in the regions of Southern Brazil and Espírito Santo, both of which are located in the south of the country.
Japanese
In the early 1900’s, Brazil hoped to “whiten” the country by encouraging more white people to move to the country (as Brazil had become famous for its use of former African slaves on its plantations, who were viewed as being sub-human by most Brazilians).
Not getting enough White Europeans to move to Brazil, the Brazilian government began to look at countries outside of Europe that were experiencing a population boom. Although not white, Japan was seen as the next best thing.
Introducing a law that allowed Japanese migration to the country, the first Japanese immigrants would arrive in Brazil in early 1907, where most of them found work on Brazilian coffee plantations, often replacing former African slaves.
All in all, well over 240,000 Japanese people would move to Brazil from Japan between 1907 and 1993, with the most migration happening from 1926 until 1935 (133,000 people) and 1952 until 1965 (47,000 people).
Whilst many of these first generation Japanese immigrants are still alive today (especially if they migrated in the 1960’s), most of these Japanese immigrants have had children, and often grandchildren, who speak both Japanese and Portuguese!
To date, there are an estimated one million to 1.5 million Japanese speakers in Brazil, most of whom are second or third generation immigrants who speak the language with their elderly relatives who moved to Brazil from Japan!
This number would actually be more, but a recent trend has seen many Japanese Brazilians return to Japan due to the ageing population…
Which are your favorite languages of Brazil? Do you speak any (besides English of course)? Tell me in the comments!