Everything about Caipira totally explained
Caipira (in English, "
hillbilly", or "country people") is a
Brazilian Portuguese term used to designate inhabitants of rural, remote areas of some Brazilian states---It refers to the people of lesser schooling. It can be considered pejorative when used to describe others, but it can also be used as a self-identifier without negative connotations. It often carries the connotation of an uneducated (at times naïve or even stupid) person, and someone who can't speak proper Portuguese. In
festas juninas it's traditional in some areas for people who are not considered as such to dress up as stereotypical Caipiras.
By extension, it's also used as a name for a dialect or group of dialects of
Portuguese spoken in the states of
São Paulo and neighboring areas in
Mato Grosso do Sul,
Goiás, the south of
Minas Gerais, and part of
Paraná.
Characteristics
Although the
caipira dialect originated in
São Paulo, the current language in
São Paulo City, capital of the state of São Paulo, is a very different variety close to standard Portuguese, albeit with large Italian-influenced elements.
Caipira is spoken mostly in the countryside.
Phonetically, the most important differences in comparison with standard Portuguese are the
approximant "r", and the absence of the palatal "l", written "lh" in Portuguese, which in
caipira is pronounced like a consonant "i." The "l" is frequently modified into "r". There are other important changes, as in the following examples:
| Standard Brazilian Portuguese |
Caipira Portuguese |
English |
| Spelling |
Pronunciation (IPA) |
Pronunciation spelling |
Pronunciation (IPA) |
| Flor |
[floɾ] |
Frô |
[fɹo] |
Flower |
| Falso |
[ˈfau̯su] |
Farso |
[ˈfaɹsu] |
False |
| Melhor |
[meˈʎɔɾ] |
Mió |
[miˈjɔ] |
Better |
| Voar |
[vuˈaɾ] |
Avuá |
[avuˈa] |
To fly |
| Você |
[voˈse] |
Ocê |
[oˈse] |
You |
| Ganhamos |
[gɐ̃ˈɲɐ̃mus] or [gɐ̃ˈɲɐ̃muʃ] |
Ganhemo |
[gɐ̃ˈɲemu] |
We win |
| Voltamos |
[vou̯ˈtɐ̃mus] or [vou̯ˈtɐ̃muʃ] |
Vortemo |
[voɹˈtemu] |
We come back |
There are some significant differences in
caipira morphology and syntax. For example:
- The negative adverb não has distinct strong and weak forms, não [nɐ̃u̯] in short replies, and num [nũ] for negative phrases.
- In plural forms only the article or pronoun is inflected, and the adjective often remains uninflected, for example: standard Portuguese: essas coisas bonitas [ˈɛsɐsˈkoizɐzbuˈnitɐs] "those beautiful things" (that-PL beautiful-PL thing-PL) ↔ caipira: essas coisa bonita [ˈɛsɐsˈkoizɐbuˈnitɐ] (that-PL beautiful-SING thing-SING).
Despite these differences, a speaker of standard Portuguese has no great difficulty understanding
caipira.
Like other Portuguese dialects in Brazil,
caipira has never been considered a separate language. It has no significant tradition in literature, nor a definite standard for spelling and it's considered as a coloquial mode of Portuguese.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Caipira'.
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