Words Are Electrical
By B. Michael Rubin
Now that things have calmed down after the excitement of the royal wedding, we can all get back to business. For me that business is words, so let’s start with the words of the wedding, Casamento Real. Brazilians, like the rest of the world, were excited by the live telecast of the nuptial ceremony of the future King of England. Perhaps there’s an affinity Brazilians feel toward royalty, as Brazil was once ruled by a monarch. This may explain why my Portuguese/English dictionary translates the word real, as: “Brazilian currency; royalty; reality.” Any word that can be money and reality and royalty certainly signals a culture with royal traditions.
All languages are constantly changing, upgrading and refining, adding new words while old words fade from usage. That’s why no one talks like Shakespeare anymore. It’s hard to imagine that 450 years ago everyone in England spoke that way. For a dynamic view of a changing world, take a look at any of the world’s languages. The basis of human evolution is the development of language, and to continue to grow beyond the world of grunting apes, languages must evolve, too. In today’s fast-paced reality, new words are being invented every day.
In Brazil, an institution called the Academia Brasileira de Letras supervises changes in the Portuguese language. For example, in 2008 two new letters were officially added, K and W, giving the alphabet 26 letters.
It’s not surprising that English and Portuguese now have the same alphabet, as English is rapidly becoming the international language of business. If a Brazilian company wishes to do business with China, Brazil’s largest trading partner, their business must be conducted in English, as neither of the two country’s businessmen speak each other’s language.
I met a Brazilian businessman who owned a chain of jewelry stores here. He was interested in practicing his conversational English. He told me he was planning to meet with Chinese wholesale gem suppliers in Bangkok to negotiate purchases for his two dozen jewelry stores. He said, “Even if I could speak a little Chinese, enough to negotiate prices, I wouldn’t be able to speak Chinese as well as they do. They would have the advantage in the meeting. I want to speak English with them, so nobody has a better position.”
Languages are continually flooded with new words, and in English it’s happening now particularly with technology, where companies like Facebook, Intel, Google, Microsoft, and Cisco are creating new horizons on a daily basis. Some of these new technology words begin as slang, then they enter the mainstream English vocabulary and eventually filter into other languages, like Portuguese. Brazilians pronounce Internet, Facebook, and Google the same way these words are pronounced in English. You will also hear other English words being used here, like “show” and “taxi” and “fax.”
These new words are not only entering Brazil’s culture, but they are entering with an English pronunciation. Having a word in English enter Portuguese isn’t news, but using the English pronunciation is. For example, a Brazilian will not pronounce the American food company, Quaker, the same way it’s pronounced in English.
The Portuguese language is also changing for reasons that have nothing to do with English or technology. There are two different spellings for the number 14 — quatorze and catorze. Besides adding two new letters to the alphabet, Portuguese scholars disagree on how many verb tenses there are in Portuguese. Many professors teach tinha falado as a verb tense in classes of conversational Portuguese taught to foreigners. Some Portuguese textbooks now include vou falar as a proper formation of the future tense. One grammar book I saw has given this new composto verb tense a name — futuro imediato.
English may be increasing its size with new vocabulary, but the number of verb tenses in English hasn’t been altered, which shows Brazil may be changing even faster than the US.
It’s interesting to note that new words aren’t the only things invading Brazil from the US. For example, recent statistics show that like Americans, Brazilians have been giving up cigarette smoking in large numbers, a very healthy trend. Perhaps as a result of their non-smoking efforts, however, Brazilians are also gaining kilos. Currently, 48 percent of Brazilians are overweight, making Brazil nearly as fat as the US.
My favorite examples of Brazilian/American interchange happen with words. I love watching Brazilian students work diligently to learn English. I can almost see the neurons firing inside their brains as they strive to translate their thoughts into English. Sometimes, they express themselves with a phrase that makes no sense in English. Recently, one student said, “My sister is electrical.” A native speaker would never say this, but the meaning was perfectly clear to me.
All languages are vibrant and dynamic and charged with royal energy. Watching people dive into the exploration of a new language is very “electrical.”
Michael Rubin is an American living in Curitiba. He can be contacted at rubin.brazil@gmail.com.
