Mozambican Portuguese

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Mozambican Portuguese (Português Moçambicano in Portuguese) refers to the varieties of Portuguese spoken in the nation-state of Mozambique. It is the official language and, according to the most recent census, is spoken by approximately 40% of the population, mostly as a lingua franca, with only 6.5% speaking it natively. As Mozambican Portuguese is an emerging variety of the language, there is not nearly as much data on its use as there is for Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese.

Several variables factor into the emergence of Mozambican Portuguese. The linguistic norm is based on that of Portugal and thus is the prestige variety of Mozambican Portuguese. Brazil's presence in Mozambique takes two forms: actual people who are there for work or tourism and a media presence. Finally, Mozambique's own linguistic diversity enriches the Portuguese language with new words and expressions.

[edit] History

Portuguese is an influence of Portuguese colonization of Africa. Although spoken from first European contact, Portuguese has largely entered Mozambique during the 19th century, after the division of East Africa between Portugal and the United Kingdom. For the Africans and Arab and Indian settlers to be part of Portuguese society, they had to be Roman Catholics and speak Portuguese, but unlike Brazil and Angola, Bantu languages did not disappear so does Arabic and Gujarati (language of most Indians) and Portuguese was just used as a communication of Portuguese settlers and different black tribes, and because of this communication, Portuguese and blacks and/or Arabs married, resulting to their children mestiços (Before teaching Portuguese to blacks, Portuguese settlers first learned one of the regional Bantu languages, so many white Mozambicans speak a Bantu language as their second language.) It was also the second language of Chinese settlers to communicate with whites, mestiços, blacks, Indians, and Arabs. Also, not all blacks, Indians, and Arabs were converted to Christianity. In 1974, Portuguese was used as a way to independence, like other former African Portuguese colonies, and a sign of national unity. Most Portuguese went out after independence in 1975, and because of this, Portuguese speakers have been diminished and only about 25% speak it while 1% as first language according to 1980 census. But since Portuguese remained an official and national language of the nation, it again increased to 40% (1997 census) and this may increase as many Portuguese teachers (among them stayed permanently) and Brazilian and black teachers from other PALOP nations (especially Angola) are coming to teach the language to illiterate blacks as it is an important world language and there is settlement of migrants from CPLP nations in Mozambique.

[edit] Phonology

Mozambican Portuguese is an Old Portuguese very similar to Brazilian Portuguese in many ways, like other African dialects. For example, the translation corresponding to Thank you! is Obrigado!. It is pronounced [obɾi’gado] in Brazil and Mozambique, but it is [obɾi’gaðu] in European Portuguese. Although the accent is intelligible to Brazilian dialect when hearing it from watching Brazilian TV stations, local government and schools chose to teach modern standard European dialect, like Portugal, East Timor, Macau, and the rest of PALOP do, and because standard European is the chosen pronunciation, Mozambican accent is closer to European than Brazilian even though it is midway between European and Brazilian dialects, so it is more common for Brazilian and Portuguese settlers/tourists to hear [obɾi’gaðu]. But there is some phonological difference in this dialect similar to Brazilian dialect, word-final /r/ ([ɾ] and [ʁ]) is dropped in the final syllable, especially those who speak Portuguese as their second language. Although it is a second or third language for most blacks, their native languages do not affect Portuguese phonology, except for some intonation.

[edit] Lexicon

Mozambican lexicon was also similar to Brazilian. Thus, the translation of Hello! in Brazil and Mozambique is Oi!, but since modern standard European is the chosen vocabulary, it is Olá!. Most of the vocabulary is the same as in Portugal, Brazil, or Angola, but there are some differences because of the Bantu (like Shangaan, Makua, or Shona), Gujarati, and Arabic lexicon. These words include machimbombo (bus, similar to Angolan Portuguese), timbila/mbila (musical instrument of Chopi), xitende (local Afro-Mozambican music), and chá (tea, from Cantonese cha). Two important names maxixe (Afro-Brazilian music named after Maxixe, a Mozambican town), marimba (a xylophone native to Chopi, from Chopi marimba/malimba), and metical (Mozambican currency name, from mitķāl, an Arabic unit of weight) have contributed to standard Portuguese. Words of Mozambican origin have been also popular to Portuguese-speaking countries or regions, especially Portugal, when returning Portuguese settlers (Português-Moçambicanos or retornados) [including Afro-Mozambicans (Afro-Moçambicanos), mulattoes, Indian-Mozambicans(Indo-Moçambicanos), Arab-Mozambicans (Árabe-Moçambicanos), and Chinese-Mozambicans (Chinês-Moçambicanos) who were loyal to Portuguese] brought African, Indian, Arab, and Chinese cultures to the country after independence in 1975.

[edit] Examples

[edit] External links

• The Language Situation in Mozambique
• Pronominal Syntax in Maputo Portuguese from a comparative Bantu and Creole perspective
• Em direcção ao primeiro léxico de usos do português moçambicano
• Dados Para a História da Língua Portuguesa em Moçambique