“The myths, or the received wisdom, about Portuguese language in Brazil is that, of course we know we speak a very different version of the language, but this has always been explained to us as maybe perhaps a defect of sorts?” says linguist and translator Caetano Galindo, author of Latim em Pó, a history of Brazilian Portuguese. “You look deeper into things and you find you have to wrap your mind around a very different reality.”

Content note: this episode discusses the enslavement of African people.

EXTRA MATERIALS:

• Caetano features in the new documentary Nossa pátria está onde somos amados (Our Country is the Place where We Are Loved) which is rather beautiful.

• He would also like to direct your attention to the album Lingua by Tom Zé.

• Listen to Caetano Veloso’s song ‘Lingua’.

• Caetano (Galindo not Veloso) has appeared on the show before, talking about translating the Memory Palace in One To Another. It’s very charming.

• More Brazillusionists, you say? Listen to the Lacuna episode, about Brazilian journalists printing fake recipes so the public knew they’d been censored.

Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get behind-the-scenes glimpses about every episode, fortnightly livestreams, and the delightful Allusioverse Discord community with their disco kettles and knitted octopus tentacles.

YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
locorestive, (Lamb) adj: staying in one place.
[Humorously modelled on locomotive, from Latin restare, to stay still.]

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More [and how to subscribe]: Allusionist 172. A Brief History of Brazilian Portuguese — The Allusionist