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Language is one of the strongest elements of Brazil's national
unity. Portuguese is spoken by nearly 100 percent of the population.
The only exceptions are some members of Amerindian groups and
pockets of immigrants, primarily from Japan and South Korea, who
have not yet learned Portuguese. The principal families of Indian
languages are Tupí, Arawak, Carib, and Gê.
There is about as much difference between the Portuguese spoken in
Brazil and that spoken in Portugal as between the English spoken in
the United States and that spoken in the United Kingdom. Within
Brazil, there are no dialects of Portuguese, but only moderate
regional variation in accent, vocabulary, and use of personal nouns,
pronouns, and verb conjugations. Variations tend to diminish as a
result of mass media, especially national television networks that
are viewed by the majority of Brazilians.
The written language, which is uniform all over Brazil, follows
national rules of spelling and accentuation that are revised from
time to time for simplification. They are slightly different from
the rules followed in Portugal. Written Brazilian Portuguese differs
significantly from the spoken language and is used correctly by only
a small, educated minority of the population. The rules of grammar
are complex and allow more flexibility than English or Spanish. Many
foreigners who speak Portuguese fluently have difficulty writing it
properly.
Because of Brazil's size, self-sufficiency, and relative isolation,
foreign languages are not widely spoken. English is often studied in
school and increasingly in private courses. It has replaced French
as the principal second language among educated people. Because
Spanish is similar to Portuguese, most Brazilians can understand it
and many can communicate in it, although Spanish speakers usually
have difficulty understanding spoken Portuguese.
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