*David, * *Let me add my perspective to this subject. I was born in central California to parents from the Island of Flores. My mother had been in this country only 4 years when I was born so for all practical purposes, my first language was Portuguese. I spoke very little English when I started elementary school. In spite of that, I had forgotten most of my Portuguese by the time I got to High School. Then, a family of cousins immigrated from Flores and settled nearby and little by little, I started speaking Portuguese again.
Then within a time span of about 3 years, I a) Took my first trip to the Azores, b) Accepted a Job in Brazil, c) Married a Brasileira with 3 kids. (I might add that the first few weeks in Brazil, I had a H--- of a time undestanding them and visa versa). That was over 40 years ago. Now when I go to the Azores, I often am asked what part of Brazil I'm from and when I go to Brazil, I'm often asked what part of Portugal I'm from. Adding to what Cheri said, there is no single Azorean accent. The Sao Miguel and the Terceira accents are the most distinct. I might also add that education level also has an influence. Older less educated people seem to have a more pronounced local accent while the younger more educated who may have gone to college usually speak a more "standard" Portuguese. The caretaker at the cemetary in Santa Cruz Flores the last time I was there, had an unmistakable Sao Miguel accent. * *John Vasconcelos* On Fri, Jul 12, 2013 at 1:10 PM, David Perry <[email protected]>wrote: > I'm starting to learn Portuguese and everything I see and hear doesn't > sound at all like what I remember as a child while listening to my born in > Sao Miguel father talking to his relatives and neighbors, all of whom spoke > only Portuguese. For instance, I specifically remember very well two > words: "legs" which my father pronounced pad-nish (doesn't sound at all > like what I see in a dictionary - pernas) and chourico which my father > pronounced shoo-dees. How different is the Sao Miguel Portuguese from > Lisbon Portuguese? Are there a few general rules I can follow such as "r's > sound like d's" or "drop the ending vowel" as in the two examples above? > David > > -- > For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail > (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the > right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my > membership." > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Azores Genealogy" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores. > > > -- For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores.
