Thank you, Herb, that very enlightening! MaryAnn
On Sat, Jul 13, 2013 at 10:43 AM, Herb <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi David > > I was born in Sao Miguel and still speak Portuguese with the Sao Miguel > accent. It sounds absolutely nothing like Brazilian Portuguese > pronunciation. Its like night and day David. In fact many Azoreans > have great difficulty understanding a Brazilian speaker. I delved a bit > into all of this when I took some linguistic courses while pursuing my > undergarduate degree. I have always been fascinated by languages. Two facts > are in evidence. One concerns the pronunciation of the Portuguese > language as spoken in Sao Miguel where several peculiarities remind the > listener of French. The two most striking of these characteristics are the > pronunciation depicted by the letter u ( escudo, Furnas) as u in the French > tu and the sound depicted in the French dipthongs ou and oi ( ouro, noite > as the eu or French peu (foot), roughly the ur of New England, "Burt". The > French sounds in the Michalense ( Sao Miguel) pronunciation could be due to > French influnce on parts of the island. The village known as Bretanha may > have been settled by Bretons from Brittanny France, possibly ship wrecked > sailors. At the western end of Sao Miguel there is a place called Ginetes, > probably so called from a famous breed of jennets for which the island was > noted. The name reminds of the French word jenet " heather" as in the > English Royal House of Plantagenet ( ruled 1154-1399). The so called > French u also exists in Corvo and parts of Madeira. The French u and eu > are heard in Continental Portugal specifically in the region known as the > Upper Alentejo where the families of many Azoreans originated. Some > scholars say that if it had been washed up Breton sailors or fishermen or > sailors or pirates at the end of the 16th century they would have Celtic > speaking and not French speaking. So maybe in order to confirm or deny the > theory of Breton influence we must examine the Celtic phonological system. > Having said all that David, there is no concrete evidence that Frenchmen > did so settle, much less influence the pronunciation of Michaelense. The > matter of pronumnciation impinges on that of provenience. Lingustic > evidence however, strongly suggests that the early setllers of Sao Miguel > came from southern Portugal from the Algarve region and from Upper Alentejo > and it is the pronunciation from those regions that influenced > Michaelense. Still others hold to the French theory. > > I hope this helps at least partially explain the Portuguese language > pronumciation as spoken in Sao Miguel. > > > Herb > > On Friday, July 12, 2013 4:10:06 PM UTC-4, David Perry 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. > > > -- *MaryAnn Santos* Senior Advisement and Student Affairs Administrator Department of Art and Art Professions NYU/Steinhardt 212.998.5702 [email protected] -- 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.
