In 1500, a Portuguese squadron under the command of Pedro Alvaris Cabral, having sailed to the shores of South America, discovered Brazil. Since then, the colonization of these lands began and for three long centuries they were under the rule of Portugal. But, despite the fact that back in 1822 the independence and formation of the Brazilian Empire was declared, Portuguese is still the only official language of Brazil.
Portuguese
Today Brazil is a multilingual country. More than 175 languages and dialects can be heard here. And this is taking into account the fact that over the past century, about 120 languages have already disappeared. But the official language of Brazil remains Portuguese. It is freely owned by the entire population of the country. It is used in government offices, schools, media. Interestingly, Brazil is the only country in America that speaks Portuguese. It is surrounded on all sides, mainly by Hispanic states.
Over the years, the Portuguese language in Brazil has acquired some of its own characteristics and began to differ somewhat from the usual Portuguese, which can be heard in Portugal itself and other Portuguese-speaking countries. The Brazilian version of the Portuguese language was formed here. This is comparable to British and American English.
Indigenous languages
Before colonization and the arrival of Europeans on Brazilian lands, the entire territory of modern Brazil was inhabited by Indians. According to various estimates, from 270 to 1078 languages from 17 language families were spoken among them. Over time, most of them disappeared, to our time, 145 Indian languages have survived, which are common in the Amazon basin. More than 250 thousand people speak them. The Constitution of the Brazilian Republic does not deprive the Indians of the right to their languages. So, in 2003, three Indian languages (Baniva, Nyengatu, Tucano) received official status in the state of Amazonas.
Immigrant languages
In Brazil, you can also hear more than three dozen languages belonging to the Germanic, Romance and Slavic language groups, spoken by immigrants from Europe and Asia.
From 1824 to 1969 about a quarter of a million Germans immigrated to Brazil. Most of them moved here between the 1st and 2nd world wars. Naturally, over the years, the German language has changed significantly, falling under the Portuguese influence. Today more than 2 million people, mostly living in the south of the country, speak some kind of German.
Where Brazil borders Argentina and Uruguay, Spanish is spoken.
If European immigrants settle in the south of Brazil, then Asians (immigrants from Japan, Korea, China) are concentrated in large central cities, where they often occupy entire areas. About 380 thousand people speak Japanese, and 37 thousand speak Korean. Since 1946, the Japanese-language press has been published in Sao Paulo.
