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A comment on Linguistic purism in English. Parent comment

Re:Linguistic purism in English by blowski on Tuesday May 17, 2016 @06:42AM (#11712477)
Of course this is anecdotal, but my wife is Brazilian (from Minas Gerais) and struggles to talk with European Portuguese people (sorry!), and needs subtitles to understand it in a film.

Even in my Portuguese textbook it says that there is significantly more difference between European and Brazilian Portuguese than between UK and US English.

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Re:Linguistic purism in English by TelmoMenezes on Tuesday May 17, 2016 @07:27AM (#11712663)
No need for apologies :)

I think the main issue you are alluding to is phonetic. European Portuguese speakers tend to really close their vowels, while Brazilian speakers open them. The end result is that it is easy for Europeans to understand Brazilians, but not necessarily the other way around.

I have seen this happen with English speakers, by the way. I remember a friend from the US needing subtitles to follow a British comedy show.

Would your wife have any trouble reading this, for example: http://publico.pt ?

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