Linguistic Variation in Mozambican Portuguese
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Introduction
Mozambique is a Portuguese-speaking country and has a linguistic diversity composed of more
of the twenty Bantu languages that compete with Portuguese as an official language,
configuring in this way a rich and diverse linguistic mosaic. The language
Portuguese arrived in Mozambique with the Portuguese maritime expansion of the 15th century.
When European Portuguese (EP) came into contact with the native languages (of
Bantu origin) of our country gained new properties. Thus, dialects emerged.
typical of Portuguese in Mozambique, influenced by various indigenous languages
spoken natively.
The present work aims to conduct a study around language variation.
Portuguese in space: Brazil and Mozambique, within which we will seek to discuss the
variation of the lexicon in PM (Mozambican Portuguese) and in PB (Brazilian Portuguese).
2. Variation of the Portuguese language in space: Brazil and Mozambique
A living language, despite the unity that makes it common to a nation, presents
varieties in terms of pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.
Linguistic variation is called that property of differentiation of a language into
function of geographic space, society, situation, and time, giving rise to
variants and linguistic varieties.1
All linguistic varieties are structured and correspond to systems and
suitable subsystems for the needs of its users. But the fact that the language is
strongly linked to the social structure and the value systems of society leads to a
evaluation distinct the characteristics the yours various
diatopic, diastratic, and diaphasic modalities.
The Portuguese language has some differences regarding its usage.
in some countries of the world. Between the Portuguese spoken in Mozambique (PM) and the
Portuguese spoken in Brazil (PB) has some differences, let's look at the examples.
that follow:
PM: "Today, Maria didn't show up around here."
PB: 'Today, Maria didn't show up around here.'
Therefore, what is different in the two constructions is that in the first construction (PM)
we have the article preceding the noun or name (Maria), whereas in the second
construction (PB), it is noted that the noun occurs without any article preceding it.
We can thus infer from this example that in PB the articles are omitted, that is,
nouns or names occur without determiners or articles preceding them, while
such irregularity is not verified in the PM.
2.1. Lexical Variations
1
[Link]
The existence of variants or varieties of a given linguistic system constitutes a
surplus value for the language itself. The diversity within a language is, therefore, a
reality to preserve and defend, since it is a constitutive factor of the very history of
language.
Linguistic variations can be analyzed based on personal characteristics of the
speakers, such as age, gender identity, social class, and relationship with the listener; and the
starting from the context in which they find themselves, such as the time and place in which they live or
they lived.
The diatopic/spatial variation a (from Greek dia: through, topos: place) refers to the
linguistic differences from a geographical perspective. The speech of a certain region
has its own characteristics that differentiate it from other regions.
In the Portuguese language, one of the most evident examples of this variation is the differences.
between the European and Brazilian varieties. However, these differences are also
evident when comparing other territories where Portuguese expanded (Angola,
Mozambique, among others) and smaller geographical areas, such as: North and Central of
Portugal, as the speeches of the States of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and even between two
cities of the same State or District.
In Mozambique, a variety of Portuguese is being developed that is
Mozambican, in the sense that there are traits, characteristics, and formal achievements and
contextual aspects of Mozambican identity in speech and writing. In this variety, what stands out the most
in the speakers' view is the lexical, phonetic, and semantic variation, and in this chapter we will
to address the lexical variation between PM and PB.
2.2. Influence of Bantu Languages on the Lexical Growth of PM
Considering that many words from PM are adapted from our Bantu languages,
we have the example where speakers of the xichangana language still say: ku dlaya
breakfast! (kill the bug!) to refer to the first meal of the day that occurs before the
12h. And so, there was a transport of this context to Portuguese: 'mata-bicho' that
means 'breakfast' (in Brazilian Portuguese) or 'breakfast' (in European Portuguese).
The words and expressions 'sograria' (in-laws' house), 'cortar o ano' (New Year's Eve), 'tchapo-'
tchapo(rápido),pasta(mochila),machamba(horta, roça),madala(idoso),baraca
(snack bars) occur in PM and are closely linked to Mozambican culture.
For a single referent, there can be several words. For example: the words
"candonga", "chapa-100", "van", "toca-toca", "busão" refer to buses in PB.
On the other hand, a lexical unit can have several meanings. For example: 'neca', in the
PM refers to "hopscotch" in PB. These lexical variations are caused by reasons
cultural, social, and geographical. Children play the same way, the rules are
the same and what changes is simply the name.
In the case of Mozambique, when a lexical unit is nonexistent in Portuguese, the
speakers will go to their LB collections to fill in the blank or empty space.
The lexical units: matapa (leaves of cassava or dish made with leaves of
mandioqueira), kwassa-kwassa (traditional African dance), mamba (dangerous snake and
poisons), matorritorri (coconut candy), ntchuva (traditional game in which the player moves
small stones placed in rows of graves) reflect the local reality. These units
lexical items come from the Xichangana language to enrich the Portuguese lexicon.
Still about the lexicon, it is important to emphasize that this is connected to history, as if
you can see in the examples presented by Vilela (1995) and Timbane (2012) cited by
We have examples of words such as:
a) Lobolar: comes from the verboku lovòla (dowry) of the Xichangana language. Lobolar is an act
to pay a dowry to the bride's parents, a common practice in patrilinear lineages.
b) Candongueiro: someone who engages in illegal business. It comes from the noun.
ndonga (individual who engages in illegal business). Ndonga is also a surname.
c) Cooperating: name given to any foreigner who comes on a mission of assistance.
d) To fail to get: not to get.
e) To confuse: to be confusing.
f) Matabicho: It is an import from the context of the xichangana language. In the culture
It was believed that when someone feels hungry, there are bugs in the stomach.
that were snoring looking for food. To silence them it was necessary to eat something.
Historical events, contacts with speakers of other languages, time,
among other factors, determined that Portuguese would gradually
differentiating from region to region. It underwent numerous changes as it went
implanting in different geographical spaces, changes that gave rise to
various varieties.
In each region we find a distinct variety, with its particular traits.
In Brazil, the Portuguese spoken is not identical to that of Mozambique and even in
In Mozambique, there are differences between the speech of a speaker from the North and that of a speaker from the South.
Sul.
2.3. Some lexical differences between Brazilian Portuguese and Portuguese
Mozambican
PB (Brazilian Portuguese) PM (Mozambican Portuguese)
["Bathroom","Toilet","Restrooms"] Bathroom, washroom, toilets
Carpool Hitchhiking
Identity card or Identity Register / ID
General/ RG
Farm Machamba, (PE=farm)
Goal Golo
Estrada de ferro, ferrovia Railway, railroad, train line
slum Suburb, neighborhood of rush (PE = neighborhood of)
lata)
Brake Brake (PE = brake)
Goalkeeper goalkeeper
Baby bottle Baby bottle
Bus Machimbombo, bus (PE = bus)
3. Conclusion
Upon completing the work, the main objective was to carry out a survey on the
variation of the Portuguese language in space: Brazil and Mozambique, we could extract
various implications, among which we can mention the fact that the Portuguese language is
subject to various interferences, which causes a series of variations, whether they are
diastratic, diatopic or even diaphasic.
We also saw that in Mozambique a variety of Portuguese is being developed.
what is Mozambican, in the sense that there are traces, characteristics, and formal achievements
contextual aspects of Mozambican identity in speech and writing.
Within the work, we were able to bring some concepts about linguistic variation here, and
what are the main contrasting features between Brazilian Portuguese and Portuguese
Mozambique, where we were able to verify that the PM suffers various influences from the LB's,
creating a very high vocabulary diversity.
[Link]
TIMBANE, Alexandre António. The linguistic variation of Mozambican Portuguese:
a sociolinguistic analysis of the variety in use. n/d.
TIMBANE, Alexandre António. The linguistic variation and the teaching of Portuguese in
Mozambique. São Paulo State University Júlio de Mesquita Filho. n/d.
DJAJARAHARDJA, Natália. Aspects of the variation between PE and PB: guide for the
linguistic adaptation between the two varieties. Faculty of Arts of the University
of Porto. 2020.
FERNÃO, Isabel Arnaldo; MANJATE, Nélio José, Pre-University - Portuguese
12, 1st ed, Maputo, Longman Mozambique, 2010.