Carioca
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Carioca (
pronunciation (help·info)) is a Portuguese adjective or demonym word that refers to the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The original word "Kara'i oca" comes from the indigenous Amerindian language of the Tupi people, meaning "White Man's House".
It is said that the first Portuguese dwellings in Rio de Janeiro were placed along a limpid stream, which soon got the Portuguese name "Carioca". The last PNAD (National Research for Sample of Domiciles) census' numbers are: 6,278,704 million White people (53.6%), 3,935,904 million Pardo people (33.6%), 1,440,822 million Black people (12.3%) and 58 thousand Asian or Amerindian people (0.5%).[1] Cariocas, like other Brazilians, speak Portuguese.
According to a survey published in American Scientist Magazine, the Cariocas of Rio de Janeiro exhibited great friendliness and offered to help in various situations. A quote from the article mentioned pointed to the following :[2]
| “ | There is an important word in Brazil: simpático. (Actually it's a Greek origin word means sym-pathy "συμ-πάθεια" that you feel very concerned (almost the same) about someone else's suffering). It refers to a range of desirable social qualities - to be friendly, nice, agreeable, and good-natured. A person who is fun to be with and pleasant to deal with.... Brazilians, especially the Cariocas of Rio (as citizens here are known), want very much to be seen as simpático. And going out of one's way to assist strangers is part of this image. | ” |
In contrast, the demonym meaning for the state of Rio de Janeiro is fluminense, taken from the Latin word "flumen", meaning "River".
[edit] Accent
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This section requires expansion. |
The variety of Brazilian Portuguese language spoken in the city of Rio de Janeiro is called "Carioca". In written form, the Carioca accent follows the standard Brazilian Portuguese influence. On the other hand, this speech has several distinctive traits, such as in the pronunciation of "s" and "r" before a consonant: "s" is pronounced like /sh/ and "r" is aspirate, like /h/ in English, and also the strong palatalization of the syllables "ti" (/tj/), "di" (/dj), "te" (/tji/) and "de" (/dji).
As for grammar, an important difference is the mixing of the second person pronoun "você" and the obliquous pronoun "te" in the same speech, while standard Portuguese requires "lhe" as obliquous for "você", and "te" as obliquous for "tu". In very informal Carioca speech, the pronoun tu is retained, but with the verb forms belonging to the form você: "Tu foi na festa?" (Did you go to the party?). However, this usage is considered slangy and is avoided by many speakers.
The slightly different variety of Brazilian Portuguese language spoken in the state of Rio de Janeiro is called "Fluminense". The sybilating Chiado (pronouncing /sh/ instead of /s/), typical of the city of Rio, is absent in the Southwestern and Northwestern varieties of Fluminense (around Paraty, Barra Mansa and Volta Redonda). In the Northern varieties of Fluminense (from the city of Niterói northwards), usage similar to the Capixaba and Baiano accent may be observed. For instance, article is most likely dropped before personal names (using Maria where Cariocas would say a Maria) and with certain words such as papai, mamãe, fulano (de papai ~ do papai; por mamãe ~ pela mamãe; com fulano ~ com o fulano). Around Campos, rhotacism is common in informal usage (Cráudia for Cláudia), as well as some words from the nearby Capixaba dialect, such as pocar for explodir (to explode) or pocar fora for ir embora (to go away).
Slang words from Rio de Janeiro include caraca! (gosh!) [now spread throughout Brazil], e aê? and coé? (whuzzup?), and maneiro and sinistro (both in the sense of "awesome") [not used much in other regions of Brazil].
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ (in Portuguese) (PDF) Síntese de Indicadores Sociais 2007. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: IBGE. 2007. ISBN 85-240-3919-1. ftp://ftp.ibge.gov.br/Indicadores_Sociais/Sintese_de_Indicadores_Sociais_2007/Tabelas. Retrieved on 2007-07-18.
- ^ "Can't Find A Good Samaritan, Don't Blame It On Rio". csmonitor.com. http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0604/p01s04-woam.html. Retrieved on 2007-04-07.
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