Portuñol

Encyclopedia : P : PO : POR : Portuñol

Portuñol or Portunhol is a portmanteau of the words Portugués/Português (Portuguese) and Español/Espanhol (Spanish). It refers to various types of language contact between Spanish and Portuguese which have occurred in regions where the two languages coexist. These range from improvised code-switching between monolingual speakers of each language to more or less stable mixed languages. The best studied example of this is Portunhol Riverense, spoken in the region between Uruguay and Brazil.

Contents

1 As code-switching
2 As a language variety

2.1 Portuñol Riverense

3 Bibliography
4 External links
5 See also

As code-switching

It is the name often given to any unsystematic mixture of Portuguese with Spanish (code-switching). This is sometimes used by speakers of the two languages to talk to each other. It is possible to conduct a moderately fluent conversation in this way because Portuguese and Spanish are closely related languages.

As a language variety

Portuñol Riverense

It also refers to a mixed language which is spoken in the border between Uruguay and Brazil, notablly in the region of the twin cities of Rivera and Santana do Livramento, where the border is open and a street is the only line dividing the two countries. This condition, over hundreds of years, gave rise to a new language, which their speakers call portuñol, brazilero, or fronterizo (fronteiriço). It has been studied extensively by linguists.

Bibliography

External links