Caipira

Portrait of a Caipira (1893).

Caipira (Portuguese pronunciation: [kajˈpiɾɐ] ( listen); "hillbilly" or "country people") is a Brazilian Portuguese term used to designate inhabitants of rural, remote areas of some Brazilian states—it refers to the people of lesser schooling. It can be considered pejorative when used to describe others, but it can also be used as a self-identifier without negative connotations. It often carries the connotation of an uneducated (at times naïve or even stupid) person, and someone who can't speak proper Portuguese. In festas juninas it is traditional in some areas for people who are not considered as such to dress up as stereotypical Caipiras.

It is also used as a name for an accent or group of accents of Portuguese in the states of São Paulo and neighboring areas in Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás, the south of Minas Gerais, and part of Paraná. By extension, the term caipira can also be applied to the different cultural manifestations of the caipiras, such as their music. The diminutive form derived from the caipira noun, caipirinha, is known as a cocktail worldwide.

Characteristics

Although the caipira accent originated in the state of São Paulo, the language of the state capital is now a very different variety close to standard Portuguese, albeit with some remotely Italian-influenced elements. Caipira is spoken mostly in the countryside.

Phonetically, the most important differences in comparison with standard Brazilian Portuguese are the approximant [ɹ] for ⟨rr⟩, and the merger of /ʎ/ (written ⟨lh⟩ in Portuguese) into the semivowel /j/. Coda ⟨l⟩ is frequently modified into [ɹ], instead of the [w] used in most of Brazil. There are other important changes, as in the following examples:

Standard Brazilian Portuguese		Caipira Portuguese		English
Spelling	Pronunciation (IPA)	Pronunciation spelling	Pronunciation (IPA)
flor	[ˈfloʁ]	frô	[ˈfɾo]	flower
falso	[ˈfawsʊ]	farso	[ˈfaɹsʊ]	false
melhor	[meˈʎɔʁ]	mió	[miˈjɔ]	better
voar	[vʊˈaʁ]	avuá	[avʊˈa]	to fly
você	[voˈse]	ocê	[oˈse]	you
ganhamos	[ɡɐ̃ˈɲɐ̃mʊs] or [ɡɐ̃ˈɲɐ̃mʊʃ]	ganhemo	[ɡɐ̃ˈɲɛmʊ]	we won
voltamos	[vowˈtɐ̃mʊs] or [vowˈtɐ̃mʊʃ]	vortemo	[voɹˈtɛmʊ]	we came back
bêbado	[ˈbebadu]	beudo	[ˈbewdu]	drunk

There are some significant differences in caipira morphology and syntax. For example:

• The negative adverb não has distinct strong and weak forms, não [nɐ̃ʊ̯̃] in short replies, and num [nʊ̃] for negative phrases.
• In plural forms only the article or pronoun is inflected, and the adjective often remains uninflected, e.g.: standard Portuguese: essas coisas bonitas [ˈɛsɐsˈkoizɐz bʊˈnitɐs] "those beautiful things" (those-PL beautiful-PL thing-PL) ↔ caipira: essas coisa bonita [ˈɛsɐsˈkoizɐ bʊˈnitɐ] (those-PL beautiful-∅ thing-∅).

Despite these differences, a speaker of standard Portuguese has no difficulty at all understanding caipira.

Like other Portuguese accents in Brazil, caipira is not and has never been considered a separate language. It has no tradition in literature, nor a definite standard for spelling and it is merely considered as a colloquial mode of Portuguese.

Non-standard orthography intended to convey Caipira pronunciation is featured prominently in the popular children's comic book Chico Bento, in which some (but not all) characters speak in this dialect.

See also

• Brazilian Portuguese
• Portuguese dialects
• Portuguese phonology
• Mineiro
• Carioca
• Carcamano
• Gaúcho

External links

• (Portuguese) "O Dialeto Caipira", by Amadeu Amaral
• (Portuguese) "Histórias do Zeca Tira 2 – 'As Pinga'", by Adelmario Sampaio – a sample of the caipira dialect in written form