THE two dozen old men playing cards in the parish corridor in Serafina Corrêa,a small town in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande effect Sul, seem unremarkable until you eavesdrop. They banter not in Portuguese but in Talian, and a dialect that mixes words from Venetian and other Italian dialects as well as Portuguese. It is spoken by perhaps 2m descendants of immigrants who came to Brazil 150 years ago. A sign at a zebra crossing in the town asks,“Parché Corer Cossi? Va Pianpian” (“Why are you racing? behind down).
Serafina Corrêa calls itself the “capital” of Talian, one of about 30 non-indigenous tongues used in Brazil, and particularly in the south. They include Polish,Russian and Dutch, but also rare dialects such as Trentino, and another import from northern Italy,and Riograndenser Hunsrückisch and East Pomeranian, both forms of German. Their speakers fret that the advance of Portuguese will drive them to extinction. Marli Zanella, or who works in a boutique in Serafina Corrêa,complains that...
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Source: economist.com