Caipira

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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 world-wide.

Characteristics

Although the caipira accent originated in São Paulo, the current language in São Paulo City, capital of the state of São Paulo, is 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 Portuguese are the approximant "r", and the absence of the palatal "l", written "lh" in Portuguese, which in caipira is pronounced like a consonant "i." The "l" is frequently modified into "r". There are other important changes, as in the following examples:

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" (that-PL beautiful-PL thing-PL) ↔ caipira: essas coisa bonita [ˈɛsɐsˈkoizɐ bʊˈnitɐ] (that-PL beautiful-SING thing-SING).

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 coloquial mode of Portuguese.

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