{"id":1534,"date":"2020-06-19T16:19:33","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T16:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/?p=1534"},"modified":"2020-06-20T18:34:36","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T18:34:36","slug":"do-you-have-a-minutinho-diminutives-in-brazilian-portuguese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/2020\/06\/19\/do-you-have-a-minutinho-diminutives-in-brazilian-portuguese\/","title":{"rendered":"“Do You Have a Minutinho?” Diminutives in Brazilian Portuguese"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Photo Credit: Wilfried Pohnke for Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Marsel de Souza<\/b><\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, the Brazilian president used the Portuguese terms \u2018gripezinha\u2019 and \u2018resfriadinho\u2019 in a TV address to dismiss COVID-19 as a \u2018little flu\u2019 or a \u2018little cold.\u2019 These were the literal English translations of the two terms that appeared in many news media reports around the world the following day. Yes, this is morphologically correct (you just add -zinha [feminine form] and -inho [masculine form] to the words \u2018gripe\u2019 and \u2018resfriado\u2019 to form the diminutive), but some international media outlets came up with alternatives for a more\u2026 minimalist effect, including \u2018measly cold\u2019 and \u2018the sniffles.\u2019 \u2018A little dose of flu\u2019 was also creative. Some termed it a \u2018mild flu\u2019 or a \u2018minor cold,\u2019 which bordered on cuteness, but these terms don\u2019t quite reflect the disdain present in the Portuguese. Interestingly, some outlets used the phrases \u2018just the flu or \u2018just a cold\u2019 to refer to the belittling attitude of other political leaders at the beginning of the pandemic, but not specifically for Bolsonaro\u2019s Lilliputian statement. What some news media outlets did use to refer to Bolsonaro\u2019s \u2018gripezinha\u2019 was \u2018just a little flu.\u2019<\/p>\n

This is firm evidence that diminutives in Portuguese can be a powerful means of expressing a disparaging opinion of things or people. To illustrate this point further, let me take you from the Planalto Palace to the White House (but please stay home!). Remember when the U.S. president fired off the term \u2018shithole countries\u2019 during a discussion about immigration issues? If Trump were Brazilian, he might have dropped the term \u2018paisinhos,\u2019 i.e., the diminutive of \u2018pa\u00edses\u2019 (countries). Well, -inho\/a and -zinho\/a are just the tip of the diminutive-suffix iceberg in Portuguese, and we will be looking at a handful of them up close (no need for a microscope) on our journey. A Portuguese-speaking Trump could also have used \u2018paisecos\u2019 (pa\u00eds + eco in the plural form). And he could have appended an unflattering adjective to \u2018paisinhos\/paisecos,\u2019 which is discussed in a <\/span>different article of mine<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

OK, now back to Brazil. Since we are a continent-sized nation, as the clich\u00e9 has it, we also like things big and often expect them to be. After the sturdy performance of the Brazilian economy for the better part of the 2000s, the term \u2018pib\u00e3o\u2019 (big GDP) was coined in the news media. However, as a result of the 2008 global crisis, the throttling GDP growth rates gave way to dwindling rates in the following years, and a new term was crafted. You guessed it; \u2018pibinho\u2019 was the new addition to a sizable family of wee words. It wasn\u2019t long before the term \u2018pibeco\u2019 came along.<\/p>\n

The suffix \u201ceco\/a\u201d is usually derogatory. For example, a \u2018jornaleco\u2019 (jornal + eco) is a second-rate newspaper, and the chances are that a \u2018padreco\u2019 (padre + eco) will be an unimportant priest from a backwater parish. Whenever the legendary national soccer team is beaten, Brazilians will rush to tag it a \u2018timeco,\u2019 whatever the competition. Now, try to imagine what hardcore soccer fans called them when they were resoundingly beaten 7-1 by Germany in the 2014 FIFA World Cup (which, to add insult to injury, was held in Brazil). I would go with \u2018timeco de quinta categoria\u2019 (a fifth-rate team) or \u2018timinho de v\u00e1rzea\u2019 (a less-than-amateur neighborhood team). But wait \u2013 \u2018sono\u2019 means \u2018sleep,\u2019 yet a \u2018soneca\u2019 is just a nap. Your \u2018amoreco\u2019 (\u2018amor\u2019 = love) is your darling\u2026 who can also be your \u2018amorzinho\u2019! So don\u2019t expect to find consistent rules for diminutives.<\/p>\n

There are over a dozen more suffixes to shrink people and things in Portuguese, and fortunately, the wealth of undersized words used by Brazilians is not confined to negative overtones. In fact, diminutives are deeply ingrained in the Brazilian culture, and they can be at once baffling and endearing. We\u2019ll continue to explore them in Part 2. Stay tuned! It will just take me a \u2018momentinho\u2019 to write the next installment in the major (minor?) exploits of diminutives in the tropical version of the Portuguese language.<\/p>\n

Marsel N. de Souza<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\u00a0is a full-time interpreter and translator based in Brasilia, Brazil. He has a bachelor\u2019s degree in English>Portuguese translation from the University of Brasilia and a certificate in advanced French studies from Alliance Fran\u00e7aise. He is also an ATA-certified English>Portuguese translator. He works primarily with the diplomatic and international organization community in Brasilia, but his interpreting and translation assignments have taken him to various parts of the U.K., U.S., Brazil, France, and Africa. He is a member of the International Association of Conference Interpreters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marsel de Souza A few weeks ago, the Brazilian president used the Portuguese terms \u2018gripezinha\u2019 and \u2018resfriadinho\u2019 in a TV address to dismiss COVID-19 as a \u2018little flu\u2019 or a \u2018little cold.\u2019 These were the literal English translations of the two terms that appeared in many news media reports around the world the following day. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,27],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blog-posts","7":"category-translation-interpreting","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1534"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1541,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1534\/revisions\/1541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}