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Mineiro redirects here; for the Brazillian footballer nicknamed Mineiro, see Mineiro (Footballer).

Mineiro (pronunciation) feminine, Mineira) is the Brazilian Portuguese term for the inhabitants of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais and also the characteristic dialect spoken in the heart of that state.

History

Minas Gerais was settled during the late 17th and early 18th centuries by a mix of recent Portuguese immigrants (reinóis or "emboabas") and earlier colonists that came from São Paulo (paulistas). There was an intense rivalry between the two groups, fighting over the gold mines (from which the name of the province was taken, Minas Gerais means "General Mines"). These conflicts required the intervention of the Portuguese Crown after a serious uprisal developed into civil war (Guerra dos Emboabas) with the final defeat of the "paulistas" in 1708. See the article "Guerra dos Emboabas" in the Portuguese language Misplaced Pages.

The distinctive character of the mineiro dialect is derived from the Portuguese then spoken in the region of Minho, northern Portugal, where most migrants came from.. Recently, the influence of mineiro has been increasing and spreading, due to local pride and rejection of other dialects.

Dialect characteristics

• Reduction (and often loss) of final and initial unstressed vowels, especially e, i, and u: parte ("part") becomes part' (with soft affricate T).

• Assimilation of consecutive vowels: o urubu ("the vulture") becomes u rubu.

• Weakening (and usual loss) of final /r/ and /s/: cantar ("to sing", with the final /r/ sounding like the "r" in the French name Pierre) becomes cantá and os livros ("the books") becomes us livru.

• Loss of the plural ending /s/ in adjectives and nouns, retained only in articles and verbs: meus filhos ("my children") becomes (sometimes)meus filho, (most of the time) meus fii OR meus fiu.

• Intense liaison: abra as asas ("spread your wings") becomes abrazaza. Para onde nós estamos indo? ("Where are we going?") becomes Pronoistamuíno?.

• Realization of most /ʎ/ as : alho ("garlic") becomes homophonous with aio.

• Replacement of some diphthongs with long vowels: fio (thread) becomes fii, pouco (few) becomes poco.

• Apocope of final syllables. -lho becomes (filho → fii' ), -inho becomes -inh' (pinho → pinh' ).

• Soft pronunciation of "r": rato ("mouse") is pronounced .

• Sonorization of final "s" before a vowel.

• Diphthongization of stressed vowels in two words: mas ("but") becomes mais and três ("three") becomes treis.

• Occasional affrication of "d" before "e" at the beginning of the word: deserto ("desert") is pronounced instead of .

• Loss of initial "e" in words beginning with "es": esporte becomes .

• Another important trait of Mineiro is the absence of remarkable features of other dialects, like the retroflex R (caipira), palatalization of S (carioca), strong dental R (gaucho), or "singsong" nordestino intonation.

See also

• Brazilian Portuguese
• Portuguese dialects
• Portuguese phonology
• Caipira

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