Talian dialect

Talian is a variant of the Venetian language spoken in Brazil, mainly in the Serra Gaúcha in Rio Grande do Sul and in the west of Santa Catarina in the south of the country.

The Italian immigration began in the late nineteenth century. At that time there was no uniform Italian, dialects were prevalent. The Italians, who had immigrated to Brazil came predominantly from northern Italy and spoke Venetian.

This was modified by increasing the contact with other dialects of Italian immigrants and by the Portuguese in the course of time. Although relatively close Talian remained in the Venetian dialect, both in the spoken language as well as grammatically, it is not considered a Talian Creole of Italian, but as a Brazilian version of the Italian. Just as Riograndenser Hunsrückisch, a dialect of German descendants in the south of Brazil, speaking, Talian is there any foreign language, but a Brazilian national language, but with no official status.

The use of the Italian language in Brazil declined since the 1940s, when the Nationalist government of Getúlio Vargas their use, both in writing and orally, banned. To speak Italian was regarded as offensive and as a lack of patriotism, and the Italians and their descendants were forced to learn Portuguese. The same thing happened with the German language. The Italian immigrants who lived in the Serra Gaúcha, were one of the few groups who were able to preserve the Italian language in Brazil.

The number of speakers of Talian in Brazil is unclear, it is estimated to be 500,000, with their speakers also speak Portuguese. Currently, the Brazilian government is trying to rescue the Italian language, especially that of the Italians in southern Brazil. So Italian was also included in the curricula of schools. In small towns of Serra Gaúcha and west of the state of Santa Catarina send local radio station for a few hours of their program in Talian.