Talk:Brazilian and Portuguese varieties

I think this article can be seen as POV. In fact, differences between American English and British English are in a similar degree as those in Portuguese of both varieties. (I've studied both languages throughly and I can attest that fact.) The problem is Portuguese is codified by Law and then there is a different official treatment of both varities.

Subtitles are different in American and UK too, sometimes. Even books are titles diffently (see Harry Potter and the Philosopher/Sourcerer's Stone).

Standard languages are very similar in both countries (see any technical book). Differences in popular varieties are great, however, as they are in English (early British moviegoers didn't understand the American accent). Today, Americans are used to the British accent because of films and because they listen to much more Britons speak than Brazilians listen to Portuguese people.

Therefore the impression of a great distance between both varieties of Portuguese is sociological. However, the problem of considering Brazilian Portuguese as a languages is sometimes aroused, but it is no greater that the discussion involving American English in some circles and other languages, for instances:

- Spanish (some people say Andalusian is a different language, as well as Latin American Spanish - which is treated in subtitles and politics as different as Brazilian Portuguese from European one) - Catalan (discussion in Valencia about Valencian being a different language or not - French (Quebec... - this is one of the international languages with more variety) - German (in German itself, German dialects are, sometimes, mutually ininteligible). - etc.

In fact, Portuguese is a rather uniform language, bearing in mind the international situation. I will change the article to extract all POV parts, but I'll have to get some time for it :)

Cheers to all Marco Neves

Remember that the title of Doutor is used officially in Portugal not only for medical doctors as in Brazil or in Spain, but for any graduate of a university course. The medical doctors are distinguished from the university graduates by the fact that they use Doutor with all its letters before their names instead of an abbreviation. Brazilians love their language--as do the Portuguese--and get very upset when a speaker of the European variety tells them that their variant is incorrect.

I'm Portuguese and a graduate student of languages, I can attest these facts:

a) Dr. (doutor) is used for any graduate, but it has litter official meaning. The official title for graduates, in Portugal, is Lic., but it is seldom used. Medical doctors also use Dr. and never the full word Doutor, which is speciffically reserved for PhDs in any area (so, quite rare).

b) Portuguese people do not generally see Brazilian Portuguese as incorrect. It is just another variety, with the same value as the European. Some people, though, tend to treat it as "brasileiro", with a little degoratory flavour. But it is very rare to hear that "português do Brasil" is incorrect. Marco Neves