Talian (Brazil's Italian/o italiano do Brasil) is a regional language spoken mainly in southern Brazil — in the northeastern sierra region, the wine-producing area of the state of Rio Grande do Sul — based on Italian. Talian sometimes is also called Vêneto. This language, Talian, is also in spoken in other parts of Rio Grande do Sul and even in the neighboring state of Santa Catarina which is located to the north.

Italian immigrants first began settling in this region during the second part of the 1800's. These Italians were from many different regions of Italy but many spoke Veneto.

Although these 'new Brazilians' immigrated from various regions of Italy, as time went by a uniquely southern Brazilian form of Italian emerged. Veneto became the basis for this Italian-Brazilian regionalism. However, it was also very much influenced not only by other Italian language variations but, naturally, by the national language of Brazil - Portuguese.

This is not considered Italian creole, although it has a lot of foreign loanwords, because both grammar and lexicon remain Italian-based.

Like Riograndenser Hunsrückisch (hunsriqueano riograndense), the main German dialect spoken in southern Brazilians of Germanic origin, Talian has suffered great depreciation since the 1940's. At that time then dictator and President Getúlio Vargas started his campaign of nationalization or (Nacionalismo) to try and force non-Portuguese speakers of Brazil to 'better integrate' into the national mainstream culture. Speaking Italian or German in public or in the privacy of one's home was considered ofensive and unpatriotic and deserving of severe punishment.

If not all who spoke their maternal language openly or even in whispers at home were persecuted by the law, many did indeed suffer the full wrath of Vargas' Nationalisation. The trauma was such that even to this day there is something of a bad stigma attached to these languages of the land - it is simply 'not very cool' to speak them outside of tight social circles.

External Links

La Rena Brasil [1]

Curso de Talian - Talian Lessons, in Talian, by Rovílio Costa [2]

History of the Italian in Brazil - article, in Portuguese, by Rovílio Costa [3]

A estigmatização como fator determinante dos bloqueios de fala de descendentes de italianos no nordeste do Rio Grande do Sul - essay, in Portuguese, written by Bernardette Soldatelli Oliboni[4]