Why Does Portuguese Sound Like Russian?! (or Polish)

Lots of people say that Portuguese sounds like Russian. Why?! In this video I examine some of the similar sounds of Portuguese and Russian (and Polish as well). * Learn Russian with RussianPod101: ► bit.ly/russianpod101 ◄ Or learn Portuguese with PortuguesePod101: ► bit.ly/portuguesepod101 ◄
(Full disclosure: if you sign for a premium account, Langfocus receives a small referral fee. But the free account is great too!)
Special thanks to Carlos Costa for his Portuguese audio samples. Russian and Polish samples are from Wikicommons (links at bottom).
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Music: "Otis McMusic" by Otis McDonald (intro and outro music).
Main: "Bizzie" by The Grand Affair.
Russian and Polish sample links:
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pa...
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commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
00:00 The end of the video!
00:32 Many native speakers say Russian and Portuguese sound similar
01:57 Russian & Portugues are stress-timed languages
04:23 Russian & Portuguese feature frequent sibilant sounds
07:27 Russian and Portuguese have lots of palatalized consonants
08:28 The Dark L
08:56 Portuguese and Polish have nasal vowels
10:01 Final comments
10:35 The Question of the Day

[@Langfocus]

Hi everyone! If you're currently learning Russian, check out RussianPod101 ►( bit.ly/russianpod101 )◄ - one of the best ways to learn Russian. And for Portuguese, check out PortuguesePod101 ►( bit.ly/portuguesepod101 )◄ I'm a member of several Pod101 sites, and I'm sure you'll like them as much I do! For 32 other languages, check out my review! ► langfocus.com/innovative-language-podcasts/ ◄ (Full disclosure: if you sign up for a premium account, Langfocus receives a small referral fee. But I only recommend courses I like!)

[@marciomagal]

Escreverei em português porque sei que compreende. O russo falado pelas crianças se assemelha muito com o português do Brasil. Os fonemas são muito semelhantes! Poucos são os fonemas em russo que não temos no português.

[@marciomagal]

@A F e qual seria o motivo?

[@marciomagal]

@A F veja só quanto preconceito e desconhecimento em uma única mensagem. Não há o que se desvirtuar em uma língua viva. Desconhece por completo, pelo visto, o desenvolvimento da língua portuguesa. Não faz ideia que o português falado no Brasil é muito mais próximo do que Pedro Álvares Cabral falava do que o vosso! A língua nos dois lados do Atlântico mudaram de lá para cá, é verdade, mas mais em terras lusas do que nas brasilienses. O falar português em África é mais próximo do de Portugal, também pudera, os Srs. vergonhosamente mantiveram como colónias os países africanos até meados dos anos 1970. Talvez o português médio, com pouca instrução, acredite que o Brasil tenha se deslocado no falar português. Engano simplório. A minha mensagem inicial tratava dos fonemas da língua russa e da portuguesa, há similaridade. Justamente pela riqueza da nossa língua (isto, nossa!) é que não só temos uma riqueza de fonemas como assimilamos facilmente os demais. Digo nossa porque não só temos a mesma língua como há mais falantes do português no Brasil do que em qualquer parte do mundo. O português é a sexta língua mais falada graças a ex-colónia lusa. Dos 250 milhões de falantes, 200 estão no Brasil. Se não fosse o Brasil a língua portuguesa seria uma língua menos importante para o mundo do que alguns dialetos do francês ou inglês. Mas a rigor isto é bobagem, pois tendo 1 habitante ou 200 milhões a língua é pátria em qualquer lugar. Me entristece ver portugueses tacanhos que acabam fazendo um mal para a língua ao criar uma cisão onde não há. Em tempo: não existe a palavra desvirtualizar nem como neologismo. Ajude a nossa língua, escreva corretamente!

[@marciomagal]

@A F para um que se diz defensor da língua portuguesa... poderia ao menos escrever corretamente de acordo com a norma culta. O louco olhou para o espelho e apontou para outrem. Sem mais.

[@marciomagal]

@A F era sem mais. Mas terá um a mais. Percebe-se que escreves em um português em desacordo com a norma culta portuguesa, brasileira ou marciana. Escreves mal. Uma pequena observação: sou tão português quanto o sr. mas isto efetivamente não tem a menor importância. Agora sim. Sem mais.

[@ohitsogam]

i'm half russian half portuguese, i don't know what to say

[@neyinnerse5614]

Your surname sure sounds Turkic, like Tatar or Bashkir, maybe Kazakh, Nauruz is actually Persian holiday

[@Kris-hr4um]

Same I don’t hear anything similar in those 2 languages, they are so different to me idk

[@ohitsogam]

@@neyinnerse5614 i’m russian with caucasian roots, it might come from there

[@neyinnerse5614]

@@ohitsogam ah, now i understand, so you are half rossianin then, not russian, because russians are slavic, i myself am rossianin and speak russian, but i am not russian i am tatar

[@ohitsogam]

@@neyinnerse5614 having roots doesn't mean i'm not russian, my great grandfather is from that region but the rest of my family was born in russia!

[@TheMisskittybee]

Im a Portuguese speaker and every time I hear Slavic Languages I feel extremely confused because it sounds like something I should understand but don’t. Like a familiar song playing backwards.

[@mt-vd1qt]

Ohhh!! Same here!!! hahahahha

[@leandronogueira3676]

Eu também tenho esta sensação.

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

That's kinda like hearing Cantonese when you know some Vietnamese.

[@SplitWasTaken]

Como quando tentas ler qualquer coisa num sonho lol

[@rod-abreu]

You're not alone my friend hahahahahaha

[@doueven]

I'm an Aussie from Sydney, we have lots of Brazilians living and working here, so I had heard what Portuguese sounded like, or so I thought. When I visited Portugal I kept thinking to myself, "damn there's a lot of Russians/Slavs living here. I finally realised that Portuguese spoken in Portugal has this way of sounding.

[@Pepe-pq3om]

Lmao

[@AlissonSilva-ox4uz]

Damn I would definitely live in Australia as a Brazilian, a mate of mine will be living there soon, there ain't much difference, we're used to the giant spiders and snakes and sh*t

[@leandrog2785]

@@AlissonSilva-ox4uz Not the drop bears though

[@carlospriel]

Brazilian Portuguese and Portugal portuguese are too different when comes to pronounce

[@Ines-ki4zw]

I'm from Portugal and I've always thought Russian sounded incredibly like Portuguese. There are even some words that sound almost exactly the same, like the words for school and piano. Listening to Russian for me is like listening in on a conversation from another room. I think I can almost understand what they're saying, but can't ever make out the words.

[@zip2537]

I have the same, but i am russian

[@liana4474]

I am a native Russian speaker and I heard a company of ppl speaking Portuguese on a train in Canada. They were behind me and the language drove me crazy bc it sounded like a mixture of Spanish and Polish. I understand Spanish but not Polish. I turned around and they were a bunch of business ppl in suits from either Portugal or Brazil.

[@tvrskkngdm2333]

Oh I feel sorry about it now but i deliberately was murmuring an improvised poetic lines with hissing sounds while strolling alleys of Lisboa))) Portuguese ppl were astonished that sounded absolutely as falar portugesh yet no sense whatsoever)))

[@Ines-ki4zw]

@@tvrskkngdm2333 That is hilarious and amazing 😅

[@fernandor8186]

@@liana4474 native Russian and don't understand Polish.... lol I am Polish and understand like 80% of spoken Russian without learning the language...

[@gregbrogan9061]

I studied Russian - then met a new Portuguese friend - when I first heard his Portuguese accent in English I switched to speak to him in Russian. He laughed and said "another person who thinks I'm Russian!" LOL

[@xdgamer2765]

Greg Brogan its actually russian, when you learn it you end up in portuguese, and its not the russian text that has to do with.

[@mspinheiro1]

Something like this happened to me, once. I was in China and was talking in Portuguese with a friend. Then a Russian couple came to me and tried to ask me something that I didn't understand. I knew that they were Russians because I already knew some words in Russian, but not enough to talk with them. I told them Извините, Я бразилец.

[@deivisony]

@@mspinheiro1 I only know priviet and the cyrilic for orgy... Don't ask me how

[@b8pvz]

hahahaha... nice story! Mas o nosso português não se parece nada com russo!

[@marciosantos2480]

@@b8pvz , yes anda no, i already watch on youtube some Russians speaking nearly perfect brazilian portuguese. Seems ver easy to them speak brazilian portuguese with almost perfect pronounciation.

[@sem2711]

I’m Russian. Not only Portuguese sounds like Russian from a distance, but we also have similar accents when speaking English. Many times I mistook Portuguese people for Russians judging by their English.

[@AceofDlamonds]

True.

[@AlefeLucas]

@@gosolo1000 KGB likes this

[@tnightwolf]

I'm portuguese and it often happens, when i play online videogames and speak english, that people think i'm russian .

[@marinhomarinho4197]

I'm Brazilian and I was speaking English to a friend whom has lived in London for some time and she said that I sounded like a Russian speaking English. I got mind-boggling at the time but now I get it.

[@Supokful]

Ты идиот а не русский если считаешь что португальский звучит как русский. Он ничего общего с нашим языком и любым другим славянским и близко не имеет

[@SantaMadre]

Nice study. I'm a Brazilian Portuguese native speaker and Russian intermediate level speaker. I found quite easier to learn Russian's phonetics than French's when I took classes, because even though the latter is way closer to my own language (vocabulary and structure wise), I had trouble speaking with their weird sounds. Russian may have nothing to do with Portuguese, but they do sound similar, to the point that I was mistaken for a native Russian in Moscow after two sentences (only to be discovered a few seconds later due to my very limited vocabulary).

[@Turkistan_22]

@Old Cuckold ты не понял. Он говорит, что , португальский и французский по словарному запасу и структуре своей ближе , но ему , легче было говорить на русском, когда учил язык, потому что, звучат похоже.

[@MiMaKo]

Да, ещё западные славяне и испанцы, португальцы имеет что-то схожее внешне. Только у вас такие мужчины, которые очень пристально смотрят на тебя на пляже 😂 или я была слишком бледная и они думали "какого черта"

[@willwender7323]

​@@MiMaKoall spanish speakers are westerners, the west is geography

[@user-gs9ps1zc6h]

@@MiMaKoне западные славяне, а южные славяне похожи на восточных мужчин и пока не заговорят, то так и думаешь что это восточные мужчины, а западные славяне это светлые такие красивенькие тоже, вообще славяне самые красивые в мире, хоть какие

[@veraveresk5573]

Hello! This is exactly about me! I am Russian, and when I was in Portugal, it seemed to me that I could hear Russian speech everywhere in the distance. Of course, up close, I understood that it was a different language. There is another reason: in Portuguese and Russian, the letter "R" is pronounced clearly and firmly. Then I studied Portuguese for several months, and it was easy for me to learn the pronunciation thanks to this similarity.

[@enlosluceros7236]

I think the key is on the L sound. You guys maybe don't realize it but I'm Spanish and we say the L differently, so when I hear Russian the L is very profound and it's the same in Portuguese.

[@DecayedEmber]

I am Russian, and my friend is Portuguese and when I first met her I thought she was Russian because she was speaking English and her accent sounded accidentally like mine and I was so confused when she said she was Portuguese lol! 😭😂

[@bone3604]

Not trying flame you, but that´s because everyone in my school (in portugal) barely know english and their accent isn´t good, not trashing your accent, just saying that it looks odd

[@user-gj3gr7zc6x]

Хуль ты пиздишь?

[@weenaugrad]

по моему, выраженная Р звучит схоже

[@user-gj3gr7zc6x]

@@weenaugrad ну блять там просто "р" грубая и все. Не как в английском, а так все

[@TheRifild]

@@bone3604 Same in russia lol

[@eugenefomin3249]

I'm a Russian speaker living in the US. I once heard a guy speaking English with a thick Portuguese accent and immediately assumed he was Russian or Slavic. This video was a very interesting breakdown of why. Thanks for that!

[@perfilgenerico8717]

I usually tend to think that russian accent (is the only slavic accent i know) is easier to undestand than native speachers because the sounds are more hard and clear and we portuguese native speachers also do it

[@SuperJacob2006]

@@perfilgenerico8717 I'm An American And I Highly Dout Portuguese Sounds Like Russian Same With Ukrainian But Paul Should Be Comparing Russian With Mongolian There The Ones That Sown The Same And I Know Russian And Mongolian Would Sown The Same Mainly Because They're Asian Languages And I Feel Like Chinese And Japanese Would Sown Similar As Well And What About Croatian And Serbian Don't They Sown Similar? I Don't Know Maybe You Can Find Out If There Similar

[@irmaodebanco8079]

I'm Brazilian and hope I dont sound like other Brazilians speaking 🤣🤣🤣

[@irmaodebanco8079]

@@SuperJacob2006 in my opinion Chinese is based on a very nasal and vowel sounds, Japanese is quite "syllabic" for me though.

[@unpizzeroquevendepanyunren3737]

700

[@bartt2857]

I'm 2nd generation Polish and my wife is Russian speaking. I heard a lady at work and her accent was 100% Eastern European to me. To the extent of it being as if it was from an American movie. So I had to find out where she was from. Brazil! I appreciate that Brazilian Portuguese had been singled out as not so similar and, indeed, watching Brazilian dramas it's quite unique, but that accent. This really helps explain. Also, that Жаааааааааа! I think I'll listen to it if I'm feeling a bit down. Too funny!

[@katherineamelia98]

i always thought brazilian portuguese sounds slavic, in fact that’s how i made the connection in the first place, was listening to brazilian portuguese speakers

[@jaysimoes3705]

@@katherineamelia98 I think Portuguese is a lot closer to Russian in sound that Brazilian is.

[@minhaconta4685]

I follow Russians who make videos in Spanish and some Hispanics joke that they look like Brazilians speaking Spanish, I had heard that from Argentines too

[@Lexisspace]

I am a native Russian speaker, I came back from my vocation in Portugal last week and I gotta admit I had found the language very similar to slavic ones. I mean it just the way it sounds, the syllables and phonetics that make it resemble my mother tongue. I was very surprised.

[@Alex_Alx]

I'm native Russian speaker, when I first heard Portuguese. my first thought was "It sounds like Russian, but I cannot understand a thing")) So, it is not ridiculous. It is quite right, actually.

[@musicfa13]

Same thing! But i'm a native Portuguese speaker and thought this about Russian (:

[@hyp3rvirus]

it sounds like Romanian :) Moldova speak Romanian dialect )

[@HUEnshiro_do_Norte]

LOL! It's really funny you saying this. xD

[@matheusacoliveira]

Im brazilian and when i was not used to understand portugal people speaking, the words that i did not understand "in live" sounds a few russian

[@fatimanzeyimana8007]

Lol..is it fine if i laugh,its cool at the same time

[@Olhar.Internacional]

I'm Brazilian and recently in Poland I thought I had just heard people speaking Portuguese.... But it was actually Polish. It happened often

[@mersauff223]

BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZIIIL!!!!

[@mersauff223]

Brasşileirooo

[@davlmt]

I'm surprised as brasilian Portuguese sounds NOTHING like these Slavic languages. Only Portuguese from Portugal does, but only a little

[@T...7]

Aê Rafaelo

[@tysonmccorkle1036]

Rafael Scapella - Canal do Mundo how come theres so many of you in Poland? Such a weird destination for south americans.

[@lucianowatanabe3945]

I'm a native Portuguese speaker. One joke that I once heard is that if you pick up any word in Portuguese and you reverse the order of the letters, than it will always sound like "Russian". I think it's quite accurate. 😂

[@dobbo_f21]

I’m currently in Portugal and and being British I couldn’t work out why all the announcements were in Russian. The locals sounded the same so I googled it and here I am. It’s not Russian! Thanks for the video!

[@duartesimoes508]

😂😂😂 you can rest assured... and we don't poison anyone here. Brits are always welcome.

[@skripnigor]

I am Russian. When I first heard Portuguese years ago it seemed like the most hilarious Russian gibberish ever 🤣 I still can’t help smiling whenever I hear it. By far my favorite foreign language 👍😆

[@Phillisteum]

😂 I'm Portuguese. That's so funny! Regards!

[@klimtkahlo]

As a Portuguese I thank you for this comment! Love it! I had Russian in college for one year and absolutely loved the language! And my accent as on point! LOL

[@MFPRego]

I tell you one thing, im portuguese and i would love to learn russian

[@Weissenschenkel]

@@MFPRego you may find some affordable courses over the internet but the best one so far is going there for an immersion program. St. Petersburg's Public University has some Russian classes for foreigners. You can book the whole month with a combo course + room (to sleep and studying).

[@MFPRego]

@@Weissenschenkel that is awsome! Ill look into it

[@snldev]

I'm Brazilian. every time I listen to anyone speking in Russian I feel like a camera trying to focus on a object to take a picture but it won't focus lmao.

[@DanielDriverFreeman]

Да, это очень точное описание. Тарабарщина - подходящее слово. Yes, this is a very accurate description. Gibberish (tarabarschina) - suitable word.

[@qc6265]

I don't have this problem as a Brazilian because I am not speaking the European Portuguese that is discussed in this video. The most striking similarity to me, the first, is not as noticeable since instead of a stress timed language our Portuguese is syllable timed

[@snldev]

@@qc6265 yeah, Brazilian Portuguese is a syllable timed language. However I'm aware of how European Portuguese is spoken (I mean I can explain my perception of it for hours lol). The same way I can get the similarities with Russian, even speaking Brazilian Portuguse (as I commented above).

[@ivan-zvonimirkovacevic9075]

hahahahhaha lmao

[@bunelgaaa]

Thats because of the accent, as a portuguese, i can say our accent sounds more like russian, also because I learn russian.

[@fredericjollien911]

My wife is slovak, I'm swiss-french and by visiting Portugal we said that portugese seems to be the "polish of the latin world" :D Your video make so much sense now.

[@LevyCarneiro]

Very interesting. Once I was in the US on a solo trip, not speaking Portuguese for days (I’m Brazilian). Then I noticed some people speaking something that wasn’t English, I couldn’t understand it but after several seconds it hit me it was Brazilian Portuguese and I finally was able to understand and chatted with them. Watching this video now I want to say they sounded Slavic.

[@SYFTV1]

I'm a spanish speaker and I never thought that Russian sounded like Portuguese until I heard my Russian math teacher speaking spanish, he definitely sounds like his native language is Portuguese

[@allistairneil8968]

Racist!

[@Martina-Kosicanka]

@@allistairneil8968 No, he is not

[@lux2132]

@@allistairneil8968 Snowflake spotted.

[@Lucas-qf9gt]

@@allistairneil8968 What? That doesnt even make sense

[@Edgar2023ES]

Kkkkkkkk

[@noemee]

Me, an Italian speaker Listens to Portuguese: understands everything Listens to Russian: ???????

[@tatianadelgado4867]

Thank you xD

[@linkconparche9771]

same case, but i'm a mexican xD

[@fabriciamichalsky6779]

This is a test: você consegue entender oque eu disse sem traduzir?

[@Pedro-tm6ue]

@@fabriciamichalsky6779 escrito pode ser um bocado mais difícil que falado

[@yu.czennie]

That's me listening to italian and then french

[@rustybronco2957]

Jestem Polakiem i od dawna interesuję się muzyką z różnych krajów. Uderzyło mnie wielokrotnie, jak bardzo śpiew po portugalsku przypomina rosyjski. Brazylijski już nie tak bardzo. Dziękuję za wnikliwe wyjaśnienia.

[@willwender7323]

Brazilian is closer to English

[@Niwweleg]

​@@willwender7323what

[@MargaritaMagdalena]

I'm a native Russian speaker and I do think that Portuguese sounds like Russian.

[@KirillSoloviev]

I’m Russian. My first trip to Lisbon a few years back was really funny: I felt like there were Russian people everywhere, following me all the time 😅 I’ve met also a number of Russians who speak great Portuguese and live in Portugal- whenever they speak, I cannot stop thinking they have a horrible Russian accent, but for actual Portuguese speakers apparently their accent is completely native and fine 😆 Thanks to Paul for explaining why exactly this happens, great work as always!

[@romybarbosa4047]

When I go to Russia, I also want to have the feeling of hearing Portuguese everywhere !!! I recently found out because of Dimash that the Portuguese word "music" is exactly the same in Kazakhstan !!!

[@user-xo3mr6qk8q]

Well, my first language is Portuguese and in Russia everyone says I have an accent, although sometimes not right away.

[@user-xo3mr6qk8q]

@@romybarbosa4047 I'm here, I don't have that feeling 😂 I wish

[@olga7487]

Фраза «Уж замуж невтерпёж» просто ломает любого португальца. Проверено)

[@venge39]

U are fake, not russian

[@anastasiac680]

I am Russian. When I was taking a Spanish class, my professor asked me if I had a Portuguese influence because of my accent when I speak Spanish.

[@user-vw3ti5ix6b]

можно перевод, в падлу заходить в переводчик))

[@quantumedbox4341]

@@user-vw3ti5ix6b "я русский. когда у меня был курс испанского, преподаватель спросил, нет ли у меня влияния португальского из-за моего акцента"

[@silvanthony]

Yah when i try to speak russian, my professor asked me if i had a Polish influence, thats just idiot! Isnt the same language.

[@mich5502]

Antonio Vieira, never ever. “S” and “ch” sounds can be “sh” but “s “ can’t!. (In Russian)

[@seebits464]

No russian

[@GrgoPetrov]

Croatian native speaker as well as of some dialects and other Slavic languages. Yes, the European Portuguese does sound sometimes as a weird family member of the Slavic languages. And I am happy to see most of the thoughts explained on this topic in your video. If I use the Croatian spelling rules (with some jokes and going to the extremes) the European Portuguese sounds like: eštou, el'š, amiguš ... The sounds that end with "s" (or spelled "š" here) look and sound a lot like our dialects with corrupted Latin words (cinkuš, plebanuš...). Here's more fun: Eu gostaria de reservar um quarto, por favor. > Eu goštaria d rezervar u' kuartu, por favor. Quanto custa?: How much does it cost? > Kuanto kušta? ("Koliko košta" in Croatian and other Slavic languages) Eu gostaria de outro quarto. ... Eu guštarija d outru kuartu. Onde tem uma loja de roupas femininas? ... Ond' tem uma loža d roupaš femininaš? Cheers!

[@sledgehog1]

That's exactly right! When I listen to Croatian or Serbian it always sounds familiar. Regards!

[@user-gs9ps1zc6h]

We have one more weird family Slavic member is Bulgarian language

[@alekkisel5576]

Очень интересное мнение у вас!😮У меня как у носителя русского языка мнение другое😊:я хорошо различаю итальянский,испанский и португальский языки на слух и они конечно более легки в произношении для меня,чем например немецкий и английский но на этом схожесть русского и португальского заканчивается!😮Это совершенно разные языки из разных языковых групп!Французский язык я считаю самым сложным для меня как в грамматике так и в произношении.😊❤

[@koffeeblack4324]

Именно так и есть! Когда я была в Португалии, то первые дни все время оглядывалась на улице, мне казалось, что где-то по-русски говорят. Я всегда думала, что это только моё личное ощущение. Оказывается, многие также чувствуют и понятно теперь почему. Отличное объяснение!!

[@sottovoce_24]

А мне кажется, больше на польский похоже. Из-за обилия шипящих звуков.

[@user-zi3li3np4o]

@@sottovoce_24 а мене кажется, что это всё фантазии))) у них латиница у нас кириллица и вообще это две разных языковых группы романская и восточнославянская, португальский на 90% схож с испанским это всё равно, что англичанин будет пытаться сравнить английский с фарси...

[@innafox6784]

@@user-zi3li3np4o Речь о том, что похожи звуки и произношение, а не сами языки

[@sottovoce_24]

@@user-zi3li3np4o, а никто и не говорит, что русский и португальский - родственные языки. 🤷‍♂️ Речь о том, что звучат похоже на слух.

[@jannarumeantseva7198]

Вся схожесть заключается в наличии некоторых схожих звуков, которых нет в других языках; мягких и твёрдых согл.звуков; редукции гласных и др. А вот, правила(!) написания и произношения этих схожих звуков всё же разные (тема большая - в комментах сложно сжато перечислять)

[@Pitusha]

I'm Brazilian. When I had a Russian roommate, I used to say to her that when she speaks Russian it sounds like Portuguese spoken backwards. 😂

[@NoNameAtAll2]

Almost Kerbals

[@dinamosflams]

Adorei xD

[@zo1dberg]

Russian sounds like any language spoken backwards.

[@akunekochan]

Kkkkk

[@Mr.Nichan]

Yeah, English speakers say Russian sounds like English backwards.

[@henriqueruru]

Portuguese: suca bliate Russian: филюс да пута

[@vitorix24]

quase :)

[@brunaresende670]

KSAKKSKKAKKSKKSKSKA

[@Pedro-tm6ue]

Мэрда. xb

[@dmitrilebedev8635]

кикики, каралью пья

[@berezcorp]

Portuguese: Спокойно, if you know waht I mean Russian : Фодас Каралю

[@tomleal6051]

I grew up in a San Francisco neighborhood with a concentration of Russian immigrants, many who fled in WWII or came a bit later as emigrés. I grew up hearing Russian spoken almost every day on my block and in nearby stores. I had an Azorean grandfather, so I grew up listening to him as well as his many immigrant friends. Yes, I always heard similarities between the two languages, enough that my brothers and I used to speak mock-Russian simply voicing the sounds we heard and I realized I could do the same with my grandfather's Portuguese.

[@michaelpaduch2917]

Hi Paul, you have done a great job explaining this interesting topic. I am early on in my studies of Portuguese but I am a lifelong native Polish speaker. One of the very first things I encountered when visiting Portugal was exactly what you describe here: the similarity of sounds and melody of both Polish and Portuguese languages when listened to from some distance.

[@methedreamer92]

I'm a Russian speaker... and honestly I could never even imagine that Russian and Portuguese might have some phonological similarities. Thank you for the interesting video :)

[@gabrielpichorim8191]

I am Brazilian and I met a guy in a store near the university in Boulder Colorado once. We heard each other and we knew we both were not Americans. There were people from other countries with me so we kept speaking English even though I thought he clearly was also from Brazil because of his accent. It was just in the end of the conversation that I asked where was him from, and he said a place a never heard before. Turns out he was Russian and he thought I was Russian as well because of my accent to. It was crazy and I never thought two languages could have so similar accents in English.

[@PauloPereira-jj4jv]

Elena, if you study the Portuguese alphabet and its sounds you'll understand why.

[@castro_458]

@@gabrielpichorim8191 haha hmm... I am Ukrainian, I speak Spanish and I´m thinking to start studying Portuguese. I actually have been to Lisbon last year. And after reading some few comments over here I realize that I have never heard any Portuguese speaking English (except if C.Ronaldo and Mourinho I suppose... xD)

[@UnNamedUNG]

Well I'm a portuguese speaker (from Portugal), and it's the same here ahah

[@PauloPereira-jj4jv]

@@castro_458 ... usually Russians speak Portuguese so well that we no longer realize they're not from Portugal or southern Brazil.

[@Lil_Smelly]

I'm Bulgarian and honest to god the first time I heard Portuguese was in AC Black Flag, and I thought to myself ''Hm why are there slavic sailors on the coast of Africa''

[@ascaro1885]

You have good taste in games

[@rafacristina8462]

that is so cool lol

[@jmp9035]

Haha I remember that mission. It was a nice curve ball after hearing mostly English and Spanish in that game but it was set in the region where those two dominated.

[@realharlow]

@@rafacristina8462 és tuga ?

[@thesecondmexicanempire5742]

I wished they kept them in the game after Sage missions instead of pirates

[@netmendo]

Good job, Paul! I am Portuguese, I am learning some Russian and this video has perfect linguistical explanations for the phonological similarities. Bravo!

[@bosquedastrevas]

I am Portuguese and when I heard a foreigner saying that that Portuguese sounds like Russian I was surprised and thought it was a joke, because Portuguese people don't understand a single word of Russian, like we do when it's french or other latin language. However I understood later that people are refering to the similar sounds, and for someone who doesn't understand the actual words of any of the languages, it can sound similar. I began to learn Russian later, and even when I was an absolute begginer and was unclear of pronouciations in Russian, I would naturally pronounce most words very accurately and as I got more fluent, a Russian speaker and friend even told me I have native Russian accent. I was very proud lol

[@GA_350]

Eu consigo cantar em russo, mas não consigo pronunciar nenhuma palavra em russo, preciso sempre de estar numa musica ou num ritmo para eu poder falar e pronunciar as palavras correto, tambem é o mesmo caso com outras linguas eslavicas, ate com o finlandes

[@proxima8219]

I had a similar situation, except for I'm Russian. A few months ago I made friends with a Brazilian girl and we were having fun while teaching each other phrases from Portuguese and Russian languages. Because both of us speak English + we both know Korean alphabet and pronunciation to describe how each phrase\word sounds like (due to the fact that neither Korean, nor English alone can't describe the pronunciation even nearly close to our native languages we were just using the mix. For example, I could write something like that: Вы красивы - Veu Krasiveu - V으 k라s이v으 - You are beautiful). And later we found out that those transcriptions are almost not needed just because I could read words in Portuguese easily just using my "native Russian speaking intuition for pronunciation" and she could also do the same for Romanized/transcribed Russian words (only transcribed because obviously she doesn't know Cyrillic alphabet).

[@dominiquelafere4379]

O ponto é que o que parece não é as palavras, e sim o som

[@wilsonguida1027]

Recentemente comecei a seguir 2 canais de russos que falam português do Brasil, meu país. Fiquei impressionado ao ver que falam tão perfeitamente como um brasileiro o nosso português. Pronuncia impecável, entonação perfeita. Então me despertou a curiosidade pelas similaridades fonéticas entre as duas línguas. Este vídeo agora me clareou as idéias a respeito

[@wilsonguida1027]

Outra curiosidade é que para um brasileiro e facílimo entender tudo que um italiano fala, já um italiano não entende nada que um brasileiro fala, apesar da gigantesca semelhança entre os dois idiomas. A fonética italiana é tão próxima a do português do Brasil que chego a pensar que a imigração italiana no Brasil possa ter influenciado o nosso jeito de falar. Falamos o português como se fossemos italianos. Ao contrário, a nossa fala é radicalmente diferente da dos portugueses. Curioso é ver que por vezes um brasileiro entende o que um falante de espanhol fala e não entende facilmente o que um português fala.

[@deboralopes153]

I’m from Portugal. When I hear slavic languages at distance, I think they are speak portuguese, but don’t understand anything. it sounds so similiar, Nice!!

[@efotografo]

@Traditional Traditionalism Many (many!) years ago (before I married my then Portuguese girlfriend and actually learned Portuguese lol) I had a Russian colleague at work. One day I commented that to me Portuguese sounded almost like Russian. Somewhat affronted she replied "it doesn't sound anything like Russian, it sounds like Polish!" 😂

[@IngBass]

The same feel, but I'm russian :)

[@RodrigoSilva-ue4er]

Exatamente

[@dicole6]

@@efotografo that's funny cuz I'm Polish and for us Portuguese sounds like Russian. Saudes

[@ush1101]

it happened to me too

[@PossibleBat]

Funny how Portuguese sounds like Russian BECAUSE vowel avoidance and Spanish sounds like Greek precisely because of how vowels are pronounced 😂

[@vaniacavalcante8963]

Sempre fiquei impressionada com russos falando português brasileiro sem sotaque. Os mais fluentes podiam se passar por brasileiros tranquilamente.

[@nanasabia]

I am one of them But polish, not Russian. In Brazil and Portugal people mistake me for a Brazilian.

[@Pepe-pq3om]

​​@@nanasabiaDo you try to simulate brazilian accent or you learned to speak in such way because you learned Portuguese through Brazilians? It's an odd thing considering, well, this whole video (the idea of european portuguese sounding like slav languages, while brazilian portuguese not ao much (it really doesn't)).

[@nanasabia]

@@Pepe-pq3omNo, I meant that I learned to speak Brazilian Portuguese very well with Brazilians when I lived there :) E realmente considero o português do Brasil uma das línguas mais lindos do mundo

[@hugospiegel]

I'm brazilian. I used to know a russian guy living here in Brazil and he was here for just a couple of months. In his first attempt to speak some portuguese words, he nailed it perfectly. It was so weird. No accent at all. He also said we could do the same when we tried to speak some russian.

[@necrozin8298]

A gente tem o mesmo puxo no r mais ou menos, nas vogais tbm, dependendo do sotaque dos dois. Então meio q a gente tem o mesmo "accent" mas a gente usa línguas diferentes

[@andreiacastanheira3302]

Também já conheci um polaco que pronunciava palavras portuguesas na perfeição.

[@gabrieltorresdiroma7959]

@@necrozin8298 concordo totalmente contigo, o r ajuda muito, eu já escutei algumas músicas daquele grupo tatu e tbm a banda arkona e tem muitas palavras com essa fonética parecida, n é atoa q existe um canal chamado Wally e Dasha q a Dasha é russa, e o português dela é pfto, assim como quando eu fui aprender russo o meu russo estava com a fonética pfta tbm

[@herlocksholmes-uv5qw]

To estudando russo e meu acento russo é mais credível que os meus em inglês e francês

[@Alexdrummer09]

perhaps we have many similar sounds in our languages, and all the letters in the word are read without exception? But this is only a guess

[@basiag5439]

Im Polish, and when I hear Portuguese I always have feeling that it's Russian haha

[@wowp9381]

The same when i hearing Polish and Portugees (I am russian) . Strange..

[@littles6276]

@@wowp9381 u spelled Portuguese wrong

[@littles6276]

Portuguese sounds like Spanish and Russian right

[@jorgecapitao1435]

Just European Portuguese

[@kueek1325]

I speak portuguese, and for me russian and polish are pratically equal

[@belinguawithme]

I am a Russian native, this was the first thing I thought when I first heard portugues. btw, in a movie "Arrival" Amy Adams plays a language teacher, supposedly teaching Roman languages. In a scene in a classromm she says to her students smth like "this is the reason Portuguese sounds different from other Roman Languages" which I presume a hint to a well known fact that it actually does.

[@puchokoffie8152]

Have you ever killed people?

[@belinguawithme]

😆 I sure as hell was never asked this question lol

[@gomes7066]

Oh yeah I remember that part but I cant remember the reason she gave. I'm so curious now. But a funny thing is that most Latin languages sound very similar, but Portuguese and Romanian sound super different, but a lot like eachother even tough both countries are in completely different corners of europe

[@alykelydsgggg]

@@gomes7066 эт правда?

[@Esqpillar]

I have had this thought this so many times, and I think the video does a good job of articulating some reasons why.

[@yellowked]

I am a native Russian speaker. When my wife and I were in Brazil, we always got the feeling that someone said something in Russian. We live in Chile now (they speak Spanish here... kind of xD), and many locals think we are Brazilians when we speak Russian to each other.

[@DomingosCJM]

That's interesting.

[@mr.schaeffer5399]

Haha no way.

[@PyromaN93]

Расслабься, бро, это должно пройти.

[@yellowked]

@@PyromaN93 Я и не напрягаюсь.

[@yevheniyv1601]

Well, I am Portugese native speaker. And I feel myself very confident, cos I know I sound like russian, even my nickname spelling very similar to russian.

[@makrauchenia1]

I am Polish. Portugese language sounds for me nice, melodic as Russian. I spent 2 weeks walking in Portugal and tried to catch portugese words and use them and I discovered that they were very natural for me and I was happy with how they sound in my mouth so I learnt really fast. After 10 days I was able to buy ticket, food and talk about football with the butcher from Porto ;)

[@carloscorreia9957]

makrauchenia1 hmmm i don’t believe😂

[@silvanthony]

makrauchenia1 im portuguese, and japanese sounds soo familiar. Since when latin language and slavic are similiar? Omfg

[@makrauchenia1]

@@silvanthony Of course they're not similar, but they have many common sounds; Polish ż sounds like j in janela; ń - like nh in cozinha, sz - like s in esposa. The funniest thing is with ão - we don't have this sound in Polish and using it is a mistake, but 90% of us (or more) do it.

[@lanaflame6821]

I'm Russian and polish sounds melodic to me :)

[@makrauchenia1]

@Luis Barros there was no place in Portugal I didn't like

[@SoloMacintyre]

I am a Brazilian Portuguese native speaker that works with a lot of Russian and Polish speakers. More often than not I get myself mixing up Polish with European Portuguese and Russian with Brazilian Portuguese. I heard the same thing from the Polish and Russian speakers, but on the other way around. I am glad I am not crazy and that there is a background for these confusions.

[@victoria11128]

I always wondered why Portuguese sounds Slavic. Great analysis! I wonder why these languages that are spoken so far apart geographically developed so many phonological similarities and why didn't Portuguese end up sounding like their neighbouring Spanish

[@Victandry]

I'm sorry, but I can't stop laughing at "жааааа"

[@WalterWhiteFromTheBlock]

Таааааа! Жаааааа! Не отступать и не сдаваться! Давай, в небольшой расход!

[@user-qp8qp6oh6x]

Чё

[@rafaelgiovani4014]

АХаха

[@murilouniversospam131]

we use жа everytime in Portuguese, it is kinda like уже

[@maksymkovalchuk92]

Напомнило мем, где алкаш кричит "шааа!"

[@arallech]

I`m a Portuguese native speaker (Brazilian), and last week I heard two girls talking, and I thought *Oh, nice, Russians!* 5 minutes later, I realized they were speaking Portuguese from Portugal, ahahahaha

[@MarcusPuma2000]

O português brasileiro teve muita mistura africana, europeia, indígena Tupy-guarani e, influência norte americana ! O português brasileiro além de ser muito rica é, a língua mais nova do mundo !!!

[@simaozinho37]

Uma tribo do sul da Russia chamada Alani veio para Portugal durante as invasoes barbaras, deve ter disso isso.

[@minka866]

@@MarcusPuma2000 , influência africana no português é muito vestigial. O português sim influenciou essas línguas.

[@minka866]

@@MarcusPuma2000 , meu irmão de onde tu tirou esse absurdo?!

[@Luke.22]

X G O engraçado é que pra nós brasileiros o Português europeu soa como arcaico uma vez que no passado se falava português aqui como se fala em Portugal. Obviamente pela influência portuguesa sobre o Brasil mas ainda sim é interessante saber que nosso português soa antigo para ti.

[@daryaleonova5932]

Im from Russia, russian is my first language and im learning Portuguese. At the beginning i felt that Portuguese is similar with polish, but now it more and more reminds me my language - a lot of phonetic resemblances. So im agree with u, very interesting analysis!

[@Lucasshole07]

As a Portuguese, I never really understood why people thought this, until I was listening to a Russian song and it sounded like one of the lines was in Portuguese

[@JEIWILBER]

So thats why when a Russian learn portuguese they speak fluently, no accent detected. Thats impressive !

[@bernardomoura7407]

JEIWILBER i had been tried to learn russian a year ago, and I have less difficulty to speak some expressions in russian than speak english. About english, I can understand better than i speak it and about russian, i can understand nothing

[@JEIWILBER]

@@bernardomoura7407 Hue

[@giovanifm1984]

One can notice a russian speaking portuguese (at least Brazilian Portuguese) when they said words with "NH", like "venha", "tenha" or "minha". A russian speaker tends to make a very distinctive sound when they're speaking those words.

[@tpmiranda]

@@giovanifm1984 If you want to make Portuguese sound Russian you just add an i/y before the last vowel, like this: "Amanhya jya tenhyo alguma coisya pra fazyere."

[@blitz-o-byte]

ive had a russian friend in class, he took to the portuguese language really easily but he sucked at english xD it was interesting to see that the sounds were natural to him (you could definately tell he wasnt portuguese but still )

[@AlphaChannelqq]

This is the reason why KZbin automatically sets Portugeese subtitles to Russian clips))

[@simaozinho37]

Shut up lmao, that doesn´t happen xD

[@whitetv3589]

@@simaozinho37 yes, that happens a lot.

[@simaozinho37]

@@whitetv3589 show me one then

[@deivisony]

@@simaozinho37 I saw 2 Brazilian Portuguese videos with Russian subtitles (or some cyrilic language Ukrainian idk)

[@cleremucache]

😂😂😂

[@loping4]

For years, before trying to learn Portuguese myself, I always had trouble distinguishing between it and Polish in the music I listened to, but I always thought it was just me, so you can imagine my amazement when I saw this video. 😂

[@jpcaetano]

I’m Portuguese and I worked with Italians and Brazilians at the same time. Naturally, i could speak Portuguese with the Brazilian colleagues and one Italian colleague said that when she heard Brazilian Portuguese, it sounded as Portuguese to her but when she heard me speaking, it sounded as Russian. This video now explains why is that

[@celsoherculano4883]

Recently in Canada talking to my girls in Portuguese someone asked me if I was speaking Russian so I start speak Russian and the woman didn’t notice the difference. It was crazy. I speak both language but Portuguese is my mother tongue. Only in Canada

[@fairytaleviola]

Я тоже изучаю португальский. Точнее я наоборот русская, но говорю по португальски. Жля остальных в Англии кажется одно и тоже.

[@theTHwa3tes11]

To dangerous to kept alive

[@suevialania]

Everbody say that, Portuguese language sounds like a Slavic language! Greetings to our eastern europeans brothers, from Portugal!

[@paulocesarmello7875]

Look for "Condessa Anasta" youtube Channel. Probaly she I'll add so many pictures about this subject. By the way, I:m Brazilian and I never ever could imagine this kind of similaritie. At least, under Brazilian accent...I don,t know. I love EP accent, but It,s another language for me. In my perception Brazilian portuguese is a complex mixing that takes portuguese, spanish, french and italian beyond tupi guarani, the indians very first language in Brazil. Vowels and consonants in Brazil are - excluding Minas Gerais- easely heardable, even hundreds and hundreds accents.

[@user-br3xe5bw5c]

Greetings from Siberia, Russia!

[@arunarya8131]

@@user-br3xe5bw5c greeting from India. to tough language to understand.

[@Dominik-lc4pl]

Well, only the eastern slavic languages are in eastern Europe. The rest are in Central or South Europe. For example my country Poland is in the very center of Europe.

[@prestonik]

smiles from Poland!

[@user-uu4wo9zc8l]

I am Russian and while I was on vacation in Portugal I felt like everyone talked Russian but I could not define the words

[@czlowiekwatomizerze]

I'm a native Polish speaker and my first impression with Portuguese or Russian in Portugal (there're quite a few Russian speakers living in Lisbon) heard from some distance or in a noisy environment was that they seemed indistinguishable, for the reasons you've mentioned in the video. Even after learning some Portuguese, and having worked with the Portuguese and Russians for a few years, I still occasionally need a few seconds of careful listening before I can tell them apart. I don't have this feeling with Portuguese vs. Polish, but I do consciously find many phonetical similarities between them. By the way, there's more to nasals in Polish - the characteristic Portuguese diphthongs with nasal /j/ can be heard in words spelled with -ńsk-, such as Gdańsk, chiński, Wroński, where they sound a lot like ãe, im and õe, respectively, at least in colloquial speech. And the funniest thing is many Poles immediately lose their ability to pronounce nasals when they switch to Portuguese - somehow they keep pronouncing all vowels in Portuguese purely oral even after months of learning.

[@orthodox77]

I confirm. I'm a Russian and have a bunch of Portuguese collegues and I frequently would raise my head if they start to speak between themselves near me, thinking somebody addresses me in Russian.

[@WanderV1]

Yep, same thing happens to me many times.

[@fconst42]

O sotaque brasileiro é muito diferente do sotaque do de Portugal. O português de Portugal é que se parece com o russo.

[@frapiment6239]

@@fconst42 A questão aqui não é de Português mas de sotaque e limitar isso a País é claramente não conhecer o sítio onde vivemos. O Português tem centenas de sotaques tanto em Portugal como no Brasil, uns dos mais eslavo outros menos como confirmado tanto por nativos como estrangeiros nestes comentários.

[@marcosgermano4737]

As a Brazilian Portuguese native speaker, whilst living in London, I can totally endorse that confusion. On several occasions, walking on the streets, I noticed some Portuguese (European Portuguese) being spoken by people nearby, only to notice later on that it was Russian instead.

[@ViniciusBuscacio]

same to me

[@ChomuEstouTutAgora]

I second this (as an L2 speaker of Brazilian Portuguese). I've never heard Russian and thought it was European Portuguese, but every single time I hear EP from a distance, I instinctively think it's Russian until I get close enough to realize I can understand more than a few words :-p

[@fabiolimadasilva3398]

Dependendo do dialeto essa impressão é verdadeira.

[@pedromiranda0]

As a Portuguese living in Canada, I can confirm that many people tell me that Portuguese sounds like Russian. But to me, the most striking example of this is hearing my Portuguese Mom speaking in English: it totally sounds like she's Russian! Mostly because of the strong nasal sounds but also the "R"s (my mom can't do the English R) and the combination "tr", which I think is a very similar sound between Portuguese and Russian

[@nelusan]

🤯 Your videos are always incredible. Thank you.

[@OFFsqr]

I’m a polish living abroad, so I’m not surrounded by polish language on a daily basis. While traveling trough Portugal I would constantly look over my shoulder on the streets because I’ve “heard” polish everywhere :) It’s the clusters of ż, ą, ę, sz, dż that are doing it for me.

[@marianakiselova6913]

Absolutely! I always thought Portuguese and Polish phonetics were very similar!

[@Lostforface]

@@marianakiselova6913 It was same for me. Im not polish, but I know how it usually sounds. I was in Portugal and noticed that a lot of words have those same polish sounds. Good to know Im not crazy and its actually sounds similar :D

[@Mala_Gala]

I totally agree with you guys. First time I was visiting Portugal I noticed that Portugese from Portugal (not from Brazil) sounded like a mix of Polish and Spanish, later I learned Portuguese and it doesn't sound like this anymore.

[@agranero6]

I had a similar experience being Brazilian and watching Netflix series Ultraviolet, there were a lot of words that had the exact same pronounciation.

[@johnrogan9420]

Vowel reduction...ok

[@Wild1038]

This guy breaks down languages to a science. It’s insane and quite interesting.

[@Langfocus]

I’m just having fun with it. 👍🏻 I think I’m just a typical introvert, but until social media developed into what it is, most people never knew what we were thinking about because the extroverted guy with the loud voice would always talk over us.

[@Wild1038]

@@Langfocus I love your videos. Keep up the good work brother!

[@the_fifth_letter]

@@Langfocus Why did you randomly decide to show up at a video 2 years ago lol

[@urgenmikhailovich5121]

Language study is a science, just so you know :)

[@amosamwig8394]

Welcome to the langfocus channel and his name is *Paul* not guy or brother

[@ernobuzas9381]

Thank you for solving one of those questiuons in my life that bugged me but I thought will stay unresolved.

[@wolfgangschulze2343]

I have discovered your profound explanations about languages ​​and follow them with great interest.

[@annaraub1576]

I'm Dutch and I always thought I was crazy for thinking Portuguese sounds like Russian or another slavic language xD Turns out, I'm not the only one! Thnx :D

[@pitur5492]

When i hear Dutch i always think it is English but after a while i realize that i could understand only single common words. Of course im not native English nor Dutch, so it is hard to catch more common germanic words.

[@cnfylfhnrhfvpjd1862]

I'm Russian and I think they sound like each other. You aren't crazy. :)

[@pedroledoux9779]

I'm Brazilian. The greatest difference between the two ascents is that the Portuguese ascent contains much more vowel reduction. For example, the word "Colesterol" in Brazilian ascent the pronunciation is done with no vowel reduction while in Portuguese ascent is full of vowel reduction.

[@lassuncao]

LOL :))))

[@joaopires1761]

I have a Dutch colleague who said EXACTLY the same when I indulged in native conversations with another Portuguese coworker. Haha.

[@obeservador98]

Im Portuguese and I've met some guys from Poland and I started trolling them with russian accent and they belive that i was russian ahahaah its very easy to imitate russian

[@saph004]

😂😂

[@AmstradExin]

I KNEW IT!!!!!!

[@DreanPetruza]

I've heard many Brazilians speaking and at first it does sound like Russian.

[@LucasSanRFS]

Brazilian Portuguese sounds like Spanish, Portuguese from Portugal sounds like Russian

[@gustram5735]

Thank you! I am a portuguese native speaker and I have asked myself this question for years.

[@Sergiovision]

I'm Portuguese and in 2004 I was studying in Hamburg, Germany. One day a Polish lady heard me talking to other Portuguese students and she asked me if I was Russian.

[@adamastor5461]

But did she understand some of the words or just thought it was some kind of Russian gibberish?

[@Sergiovision]

@@adamastor5461 She didn't understand a word but thought it sounded Russian.

[@adamastor5461]

@@Sergiovision Makes sense, although as I found out some words sound the same, not only because of the phonetics, like "noite" and "música". Translate "Eu vejo noite" or "Eu vejo musica" to Russian and listen to the translation. It's basically the same.

[@Sergiovision]

@@adamastor5461 Wow, interesting, you're right. Sounds very similar indeed. :)

[@SovietClassic]

​@@adamastor5461 , "Eu vejo musica" - "Я вижу музыку"? In Russian it sounds "ya viju musicu". "вижу" in Russian is "I see". why see and not hear?

[@carolinecruz9083]

I'm Brazilian and I live in Argentina, everybody says that I have a Russian accent when I speak Spanish 🤷‍♀️

[@luci_lene]

There's an Argentinian guy at my work and I always thought he was russian because of his accent speaking English

[@rmblue2427]

I'm American and people say I have a Russian accent when I speak Spanish in South America. I think people might imagine things.

[@windrated]

Realmente na Argentina eles vêem o português brasileiro como russo. Tem um vídeo recente de uma guria argentina acompanhando o sorteio das oitavas da Libertadores, o cara que tá apresentando o sorteio é brasileiro, daí ela diz que não entende nada e o brasileiro parece que está falando russo.

[@carrieholley8131]

I'm learning Portuguese (as English speaker) and have always had difficulty identifying Portuguese because it has always sounded slavic. I always assumed it would sound more Spanish or French or a mix of the two. The sounds are very new to me so your videos are very helpful. Thank you!

[@vitormascarenhas4884]

That's funny, when I was in Spain some Spanishes were asking me which language I was speaking. I was shocked because I would never guess that they wouldn't know Brazilian Portuguese. Even though it's not European portuguese, it is the closest language to theirs.

[@gomes2151]

@@vitormascarenhas4884 _Spaniards_

[@christiana1223]

This is so true ! I am a Russian born speaker and I was watching a program that happen to be in Portuguese one evening .. it sounded just like Russian but I’d course it wasn’t .. for a second I thought I forgot my own language because I simply could not understand it 😂 people in America frequently ask me if I am from Portugal .. my accent now is very faint not very classical Russian ( I am Russian born) so I think that might be the reason .. but I find it funny that I am now seeing this because I swear for years I thought I was the only one that heard the similarities! 😂❤

[@davidmozdzen7596]

In Poland Latin was an official language until about 200 yeara ago a lot of latin influence remains...we dont use the cirillyc alphabet which is specific to slavic countries instead using the latin alphabet...there are over 700 similar words between Portuguese and Polish for example the word for seal is the sameand we accent things some things similarly ò in polish is pronounced the same as o in portuguese same goes for the Portuguese S and polish sz or the polish letter ą and the ao sound in portuguese...ç also sounds like a Polish s...I've had a number of native portuguese speakers recongnise words when hearing me speak Polish so i would say there is a degree of similar...arguably more than most realise...as a language enthusiast...i'm very happy to have found the channel and im glad to report you have yourself a new subscriber :)

[@user-xu7kg8gv2u]

I'm native Russian and I studied Spanish in university. So we were told that we sound like native Portuguese 🤣 (Russian speaking Spanish = native Portuguese in intonation, pauses and speed of speech)

[@Elisa_bar]

😂

[@johnathangoncalo4971]

Not quite because Spanish and Portuguese are quite different. Even though they share 89% lexical similarity, there are elements in both languages that clearly let you know that they're are distinct. And Spanish and Portuguese use different terms to express the same concepts.

[@tata-galaxy]

Это круто :))

[@gabrieldacruz3150]

That's pretty good you you got two for one deal I'm Portuguese I never saw a similarity and I've heard quite a bit of Russian but it doesn't sound like the Portuguese I speak and I was born in Portugal

[@Sabrinamfmello]

Im from brazil im speak portuguese and I dont think that portuguese is similar russian ...I cant speak spanish..because for me I dont understand...I was in México and I can say that was difficult understand spanish.

[@bromirbass]

I'm a native speaker of Polish an I'm fluent in Russian. Having learnt some Spanish, I got the impression that Portuguese sounds like Spanish with Russian accent :)

[@Fuerte-Claro]

Escucha a un ruso y a un portugues hablando español, TE DARÁS CUENTA QUE SUS ACENTO SON ALTAMENTE SIMILARES, Creo que en general, eso pasa entre el sonido de las lenguas eslavas y el idioma portugues !!

[@mikicerise6250]

Phonologically yes, but Russians do stuff that gives them away, like dropping the definite article. ;)

[@olaczyk]

Cześc

[@saludlombardia-semper2536]

I'm a native Russian speaker and I'm studying the Portuguese. I have the same impression when I listen to the texts in continental Portuguese

[@vikinskmalifrentik9303]

я еще в детстве задумался что русский и польский в фонетическом плане как испанский и португальский русские как испанцы любят рычать а поляки с португальцами шепеть!

[@anna4642]

I was in London, Uk speaking to my sister in Portuguese, a lady approached us and ask us if we were Russian! We were children back then and could not understand how Portuguese language could be mistaken for Russian. We thought it was funny!😂😂😂

[@Rainy32434]

I'm a native speaker of Russian + Belarusian, with full Ukrainian language understanding and learning Polish language right now (about B1). Yes, when I'm in Portugal my brain goes crazy because from distance I can't instantly recognise if it's Russian, Portuguese, or Polish. Recently I was buying pasteis de nata in Warsaw. I was expecting to hear staff speaking Polish (between each other), but after some time I realised I can't understand any word they speak, even though it sounds Polish and I usually understand it. Only after getting my pasteis I realised the girl looked Brazilian, and the man looked European Portuguese. Only after that, I finally realised they most likely spoke Portuguese. I rejoiced my pasteis were cooked perfectly by Portuguese-speaking people xD

[@augusto8632]

Hej, gdzie je kupiłeś?

[@helderfernandes6283]

I am portuguese but live in Norway. When norwegians hear me speak portuguese, they ALL think that it sound increadibly similar to Russian or Ukrainian. And I agree that even myself sometimes hear russians/polish/ukranians speak at, for instance, the metro, and before I concentrate on what language it might be, they sound portuguese to begin with.

[@magnusio5292]

As another Norwegian, I can add to the already huge amount of Norwegians telling you, that I also indeed think so. I am sorry :(

[@anttikarttunen1126]

One of the slavic languges spoken in ex-Jugoslavia (I'm not sure which one of them), sounds a lot like Portuguese when heard from the distance, much more than Russian. Also, some speakers of Latvian have a funny nasal tinge in their speech that makes it sometimes sound like Brazilian Portuguese to my ears.

[@gorniklecznaman3414]

Irmao 😃 🇵🇱❤️🇵🇹

[@gorniklecznaman3414]

@@anttikarttunen1126 Maybe Croatian/Serb language?

[@anacurto7325]

I'm portuguese, living in Lisbon, and I have the same experience when riding the tube with slavic people

[@efez8863]

I'm an Estonian and when I went to Portugal, I expected Portuguese to sound like Spanish but I was really surprised to find out that it sounds like Russian. I was really confused for a while

[@laphos6585]

I'm just imagining you arriving to Portugal and hearing a lot of people speaking "russian" instead of something like Spanish

[@MaSsiVeGaming1]

Portuguese sounds like Spanish if you hear the two spoken slowly. The vocabulary and sentence structure is practically the same. The only thing that changes are some of the sounds.

[@vitoria.mauricio]

Great video! I'm Portuguese and had been curious about this for a while. I had many people tell me that when I speak Portuguese they thought it sounded like Russian. It was very surprising at first but I had a similar impression when I heard Russian and Polish, it sounds oddly familiar to me. The first thing I noticed was how the nh, lh, sh, tsh, sounds are just incredibly similar. Also cool that you mentioned the "dark L", it's something I didn't know how to explain before to explain that the Portuguese L is not like the English L at all. Thanks for this detailed explanation, super cool!

[@johnnydoe4845]

I'm a Russian who spent half a year in Poland and when I travelled to Portugal for a week, I thought I spent too much time in Poland so I started to hear Polish at every corner of Lisbon. 😅 Also, there was a writing on the wall near my hotel I LOVE H̶O̶L̶L̶A̶N̶D̶ POLAND 😁

[@DaniilHomyak]

I don’t necessarily hear Portuguese similar to Russian, but I DO hear Portuguese people speaking English almost identical to Russian speaking English if both speak with a heavy accent

[@splifstar85]

I’m Russian and I have confused Portuguese for Russian many times

[@Fred_the_1996]

As a Portuguese who speaks Russian as a second language, 🗿

[@diogomocho98]

Thats kinda weird. I am portuguese and I speak english very regularly with tourists and foreign students in my country and they generally say portuguese people dont have much of an accent. Portuguese people are actually pretty well known for being pretty good with accents when speaking other european languages. Russian accent however is very heavy in english

[@DaniilHomyak]

@@diogomocho98 All the experience I got was personal, but have you heard of Integza? Dude speaks good in English, but sometimes if it was for the emphasis on something he was saying or accent just slipped in by itself, I definitely thought he was Russian for like a week I was watching him, before I saw this exact vid and realised why Portuguese English accent seemed so familiar

[@davidresende2505]

portuguese can make the english accent, we just dont care to do it most of the time

[@claudiaskieshere]

My English friends constantly told me that when I spoke Portuguese, I sounded Russian, and I never understood them until one day, someone posted a video of themselves with me speaking on the phone in the background and when I was listening I almost asked “who was speaking Russian?” until I clocked it was my voice 😭😂

[@fabioaugustobetini7179]

Krl ein pior é que tem semelhança

[@gorniklecznaman3414]

Haha, nice. Greetings from Poland 🇵🇱

[@RTU130]

Ye

[@onthepathtotruth]

It's because Portuguese is a Latin language and Latin is Slavic. Mainstream scholarship will say that they both derive from Greek. During the middle ages, there were Latin speaking countries all over eastern Europe. Rest assured, it didn't move from west to east. Latin came from the Slavic countries to the west. They are indeed related. It's obvious that Portuguese traditional clothing closely resembles eastern European dress. This is also not a coincidence.

[@margaridamigueis5809]

I’m Portuguese from Portugal and totally agree with you If somebody is speaking Portuguese not very far from you and you abstain to listen to the meaning of the conversation, it look like Russian . Never thought about the polish. I’ll pay further attention on that in the future

[@davidfrogley7117]

I've said in the past that European Portuguese sounds like a Russian trying to speak Spanish. I've also actually heard Russians speaking Spanish, and it is surprisingly similar.

[@Nihilhem]

Lol, I'm a native Spanish speaker and I have never thought about that, but you're right.

[@non.newtonianfluid]

That's true

[@SilasGTBronte]

Although this is different, when I was young I was able to watch a few episodes of Xuxa's show and she was speaking in Spanish. I think it was a Spanish-speakinng version of her original show from Brazil. I used to think she sounded like a Russian woman attempting to speak Spanish.

[@davidfrogley7117]

@М.Б. That's cool. What does it sound like to you instead? How would you describe it? Obviously we won't all opine the same. :)

[@jjsouza538]

I think it varies according to the dialect of Portuguese. The most popular ones (European dialects and Carioca) sound somewhat Slavic, so this is why people think so about the language as a whole. For me, this is how some dialects of Portuguese sound: European Portuguese: Russian. Carioca (spoken in Rio de Janeiro): somewhat like Russian. Sample: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJqsc5apfMmMeq8 Nordestino (spoken mostly in Pernambuco, Paraíba, Alagoas, Rio Grande do Norte, Sergipe, Southern Ceará and Northernmost Bahia): Spanish. Sample: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pKGoo5-feapkrsk Baiano (spoken in Bahia, it is my dialect): some Niger-Congo language with a lot of nasalization. Sample: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3OWhamkjtF8q9k Paulistano (spoken in São Paulo): Italian or some language from Italy. Sample: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bZnEc3SXrZumg5o Gaúcho (spoken in Rio Grande do Sul): a mix of Spanish and Italian. Sample: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJeUoaR-p7WEa6s

[@krzysztoftomaszewicz2408]

I'm Polish and was absolutely amazed when I visited Lisbon last year. Portuguese receptionist had no problem at all to pronounce my name and surname almost perfectly. It has never happened anywhere else. And I agree Portuguese sound like Polish from the distance.

[@HZHZMB]

@Miss Lia Polish has lots of "sh"-sound and typical "slavic" "r"-sound.

[@HZHZMB]

For Russian Polish names are so hard to pronounce (:

[@HZHZMB]

@Злата Шурик ну это понятно. Но слишком много шипящих, неудобно

[@asligaletto8196]

hahaha for a Spanish speaker your written name is completely impossible to pronounce.😂😂😂😂

[@sybilvachaudez1873]

I'm from Portugal and I once went to a scout festival in Poland with my own group of scouts and it was super easy for us all to pronounce polish names and for the polish to pronounce our names ahahah

[@vitor900000]

As a Brazilian I can say BR PT sounds nothing like Russian but I can notice some similarities between PT PT and Russian. Especially with the usage of the letter R. PT PT puts a lot more emphasis on the usage of the R than BR PT. @ 9:27 "Entre" also means enter (come/get in). With meaning the word will take will depend on the context.

[@DjevojkaChaz]

This is the video i never knew i needed to watch. Travelling through Portugual I was going crazy trying to make the sound connection to Croatian. Mind blown 🤯

[@brunopereira6143]

I’ve met Russians and Polish who either moved to Portugal or married a portuguese. It’s amazing that their portuguese has a perfect accent. If I hadn’t known I would’ve said they were natives!

[@michalniebyl3404]

As you might think Bruno, it works in the other direction too. I've got many friends who have learnt Polish from scratch, with German, Dutch, English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese background. In this group, the Portuguese have the best accent when they speak Polish.

[@RocketRabbittt]

@@michalniebyl3404 nice to know, i have a ukranian friend(i know that the guy in the video said to exclude the ukranians) he has a perfect portuguese accent from Oporto, when he arrived to portugal he was like 18 or something like that and he that ukranian accent now you can't even tell

[@irenewinglight3441]

@@RocketRabbittt ukrainians usually speak both ukrainian and russian languages, with many of them speaking mostly russian)

[@RocketRabbittt]

@@irenewinglight3441 that's sad :/

[@ndo7294]

Ukrainian is more like a accent. I don't have "learned" ukrainian language, but i understand it very well

[@1Love1and1peace1]

So, I had this strange situation, while visiting Portugal last summer. I am a Russian native speaker, and speak Czech language and live in Prague, so I guess you can say I speak two different Slavic languages. Me and my friend from Moscow were in a train from Lisboa airport to the city center, and we were both half asleep during this ride. There were two Portuguese old ladies next to us, they had a chat, and I kid you not, my sleepy brain transformed EVERYTHING they were saying into Russian, so I was not even bothered with that, because I thought they just speak Russian. When we exited from the train, I was a little bit confused with that, but I was even more surprised, when my Russian friend told me something like: “Omg, can you imagine, I was half asleep, and I thought that those ladies were speaking Russian, isn’t that crazy, huh?”. When I told her, I had the same feeling, we agreed on that you can’t freaking trust your own brain. So, you have two sleepy Russians on a Portuguese train independently from each other thinking everybody around them speaks Russian, like if it was subway in Moscow. Isn’t that crazy, huh?

[@alexa4316]

It was not a real translation , but "homophonic translation". For example : kzbin.info/www/bejne/eGqldoWLpteMgNU

[@alexa4316]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soramimi#Russian

[@margaritam.9118]

Icecream Tshirt В португальском даже интонации русские!

[@user-vo9qz7ty2l]

Классная история

[@Sandra-nu1de]

Wow. That was awasome

[@sirrenaissance322]

Outstanding video. Great analysis. As a linguist fan, I observed this portuguese-russian similarity a while ago and thought I was making a bizarre comparison. Amazing how many years later, I understand why.

[@stanpodol8233]

Better late than never, I have just seen this very interesting video. Being half Russian half Polish and equally fluent in both languages I was really surprised, rather pleasantly must admit in Lisboa last year, when I suspected either Russian or Polish talking close by. It is really an interesting phenomenon; thank you for a truly interesting info! I subscribe of course, if it’s not too late!

[@iriness15]

I am Russian and can confirm that Portuguese does sound like a Slavic language if you hear people speaking at a distance. I always thought it was the "sh" sound, but now I see its a combination of sounds. Thanks for the detailed explanation!

[@PifchoBG]

and I'm a Bulgarian and can confirm portuguese does not sound like any slavic language.

[@user-tt6nd6iv8b]

iriness15 I’m russian descendant and was born in stupid America sadly. And I wish I could speak russian. Only been able to teach myself a little bit. But I can’t learn anymore I need someone willing to teach me. I also wish I had the russian accent when I speak English but don’t. I love Russians but hate Americans. Americans act stupid I’m more proud of Russians. That’s why I get a lot of Russians in Russia that no I’m American but russian descendant like me and consider me russian still in Russia. Because I think like them and I don’t like Americans and I like Putin. I’m in 7 russian groups on Facebook that they sent me because they consider me russian. My great grandma and grandpa on my dad side was born and raise in russian and moved to America. My last name is russian. Plus I don’t like gay people like Russians unlike America they love them. That’s how I also stand different from other Americans. I’m also orthodox Christian like most russians.

[@mtgow4902]

@@PifchoBG agreed!

[@andrevilhena4149]

I agree with you, PifchoBG--I am portuguese.

[@Veracity13]

I am also Russian and can confirm that sitting in a cafe with people at the other table speaking Portuguese I instantly think they are speaking Russian, even when I was in Portugal, but when I listen more carefully, I realize that is Portuguese. And native Portuguese said the same about them hearing Russian and thinking it was Portuguese-sounding. At least the first few seconds.

[@Anastasia___.]

Yeah, last week we had customers from Portugal and my co-woker, who is Czech, told me that she can't understand where they are from: they sounded like Russians, but she couldn't say for sure. I'm a Russian myself and I tried to listen from a distance - I couldn't recognize a word, but I assumed that was because of the distance and they *did* sound like Russians to me. Although I was confused when I went there to take the order: they talked to each other, but I could understand nothing. But they sounded so much like Russians! And my brain was like "did I forget my own mother language or what?" :D

[@simaozinho37]

The foreigns with the best portuguese accent in Portugal are ukrainians and russians, for some reason xD.

[@RideWithRen]

@@simaozinho37 Actually Polish because of the nasal vowels. Bulgarians are pretty close too.

[@mayanlogos92]

Don't feel stupid bcs of this You can't forget your mother tongue just because you confused something

[@RideWithRen]

@VFM #7634 it's a Latin language too, albeit with some slavic vocabulary mixed in. Romanian to me sounds like a mix of Brazilian Portuguese and Italian, oddly enough.

[@leoalexart]

Exactly the same feeling I have as Portuguese when Russians/ Polish speak among themselves. I feel like I have gone suddenly stupid and can't understand my own language anymore. I really get a feeling of panic, it's so disconcerting.

[@eftychiakalochaireti4989]

omg! I don't speak any of those languages but I understand Portuguese and I was so damn sure that those languages are close in terms of phonology but very few ppl believed me... Thank you for explaining it so well. Thaaaank u