Brazilian literature - Cristo Raul

i6
BRAZILIAN LITERATURE
ployed by its contributors and to designate a choice. ^^
Verissimo, in accordance with A. H. Sayce, takes as his
standard of grammatical correctness that which is "ac-
cepted by the great body of those who speak a language,
not what is laid down by a grammarian." Still more to
the point, Verissimo, who was a man of exemplary
honesty and fearlessness in a milieu that easily tempts
to flattery and the other social amenities, declares that
"if we are by language Portuguese, if through that tongue
our literature is but a branch of the Portuguese, we have
already almost ceased to be such . . . because of our
fund of ideas and notions, which were all constituted out-
side of Portuguese influence." The important thing,
then, is "to have something to say, an idea to express, a
thought to transmit. Without this, however deep his
grammatical knowledge of the language, however per-
fectly he apes the classics, no man is a writer." Platitu-
dinous, perhaps, but how often some platitudes bear
repetition
!
The language of Brazil, then, is not the Portuguese
of Lisbon. From the phonological viewpoint there is
less palatalization of the final 5 and z than is customary
in Portugal; Brazil has a real diphthong ou, which in
Lisbonese has become a close o or the diphthong oi.
Its pronunciation of the diphthong ei is true, whereas
in Lisbon this approximates to ai (with a as in English
above, or like the u of cut). Neither is the grammar
identical with that of Portugal. "The truth is, that by
correcting ourselves we run the danger of mutilating ideas
and sentiments that are not merely personal. It is no
15 Note, for example, the various spellings of the word literature here
used as in the originals.