Theoretical, empirical and methodological approaches for studying the Afro-Brazilian continuum of Portuguese

Abstract The aim of this chapter is to propose a discussion based on the recent empirical and theoretical progress on the issue of the origins of Brazilian Portuguese. Brazilian Portuguese innovations will be presented in two separate sets. The first includes linguistic features that are present in all Brazilian dialects and can be considered as being characteristic of the spoken standard in Brazil. The second contains features that are not shared by all Brazilian dialects, but are restricted to some geographical areas or linguistic communities. All the features described for Brazilian Portuguese are shared by African varieties of Portuguese, which indicates that they have emerged as a result of contact-induced changes. The facts discussed suggest that in studies on the Afro-Brazilian continuum of Portuguese, we should include not only data about the languages involved in the contact process, but also information about the social conditions that contribute to assigning to each of those languages its weight in the competition created by the contact situation.