The Italian language in Brazil has been widespread since the second half of the 19th century, particularly due to Italian emigration to Brazil. Today there are an estimated 26 million descendants of Italians residing in the country; among them, Italian is estimated to be spoken as a first language by about 50,000 people.Ethnologue – Brazil. In it is stated that "a recent survey shows that 14 percent of the immigrants, in their families, still speak the Italian language (the list includes those who have never been to Italy)"; the figure, however, cannot be further verified. On the other hand, there were 407,924 Italian citizens residing in Brazil in 2013.Cf. Annuario Statistico 2014, p. 121. In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, a Venetian linguistic island is still active, whose language is called talian (or vêneto brasileiro). Italian is also being learned as a foreign language in Brazil by tens of thousands of students a year, partly due to the descendants of immigrants gradually recovering their origins.
In Brazil, the Italian language is co-official in the municipalities of Encantado (Rio Grande do Sul),Lei n. 5.048/2023 - Do Município de Encantado / RS, Dispõe sobre a cooficialização da Língua Italiana e o Dialeto Talian, à língua portuguesa, no Município de Encantado. Repositório Brasileiro de Legislações Linguísticas José Boiteux (Santa Catarina),Lei n. 1.299/2025 - Do Município de José Boiteux / SC, Dispõe sobre a cooficialização das Línguas Xokleng, Italiana e Alemã no Município de José Boiteux e dá outras providências. Repositório Brasileiro de Legislações Linguísticas (RBLL) Santa Tereza (Espírito Santo),Lei n. 2.812/2021 - Do Município de Santa Teresa / ES, Dispõe sobre a co-oficialização da Língua Italiana no Município de Santa Teresa, Estado do Espírito Santo. Repositório Brasileiro de Legislações Linguísticas Santo Ângelo (Rio Grande do Sul),Lei n. 4.797/2025 - Do Município de Santo Ângelo / RS, Institui a cooficialização das Línguas Polonesa, Italiana e Alemã no Município de Santo Ângelo/RS. Repositório Brasileiro de Legislações Linguísticas (RBLL) São Bento do Sul (Santa Catarina)Lei n. 5.181/2025 - Do Município de São Bento do Sul / SC, Dispõe sobre a cooficialização das Línguas Alemã, Polonesa e Italiana no Município de São Bento do Sul e dá outras providências. Repositório Brasileiro de Legislações Linguísticas (RBLL) and Venda Nova do Imigrante (Espírito Santo).LEI Nº 1.676/2024, DISPÕE SOBRE A COOFICIALIZAÇÃO DA LÍNGUA ITALIANA E O DIALETO TALIAN, À LÍNGUA PORTUGUESA, NO MUNICÍPIO DE VENDA NOVA DO IMIGRANTE/ES. Prefeitura Municipal de Venda Nova do ImigranteVereadores aprovam projeto de lei que oficializa italiano e talian em Venda Nova do Imigrante, Câmara Municipal de Venda Nova do Imigrante
The language of Italian emigration
History
Brazil is the third-largest country in the Americas in terms of the number of Italian immigrants received in the period 1876-1990; the migratory flow peaked in the period 1886-1895, with 503,599 expatriates; the influx of Italians remained substantial in the period prior to World War I (expatriates were 450,423 and 196, respectively. 699 in the decades 1896-1905 and 1906-1915); the period between the two wars saw a gradual reduction of Italian emigration to Brazil; after the interruption of the migratory flow during World War II, which saw Italy and Brazil on opposite sides, there was a new, rather substantial wave in the postwar period (there were 133,231 expatriates in the period 1946-1990). The total number of Italians who emigrated to Brazil between 1876 and 1990 is 1,447,356.
Italian immigration particularly affected the south of the country; even today, the population of Italian origin reaches 65 percent in the southern states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Espirito Santo (half of which is of Venetian origin). The city of São Paulo is estimated to be the largest Italian urban hub in the world, with about 15 million inhabitants of Italian origin.Ibid; the figure is taken from the Rapporto Italiani nel Mondo 2006 from the Migrantes Foundation. In the northeastern part of Rio Grande do Sul an authentic Região Colonial Italiana was born. Alongside Italian immigration, the region attracted to itself numerous immigrants from Germany; in addition to Brazilian Portuguese, Italian was thus exposed to contact with German, itself a language of immigration.Cf. The different waves of migration were characterized by different regional origins: emigrants of northern origin (from Veneto, Trentino, Friuli) were prevalent at the end of the nineteenth century, while with the new century, arrivals from southern Italy (particularly Campania) prevailed.
The literacy rate of emigrants also varied greatly. Illiteracy was frequent in the first period of emigration, which was predominantly dialect-speaking.In it is reported that, according to a survey conducted in the Italian Colonial Region between 1875 and 1886, among Italian immigrants, 63 percent of men and 37 percent of women, thus 50 percent of the total, were capable of reading. After World War II, on the other hand, the migratory flow was marked by a higher level of education, to which corresponded with a greater mastery of Italian.A sample survey of immigrants who came to São Paulo between 1945 and 1960 found that 90 percent of them had never spoken any dialect; cf. This condition was also brought about by the strong connection established between Italian emigration to Brazil and the presence in the country of large Italian industrial groups, particularly in the automotive and telecommunications sectors; this has led to seeing in the Italian language and culture a root capable of bringing an extra layer of value to entrepreneurial processes.
Characteristics of Italian communities
Italian emigration to Brazil was favored by the welcoming policies adopted by the South American country, which was willing to advance the ticket for the journey in order to receive labor for the colonization of its immense territory, still largely unexplored. It was therefore the most impoverished social strata that undertook the journey, thus becoming settlers who gradually replaced slaves in the fazendas (dating to 1888 the abolition of slavery through the Lei Áurea). The rural context favored the creation of self-sufficient Italian communities that were relatively isolated from the linguistic context of the country of arrival. Colonization of territories entrusted by the Brazilian government, concentrated mainly in the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, was the main choice by the Venetians and northern Italians in general.
The rural settlements thus tended to be linguistically conservative, in parallel with what is observed in the more conservative areas of Italian territory. Contributing to the preservation of the languages of origin was the isolation in enclaves, often characterized by endogamy and poor schooling, and also the establishment of much larger family groups than in the motherland, which reached as many as 170 members. As a result, numerous towns with Italian names were founded in the rural areas: in Rio Grande do Sul, Nova Bassano, Nova Pádua, Nova Treviso, Nova Vicenza (later to become Farroupilha) and Nova Trento (later to become Flores da Cunha) were founded; in the state of Espírito Santo, Nova Venécia was born; in the state of Santa Catarina one finds Nova Veneza and another Nova Trento, founded by immigrants of Trentino origin who still retain part of their native language.Cf. ; the correspondence between place names and the origin of the immigrants, moreover, is not the norm, since "the names of the localities were often determined in advance by the concessionary companies for the division and allocation of land where immigrants were then installed, mostly from different provinces of Veneto" (
More exposed to the pressure of Brazilian Portuguese were the urban contexts, which attracted Italian immigrants only later; rather than direct immigration, it was often the urbanization of settlers from the fazendas, attracted by the prospects of wealth offered by the modernization of large cities. São Paulo, which in 1920 had a population consisting of 50 percent immigrants of Italian origin, played a leading role in the phenomenon of language mixing, also by virtue of the stratification of different regional origins (Campania, Apulia, Veneto, Calabria). These conditions favored the use of the Italian language in associations and assemblies. Political participation of Italian-Brazilians, long limited due to low literacy rates, also began in the city.
The other major hub of urban settlement of Italian immigrants was Porto Alegre, where there were 41 Italian families as early as 1850; The Italian presence in the city resulted in 1877 in the founding of the Vittorio Emanuele II Society, which remained in operation until its dissolution decreed by the Brazilian government at the time of World War II.Ibid, pp. 3-4. Deeply rooted in the city was from the end of the nineteenth century the Calabrian presence, with the predominance of immigrants from the province of Cosenza and in particular from the town of Morano Calabro;Ibid, p. 6. the Morano community long maintained its own well-characterized identity, strengthened by endogamous marriages and catalyzed by the cult of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Morano's patron saint.Ibid, p. 8.
The education of immigrants
Brazil's school network suffered for a long time from a serious inefficiency, determined in part by the enormous size of the national territory, and in part by the tendency of disinterest shown since the origins of the Federal Republic for the education of the entire country.In 1883 the Italian consul Enrico Perrod, while visiting the Italian colony of Conde d'Eu, was asked for two things: a road and schools ( The education of Italian-Brazilians was therefore for a long time imparted by the immigrants themselves.Ibid, p. 105. The initiative of improvised institutors was soon associated with the foundation of Italian elementary schools, supported by associations, religious and private teachers as well as by irregular funding from the Italian government.
Particularly relevant was the role of the numerous Italian associations that were formed with patriotic, religious, cultural, and above all charitable and mutual aid purposes (there were 98 in 1896, 277 in 1908, and still 192 in 1923);; for numerical data, cf. These associations constantly maintained ties with the consular authorities, who were interested in maintaining the Italian language among the emigrants. Less linked to the preservation of national identity were the rural schools, on the other hand, whose purpose was more pragmatically to teach reading, writing and counting. It is uncertain whether Italian or a dialect prevailed in the teaching there; probably a mixture of the two languages was in use, not without some influence from Portuguese. The use of bilingual Italian-Portuguese texts, provided to emigrants by the Italian government, is also documented.Ibid, pp. 200-202.
The success of the Italian schools depended essentially on being for a long time the only option available.Ibid, p. 198. In 1908 232 institutions were surveyed, rising to 396 in 1913; their number then fell to 329 in 1924 and 167 in 1930. This decrease was determined by the gradual strengthening of the network of public schools; the granting of funding to community schools (i.e., those run by non-state associations) was also tied to the teaching in Portuguese of history, geography and some other subjects. It was, moreover, the Italian settlers themselves, by then rooted in Portuguese soil, who were eager to learn the national language.