Revista Afro-Ásia

p. 81 - 106This study is intended to provide a new approach to the subject of the influence of A frican languages in Brazil. lt is based on the morphophonological analysis o f the in tegration o f the A frican loanwords which are currently used in different sociocultural levels of languages so far identified in the Brazilian Portuguese according to their ocurrence iri the regional speech of Bahia, the most outstanding center of radiation o f A frican in fluences in Brazil. ln conclusion, i t points out if African languages are no longer spoken in Brazil it is not only due to favourable extralinguistic factors, but also to he remarkable structural similarities between the ancient and colonial European Portuguese speeches, by one side, and certain Bantu and Kwa languages which were spoken in Brazil during his colonization, b y the other side. Such occasional similarities have also rendered bo th the preservation of the religious terminology o f A frican sources of the A fro-Brazilian religions or candomblés in Bahia and the fact that did not succeed a creollo language in Brazil in the sense it has emerged in other former Ambrica colonies where the African presence is also deeply roo ted