Quoting

      In addition to written sources, there are three sources of quotations in the text: (1) the transcripts of recorded interviews, (2) phrases written down during interviews for which I do not have recorded audio, (3) specific utterances remembered during my presence in the field (including sometimes during interviews) and recorded in my field notes after the fact, sometimes on the same day, sometimes one or two days later.

Interviews

      Quotes taken from recorded transcription are typically represented as long quotations and are always presented verbatim, with the following exceptions:

      I correct minor disfluencies when they do not appear to be relevant to the interpretation of the quote. This includes removal of almost all uhs, and hms, my feedback utterances (uhu’s) that overlap with interviewee’s speech, and some of the minor self-corrections or repetitions. For instance, “and that that that it would be strange” would typically be quoted as “and that it would be strange.” For more serious self-correction, which may represent a major change in what the interviewee was saying, I leave the utterance as is, using ellipsis to show the place where the grammatical flow is broken: “I can maybe try to find some… but I think that I usually already wrote many things in English.” Alternatively, I truncate the corrected part, replacing it with […]. (In my usage, “[…]” represents an omission, but “…” does not, and may or may not correspond to a pause.)

      I correct minor grammatical errors for interviews conducted in English and in my own Portuguese utterances in Portuguese interviews. I do not, however, correct non-standard or even plain wrong use of vocabulary (either for by myself or by my interviewees). E.g., if an interviewee uses the word “propaganda” in place of English “ads” and I leave it this way. I also leave the speech uncorrected if the usage is relevant to the flow of conversation (e.g., if it creates a confusion between me and the interviewee).

      I frequently remove parts of the utterance to shorten quotes and make them easier to read. I represent such removals with […]. Such removals may span several dialog turns, though I do not splice together distant parts of in interview.

      I mark laughter, chuckles and pauses selectively, when they appear to be relevant to understanding the conversation.

      For recorded interviews, I sometimes also include shorter quotes in the paragraph, inside quotations marks. Those shorter quotes are transcribed in the same way as long quotes.

      Some of the interviews were not recorded. Such quotes follow conventions described in the next section.

Quotes from field notes

      Quotes taken from field notes, either based on interviews or observed scenes, are obviously not as reliable as those from recorded interviews. When I place a phrase in quotes while describing a scene, this means that the quote was recorded in my notes, and that at the time of recording it I was reasonably sure that it represented the utterance verbatim or nearly verbatim. Some of those quotes were spoken and recorded in my notes in Portuguese, while others were spoken in Portuguese but recorded in English. In the latter cases, I typically took time to make a mental note of the phase right after it was uttered, and could remember at that point my on-the-fly translation of it, but not the exact Portuguese phrasing.

Direct speech based on paraphrases

      Additionally, I occasionally introduce direct speech that is based on paraphrases recorded in my notes. I include such speech without quotes, italicizing it if it helps understanding:

How would you even do it? asks Fabio. How would you translate “DIM?” What does “DIM” stand for anyway? Dimension? So, perhaps it would be “Dimensão.” This would be so strange and verbose!

or

Yes, the Java code should be in English, he says again, but the database tables should be in Portuguese.

Such direct speech always represents utterances that actually occurred, but may not match those utterances verbatim. In the example above, Fabio may have said “could” rather than “would,” or may have even said “How would this even work?” In such cases I intend to capture speaker’s meaning and overall manner of speaking, but not make assertions about the exact words. I sometimes choose to drop quotes around utterances that were actually recorded verbatim, to blend them with the adjacent utterances, which are based on paraphrases. E.g., in the quote above I could put quotes around Fabio’s question “How would you translate DIM?” but choose to include it without quotes since the adjacent utterances are paraphrases.

Representing the vernacular

      There are substantial differences between spoken Brazilian Portuguese and the formal Portuguese as it is often written in Brazil. There is a strong tradition in Brazil of translating speech into formal register when representing it in writing. I do not follow this tradition and instead attempt to represent the spoken vernacular as is. At the same time, I try to keep the text readable. I use the following convention as a compromise:

      I always preserve speaker’s actual grammar and vocabulary. For instance, I do not correct “a gente trabalha” to “nós trabalhamos,” ou “pegava” to “pegaria.”

      I represent common verbal abbreviations. I write tar (tá, tô) instead of estar (está, estou), cê instead of você, pra instead of para, vamo for vamos, cabou instead of acabou. Such abbreviated forms are not used in standard written Portuguese, and the Brazilian convention is to formalize them when representing direct speech. At the same time, most Cariocas seem aware of the fact that they use such abbreviated forms and recognize them when they see them written. Needless to say, I only use such abbreviated forms when the speaker does.

      I do not represent other aspects of Brazilian or Carioca pronunciation. For instance, I do not represent the pronunciation of “s” as [ʃ], “r” as [x], or the insertion of extra vowels between consonants. I also do not attempt to represent the nearly ubiquitous substitution of -ô for -ou in the past tense of verbs (“ele falô” instead of “ele falou”) except in “tô,” or the dropping of final “r” in verbs (“quero falá” vs. “quero falar”). Since such features are common to nearly all Carioca speakers, the reader can fill them in. Representing such features in quotes, on the other hand, would make the quotes a lot harder to read.

Translation into English

Identifying translated quotes

      Long quotations translated from Portuguese are identified by footnotes to the original Portuguese quotes (given in appendix C). Long quotes from interviews in English are similarly identified as such with footnotes. (I only use such footnotes once per speaker in each chapter.) Shorter quotes should be assumed to be translated from Portuguese, unless otherwise indicated. Quotes from Rodrigo Miranda represent an important exception to the rule: our conversations switched between English and Portuguese so often that it is not always possible for me to be sure in what language a particular phrase was said.

Choice of translation

      When translating vernacular Portuguese into English, I try to pick vocabulary from the appropriate register, but erring on the side of the more formal English. (For example, I translate “cara” as “guy” rather than “dude.”) I do not attempt to represent in English the grammatical informality of Portuguese vernacular. I include the original Portuguese in brackets when the translation is not obvious (e.g., “unlock the value [valorizar]”) or where the original choice of word may be relevant.

Representing English used by Portuguese speakers

      When Portuguese quotes include English words, I include those words in English in the quote and italicize them. When translating the quote into English, I again italicize the English words. I add “[says in English]” or “[English]” if this English phase is not common in Portuguese, for example: “Since Lua is late late late binding [says in English], it is very versatile to…” I do not do this, however, for English words that can be considered already a part of Portuguese vocabulary: “the download would be automatic.”

      In some cases, it becomes hard to translate without changing the relevant English word. For example, “era bem nerd” could be translated either as “was quite nerdy” (replacing “nerd” with “nerdy”) or “was quite a nerd” (turning “nerd” into a noun, though it is used as an adjective in Portuguese). I either use the second option or change the word and show the original in brackets (“was quite nerdy [era bem nerd]”).

      When Portuguese speakers use English words in the context of a Portuguese sentence, they nearly always adjust their pronunciation to the rules of Portuguese phonology, which makes them quite different from the original English: “late binding” would be pronounced as [ˈleıʧı ˈbaıŋʤıŋ] (“leichi bine-jing”), “download” as daʊnˈloʊʤı and “nerd” as ˈnexʤı. The way such words are pronounced varies from one speaker to another and between different contexts: the pronunciation can be more Portuguese or closer to English.

      I avoid representing pronunciation in most such cases, since it would make the text hard to read and may create an impression that my interviewees are less competent in their use of such words than they actually are. Instead, I present them in their standard English spelling, which how all of my interviewees would write such words in the context of a Portuguese sentence. I make a parenthetical comment about the pronunciation in cases when it is particularly relevant:

Mauricio: Since I was quite a nerd, I spent most of my time in the computer lab. Yuri: What’s “quite a nerd”? Mauricio: Geek [says as in English].

This may then be followed by a comment such as:

Mauricio pronounces “nerd” as it is usually said in Rio: “nehji.” When I ask him what he means by that, hoping that he would elaborate on the meaning of “nehji,” he replies with another English word, one that is somewhat less common in Rio and which he this time carefully pronounces in nearly proper English: “Geek.”