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Coalition of indigenous groups calls for boycott of companies that invade and exploit protected Brazilian lands.

The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) is calling a boycott of companies that include invaders of protected areas in their supply chains.

To support this call the group has disclosed a list of foreign companies that have engaged in trade with Brazilian agribusiness agents accused of acting in areas of indigenous land conflicts and extracting resources from protected areas.

Besides the boycott, APIB’s intention is to submit the data to the European Parliament and ask it to take action.

Eloy Terena, APIB’s legal counsel, said: “Traders in Europe and North America can help by cutting ties with these bad Brazilian actors, thus sending a clear signal to Jair Bolsonaro that the rest of the world will not tolerate his policies.”

“If these companies continue to support Brazilian companies, they must also be blamed for the destruction of tropical forests and the abuse of indigenous peoples.”

Sonia Guajajara, indigenous leader and executive coordinator of APIB, said: “We understand that sanctioning the products that are produced and bought in areas of indigenous conflicts is the only thing that can guarantee the rights constituted here in Brazil.

“We have to charge those foreign countries and demand respect for territorial, environmental and human rights.”

Disclaimer: I’m aware of the fact that these are not the only Romance languages in existence. Despite that, I thought it’d be much more helpful to  focus uniquely on Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and, to a lesser degree, Romanian.

Italian, Spanish and Portuguese have a more phonemic orthography than French. In French, numerous letters are silent and multiple words are pronounced identically despite having a different spelling

to my knowledge, French is the only (official) Romance language where personal pronouns cannot be omitted

Italian words ending in -zione correspond to Spanish -ción, French -tion Portuguese -ção

both Italian no and non translate to Spanish no, Portuguese não and French non and ne .. pas

the sound [t͡ʃ] is represented by the digraphs ci- and ce- in Italian and ch- in Spanish, e.g.

It. Cina Sp. China

in Italian the combination qu- is pronounced /kw/, whereas it’s pronounced /k/ in Spanish and French, and /k/ and /kw/ in Portuguese depending on the following vowel. Consider this:

It. quando [kw-] Fr. quand [kɑ̃] Sp. cuando [kw-]

It. chi [k-] Fr. qui [k-] Sp. quien [k-]

Port. quando [kw-] Port. quem [k-]

in Italian the sounds /ge/, /gɛ/* and /gi/ are spelt ghe- and ghi-, whereas they’re spelt gue- and gui- in Spanish, e.g.

It. ghepardo [ge-] Sp. guepardo [ge-]

It. ghirlanda [gi-] Sp. guirlanda [gi-]

* Standard Castilian does not present the sound /ɛ/.

in Italian the sounds /gwe/, /gwɛ/* and /gwi/ are spelt gue- and gui-, and güe- and güi- in Spanish. On the other hand, French gue- and -gue are pronounced /gɛ/ and /ɡ/, whereas gui- is pronounced either /gwi-/ or /ɡɥi/.

It. guelfo [gwɛ-] Sp. güelfo [gue-] Fr. guerre [gɛ-] Fr. langue [-g]

It. linguistica [-gwi-] Sp. lingüistica [-gwi-] Fr. linguistique [-gwi-] or [-ɡɥi-]

* Standard Castilian does not present the sound /ɛ/.

Italian and Romanian do not form their plurals by adding -s or -es at the end of a word like in the rest of the Romance languages, e.g.

It. buono, buoni Rom. bun, buni Sp. bueno, buenos Fr. bon, bons Port. bom, bons

Italian is the only (official) Romance Language to have derived two distinct prepositions from the Latin preposition de, e.g.

Di: from Lat. de “of”

It. sono di Napoli Sp. soy de Nápoles Fr. je suis de Naples Port. eu sou de Nápoles

Da: from Lat. de ab > *da(b) > da “from”

It. vengo da Napoli Sp. vengo de Nápoles Fr. je viens de Naples Port. eu venho de Nápoles

Italian, like French, has direct and indirect as well as stressed and unstressed personal pronouns

in Italian and Portuguese, unlike in Spanish and French, possessive adjectives are always* preceded by an article, e.g.

It. il mio libro (cf. Cat. el meu llibre) Port. o meu livro** Sp. mi libro Fr. mon livre

* in Italian, possessive adjectives are not preceded by an article when the following noun refer to a family member, e.g. mia madre (not la mia madre).

** posessive adjectives proceeded by articles are more common in European Portuguese.

in Italian the word perché means both why and because, whereas they change based on their function in Spanish, Portuguese and French

Italian per and French pour translate to both Spanish and Portuguese por and para

in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, unlike in French, object personal pronouns are usually appended to infinitives and gerunds, e.g.

It. posso farlo (lo posso fare) Sp. puedo hacerlo (lo puedo hacer) Port. posso faze-lo Fr. je peux le faire

in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French, the subjunctive mood works similarly but not identically

there are more cognates between Italian and French, and Italian and Spanish than there are between Spanish and French, e.g.

It. casa Fr. maison Sp. casa

It. testa / capo Fr. tête Sp. cabeza

It. mangiare Fr. manger Sp. comer

in Italian, graphic accents are only limited to oxytones, that is to say words having the stress on the last syllable, e.g. papà, città, caffè, etc

Italian is the only (official) Romance language that phonetically distinguishes single and double consonants, e.g. caro/carro, copia/coppia, papa/pappa, etc. are all pronounced differently (with the exception of the double -rr- in Spanish and Portuguese)

in Italian and French two vowels next to each other undergo elision and an apostrophe is used, but not in Spanish and Portuguese*, which do not make use of apostrophe. This usually happens with the Italian definite articles lo/la/le and French le/la, e.g.

It. la + energia = l'energia Fr. la + énergie = l'énergie Sp. la + energía = la energía

* Portuguese uses the apostrophe almost exclusively in poetry, e.g. de + agua = d’agua.

Spanish and Portuguese are notable amongst Romance languages for not having specific pronouns referring to place and quantity

It. ci vado Fr. j’y vais Sp. voy Port. vou

It. bevo dell’acqua Fr. je bois de l’eau Sp. bebo agua Port. bebo água

It. ne ho quattro Fr. j’en ai quatre Sp. tengo cuatro Port. tenho quatro

Italian and French use both essere/être and avere/avoir to form compound verbs, but not Modern Spanish and Portuguese, which only use haber/ter (or haver)

It. ero venuto Fr. je suis venu Sp. he venido Port. tenho vindo

unlike French, Spanish and Portuguese, during its slow evolution Italian dropped the etymological initial h- (silent in all Romance language) in words which originally started with said mute consonant, e.g. Lat. honore(m)

Old It. honore > It. onore Fr. honneur  Sp. honor* Port. honra