Brazilian Portuguese the last decades of the 20th century, due to the popularity of Brazilian music and Brazilian soap operas. Since Brazil joined Mercosul, the South American free trade zone, Portuguese has been increasingly studied as a foreign language in Spanish-speaking partner countries. Many words of Brazilian origin (also used in other Portuguese-speaking countries) have also entered into English: samba, bossa nova, cruzeiro, milreis and capoeira. While originally Angolan, the word "samba" only became famous worldwide because of its popularity in Brazil. After independence in 1822, Brazilian idioms with African and Amerindian influences were brought to Portugal by returning Portuguese Brazilians ("luso-brasileiros"
Brazilian Portuguese of that phenomenon varies significantly. Vowels in Brazilian Portuguese generally are pronounced more openly than in European Portuguese, even when reduced. In syllables that follow the stressed syllable, ⟨o⟩ is generally pronounced as , ⟨a⟩ as , and ⟨e⟩ as . Some dialects of BP follow this pattern for vowels "before" the stressed syllable as well. In contrast, speakers of European Portuguese pronounce unstressed ⟨a⟩ primarily as , and they elide some unstressed vowels or reduce them to a short, near-close near-back unrounded vowel , a sound that does not exist in BP. Thus, for example, the word "setembro" is