diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index f0da26db9..ad85ccd93 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ Bugs fixed
 * #4969: autodoc: constructor method should not have return annotation
 * latex: deeply nested enumerated list which is beginning with non-1 causes
   LaTeX engine crashed
+* #4978: latex: shorthandoff is not set up for Brazil locale
 
 Testing
 --------
diff --git a/sphinx/writers/latex.py b/sphinx/writers/latex.py
index d4deb49ac..41e1cab2d 100644
--- a/sphinx/writers/latex.py
+++ b/sphinx/writers/latex.py
@@ -197,7 +197,7 @@ class ExtBabel(Babel):
         shortlang = self.language.split('_')[0]
         if shortlang in ('de', 'ngerman', 'sl', 'slovene', 'pt', 'portuges',
                          'es', 'spanish', 'nl', 'dutch', 'pl', 'polish', 'it',
-                         'italian'):
+                         'italian', 'pt-BR', 'brazil'):
             return '\\ifnum\\catcode`\\"=\\active\\shorthandoff{"}\\fi'
         elif shortlang in ('tr', 'turkish'):
             # memo: if ever Sphinx starts supporting 'Latin', do as for Turkish