Portuguese language

The Portuguese language (português or língua portuguesa) is a Romance one that was originated in what is now Galicia (Spain) and in the North of Portugal from the Latin, spoken by romanized Celtiberians, about a thousand years ago. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it spread worldwide as Portugal set up a commercial empire and colonial (1415–1999) which spanned from Brazil in the Americas to Goa in India and Macau in China. During that time, a lot of creole languages based on Portuguese also appeared around the world, principally in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

Nowadays, the Portuguese language is one of the world's most important languages, being the sixth according to number of native speakers (about 200 million). In South America, Portuguese is the language with the largest number of speakers (188 million, over 51% of the continent's population), and also one of the most important linguae francae in the African continent. The Portuguese language is official in seven countries, and co-official with the Chinese language in the Chinese particular administrative region of Macau, and with Tetum in East Timor.

Miguel de Cervantes, the Spanish author, once called Portuguese "the sweet language", and the Brazilian writer Olavo Bilac , in a poetical way, described it as a última flor do Lácio, inculta e bela: "the last flower of Latium, wild and beautiful".

Geographic distribution of Portuguese

The Portuguese language is official in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Mozambique. Portuguese is also one of the official languages of East Timor (with Tetum) and of the Chinese S.A.R. of Macau (with Chinese).

The Portuguese language (along with Spanish) is considered to be the fastest-growing European one, and, according to the UNESCO, Portuguese is the language likely to be an international communication language in the South of Africa and South America. The countries in which Portuguese is spoken are expected to have a combined population of 83 million by 2050. When Brazil signed into the economic market of Mercosul with other South America countries, such as Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay, in 1991, people has shown a curiosity towards study of Portuguese in those South American nations. The demographic importance of Brazil in the continent will continue to strengthen the presence of the Portuguese in the region.

Portuguese use was in decline in the Asian continent, in the early 21st century (after Macau was ceded to China in 1999), Nevertheless, the Portuguese language is becoming a language for opportunity there, principally because of the East Timor's boost in the number of speakers in the last five years, but also because there are more Chinese diplomatic and financial ties with Portuguese-speaking nations.

In São Paulo, Brazil, the place with the largest number of Portuguese speakers in the world, the Museum of the Portuguese Language, an interactive museum about the Portuguese language, was founded in March of 2006. 

-Translation Portuguese-

Dialects of the Portuguese language

The Portuguese language is considered to be a pluricentric language. Portuguese has two most important groups of dialects, those of the Old World and those of Brazil. In general, the dialects of Asia and Africa are closer to those of Portugal than the Brazilian dialects, for historical reasons. However, in phonology, particularly the pronunciation of unstressed vowels, they resemble Brazilian Portuguese more than European Portuguese. These dialects have not been studied as meticulously as European and Brazilian Portuguese. Portuguese creoles are spoken in some parts of Africa, Asia, and the Americas, but they are independent languages which must not be confused with the Portuguese language itself.

Some differences between the areas are noticeable, but these are the best approximations possible. For instance, the caipira dialect has some differences from the one of Minas Gerais, but in general it is similar. There is a good example of Brazilian Portuguese in the capital city, Brasília, because of the generalized population from all parts of the country.

Portuguese vocabulary

Most of the lexicon of the Portuguese language is derived from Latin. However, it has adopted loanwords from across the world. Because of the Moorish occupation of the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages, and the participation of Portugal in the Age of Discovery,

Very few words of the Portuguese language can be traced to the pre-Roman population of Portugal, which included the Carthaginians, Phoenicians, Lusitanians, Iberians and Celts.

The Suevi, Visigoths and Alans conquered the Iberian Peninsula (the former Roman region of Hispania) was conquered in the 5th century , These Germanic tribes had been displaced from Central Europe by the Huns. As they adopted the language and the Roman civilization , nevertheless, these people contributed only a few words to the lexicon, principally related to warfare.

The Portuguese language, acquired around 1000 words from Arabic by influence of Moorish Iberia, between the 9th and the 15th centuries. These words are frequently recognizable by the initial Arabic article a(l)-, and include a lot of common.
Many loanwords from Asian languages were introduced as a consequence of the Portuguese maritime explorations, starting in the 15th century.

The role of Portugal as intermediary in the Atlantic slave trade, from the 16th to the 19th century, with the establishment of important Portuguese colonies in Mozambique, Angola and Brazil, the Portuguese language got some words of African and Amerind origin, in particular names for most of the plants and animals found in those territories. Many of them became current in European Portuguese, being mostly used in the former colonies.
Finally, the Portuguese language has received an important influx of loanwords from other European languages.

Writing system of the Portuguese language

The Portuguese language is written with the Latin alphabet, and uses the acute accent, the grave accent, the circumflex accent, the cedilla and the tilde, to denote stress, vowel height, nasalization, and other sound changes. Brazilian Portuguese also makes use of the diaeresis mark. Digraphs and accented letters are not counted as different characters for collation purposes.

European and Brazilian spelling

Between the orthographies of Brazil and other Portuguese language countries, there are some minor differences. The use of acute accents in the European/African/Asian orthography in many words is one of the most persistent of theses differences. For example, sinónimo, has a circumflex accent in the Brazilian orthography, sinônimo. Brazilian spelling often lacks c or p before c, ç, or t, where the European orthography has them is another important difference; for instance, cf. Brazilian fato with European facto, "fact", or Brazilian objeto with European objecto, "object". While some of these differences are simply graphic, some of them are reflected in the pronunciation.