Portuguese language

Portuguese (Portuguese: português) is a Romance language. It originated from Galician-Portuguese, which was first spoken in Northwestern Iberia. It then spread south and split. During the colonial era, Portuguese also spread to Brazil and other parts of the world.

Portuguese
português
Pronunciation	[puɾtuˈɣeʃ] (EP) [poʁtuˈɡes][1] (BP)
Native to	Angola  Brazil  Cabo Verde  Guinea-Bissau  East Timor  Mozambique  Portugal  Sao Tome and Principe
Native speakers	215 million (2010)[2]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Western Romance Ibero-Romance West Iberian Galician-Portuguese Portuguese
Early form	Medieval Galician
Writing system	Latin (Portuguese alphabet) Portuguese Braille
Official status
Official language in	9 countries Angola Brazil Cape Verde East Timor Equatorial Guinea Guinea-Bissau Mozambique Portugal São Tomé and Príncipe 1 dependency Macau (China) Many international organisations
Regulated by	International Portuguese Language Institute Academia Brasileira de Letras (Brazil) Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Classe de Letras (Portugal) CPLP
Language codes
ISO 639-1	pt
ISO 639-2	por
ISO 639-3	por
Linguasphere	51-AAA-a
Native language   Official and administrative language   Cultural or secondary language
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Man speaks Portuguese

Where it is spoken

See also: Brazilian Portuguese

The Portuguese language is the third-most spoken western language (after English and Spanish). There are about 240 million native speakers, including the people of Portugal, Brazil, and Cape Verde (Cabo Verde). It is also an official language of Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique (Moçambique), Equatorial Guinea, and São Tomé and Príncipe (São Tomé e Príncipe), which have Portuguese as the lingua franca, but native languages are also spoken. It is also an official language in East Timor and Macau.

Also, some enclaves in Asia, such as Goa and Daman and Diu, in India; Flores, Indonesia; and Malacca, Malaysia, have Portuguese-speakers, and it is a minority language in Venezuela, Canada, Uruguay, Namibia, Japan, Romania, Moldova, Turkey, and the United States.

Vocabulary

Portuguese and English have words that mean the same and are similar as well. The words came from the same languages (usually Latin, Greek or Arabic).

• Visão Vision
• Informação Information
• Confuso Confused
• Baptismo Baptism
• Artigo Article
• Capital Capital
• Total Total
• Mapa Map
• Problema Problem
• História History

Some English words come from Portuguese, such as tank (tanque), cacao (cacau), marmalade (marmelada from marmelo "quince"), caramel, molasses, mosquito, cobra, breeze (brisa), albino, coconut, zebra, pagoda, Mandarin, buccaneer, fetish, tapioca and commando.

The Portuguese word parentes is similar to the English word "parents", but it means "relatives", and the Portuguese word to mean "parents" is pais.

Sample phrases

• Olá! Hello!
• Oi! Hi!
• Como estás? How are you?
• Estou bem, obrigado! I’m ok, thanks!
• Como está/estás? How are you?
• Tu falas Português? Do you speak Portuguese?
• Eu falo português. I speak Portuguese.
• Eu não falo português. I do not speak Portuguese.
• Tenho que ir, tchau! I have to go, goodbye!
• Até logo! See you soon!
• Tchau! Bye!
• O que estás a fazer? What are you doing?
• Eu tenho 18 anos. I'm 18 years old.

Different versions

Portuguese is the official language of all countries of the CPLP (Comunidade dos países de língua portuguesa, "Community of Portuguese Language Countries"). The Portuguese-speaking countries have more than 240 million people across the world. The CPLP was formed in 1996 with seven countries: Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe. East Timor joined in 2002.

The CPLP nations speak Portuguese with different accents. In some regions of Brazil (the country has 81% of the world's Portuguese-speakers), tu'("you" but used only to family and close friends) is not used as much as in Portugal. Also, regional slang can be found in different areas. The Portuguese Orthographic Agreement of 1990 (Acordo Ortográfico de 1990) tries to get rid of some of the differences in spelling.