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| Geographic distribution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Main articles: Geographic distribution of Portuguese and List of countries where Portuguese is an official language
All the green territories:official status; Green squares: spoken by the majority of the population; Blue territories and squares: Portuguese and Portuguese creole languages are official (excepting Malaysia, only spoke); Black square: equal status as the official language in the country, but not official.
Countries and regions where Portuguese has official status.
Members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.
Today, Portuguese is the official language of Angola, Brazil (190.6 million),[14] Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal (10.6 million),[15] São Tomé and Príncipe and Mozambique.[16] It is also one of the official languages of East Timor (with Tetum) and the Chinese special administrative region of Macau (with Chinese). It is the language of most of the population in Portugal, Brazil, São Tomé and Príncipe and Angola. And is the most widely spoken language in Mozambique though only 6.5% are native speakers. No data is available for Cape Verde, but almost all the population is bilingual, and the monolingual population speaks Cape Verdean Creole.[17]
Small Portuguese-speaking communities subsist in former overseas colonies of Portugal such as Macau, where it is spoken by 7% of the population, and East Timor (13.6%). In addition, there are several Portuguese-based creole languages that are spoken around the world.
Uruguay gave Portuguese an equal status to Spanish in its educational system at the north border with Brazil. In the rest of the country, it is taught as an obligatory subject beginning in the 6th grade.[18]
It is also spoken by substantial immigrant communities, though not official, in Andorra, Australia,[19] France, Luxembourg, Jersey (with a statistically significant Portuguese-speaking community of approximately 10,000 people), Paraguay, Namibia, South Africa, Switzerland, Venezuela, Japan[20] and the U.S. states of California, Connecticut,[21] Florida,[22] Massachusetts, New Jersey,[23] New York[24] and Rhode Island.[25] In some parts of India, such as Goa[26] and Daman and Diu,[27] Portuguese is still spoken. There are also significant populations of Portuguese speakers in Canada (mainly concentrated in and around Toronto and Montreal),[28] Bermuda[29] and the Netherlands Antilles.
Portuguese is an official language of several international organizations. The Community of Portuguese Language Countries[16] (with the Portuguese acronym CPLP) consists of the eight independent countries that have Portuguese as an official language. It is also an official language of the European Union, accounting for 3% of its population,[30] Mercosul, the Organization of American States, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the Union of South American Nations, and the African Union (one of the working languages) and one of the official languages of other organizations. The Portuguese language is gaining popularity in Africa, Asia, and South America as a second language for study.
Estação da Luz, home of the Museum of the Portuguese Language, in São Paulo, Brazil.
Portuguese and Spanish are the fastest-growing European languages after English, and according to estimates by UNESCO, the Portuguese language has the highest potential for growth as an international language in southern Africa and South America. The Portuguese-speaking African countries are expected to have a combined population of 83 million by 2050. In total, the Portuguese-speaking countries will have 335 million people by the same year. Since 1991, when Brazil signed into the economic market of Mercosul with other South American nations, such as Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, there has been an increase in interest in the study of Portuguese in those South American countries. The demographic weight of Brazil in the continent will continue to strengthen the presence of the language in the region. Although in the early 21st century, after Macau was ceded to China in 1999, the use of Portuguese was in decline in Asia, it is becoming a language of opportunity there; mostly because of East Timor's boost in the number of speakers in the last five years but also because of increased Chinese diplomatic and financial ties with Portuguese-speaking countries.
In July 2007, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema announced his government's decision to establish Portuguese as Equatorial Guinea's third official language, to meet the requirements to apply for full membership of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. This upgrading from its current Associate Observer condition would result in Equatorial Guinea being able to access several professional and academic exchange programs and the facilitation of cross-border circulation of citizens. Its application is currently being assessed by other CPLP members.[31]
In March 1994 the Bosque de Portugal (Portugal's Woods) was founded in the Brazilian city of Curitiba. The park houses the Portuguese Language Memorial, which honors the Portuguese immigrants and the countries that adopted the Portuguese language. Originally there were seven nations represented with pillars, but the independence of East Timor brought yet another pillar for that nation in 2007.
In March 2006, the Museum of the Portuguese Language, an interactive museum about the Portuguese language, was founded in São Paulo, Brazil, the city with the greatest number of Portuguese speakers in the world.
[ Tags:Geographic Distribution Of Portuguese,Africa,Asia,Europe,Angola,Brazil,Cape Verde,East Timor,Equatorial Guinea,Guinea-bissau,Mozambique,Portugal,São Tomé And Príncipe,Macau,Cplp,South America,Goa,Timor,European Union,African Union,Organization Of American States,Tetum,New Jersey,California,Florida,Toronto,Spanish,Uruguay,Argentina,Venezuela,Namibia,South Africa,List Of Countries Where Portuguese Is An Official Language,Official Language,Special Administrative Region,Cape Verdean Creole,Portuguese-based Creole Languages,Andorra,Luxembourg,Jersey,Paraguay,Connecticut,Massachusetts,New York,Rhode Island,Daman And Diu,Bermuda,Netherlands Antilles,Mercosul,Organization Of Ibero-american States,Union Of South American Nations,São Paulo,Bosque De Portugal,Curitiba, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dialects |
Main article: Portuguese dialects
Portuguese is a pluricentric language with two main groups of dialects, those of Brazil and those of the Old World. For historical reasons, the dialects of Africa and Asia are generally closer to those of Portugal than the Brazilian dialects, although in some aspects of their phonetics, especially the pronunciation of unstressed vowels, they resemble Brazilian Portuguese more than European Portuguese. They have not been studied as widely as European and Brazilian Portuguese.
Audio samples of some dialects of Portuguese are available below.[32] There are some differences between the areas but these are the best approximations possible. For example, the caipira dialect has some differences from the one of Minas Gerais, but in general it is very close. A good example of Brazilian Portuguese may be found in the capital city, Brasília, because of the generalized population from all parts of the country.
Portuguese dialects of Angola
[ | Tags:Portuguese Dialects,Pluricentric Language,Dialects,Brazilian Portuguese,European Portuguese,Brasília,Caipira,Minas Gerais, Angola |
Benguelense—Benguela province.
Luandense—Luanda province.
Sulista—South of Angola.
Huambense—Huambo province.
Dialects of Portuguese in Brazil
[ | Tags:Benguela,Luanda,Huambo, Brazil |
Caipira—States of São Paulo (countryside; the city of São Paulo and the eastern areas of the state have their own accent, called paulistano); southern Minas Gerais, northern Paraná, southeastern Mato Grosso do Sul.
Cearense—Ceará.
Baiano—Bahia.
Fluminense—Variants spoken in the states of Rio de Janeiro (excluding the city of Rio de Janeiro and its adjacent metropolitan areas, which have their own dialect, called carioca).
Gaúcho—Rio Grande do Sul. (There are many distinct accents in Rio Grande do Sul, mainly due to the heavy influx of European immigrants of diverse origins, who have settled in colonies throughout the state.)
Mineiro—Minas Gerais (not prevalent in the Triângulo Mineiro; includes southern and southeastern Minas Gerais; the city of Belo Horizonte has an accent of its own.).[citation needed]
Nordestino—northeastern states of Brazil (Pernambuco, Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte have a particular way of speaking).[33]
Nortista—Amazon Basin states.
Paulistano—Variants spoken around São Paulo city and some eastern areas of São Paulo state.
Sertanejo—States of Goiás and Mato Grosso.
Sulista—Variants spoken in the areas between the northern regions of Rio Grande do Sul and southern regions of São Paulo state. (The cities of Curitiba and Florianópolis have fairly distinct accents as well.)
Carioca—Variants spoken in Rio de Janeiro City and Niteroi.
Brasiliense—Variant only spoken in Brasília, due to many waves of immigration, attracted by the government in order to build Brasília.
Dialects of Portuguese in Portugal
[ | Tags:Citation Needed,Paraná,Mato Grosso Do Sul,Ceará,Bahia, Portugal |
Açoriano (Azorean)—Azores.
Alentejano—Alentejo (Alentejan Portuguese)
Algarvio—Algarve (there is a particular dialect in a small part of western Algarve).
Alto-Minhoto—North of Braga (hinterland).
Baixo-Beirão; Alto-Alentejano—Central Portugal (hinterland).
Beirão—Central Portugal.
Estremenho—Regions of Coimbra , Leiria and Lisbon (the Lisbon dialect has some peculiar features not shared with the one of Coimbra).
Madeirense (Madeiran)—Madeira.
Nortenho—Regions of Braga and Porto.
Transmontano—Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro.
Barranquenho—Barrancos.
Lisboeta—Lisboa.
[ | Tags: Other countries |
Cape Verde— Português cabo-verdiano (Cape Verdean Portuguese)
Daman and Diu, India—Damaense (Damanese Portuguese)
East Timor— Timorense (East Timorese Portuguese)
Goa, India—Goês (Goan Portuguese)
Guinea-Bissau— Guineense (Guinean Portuguese)
Macau— Macaense (Macanese Portuguese)
Mozambique— Moçambicano (Mozambican Portuguese)
São Tomé and Príncipe— Santomense (São Tomean Portuguese)
Uruguay—Dialectos Portugueses del Uruguay (DPU)
Differences between dialects are mostly of accent and vocabulary, but between the Brazilian dialects and other dialects, especially in their most colloquial forms, there can also be some grammatical differences. The Portuguese-based creoles spoken in various parts of Africa, Asia, and the Americas are independent languages that should not be confused with Portuguese.
[ | Tags:Americas,The Americas, History |
Main articles: Iberian Romance languages, Galician-Portuguese, and History of the Portuguese language
Baroque Library of the Coimbra University, Portugal.
Arriving in the Iberian Peninsula in 216 BC, the Romans brought with them the Latin language, from which all Romance languages descend. The language was spread by arriving Roman soldiers, settlers, and merchants, who built Roman cities mostly near the settlements of previous civilizations.
Medieval
Portuguese poetry
Das que vejo
nom desejo
outra senhor se vós nom,
e desejo
tam sobejo,
mataria um leon,
senhor do meu coraçom:
fim roseta,
bela sobre toda fror,
fim roseta,
nom me meta
em tal coita voss'amor!
João de Lobeira
(c. 1270–1330)
Between 409 and 711 AD, as the Roman Empire collapsed in Western Europe, the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Germanic peoples (Migration Period). The occupiers, mainly Suebi and Visigoths, quickly adopted late Roman culture and the Vulgar Latin dialects of the peninsula. After the Moorish invasion of 711, Arabic became the administrative language in the conquered regions, but most of the population continued to speak a form of Romance commonly known as Mozarabic. The influence exerted by Arabic on the Romance dialects spoken in the Christian kingdoms was small, affecting mainly their lexicon.
The earliest surviving records of a distinctively Portuguese language are administrative documents of the 9th century, still interspersed with many Latin phrases. Today this phase is known as Proto-Portuguese (between the 9th and the 12th centuries). In the first period of Old Portuguese—Galician-Portuguese Period (from the 12th to the 14th century)—the language gradually came into general use. For some time, it was the language of preference for lyric poetry in Christian Hispania, much as Occitan was the language of the poetry of the troubadours. Portugal became an independent kingdom from the Kingdom of Leon in 1139, under king Afonso I of Portugal. In 1290, king Denis of Portugal created the first Portuguese university in Lisbon (the Estudos Gerais, later moved to Coimbra) and decreed that Portuguese, then simply called the "common language" should be known as the Portuguese language and used officially.
In the second period of Old Portuguese, from the 14th to the 16th centuries, with the Portuguese discoveries, the language was taken to many regions of Asia, Africa and the Americas (nowadays, the great majority of Portuguese speakers live in Brazil, in South America). By the 16th century, it had become a lingua franca in Asia and Africa, used not only for colonial administration and trade but also for communication between local officials and Europeans of all nationalities. Its spread was helped by mixed marriages between Portuguese and local people, and by its association with Roman Catholic missionary efforts, which led to the formation of a creole language called Kristang in many parts of Asia (from the word cristão, "Christian"). The language continued to be popular in parts of Asia until the 19th century. Some Portuguese-speaking Christian communities in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Indonesia preserved their language even after they were isolated from Portugal.
The end of the Old Portuguese period was marked by the publication of the Cancioneiro Geral by Garcia de Resende, in 1516. The early times of Modern Portuguese, which spans a period from the 16th century to the present day, were characterized by an increase in the number of learned words borrowed from Classical Latin and Classical Greek since the Renaissance, which greatly enriched the lexicon.
[ | Tags:Romance,Galician-portuguese,Romance Language,Latin,Galicia,Lingua Franca,Sri Lanka, Characterization |
Map showing the historical retreat and expansion of Portuguese (Galician-Portuguese) within the context of its linguistic neighbours between the year | Tags: |