Portuguese Language

Portuguese, also português or língua portuguesa, is a Romance language which originated in Portugal. Like all Romance languages, Portuguese originated from Latin, and the first known use of a distinct Portuguese was around 900 AD.^[1] Portuguese is widely spoken in Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Cape Verde, and Brazil. It has about 230 million speakers worldwide, making it the seventh most widely spoken language in the world.^[2]

Portuguese is closely related to Spanish; it looks similar on the page but sounds very different. Portuguese has more vowel sounds than Spanish. Portuguese speakers can easily understand Spanish, but Spanish speakers usually have a hard time speaking or understanding Portuguese. There are also differences in vocabulary and pronunciation between European and South American Portuguese, much as there are between American English and British English.

References[edit]

1. ↑ http://www.linguata.com/portuguese/History_of_Portuguese.html
2. ↑ A lingua portuguesa (in Portuguese)