Portuguese language

Portuguese
português
Pronunciation[puɾtuˈɣeʃ] / [poʁtuˈɡe(j)s]
Native toPortugal, Brazil, Lusophone Africa, other locations in the Portuguese-speaking world, a few towns in Spain[1]
SpeakersL1: 250 million (2012–2022)[2]
L2: 17 million (2022)[3]
Total: 267 million (2012–2022)[4]
Early forms
Manually coded Portuguese
Official status
Official language in
Recognised minority
language in
Regulated by
Language codes
ISO 639-1pt
ISO 639-2por
ISO 639-3por
Glottologport1283
Linguasphere51-AAA-a
  Countries or regions where Portuguese is the native language of the majority > 50%
  Countries and territories where Portuguese is an official or administrative language but not a majority native language < 50%
  Countries and territories where Portuguese is a cultural or secondary language
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Portuguese (endonym: português or língua portuguesa) is a Western Romance language of the Indo-European language family originating from the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is spoken chiefly in Brazil, Portugal, and several countries in Africa, as well as by immigrants in North America, Europe, and South America. With approximately 267 million speakers, it is listed as the fifth-most spoken native language.

Portuguese-speaking people or nations are known as Lusophone (lusófono). As the result of expansion during colonial times, a cultural presence of Portuguese speakers is also found around the world. Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia and the County of Portugal, and has kept some Celtic phonology.[9][10]

There is significant variation in dialects of Portuguese worldwide, with two primary standardized varieties: European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, each one having numerous regional accents and subdialects. African and Asian varieties generally follow the European written standard, though they often have different phonological, lexical, and sometimes syntactic features. While there is broad mutual intelligibility among varieties, variation is seen mostly in speech patterns and vocabulary, with some regional differences in grammar.

Portuguese language structure reflects its Latin roots and centuries of outside influences. These are seen in phonology, orthography, grammar, and vocabulary. Phonologically, Portuguese has a rich system of nasal vowels, complex consonant variations, and different types of guttural R and other sounds in European and Brazilian varieties. Its spelling, based like English on the Latin alphabet, is largely phonemic but is influenced by etymology and tradition. Recent spelling reforms attempted to create a unified spelling for the Portuguese language across all countries that use it. Portuguese grammar retains many Latin verb forms and has some unique features such as the future subjunctive and the personal infinitive. The vocabulary is derived mostly from Latin but also includes numerous loanwords from Celtic, Germanic, Arabic, African, Amerindian, and Asian languages, resulting from historical contact including wars, trade, and colonization.

  1. ^ Portuguese language at Ethnologue (28th ed., 2025) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Portuguese language at Ethnologue (28th ed., 2025) Closed access icon
  3. ^ Portuguese language at Ethnologue (28th ed., 2025) Closed access icon
  4. ^ Portuguese language at Ethnologue (28th ed., 2025) Closed access icon
  5. ^ "Continúan los actos del Día de la Lengua Portuguesa y la Cultura Lusófona" [Acts continue to mark Portuguese Language and Portuguese Culture Day]. Government of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea. 10 May 2016. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
  6. ^ Gutiérrez Bottaro, Silvia Etel (2014). "El portugués uruguayo y las marcas de la oralidad en la poesía del escritor uruguayo Agustín R. Bisio" [Uruguayan Portuguese and oral marks in the poetry of Uruguayan writer Agustín R. Bisio] (PDF). Abehache (in Spanish). 4 (6). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 August 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  7. ^ "Historia lingüística del Uruguay". historiadelaslenguasenuruguay.edu.uy. Archived from the original on 5 April 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  8. ^ Fernández Aguerre, Tabaré; González Bruzzese, Mahira; Rodriguez Ingold, Cecilia (2017). Algunas notas teórico metodológicas sobre la relación entre regiones y aprendizajes en Uruguay [Some theoretical methodological notes on the relationship between regions and learning in Uruguay]. XVI Jornadas de Investigación : la excepcionalidad uruguaya en debate: ¿como el Uruguay no hay? (in Spanish). pp. 11–15. hdl:20.500.12008/10776. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  9. ^ "The Origin and Formation of The Portuguese Language". Judeo-Lusitanica. Duke University. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  10. ^ Bittencourt de Oliveira, João. "Breves considerações sobre o legado das línguas célticas". filologia.org.br. Archived from the original on 21 June 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2016.

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