Portuguese Language - Definition and Overview

Portuguese (português) is a Romance language predominantly spoken in Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, and East Timor. With more than 200 million native speakers, Portuguese is one of the few languages spoken in such widely-distributed parts of the world, and is the fifth or sixth most-spoken first language in the world. Since Brazil has about 51% of South America's population, Portuguese is the most widely spoken language in South America.

The language was spread worldwide in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as Portugal created the first and the longest lived modern-world colonial and commercial empire (1415–1975), spanning from Brazil in the Americas to Macau in China. As a result, Portuguese is now the official language of several independent countries and is widely spoken or studied as a second language in many others. There are still more than 20 Portuguese Creole languages. It is an important minority language in Andorra, Luxembourg and Namibia. Large Portuguese-speaking immigrant communities exist in many cities around the world, including Paris in France and Boston, New Bedford, Cape Cod, and Newark in the United States.

Portuguese is nicknamed A língua de Camões ("The language of Camões", after Luís de Camões, the author of The Lusiad); A última flor do Lácio ("The last flower of Latium"). Portuguese language speakers are known as Lusitanic or Lusophones.

History

Main article: History of the Portuguese language

Ajuda Library, created in the 15th century as "Royal Library". Mother of the Portuguese and Brazilian National Libraries. (courtesy IPPAR)

Portuguese developed in the Western Iberian Peninsula from the spoken Latin language brought there by Roman soldiers and colonists starting in the 3rd century BC. The language began to differentiate itself from other Romance languages after the fall of the Roman Empire and the barbarian invasions in the 5th century. It started to be used in written documents around the 9th century, and by the 15th century it had become a mature language with a rich literature.

Classification and related languages

Indo-European - Italic - Romance - Italo-Western - Western - Gallo-Iberian - Ibero-Romance - West-Iberian - Portuguese-Galician

Portuguese is orthographically similar in many ways to Spanish, but is very different in speech. A speaker of one may require some practice to effectively understand a speaker of the other. Compare, for example:

Ela fecha sempre a janela antes de jantar. (Portuguese)

Ella cierra siempre la ventana antes de cenar. (Spanish)

Some less common phrasings and word choices have closer cognates in Spanish:

Ela encerra sempre a janela antes de cear. (less common Portuguese)

(Which translates as "She always closes the window before having dinner.")

In some places, Spanish and Portuguese are spoken almost interchangeably. Portuguese speakers are generally able to read Spanish, and Spanish speakers are generally able to read Portuguese, even if they cannot understand the spoken language.

Portuguese also has significant similarities with Mirandese, Catalan, Italian, French and with other Romance languages. Interestingly, French is more closely related to Portuguese than it is to Spanish, even though Spain has a common boundary with France, while Portugal does not. This was probably due to the Portuguese-French Atlantic sea trade, while any exchange between France and Spain was hindered by the Pyrenees mountains and the totally unrelated Basque language. There are many example of Portuguese words being closer to French than Spanish, such as Portuguese "bom" ("good", masculine), and French "bon," but the somewhat different "buen" in Spanish. Overall, though, Portuguese and Spanish are more similar to each other than to French.

Speakers of other Romance languages may find a peculiarity in the conjugating of certain apparently infinitive verbs. In particular, when constructing a future tense or conditional tense expression involving an indirect object pronoun, the pronoun is placed between the verb stem and the verb ending. For example, Dupondt said trazer-vos-emos o vosso ceptro. Translating as literally as possible, this is "bring (stem)-to you (formal)-we (future) the your scepter". In English we would say, "We will bring you your scepter." The form Nós vos traremos o vosso ceptro. is also correct, used mainly in spoken Portuguese, while the first form is preferred for written Portuguese.

Geographic distribution

Main article: Geographic distribution of the Portuguese language

Portuguese is the first language in Angola, Brazil, Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe, and the most widely used language in Mozambique.

Portuguese is also one of the official languages of East Timor (with Tetum) and Macau (with Chinese). It is widely spoken, but not official, in Andorra, Luxembourg and Namibia. Portuguese Creoles are the mother tongue of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau's population.

Portuguese is spoken by 182 million people in South America, 16 million Africans, 11 million Europeans, 2 million in North America and 0.2 million in Asia. The table "Portuguese language countries and territories" includes countries where the Portuguese language is official and while not official, where it is spoken by more than 1% of the population. The data are based on projections made by local governments, public institutes, associations and language official census (Angola — 1983; Mozambique — 1997).

The CPLP or Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries is an international organization consisting of the eight independent countries which have Portuguese as an official language. Portuguese is also an official language of the European Union, Mercosul and the African Union (one of the working languages) and one of the official languages of other organizations. Except for the Asian territories (East Timor and Macau), Portuguese is the sole official language in each country.

Dialects

Main article: Portuguese dialects

Portuguese is a very rich language in terms of dialects, each with its particularity. Most of the differenciation between them are the pronunciation of certain vowels. Between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese, there are differences in vocabulary, pronunciation and syntax, especially in popular varieties, while between educated Brazilians and Portuguese these differences are reduced. There are several similarities in pronunciation, syntax and simplification in grammar use between vernacular Brazilian Portuguese and vernacular Angolan Portuguese. But there are no differences between cultivated European and Angolan Portuguese.

Some apparent differences between the two varieties in lexicon are not really differences. In Brazil, the common term for carpet is tapete. And, in Portugal, alcatifa. However, many dialectal zones in Portugal use tapete and other areas in Brazil use alcatifa. This applies in several such apparent differences, except in the new terms, such as ônibus in Brazil, which is autocarro in Portugal. A conversation between an Angolan, a Brazilian and a Portuguese from very rural areas flows very easily. The most exotic Portuguese dialect is vernacular São Tomean Portuguese, because of the interaction with local Portuguese Creoles, but even with this one there are no difficulties when talking to another person from another country.

Examples of words that are different in Portuguese dialects from three different continents Angola (Africa), Portugal (Europe) and Brazil (South America).

Go away

• Angola: bazar, ir embora
• Brazil: ir embora, (or "vazar" as a slang);
• Portugal: ir embora, (or bazar among teenagers);

Bus

• Angola: machimbombo
• Brazil: ônibus
• Portugal: autocarro

slum quarter

• Angola: muceque
• Brazil: favela
• Portugal: bairro de lata or ilha

Major Portuguese dialects:

Portuguese dialects of Brazil

Brazil

1. Caipira — Countryside of São Paulo - Piraquara — caipira from Vale do Paraíba (São Paulo (state) / Minas Gerais)
2. Cearense — Ceará
3. Baiano — Region of Bahia
4. Fluminense (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som90.html)) — States of Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo (the city of Rio de Janeiro has a particular way of speaking)
5. Gaúcho — Rio Grande do Sul
6. Mineiro — Minas Gerais
7. Nordestino (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som91.html)) — northeastern states of Brazil (the interior area and Recife have particular ways of speaking)
8. Nortista — Amazon Basin states
9. Paulistano — city of São Paulo
10. Sertão — States of Goiás and Mato Grosso
11. Sulista — south of Brazil

Portuguese dialects of Portugal

Portugal

1. Açoriano (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som69.html)) — Azores
2. Alentejano (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som40.html)) — Alentejo
3. Algarvio (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som44.html)) — Algarve (there is a particular small dialect in the western area)
4. Alto-Minhoto (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som1.html)) — North of Braga (interior)
5. Baixo-Beirão; Alto-Alentejano (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som49.html)) — Central Portugal (interior)
6. Beirão (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som9.html)) — central Portugal
7. Estremenho (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som22.html)) — Regions of Coimbra and Lisbon (can be subdivided in Lisbon Portuguese and Coimbra Portuguese)
8. Madeirense (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som60.html)) — Madeira
9. Nortenho (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som14.html)) — Regions of Braga and Porto
10. Transmontano (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som6.html)) Trás-os-Montes

Angola

1. Benguelense — Benguela province
2. Luandense (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som85.html)) — Luanda province
3. Sulista — South of Angola

Portuguese dialects of Angola

Other areas

• Caboverdiano (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som87.html)) — Cape Verde
• Guineense (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som88.html)) — Guinea-Bissau
• Macaense (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som92.html)) — Macau, China
• Moçambicano (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som89.html)) — Mozambique
• Santomense (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som83.html)) — São Tomé and Principe
• Timorense (listen (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/hlp/geografia/som84.html)) — East Timor
• Damaense — Daman, India
• Goês — State of Goa, India

Derived languages

Main article: Portuguese Creole

Portugal in the period of discoveries and colonization created a linguistic contact with native languages and people of the discovered lands and thus pidgins were formed. Until the 18th century, these Portuguese pidgins were used as Lingua Franca in Asia and Africa. Later, the Portuguese pidgins were expanded grammatically and lexically, as it became a native language. Circa 3 million people worldwide speak a Portuguese Creole. These creoles are spoken, mostly, by inter-racial communities (Portuguese people with natives).

Cape Verde:

• Crioulo do Barlavento (Criol)
• Crioulo do Sotavento (Kriolu)

Equatorial Guinea:

• Annobonnese

Guinea-Bissau and Senegal:

• Upper Guinea Creole (Crioulo, Kriol)

India and Sri Lanka:

• Indo-Portuguese (living varieties: Burgher, Diu, Língua da Casa and Kristi)

RAE Macau, China:

• Macaista

Malaysia and Singapore:

• Papiá Kristang

Netherlands Antilles and Aruba:

• Papiamento

São Tomé and Principe:

• Angolar
• Forro
• Lunguyê

Suriname:

• Saramacano

In the past, Portuguese creoles were also spoken in India (several other areas), Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia (other areas) and China (other areas) and possibly in Brazil.

Sounds

Main article: Portuguese phonology

The Portuguese language is particularly interesting to linguists because of the complexity of its phonetic structure. The language contains 9 vowels, 5 nasal vowels and 25 consonantal sounds. Also, Portuguese is a "free accentuation language", as distinct pronunciation exists even in the same dialect.

Grammar

Main article: Portuguese grammar

Verbs are divided into three conjugations, which can be identified by looking at the infinitive ending, one of "-ar", "-er", "-ir" (and "-or", irregular verbs). Most verbs ends with "-ar", such as cantar (to sing). All verbs with the same ending follow the same pattern.

In Portuguese, verbs are divided into moods:

• Imperative. Used to express a wish, command or advice
• Indicative. Used to express a fact
• Subjunctive. Used to express a wish or a possibility

All Portuguese nouns have one of two genders: masculine or inclusive and feminine or exclusive. Most adjectives and pronouns, and all articles indicate the gender of the noun they reference. The feminine gender in adjectives is formed in a different way from that in nouns. Most adjectives ending in a consonant remain unchanged: homem superior (superior man), mulher superior (superior woman). This is also true for adjectives ending in "e": homem forte (strong man), mulher forte (strong woman). Except for this, the noun and the adjective must always be in agreement.

See also: Portuguese pronouns, Portuguese verb conjugation

Vocabulary

Main article: Portuguese vocabulary

Portuguese, both in morphology and syntax, represents an organic transformation of Latin without the direct intervention of any foreign language. The sounds, grammatical forms, and syntactical types, with a few exceptions, are derived from Latin. And almost 90% of the vocabulary is still derived from the language of Rome. Some of the changes began during the Empire, others took place later. Since Portuguese was reinfluenced by it (reinfluence represented with 1), many original words are still familiar to Portuguese speakers.

Nasalization — A vowel before [m] and [n] has a tendency to become a nasal vowel; this occurs in many languages. In the case of Portuguese, it happened between the sixth and seventh centuries. This change sharply distinguishes Portuguese from Spanish, in which it did not occur.

• LVNA > l[ũ]a > Lua (moon).

Palatalization — Another assimilation occurs before the high vowels [i] and [e], or near the semi-vowel, or palatal [j].

• CENTV > [tj]ento > [ts]ento > cento, (hundred)
• FACERE > fa[tj]ere > fa[ts]er > fa[dz]er > fazer, (to do)
• A more ancient evolution was FORTIA > for[ts]a > força (strength)

Elision — Simultaneous influence in a consonant by vowels, occurring in a syntagmatic chain.

• DOLORE > door > dor (pain) — dolorido¹ (in pain)
• BONV > bõo > bom, (good)
• ANELLV > ãelo > elo (Ring) — Anel¹ (hand ring)

Voicing — some consonants did not disappear but rather evolved with voiceless stops becoming voiced stops and voiced stops becoming voiced fricatives in certain positions:

• MVTV > mudo (deaf)
• LACV > lago (lake)
• FABA > fava (broadbean)

Simplification of consonant clusters, especially doubled consonants, occurred:

• GVTTA > gota (drop)
• PECCARE > pecar (to sin)

Dissimilation — Modification of a sound by the influence of neighbouring sounds.

• Dissimilation between vowels:
  • LOCVSTA > lagosta (lobster)
  • CAMPANA > campãa > campa (tomb)
• Dissimilation between consonants:
  • MEMORARE > nembrar > lembrar (to remember) — Memorizar¹ (to memorize)
  • ANIMA > alma (soul) — Animado¹ (livened up)
  • LOCALE > logar > lugar (place) — local¹ (place)

Some other alterations were semi-vowel metathesis: PRIMARIV becomes primeiro (Eng. first); consonant metathesis in [l] and [r] are rare in Portuguese (e.g. TENEBRAS > teevras > trevas, Eng. darkness); and epenthesis, where there is not a total assimilation by adding new sounds. Such as for wine: Vulgar Latin: VINO, medieval Portuguese Vi~o, Modern Portuguese (since 14th or 15th centuries): Vinho. Another specially relevant shift was the loss of the intervocalic /l/ in a very large set of words, already described in the list above as an example of "elision" → e.g: SALIRE > sair; COLARE > coar; NOTVLA > nódoa, with the typical portuguese voicing of /t/ in /d/ (AMATVS > amado). Fewer words remaned unchanged, such as Taberna (tavern).

Very few traces of the native or pre-Roman settlers like the Phoenicians, Carthaginians or Celts lexicon persist in the language, but there are some exceptions, such as Abóbora (pumpkin) and Bezerro (year-old calf) from Iberian languages or Cerveja (beer) and Saco (bag) from Celtic and Phoenician, respectively.

Post-Roman influences, before the Discovery age, were also small. The Germanic influence in Portuguese was restricted to warfare and related topics, such has Barão (baron) from Germanic baro or Guerra (war) from Gothic *wirro. The influence also exists in placenames such has Ermesinde and Esposende, where sinde and sende are derived from the Germanic "sinths" (military expedition). Projections indicate 1000 Arabic loan words. In old Portuguese this represented 25% of the used lexicon, today its importance has decreased as the language became richer and reinfluenced by Greek, Latin and other languages. Such words include Aldeia (village) from aldaya, Alface (lettuce) from alkhass, Armazém (warehouse) from almahazan, Azeite (olive oil) from azzait and most words starting with "al". The Portuguese town Fátima, where the Virgin Mary is believed by some Catholics to have appeared, is originally an Arabic female name.

With the Portuguese discoveries linguistic contact was made, and the Portuguese language became influenced by other languages other than European or Arabic. Many placenames and local animals have Amerindian names in Brazil, in Angola and Mozambique, the same occurring with the local Bantu languages. These influences are also small even in the local variations of Portuguese in Brazil and Africa.

Asian:

• Catana (cutlass) from Japanese Katana
• Chá (Tea), from Chinese cha
• Corja (rabble) from Malay kórchchu
• Ramarrão (routinous sound), from Hindu Ráma-Ráma

Amerindian:

• Ananás (a pineapple species) from Tupi-Guarani naná
• Abacaxi (another pineapple species) from Tupi ibá + cati
• Jaguar (jaguar) from Tupi-Guarani jaguara
• Tucano (toucan) from Guarani tucan

Sub-saharan Africa:

• Bungular (to dance like African wizards) from Kimbundu kubungula
• Chimpanzé (chimpanzee) from Bantu
• Cabiri (small domestic animal) from Kimbundu kabiribiri
• Cafuné (affections made in the head) from Kimbundu kifumate

Writing system

Main article: Portuguese alphabet

Portuguese is written using the Latin alphabet with 26 letters. Three of them (K, W and Y) are only used for non-Portuguese origin words, in terms like darwinismo (Darwinism, from English "Darwin"). It uses ç and acute, grave, circumflex and tilde accents over vowels, as well as, in some forms and only in Brazil, diaeresis on a U as in lingüística (Linguistics, linguística is used in the rest of the Portuguese speaking nations).

Written varieties and Spelling Reform

As of 2005, Portuguese has two written varieties, but Portuguese speakers prefer to call them padrões (Eng. "standards"):

• European and African Portuguese
• Brazilian Portuguese

In Brazil most first 'c's in 'cc', 'cç' or 'ct'; and 'p's in 'pc', 'pç' or 'pt' were eliminated from the language, since they are not pronounced in the cultivated spoken language, but are remnants from the language's Latin origin (though some continue to exist in cultivated Brazilian Portuguese, others in European Portuguese). An example is "facto" (in Portugal) and "fato" (in Brazil), both meaning fact -- one of the rare words that will continue to be accepted and is pronounced differently in both countries.

Also, there are differences in accent marks, due to:

1. Different pronunciation: Brazil uses closed vowels in words such as "Antônio" (Anthony) or "anônimo" (anonymous), whereas Portugal and Africa use open ones, "António" or "anónimo", respectively.
2. Easier reading: Because "qu" can be read in two different ways in Portuguese: "kw" or "k", Brazil decided to facilitate it, using the diaeresis (called 'trema' in Portuguese). Insted of "cinquenta" they write "cinqüenta".

A 1990 Spelling Reform (Port. Reforma Ortográfica), intended to create an International Portuguese Standard, was ratified by Brazil, Cape Verde, and Portugal. East Timor, not an original subscriber, will ratify shortly along with Guinea-Bissau. Brazil and East Timor were the biggest supporters of the reform and pressured the CPLP for a fast implementation, but the implementation date has not yet been set. In East Timor, both orthographies are currently being taught to children.

At first, the Agreement established that its entrance into practice would only occur when all the countries of the CPLP had ratified it. But the Portuguese-speaking African countries have not ratified, possibly due to problems in implementing it. In the CPLP’s summit of 26–27 July 2004, an adjustment will prompt implementation when just three countries ractify it. The agreement will eliminate most first 'c's in 'cc', 'cç' or 'ct'; and 'p's in 'pc', 'pç' or 'pt' from European Portuguese, the dieresis and accent marks in words ending in "éia" in Brazil and add some new spelling rules. And it will allow either orthography for words like anónimo or anônimo, depending on the dialect of the author or person being transcribed. Late in October 2004, Brazil became the first to approve the adjustment and asked its ambassors in Portugal and Cape Verde to promote the rapid implementation in those countries. The agreement will enter into practice in the first day of the next month when the third country ractifies it. One aim of this reform is to promote the language internationally, just like the spelling reforms of Spanish by the Real Academia Española in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries helped to promote the Spanish language. Because Portuguese has more than one standard orthography, the language is not very popular internationally, even if it is the third-most-spoken Western language in the world, after English and Spanish. Even if today's orthographies do not harm intelligibility between native speakers, the orthography of one country is considered incorrect in the other, leading to two different translations of the same book or software written in another language. Another objective is Brazil's aid to Portugal in education for the Portuguese speaking African countries. Another agreement was made for the new words that will come into the language.

Literature

To English speakers, the most famous writer in the Portuguese language is the poet Luís Vaz de Camoes or Luís Vaz Camoens (1524–1580), author of the epic poem, the Lusiad.

Several other authors and poets are also internationally known, such as: Eça de Queirós (1845–1900), one of the most famous Portuguese language novelists; Fernando Pessoa (1888—1935), one of the greatest poets in the history of the language; Jorge Amado (1912—2001), a popular novelist; Paulo Coelho (born 1947), an internationally bestselling novelist; and José Saramago (born 1922) who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998.

See also: Camoens Prize

Examples

There is a Portuguese Wikipedia

PT. - Pronunciation of Portugal (Coimbra & Lisbon)

BR. - Pronunciation of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

See also

• List of tongue-twisters
• English as she is spoke
• Portuguese in the United States
• saudade — One of the ten non-English words that were voted hardest to translate in June 2004 by a British translation company
• [[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papi%E1_Kristang)]Papia Kristang

Notes

• [1] First and Second with first language speakers, respectively. Only counting figures from countries in the table "Portuguese language countries and Territories". Considering second language speakers those people who are bilingual and use Portuguese as a second language.

• [2] A Fala is not recognized by the Spanish authorities to be a Portuguese dialect, although there have been attempts to consider it Galician, but the locals do not want to use the Galician orthography. A Fala differs very little from the neighbouring Portuguese dialect on the other side of the border, but it will probably be recognized (if it will be) as a separate language.

External links

• Ethnologue report for Portuguese (http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=POR)
• Instituto Camões (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/) Portuguese language and culture (Portuguese)
• Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa (http://ciberduvidas.sapo.pt/) Popular transnational website for doubts in the Portuguese language for native speakers (Portuguese)
• Portuguese dictionary (http://www.priberam.pt/dlpo/dlpo.aspx) A very complete Portuguese dictionary (Portuguese)
• All free Portuguese dictionaries (http://www.fdicts.com/dictlist1.php?k1=77)
• Dictionary of Vernacular Portuguese of Portugal, Brazil and Angola (http://natura.di.uminho.pt/~jj/pln/calao/dicionario.pdf)
• Short Portuguese Lessons (http://alfarrabio.um.geira.pt/spl/)
• Portuguese language phonetics (http://ciberduvidas.sapo.pt/php/resposta.php?id=11557)
• Pronunciation guide (http://199.33.141.196/courses/idm2002/leung/oportugues/intro/pronunciation.html)
• Euro 2004: Soccer Vocabulary (http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/euro2004/futindex.html) Vocabulary and pronunciation in Lisbon Portuguese in ten languages
• Introduction to Brazilian Portuguese (http://www.saunalahti.fi/~huuhilo/portuguese/)
• Portuguese Language Courses (http://www.orbislingua.com/eag.htm)
• Biblioteca Nacional (http://www.bn.pt) National Library of Portugal
• Biblioteca Nacional (http://www.bn.br) National Library of Brazil

Wikipedia articles written in this language are located at the

Portuguese language Wikipedia