The Portuguese Studies page is permanently being developed.

Portuguese language

(Adapted from http://www.arthistoryclub.com/art_history/Portuguese_language)

Portuguese (Português) is a Romance language predominantly spoken in Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, and East Timor. Many linguists consider that Galician (galego), the native language of Galicia, is actually a variety of Portuguese that has been strongly influenced by Spanish. 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, with 184 million inhabitants (about 51% of South America‘s population), Portuguese is the most widely spoken language in South America and it is also one of the key languages in Africa.

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 various Portuguese Creole languages all over the world. It is an important minority language in Andorra, Luxembourg, Namibia, and Paraguay. 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“) or The sweet language (by Cervantes). Portuguese language speakers are known as Lusitanic or Lusophones (after the Roman name for the province of Lusitania).

Contents

1 History

2 Classification and related languages

3 Geographic distribution

3.1 Dialects

3.2 Creoles

4 Sounds

5 Grammar

6 Vocabulary

7 Writing system

7.1 Written varieties and Spelling Reform

7.2 Literature

History

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.

Arriving on the Iberian Peninsula in 218 BC, the Romans brought with them the Roman people’s language, Vulgar Latin, from which all Romance languages (also known as “New Latin Languages”) descend. Already in the 2nd century BC southern Lusitania was Romanized. Strabo, a 1st-century Greek geographer, comments in one book of his Geographia: “they have adopted the Roman customs, and they no longer remember their own language.” The language was spread by arriving Roman soldiers, settlers and merchants, who built Roman cities mostly near previous civilizations’ settlements.

Between 409 A.D. and 711, as the Roman Empire was collapsing, the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by peoples of Germanic origin, known by the Romans as Barbarians. The Barbarians (mainly Suevi and Visigoths) largely absorbed the Roman culture and language of the peninsula; however, since the Roman schools and administration were closed, Europe entered the Dark Ages and communities became isolated, the popular Latin language was left free to evolve on its own and the uniformity of the Peninsula was soon disrupted, leading to the formation of the “Lusitanian Romance”. From 711, with the Moorish invasion of the Peninsula, Arabic was adopted as the administrative language in the conquered regions. However, the population continued to speak their Romance dialects so that when the Moors were overthrown, the influence that they had exerted on the language was small. Its main effect was in the lexicon.

The earliest surviving records of a distinctively Portuguese language are administrative documents from the ninth century, still interspersed with many phrases in Latin. Today this phase is known as “Proto-Portuguese” (spoken in the period between the 9th to the 12th century).

Portugal became an independent country in 1143, with King Alfonso Henriques. In the first period of “Old Portuguese” – Portuguese-Galician Period (from 12th to the 14th century), the language came gradually into general use in the following centuries, after gaining popularity in the Christian Iberian Peninsula as a language for poetry. In 1290, king Denis created the first Portuguese University in Lisbon (the Estudo Geral) and decreed that Portuguese, then simply called the “Vulgar language” should be known as the “Portuguese language” and should be officially used.

In the second period of Old Portuguese, between the 14th and the 16th centuries, with the Portuguese discoveries, the Portuguese language spread to many regions of Asia, Africa and The Americas. Today most of the 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. The spread of the language was helped by mixed marriages between Portuguese and local people (also very common in other areas of the world) and its association with the Catholic missionary efforts, which led to its being called Cristão (“Christian“) in many places in Asia. The language continued to be popular there 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 language has largely changed in these communities and has evolved through the centuries into several Portuguese creoles, some still exist today, after hundreds of years in isolation. Also, a considerable number of words of Portuguese origin are found in Tetum. Portuguese words entered the lexicons of many other languages, such as Japanese, Indonesian, Malay, or Swahili.

The end of “Old Portuguese” was marked by the publication of the Cancioneiro Geral de Garcia de Resende, in 1516. The period of “Modern Portuguese” (from the 16th century to the present) saw an increase in the number of words of Classical Latin origin and erudite words of Greek origin borrowed into Portuguese during the Renaissance, which augmented the complexity of the language.

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 it has a very distinctive phonology. 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)

(This 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. This is especially true of French. Due to historic events, Portuguese has a closer affinity to French than Spanish has, despite the fact that Spain shares a border with France and Portugal does not. This is probably due to the Portuguese-French Atlantic sea trade, or French settling in Portugal during the Middle Ages. There are many examples of Portuguese words being closer to French than their Spanish equivalents, such as Portuguese “bom” (masculine word for good) and “rua” (street), with French “bon” and “rue”, respectively, as opposed to “bueno” and “calle” in Spanish. European Portuguese has even more French influence than Brazilian Portuguese due to the Napoleonic dominion in Lisbon from 1807-1812, and cultural influences after that. Examples include “berma” (roadway shoulder) from French “berme”. In Brazil, the respective word is “acostamento”. Portuguese phonology shares many similarities with the French one, especially European Portuguese. Nevertheless, Portuguese is closer to Spanish 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

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 Macao S.A.R. of China (with Chinese). It is widely spoken, but not official, in Andorra, Luxembourg, Namibia and Paraguay. Portuguese Creoles are the mother tongue of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau‘s population.

Portuguese is spoken by about 187 million people in South America, 16 million Africans, 12 million Europeans, two million in North America and 0.34 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 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. The Portuguese language is gaining popularity in Africa, Asia, and South America as a second language for study.

Dialects

Portuguese is a very rich language in terms of dialects, each with its particularity. Most of the differentiation between them is the pronunciation of certain vowels. Between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese, there are differences in vocabulary, pronunciation and syntax, especially in popular varieties. The dialect of Piauí, in northeastern Brazil is closest dialect to European Portuguese in Brazil. Other very close dialects are the ones of Belém and Rio de Janeiro. 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 standard European and Angolan Portuguese. Coimbra Portuguese is considered the most standardized Portuguese dialect.

Some apparent differences between the two varieties in lexicon are not really differences. In Brazil, the common term for carpet is tapete, while in Portugal it is 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 a 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).

Bus

• Angola: machimbombo

• Brazil: ônibus

• Portugal: autocarro

Slum quarter

• Angola: musseque

• Brazil: favela

• Portugal: bairro de lata or ilha

Go away

• Angola: bazar, ir embora

• Brazil: ir embora, (or vazar as a slang – Portuguese “to leak”);

• Portugal: ir embora, (or bazar as a slang – from Kimbundu kubaza – to break, leave with rush);

Major Portuguese dialects:

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 — 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 — 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. Sertanejo — States of Goiás and Mato Grosso

11. Sulista — south of Brazil

Portugal

1. Açoriano — Azores

2. Alentejano — Alentejo

3. Algarvio — Algarve (there is a particular small dialect in the western area)

4. Alto-Minhoto — North of Braga (interior)

5. Baixo-Beirão; Alto-Alentejano — Central Portugal (interior)

6. Beirão — central Portugal

7. Estremenho — Regions of Coimbra and Lisbon (can be subdivided in Lisbon Portuguese and Coimbra Portuguese)

8. Madeirense — Madeira

9. Nortenho — Regions of Braga and Porto

10. Transmontano — Trás-os-Montes

Angola

1. Benguelense — Benguela province

2. Luandense — Luanda province

3. Sulista — South of Angola

Other areas

• Caboverdiano — Cape Verde

• Guineense — Guinea-Bissau

• Macaense — Macau, China

• Moçambicano — Mozambique

• Santomense — São Tomé and Principe

• Timorense — East Timor

• Damaense — Daman, India

• Goês — State of Goa, India

Creoles

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. About three 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 de São Vicente (the Creole of São Vicente, of Barlavento group, kept very close to Portuguese and a decreolization process occurs between younger people, its linguistic status is subject of debate.)

• Crioulo do Sotavento (Kriolu)

Equatorial Guinea:

• Annobonnese

Guinea-Bissau and Senegal:

• Upper Guinea Creole (Crioulo da Guiné, Kriol)

India:

• Korlay Indo-Portuguese (Kristi)

• Daman Indo-Portuguese

• Diu Indo-Portuguese (near extinction)

Macau, China:

• Macanese

Malaysia and Singapore:

• Cristao (Papiá Kristang)

Netherlands Antilles and Aruba:

• Papiamento

São Tomé and Principe:

• Angolar

• Forro

• Lunguyê (near extinction)

Sri Lanka:

• Sri Lanka Indo-Portuguese

Suriname:

• Saramacano

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

Sounds

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.

Vowels

Nasal vowels

Semi-vowels

Diphthongs

In addition, there are two classes of Diphthongs in Portuguese: The “Oral Diphtongs “: ai [aj], ei [ɐj] (Lisbon only) or [ej], éi [ɛj], oi [oj], ói [ɔj], ui [uj], au ao [aw], eu [ew], éu [ɛw], ou [ow] (Northern Portugal/ few areas in Brazil only) and iu [iw]. And, the “Nasal Diphthongs “: ãe ãi [ɐ̃j], em en(s) [ẽj̃], õe [õj̃], ui [ũj̃] and ão (tonic verbal forms) am (atonic verbal forms) [ɐ̃w̃].

Consonants