What language is spoken in Portugal? Portuguese language The country where the official language is Portuguese.

From the farthest corner of the Iberian Peninsula, Portuguese spread very far and wide with the help of the ships of this maritime empire. On the way to the Far East, Portuguese naves (ships) established trading posts and forts on the shores of Africa, in India (Goa), China (Macau) and strategically important sea routes (Cape Verde, East Timor). Since 90% of the sailors died on every trip, there was not a large relocation of residents. In the immediate vicinity, Portugal settled in the Azores and Madeira, these territories have their own dialects, and the islands were an important bridge for further expansion. However, Brazil was the real revolution in the Portuguese conquests. It became a melting pot in which the genes of Indians, Portuguese and, thanks to the ruthless slave trade, of Africans were mixed. In this process, the Portuguese language, European diseases and the Bandeirat captains hunting the Indians destroyed thousands of Indian languages, meeting only one serious contender - the language based on the languages ​​of the Lingua Geral Indians, which was widely used in the Amazon Basin. Today the majority of Portuguese speakers are Brazilians, and where printing presses were once banned by royal decree, telenovela soap operas have now reversed the flow of cultural exchange between Portugal and its former colony.

Portugal is located in the very west of the Iberian Peninsula. Its official history goes back over 900 years. Portugal is considered one of the oldest countries in the world that managed to keep its borders unchanged. She has only one neighbor, with borders in the north and east. In other directions, Portugal is washed by the Atlantic Ocean. This country is visited annually by tourists who enjoy all the opportunities provided by the holiday. Many of them choose to travel to Madeira to fully enjoy the constantly warm climate, or to the Azores. For most of those who go to this country for the first time, it is very important to know what language is spoken in Portugal.

At the beginning of the 8th century, the Arabs and Berbers, who were called the Moors, invaded the Iberian Peninsula. Part of the population went to the north, thereby keeping their language and dialect pure. And the rest obeyed the Arabs and changed the official language to the language of the conquerors. Such people were bilingual and were called Mozarabs, that is, "subordinate to the Arabs." Thanks to them, not only Portuguese, but also the Arabic language was enriched with new words. The Arabic words that entered the Portuguese language mainly denoted new objects and concepts and were nouns.

Since the 15th century, the country began to discover previously unknown lands. In world history, this time is known as the "Age of Discovery". Portugal paved the sea route to mysterious India, made part of the African states and regions its colonies, as well as Brazil in South America and other islands, even Macau, now a special administrative region of China. Of course, such an active policy of seizing new territories could not do without the spread of Portuguese as the main language for all colonies. Therefore, it is considered official for countries such as Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde and other small countries and individual regions.

Features of the Portuguese language

Portuguese belongs to the languages ​​of the Romance group of the Indo-European family. More precisely, to the Ibero-Romanesque subgroup. Portugal has a writing system based on the Latin alphabet, which is currently one of the most widespread, in terms of the number of speakers it steadily holds 6-8 place in the world. More than 200 million people speak it. All people who speak this language, consider it their native language or define it as official in their country and are able to communicate in it, are united by a single term - luzophones. The word comes from the name of the Roman province of Lusitania, located in ancient times on the territory of Portugal. All territories of Portuguese-speaking countries and regions are usually called lusophonia.

The Portuguese language is considered pluricentric. It is spoken in several independent states and communities, and each of them individually develops its own norms. But Portugal and Brazil differ in their variants of Portuguese. Moreover, there is a noticeable tendency for the European version to approach the Brazilian one, and the Portuguese language is monocentrized. There are also creolized versions of Portuguese, which are spoken in parts of Africa and Asia.

The closest to Portuguese is the modern Galician language, from which it originated. Galicia is the most northwestern autonomous region of Spain. Another very close language is Spanish. However, the composition of vowels, among which there are open and closed, brings it closer to French and Catalan (the language version of Spanish).

Interestingly, in 2008, the Portuguese parliament decided to change the spelling to approximate the Brazilian version of the Portuguese language, since its rules were closer to the real pronunciation of words and phraseological phrases.

For tourists and guests of the country, it will be interesting to know that the inhabitants of Portugal, in addition to their native language, are fluent in English, French and, of course, Spanish. Moreover, often Spanish-speaking personnel are involved in hotel maintenance, and English-speaking personnel in the capital and other large cities. In a number of areas adjacent to Spain, many Portuguese can speak Spanish fluently, and almost everyone understands it. But the Spaniards find it much more difficult to learn the language of their western neighbor. Residents of the Azores speak English at a good level, and its knowledge is typical for people of all ages. In addition to Portuguese, the country has another official language - Miranda. It is customary to speak it in Miranda do Douro and the surrounding areas. In order to understand what language is spoken in Portugal, one must also remember that on January 1, 1986, the country joined the European Union, and in 2002 the euro was approved as the currency. All these factors have significantly influenced the life of the Portuguese, the influx of tourists has increased, and in connection with this, communication with people who have come from all over the world.

The Portuguese language belongs to the Romance group, which is part of the Indo-European language family. The writing of the language is based on the use of symbols of the Latin alphabet.

Portuguese emerged from the Galician-Portuguese language and today is the second Romance language in terms of the number of people speaking it, after the neighboring Spanish, in addition, Portuguese is consistently among the ten most spoken languages ​​in the world, ranking 6-8 according to various sources. Nowadays, a total of more than 230 million people in the world speak Portuguese, by the way, there is a special term for them - lusophones, and all territories in which the main language is Portuguese are united by the term Lusophonia.
Portuguese has many similarities with other languages ​​in its group. The closest to it is the Spanish language, however, in comparison with Spanish, the Portuguese language is more conservative, it uses many old expressions, in addition, there are more phonetic borrowings of Celtic origin in Portuguese, and the pronunciation of some sounds makes it related to Catalan and French. However, in terms of lexical composition, it is still much closer to Spanish.
The year of the emergence of the Romance group of languages ​​is considered to be 218 BC, when the Romans, who came to the Iberian Peninsula, brought the Latin language there, from which the whole group subsequently developed.
Some influence on the development of the Portuguese language was exerted by the Germanic tribes, who at different times conquered the peninsula during the Great Migration of Nations. The Arab conquerors had more influence on the Spanish speech than on the Portuguese, this is easily explained by the fact that the people who lived in Portugal two centuries earlier than the Spaniards conquered their lands, after which the Galician-Portuguese language became the main language practically throughout the country, however the culture of the Mauritanians managed to penetrate deeply into the everyday customs of the inhabitants of Portugal.
In the XIV-XVI centuries, Portuguese travelers began to spread the language throughout the world. Thanks to the colonization of Asian and African settlements and the emergence of mixed marriages between Aboriginal and Portuguese, as well as the activities of Catholic missionaries, the Portuguese language successfully takes root in Africa, America and Asia.
During the Renaissance, numerous loanwords from Gaulish and English came to the Portuguese language, and the divergence of the linguistic norms of Portugal and Brazil began.

Portuguese is the official language of Portugal, Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Timor Leste and Mozambique, and the vast majority of native speakers today live in Brazil.

There are subspecies of the Portuguese language - classic Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. The difference between them is mainly due to phonetic and lexical features; in addition, northern and southern dialects are distinguished in Brazil, and in Portugal itself there are three dialectical varieties of the language.

Close languages

The peculiarities of pronunciation make it difficult for native Spanish speakers to understand the Portuguese language, despite the fact that the written Portuguese language is most often understood by the Spaniards, while Lusophones easily understand Spanish speech, especially in those places where Spanish had the greatest influence on the development of Portuguese, for example, in the southern part of Brazil.

Story

The first written evidence of the birth of the Portuguese language is found in the 9th century. In the records of this period, some Portuguese words begin to be used in texts written in Latin, linguists call this mixture the proportional Portuguese language.

In the XII-XIV centuries, at the beginning of the development of the Portuguese language, the Galissian dialect from which it arose was the language that poets used in their work in Christian Spain. After the recognition of Portugal as an independent state in 1143, the Galissian dialect began to be used as the basis of the classical literary language both in the Galician Portuguese and in the Spanish court.

In 1920, the Galissian-Portuguese ruler, King Dinis, founded a university in Lisbon and ordered the then-considered vulgar language Portuguese to be called and used in all official papers.

The Portuguese language dates back to 218 BC. with the arrival of the Romans to the Iberian Peninsula. Today it is the state language in nine countries. It is the fifth most common in the world and the most popular in the southern hemisphere of the planet.

1. Portuguese has a lot in common with, but does not derive from it, as many mistakenly believe. The main reason for the similarities between these languages ​​is that the bulk of the vocabulary of each of them is of Romance origin.

2. The Spaniards practically do not understand the spoken language of the inhabitants of Portugal, but at the same time read texts written in Portuguese without unnecessary difficulties.

3. The languages ​​of the peoples with whom the Portuguese navigators and merchants contacted greatly influenced the formation of the Portuguese language. That is why there are many other languages ​​in it - Arabic and not only.

4. The Portuguese alphabet contains 26 letters, including accented letters. It is noteworthy that letters such as K, V and Y are not characteristic of the traditional Portuguese language, and therefore they are used only in words of foreign origin.

5. Every year, the 5th of May is celebrated as the Day of the Portuguese language. This holiday exists in all countries where this language is spoken.

6. There are two variants of the Portuguese language - proper Portuguese and Brazilian. They differ in lexical, phonetic composition and even spelling. So, in Portugal, the spelling has remained unchanged for centuries, but in Brazil it has transformed over time, adjusting to the real pronunciation of native speakers. In 2008, by a decision of the Portuguese parliament, certain changes were made to the Portuguese spelling in order to bring it as close as possible to the Brazilian one.

7. Brazil houses the Museum of the Portuguese Language. It is located in the city of Sao Paulo. A feature of this museum is the use of interactive panels that allow you to get useful information about the development of the language in an entertaining way.

8. All those people who speak Portuguese are called Lusophones. Accordingly, the territories in which this language is widespread are united by the name Lusophonia. This word comes from the Latin Lusitania (Luisitania) - this was the name of the ancient Roman province located on the territory of modern Portugal.

9. Portuguese has many dialects. The oldest of these is Galician. It is spoken by about 4 million people living in the northwestern part of the Iberian Peninsula. By the way, it is believed that it was in Galicia that the Portuguese language and culture originated.

10. The inhabitants of the municipality of Miranda do Douro (located in the north-east of Portugal) speak the unique Miranda language or Mirandes (lhéngua mirandesa). It is one of the varieties of archaic Portuguese, which is as close as possible to Spanish in vocabulary and phonetics. Today the number of speakers of this language is only a couple of thousand people. Nevertheless, since 1999, Mirandes has been officially recognized. Moreover, it even publishes a local newspaper.

11. In Portuguese there are many words that resemble the words of the Russian language in their spelling, but have a completely different meaning. These include elétrico - tram, autocarro - bus and many others.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Portuguese is one of the most beautiful and diverse languages ​​in Europe. It is not for nothing that the Brazilian poet Olavu Bilak called him "beautiful and wild." And the world famous Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes gave him an even more interesting definition - “sweet tongue”. And in some ways, these great people were undoubtedly right.