# Portuguese language

| Portuguese |
| --- |
| *português* |
| Pronunciation | * [puɾtuˈɣeʃ] (EP)
* [poʁtuˈɡes] (BP)
 |
| Native to |  Angola  Brazil  Cape Verde  Guinea-Bissau  East Timor  Mozambique  Portugal  Sao Tome and Principe |
| Native speakers | 215 million (2010) |
| Language family | Indo-European
* Italic
	+ Romance
		- Italo-Western
			* Western Romance
				+ Ibero-Romance
					- West Iberian
						* Galician-Portuguese
							+ **Portuguese**
 |
| Early form | Medieval Galician
 |
| Writing system | Latin (Portuguese alphabet) Portuguese Braille |
| Official status |
| Official language in |
9 countries
* Angola
* Brazil
* Cape Verde
* East Timor
* Equatorial Guinea
* Guinea-Bissau
* Mozambique
* Portugal
* São Tomé and Príncipe

1 dependency
* Macau (China)

Many international organisations |
| Regulated by | International Portuguese Language Institute Academia Brasileira de Letras (Brazil) Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Classe de Letras (Portugal) CPLP |
| Language codes |
| ISO 639-1 | `pt` |
| ISO 639-2 | `por` |
| ISO 639-3 | `por` |
| Linguasphere | `51-AAA-a` |
|   Native language
  Official and administrative language
  Cultural or secondary language |
|

Man speaking Portuguese
**Portuguese** (Portuguese: *português*) is a Romance language. It originated from Galician-Portuguese, which was first spoken in Northwestern Iberia. It then spread south and split. During the colonial era, Portuguese also spread to Brazil, Angola and other parts of the world.

## Location

The Portuguese language is the third-most spoken western language (after English and Spanish). There are about 240 million native speakers, including the people of Portugal, Brazil, and Cape Verde (*Cabo Verde*). It is also an official language of Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique (*Moçambique*), Equatorial Guinea, and São Tomé and Príncipe (*São Tomé e Príncipe*), which have Portuguese as the *lingua franca,* but native languages are also spoken. It is also an official language in East Timor and Macau.

Also, some enclaves in Asia, such as Goa and Daman and Diu, in India; Flores, Indonesia; and Malacca, Malaysia, have Portuguese-speakers, and it is a minority language in Venezuela, Canada, Uruguay, Namibia, Japan, Romania, Moldova, Turkey, and the United States.

## Dialects

Portuguese is the official language of all countries of the CPLP (*Comunidade dos países de língua portuguesa*, "Community of Portuguese Language Countries"). The Portuguese-speaking countries have more than 240 million people across the world.
The CPLP was formed in 1996 with seven countries: Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe. East Timor joined in 2002.

The CPLP nations speak Portuguese with different accents. In some regions of Brazil (the country has 81% of the world's Portuguese-speakers), *tu'*("you" but used only to family and close friends) is not used as much as in Portugal. Also, regional slang can be found in different areas. The Portuguese Orthographic Agreement of 1990 (Acordo Ortográfico de 1990) tries to get rid of some of the differences in spelling.

## Vocabulary

Portuguese and English have words that mean the same and are similar as well. The words came from the same languages (usually Latin, Greek or Arabic).

1. Visão *Vision*
2. Informação *Information*
3. Confuso *Confused*
4. Baptismo *Baptism*
5. Artigo *Article*
6. Capital *Capital*
7. Total *Total*
8. Mapa *Map*
9. Problema *Problem*
10. História *History*

Some English words come from Portuguese, such as tank (*tanque*), cacao (*cacau*), marmalade (marmelada from *marmelo* "quince"), caramel, molasses, mosquito, cobra, breeze (brisa), albino, coconut, zebra, pagoda, Mandarin, buccaneer, fetish, tapioca and commando.

The Portuguese word *parentes* is similar to the English word "parents", but it means "relatives", and the Portuguese word to mean "parents" is *pais*.

## Sample phrases

1. *Olá!* Hello!
2. *Oi!* Hi!
3. *Como estás?* How are you?
4. *Estou bem, obrigado!* I’m ok, thanks!
5. *Como está/estás?* How are you?
6. *Tu falas português?* Do you speak Portuguese?
7. *Eu falo português.* I speak Portuguese.
8. *Eu não falo português.* I do not speak Portuguese.
9. *Tenho que ir, tchau!* I have to go, goodbye!
10. *Até logo!* See you soon!
11. *Tchau!* Bye!
12. *O que estás a fazer?* What are you doing?
13. *Eu tenho 18 anos.* I'm 18 years old.

## Other websites

* Amélia P. Hutchinson and Janet Lloyd *Portuguese: An Essential Grammar.* On www.archive.org
* *TM 30-501 Portuguese Military Dictionary: Portuguese-English, English-Portuguese.* War Department Technical Manual. On www.archive.org