Portuguese language

**Portuguese** () 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 and other parts of the world.

## Where it is spoken

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.

## 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_
1. Informação _Information_
1. Confuso _Confused_
1. Baptismo _Baptism_
1. Artigo _Article_
1. Capital _Capital_
1. Total _Total_
1. Mapa _Map_
1. Problema _Problem_
1. 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. Hello!
1. Hi!
1. How are you?
1. I’m ok, thanks!
1. How are you?
1. Do you speak Portuguese?
1. I speak Portuguese.
1. I do not speak Portuguese.
1. I have to go, goodbye!
1. See you soon!
1. Bye!
1. What are you doing?
1. I'm 18 years old.

## Different versions

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.

## 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

## Infobox (language)

- **name**: Portuguese
- **states**:

- **speakers**: 215 million
- **date**: 2010
- **familycolor**: Indo-European
- **fam2**: Italic languages, Italic
- **fam3**: Romance languages, Romance
- **fam4**: Italo-Western languages, Italo-Western
- **fam5**: Western Romance languages, Western Romance
- **fam6**: Ibero-Romance languages, Ibero-Romance
- **fam7**: West Iberian languages, West Iberian
- **fam8**: Galician-Portuguese
- **ancestor**: Medieval Galician
- **script**: Latin script, Latin (Portuguese alphabet)
Portuguese Braille
- **nation**:

List of international organisations which have Portuguese as an official language, Many international organisations
- **agency**: International Portuguese Language Institute
 Academia Brasileira de Letras (Brazil)
 Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Classe de Letras (Portugal)
 CPLP
- **iso1**: pt
- **iso2**: por
- **iso3**: por
- **lingua**: 51-AAA-a
- **map**: Detailed SVG map of the Lusophone world.svg
- **notice**: IPA