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The
Portugal language is know as the Portuguese and is a very
interesting language that uses many similar words as Brazil
or Spain. If you have been on holiday to Spain you will
notice many similarities. They even say hello and thank you
in the exact same way and this can take some getting used to
if you are learning the language.
It is estimated that there are well over 200 million people
who speak Portuguese and it is in fact the fifth most
popular language in the world today. The reason for this is
put down to the language being spread around the world due
to Portugal's ever expanding empire between the fifteenth
and seventeenth centuries.
According to
experts the language comes from the Vulgar Latin which was
introduced to the Iberian Peninsula by the Roman Invaders
but the Portuguese that we know today is thought to come
from the language which is used in Lisbon and Coimbra.
The vocabulary is mainly Latin but it has been identified
that some of the words derive from Arabic, Italian and
French.
Portuguese is the main language in some areas of India such
as Goa and Daman as well as the more obvious countries such
as Portugal, Brazil and Timor. It should also be noted that
Portuguese is spoken by small groups of people in Uraguay
and Bolivia due to the Brazilian population that moved there
to find work. There is an organisation which was founded in
1996 which represents its Portuguese speaking members which
is called, believe it or not, The Community of
Portuguese-Speaking Countries. |
