Katana VentraIP

Portuguese language

Portuguese (endonym: português or, in full, língua portuguesa) is a Western Romance language of the Indo-European language family originating from the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is the official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe,[6] and has co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, and Macau. Portuguese-speaking people or nations are known as "Lusophones" (lusófonos). As the result of expansion during colonial times, a cultural presence of Portuguese speakers is also found around the world. Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia and the County of Portugal, and has kept some Celtic phonology.[7][8]

"Português" redirects here. For the cigarette brand, see Português (cigarette). For the gold coin, see Português (coin).

With approximately 230 million native speakers and 25–30 million second language speakers, Portuguese has approximately 250 million total speakers. It is usually listed as the fifth-most spoken native language, the third-most spoken European language in the world in terms of native speakers[9] and the second-most spoken Romance language in the world, surpassed only by Spanish. Being the second most widely spoken language in South America[10] and the most-spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere,[11][12][13] it is also the second-most spoken language, after Spanish, in Latin America, one of the 10 most spoken languages in Africa,[14] and an official language of the European Union, Mercosul, the Organization of American States, the Economic Community of West African States, the African Union, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, an international organization made up of all of the world's officially Lusophone nations. In 1997, a comprehensive academic study ranked Portuguese as one of the 10 most influential languages in the world.[15][16]

  – Angolano Archived 6 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine (Angolan Portuguese)

Angola

  – Cabo-verdiano (Cape Verdean Portuguese)

Cape Verde

  – Timorense (East Timorese Portuguese)

East Timor

  – Damaense (Damanese Portuguese) and Goês (Goan Portuguese)

India

  – Guineense (Guinean Portuguese)

Guinea-Bissau

  – Macaense (Macanese Portuguese)

Macau

  – Moçambicano (Mozambican Portuguese)

Mozambique

  – Santomense (São Tomean Portuguese)

São Tomé and Príncipe

warfare, such as espora 'spur', estaca ('stake'), and guerra ('war'), from *spaúra, *stakka, and *wirro respectively;

Gothic

natural world, such as suino ('swine') from *sweina, gavião ('hawk') from *gabilans, vaga ('wave') from *vigan;

human emotions, such as orgulho or orgulhoso ('pride', 'proud') from Old Germanic *urguol, and

verbs like gravar ('to craft, record, graft') from *graba or esmagar ('to squeeze, quash, grind') from Suebian *magōn or esfarrapar ('to shred') from *harpō.

Most of the lexicon of Portuguese is derived, directly or through other Romance languages, from Latin. Nevertheless, because of its original Lusitanian and Celtic Gallaecian heritage, and the later participation of Portugal in the Age of Discovery, it has a relevant number of words from the ancient Hispano-Celtic group[19] and adopted loanwords from other languages around the world.


A number of Portuguese words can still be traced to the pre-Roman inhabitants of Portugal, which included the Gallaeci, Lusitanians, Celtici and Cynetes. Most of these words derived from the Hispano-Celtic Gallaecian language of northwestern Iberia, and are very often shared with Galician since both languages have the same origin in the medieval language of Galician-Portuguese. A few of these words existed in Latin as loanwords from other Celtic sources, often Gaulish. Altogether these are over 3,000 words, verbs, toponymic names of towns, rivers, surnames, tools, lexicon linked to rural life and natural world.[123]


In the 5th century, the Iberian Peninsula (the Roman Hispania) was conquered by the Germanic, Suebi and Visigoths. As they adopted the Roman civilization and language, however, these people contributed with some 500 Germanic words to the lexicon. Many of these words are related to:


The Germanic languages influence also exists in toponymic surnames and patronymic surnames borne by Visigoth sovereigns and their descendants, and it dwells on placenames such as Ermesinde, Esposende and Resende where sinde and sende are derived from the Germanic sinths ('military expedition') and in the case of Resende, the prefix re comes from Germanic reths ('council'). Other examples of Portuguese names, surnames and town names of Germanic toponymic origin include Henrique, Henriques, Vermoim, Mandim, Calquim, Baguim, Gemunde, Guetim, Sermonde and many more, are quite common mainly in the old Suebi and later Visigothic dominated regions, covering today's Northern half of Portugal and Galicia.


Between the 9th and early 13th centuries, Portuguese acquired some 400 to 600 words from Arabic by influence of Moorish Iberia. They are often recognizable by the initial Arabic article a(l)-, and include common words such as aldeia ('village') from الضيعة aḍ-ḍayʿa, alface ('lettuce') from الخسة al-khassa, armazém ('warehouse') from المخزن al-makhzan, and azeite ('olive oil') from الزيت az-zayt.


Starting in the 15th century, the Portuguese maritime explorations led to the introduction of many loanwords from Asian languages. For instance, catana ('cutlass') from Japanese katana, chá ('tea') from Chinese chá, and canja[124] ('chicken-soup, piece of cake') from Malay.


From the 16th to the 19th centuries, because of the role of Portugal as intermediary in the Atlantic slave trade, and the establishment of large Portuguese colonies in Angola, Mozambique, and Brazil, Portuguese acquired several words of African and Amerind origin, especially names for most of the animals and plants found in those territories. While those terms are mostly used in the former colonies, many became current in European Portuguese as well. From Kimbundu, for example, came kifumate > cafuné ('head caress') (Brazil), kusula > caçula ('youngest child') (Brazil), marimbondo ('tropical wasp') (Brazil), and kubungula > bungular ('to dance like a wizard') (Angola). From South America came batata ('potato'), from Taino; ananás and abacaxi, from Tupi–Guarani naná and Tupi ibá cati, respectively (two species of pineapple), and pipoca ('popcorn') from Tupi and tucano ('toucan') from Guarani tucan.


Finally, it has received a steady influx of loanwords from other European languages, especially French and English. These are by far the most important languages when referring to loanwords. There are many examples such as: colchete/crochê ('bracket'/'crochet'), paletó ('jacket'), batom ('lipstick'), and filé/filete ('steak'/'slice'), rua ('street'), respectively, from French crochet, paletot, bâton, filet, rue; and bife ('steak'), futebol, revólver, stock/estoque, folclore, from English "beef", "football", "revolver", "stock", "folklore."


Examples from other European languages: macarrão ('pasta'), piloto ('pilot'), carroça ('carriage'), and barraca ('barrack'), from Italian maccherone, pilota, carrozza, and baracca; melena ('hair lock'), fiambre ('wet-cured ham') (in Portugal, in contrast with presunto 'dry-cured ham' from Latin prae-exsuctus 'dehydrated') or ('canned ham') (in Brazil, in contrast with non-canned, wet-cured (presunto cozido) and dry-cured (presunto cru)), or castelhano ('Castilian'), from Spanish melena ('mane'), fiambre and castellano.

Fala and portunhol do pampa (the way riverense and its sibling dialects are referred to in Portuguese), its closest relatives.

Galician

Leonese, Asturian, Extremaduran and Cantabrian (Astur-Leonese languages). Mirandese is the only recognised regional language spoken in Portugal (beside Portuguese, the only official language in Portugal).

Mirandese

and calão (the way caló, language of the Iberian Romani, is referred to in Portuguese).

Spanish

Semivowels contrast with unstressed high vowels in verbal conjugation, as in (eu) rio /ˈʁi.u/ and (ele) riu /ˈʁiw/. Phonologists discuss whether their nature is vowel or consonant.[162]

[161]

In most of Brazil and Angola, the consonant hereafter denoted as /ɲ/ is realized as a [], which nasalizes the vowel that precedes it: [ˈnĩj̃u].[163][164]

nasal palatal approximant

:122) proposes that Portuguese possesses labio-velar stops /kʷ/ and /ɡʷ/ as additional phonemes rather than sequences of a velar stop and /w/.[160]

Bisol (2005

The consonant hereafter denoted as /ʁ/ has a variety of realizations depending on dialect. In Europe, it is typically a [ʀ]; however, a pronunciation as a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] may be becoming dominant in urban areas. There is also a realization as a voiceless uvular fricative [χ], and the original pronunciation as an alveolar trill [r] also remains very common in various dialects.[165] A common realization of the word-initial /r/ in the Lisbon accent is a voiced uvular fricative trill [ʀ̝].[166] In Brazil, /ʁ/ can be velar, uvular, or glottal and may be voiceless unless between voiced sounds.[167] It is usually pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative [x], a voiceless glottal fricative [h] or voiceless uvular fricative [χ]. See also Guttural R § Portuguese.

uvular trill

/s/ and /z/ are normally , as in English. However, a number of dialects in northern Portugal pronounce /s/ and /z/ as apico-alveolar sibilants (sounding somewhat like a soft [ʃ] or [ʒ]), as in the Romance languages of northern Iberia. Some very few northeastern Portugal dialects still maintain the medieval distinction between apical and laminal sibilants (written s/ss and c/ç/z, respectively).

lamino-alveolar

As a phoneme, /tʃ/ occurs only in loanwords, names, and interjections, with a dialectal tendency for speakers to substitute in /ʃ/ in most dialects outside of Brazil (as well as some conservative Brazilian dialects, to a variable extent.) However, [tʃ] is an of /t/ before /i/ in a majority of Brazilian dialects. Similarly, [dʒ] is an allophone of /d/ in the same contexts.

allophone

In northern and central Portugal, the voiced stops (/b/, /d/, and /ɡ/) are usually lenited to [β], [ð], and [ɣ], respectively, except at the beginning of words or after nasal vowels.[154][155] At the end of a phrase, due to final-obstruent devoicing, they may even be devoiced to [ɸ], [θ], and [x] (for example, verde at the end of a sentence may be pronounced [veɹθ]).

fricatives

In Brazil, many speakers further shift [ɫ] to [w] in closed syllables, especially outside the southern region.

Phonetically, Portuguese (and ) are quite different from the other major Romance languages. It has been suggested that this stems from the ancient link to Celtic languages such as Welsh or Breton,[168] with which it also shares a substantial number of cognates: there are 37 sounds in Portuguese, including vowels, consonants and diphthongs, most of which exist in today's Celtic languages.[123]

French

The has an iterative sense unique to the Galician-Portuguese language group. It denotes an action or a series of actions that began in the past but expected to occur again in the future. For instance, the sentence Tenho tentado falar contigo would be translated to "I have been trying to talk to you", not "I have tried to talk to you." On the other hand, the correct translation of "Have you heard the latest news?" is not *Tens ouvido as últimas? but Ouviste as últimas? since no repetition is implied.[169]

present perfect

Portuguese makes use of the future , which developed from medieval West Iberian Romance. In modern Spanish and Galician, it has almost entirely fallen into disuse. The future subjunctive appears in dependent clauses that denote a condition that must be fulfilled in the future so that the independent clause will occur. English normally employs the present tense under the same circumstances:

subjunctive mood

A notable aspect of the grammar of Portuguese is the verb. Morphologically, more verbal inflections from classical Latin have been preserved by Portuguese than by any other major Romance language. Portuguese and Spanish share very similar grammar, vocabulary and sentence structure. Portuguese also has some grammatical innovations not found in other Romance languages (except Galician and Fala):

Portuguese literature

Portuguese Africans

Angolan literature

Brazilian literature

Gallaecian language

Indo-Portuguese

Galician Reintegrationism

International Portuguese Language Institute

List of countries and territories where Portuguese is an official language

List of international organizations which have Portuguese as an official language

List of Portuguese-language poets

Lusitanian language

Mozambican Portuguese

Portuguese language in Asia

Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990

Portuguese poetry

at Curlie

Portuguese language