PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE FACTS

Portuguese is spoken by about 250 million people in Portugal, Brazil, and other former Portuguese colonies. It is the eighth most spoken language and the third most spoken European language in the world (after English and Spanish). Portuguese is one of the five modern Romance languages, together with Spanish, French, Italian and Romanian. It was originated in what is now Galicia (Spain) and northern Portugal from the Latin spoken by Romanized Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, about 2000 years ago. Standard Portuguese is established on the dialect of Lisbon. Dialectal distinction in Portugal is limited, but the difference between Brazilian and European Portuguese is far wide, including variations in phonology, verb conjugation, and syntax.

There are many countries where the Portuguese is spoken, some of them are: Angola, Andorra, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea Bissau, Luxembourg, Macau (China), Mozambique, Namibia, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and other countries; and Portuguese is the official language of: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe, also being co-official with Spanish and French in Equatorial Guinea, with Cantonese Chinese in the Chinese special administrative region of Macau, and with Tetum in East Timor. There exist sizable communities of Portuguese-speakers in various regions of North America, notably in the United States (New Jersey and New England) and in Ontario, Canada.