Romance language
Portuguese (endonym : português or 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 Angola , Brazil , Cape Verde , Guinea-Bissau , Mozambique , Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe ,[ 7] and has co-official language status in East Timor , Equatorial Guinea and Macau . Portuguese-speaking people or nations are known as Lusophone (lusófono ). 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.[ 8] [ 9]
With approximately 260 million native speakers and 35 million second language speakers, Portuguese has approximately 300 million total speakers. It is usually listed as the fifth-most spoken native language ,[ 10] the third-most spoken European language in the world in terms of native speakers[ 11] and the second-most spoken Romance language in the world, surpassed only by Spanish . Being the most widely spoken language in South America [ 12] [ 13] [ 14] and the most-spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere ,[ 15] [ 16] [ 17] it is also the second-most spoken language, after Spanish, in Latin America , one of the 10 most spoken languages in Africa ,[ 18] 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.[ 19] [ 20]
^ Portuguese at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ https://www.ethnologue.com/language/por/
^ "Continúan los actos del Día de la Lengua Portuguesa y la Cultura Lusófona" [Acts continue to mark Portuguese Language and Portuguese Culture Day]. Government of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea . 10 May 2016. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 1 November 2016 .
^ Gutiérrez Bottaro, Silvia Etel (2014). "El portugués uruguayo y las marcas de la oralidad en la poesía del escritor uruguayo Agustín R. Bisio" [Uruguayan Portuguese and oral marks in the poetry of Uruguayan writer Agustín R. Bisio] (PDF) . Abehache (in Spanish). 4 (6). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 August 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2018 .
^ "Historia lingüística del Uruguay" . historiadelaslenguasenuruguay.edu.uy . Archived from the original on 5 April 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2020 .
^ Fernández Aguerre, Tabaré; González Bruzzese, Mahira; Rodriguez Ingold, Cecilia (2017). Algunas notas teórico metodológicas sobre la relación entre regiones y aprendizajes en Uruguay [Some theoretical methodological notes on the relationship between regions and learning in Uruguay ]. XVI Jornadas de Investigación : la excepcionalidad uruguaya en debate: ¿como el Uruguay no hay? (in Spanish). pp. 11–15. hdl :20.500.12008/10776 . Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 22 January 2020 .
^ "Estados-membros" [Member States]. Community of Portuguese Language Countries (in Portuguese). 7 February 2017. Archived from the original on 7 February 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2017 .
^ "The Origin and Formation of The Portuguese Language" . Judeo-Lusitanica . Duke University. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2016 .
^ Bittencourt de Oliveira, João. "Breves considerações sobre o legado das línguas célticas" . filologia.org.br . Archived from the original on 21 June 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2016 .
^ da Silva, Emmanuel (2015). "Socioliguistic Tensions in Toronoto". In Moita-Lopes, Luiz Paulo (ed.). Global Portuguese: Linguistic Ideologies in Late Modernity . New York: Routledge. p. 129. ISBN 978-1-31763-304-4 .
^ "CIA World Factbook" . Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 12 June 2015 .
^ "The Different Languages of South America" . Latino Bridge . 7 November 2022. Archived from the original on 12 December 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2020 .
^ "2012 World Population Data Sheet Interactive Map - Population Reference Bureau" . archive.wikiwix.com . Retrieved 9 September 2024 .
^ "La langue espagnole (présentation)" . www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca . Retrieved 9 September 2024 .
^ "Potencial Económico da Língua Portuguesa" (PDF) . University of Coimbra . Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 October 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2020 .
^ "World Portuguese Language Day" . UNESCO . Archived from the original on 17 November 2023. Retrieved 20 November 2023 .
^ "20 Most Spoken Languages in the World in 2023" . Berlitz Corporation . Archived from the original on 21 November 2023. Retrieved 20 November 2023 .
^ "Top 11 Most Spoken Languages in Africa" . Africa Facts . 18 October 2017. Archived from the original on 18 September 2021. Retrieved 10 October 2018 .
^ "The World's 10 most influential languages" , George Weber, 1997, Language Today , "...includes besides many other languages, Bengali, English, French, German, Hindi/Urdu, Italian, Marathi, Panjabi, Persian, Brazilian (Portuguese), Russian, the Scandinavian languages, and Spanish." "Portuguese today means above all Brazilian."
^ Bernard Comrie, Encarta Encyclopedia (1998); George Weber, "Top Languages: The World's 10 Most Influential Languages" , Language Today (Vol. 2, December 1997). Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2011-09-28.