Do you know the history of the Portuguese language in the world?
It is true that you have already noticed that Brazil is the only country on the American continent to have Portuguese as its official language. We are linguistically isolated, and even our neighboring countries, due to the colonizing process, speak languages different from ours. The second most spoken language in these parts of South America is Spanish.
We're the only ones around here, but we're not alone. In addition to Portugal (responsible for colonization of Brazil), country from which we inherit not only the language, but also other cultural aspects, other countries around the world have adopted the Portuguese language as their official language. In all, nine countries are part of the so-called Portuguese-speaking world, an adjective that classifies countries that have Portuguese as the official or dominant language. See what they are:
Brazil, Portugal, Angola, East Timor, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, Mozambique and Equatorial Guinea: linguistically united countries.
- Angola = 29.78 million inhabitants
- Brazil = 209.3 million inhabitants
- Cape Verde = 546,388 thousand inhabitants
- Guinea-Bissau = 1.861 million inhabitants
- Mozambique = 29.67 million inhabitants
- Portugal = 10.31 million inhabitants
- Sao Tome and Principe = 204,327 thousand inhabitants
- East Timor =1,296 million inhabitants
- Equatorial Guinea = 1.268 million inhabitants
We are approximately 230 million Portuguese speakers spread across nine countries on four different continents! The Portuguese language, despite being present in a vast territory, covers a discontinuous area, a factor that causes considerable differences in the grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary of our language. For this reason, to preserve linguistic unity in Portuguese-speaking countries, the New orthographic agreement, which unified the spelling of words in the Portuguese language. This measure aims to facilitate the circulation of publications in the language and promote cohesion between the language varieties. Unifying the spelling does not harm the spoken language, as each country has a rich and diverse culture that influences the speech of its inhabitants. Even in Brazil, with its continental dimensions, there is no standardization in the oral modality, each region has its own history and a specific vocabulary, called sociolect.
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
With the intention of increasing cooperation and cultural exchange between Portuguese-speaking countries, it was created in 1996, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), which brings together all official-speaking countries Portuguese. Within this community, Brazil figures as the main representative, since we are the country with the largest number of speakers of the language. This means that, thanks to the representation of our country within the CPLP and before the international community, we must watch over our language and promote its dissemination.
By Luana Castro
Graduated in Letters
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
PEREZ, Luana Castro Alves. "History of the Portuguese language in the world"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/gramatica/historia-lingua-portuguesa-no-mundo.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.