THE Portuguese language sets as the official language of countries located on all continents, as well as Atlantic islands near Africa. It is estimated that approximately 250 million people speak Portuguese as their mother tongue. Furthermore, its teaching became mandatory in schools in Mercosur countries.
But you know where does the Portuguese language come from?? How was it born, evolved and spread around the world, geographically speaking? Get to know a little more about the history of our language and understand how its structure was since its beginnings, back in the days of Vulgar Latin.
Index
- Portuguese Language and Vulgar Latin
- Stages in the evolution of the Portuguese Language
- Which countries speak the Portuguese language?
- Portuguese language expressions and their meanings
Portuguese Language and Vulgar Latin
First of all, we can say that the Portuguese language is one of the many derived from Vulgar Latin. We explain. Latin was the official language of the Roman Empire and had two sides: classical Latin (spoken by nobles and cults) and vulgar (practiced by the people).
From Vulgar Latin came the so-called Romance or Neo-Latin languages that emerged from the expansion of Latin in the territories conquered by the Roman Empire. As it entered pre-Latin regions, such as Spain, Gaul, Dacia, among others, it incorporated part of its vocabulary, according to the region itself.
In other words, the Romance languages are a continuation of Vulgar Latin and include Portuguese, Catalan, Spanish, Italian, French Provençal, Romanian, Rhetic and Sardinian. However, the diffusion of these languages did not happen equally in all points and especially in the western side of the Iberian Peninsula, felt influences from invading peoples of these regions - the barbarians.
These peoples greatly influenced the configuration of the Latin spoken in the regions they conquered. One of them was the territory that, today, belongs to Portugal. From the 5th century onwards, groups of barbarian and Arab origins invaded the Iberian Peninsula but, despite the political dominance, in the cultural part they underwent a process of Romanization.
In the eleventh century, the Christians expelled the invaders and Galician-Portuguese, one of the many dialects that emerged from the mixture of Latin with other languages, began to be spoken in Lusitania. Initially, Galician-Portuguese was limited to the territories of Galicia and Portugal and, later, its evolution between the two regions highlighted differences between Galician and Portuguese, in fact.
With the consolidation of the Portuguese Empire, Portuguese became the official language of the corresponding territory. From there, we can notice its evolution phases, as we will see below.
Stages in the evolution of the Portuguese Language
We can distinguish three historical phases of the Portuguese language, namely:
- protohistoric phase
It corresponds to before the 12th century with the presence of texts written in barbarian Latin (a modality used in documents, therefore, also called tabalionic or notary Latin).
- Old Portuguese phase
It persisted between the 12th and 16th centuries, comprising two periods:
a) from the 12th to the 14th century: texts in Galician-Portuguese;
b) from the 14th to the 16th century: separation of Galician and Portuguese.
- Modern Portuguese phase
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The Portuguese language goes through a certain standardization from the 16th century onwards, acquiring characteristics that it currently carries. One of the biggest contributing factors was Portuguese literature, with Camões as its great representative. The first grammars and dictionaries of the Portuguese language appeared during this period.
Which countries speak the Portuguese language?
Which are Portuguese speaking countries? With the period of the great European navigations and colonizations, the Portuguese language surpassed the Portuguese limits, crossing seas until reaching other continents. Between the 15th and 16th centuries, it reached Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, Macau, Goa, Daman, Diu and Timor.
The language also spread to Atlantic islands near the African coast, that is, Madeira and the Azores, also part of the Portuguese state at the time. Currently, the Portuguese language is the official language of part of these nations (Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde) and, even taking possession of native words, especially in speech, ended up maintaining a certain unity in the matrix of Portugal.
It is also important to remember that in some countries dialects originated from Portuguese or, even, in which the language is spoken by part of the population. This is the case of Macau and Goa (state of India). Today, the Portuguese language is distinguished by the variety of dialects and subdialects. In fact, the language is classified between European and Brazilian Portuguese, due to the difference in the language used in the two countries.
Portuguese language expressions and their meanings
Have you ever heard someone say they have “the king in their belly”? Or, that a person is “crying crocodile tears”? Well, they are all expressions of the Portuguese language that are part of the culture of our language and that historians, over time, have been trying to unravel.
- with the whole rope
Have you ever seen that when a person is very excited or electric, they say that they are “all wound up”? The saying comes from toys whose movement was activated with a spring or rubber band that, when stretched, made them walk (like the ones we still have today).
- with the king in the belly
In the time of the monarchy, pregnant queens were treated in a special way for increasing the royal family and carrying the heir to the throne. That's why, today, the expression refers to someone who cares for himself.
- Birds of a feather
The expression comes from the Latin Homines sunt ejusdem farinae”, that is, men of the same flour, normally used to designate a reprehensible behavior. As bad flour is separated from good flour in sacks, it is said that good people go with good people while bad people prefer bad ones.
- eat with eyes
The meaning of the expression is to enjoy from afar, without touching. This comes from ancient monarchies, such as West Africa, when kings ate all their food alone, and ancient Rome, where a feast was offered to the gods without anyone being able to eat.
- Maria goes with the others
Mrs. Maria I, grandmother of D. Pedro I, went mad and only left his rooms when escorted by the ladies. When the people saw her in this procession, they commented “There goes D. Mary with the others”. Today, the expression refers to those who have no opinion or are easily convinced.
- Crocodile tears
When we say that someone is “crying crocodile tears”, we are referring to a person who brings a fake cry. This comes from biology, from the observation that crocodiles, when ingesting food, put strong pressure against the roof of the mouth, compressing the tear glands. In other words, they literally cry as they devour the victim.
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