Portuguese language information

Portuguese
Portuguese
português
Pronunciation	[puɾtuˈɣeʃ], [poʁtuˈɡe(j)s]
Native to	Portugal, Brazil, Lusophone Africa, and other locations in the Lusosphere
Speakers	Native: 230 million (2012–2020); L2: 25 million (2018–2020); Total: 260 million
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Latin Romance Italo-Western Western Romance Gallo-Iberian Iberian Romance West Iberian Galician–Portuguese Portuguese; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Early forms	Old Latin Vulgar Latin Proto-Romance Galician–Portuguese ; ; ;
Writing system	Latin (Portuguese alphabet); Portuguese Braille;
Signed forms	Manually coded Portuguese
Official status
Official language in	9 countries Angola ; Brazil ; Cape Verde ; East Timor ; Equatorial Guinea ; Guinea-Bissau ; Mozambique ; Portugal ; São Tomé and Príncipe ; 1 dependency Macau (China) ;
Recognised minority; language in	Cultural language Uruguay ; Romania ; Spain (Galician language) ; South Africa ; Numerous international organizations;
Regulated by	Portugal:; Lisbon Academy of Sciences (Lisbon Academy Class of Letters); Brazil:; Academia Brasileira de Letras; Mozambique:; Escola Portuguesa de Moçambique (future); [citation needed]
Language codes
ISO 639-1	pt
ISO 639-2	por
ISO 639-3	por
Glottolog	port1283
Linguasphere	51-AAA-a
	Countries or regions where Portuguese is the native language of the majority Countries and territories where Portuguese is an official or administrative language but not a majority native language Countries and territories where Portuguese is a cultural or secondary language
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

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]

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,^{[citation needed]} 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]

^ ^a ^b ^c Portuguese at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ "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.
^ 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.
^ "Estados-membros" [Member States]. Community of Portuguese Language Countries (in Portuguese). 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.
^ "CIA World Factbook". Retrieved 12 June 2015.
^ "The Different Languages of South America". Latino Bridge. 7 November 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
^ "Potencial Económico da Língua Portuguesa" (PDF). University of Coimbra.
^ "World Portuguese Language Day". UNESCO.
^ "20 Most Spoken Languages in the World in 2023". Berlitz Corporation.
^ "Top 11 Most Spoken Languages in Africa". 18 October 2017.
^ "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.

[e25-1] Portuguese at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)

[2] "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.

[3] 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.

[4] "Historia lingüística del Uruguay". historiadelaslenguasenuruguay.edu.uy. Archived from the original on 5 April 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2020.

[5] 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.

[CPLP-6] "Estados-membros" [Member States]. Community of Portuguese Language Countries (in Portuguese). 7 February 2017.

[7] "The Origin and Formation of The Portuguese Language". Judeo-Lusitanica. Duke University. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2016.

[8] Bittencourt de Oliveira, João. "Breves considerações sobre o legado das línguas célticas". filologia.org.br.

[9] "CIA World Factbook". Retrieved 12 June 2015.

[10] "The Different Languages of South America". Latino Bridge. 7 November 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2020.

[11] "Potencial Económico da Língua Portuguesa" (PDF). University of Coimbra.

[12] "World Portuguese Language Day". UNESCO.

[13] "20 Most Spoken Languages in the World in 2023". Berlitz Corporation.

[14] "Top 11 Most Spoken Languages in Africa". 18 October 2017.

[15] "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."

[16] 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.

Portuguese language information

and 23 Related for: Portuguese language information

Portuguese language

Languages of Portugal

Portuguese language in Africa

List of countries and territories where Portuguese is an official language

European Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese

Portuguese language in Goa

Community of Portuguese Language Countries

History of Portuguese

Portuguese name

Portuguese Sign Language

Portugal

Geographical distribution of Portuguese speakers

Languages of Brazil

Portuguese

Portuguese people

Portuguese language in the Americas

Galician language

Macanese Portuguese

Portuguese language in Asia

International Portuguese Language Institute

Comparison of Portuguese and Spanish

Iberian Union

Portuguese
português
Pronunciation	[puɾtuˈɣeʃ], [poʁtuˈɡe(j)s]
Native to	Portugal, Brazil, Lusophone Africa, and other locations in the Lusosphere
Speakers	Native: 230 million (2012–2020)^[1] L2: 25 million (2018–2020)^[1] Total: 260 million^[1]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Latin Romance Italo-Western Western Romance Gallo-Iberian Iberian Romance West Iberian Galician–Portuguese Portuguese
Early forms	Old Latin Vulgar Latin Proto-Romance Galician–Portuguese
Writing system	Latin (Portuguese alphabet) Portuguese Braille
Signed forms	Manually coded Portuguese
Official status
Official language in	9 countries Angola Brazil Cape Verde East Timor Equatorial Guinea^[2] Guinea-Bissau Mozambique Portugal São Tomé and Príncipe 1 dependency Macau (China)
Recognised minority language in	Cultural language Uruguay^[3]^[4]^[5] Romania Spain (Galician language) South Africa Numerous international organizations
Regulated by	Portugal: Lisbon Academy of Sciences (Lisbon Academy Class of Letters) Brazil: Academia Brasileira de Letras Mozambique: Escola Portuguesa de Moçambique (future) ^{[citation needed]}
Language codes
ISO 639-1	`pt`
ISO 639-2	`por`
ISO 639-3	`por`
Glottolog	`port1283`
Linguasphere	`51-AAA-a`
Countries or regions where Portuguese is the native language of the majority Countries and territories where Portuguese is an official or administrative language but not a majority native language Countries and territories where Portuguese is a cultural or secondary language
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.