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Portuguese language resources
Portuguese is spoken on a daily basis in: Andorra, Angola, Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal
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Additional background on
Portuguese
Portuguese (portugu�s (help�info)) is an Iberian Romance language, of the Indo-European family. It originated in what is today Galicia (Spain) and northern Portugal. It is the official language of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and S�o Tom� and Pr�ncipe, and co-official with Chinese in the Chinese S.A.R. of Macau and Tetum in East Timor.
Portuguese is ranked sixth among the world's languages in number of native speakers (over 200 million), and first in South America (186 million, over 51% of the population). It is also a major lingua franca in Africa. It spread worldwide in the 15th and 16th century as Portugal set up a vast colonial and commercial empire (1415�1999), spanning from Brazil in the Americas to Macau in China. In that colonial period, many Portuguese creoles appeared around the world, especially in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
Portuguese is often nicknamed The language of Cam�es, after the author of the Portuguese national epic The Lusiadas; The last flower of Latium (Olavo Bilac); and The sweet language by Cervantes.
Portuguese
What are the most spoken languages on earth?
All data is derived from UNESCO.
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