Portugueselanguage

The Portuguese language is a Romance language in the Western Iberian branch of the Indo-European family. It developed from Latin in medieval Galicia and northern Portugal and emerged as a distinct language by the 12th century. Today it is spoken as the official language of Portugal and Brazil and is widely used across Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

As of the 21st century, Portuguese is the official language of several states and territories, including Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor, and Equatorial Guinea; it is co-official in Macau with Chinese, and is widely spoken by diaspora communities worldwide.

There are two major standardized forms: European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, each with its own pronunciation, rhythm, and vocabulary. Other varieties exist in Africa and Asia. The language has a long literary history beginning in the Middle Ages, and played a key role in the era of European exploration and global trade.

Portuguese is written with the Latin alphabet and uses diacritics such as acute, circumflex, and tilde, as well as the cedilla. The orthography was harmonized by a 20th–21st century agreement between Portugal and Brazil to reduce spelling differences.

The language features nasal vowels, vowel reduction, and a rich system of verb tenses. It is widely taught as a second language and remains an important language of international communication in the Lusophone world.