languagesPortuguese

Portuguese is a Romance language of the Ibero-Romance subgroup within the Indo-European language family. It developed from the Latin spoken in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, especially the medieval Kingdom of Galicia and northern Portugal, and became distinct as a language in the 12th to 14th centuries. Today it is the official language of Portugal and Brazil and is widely spoken in Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor, and Equatorial Guinea, with large Portuguese-speaking communities across the world.

Portuguese is one of the most widely spoken languages globally, with an estimated several hundred million native and second-language speakers. It ranks among the top languages by number of native speakers and is a major language of international communication, science, and culture. The language has many regional varieties; the two most prominent standard forms are European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. Other Lusophone varieties include African Portuguese and Asian Portuguese, which differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, and, to a lesser extent, grammar.

Portuguese is written in the Latin script with diacritics such as ã, õ, á, é, ç, and others. Its grammar features gendered nouns, a rich verb-conjugation system with conjugations for person and number, and a relatively analytic word order with use of pronouns. The orthography of Portuguese has undergone reforms to standardize spelling across Lusophone countries, most notably through the Orthographic Agreement of the 1990s and 2000s.

In addition to its role as a national language, Portuguese serves as a key marker of identity in many communities and as a language of education, media, and government in Lusophone countries. It is also widely studied as a foreign language in schools and universities around the world.