Portuguese language: Encyclopedia II - Portuguese language

Portuguese is the first language in Angola, Brazil, Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe, and the most widely used language in Mozambique. Portuguese is also one of the official languages of East Timor (with Tetum) and Macao S.A.R. of China (with Chinese). It is widely spoken, but not official, in Andorra, Luxembourg, Namibia and Paraguay. Portuguese Creoles are the mother tongue of Cape Verde and part of Guinea-Bissau's population. In Cape Verde most also speak standard Portuguese and have a native level language usage.

Large Portuguese-speaking immigrant communities exist in many cities around the world, including Montreal and Toronto in Canada; Paris in France; Asunción in Paraguay; and Boston, New Bedford, Cape Cod, Fall River, Providence, Newark, New York City, Orlando, Miami, Sacramento, Honolulu and Houston in the United States, Buenos Aires in Argentina, Uruguay, and Nagoya and Hamamatsu in Japan. Portuguese is spoken by about 187 million people in South America, 17 million in Africa, 12 million in Europe, 2 million in North America and 610,000 in Asia.

The CPLP or Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries is an international organization consisting of the eight independent countries which have Portuguese as an official language. Portuguese is also an official language of the European Union, Mercosul and the African Union (one of the working languages) and one of the official languages of other organizations. The Portuguese language is gaining popularity in Africa, Asia, and South America as a second language for study.

Portuguese is with Spanish the fastest growing western language, and, following estimates by UNESCO it is the language with the higher potentiality of growth as an international communication language in Africa (south) and South America. The Portuguese speaking African countries are expected to have a combined population of 83 million by 2050. The language is also starting to gain popularity in Asia, mostly due to East Timor's boost in the number of speakers in the last five years, and Macau is becoming the Chinese Mecca for learning Portuguese, where in early 21st century, the language use was in decline, today it is growing as it became a language for opportunity due to Chinese strategical cooperation with the Portuguese speaking countries.

Portuguese language - Dialects

Portuguese has two major standard dialects: Brazilian and European Portuguese (BP and EP). In addition there are several variants spoken in Africa and Asia, though these have not been subject to the same thorough research as the dialects of Brazil and Portugal. The differences between dialects both within and between the two spheres of influences are generally not too major, though the sheer number of BP speakers has lead to a very large amount of various sociolects and ideolects. There are several similarities in pronunciation, syntax and simplification in grammar use between vernacular BP and Angolan Portuguese (AP), but there are minor differences between standard EP and AP. EP dialects are divided into two major groups: northern and south-central dialects. The northern are distinguished by a more conservative and complicated series of fricatives. The dialects of Madeira and the Azores have developed separate unique features, but have much in common with the south-central group. BP dialects are divided into a northern and southern groups, where the northern dialects tend to slightly more open pre-stressed vowels.

Though geographically specific vocabulary are common, they are not always completely consistent. For example, tapete is used instead of the more European alcatifa in Brazil, though tapete still occurs in some dialects in Portugal. Examples of words that are different in Portuguese dialects from three different continents: Africa (Angola), Europe (Portugal) and South America (Brazil).

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Geographic distribution", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

Portuguese language - Geographic distribution

Portuguese language - Geographic distribution: Encyclopedia II - Portuguese language - Geographic distribution

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Portuguese language: Encyclopedia II - Portuguese language - Geographic distribution

Portuguese language - Geographic distribution

Portuguese language - Dialects

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