10/08/2021
Check out my 10 favorite fun-facts about the Portuguese Language xx 🥰😍🤩🤎💓💖🖤💜💙💚💛🧡❤️ 🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹
Also, if you or someone you know is looking for Portuguese lessons, contact me for availability, between me and one of my 🇵🇹 tutors, we're happy to help! We only teach European Portuguese though, if you're you're looking for BR PT, we can recommend teachers in CPT.
xx thanks!
Bom dia, ladies and gentlemen!
Today I was very inspired and doing research, as I love my language so much! So I came up with my 10 favorite fun-facts about the Portuguese Language:
1. Portuguese is the second fastest growing european language in the World (second only to English, .
Portuguese is currently the sixth most spoken language in the world and is only ticking up.
2. Portuguese is strongly influenced by Arabic.
Spain was under Moorish rule from 700 to 1500 CE, and this profoundly affected Portuguese, as well and hundreds of words come from Arabic. Many of these Arabic-derived words start with “al”, such as almofada (pillow), alface (lettuce), Algarve, etc.
3. Brazilian Portuguese is different from other varieties.
Brazil declared its independence from Portuguese in 1822, and thus has existed as a sovereign state for nearly 200 years. As such, its language has evolved to be quite different from that of Portugal. Given that other Portuguese ex-colonies became independent more recently and the Portuguese that is spoken in these colonies is much closer to the European Portuguese.
Due to their geographical distance, Brazilian and European Portuguese developed separate writing systems but in 2009, to better organize the language, both countries signed the Orthographic Agreement, which established a single orthography for both countries.
4. English has borrowed several Portuguese words: Portuguese’s worldwide spread inevitably led to several of its words making their way into the English language. Some examples are “embarrass” (coming from the Portuguese embaraçar, to tie in knots), “cobra,” and “fetish” (from feitiço, meaning a charm or sorcery).
5. Portuguese is one of the five main Romance languages, including Italian, French, Romanian and Spanish.
6. The longest word in both the Portuguese and English dictionaries share the same meaning:
Portuguese – pneumoultramicroscopicossilicovulcanoconiótico English – pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
7. Only 5% of Portuguese Speakers are in Portugal! Brazil and Mozambique who are two of nine countries claiming Portuguese as their language have populations of 210 million and 30 million respectively. So it is not a surprise that most Portuguese speakers are outside of Portugal. However, 5% is quite a staggering figure for the birthplace of the language. Especially given that around 280 million people worldwide are native Portuguese speakers.
8. The Portuguese alphabet had only 23 letters. “K,” “W,” and “Y” were added in 2009 as part of the “Orthographic Agreement.” Why? These sounds are very rarely used in Portuguese origin words. However, with the rise of foreign words, primarily English origin words, it was decided it was time to add the sounds officially.
9. Portugal and Galicia have a very intertwined history. The two languages evolved right alongside each other and inevitably created a lot of similarities along the way. Portuguese evolved from a variety of local Galician dialects and Latin until it emerged as its own distinct language centuries later. Even now, the two are mutually intelligible, which means that native speakers of either language can understand one another.
10. Portugal is the official language of nine countries around the globe: Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Timor-Leste, Equatorial Guinea, Cape Verse, São Tomé and Principe all use Portuguese as their official language. Additionally, the Chinese autonomous territory of Macau uses Portuguese and Chinese as their official language.
*Hope you are having a very good day and have an amazing weekend! *
Regarding out lessons, I thought I would let you know that some gaps have opened, so please contact me, should you need be keen to learn Portuguese.
I am sorry to say but I am still fully booked but there is availability with my other teachers who are European Portuguese and are amazing teachers.
I trust they work hard and passionately like me and at the same rates. 💖
just email me please for further details @ [email protected] or 0747276054
In this school we can only take on hardworking students! 🤓 ❤️😘💕
For my students, thank you for the help and continued support 💜💕
Looking forward to working with you! 💞
With my best regards or 'Cumprimentos',
Liliana
