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The
Portuguese language Portuguese ( or, in full, ) is a western Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family, originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is an official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, ...
developed in the Western Iberian Peninsula from
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
spoken by
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
soldiers and colonists starting in the 3rd century BC. Old Portuguese, also known as
Medieval Galician Galician-Portuguese ( gl, galego-portugués or ', pt, galego-português or ), also known as Old Portuguese or as Medieval Galician when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle ...
, began to diverge from other
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
after the
fall of the Western Roman Empire The fall of the Western Roman Empire (also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome) was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its va ...
and the Germanic invasions, also known as
barbarian invasions The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...
, in the 5th century, and started appearing in written documents around the 9th century. By the 13th century,
Galician-Portuguese Galician-Portuguese ( gl, galego-portugués or ', pt, galego-português or ), also known as Old Portuguese or as Medieval Galician when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle ...
had its own literature and began to split into two languages. However, the debate of whether Galician and Portuguese are nowadays varieties of the same language, much like American English or British English, is still present. In all aspects—
phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
, morphology,
lexicon A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word (), neuter of () meaning 'of or fo ...
and
syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...
—Portuguese is essentially the result of an organic evolution of
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
with some influences from other languages, namely the native
Gallaecian Gallaecian, or Northwestern Hispano-Celtic, is an extinct Celtic language of a Hispano-Celtic group. It was spoken by the Gallaeci at the beginning of the 1st millennium in the northwest corner of the Iberian Peninsula that became the Roman ...
and Lusitanian languages spoken prior to the Roman domination.


Social history


Romanization

Arriving on the Iberian Peninsula in 218 BC, the
ancient Romans In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–50 ...
brought with them
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
, from which all Romance languages descend. The language was spread by arriving Roman soldiers, settlers and merchants, who built Roman cities mostly near the settlements of previous civilizations. Later, the inhabitants of the cities of
Lusitania Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province located where modern Portugal (south of the Douro river) and a portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and the province of Salamanca) lie. It was named after the Lusitani or Lu ...
and the rest of Romanized Iberia were recognized as citizens of Rome. Roman control of the western part of Hispania was not consolidated until the campaigns of Augustus in 26 BC. Although the western territories to the south of the Tagus River were conquered only after the victory of Licinius Crassus in the year 93 BC, only an estimated four hundred words of the native languages persist in modern Portuguese. After 200 years of wars, first with the
Carthaginians The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...
in the Eastern part of the peninsula, and then with the local inhabitants, Emperor
Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...
conquered the whole peninsula, which was named
Hispania Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hi ...
. He then divided it into three
provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
:
Hispania Tarraconensis Hispania Tarraconensis was one of three Roman provinces in Hispania. It encompassed much of the northern, eastern and central territories of modern Spain along with modern northern Portugal. Southern Spain, the region now called Andalusia was the ...
,
Hispania Baetica Hispania Baetica, often abbreviated Baetica, was one of three Roman provinces in Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula). Baetica was bordered to the west by Lusitania, and to the northeast by Hispania Tarraconensis. Baetica remained one of the basic di ...
, and
Lusitania Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province located where modern Portugal (south of the Douro river) and a portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and the province of Salamanca) lie. It was named after the Lusitani or Lu ...
, the latter of which included most of modern Portugal. At the end of the 3rd century, Emperor
Diocletian Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
split Tarraconensis into three parts, creating the adjacent province of
Gallaecia Gallaecia, also known as Hispania Gallaecia, was the name of a Roman province in the north-west of Hispania, approximately present-day Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Norte, Portugal, northern Portugal, Asturias and León (province), Leon and the lat ...
, which geographically enclosed the remaining part of Portugal, and modern-day
Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...
in the northwestern region of Spain.


Iberian Romance

Between AD 409 and 711, as the Roman Empire was collapsing, the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by Germanic tribes, mainly
Suevi The Suebi (or Suebians, also spelled Suevi, Suavi) were a large group of Germanic peoples originally from the Elbe river region in what is now Germany and the Czech Republic. In the early Roman era they included many peoples with their own names ...
and
Visigoths The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is k ...
, who largely absorbed the Roman culture and language of the peninsula; however, since the Roman schools and administration were closed, the Vulgar Latin language of ordinary people was left free to evolve on its own and the uniformity of the language across the Iberian Peninsula broke down. In the north-western part of the peninsula (today's Northern Portugal and Galicia), Vulgar Latin began to develop local characteristics, becoming what linguists today call Galician-Portuguese. The
Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, ...
influenced
Galician-Portuguese Galician-Portuguese ( gl, galego-portugués or ', pt, galego-português or ), also known as Old Portuguese or as Medieval Galician when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle ...
by introducing words often linked to the military like ''guerra'' (
war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
) or ''laverca'' (
lark Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark oc ...
), placenames such as Resende, animals like ''ganso'' (
goose A goose ( : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera '' Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (the black geese). Some other birds, mostly related to the ...
), ''texugo'' (
badger Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by ...
), human feelings such as ''orgulho'' (
pride Pride is defined by Merriam-Webster as "reasonable self-esteem" or "confidence and satisfaction in oneself". A healthy amount of pride is good, however, pride sometimes is used interchangeably with "conceit" or "arrogance" (among other words) w ...
), verbs like ''brigar'' (to
fight Combat (French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...
), suffixes like ''reguengo'' ( royal domain) and everyday objects such as ''frasco'' (
flask Flask may refer to: Container * Hip flask, a small container used to carry a small amount of liquid * Laboratory flask, laboratory glassware for holding larger volumes than simple test tubes ** Erlenmeyer flask, a common laboratory flask wit ...
). From 711, with the
Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or s ...
invasion of the Iberian Peninsula,
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
was adopted as the administrative language in the conquered regions. However, much of the population continued to speak the Latin-derived Romance dialects, called collectively by modern linguists
Mozarabic Mozarabic, also called Andalusi Romance, refers to the medieval Romance varieties spoken in the Iberian Peninsula in territories controlled by the Islamic Emirate of Córdoba and its successors. They were the common tongue for the majority of ...
. The main effect of the Arabic influence was lexical. Modern Portuguese has anywhere from 400 up to 800 words of Arabic origin (many were absorbed indirectly through Mozarabic) especially relating to food, agriculture and the crafts, which have no cognates in other Romance languages except in Spanish from which, in fact, Portuguese borrowed many of its Arabic-derived words. The Arabic influence is also visible in placenames, especially in the southern provinces, such as the
Algarve The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has it ...
,
Alfama The Alfama () is the oldest neighborhood of Lisbon, spreading on the slope between the São Jorge Castle and the Tagus river. Its name comes from the Arabic ''al-ḥamma'' (), meaning "hot fountains" or "baths," akin to "hammam" (). The district i ...
and Fátima. However, there are no Arabic loan words in the lexicon related to human feelings or emotions; those are all of
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
, Germanic or
Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...
origin.


Proto-Portuguese

The oldest surviving records containing written
Galician-Portuguese Galician-Portuguese ( gl, galego-portugués or ', pt, galego-português or ), also known as Old Portuguese or as Medieval Galician when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle ...
are documents from the 9th century. In these official documents, bits of Galician-Portuguese found their way into texts that were written in Latin. Today, this phase is known as "Proto-Portuguese" simply because the earliest of these documents are from the former
County of Portugal The County of Portugal ( pt, Condado de Portugal, Condado Portucalense, Condado de Portucale; in documents of the period the name used was Portugalia) refers to two successive medieval counties in the region around Braga and Porto, today corres ...
, although Portuguese and Galician were still a single language. This period lasted until the 12th century.


The lyric period

What modern scholars call ''Galician-Portuguese'' was originally the native language of the medieval
Kingdom of Galicia The Kingdom of Galicia ( gl, Reino de Galicia, or ''Galiza''; es, Reino de Galicia; pt, Reino da Galiza; la, Galliciense Regnum) was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire north ...
, which was founded in 410 and included the northern part of present-day
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...
. It appears to have also been used regularly in other Christian kingdoms of the
Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...
as the language for lyric song. It was employed by poets from throughout the non-Basque medieval Christian kingdoms of the peninsula; including Leonese, Castilian,
Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to s ...
ese and
Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
. It is also the language used in the ''
Cantigas de Santa Maria The ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'' (, ; "Canticles of Holy Mary") are 420 poems with musical notation, written in the medieval Galician-Portuguese language during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile ''El Sabio'' (1221–1284). Traditionally, they a ...
''. These songs were traditionally attributed to
Alfonso X Alfonso X (also known as the Wise, es, el Sabio; 23 November 1221 – 4 April 1284) was King of Castile, León and Galicia from 30 May 1252 until his death in 1284. During the election of 1257, a dissident faction chose him to be king of Ger ...
, a Castilian king, though more recent work shows that they must have been composed in collaboration with many translators, poets and musicians.


The divergence of Galician-Portuguese

Portugal was formally recognized as an independent kingdom in 1143 by the
Kingdom of León The Kingdom of León; es, Reino de León; gl, Reino de León; pt, Reino de Leão; la, Regnum Legionense; mwl, Reino de Lhion was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 910 when t ...
, into which Galicia was incorporated at the time, with
Afonso Henriques Afonso I of PortugalOr also ''Affonso'' (Archaic Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonso'' (Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonsus'' ( Latin version), sometimes rendered in English as ''Alphonzo'' or ''Alphonse'', depending on the Spanish or French in ...
as its first king. In 1290, King Diniz created the first Portuguese university, in Coimbra (the ''Estudo Geral'') and decreed that the language of the Portuguese, then simply called the "Vulgar language" (i.e.
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
) should be used in preference to
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
and known as the "Portuguese language". In 1296, Portuguese was adopted by the royal chancellary and was used not only in poetry but also when writing law and in notaries. In the first period of "Old Portuguese" (from the 12th to 14th century), the language came gradually to be used in official documents. With the political separation of the County of Portugal from Galicia, Galician-Portuguese lost its unity and slowly became two increasingly distinct languages. This growing difference accelerated when the kingdom of León was united with Castile (13th century) and Galician was increasingly influenced by Castilian. Meanwhile, the southern variant of Galician-Portuguese became the modern Portuguese language within the
Kingdom of Portugal The Kingdom of Portugal ( la, Regnum Portugalliae, pt, Reino de Portugal) was a monarchy in the western Iberian Peninsula and the predecessor of the modern Portuguese Republic. Existing to various extents between 1139 and 1910, it was also kn ...
and its empire.


Portuguese outside of Portugal

Portuguese is the second most spoken Romance language, behind Spanish, partially because of the large population of speakers in Brazil, where it is the national language. There are many respects in which Brazilian Portuguese differs from European Portuguese in sound and structure. Another notable difference is the presence of more audible vowels in Brazilian Portuguese. Beyond this, the nuances of spoken versions of both language practices continue to evolve as generations of speakers age and the world continues to globalize, leading to changes in language practices internationally. Portuguese has been made an official language of Mozambique, Angola, the Cape Verde Islands, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, East Timor and Macao.


Standardization during the Renaissance

The end of "Old Portuguese" was marked by the publication of the ''Cancioneiro Geral'' by Garcia de Resende, in 1516. "Modern Portuguese" developed from the early 16th century to the present. During the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...
, scholars and writers borrowed many words from
Classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later period ...
(learned words borrowed from Latin also came from
Renaissance Latin Renaissance Latin is a name given to the distinctive form of Literary Latin style developed during the European Renaissance of the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries, particularly by the Renaissance humanism movement. Ad fontes '' Ad fontes' ...
) and
ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
, which increased the complexity of the Portuguese
lexicon A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word (), neuter of () meaning 'of or fo ...
. Most literate Portuguese speakers were also literate in Latin and so they easily adopted Latin words into their writing (and eventually speech) in Portuguese. As with most other European
vernacular language A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
s, the standardization of the Portuguese language was propelled by the development of the
printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
. In 1536, Fernão de Oliveira published his ''Grammatica da lingoagem portuguesa'' in Lisbon, the first
Portuguese grammar In Portuguese grammar, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and articles are moderately inflected: there are two genders (masculine and feminine) and two numbers (singular and plural). The case system of the ancestor language, Latin, has been lost, but ...
. The work of this heterodox Dominican priest, philologist and mariner was soon followed. In 1540,
João de Barros João de Barros () (1496 – 20 October 1570), called the ''Portuguese Livy'', is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his '' Décadas da Ásia'' ("Decades of Asia"), a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southe ...
crown officer published his ''Gramática da Língua Portuguesa'' along with moral dialogues and basics of the Catholic Church to help teaching young aristocrats. This second work, illustrated with woodcuts, is considered the world's first printed illustrated
textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textbook ...
.


Expansion during the age of discovery

The second period of Old Portuguese covers the time from the 14th to the 16th centuries and is marked by the Portuguese discoveries of the 15th and 16th centuries. Colonisers, traders and missionaries spread the Portuguese language to many regions in
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
,
Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
and
The Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...
. Today most Portuguese speakers live in Brazil, the biggest former colony of Portugal. By the mid-16th century, Portuguese had become a ''
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
'' in Asia and Africa, used for not only colonial administration and trade but also communication between local officials and Europeans of all nationalities. In Ceylon (modern
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
), several kings became fluent speakers of Portuguese, and nobles often took Portuguese names. The spread of the language was helped by its association with the
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
efforts, which led to its being called ''Cristão'' ("
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...
") in many places. The ''
Nippo Jisho The or ''Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam'' (''Vocabulário da Língua do Japão'' in modern Portuguese; "Vocabulary of the Language of Japan" in English) is a Japanese to Portuguese dictionary compiled by Jesuit missionaries and published in ...
'', a Japanese–Portuguese dictionary written in 1603, was a product of
Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...
missionary activity in
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
. The language continued to be popular in parts of Asia until the 19th century, despite the severe measures taken by the
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
to abolish it in Ceylon and
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
. Some Portuguese-speaking Christian communities in
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
,
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
,
Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...
and
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
preserved their language even after they were isolated from Portugal. The language has largely changed in these communities and has evolved through the centuries into several Portuguese creoles. Also, a considerable number of words of Portuguese origin are found in
Tetum , nativename=Tetun , states= Indonesia East Timor , speakers=, mostly in Indonesia , date=2010–2011 , ref=e18 , speakers2=50,000 L2-speakers in Indonesia and East Timor , familycolor=Austronesian , fam2=Malayo-Polynesian , fam3= Central–East ...
, the national language of
East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-w ...
, such as ''lee'' " to read" (from ''ler''), ''aprende'' " to learn" (from ''aprender'') and ''tenke'' "to have to" (from ''tem que''). Portuguese words entered the lexicons of many other languages, such as ''pan'' "
bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...
" (from ''pão'') in
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
(see
Japanese words of Portuguese origin Many Japanese words of Portuguese origin entered the Japanese language when Portuguese Jesuit priests introduced Christian ideas, Western science, technology and new products to the Japanese during the Muromachi period (15th and 16th centuries). ...
), ''sepatu'' "
shoe A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from cultur ...
" (from ''sapato'') in Indonesian, ''keju'' "
cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During productio ...
" (from ''queijo'') in Malay and ''meza'' " table" (from ''mesa'') in Swahili. Due to the vast expanse of the
Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the ...
, there are also numerous words that entered English (see:
List of English words of Portuguese origin This is a list of English words borrowed or derived from Portuguese (or Galician-Portuguese). The list also includes words derived from other languages via Portuguese during and after the Age of Discovery. In other Romance language their imports ...
) such as ''albino'', ''
baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...
'', ''mosquito'', ''potato'', ''savvy'' and ''zebra''.


Historical sound changes

In both morphology and
syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...
, Portuguese represents an organic transformation of
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
without the direct intervention of any foreign language. The sounds, grammatical forms, and syntactical types, with a few exceptions, are derived from Latin, and almost 80% of its vocabulary is still derived from the language of Rome. Some of the changes began during the
Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
, others took place later. A few words remained virtually unchanged, like ''carro'', ''taberna'' ("tavern"), or even returned to a form close to the original, such as ''coxa'' ("thigh") – in this case, however, only the spelling looks identical: Latin ⟨''x''⟩ and Portuguese ⟨''x''⟩ designate two completely different sounds, and respectively. Learned
Latinism A Latinism (from lat-med, Latinismus) is a word, idiom, or structure in a language other than Latin that is derived from, or suggestive of, the Latin language. The Term ''Latinism'' refers to those loan words that are borrowed into another lan ...
s were formed in the late Middle Ages, due to the use of
Church Latin Latin, also called Church Latin or Liturgical Latin, is a form of Latin developed to discuss Christian thought in Late Antiquity and used in Christian liturgy, theology, and church administration down to the present day, especially in the Catho ...
by the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
, and during the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...
, when
Classical antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...
in general, and
Literary Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a Literary language, literary standard language, standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed ...
in particular, enjoyed great prestige. Thus, for example, Latin ''aurum'', which had originated ''ouro'' ("gold") and ''dourado'' ("golden"), was re-introduced as the adjective ''áureo'' ("golden"). In the same way, ''locālem'' ("place"), which had evolved to ''lugar'', was later reintroduced as the more erudite ''local''. Many erudite
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
words and combining elements were also introduced or reintroduced in this way. Because of this, many of these words are still familiar to Portuguese speakers.


Medieval Galician-Portuguese phonology

As far as it is known,
Galician-Portuguese Galician-Portuguese ( gl, galego-portugués or ', pt, galego-português or ), also known as Old Portuguese or as Medieval Galician when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle ...
(from 11th to 16th centuries) had possibly a 7-oral-vowel system (like in most of Romance languages) and a 5-nasal-vowel system . The vowels were raised to in unstressed syllables, even in final syllables (like in modern Spanish); e.g. ''vento'' , ''quente'' . However, the distribution (including ) is still dubious and under discussion; some either stating that these two vowels were allophones and in complementary distribution (like in Spanish and Modern Galician, only treated as ), ''Alemanha, manhã'' ; or stating they were not allophones and under distribution like in European Portuguese nowadays, ''Alemanha, manhã'' .


Modern Portuguese phonology

Around the 16th century, according to Fernão de Oliveira's ''Grammatica da lingoagem portuguesa'', in Chapter VIII, and would already be considered as different phonemes. As a result, the vowel phonology would consist about an 8-oral-vowel system and a 5-nasal-vowel system ; possibly resulting that would be raised to in unstressed syllables (even in final syllables). Prosodic change in the Classical to Modern pronunciations of Portuguese has been studied through a statistical analysis in evolution of written texts in the 16th and 17th centuries.


Contemporary Portuguese phonology

From the 16th century to now, Brazilian and European varieties started evolving separately, resulting in meaningful differences regarding vowel phonology. Brazilian Portuguese conserves the 8-oral-vowel system, but European and African varieties innovated by creating a 9th new vowel: , generally used when "e" is unstressed. *European Portuguese (EP): it has taken a step further: are raised to in unstressed syllables, except by some words with double-consonant sequences where the first consonant was mute or not (the mute consonants do not exist anymore, since the last spelling reform), opening the vowels to . E.g. ''abstenção'' , ''objeto'' 'objecto'', ''direção'' 'direcção'', ''internet'' . However, notice ''setembro'' is pronounced , despite it would possible be spelled before ''septembro''. These exceptions apply to unchanged words before the 20th century spelling reforms because such etymological lost mute consonants would not be noticed as they once existed. The Lisbon variety (LEP, excluding
Setúbal Setúbal (, , ; cel-x-proto, Caetobrix) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies within the Lisbon metropolitan area. In the t ...
), has merged to before palatal consonants; e.g. "brasileiro" , "coelho" , "sexta-feira" . *Brazilian Portuguese (BP): are raised to in middle unstressed syllables ( in Northeastern varieties), and to in final unstressed syllables (however, some varieties, like
Carioca Carioca ( or ) is a demonym used to refer to anything related to the City of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. The original meaning of the term is controversial, maybe from Tupi language "''kari' oka''", meaning "white house" as the whitewashed stone ...
Portuguese raise to in middle unstressed syllables, when in European Portuguese are permissible). When words with double-consonant sequences where the first consonant is not mute, the vowels are opened to in stressed syllables, raised to in unstressed syllables. E.g. ''abstenção'' , ''objeto'' , ''internet'' . *Angolan Portuguese (AP): are raised to ( being also a possible allophone, according to European Portuguese rules) in middle unstressed syllables, and raised to in final unstressed syllables. In Angolan Portuguese, unlike European Portuguese and Brazilian varieties; merge in complementary distribution to (even becomes more open ), and only appears as an allophone in unstressed last syllables. When words with double-consonant sequences where the first consonant is not mute, the vowels are opened to . E.g. ''abstenção'' , ''objeto'' , ''internet'' .


Palatalization

Palatalization of voiceless stops—the consonants and assimilated with the high vowels and , and with the semivowel . * ''centum'' > > ''cento'' > > > (hundred) * ''centum'' > > ''cento'' > > ''cem'' > > (EP, BP, AP) ~ (LEP) (hundred) * ''facere'' > > ''facer'' > ''fazer'' > > (EP) ~ (BP, AP) A more ancient evolution was * ''fortiam'' > > > ''força'' > > (strength) Palatalization of liquids and nasals—the consonants and assimilated with the semivowel , producing the palatals lh and nh : * mulierem > mulher > (woman) * iūnium > junho > (EP) ~ (BP, AP) (June)


Voicing

Voicing—some consonants did not disappear but rather evolved with voiceless stops becoming voiced stops and voiced stops becoming voiced fricatives in certain positions, a common type of
sound change A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chan ...
: * ''mūtum'' > ''mudo'' > (mute) * ''lacum'' > ''lago'' > (lake) * ''locustam'' > ''lagosta'' > (EP) ~ (BP) ~ (AP) (lobster)


Lenition

Lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a pa ...
—consonant clusters, especially long (geminate) consonants, were simplified: * ''guttam'' > ''gota'' (drop) * ''quattuor'' > ''quatro'' > (four) * ''peccāre'' > ''pecar'' > (EP) ~ (BP, AP) (to sin) Phoneme /b/ evolved as The phoneme was generally derived either (1) from an allophone of Latin between vowels or (2) from the Latin phoneme corresponding to the letter ⟨v⟩ (pronounced in Classical Latin, but later
fortified A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere' ...
to the status of a
fricative consonant A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
in Vulgar Latin). *''habēre'' > ''haver'' > (EP) ~ (BP, AP) * ''fabam'' > ''fava'' (broad bean) *''amābam'' , ''amābat'' > ''amava'' (EP) ~ (BP, AP) *''lībrum'' > ''livro'' > *''parabolam'' > ''palavra'' (EP) ~ (BP, AP)


Elision

[]—the consonants and of
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
were deleted between vowels, after which sometimes the vowels around them coalesced, or an epenthetic semivowel was introduced dolore > ''door'' > ''dor'' > (pain); (=elo'' > (bond); (L) ''anel'' (EP) ~ (BP) ~ (AP) (ring) * ''salīre'' > ''sair'' > (EP) ~ (BP, AP) (to get out)


Nasalization

In medieval
Galician-Portuguese Galician-Portuguese ( gl, galego-portugués or ', pt, galego-português or ), also known as Old Portuguese or as Medieval Galician when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle ...
, and between vowels or at the end of a syllable became the velar nasal phoneme , leading to regressive nasalization of the preceding vowel as a secondary phonetic effect. This consonant was then at a later stage lost or modified in Portuguese, although it was retained in Galician in some words (e.g. modern ''unha'' () identical in pronunciation to medieval ''hũa''). This change produced one of the most striking phonological differences between Portuguese and Spanish. The history of nasal vowels in hiatus with a previous or following vowel is complex, depending on the identity of the two vowels and the position of the stress. 1. If the vowels were near each other, they collapsed into a single vowel (nasal or oral, according to the nasality of the stressed vowel): * ''bonum'' > ''bõo'' > ''bom'' (good) * ''calentem'' > ''caẽte'' > ''quente'' > (EP, AP) ~ (BP) (hot) * ''ganātum'' > ''gãado'' > ''gado'' > (cattle) * ''lānam'' > ''lãa'' > ''lã'' (EP, BP) ~ (AP) (wool) 2. Otherwise, if the second vowel was more closed, the result was usually a nasal diphthong: * ''manum'' > ''mão'' ~ (EP, BP) (AP) (hand) * ''canēs'' > ''cães'' > > (EP) ~ (BP) ~ (AP) (dogs) 3. If the second vowel was more open, or as open, nasalization was lost: * ''lūnam'' > ''lũa'' > ''lua'' (moon). Exception: ''ūnam'' > ''ũa'' > ''uma'' (EP, AP, BP) ~ (BP) (one). In parts of northern Portugal, however, it is still pronounced , but now spelled ''uma''. * ''bonam'' > ''bõa'' > ''boa'' (good ''fem.'') * ''plēnum'' > ''chẽo'' > ''cheio'' > > (EP, BP, AP) ~ (EP, BP, AP) ~ (LEP) (full); (L) ''pleno'' (full) 4. If the first vowel was , however, nasalization evolved to a
palatal nasal The voiced palatal nasal is a type of consonant used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase letter ''n'' with a leftward-pointing tail protruding from the bottom ...
consonant, inserted between the two vowels: * ''vīnum'' > ''vĩo'' > ''vinho'' > (EP, BP) ~ (BP, AP) (wine) * ''rēgīnam'' > ''*ragina'' > ''raĩa'' > rainha (EP) ~ (BP) ~ (BP, AP) (queen) Progressive
nasalization In phonetics, nasalization (or nasalisation) is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal sound is . In the Internation ...
—The spread of nasalization forward from a nasal consonant, especially . * ''mātrem'' > ''made'' > ''mai'' > ''mãe'' (EP, BP) ~ (AP) (mother) * ''meam'' > ''mia'' > ''mĩa'' > ''minha'' (EP, BP) ~ (BP, AP) (my ''fem.''); but compare ''meum'' > ''meu'' (my ''masc.'') * ''ad noctem'' > ''anoite'' > ''ãote'' > ''ontem'' (EP, BP, AP) ~ (LEP) (yesterday).


Epenthesis

Epenthesis In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable ('' prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word ''epent ...
—the insertion of a sound to break up a sequence of vowels: * ''harēnam'' > ''arẽa'' > ''areia'' (EP) ~ (LEP) ~ (EP, BP, AP) ~ (EP, BP, AP) (sand); (L) ''arena'' (arena) * ''gallīnam'' > ''galĩa'' > ''galinha'' (EP) ~ (BP) ~ (BP, AP) (chicken) * ''vīnum'' > ''vĩo'' > ''vinho'' > (EP, BP) ~ (BP, AP) (wine) Examples such as the former two have been used by some authors to argue that the digraph ''nh'' was a nasal approximant in medieval Portuguese, and thus its pronunciation in most dialects of Brazil and São Tomé and Príncipe is the original one.


Dissimilation

Dissimilation In phonology, particularly within historical linguistics, dissimilation is a phenomenon whereby similar consonants or vowels in a word become less similar. In English, dissimilation is particularly common with liquid consonants such as /r ...
—Modification of a sound by the influence of neighboring sounds; similar became different over time. 1. Between vowels: * ''locustam'' > ''lagosta'' > (EP) ~ (BP) ~ (AP) (lobster) * ''campanam'' > ''campãa'' > ''campa'' (EP, BP) ~ (AP) (tomb) 2. Between consonants: * ''memorāre'' > ''nembrar'' > ''lembrar'' > (to remember); (L) ''memorizar'' > (EP) ~ (BP, AP) (to memorize) * ''animam'' > ''alma'' (EP, AP) ~ (BP) (soul); (L) ''animado'' (animated) * ''locālem'' > ''logar'' > ''lugar'' > ; (L) ''local'' > (EP) ~ (BP) ~ (AP) (place)


Metathesis

Metathesis—a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word. Semi-vowel metathesis: * ''prīmārium'' > ''primeiro'' > (EP, BP, AP) ~ (EP, BP, AP) ~ (LEP) (first); (L) ''primário'' > (primary) Consonant metathesis in and : * ''tenebrās'' > ''tẽevras'' > ''trevas'' > (EP, AP) ~ (BP) (darkness); this was rare in Portuguese; (L) ''tenebroso'' > (EP) ~ (BP, AP) (dark) Vowel metathesis: * ''genuculum'' > ''*genoclo'' ~ > ''gẽolho'' ~ > ''joelho'' > (EP, BP, AP) ~ (BP, AP) ~ (LEP) (knee)


Medieval sound changes

Old Portuguese Galician-Portuguese ( gl, galego-portugués or ', pt, galego-português or ), also known as Old Portuguese or as Medieval Galician when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle ...
had seven sibilants:
lamino-alveolar A laminal consonant is a phone (speech sound) produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue in contact with upper lip, teeth, alveolar ridge, to possibly, as ...
affricates (⟨''c''⟩ before ⟨''e/i''⟩, ⟨''ç''⟩ elsewhere) and (⟨''z''⟩);
apico-alveolar An apical consonant is a phone (speech sound) produced by obstructing the air passage with the tip of the tongue (apex) in conjunction with upper articulators from lips to postalveolar, and possibly prepalatal. It contrasts with laminal conson ...
fricatives (⟨''s''⟩, or ⟨''ss''⟩ between vowels) and (⟨''s''⟩ between vowels); palato-alveolar fricatives (⟨''x''⟩) and , earlier (⟨''j''⟩, also ⟨''g''⟩ before ⟨''e/i''⟩); and palato-alveolar affricate (⟨''ch''⟩). This system was identical to the system of
Old Spanish Old Spanish, also known as Old Castilian ( es, castellano antiguo; osp, romance castellano ), or Medieval Spanish ( es, español medieval), was originally a dialect of Vulgar Latin spoken in the former provinces of the Roman Empire that provided ...
, and Portuguese followed the same path as Old Spanish in deaffricating the sibilants and into lamino-alveolar fricatives that still remained distinct from the apico-alveolar consonants. This produced a system of six fricatives and one affricate, which is still maintained in parts Minho region and northeast Portuguese province of Trás-os-Montes and in the adjacent
Mirandese language The Mirandese language ( mwl, mirandés, links=no or ''lhéngua mirandesa''; pt, mirandês or ) is an Asturleonese language, Astur-Leonese language or language variety that is sparsely spoken in a small area of northeastern Portugal in Terra de ...
; but in most places, these seven sounds have been reduced to four. Everywhere except in the above-mentioned parts of Trás-os-Montes, the lamino-alveolar and apico-alveolar fricatives merged. (This appears to have happened no earlier than the seventeenth century, on the evidence of the spelling system used by
Alexandre de Rhodes Alexandre de Rhodes (15 March 1593 – 5 November 1660) was an Avignonese Jesuit missionary and lexicographer who had a lasting impact on Christianity in Vietnam. He wrote the '' Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum'', the first triling ...
to represent Middle Vietnamese). In parts of northern Portugal and
Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...
, they became apico-alveolars (as in the central and northern peninsular Spanish pronunciation of ). In most of Brazil, they became lamino-alveolar consonants (as in the English pronunciation of and ). In central and southern Portugal (and in
Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
and surrounding areas, due to the relocation of the Portuguese nobility in the early 1800s), they merged as lamino-alveolars before vowels, but as palato-alveolar elsewhere. Meanwhile, eventually lost its affrication and merged with , although is maintained throughout Trás-os-Montes and parts of Minho region. It appears that the sound written ⟨''v''⟩ was at one point during the medieval period pronounced as a
voiced bilabial fricative The voiced bilabial fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is B. The official symbol is the ...
. Subsequently, it either changed into a labiodental fricative (as in central and southern Portugal, and hence in Brazil), or merged into (as in northern Portugal and Galicia, similarly to modern Spanish). Also similarly to modern Spanish, the voiced stops eventually became pronounced as fricatives between vowels and after consonants, other than in the clusters (the nasals were presumably still pronounced in these clusters, rather than simply reflected as a nasal vowel). However, this change happened after the colonization of Brazil, and never affected
Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (' ), also Portuguese of Brazil (', ) or South American Portuguese (') is the set of varieties of the Portuguese language native to Brazil and the most influential form of Portuguese worldwide. It is spoken by almost all of ...
. Final unstressed was subsequently raised to . Final was eventually raised to in both Portugal and Brazil, but independently. Final unstressed was likewise raised to in Brazil, but shifted to in Portugal. In parts of Portugal (but not in Brazil), these changes have come to affect almost all unstressed instances of ; but not (which now appears as in some parts of the country), nor the former sequences (which now appear as respectively), nor in syllables closed by stop consonants (e.g. in ''secção'' "section", ''optar'' "to choose"). Hence in Portugal ''pesar'' "to weigh" but ''pregar'' "to preach" (former ''preegar'' < ''praedicāre''); ''morar'' "to live" , but ''corado'' "blushing" (former ''coorado'' < ''colōrātum''), ''roubar'' "to rob" . (In Brazil these appear as .) Recently in Rio de Janeiro (and rapidly spreading to other parts of Brazil), and have been affricated to and before , including from unstressed . Old Portuguese had a large number of occurrences of hiatus (two vowels next to each other with no consonant in between), as a result of the loss of Latin between vowels. In the transition to modern Portuguese, these were resolved in a complex but largely regular fashion, either remaining, compressing into a single vowel, turning into a diphthong, or gaining an epenthetic consonant such as or ; see above. Portuguese traditionally had two alveolar rhotic consonants: a flap and trill , as in Spanish. In many areas of Portugal the trill has passed into a uvular fricative . In most parts of Brazil, however, has become an ''unvoiced'' fricative (variously ), and all instances of not preceding a vowel have been likewise affected. (When final, this sound is sometimes not pronounced at all.) at the end of a syllable became heavily
velarized Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, velarization is transcribed by one of four d ...
in Portuguese. This still remains in Portugal, but in Brazil has progressed further, merging into .


See also

*
Differences between Spanish and Portuguese Portuguese and Spanish, although closely related Romance languages, differ in many aspects of their phonology, grammar and lexicon. Both belong to a subset of the Romance languages known as West Iberian Romance, which also includes several othe ...
* Galician language * History of Galicia *
History of Portugal The history of Portugal can be traced from circa 400,000 years ago, when the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Homo heidelbergensis. The Roman invasion in the 3rd century BC lasted several centuries, and developed the Roman provin ...
*
History of Brazil The history of Brazil begins with indigenous people in Brazil. Europeans arrived in Brazil at the ending of the 15th century. The first European to claim sovereignty over Indigenous lands part of what is now the territory of the Federative Repu ...
*
List of English words of Portuguese origin This is a list of English words borrowed or derived from Portuguese (or Galician-Portuguese). The list also includes words derived from other languages via Portuguese during and after the Age of Discovery. In other Romance language their imports ...
*
Portuguese vocabulary Most of the Portuguese vocabulary comes from Latin language, Latin because Portuguese language, Portuguese is a Romance language. However, other languages that language contact, came into contact with it have also left their mark. In the thirtee ...
*
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
* Spelling reforms of Portuguese *
Museum of the Portuguese Language The Museum of the Portuguese Language ( pt, Museu da Língua Portuguesa, , ) is an interactive Portuguese language—and Linguistics/Language Development in general—museum in São Paulo, Brazil. It is housed in the Luz Station, Estação da Luz ...
*
Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990 The Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990 ( pt, Acordo Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa de 1990) is an international treaty whose purpose is to create a unified orthography for the Portuguese language, to be used by all the count ...


References


External links


Changes to the Portuguese Language
{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Portuguese