Did you know? The Portuguese language is official in 9 countries of the world, around four continents.
Approximately 250 million people speak this language. After Brazil, the countries where the Portuguese are used are Mozambique, Angola and Portugal.
On the contrary, a lot of people think Spanish isn’t the closest language. The origin of this comes from the Galician-Portuguese that was spoken in the old Kingdom of Galicia and in the north of Portugal. With the creation of the Kingdom of Portugal back in the 12th century, and the consequent expansion to the south of the Iberian Peninsula and later on to South America and Africa, the Portuguese became international, there was the beginning of its importance.
As an aftereffect of this global existence, the Portuguese started to be influenced by the languages that previously existed in the areas that the Portuguese conquered. As a result of this, the tongue was enriched with words from different origins, as is Arabic, the local languages of the natives of Brazil and the African languages.
The importance remains nowadays as UNESCO recognizes that Portuguese are the language that grows the most in Europe after Spanish and English. Besides the projection for Africa and South America give us an idea of how important would be in the near future. As a language used in countries that are in constant evolution. Brazil is the best example to take care of the importance of knowing and recognizing the future of the Portuguese.
Borja Gandia Bernia
Students’ Union Spanish Volunteer
Project co-financed by ERASMUS+.
