Thursday, December 2, 2010

Language

Portuguese is the official language of Portugal in Spain. Portuguese is among the world's ten most popular languages and is spoke by over 213 million people on four continents: Portugal, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe and most recently East Timor. The Portuguese in all of these countries has slight variations, with Brazilian Portuguese being the most different, not only in pronunciation, but also in grammer and syntax.
The main challenge of Portuguese pronunciation for English speakers are the characteristic nasal sounds. Most other phonemes are similar to those in English.

Over half of the Portuguese population is bilingual in Portuguese and another, major language that isn't native to the Republic. The top three languages in that category are English, French, and Spanish. Anywhere from 26%-32% of the population speaks Portuguese and English. Another 24% speaks Portuguese and French. And yet another 9% speaks Portuguese and Spanish.


Below is a video showing the common greetings in Portuguese. Enjoy!