Portugal is a country known for being one of the most historic in the world. It is the oldest nation in Europe, with it thought to date back as far as the 9th century, whilst it is also known to be the nation home to the continent’s oldest university, the University of Coimbra, which was founded in 1290.
Given its importance in history and across the world, it is perhaps no surprise to learn that the Portuguese language is widely used around the world and continues to be spoken by millions of different people in various countries.
Indeed, it perhaps is hardly a surprise to learn that there are more and more people who continue to look for the best online Portuguese classes and courses that they can take to learn the language, as vast numbers of the world’s population want to be able to communicate with others that they may not initially have been able to do so.
According to statistics, it has been revealed that Portuguese is the sixth most natively spoken language in the world, whilst it is also the fastest-growing European language to be currently learned; perhaps as much of the world has already learned Spanish andr French for various reasons.
Nonetheless, it is clear that the European language is significantly important and has a lot of appeals. Therefore it is perhaps important to explore several fascinating facts regarding it and provide you with an insight highlighting why there is so much interest in it.
What are some of the most fascinating facts?
These are just some of the most fascinating facts about the Portuguese language:
1. Portuguese is the sixth most spoken language globally , with over 260 million speakers.
2. It is the official language of 9 countries: Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor, and Equatorial Guinea.
3. Surprisingly, approximately only 5% of Portuguese speakers live in Portugal.
4. Portuguese has two different words for “yes”: sim (informal) and sim senhor/senhora (formal).
5. Interestingly, there is no word for “please” in Portuguese. Instead, you add “obrigado” (thank you) to make a request sound more polite.
6. The longest word in Portuguese has 29 letters: anticonstitucionalissimamente (“unconstitutionally”).
7. There are two different words for “the”: o (masculine) and a (feminine). For example, “o home” (the man) and “a mulher” (the woman).
8. The Portuguese language has many dialects, depending on the region where it is spoken. In Brazil, for example, Portuguese has been influenced by the Native American Tupi language, resulting in a unique dialect known as Brazilian Portuguese.
9. The letters K, W, and Y, were once absent from the Portuguese alphabet until only recently, as they were only introduced because of the influence of English on the foreign names that exist.
10. Portuguese is a romance language and can be closely linked to both Spanish and Italian, thus making it easier for people with Latin language skills to understand and communicate.
There you have it!
As you can tell, there are some interesting facts about the Portuguese language, with many of them perhaps being rather surprising to learn. For instance, it would have been rather hard to expect that only 5% of all Portuguese speakers actually live in the country where the language originates. It may also have been fascinating to learn that there is no word for “please”, either.
Did you know any of these facts? Or are they just as fascinating to you now you are aware of them?