The Portuguese language comes from vulgar Latin. It is adopted by about 230 million people, making it the eighth most spoken language on the planet. It is present on four continents.
In addition to Brazil, Portuguese is also the language of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, São Tome and Príncipe and, of course, Portugal. It is now the second language of some countries in Africa, America, in addition to Macau and Goa.
Since 1986, Portuguese is one of the official languages of the European Union. In 1996, the CPLP (Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries) was created. The entity’s objective is to increase cooperation between countries, create partnerships and spread the language.
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The evolution of the language is divided into five periods:
- Pre-Romanesque : originated from vulgar Latin (sermo vulgaris). Vulgar Latin was the language taken by soldiers to areas conquered in the Roman Empire because it was the official language of Rome.
- Romanesque : these are the languages that resulted from the differentiation or Latin taken by the Roman conquerors. With successive transformations, Latin is replaced by dialects. Of these, from the transition that started in the 5th century, the other Romance languages emerge four centuries later: French, Spanish, Italian, Sardinian, Provencal, Retic, Franco-Provencal, Dalmatian and Romanian. Portuguese appeared in the 13th century.
- Galician-Portuguese : it was the language of Galicia, in present-day Spain, and of the Portuguese regions of the Douro and Minho. It remains until the 14th century.
- Archaic Portuguese : is the language spoken between the 13th century and the first half of the 16th century. It is in this period that the grammatical studies of the Portuguese language begin.
- Modern Portuguese : is the language currently spoken in Brazil and in other Portuguese-speaking countries.
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The unification of Portugal, which took place in the 13th century, is also the mark for the definition of a language for the country. With the borders defined, Galician becomes the official language of the country, with the language being defined as Portuguese Galician.
It is also in the 13th century that the first publications are found with entries similar to the current language.
History of the Portuguese Language in Brazil
It was the Portuguese territorial expansion process that took the language to four continents. Where it arrived, the language suffered from local influences.
In Brazil, for example, there are words in Portuguese that are of indigenous or black origin. Brazil also has immense diversity.
The term used to classify dialects is dialectology. In Brazil, scholars consider six dialectological groups.
The group from the Amazon region is called Amazon, and the northeast, from the Northeast. The rest of the country is divided into Bahian, Fluminense, Minas Gerais and Southern. The region located in the north of the State of Mato Grosso is classified as non-characteristic.
New Portuguese Language Spelling Agreement
The Portuguese-speaking countries signed, on October 12, 1990, the New Orthographic Agreement for the Portuguese Language . The objective was to unify grammatical rules for countries that adopt the language.
The implantation is gradual. For Brazil and Portugal it would end in December 2015, but countries like Cape Verde have until 2019 to complete the implementation.
The agreement was signed by Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe.