Summary – Portuguese is an ancient language. Let us get to know some lesser known facts about this language.
Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going. – Rita Mae Brown
Portuguese is an ancient language which is known for its rich history. It is often quoted as the sixth most spoken language in the world. It is a Roman language which developed in Portugal after Latin was carried there by Roman settlers in third century BCE. There are several interesting facts associated with the language. Let us get to know a few of them.
- The number of native Portuguese speakers around the world is approximately 300 million. However, most of them inhabit Brazil (around 200 million). Portugal, where the language originated, has only 20 million Portuguese speakers. The remaining speakers reside in other countries where Portuguese is the national language.
- All across the world, several corrupted versions of Portuguese exist. The language has given rise to a number of dialects for over five centuries. The most interesting fact is that a native Portuguese speaker can still understand any of these corrupted forms.
- Portuguese vocabulary has derived innumerable words from Arabic. It also has given way to several words from Italian, French, and some African as well as South American language.
- Portuguese has one of the largest vocabularies among European language. It is common for having two concepts of a word in any language. However, in Portuguese, every word has three to four words for any concept, mostly all synonyms and may have Latin, Greek, Arabic or Celtic roots.
- You may find it difficult to digest, but Brazilian Portuguese is much closer to 18th century Portuguese than European Portuguese! It means Brazilian Portuguese is much softer in pronunciation and uses a vocabulary and grammar of 250 years old version of the same language.
- It is easier to learn Brazilian Portuguese because the pronunciation is clearer and is spoken softly. On the other hand, European Portuguese sounds harsh, rough and the pronunciation is very quick without inflection.
- Brazilian Portuguese that is spoken by upper classes sounds very clear, precise as well as articulate, with all vowels and consonants pronounced perfectly.
Conclusion – We have many more such interesting facts about Portuguese and several other languages spoken around the world. Our experts are well-versed in translating any document in more than 30 languages. Be it Portuguese translation services or Chinese translation service, you can get assistance in any type of translation service. We offer accurate translation for any document. Contact us at 888-670-3369.