PORTUGUESE
If you want to learn Portuguese, you will be in good company: Portuguese is one of the world’s fastest-spreading languages and is a strategic language for global communication as well as for economic and political development.
Portuguese is now the most widely spoken language in South America, it is also a major lingua franca in Africa, and is an official language of eight countries spanning four of the earth’s inhabited continents.
Therefore, knowing Portuguese can help you find a job or put you in a good position in companies that are or that will be in contact with this South American powerhouse!
Vamos falar Português!
WHERE IS IT SPOKEN?
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE IN
Portugal, Brazil
Mozambique, Angola
Guinea-Bissau,
East Timor,
Equatorial Guinea, Macau
Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe.
NUMBER OF SPEAKERS
252 MILLION
LANGUAGE FAMILY
INDO-EUROPEAN
THREE FUN FACTS ABOUT PORTUGUESE
1. Three new letters were added to its alphabet in 2009.
Before 2009, the letters k, y, and w did not exist in Portuguese writing. Due to the recent influx of English loanwords, however, these three letters were officially added to the Portuguese alphabet in January of 2009.
2. Only 5% of Portuguese speakers live in Portugal.
There are over 200 million native Portuguese speakers, but only about 10 million of them - less than 1 in 20 - live in Portugal, the country that the language got its name from. The vast majority live in Brazil.
