Portuguese today — Brazil, Portugal, and Africa
Where it is spoken
| COUNTRY | SPEAKERS |
|---|---|
| Brazil | ~215 million |
| Angola | ~30 million |
| Mozambique | ~30 million |
| Portugal | ~10 million |
| Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea | several million more |
Portuguese is an African language as much as a European one. Angola and Mozambique together have more speakers than Portugal, and their varieties have their own vocabulary and rhythm.
Brazil and Portugal
| FEATURE | BRAZIL | PORTUGAL |
|---|---|---|
| Vowels | open, clearly pronounced | reduced, often swallowed |
| “you” | você | tu, with você as formal |
| Ongoing action | estou falando | estou a falar |
| train | trem | comboio |
| bus | ônibus | autocarro |
| mobile phone | celular | telemóvel |
European Portuguese compresses unstressed vowels heavily, which is why Brazilians find Portuguese from Portugal harder to follow than the reverse. A beginner who learns the Brazilian pronunciation will be understood in both places.
The Arabic layer in Portuguese
Like Spanish, Portuguese absorbed a large Arabic vocabulary during the centuries of Al-Andalus.
| PORTUGUESE | FROM ARABIC | ENGLISH |
|---|---|---|
| açúcar | as-sukkar | sugar |
| azeite | az-zayt | olive oil |
| almofada | al-mikhadda | cushion |
| alface | al-khass | lettuce |
| armazém | al-makhzan | warehouse |
| álgebra | al-jabr | algebra |
| oxalá | law shā’ Allāh | hopefully, God willing |
Words beginning with al- or a- followed by a doubled consonant are usually Arabic in origin. Oxalá is still in everyday use and carries its original meaning.
Portuguese also lent heavily in the other direction — chá (tea) came from Chinese, and Portuguese words entered Japanese, Malay, and Bengali through the trading era: Bengali chabi, balti, janala, almari are all Portuguese.