Portuguese Language

Portuguese Language around the World

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Portuguese is one of the most interesting languages I’ve ever come to learn. I always wanted to learn this language at some point in my life, but I’d never really had the chance to do so, until very recently. The reason why I wanted to learn Portuguese is because I fell in love with it, and this language has always been a mystery to me. Let’ see what Portuguese really is.


Portuguese is a Romance language, spoken in many different parts of the world. Nine independent countries have Portuguese as an official language:

Angola

Brazil

Cape Verde

East Timor

Equatorial Guinea

Guinea-Bissau

Mozambique

Portugal

São Tomé and Príncipe

Portuguese is also one of the official languages of the special administrative region of Macau in China.

Macau

It can also be found in some other parts of the world, namely the states of Goa in India and Malacca in Malaysia.

Portuguese has many different dialects, but mainly it’s divided into two main parts: European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. These two dialects are so different that a lot of times we can see them listed as two separate languages. The difference between the two dialects varies from spelling to the use of verb tenses and terminology. In Portugal, Brazilian Portuguese would carry a lot of "mistakes" and awkward word choices and may often be considered an uncultured variation of the European form.

Portugalų kalba pasaulyje

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Portugalų kalba yra viena iš įdomiausių kalbų, kurių mokausi. Visada norėjau šios kalbos kada nors mokytis, bet niekada to daryti neteko. Viena iš priežasčių, dėl kurių norėjau jos mokytis yra tai, kad šią kalbą įsimylėjau, ir ši kalba man visada buvo mįslinga. Pažiūrėkime, kas tikrai yra portugalų kalba.


Portugalų kalba yra viena iš romanų kalbų, ir ji yra naudojama daug kur. Portugalų kalba yra valstybinė kalba šiose devyniose šalyse:

Angola

Brazilija

Žaliasis Kyšulys

Rytų Timoras

Pusiaujo Gvinėja

Bisau Gvinėja

Mozambikas

Portugalija

San Tomė ir Prinsipė

Portugalų kalba yra taip pat viena iš dviejų oficialiųjų kalbų Makao specialiajame administraciniame regione, esančiame Kinijoje.

Makao

Galime rasti portugalų kalbą ir kitur, pvz. Goa, Indijoje ir Malaka, Malaizijoje.

Portugalų kalba turi įvairių tarmių, ir ją galima padalinti į dvi pagrindines dalis: Europos portugalų kalba ir Brazilijos portugalų kalba. Šios dvi tarmės yra itin skirtingos, kad daug kur jos yra pripažinamos kaip dvi skirtingos kalbos. Skirtumai tarp jų yra įvairūs, nuo žodžių tarimo iki veiksmažodžių laikų ir terminologijos. Iš Portugalijos požiūrio galima sakyti, kad Brazilijos portugalų kalba yra pilna gramatinių "klaidų" ir keistų žodžių, ir ji dažnai laikoma nekultūringu variantu lyginant su Europos portugalų kalba.

Comparison between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese

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Pronunciation

• In BP, final [e] is pronounced as [i] at the end of a word, while it’s reduced to a short [e] in EP.
• Syllables [di] and [ti] are pronounced as [dzhi] and [tshi] in BP (the same rule applies for [de] and [te] at the end of a word). This does not occur in EP.
• Final [l] is pronounced as [u] at the end of a word in BP. This does not occur in EP.
• Initial [r] and double [rr] are both pronounced as [h] in BP, while they sound like French [r] in EP.
• In BP, final [r] is suppressed to sound like [h]. This may occur in EP too, but much less frequently.
• In EP, the sounds [s] and [z] consistently convert to [sh] and [zh] before consonants or at stops. This may occur in some regions of Brazil, but in general it does not occur in BP.

Grammar

• EP has two ways of addressing a person (informal – “tu” and formal – “você”). In BP, “você” has replaced “tu” in many regions of Brazil and “tu” is rarely used in Brazil nowadays. This affects the language in many different ways. The subject pronoun “você” uses third-person forms, while “tu” has its own second-person forms; this makes it easier to learn BP than EP because EP has more forms to learn. Although “você” is used instead of “tu” in BP, other pronouns like “te”, “ti” and “contigo” are still common in Brazil.
  Example: (EP – “O que tu fazes?”, BP – “O que você faz?”).
  Translation: (“What are you doing?”).
• There are three demonstrative pronouns in EP (“este”, “esse” and “aquele”). In BP, the first two have merged into one, so only two pronouns are used (“esse” and “aquele”).
  Example: (EP – “Este livro!”, BP – “Esse livro!”).
  Translation: (“This book!”).
• In EP, definite articles are used before possessive pronouns. In BP, they are also used, but in many regions in Brazil they can be omitted, especially at the beginning of a sentence or after demonstrative pronouns.
  Example: (EP – “O meu gato!”, BP – “Meu gato!”).
  Translation: (“My cat!”).
  Example: (EP – “Este é o meu amigo!”, BP – “Esse é meu amigo!”).
  Translation: (“This is my friend”).
• In BP, the imperative mood is used differently than in EP due to the use of “você” instead of “tu”. In Brazil, there are two main ways to express commands. The first one is widely used in the spoken language and it’s similar to EP, while the second one is used in the written language.
  Example: (EP – “Fala! Não fales!”, BP – “Fala(fale)! Não fala(fale)!”).
  Translation: (“Speak! Don’t speak!”).
  Example: (EP – “Diz-me alguma coisa! Não me digas nada!”, BP – “Me diz(diga-me) alguma coisa! Não me diz(me diga) nada!”).
  Translation: (“Tell me something! Don’t tell me anything!”).
• In BP, “seu” and “sua” are used with “você” as second-person possessive pronouns, while “teu” and “tua” are used with “tu” in EP.
  Example: (EP – “Dá-me o teu número!”, BP – “Me dê seu número!”).
  Translation: (“Give me your number!”).

Syntax

• The word order in EP and BP can be different in many cases.
  Example: (EP – “Eu amo-te!”, BP – “Eu te amo!”).
  Translation: (“I love you!”).
  Example: (EP – “Diz-me!”, BP – “Me diz!” or “Diga-me!”).
  Translation: (“Tell me!”).
• Use of third-person object pronouns in EP and BP is different.
  Example: (EP – “Eu vi-a!”, BP – “Eu a vi!” or “Eu vi ela!”).
  Translation: (“I saw her!”).

More Information

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Portuguese is considered the 7^th most spoken language in the world by number of speakers (who are estimated to be around 220 million), and the 6^th by number of countries (officially spoken in 10 countries). Brazil alone has a population of 192 million, which means that 87% of Portuguese speakers are Brazilian. Portuguese is a very nice language to learn, and it’s not as hard as one might think.

If you are planning to learn Portuguese, you should consider learning both EP and BP simultaneously, because this would help you understand the difference between the two. You might wanna start with EP because it’s harder to learn, and once you see yourself making progress, you can start practicing BP as well.

Daugiau informacijos

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Portugalų kalba yra septinta pasaulyje pagal kalbėtojų skaičių (apie 220 m.), ir šešta pagal šalių, kuriose ji laikoma valstybine, skaičių (oficialiai naudojama 10 šalių). Brazilijos populiacija yra apie 192 m., ir tai reiškia, kad 87% portugalų kalbėtojų yra brazilai. Portugalų kalba yra labai įdomi kalba, ir ji nėra labai sudėtinga kaip galėtume įsivaizduoti.

Jeigu galvoji mokytis šios kalbos, patariu mokytis abiejų EP ir BP kartu, nes tai padėtų suprasti pagrindinius skirtumus tarp jų. Geriau pradėti nuo EP, nes jinai yra sunkesnė, ir kai manai, kad jau pradėjai suprasti ir šiek tiek kalbėti, gali ir BP mokytis pradėti.

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