A Vibrante Língua Portuguesa

I remember my grandparents very fondly. From them I learned the value of work and honesty. As Portuguese immigrants, they had to work very hard to support their family. I remember my grandmother's recipes (extremely delicious), and above all I remember that she taught me principles and values that I still keep and treasure.

When I was a child, I accompanied my mother to the market. We were accompanied by a neighbor (a childhood friend of my mother's), and her daughter, a year older than me. Due to the economic problems that were happening in the country at that time, suddenly a protest between police and demonstrators started. My mother and her friend immediately stopped shopping and we headed for the nearest house: my grandmother's. On the way, we all inhaled traces of the tear gas being thrown by the police. When we arrived at the house, my grandmother with her wisdom did not need explanations to know what was happening and its solution. She looked for some handkerchiefs, applied a few drops of vinegar, and gave them to each of us, "cheire o pano" she said. I obeyed instantly. However, my childhood friend only had a look of confusion on her face. "cheire o pano" my grandmother repeated to her... the little girl looked at me and whispered "what did she say?" and I replied "smell, smell the handkerchief". At that moment, my 7-year-old brain clicked and I discovered two things I had never seen before. First, that my grandmother spoke another language; second, that I understood her: I was bilingual without knowing it! I knew Portuguese!

There is a large community of Portuguese descendants in my country Venezuela, as in other Latin American countries, which received entire communities of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese immigrants in post-war times. Today I want to dedicate my article to the language of my grandparents, and how it was able to spread to eight countries, three continents and became one of the most influential languages in the modern world. Today's article is about the Portuguese language.

Historical, interesting and curious facts.

Let's start with its origin. Modern Portuguese comes from the Galician-Portuguese language, with roots in Vulgar Latin. The first Portuguese grammar was published in Lisbon in 1536, by Professor Fernando de Oliveira, although it was officially declared a language in 1290 by King Denis of Portugal.

Despite this origin, it should be noted that it also has a strong Arabic influence as a result of the Islamic Moors from North Africa and the Middle East who conquered Portugal and Spain in the 8th century. Today, there are still many words of Arabic origin in this language such as 'almofada', which means 'pillow', as well as 'azeitona' to call the 'olives' or 'garrafa', which is the 'bottle'.

If you want to learn it, don't forget that there are differences between Portuguese in Portugal and in Brazil. One of the main differences is the second-person pronouns. In the Portuguese country, 'tu' and 'vós' are commonly used, while in the Brazilian state 'você' and 'vocês' are used.

In fact, Portuguese also has a wide variety of dialects and variants, and is the only language with two different official orthographies, officialized since 1990. The differences between the Portuguese of Europe, Africa and South America are easy to hear, even for those who do not know the language in depth. And within these variants, there are countless contrasts in spelling and grammar that make each dialect special.

It has 11 vowels with different variations. Portuguese vowels can be nasalized (although not as much as French) and the letters "a", "e" and "o" have open and closed forms.

One of its curious facts is that countries that have Portuguese as their main language do not border with other Portuguese-speaking countries.

The Portuguese language has a word that has no literal translation in any other language "saudade", which means something like "I love you" or "I miss you", but it also encompasses a feeling of nostalgia linked to a long-distance love.

If your intention is to fall in love in Portuguese, you should not overlook a “Quero-te muito” which means "I love you very much", “Gosto de ti” - "I like you" or, suddenly, “Você me faz feliz” or translated means "you make me happy".

Portuguese is an emerging, vibrant language, full of life, colors, and rhythms. Learning it will allow you to improve your communication skills on at least three different continents. Have you had any contact with this language? leave it in the comments... Muito obrigado por ler! (Thank you very much for reading!)

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