History of the Portuguese Language
Portuguese Language in the World
Brazilian Regional Dialects

Portuguese is the eighth most spoken language and the third most spoken European language (after English and Spanish) in the world and, together with French, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, make up the five modern Romance languages.

While the Portuguese language has its roots firmly in Europe, most of the world's 210+ million Portuguese speaking people live elsewhere. In fact, non European speakers of the language outnumber their European cousins by over twenty to one. Many are surprised to learn that there are more Portuguese speaking people in South America than those who speak Spanish. But this is understandable when one realizes that Brazil is larger than the continental United States and has the largest population of any country in South America.

Because there are some similarities between Spanish and Portuguese, and both are a product of the Iberian peninsula, many erroneously believe that Portuguese is merely a dialect or form of Spanish. Nothing could be farther from the truth.