The North Region ( Portuguese : Região do Norte [ʁɨʒiˈɐ̃w du ˈnɔɾtɨ] ) or Northern Portugal is the most populous region in Portugal , ahead of Lisbon , and the third most extensive by area. The region has 3,576,205 inhabitants according to the 2017 census, and its area is 21,278 kilometres (13,222 mi) with a density of 173 inhabitants per square kilometre. It is one of five regions of Mainland Portugal ( NUTS II subdivisions). Its main population center is the urban area of Porto , with about one million inhabitants; it includes a larger political metropolitan region with 1.8 million, and an urban-metropolitan agglomeration with 2.99 million inhabitants, including Porto and neighboring cities, such as Braga , Guimarães and Póvoa de Varzim . The Commission of Regional Coordination of the North (CCDR-N) is the agency that coordinates environmental policies, land-use planning, cities and the overall development of this region, supporting local governments and associations.
119-647: The Portuguese people ( Portuguese : Portugueses – masculine – or Portuguesas ) is a Romance -speaking ethnic group and nation indigenous to Portugal , a country that occupies the west side of the Iberian Peninsula in south-west Europe , who share culture , ancestry and language . The Portuguese state began with the founding of the County of Portugal in 868 . Following the Battle of São Mamede (1128), Portugal gained international recognition as
238-590: A colonial empire . It was one of the first global empires and one of the world's major economic, political and military powers in the 15th and 16th centuries, with territories that became part numerous countries. Portugal helped to launch the spread of Western civilization to other geographies. During and after the period of the Portuguese Empire , the Portuguese diaspora spread across the world. The Portuguese people's heritage largely derives from
357-596: A kingdom through the Treaty of Zamora and the papal bull Manifestis Probatum . This Portuguese state paved the way for the Portuguese people to unite as a nation. The Portuguese explored distant lands previously unknown to Europeans—in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania (southwest Pacific Ocean). In 1415, with the conquest of Ceuta , the Portuguese took a significant role in the Age of Discovery , which culminated in
476-712: A cluster within the haplogroup R category, is more prevalent along the Atlantic façade, including the Cantabrian Coast and Portugal. Its highest frequency is in Galicia (northwestern corner of Iberia). The frequency of haplogroup H shows a decreasing trend from the Atlantic façade toward the Mediterranean. This finding adds strong evidence that Galicia and Northern Portugal was a cul-de-sac population,
595-524: A form of Romance called Mozarabic which introduced a few hundred words from Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Berber. Like other Neo-Latin and European languages, Portuguese has adopted a significant number of loanwords from Greek , mainly in technical and scientific terminology. These borrowings occurred via Latin, and later during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Portuguese evolved from
714-515: A kind of European edge for a major ancient central European migration. An interesting pattern of genetic continuity exists along the Cantabria coast and Portugal, a pattern observed previously when minor sub-clades of the mtDNA phylogeny were examined. Given the Paleolithic and Neolithic origins, as well as Bronze Age and Iron Age Indo-European migrations, the Portuguese ethnic origin
833-625: A large part of the diaspora is a part of the already-counted population of the Portuguese-speaking countries and territories, such as the high number of Brazilian and PALOP emigrant citizens in Portugal or the high number of Portuguese emigrant citizens in the PALOP and Brazil. The Portuguese language therefore serves more than 250 million people daily, who have direct or indirect legal, juridical and social contact with it, varying from
952-452: A larger economy in that year than that of the whole countries of Bulgaria , Croatia or Slovenia , and with the largest growth in Portugal. In 2017, it reached 57,240.64 million, a 3.98% annual increase in GDP. It is highly industrialized within its densely populated western half, where well developed subregions such as Ave , Cávado , Entre Douro e Vouga , Grande Porto , and Tâmega have
1071-495: A lower admixture with Mediterraneans . The Portuguese have one unique characteristic: a high frequency of HLA-A25-B18-DR15 and A26-B38-DR13, which may reflect a founder effect from ancient Portuguese, i.e., Oestriminis and Cynetes . According to an early genetic study, the Portuguese are a relatively distinct population according to HLA data, as they have a high frequency of the HLA-A25-B18-DR15 and A26-B38-DR13 genes,
1190-632: A native language by vast majorities due to their Portuguese colonial past or as a lingua franca in bordering and multilingual regions, such as on the Brazilian borders of Uruguay and Paraguay and in regions of Angola and Namibia. In many other countries, Portuguese is spoken by majorities as a second language. There remain communities of thousands of Portuguese (or Creole ) first language speakers in Goa , Sri Lanka , Kuala Lumpur , Daman and Diu , and other areas due to Portuguese colonization . In East Timor,
1309-428: A notable business activity and state-of-the-art infrastructure. Textiles , footwear , food processing , mechanical , electrical , electronics and chemical industries, as well as finance and construction , are some of the main economic activities. Northern Portugal and Galicia form a Euroregion , based on the common historical, cultural, linguistic and economic similarities. The Euroregion has its origins in
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#17327871243631428-582: A reminder of the Gallaeci (also known as Callaeci), a Celtic tribe that lived in part of Northern Portugal . Alternatively the name may have come from the early settlement of Cale (today's Gaia ), situated on the mouth of the Douro River on the Atlantic coast ( Portus Cale ). The name Cale seems to come from the Celts – perhaps from one of their specifications, Cailleach – but which, in everyday life,
1547-729: A strip from Cape Santo André to the urban area of Porto. Politically, Northern Portugal is divided into 86 municipalities ( municípios ), which in turn are subdivided into 1,426 civil parishes ( freguesias ). The region was subdivided in supramunicipal districts in 1835. Northern Portugal includes the districts of Viana do Castelo, Braga, Porto, Vila Real, and Bragança, and partly the districts of Aveiro, Viseu, and Guarda. The largest municipalities are Vila Nova de Gaia (304,149), Porto (231,962), Braga (193,333), Matosinhos (172,669), Gondomar (164,255), Guimarães (156,852), Santa Maria da Feira (136,720), Maia (134,959), Vila Nova de Famalicão (133.590) and Barcelos (116,777), according to
1666-713: A tribal Celtic group, related to the Lusones . The first area settled by the Lusitanians was probably the Douro Valley and the region of Beira Alta ; they subsequently moved south, and expanded on both sides of the Tagus river , before the Roman conquest. The Lusitanians originated from either Proto-Celtic or Proto-Italic populations who spread from Central Europe into western Europe after Yamnaya migrations into
1785-418: A very intense medieval period. Regional cuisine is renowned and varied offering products such as light wines ( vinhos verdes ) and rich wines, and a variety of handicrafts that mingles the shine of filigree with the colour of the local embroideries. Northern Portugal is also very rich in folklore and traditions dating back to antiquity. Galicia and Northern Portugal have been promoting the official candidacy for
1904-437: A wizard') (Angola). From South America came batata (' potato '), from Taino ; ananás and abacaxi , from Tupi–Guarani naná and Tupi ibá cati , respectively (two species of pineapple ), and pipoca (' popcorn ') from Tupi and tucano (' toucan ') from Guarani tucan . Finally, it has received a steady influx of loanwords from other European languages, especially French and English . These are by far
2023-551: Is a Western Romance language of the Indo-European language family originating from the Iberian Peninsula of Europe . It is the official language of Angola , Brazil , Cape Verde , Guinea-Bissau , Mozambique , Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe , and has co-official language status in East Timor , Equatorial Guinea and Macau . Portuguese-speaking people or nations are known as Lusophone ( lusófono ). As
2142-456: Is a culturally varied region. It is a land of dense vegetation and profound historic and cultural wealth. What is now Northern Portugal was first settled by various pre-Celtic and Celtic tribes before being visited by a number of Mediterranean civilizations who traded in its river-mouths, including Greek , Carthaginians , conquest by the Romans , invasion by Germanic peoples , and attacks by
2261-588: Is also termed "the language of Camões", after Luís Vaz de Camões , one of the greatest literary figures in the Portuguese language and author of the Portuguese epic poem The Lusiads . In March 2006, the Museum of the Portuguese Language , an interactive museum about the Portuguese language, was founded in São Paulo , Brazil, the city with the greatest number of Portuguese language speakers in
2380-729: Is also the origin of the luso- prefix, seen in terms like " Lusophone ". Between AD 409 and AD 711, as the Roman Empire collapsed in Western Europe , the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Germanic peoples of the Migration Period . The occupiers, mainly Suebi , Visigoths and Buri who originally spoke Germanic languages , quickly adopted late Roman culture and the Vulgar Latin dialects of
2499-730: Is based on the Portuguese spoken in the area including and surrounding the cities of Coimbra and Lisbon , in central Portugal. Standard European Portuguese is also the preferred standard by the Portuguese-speaking African countries. As such, and despite the fact that its speakers are dispersed around the world, Portuguese has only two dialects used for learning: the European and the Brazilian. Some aspects and sounds found in many dialects of Brazil are exclusive to South America, and cannot be found in Europe. The same occur with
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#17327871243632618-412: Is considerably intelligible for lusophones, owing to their genealogical proximity and shared genealogical history as West Iberian ( Ibero-Romance languages ), historical contact between speakers and mutual influence, shared areal features as well as modern lexical, structural, and grammatical similarity (89%) between them. Portuñol /Portunhol, a form of code-switching , has a more lively use and
2737-508: Is either mandatory, or taught, in the schools of those South American countries. Although early in the 21st century, after Macau was returned to China and immigration of Brazilians of Japanese descent to Japan slowed down, the use of Portuguese was in decline in Asia , it is once again becoming a language of opportunity there, mostly because of increased diplomatic and financial ties with economically powerful Portuguese-speaking countries in
2856-579: Is further emphasized by research by the Max Planck Institute on the origins of Indo-European languages. One study identified one common Celtic branch of peoples and languages spanning most of Atlantic Europe, including Lusitania, at around 7,000 BC. This work contradicts previous theories that excluded Lusitanian from the Celtic linguistic family. In Roman times, the Roman province of Lusitania
2975-576: Is more readily mentioned in popular culture in South America. Said code-switching is not to be confused with the Portuñol spoken on the borders of Brazil with Uruguay ( dialeto do pampa ) and Paraguay ( dialeto dos brasiguaios ), and of Portugal with Spain ( barranquenho ), that are Portuguese dialects spoken natively by thousands of people, which have been heavily influenced by Spanish. North Region, Portugal Northern Portugal
3094-736: Is protected in the Northern Littoral Natural Park . The Minho , Lima , Neiva , Cávado , Ave and the Douro are the most preeminent rivers that flow to the Atlantic Ocean . Inland, the Tâmega is a major tributary which empties in the Douro river. The Douro is the most preeminent river, and one of the most important rivers in the Iberian Peninsula . The Minho river marks the northwestern Portuguese-Spanish border and
3213-784: Is the most common haplogroup in the Iberian peninsula and western Europe. One of the best-characterized of Iberian haplotypes is the Atlantic Modal Haplotype (AMH). This haplotype reaches the highest frequencies there and in the British Isles. In Portugal it reckons generally 65% in the South, ranging from 87-96% northwards. The Neolithic colonization of Europe from Western Asia and the Middle East, beginning around 10,000 years ago, reached Iberia after reaching
3332-733: Is the second most important river. There are four World Heritage Sites : the Alto Douro Wine Region, the Prehistoric Rock-Art Sites in the Côa Valley , the Porto historical Center and the Guimarães historical Center. Throughout the region the rivers, waterfalls, vineyards and fertile plots combine with the ancestral monuments in urban centres. The region has a warm Mediterranean climate ( Csb ) on
3451-721: Is understood by all. Almost 50% of the East Timorese are fluent in Portuguese. No data is available for Cape Verde, but almost all the population is bilingual, and the monolingual population speaks the Portuguese-based Cape Verdean Creole . Portuguese is mentioned in the Constitution of South Africa as one of the languages spoken by communities within the country for which the Pan South African Language Board
3570-636: Is usually listed as the fifth-most spoken native language , the third-most spoken European language in the world in terms of native speakers and the second-most spoken Romance language in the world, surpassed only by Spanish . Being the most widely spoken language in South America and the most-spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere , it is also the second-most spoken language, after Spanish, in Latin America , one of
3689-500: Is very irregular as topography and distance from the sea strongly influence precipitation levels, even at short distances. The inland mountainous areas in the northwest around the peaks of Peneda, Gerês and Marão have the highest rainfall in all of Portugal. The Douro valley, however, is among the driest areas in all of Portugal. Some rainy cities include Vila Real, Braga and, on the coast, Viana do Castelo. The coast tends to have balmy weather, high solar irradiance and lower rainfall in
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3808-561: The 2021 Census . Ignoring municipal subdivisions, the region has one urban area, Greater Porto, with about one million inhabitants, this includes Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia, Matosinhos, Maia and some large suburbs such as Rio Tinto and Ermesinde. There is a significant urban network just above Greater Porto, with about 600,000 inhabitants: the Minho Urban Quadrilateral ( Quadrilátero Urbano do Minho ), which includes Braga, Guimarães, Vila Nova de Famalicão and Barcelos; and
3927-607: The Anas ( Guadiana ) river. As the Lusitanians fought the Romans, the name Lusitania was adopted by the Gallaeci , tribes living north of the Douro, and other surrounding tribes, eventually spreading as a label to the nearby peoples fighting Roman rule in western Iberia. This led the Romans to name their original province in the area, which initially covered the entire western side of the Iberian peninsula, Lusitania. Rome conquered
4046-590: The Conquest of Faro , religious and ethnic minorities such as the so-called "new Christians" or the " Ciganos " ( Roma gypsies ) later suffered persecution from the state and the Inquisition . As a consequence, many were expelled, condemned, and subjected to auto-da-fé , or fled the country, creating a Jewish diaspora in the Netherlands , England, US, Brazil, Balkans , and beyond. The political origin of
4165-826: The Danube Valley , while Proto-Germanic and Proto-Balto-Slavic may have developed east of the Carpathian Mountains , in present-day Ukraine , moving north and spreading with the Corded Ware culture in Middle Europe (third millennium BCE). One theory claimed that a European branch of Indo-European dialects, termed "North-west Indo-European" and associated with the Bell Beaker culture , may have been ancestral to Celtic, Italic, Germanic, and Balto-Slavic lanaguages. The Lusitanians' Celtic root,
4284-708: The Economic Community of West African States , the Southern African Development Community and the European Union . According to The World Factbook ' s country population estimates for 2018, the population of each of the ten jurisdictions is as follows (by descending order): The combined population of the entire Lusophone area was estimated at 300 million in January 2022. This number does not include
4403-579: The European Union average in 2017. It is also the Portuguese NUTS II region with the highest unemployment rate (9.5% as of 2007). Northern Portuguese authorities have intensely promoted tourism as a means to attract external investment and further incomes in rural areas. Even if it was hit by the Global recession in 2009 and the Eurozone crisis in 2011 and 2012, it was the only region of
4522-450: The Indo-European ( Lusitanians , Conii ), and Celtic peoples ( Gallaecians , Turduli and Celtici ). They were later Romanized after the Roman conquest . The Portuguese language –the native language of the overwhelming majority of Portuguese people–stems from Vulgar Latin . A number of male Portuguese lineages descend from Germanic tribes who arrived as ruling elites after the Roman period, starting in 409 . These included
4641-738: The Moors and the Vikings . The region has been inhabited since prehistoric times and is a key area for the understanding of both Atlantic European , Megalithic and Castro cultures. Historically, Northern Portugal with Galicia in Spain, made up the Kingdom of Galicia . In protohistoric times, it was inhabited by Gallaeci tribes, related with the Lusitanians, and it corresponds roughly to Conventus Bracarensis of Roman Gallaecia . The historical Suebic Kingdom (5th-6th centuries AD) had its capital in
4760-771: The Peneda-Gerês National Park , Montesinho Natural Park , and the Alvão Natural Park . The coast, known as the Costa Verde , is a flat strip of land enclosed by sandy beaches and hills, the largest of which is the coastal plain between the Cávado and the Ave rivers. The area is known for the long stretch of picturesque sand dunes which accumulated during the Little Ice Age , part of which
4879-467: The Pontic–Caspian steppe of Eastern Europe during the Bronze Age , along with carriers of Indo-European languages like proto-Celtic and proto-Italic . Unlike older studies on uniparental markers, large amounts of autosomal DNA were analyzed in addition to paternal Y-DNA . An autosomal component was detected in modern Europeans that was not present in the Neolithic or Mesolithic, and which entered Europe with paternal lineages R1b and R1a, as well as
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4998-447: The Portuguese throne . The Portuguese share some DNA with the Basques . The results of the present HLA study in Portuguese populations show that they have features in common with Basques and some Madrid -area Spaniards : a high frequency of the HLA- haplotypes A29-B44-DR7 (ancient Western Europeans) and A1-B8-DR3 are common characteristics. Many Portuguese and Basques do not show the Mediterranean A33-B14-DR1 haplotype , confirming
5117-632: The Red Cross (alongside English, German, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian), Amnesty International (alongside 32 other languages of which English is the most used, followed by Spanish, French, German, and Italian), and Médecins sans Frontières (used alongside English, Spanish, French and Arabic), in addition to being the official legal language in the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights , also in Community of Portuguese Language Countries , an international organization formed essentially by lusophone countries . Modern Standard European Portuguese ( português padrão or português continental )
5236-407: The Republic of the Congo , Senegal , Namibia , Eswatini , South Africa , Ivory Coast , and Mauritius . In 2017, a project was launched to introduce Portuguese as a school subject in Zimbabwe . Also, according to Portugal's Minister of Foreign Affairs, the language will be part of the school curriculum of a total of 32 countries by 2020. In such countries, Portuguese is spoken either as
5355-400: The Roman province of Lusitania (modern Portugal , Extremadura and part of Salamanca ). They spoke Lusitanian , of which only a few short written fragments survive. Most Portuguese consider Lusitanians as their ancestors, although the northern regions ( Minho , Douro , Trás-os-Montes ) identify more with Gallaecians . Linguists such as Ellis Evans claimed that Gallaecian -Lusitanian
5474-463: The Suebi , Buri , Hasdingi Vandals and Visigoths . The pastoral North Caucasus ' Alans left traces in a few central-southern areas (e.g. Alenquer , from " Alen Kerke " or "Temple of the Alans"). The Umayyad conquest of Iberia , between the early 8th century until the 12th century , also left small Moorish , Jewish and Saqaliba genetic contributions. Other minor – as well as later – influences include small Viking settlements between
5593-497: The Suebi , the Buri , and the Visigoths (an estimated 2–3% of the population), ruled the peninsula for centuries and assimilated into the local population. Some of the Vandals ( Silingi and Hasdingi ) and Alans lingered. The Suebians were the most numerous Germanic tribes. Portugal and Galicia, (along with Catalonia which was part of the Frankish Kingdom ), are the regions with the highest ratios of Germanic Y-DNA. Other influences include small Viking settlements between
5712-472: The West Iberian branch of the Romance languages , and it has special ties with the following members of this group: Portuguese and other Romance languages (namely French and Italian ) share considerable similarities in both vocabulary and grammar. Portuguese speakers will usually need some formal study before attaining strong comprehension in those Romance languages, and vice versa. However, Portuguese and Galician are fully mutually intelligible, and Spanish
5831-590: The pre-Roman inhabitants of Portugal , which included the Gallaeci , Lusitanians , Celtici and Cynetes . Most of these words derived from the Hispano-Celtic Gallaecian language of northwestern Iberia, and are very often shared with Galician since both languages have the same origin in the medieval language of Galician-Portuguese. A few of these words existed in Latin as loanwords from other Celtic sources, often Gaulish . Altogether these are over 3,000 words, verbs, toponymic names of towns, rivers, surnames, tools, lexicon linked to rural life and natural world. In
5950-462: The -s- form. Most of the lexicon of Portuguese is derived, directly or through other Romance languages, from Latin. Nevertheless, because of its original Lusitanian and Celtic Gallaecian heritage, and the later participation of Portugal in the Age of Discovery , it has a relevant number of words from the ancient Hispano-Celtic group and adopted loanwords from other languages around the world. A number of Portuguese words can still be traced to
6069-428: The 10 most influential languages in the world. When the Romans arrived in the Iberian Peninsula in 216 BC, they brought with them the Latin language , from which all Romance languages are descended. The language was spread by Roman soldiers, settlers, and merchants, who built Roman cities mostly near the settlements of previous Celtic civilizations established long before the Roman arrivals. For that reason,
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#17327871243636188-427: The 10 most spoken languages in Africa , and an official language of the European Union , Mercosul , the Organization of American States , the Economic Community of West African States , the African Union , and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries , an international organization made up of all of the world's officially Lusophone nations. In 1997, a comprehensive academic study ranked Portuguese as one of
6307-410: The 15th century, the Portuguese maritime explorations led to the introduction of many loanwords from Asian languages. For instance, catana (' cutlass ') from Japanese katana , chá ('tea') from Chinese chá , and canja ('chicken-soup, piece of cake') from Malay . From the 16th to the 19th centuries, because of the role of Portugal as intermediary in the Atlantic slave trade , and
6426-561: The 5th century, the Iberian Peninsula (the Roman Hispania ) was conquered by the Germanic , Suebi and Visigoths . As they adopted the Roman civilization and language, however, these people contributed with some 500 Germanic words to the lexicon. Many of these words are related to: The Germanic languages influence also exists in toponymic surnames and patronymic surnames borne by Visigoth sovereigns and their descendants, and it dwells on placenames such as Ermesinde , Esposende and Resende where sinde and sende are derived from
6545-452: The 9th and 11th centuries , made by Norsemen who raided coastal areas mainly in Douro and Minho . The Moors occupied what is now Portugal from the 8th century until the Reconquista movement expelled them in 1249. Some 2.000 of their population, mainly Berbers and Christian Jews became New Christians ( Cristãos novos ); some descendants of these people are still identifiable by their new surnames . Several genetic studies, including
6664-405: The 9th and 11th centuries , made by Norsemen who raided coastal areas mainly in the northern regions of Douro and Minho . Low-incidence, pre-Roman influence came from Phoenicians and Greeks in southern coastal areas. The name Portugal is a portmanteau that comes from the Latin word Portus (meaning port) and a second word Cale , whose meaning and origin are unclear. Cale is probably
6783-440: The 9th and early 13th centuries, Portuguese acquired some 400 to 600 words from Arabic by influence of Moorish Iberia . They are often recognizable by the initial Arabic article a(l)- , and include common words such as aldeia ('village') from الضيعة aḍ-ḍayʿa , alface ('lettuce') from الخسة al-khassa , armazém ('warehouse') from المخزن al-makhzan , and azeite ('olive oil') from الزيت az-zayt . Starting in
6902-432: The 9th century until the 12th-century independence of the County of Portugal from the Kingdom of León , which had by then assumed reign over Galicia . In the first part of the Galician-Portuguese period (from the 12th to the 14th century), the language was increasingly used for documents and other written forms. For some time, it was the language of preference for lyric poetry in Christian Hispania , much as Occitan
7021-436: The 9th century. The term denoted the area between the Douro and Minho rivers. Portuguese origins are predominantly from Southern and Western Europe. The earliest modern humans inhabiting Portugal are believed to have arrived in the Iberian Peninsula 35,000 to 40,000 years ago. Y-chromosome and mtDNA data suggest that modern Portuguese trace a proportion of these lineages to the paleolithic peoples who began settling
7140-533: The Americas are independent languages. Portuguese, like Catalan , preserves the stressed vowels of Vulgar Latin which became diphthongs in most other Romance languages; cf. Port., Cat., Sard. pedra ; Fr. pierre , Sp. piedra , It. pietra , Ro. piatră , from Lat. petra ("stone"); or Port. fogo , Cat. foc , Sard. fogu ; Sp. fuego , It. fuoco , Fr. feu , Ro. foc , from Lat. focus ("fire"). Another characteristic of early Portuguese
7259-405: The Azores and Madeira belonged to 78–83% of the "Western European" haplogroup R1b , and Mediterranean J and E3b . The comparative table shows statistics by haplogroups of Portuguese men with men of European countries , and communities. Culturally and linguistically, the Portuguese are close to Galicians . The similarities among the two groups are pronounced. Galician and Portuguese may be
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#17327871243637378-403: The EU as a whole) as of 2023. People aged 65 or more accounted for 23%. The total fertility rate is 1.35 against the EU average of 1.53. Life expectancy at birth is 83. Due to the high percentage of senior citizens, the crude mortality rate (12%) is well in excess of the crude birth rate (8%). Portuguese language Portuguese ( endonym : português or língua portuguesa )
7497-416: The European continent at the end of the last glaciation around 45,000 years ago. Northern Iberia is believed to have been a major Ice age refuge from which Paleolithic humans later colonized Europe. Migrations from northern Iberia during the Paleolithic and Mesolithic link modern Iberians to much of Western Europe, particularly the British Isles and Atlantic Europe . Y-chromosome haplogroup R1b
7616-566: The Functional urban areas methology, using 2014 statistics, recognizes one metropolitan area: Porto (1,313,829inh.), one medium sized-urban area Braga (256,427) and three small urban areas: Guimarães (182,433), Viana do Castelo (88,848), and Póvoa de Varzim (63,428). According to the Portuguese statistics institute, the INE, in the 2011 Census: 4.7% of the population was foreign-born, most arrived from France, Angola, Brazil, Mozambique, Venezuela, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, South Africa, China, and Romania. Northern Portugal accounts for about 39% of
7735-480: The Germanic sinths ('military expedition') and in the case of Resende, the prefix re comes from Germanic reths ('council'). Other examples of Portuguese names, surnames and town names of Germanic toponymic origin include Henrique, Henriques , Vermoim, Mandim, Calquim, Baguim, Gemunde, Guetim, Sermonde and many more, are quite common mainly in the old Suebi and later Visigothic dominated regions, covering today's Northern half of Portugal and Galicia . Between
7854-531: The Indo-European languages. The first immigrations of Indo-European language speakers were followed by waves of Celts . The Celts arrived in Portugal about 3,000 years ago. Migration was particularly intense from the 7th to the 5th centuries BC. These two processes defined Iberia's cultural landscape "Continental in the northwest and Mediterranean towards the southeast", as historian José Mattoso described. The northwest–southeast cultural shift also shows in genetic differences: based on 2016 findings, haplogroup H,
7973-407: The Lusophone diaspora , estimated at 10 million people (including 4.5 million Portuguese, 3 million Brazilians, although it is hard to obtain official accurate numbers of diasporic Portuguese speakers because a significant portion of these citizens are naturalized citizens born outside of Lusophone territory or are children of immigrants, and may have only a basic command of the language. Additionally,
8092-533: The Portuguese acronym CPLP) consists of the nine independent countries that have Portuguese as an official language : Angola , Brazil , Cape Verde , East Timor , Equatorial Guinea , Guinea-Bissau , Mozambique , Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe . Equatorial Guinea made a formal application for full membership to the CPLP in June 2010, a status given only to states with Portuguese as an official language. Portuguese became its third official language (besides Spanish and French ) in 2011, and in July 2014,
8211-437: The Portuguese state is in the founding of County of Portugal in 868 ( Portuguese : Condado Portucalense ; in period documents the name used was Portugalia). It was the first time that a cohesive nationalism emerged there, as even during the Roman Era, the indigenous populations were from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Although the country began as a county, after the Battle of São Mamede on 24 June 1128 Portugal
8330-646: The Roman provinces in Gaul (modern France). Three years later (147 B.C.), Viriathus became the leader of the Lusitanians and attacked Roman rule in Lusitania and beyond. He commanded a confederation of Celtic tribes and prevented Roman expansion with guerrilla warfare. In 139 B.C. Viriathus was betrayed and killed in his sleep by his companions (emissaries to the Romans ), Audax, Ditalcus and Minurus , bribed by Marcus Popillius Laenas . However, when Audax, Ditalcus and Minurus returned to receive their reward, Consul Quintus Servilius Caepio ordered their execution, declaring, " Rome does not pay traitors " . Viriathus
8449-483: The Santomean, Mozambican, Bissau-Guinean, Angolan and Cape Verdean dialects, being exclusive to Africa. See Portuguese in Africa . Audio samples of some dialects and accents of Portuguese are available below. There are some differences between the areas but these are the best approximations possible. IPA transcriptions refer to the names in local pronunciation. Audio samples of some dialects and accents of Portuguese are available below. There are some differences between
8568-588: The areas but these are the best approximations possible. IPA transcriptions refer to the names in local pronunciation. Você , a pronoun meaning "you", is used for educated, formal, and colloquial respectful speech in most Portuguese-speaking regions. In a few Brazilian states such as Rio Grande do Sul , Pará, among others, você is virtually absent from the spoken language. Riograndense and European Portuguese normally distinguishes formal from informal speech by verbal conjugation. Informal speech employs tu followed by second person verbs, formal language retains
8687-565: The coast and a hot Mediterranean climate ( Csa ) along the Douro Valley. Northwestern Portugal has temperate summers and mild winters, influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and the diurnal temperature variation rarely reaches 10 °C (50.0 °F), while inland northeastern Portugal has hot summers and cold longer winters, hence continental features, and the diurnal temperature variation can reach 20 °C (68.0 °F). Rainfall
8806-778: The country was accepted as a member of the CPLP. Portuguese is also one of the official languages of the Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China of Macau (alongside Chinese ) and of several international organizations, including Mercosul , the Organization of Ibero-American States , the Union of South American Nations , the Organization of American States , the African Union ,
8925-467: The end of the 20th century, being most frequent among youngsters, and a number of studies have also shown an increase in its use in a number of other Brazilian dialects. Differences between dialects are mostly of accent and vocabulary , but between the Brazilian dialects and other dialects, especially in their most colloquial forms, there can also be some grammatical differences. The Portuguese-based creoles spoken in various parts of Africa, Asia, and
9044-701: The establishment of large Portuguese colonies in Angola, Mozambique, and Brazil, Portuguese acquired several words of African and Amerind origin, especially names for most of the animals and plants found in those territories. While those terms are mostly used in the former colonies, many became current in European Portuguese as well. From Kimbundu , for example, came kifumate > cafuné ('head caress') (Brazil), kusula > caçula ('youngest child') (Brazil), marimbondo ('tropical wasp') (Brazil), and kubungula > bungular ('to dance like
9163-643: The first Portuguese university in Lisbon (the Estudos Gerais , which later moved to Coimbra ) and decreed for Portuguese, then simply called the "common language", to be known as the Portuguese language and used officially. In the second period of Old Portuguese, in the 15th and 16th centuries, with the Portuguese discoveries , the language was taken to many regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas . By
9282-553: The form of Latin during that time), which greatly enriched the lexicon. Most literate Portuguese speakers were also literate in Latin; and thus they easily adopted Latin words into their writing, and eventually speech, in Portuguese. Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes once called Portuguese "the sweet and gracious language", while the Brazilian poet Olavo Bilac described it as a última flor do Lácio, inculta e bela ("the last flower of Latium , naïve and beautiful"). Portuguese
9401-466: The formal você , followed by the third person conjugation. Conjugation of verbs in tu has three different forms in Brazil (verb "to see": tu viste? , in the traditional second person, tu viu? , in the third person, and tu visse? , in the innovative second person), the conjugation used in the Brazilian states of Pará, Santa Catarina and Maranhão being generally traditional second person,
9520-530: The formation of creole languages such as that called Kristang in many parts of Asia (from the word cristão , "Christian"). The language continued to be popular in parts of Asia until the 19th century. Some Portuguese-speaking Christian communities in India , Sri Lanka , Malaysia , and Indonesia preserved their language even after they were isolated from Portugal. The end of the Old Portuguese period
9639-406: The kind that is used in other Portuguese-speaking countries and learned in Brazilian schools. The predominance of Southeastern-based media products has established você as the pronoun of choice for the second person singular in both writing and multimedia communications. However, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the country's main cultural center, the usage of tu has been expanding ever since
9758-498: The language has kept a relevant substratum of much older, Atlantic European Megalithic Culture and Celtic culture , part of the Hispano-Celtic group of ancient languages. In Latin, the Portuguese language is known as lusitana or (latina) lusitanica , after the Lusitanians , a pre-Celtic tribe that lived in the territory of present-day Portugal and Spain that adopted the Latin language as Roman settlers moved in. This
9877-627: The latter is a unique Portuguese marker. In Europe, the A25-B18-DR15 gene is found only in Portugal; it also observed in some North Americans and in Brazilians (very likely of Portuguese ancestry). The pan-European haplotype A1-B8-DR3 and the western-European haplotype A29-B44-DR7 are shared by Portuguese, Basques, and Spaniards. The latter is also common in Irish, southern English, and western French populations. Men from mainland Portugal ,
9996-436: The medieval language spoken in the northwestern medieval Kingdom of Galicia , which the County of Portugal once formed part of. This variety has been retrospectively named Galician-Portuguese , Old Portuguese, or Old Galician by linguists. It is in Latin administrative documents of the 9th century that written Galician-Portuguese words and phrases are first recorded. This phase is known as Proto-Portuguese, which lasted from
10115-610: The mid-16th century, Portuguese had become a lingua franca in Asia and Africa, used not only for colonial administration and trade but also for communication between local officials and Europeans of all nationalities. The Portuguese expanded across South America, across Africa to the Pacific Ocean, taking their language with them. Its spread was helped by mixed marriages between Portuguese and local people and by its association with Roman Catholic missionary efforts, which led to
10234-549: The minority Swiss Romansh language in many equivalent words such as maun ("hand"), bun ("good"), or chaun ("dog"). The Portuguese language is the only Romance language that preserves the clitic case mesoclisis : cf. dar-te-ei (I'll give thee), amar-te-ei (I'll love you), contactá-los-ei (I'll contact them). Like Galician , it also retains the Latin synthetic pluperfect tense: eu estivera (I had been), eu vivera (I had lived), vós vivêreis (you had lived). Romanian also has this tense, but uses
10353-580: The most comprehensive genome-wide studies published on historical and modern populations of the Iberian Peninsula , conclude that the Moorish occupation left few to no Jewish , Arab and Berber genetic influences throughout Iberia, with higher incidence in the south and west, and ower incidence in the northeast, and almost none in Basque Country . Following the end of the Reconquista and
10472-1119: The most important languages when referring to loanwords. There are many examples such as: colchete / crochê ('bracket'/'crochet'), paletó ('jacket'), batom ('lipstick'), and filé / filete ('steak'/'slice'), rua ('street'), respectively, from French crochet , paletot , bâton , filet , rue ; and bife ('steak'), futebol , revólver , stock / estoque , folclore , from English "beef", "football", "revolver", "stock", "folklore." Examples from other European languages: macarrão ('pasta'), piloto ('pilot'), carroça ('carriage'), and barraca ('barrack'), from Italian maccherone , pilota , carrozza , and baracca ; melena ('hair lock'), fiambre ('wet-cured ham') (in Portugal, in contrast with presunto 'dry-cured ham' from Latin prae-exsuctus 'dehydrated') or ('canned ham') (in Brazil, in contrast with non-canned, wet-cured ( presunto cozido ) and dry-cured ( presunto cru )), or castelhano ('Castilian'), from Spanish melena ('mane'), fiambre and castellano. Portuguese belongs to
10591-547: The national exports and 29% of the national economy. The region was hit hard by the EU's expansion to Eastern Europe, globalization and centralization. Even if once the richest in Portugal and the largest regional economy after Lisbon, it is now the poorest of the 7 NUTS II regions of Portugal , with a GDP per capita of 16,000 euros , converted to 19,500 according to GDP in Purchasing Power Standards or 65% of
10710-462: The newspaper The Portugal News publishing data given from UNESCO, the highest potential for growth as an international language in southern Africa and South America . Portuguese is a globalized language spoken officially on five continents, and as a second language by millions worldwide. Since 1991, when Brazil signed into the economic community of Mercosul with other South American nations, namely Argentina , Uruguay and Paraguay , Portuguese
10829-610: The north of the country), Paraguay (10.7% or 636,000 people), Switzerland (550,000 in 2019, learning + mother tongue), Venezuela (554,000), and the United States (0.35% of the population or 1,228,126 speakers according to the 2007 American Community Survey ). In some parts of former Portuguese India , namely Goa and Daman and Diu , the language is still spoken by about 10,000 people. In 2014, an estimated 1,500 students were learning Portuguese in Goa. Approximately 2% of
10948-539: The now Portuguese city of Braga and most of these migrants and invaders established themselves in Littoral Northern Portugal, when the Roman empire collapsed. After the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, a small county was established around the city of Porto, which expanded southwards and became a government, the County of Portugal in the 10th century. This county grew in ambition and it
11067-417: The number of Portuguese speakers is quickly increasing as Portuguese and Brazilian teachers are making great strides in teaching Portuguese in the schools all over the island. Additionally, there are many large Portuguese-speaking immigrant communities all over the world. According to estimates by UNESCO , Portuguese is the fastest-growing European language after English and the language has, according to
11186-486: The only language used in any contact, to only education, contact with local or international administration, commerce and services or the simple sight of road signs, public information and advertising in Portuguese. Portuguese is a mandatory subject in the school curriculum in Uruguay . Other countries where Portuguese is commonly taught in schools or where it has been introduced as an option include Venezuela , Zambia ,
11305-464: The peninsula and over the next 300 years totally integrated into the local populations. Some Germanic words from that period are part of the Portuguese lexicon, together with place names, surnames, and first names. With the Umayyad conquest beginning in 711, Arabic became the administrative and common language in the conquered regions, but most of the remaining Christian population continued to speak
11424-553: The peninsula during the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. from Carthage during the Punic Wars . After 193 B.C., the Lusitanians fought Rome's expansion peninsula following the defeat and occupation of Carthage in North Africa. They fought for years, repeatedly defeating the Roman invaders. In the end they were punished by Praetor Servius Galba in 150 B.C. He killed 9,000 Lusitanians and later sold 20,000 more as slaves to
11543-640: The people of Macau, China are fluent speakers of Portuguese. Additionally, the language is being very actively studied in the Chinese school system right up to the doctorate level. The Kristang people in Malaysia speak Kristang , a Portuguese-Malay creole; however, the Portuguese language itself is not widely spoken in the country. The Community of Portuguese Language Countries (in Portuguese Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa , with
11662-463: The population of urban Angola speaks Portuguese natively, with approximately 85% fluent; these rates are lower in the countryside. Just over 50% (and rapidly increasing) of the population of Mozambique are native speakers of Portuguese, and 70% are fluent, according to the 2007 census. Portuguese is also spoken natively by 30% of the population in Guinea-Bissau, and a Portuguese-based creole
11781-485: The population, both genetically and culturally; the Portuguese language derives mostly from Latin , mostly a later evolution of the Roman language after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . According to Mario Pei , the phonetic distance found between Portuguese and Latin stands at 31%. Roman domination lasted from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. After the Romans, Germanic peoples , namely
11900-673: The recognition of the common intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO . The project is backed by the Galician Government , a number of Galician institutions and associations, together with local and regional governments and institutions in Northern Portugal. The official name is " Candidatura de Património Imaterial Galego-Português ". Northern Portugal is a mountainous region. Its peaks known as serras include Serra do Gerês (1544 m), Peneda (1416 m), Marão (1415 m) and Soajo (1415 m). Some of which forms natural parks:
12019-538: The rest of the continent. According to the demic diffusion model its impact was greatest in the southern and eastern regions. In the 3rd millennium BC, during the Bronze Age , the first wave of migrations by Indo-European language speakers into Iberia occurred. The expansion of haplogroup R1b in Western Europe, most common in many areas of Atlantic Europe , was primarily due to massive migrations from
12138-546: The result of expansion during colonial times, a cultural presence of Portuguese speakers is also found around the world. Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia and the County of Portugal , and has kept some Celtic phonology. With approximately 236 million native speakers and 27 million second language speakers, Portuguese has approximately 263.8 million total speakers. It
12257-402: The same language ( see also: Reintegrationism ). Around 9.15 million (87%) Portuguese-born people live in the country, out of a total population of 10.467 million. About 782,000 foreigners live legally in the country (7%), thus approximately 9.685 million people living in Portugal hold Portuguese citizenship or legal residency. The median age stood at 46.8 years (versus 44.4 in
12376-403: The urban area of Póvoa de Varzim- Vila do Conde , with about 100,000 inhabitants. However, in Northern Portugal these tend to be well-populated with dispersed settlement between the diverse cities of the region. All these human settlements are part of the same polycentric urban-metropolitan agglomeration with 2,99 million inhabitants (2001), alongside the northern Atlantic coast. The EOCD using
12495-461: The whole Iberian Peninsula to increase in GDP per inhabitant in purchasing power standards (PPS) in relation to the EU-28 average, by NUTS 2 regions, between 2007–2015. Also one of the few regions in Western Europe to do so. From 49,220 million euros to 52,740 million, while Lisbon declined from 65,590 to 63,194 million. In 2016, Northern Portugal GPD was 55,049.38 million euros at current market prices,
12614-515: The world. Portuguese, being a language spread on all continents, has official status in several international organizations. It is one of twenty official languages of the European Union , an official language of NATO, the Organization of American States (alongside Spanish, French and English), and one of eighteen official languages of the European Space Agency . Portuguese is a working language in nonprofit organisations such as
12733-586: The world. The museum is the first of its kind in the world. In 2015 the museum was partially destroyed in a fire, but restored and reopened in 2020. Portuguese is spoken by approximately 200 million people in South America, 30 million in Africa, 15 million in Europe, 5 million in North America and 0.33 million in Asia and Oceania. It is the native language of the vast majority of the people in Portugal, Brazil and São Tomé and Príncipe (95%). Around 75% of
12852-424: Was charged with promoting and ensuring respect. There are also significant Portuguese-speaking immigrant communities in many territories including Andorra (17.1%), Bermuda , Canada (400,275 people in the 2006 census), France (1,625,000 people), Japan (400,000 people), Jersey , Luxembourg (about 25% of the population as of 2021), Namibia (about 4–5% of the population, mainly refugees from Angola in
12971-561: Was extended north of the areas occupied by the Lusitanians to include the territories of Asturias and Gallaecia , but these were soon ceded to the jurisdiction of the Provincia Tarraconensis in the north, while the south remained the Provincia Lusitania et Vettones . After this, Lusitania's northern border was along the Douro river, while its eastern border passed through Salmantica and Caesarobriga to
13090-691: Was mainly a mixture of pre-Celts or para- Celts , such as the Lusitanians of Lusitania , and Celtic peoples such as Gallaeci of Gallaecia , the Celtici and the Cynetes of Alentejo and the Algarve . The Lusitanians (or Lusitānus – singular – Lusitani – plural – in Latin ) were an Indo-European people living in the Western Iberian Peninsula long before it became
13209-537: Was marked by the publication of the Cancioneiro Geral by Garcia de Resende , in 1516. The early times of Modern Portuguese, which spans the period from the 16th century to the present day, were characterized by an increase in the number of learned words borrowed from Classical Latin and Classical Greek because of the Renaissance (learned words borrowed from Latin also came from Renaissance Latin ,
13328-431: Was officially recognised as a kingdom via the Treaty of Zamora and the papal bull Manifestis Probatum of Pope Alexander III . The establishment of the Portuguese state in the 12th century led the Portuguese to group together as a nation. A subsequent turning point in Portuguese nationalism was the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385, linked to Brites de Almeida , thereby putting an end to Castilian ambitions to take over
13447-596: Was one language (thus not separate languages) of the "p" Celtic variant. They were a large tribe who lived between Douro and Tagus rivers. The Lusitanians may have originated in the Alps and settled in the region in the 6th century BC. Sholars such as Dáithí Ó hÓgáin consider them to be indigenous . He claimed they were initially dominated by the Celts , before gaining full independence. Romanian archaeologist Scarlat Lambrino [ ro ] , active in Portugal for many years, proposed that they were originally
13566-665: Was synonymous with shelter, anchorage or door. Among other theories, some suggest that Cale may stem from the Greek word for kalós (beautiful). Another theory for Portugal postulates a French derivation, Portus Gallus "port of the Gauls". During the Middle Ages , the area around Cale became known through the Visigoths as Portucale . Portucale could have evolved in the 7th and 8th centuries, to become Portugale , or Portugal, from
13685-502: Was the first Portuguese ‘ national hero ’ . After Viriathus' rule, the celticized Lusitanians largely adopted romanized culture and the Latin language. Lusitanian inhabitants, following the rest of the Roman-Iberian peninsula, eventually gained the status of " Citizens of Rome ". Many saints emerged from the territory. These include Saint Engrácia , Saint Quitéria , and Saint Marina of Aguas Santas . The Romans impacted
13804-554: Was the language of the poetry of the troubadours in France. The Occitan digraphs lh and nh , used in its classical orthography, were adopted by the orthography of Portuguese , presumably by Gerald of Braga , a monk from Moissac , who became bishop of Braga in Portugal in 1047, playing a major role in modernizing written Portuguese using classical Occitan norms. Portugal became an independent kingdom in 1139, under King Afonso I of Portugal . In 1290, King Denis of Portugal created
13923-585: Was the loss of intervocalic l and n , sometimes followed by the merger of the two surrounding vowels, or by the insertion of an epenthetic vowel between them: cf. Lat. salire ("to exit"), tenere ("to have"), catena ("jail"), Port. sair , ter , cadeia . When the elided consonant was n , it often nasalized the preceding vowel: cf. Lat. manum ("hand"), ranam ("frog"), bonum ("good"), Old Portuguese mão , rãa , bõo (Portuguese: mão , rã , bom ). This process
14042-462: Was the source of most of the language's distinctive nasal diphthongs. In particular, the Latin endings -anem , -anum and -onem became -ão in most cases, cf. Lat. canis ("dog"), germanus ("brother"), ratio ("reason") with Modern Port. cão , irmão , razão , and their plurals -anes , -anos , -ones normally became -ães , -ãos , -ões , cf. cães , irmãos , razões . This also occurs in
14161-493: Was where Portugal's first king, Dom Afonso Henriques , established the Portuguese kingdom and stated the southward expansion. The Portuguese language evolved from this area, and has a specific modern dialect, Northern Portuguese , taken down south as the Portuguese Kingdom expanded, namely after Afonso Henriques era. The region has a number of manor-houses and castles featuring coats of arms as an indication of
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