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Portuguese is a Romance language spoken by about 191 million people mainly in Brazil (Brasil) and Portugal. There are also Portuguese speakers in France (França), Angola, Mozambique (Moçambique), Cape Verde (Cabo Verde), Guinea-Bissau (Guiné-Bissau), São Tomé e Principe, East Timor (Timor-Leste), Macau, the USA, UK, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, Venezuela, South Africa, Canada, Australia and the Channel Islands, particularly Jersey and Guernsey.
Portuguese is a descendent of Vulgar Latin, which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by Roman soldiers, settlers and merchants from 218 BC. The earliest records of a distinctly Portuguese language appear in administrative documents dating from the 9th century AD. In 1290 King Denis decreed that Portuguese, then simply called the "Vulgar language" should be known as the Portuguese language and should be officially used.
A reformed Portuguese orthography (nova ortografia), in which words were spelled more in accordance with their pronunciation, was adopted is Portugal in 1916. A slightly modified form was adopted in Brazil in 1943 and revised in 1970.
| A a | B b | C c | D d | E e | F f | G g | H h | I i | J j | K k | L l | M m |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| á | bê | cê | dê | é | efe | gê | agá | i | jota | cá/capa | ele | eme |
| N n | O o | P p | Q q | R r | S s | T t | U u | V v | W w | X x | Y y | Z z |
| ene | ó | pê | quê | erre | esse | tê | u | vê | dábliu, dáblio, duplo-vê |
xis | ípsilon, ipsilão, i grego |
zê |
The letters K, W and Y are used only in foreign loanwords.
Listen to the Portuguese alphabet read
by a Brazilian (Heitor de Moraes)
Listen to the consonants
of Brazilian Portuguese

Todos os seres humanos nascem livres e iguais em dignidade e em direitos. Dotados de razão e de consciência, devem agir uns para com os outros em espírito de fraternidade.
Listen to recording of this text by a Portuguese
speaker from Portugal
Todos os seres humanos nascem livres e iguais em dignidade e direitos. São dotados de razão e consciência e devem agir em relação uns aos outros com espírito de fraternidade.
Listen to a recording of this text
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)
Useful phrases in European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese
Portuguese language courses, dictionaries, etc.
Contributors to this page: Marcelo Manschein, Mário André Coelho da Silva and Heitor de Moraes from Brazil, and Renato Serôdio from Portugal
A Língua Portuguesa (a history of the Portuguese language in Portuguese, English and French): http://www.linguaportuguesa.ufrn.br/
Os sons da Língua portuguesa / The pronunciation of the Portuguese of Portugal
http://www.rudhar.com/foneport/en/foneport.htm
Online Portuguese lessons
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/portuguese/talk/
http://www.portugueseclasses.com/
http://alfarrabio.um.geira.pt/spl/index.html
http://www.sci.fi/~huuhilo/portuguese/
http://www.geocities.com/email_theguy/newportweb/porthome.htm
http://www.easyportuguese.com
http://www.learningportuguese.co.uk
http://www.learn-to-speak-portuguese.com/free-online-lessons.html
http://learnportuguese.elanguageschool.net
Online Portuguese dictionaries
http://www.dicionarios-online.com
http://www.priberam.pt/dlpo/dlpo.aspx
http://biblioteca.uol.com.br/
http://www.freedict.com/onldict/por.html
Portuguese-English Electronic talking dictionaries
http://www.ectaco.com
Online Portuguese language radio
http://www.musikcity.mus.br/radiosdobrasil.html
http://www.radios.com.br
http://www.rtp.pt
http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/
Online Portuguese language newspapers
http://www.expresso.pt
http://dn.sapo.pt
http://www.dm.com.br
http://oglobo.globo.com
http://www.uol.com.br
http://www.uol.com.br/fsp
http://www.agestado.com.br
http://www.estadao.com.br
http://www.bonde.com.br
Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa
http://www.cplp.org
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Other languages written with the Latin alphabet
Copyright 1998- Simon Ager