Portuguese

Portuguese is spoken by around 200 million people throughout the world, and is the official language of seven countries including Portugal (9.9 million), Brazil (151 million), Mozambique (15.3 million) and Angola (10.3 million) The Portuguese language, which evolved from spoken Latin, developed on the west coast of the Iberian Peninsula (now Portugal and the Spanish province of Galicia). Following the Moorish occupation of Iberia in 711 A.D. and subsequent invasions by XIth century Christians, the Galician and Portuguese dialects began to split into separate languages (although some linguists consider Galician and Portuguese the same language with different written norms). Portuguese entered its modern phase in the 16th century and has changed little since. In the vast noncontiguous areas of the world where Portuguese is spoken there are differences and variations in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, although they are not sufficient to challenge the basic structure of the language. Despite its history, Portuguese continues to maintain its considerable cohesion among its many variations.
When Portugal first began to colonize Brazil in the year 1500, Brazilian Portuguese was influenced by both Tupi, one of the languages spoken by the indians living on the Brazilian seacoast, and later, with the influx of African slaves, by African languages. Prior to the 19th century however, Brazilian Portuguese remained fairly loyal to the pronunciation used at the time of its colonization. Subsequent interaction with European immigrants and the presence of the Portuguese king in Brazil in the early 19th century, have acted to reapproximate Brazilian Portuguese with the Portuguese of Portugal. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, the nationalism and individualism of the Romantic movement began promoting the creation of a language norm based on the Brazilian version of the Portuguese language.

Source:

Leca: The Portuguese Language

Information on writing system:

omniglot.com

Independent Study Courses Available at UCSD:

• Conversational Portuguese, LIDS 19
      The Rosetta Stone Language Library:Portuguese (CD-ROM)     
  
  
• Conversational Portuguese, LIDS 19
       Reno and Cioffari, Spoken Portuguese (Tape)                           
  

Other Courses Available at UCSD

• International Relations and Pacific Studies (IRPS) Language Courses
  
  
•  *NEW for Fall 2002:  Beginning Portuguese, Linguistics/Portuguese (LIPO) 1A
    See catalog for details  
  

Other Local Resources:

UCSD International Center
Mingei museum of folk art
SD cultural events
International web radio
Landmark Theaters: foreign films
UCSD Extension courses