Why is Portuguese spoken in places other than Portugal?

Question

Because I don't get it. I mean like Portugal is for Portuguese, Ohio is for Ohioan, and like Canada is just for weird people, so why is Portuguese spoken in like not Portugal?

Answer 1

LOL how old are you? There are places everywhere in the world that speak other languages. Ohio is a state not a country like Portugal. and Ohio doesn't have their own language. Have you heard of china town? Well that's in America and guess what? They speak Chinese!!! Just because I speak English doesn't mean I can only stay in America, Britain is it's own country but speaks our language and so does Australia.

P.S. Actually english originated in England sorry!

Answer 2

At one time the entire New World was divided by the Pope between Portugal and Spain, Portugal getting the eastern half (Brazil mostly) and Spain the rest. Portugal also had colonies in Africa and India. Part of the reason neither country is all that strong now is the damaging effects the riches from the New World had on the home countries' economies.

Answer 3

It is ridiculous! I've never saw people in Yahoo asking about differences between the spanish from Argentina and the one from Spain. There are differences indeed, but the spanish students don't worry about them, they know they are learning a new language and they will be able to communicate in both countries. It is the same in portuguese! Brazilian and European portuguese are the same language, people from Brazil and Portugal can understand each other. There are little differences in grammar and vocabulary, but only portuguese native speakers can really understand it. The accent is the bigger difference, but who cares? If you study portuguese as a second language, it is good enough. Raquel, Portugal is trying to annul the orthographic agreement? Ok, keep living from your glorious past, but monarchy is dead and there is no more empires. Se os portugueses querem impor diferenças entre nossas línguas, ok! Mas vocês saem perdendo, a maioria dos estrangeiros querem aprender o português brasileiro. - We are more than 190 million Brazilians. (Portugal have less than 11 millions). - Brazil is nowadays the 7th largest GDP of the world (Portugal is the 38th). It is a democratic world.

Answer 4

Why is English the official language in Australia, New Zealand, USA, India, South Africa, etc? Because these were some of the British colonies during the British Empire. So, Portuguese is spoken in more countries than Portugal (such as: Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Goa, Cape Verde, Guine, East Timor, Macau, Sao Tome Principe, etc), because they were part of Portuguese Empire.

Answer 5

Because the Portuguese were great travelers in years gone past, being the first to settle in such places as China, some parts of the Americas, and probably other places I don't know about. They kept their ways and language while at the same time learning the ways and language of the place they had sailed to, thus making Portugal one of the places most frimly represented in foreign countries by language.

Answer 6

Because people who were from Portugal settled in different areas and started the language in that place. brazil speaks portuguese it's slightly different than the portuguese from potugal but not to much. Same with the U.S.A why do we speak english ? Because people from England moved out here. Why does people speak spanish in Spain and Mexico and other south American places, same reasons.

Answer 7

Simply because the Portuguese ruled a large part of the world once upon a time with colonies such as Brazil, Goa in India, Africa etc.

Answer 8

The same reason English is spoken in other places other than England, Scotland and Wales. It spreads out to other lands as the people of the land of origin move from country to country.

Portuguese I know spread to Brazil. I took Spanish and most of the people of South America speak Spanish; but not Brazil.

Answer 9

THe portuguese were one of the first explorers who set out to find a water rout to asia and ended up finding America, i think south America and so they settled down there and populated the area. You don't have to be from portugal to speak portuguese just like you don't have to be from France to be French, there are tons of french countries thanks to the french explorers.:)

Answer 10

For a logn time, Portugal had the world's largest navy, and explored much of the world.

I don't know if I'm remembering it right, but I think Christopher Columbus was from Portugal, but needed Spanish money to fund the voyage...don't remember...