The Short History of the Portuguese Language

Sorry, forgot to post this earlier!

Around 200 BC, the Romans brought Latin to the Iberian Peninsula.  The Roman soldiers and merchants who traveled to the region spread Latin throughout modern-day Portugal and Spain.  As the Roman Empire collapsed in the 5^th-8^th century AD, the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Germanic tribes, who adopted Latin.  After the 711 AD Moorish Invasion, Arabic became common, but the remaining Christians spoke a Romance language called Mozarabic. 

After the start of the Reconquista (the re-conquest of Portugal by Christians in the early 8^th century), some communities in the small kingdom of Galicia (parts of modern-day Spain and Portugal) began speaking the predecessor of Portuguese, Galician-Portuguese or Old Portuguese.  Between the 8^th and 12^th century, Galician-Portuguese gained traction in administrative writing and poetry in the Peninsula. 

Portugal became an independent kingdom in 1139 AD, and Galician-Portuguese, then known as the common tongue, was made the official language.   The language was spread to Portugal’s colonies (such as Brazil) in the 15^th though 19^th centuries. 

Brazilian Portuguese uses higher quantities of Amerindian languages’ words.  African slaves brought vocabulary from African languages.  Modern Brazilians use English words to discuss technical and scientific concepts, as well as some slang, and often use French words to discuss luxury goods and philosophical concepts.  It has some of the grammatical simplicity common in pidgins.