Home > Languages > Portuguese Translation Services

Portuguese Translation Services

Portuguese is one of the most important languages in the world. When explorers such as Vasco De Gama headed out onto the oceans to see the world, they took the Portuguese language with them. This language was one of the imperial languages and, as such, it is heard spoken in places around the world very far removed from the Iberian Peninsula, where it originated. It is the national language of Brazil and is very closely related to Latin. It is closer to French than Spanish in the pronunciation of its vowels and has a rich history of literature, film and art associated with it. This language has oftentimes been referred to as has having a "sweet" sound and is typically very rapid in its spoken form.

Those who speak Spanish, French, Italian or Latin may notice some features of Portuguese which seem very familiar to them. At first blush, Spanish-speakers who hear the language may think that they're hearing Spanish, which is still somehow unintelligible to them. While these languages do sound similar, the sound is really where it ends. A Spanish-speaker will not be able to understand spoken Portuguese to any useful degree without training. The opposite is also the case. This language, a romance language though it may be, is a language unto itself.

There are nearly 250 million people who speak Portuguese as their first language. It is also a fairly-popular second language. Brazil is the most populous nation where Portuguese is a first language among the majority of the people. While speaking Spanish may get you around the vast majority of Latin America, Brazil is among the largest nations in that region and Spanish is spoken in that nation as a second language, at best. Any official or government business conducted in that nation will most certainly be done in Portuguese.

Of course, Portugal is the mother country for the Portuguese language and is an important trade nation in and of itself. This nation still has a strong hand in international trade and commerce, science, the arts and culture. The language also has significant representation in nations such as Argentina, Bermuda, Australia, Canada and the United States. The European Union and The African Union both use this among the languages they employ to facilitate communication between disparate people. This language is also spoken by numerous communities of immigrants to other nations around the world. Its long history in trade makes it an established lingua franca.