The Portuguese language belongs to the Romance language family. The Romance language family can be potentially divided into the Western and Eastern Romance languages. The Western Romance languages can be divided based on the use of “s” for pluralizing, as well as the use of a softer “c” sound. The Portuguese language would be a part of this Western Romance language based on it being an Ibero-Romance language. The Indo-European language family overarches all of the languages native to western Eurasia.
The Portuguese language is derived from Galician, because Galicia was comprised of Galicia and northern Portugal. The Portuguese language also has influences from Arabic, because in the ninth century, the Islamic Moors took over Portugal and Spain.This conquer led to the Galician-Portuguese languages to contain certain Arabic words. The “a” article in Arabic has a somewhat large presence in the Portuguese languages. One example is the word “alcaçer” meaning “palace,” and this word came from the Arabic word of “al-qaṣr.”
The first recorded words of Galician-Portuguese were recorded in the twelfth century, followed by Old Portuguese, which was recorded in the fifteenth century. The Portuguese Empire formed and the colonization of nations in Africa began. Portugal first colonized Ceuta on the northern African coast, and they eventually colonized Senegal and Cape Verde, followed by other African and Asian countries. Contact with these nations and other cultures, may have influenced the way Portuguese viewed certain aspects of life.
I think previously to learning about language families and the many connections between languages, I used to solely look at languages as individual. In the past, I would look for differences between languages. For example, when learning Spanish, I only looked at differences between English and Spanish. After learning Spanish and starting to learn Portuguese, I used to look at the differences between the two languages, because I wanted to only look at how Portuguese was unique from Spanish, Italian, and other Romance languages. However, now realizing how interconnected languages are, I believe I can use this to my advantage. Instead of only contrasting Spanish and Portuguese, I can look for similarities between Spanish, Portuguese, and even English, in order to relate meanings of words. Once I am able to draw similarities, specifically between Portuguese and Spanish, I may be able to more easily see the differences between the two.
I think it would also be interesting to look into the history of the Portuguese language, because looking at the movement of the Portuguese Empire and its interactions with other cultures could help understand why the language shares certain words or sounds. I believe that over time, the culture grows as people travel and experience new movements and other cultures. Unless a society is mostly isolated and does not have access to education, I think language develops generationally. In my personal life, I experience it all of the time interacting with my parents and professors compared to my friends and peers. Even when I interact with children, I can see differences between our cultures. As technology evolves, I think language can change quicker, because communication and education is accelerated. I think it will be interesting to see how languages like Spanish, English, and Portuguese change from now until fifteen years from now. I also wonder if in the far future, Portuguese will develop even more differences from Spanish and other Western Romance languages, or if the languages will grow closer together, or remain the same.
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