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Lusophones ( pt, Lusófonos) are peoples that speak Portuguese as a native or as common second language and nations where Portuguese features prominently in society. Comprising an estimated 270 million people spread across 10 sovereign countries and territories, thus called ''Lusofonia'' or the Lusophone world ( pt, Mundo Lusófono), is the community of Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) world; these include
Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...
,
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
,
Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...
,
Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...
,
Guinea Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ) ...
, Equatorial Guinea,
Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
,
Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Mala ...
,
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...
,
São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe (; pt, São Tomé e Príncipe (); English: " Saint Thomas and Prince"), officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe ( pt, República Democrática de São Tomé e Príncipe), is a Portuguese-speaking i ...
,
East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-we ...
, Uruguay, Cochin, Azores,
Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...
, Goa,
Daman and Diu Daman and Diu (; ) was a former union territory in northwestern India. With an area of , it was the smallest administrative subdivision of India on the mainland. The territory comprised two districts, Damaon and Dio island, geographically se ...
,
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
and
Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...
to various degrees. The history of the Lusophone world is intrinsically linked with the history of the Portuguese Empire, although the Portuguese diaspora, the Brazilian diaspora and the Cape Verdean diaspora communities have also played a role in spreading the
Portuguese language Portuguese ( or, in full, ) is a western Romance language of the Indo-European language family, originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is an official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau ...
and Lusophone culture. Portuguese-speaking nations cooperate in politics, culture and the economy through the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).


Etymology

The term ''Lusophone'' is a classical compound, wherein the
combining form Neoclassical compounds are compound words composed from combining forms (which act as affixes or stems) derived from classical Latin or ancient Greek roots. New Latin comprises many such words and is a substantial component of the technical ...
"Luso-" derives from the Latin term for an area roughly corresponding to modern Portugal, called
Lusitania Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province located where modern Portugal (south of the Douro river) and a portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and the province of Salamanca) lie. It was named after the Lusitani or L ...
. The suffix "-phone" derives from the
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
word (''phōnē''), meaning "voice".


History

Once the Portuguese mainland space had been established with the conquest of the
Algarve The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has its ...
, the last kings of the first dynasty dedicated themselves to organizing the national territory: they promoted settlement, agricultural exploitation, the creation of trade structures, the creation of defenses, not so much the south as east, &c. In this way, the
Avis dynasty The House of Aviz (Portuguese: ''Casa de Avis''), also known as the Joanine Dynasty (''Dinastia Joanina''), was a dynasty of Portuguese origin which flourished during the Renaissance and the period of the Portuguese discoveries, when Portugal ex ...
was able to engage in a new process of territorial expansion, which began in
1415 Year 1415 ( MCDXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * April 30 – Frederick I becomes Elector of Brandenburg. * June 5 – The Coun ...
with the capture of Ceuta. This was followed by the feat of the Discoveries, which involved the discovery of the archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores, the arrival in
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...
and various parts of
Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...
to
Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...
and the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
, such as Goa, Malacca, Macau and East Timor. This long historical process has currently resulted in a cultural identity shared by eight countries, united by a shared past and by a language that, enriched in its diversity, is recognized as one. These countries - Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste -, (in addition to the special administrative region of Macau) with their respective nuclei of emigrants, make the Portuguese language one of the most spoken languages in the world, constituting a community of more than two hundred and forty million people. Lusofonia can also be the platform from which the peoples who speak Portuguese today will be able to approach and expand the scope and action of the CPLP.


Language and ethnicities in Portuguese-speaking areas around the world


Other areas where Portuguese is also spoken


See also

* Geographical distribution of Portuguese * Geographical distribution of Portuguese speakers * Lusitanic *
Lusophobia Lusophobia or anti-Portuguese sentiment is hostility, racism or hatred toward Portugal, the Portuguese people or the Portuguese language and Culture of Portugal, culture. Etymology Like "Lusitanic", the word "Lusophobia" ( pt, lusofobia) derives ...
* Lusophone literature ** Angolan literature ** Brazilian literature ** Latin American literature ** Portuguese literature *
Lusophone music Lusophone music, is music that is sung in Portuguese. Generally this term is not used outside of the internet, because of cultural differences between the peoples of the different Portuguese-speaking countries. The term refers to a language-bas ...
* Lusophone name * Indo-Portuguese


References


External links


Words Without Borders
explores Lusophone literature in translation
Flavours of Lusophony
{{Phones Lusophone