Portuguese and Spanish are the closest Romance languages

I agree with Pedro

Si xulochavez estoy de acuerdo con eso "galician is not the result of portugues influence on spanish, rather the different evolution of galego-portugues within spain" .Solamente queria hacer constar que habia lazos entre el portugues y el gallego, pero no queria meterme en la evolucion de ambas lenguas porque seguro que meteria la pata. De todos modos era solo para aclarar la razon por la que habia dado importancia a que portugal y españa eran paises vecinos. Pero dios mio, este es el cuento de la buena pipa..no acaba nunca, yo lo dejo ya. Ya me canse de hablar en inglés.
¡Saludos a todos!
(Y que conste que yo nunca insulto a nadie, quien este por ahi insultando no soy yo)

de acuerdo con lo del cuento de la buena pipa :)

"Yes you are an idiot"
"I agree with Pedro"

Someone very primitive has been using (misusing) my nickname in this forum.

I would never call anyone idiot. That is not the way I am.

but I must disagree with Ana

"but I must disagree with Ana"

Very primitive level in this forum.

Ich haue ab!
(The very very real Huchu)

"If it was not for the little Basque that they learn at school, the language would get lost."

What a sad reality. I must tell you!

und jetzt haue ich wirklich ab
(The very real real Huchu)

Very very sad the Portuguese is dying. Viva espana!

(The very real real Huchu)

Hey you primitive bastard!

Someone very primitive is still using my nickname in this forum.

(The very very very very real real real Huchu)

Brazilian Portuguese is spoken by 200 millions of people and Southern Americans speakers of Castillian normally understand it and like it a lot.

That's okay Ana...I'm not easily offended anyway. I can see that this thread is getting really out of hand. I am not sure who is who anymore, and emotions are getting in the way of what should be a civil discussion. I know this much: I speak Portuguese and Spanish fluently, and I know enough Italian to carry on a basic conversation. But that's only because I had many Italian friends growing up, so the language became familiar to me. Nevertheless, and it takes an understanding of linguistics to know this, aside from accents, there is much more uniformity and intelligibility between Portuguese and Spanish, than between either one of these two languages and another romance tongue. And whoever said,

=>You mean that there is a Slavic or Germanic language that's even closer[to Portuguese]...your an idiot<=

is trying in vain to put words in my mouth. You should be ashamed of yourself! You have effectively lowered yourself into an abyss of ignorance.
Don't pretend to be a mind reader. I'll say it again: Spanish is the closest Romance language to Portuguese. I am NOT impying that there is a Germanic language which is closer! That would be absurd! I never said anything of the sort. That is what you have made up. What the heck is it that you don't understand? Finally, I have been to several Spanish speaking countries, and I have had this discussion with many Spanish speakers. They have all stated that although Spanish and Italian sound closer in terms of accent, the reality is that Portuguese has a far closer relationship to Spanish. I worked for years as a community worker where the majority of my clients were Spanish speaking. They also believed the same thing I say. My experiences with countless Spanish speakers confirms that Portuguese and Spanish, all things considered, are still the two closest languages in the Romance language family. Period. Check the findings of any legitimate linguisitcs research on the relationship between the romance languages, because it confirms what I am saying.

I speak Italian and some Spanish and I agree with George's assessment that Portuguese is closer to Spanish than Italian. While Italian and Spanish sound very similar in terms of accent, there is more of a divide between them than one would think. Also, while of course there is some familiarity in grammar between all Romance languages, Italian does not have the Iberian influences Spanish and Portuguese have.

I also notice little things like for sentences in the past, Italians commonly use passato prossimo and imperfecto. Spanish uses imperfecto and preterito (equivalent to Italian passato remoto which is used for past in a more historical sense rather than common past.)

Can someone actually give me solid proof that Spanish is closer to Italian than it is to Portuguese? I hear a lot of shallow argument, but no proof going around.

Thank you Tiffany. It is so refreshing to finally get some rational, sensible and intelligent feedback on this whole language issue. Like yourself, I too am waiting for someone to provide some solid proof to backup the claim that Spanish is closer to Italian. I don't think that anyone can, because it simply isn't true.

Give a newspaper of Portugal or Italia to a Spanish speaker and tell him/her what newspaper understand much better. That´s the conclusive proof.
Well, If you can not find a spanish speaker,i tell you that the answer is........................................a Portugal newspaper.

Thank you Amancio - - you are quite right. That is one great way of proving that Portuguese is closer to Spanish. There is no doubt that Spaniards would have a much easier time reading a Portuguese newspaper. In fact, I remember that a few years ago, I gave a Spanish speaking client a copy of the local Portuguese newspaper - he read it and understood it all! I love it when people put on their thinking caps, because it makes for far more interesting and compelling discourse.