Italian & Portugese Lexical Similarities

Does anyone here not realize that Portuguese (thanks to the agreement Mercosur), is being taught with fervor in Argentinian, Paraguayan and Uruguayan schools as a second language?

Full Members of Mercosur:
Argentina
Brazil
Paraguay
Uruguay

Becoming Full Members
Venezuela

Associate Members
Bolivia
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Peru

Observers
Mexico

How long does anyone think it will be before the associate members and observers want to be included?? Once Venezuela and Colombia become full members, all the others will want to join quickly. Dominoe effect. Then Portuguese will be spoken as a second language in all of Spanish America. Imagine that.

Someone already said that Portuguese will be spoken by 300 million people worldwide in the near future. I'll take it one step further. How about over 500 million by 2050?

Portuguese is not more spreaded: In Europe Portuguese is spoken but Portugal will always be the small and poor cousin of Spain. In South America Brazilian Portuguese is slightly more spoken but Brazil was never able to articulate a position of dominance against its Hispanic neighbors . In fact Brazil is bigger, but traditionally also poorer than Venezuela and Argentina and more important I can't see the Argentinians accepting a Brazilian dominance! In North America Portuguese is not present. In Africa it is certainly much more important than Spanish, but there is too much competition there, since you have also strong languages like Arabic, English and even French. Spanish is spoken in Africa yet marginally : Canary Islands, Equatorial Guinea, Ceuta and Melilla. Last, in Asia Portuguese is official in East Timor, but it's too tiny. Spanish yet not official in Philipines, has more speakers. Unless Brazilian increases its population by a factor of 2 in the next decades, which is highly unprobable , Spanish will be much more spoken : 220 millions vs around 400.

<<Unless Brazilian increases its population by a factor of 2 in the next decades, which is highly unprobable , Spanish will be much more spoken : 220 millions vs around 400.>>

And considering Hispanic American population would remain the same, which is impossible. Just check Mexico's birth rate.

<<What they really need to do is merge Portuguese and Spanish -- then they'd have a true powerhouse language of global preeminence.>>

BINGO!!!!! I couldn't agree more. I think eventually this might happen. Portuguese and Spanish are already so close that it would be a breeze to do it. The question is, can the political leaders see past their own nationalistic pride? There is already a strong movement in Portugal and Spain to unify those two nations into "Iberia". So far, the Spaniards appear to favour this more, although public opinion is slowly changing in Portugal.

Portuguese and Spanish are destined to be joined at the hip - they can't get away from each other.

I'll tell you this: if the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries ever do become a unified whole, they will be a global, economic force to be reckoned with, the likes of which we haven't seen since the late Roman Empire. Together, Portuguese and Spanish speakers should number close to 1 million in the near future. united, what a powerhouse it would be!! Between 'Mercosur' and the movement in Europe for 'Iberia', the seeds have already been sown - it's brewing as we speak. We can only wait and see.

Spanish people don't want an union with Portugal, it would slow down the economy. Sorry but if in 800 years Spain and Portugal didn't unite, they are not going to do so nowadays when thanks to the European Union practically all the advantages of that union are already present: free market, freedom of movement, and so on.

At the end of the day, the spellings between Portugal and Brazil will be 99% the same.

Cai fora brucutu

I don't know why Portuguese people hate Spanish speaking countries.
We Brazilians love Spain,Uruguay, Chile, Venezuela, Panamá and other Spanish speaking countries. On the other hand, we don't like Portugal at all. They stole our Minas gold.

Portugal is not the poor cousin of Spain. that is why Portugal is reluctant to join 'Iberia' - the Spanish want it more. Portugal does not need Spain and has managed remarkably well as an independent nation. That's one of the reasons why the Spaniards have resented Portugal.

Brazil in the world's 8th largest economy - the Chinese know this fact too well - ask them. In addition to the language of Brazil, trade with China between all of the Portuguese speaking countries is what has made Portuguese an even more important world language. Yes, Portuguese spoken officially is more widespread than Spanish.

The Brazilian birth rate is at least equal to Mexico's, but...I predict the former's birth rate will pass the latter's. Plus, the birth rate in Angola and Mozambique is exploding. This is where the increase of Portuguese speakers will make the difference and the numbers of Portuguese speakers will gain ground on Spanish.

We don't hate the Spanish and Brazil didn't have gold mines.

<<Brazil didn't have gold mines>>

That's because you Portuguese stole all the gold.

We Portuguese do not dislike Spanish speaking countries - - it is Spain that is sometimes indifferent to Portugal. We Portuguese like our Spanish speaking brothers. How can we not like them? We are so much alike. Historical upsets aside, we have a sort of brotherly relationship - we sometimes disagree, sometimes agree, and are friends at the end of the day no matter what. Some Brazilians always want to take the credit for everything. Are you the only ones entitled to having a good friendship with Spanish speaking countries. For the record, there are Latin American Spanish speaking countries are not too fond of Spain, and vice-versa.

Portugal has a GDP 30% lower than that of Spain, that makes it significantly poorer than their neighbors. Portugal is neck-to-neck with Eastern countries like Czech Republic. Why do you believe Spain would like to unite with such a poor country? Wishful thinking I suppose. If that is what feeds the Portuguese national pride, it's ok. Illusions are necessary .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

"For the record, there are Latin American Spanish speaking countries are not too fond of Spain, and vice-versa."

Those are where there are more indigenous population like Mexico, Paraguay and Bolivia. They are resented. Countries were population are descendants of Spaniards like Argentina , Uruguay and Chile are very fond of Spain.
I personally think that indigenism is a mistake and should be erradicated from South America, otherwise they will remain stagnated and underdeveloped. I can't believe that they made Quechua an official language of Mercosur. It must be a joke...

<<Why do you believe Spain would like to unite with such a poor country??>>

The answer is soooo obvious amigo :-)

Governo uruguaio torna obrigatório ensino do português

Montevidéu, 5 nov (Lusa) - A língua portuguesa passará a ser disciplina obrigatória para os estudantes uruguaios do 6º ano a partir de 2008, anunciou o governo do Uruguai.

"Isso é muito importante para os jovens luso-descendentes que vivem no Uruguai, mas também para todos aqueles que queiram aprender a falar a língua portuguesa", afirmou à Lusa o secretário de Estado das Comunidades Portuguesas, Antônio Braga, que se encontra em visita oficial ao país até a próxima quarta-feira.

Até agora, o ensino do português como língua estrangeira nas escolas uruguaias tinha um caráter facultativo: os estudantes do ensino médio podiam optar por fazer a disciplina como matéria extracurricular.

As únicas exceções eram as escolas primárias situadas na fronteira com o Brasil, em que o português já era ensinado e onde se fazem estudos de pesquisa sobre os chamados "Dialetos Portugueses do Uruguai", conhecidos na gíria lingüística como o "portuñol".

Segundo a embaixadora de Portugal no Uruguai, Luísa Bastos de Almeida, por razões geográficas e sociológicas, na região fronteiriça existem inúmeras escolas primárias onde está implementado, desde 2003, o ensino bilíngüe em espanhol e português. As aulas são coordenadas por um programa nacional do Departamento de Educação Bilíngüe da Anep (Administração Nacional da Educação Pública), com claros delineamentos metodológicos e com o objetivo de formar cidadãos que dominem os dois idiomas.

Em algumas escolas do Uruguai, "crianças que falam a língua majoritária [espanhol] e aquelas que falam a língua portuguesa encontram-se integradas no mesmo grupo e ambos os idiomas são utilizados como veículo de instrução", afirmou a diplomata portuguesa.

A existência deste programa reconhece oficialmente que o português é a língua materna de muitas crianças que estudam nas escolas de fronteira com o Brasil e para as quais o espanhol funciona como uma língua secundária.

Mesmo no ensino público, os estudantes uruguaios podem freqüentar, de forma extracurricular, cursos de língua portuguesa promovidos pelos Centros de Línguas Estrangeiras espalhados pelas principais cidades do Uruguai.

As instituições privadas de ensino do português como língua estrangeira no Uruguai, reconhecidas por instituições educativas brasileiras, são o Instituto de Cultura Uruguaio-Brasileiro e o Club Brasil, ambas com sede em Montevidéu.

http://noticias.uol.com.br/ultnot/lusa/2007/11/05/ult611u75523.jhtm