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    Portuguese, the eighth most spoken language in the world, is the language of more or less 250 million people. It is among the first most diffused eastern languages, losing only to English and Spanish, and is the official language of eight countries. The largest of them is Brazil, with around 170 million inhabitants, followed by Angola, Cape Verde, Bissau Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, East Timor and Saint Thomas and Principe.

    Even though Portuguese is spoken in distant lands and belong to different continents, it manages to keep a certain unity and doesn’t present more that a few variations in relation to grammar and pronunciation.

    Curiously the Portuguese language came from the same language as the majority of the European and Asian languages. With the countless migrations between the continents, this sole initial language ended up subdivided into five branches: the Hellenic, where the Greek language come from; the Romanic, which originated the Portuguese language, the French and a series of other languages called “Latin’s”; the Germanic, from where the English and German languages came from; and finally the Celtic which gave origin to the Irish and Gaelic languages. The Slavic branch, which is the fifty, originated the other languages actually spoken in west Europe.

    Since the 2^nd century A.C., when the people that lived in Europe stopped migrating, these different versions of a same language began to create their own characteristics due to the influence of other people that came from different places like Etruscans, Aquitains, siculians.

    It was on the Iberia Peninsula that the Portuguese language was developed. For a long time, Portuguese was a mixture of a Vulgar Latin and Latin languages, caused mainly by the Roman expansion that dominated the region. When the Germanics, and later the Arabs invaded the Peninsula, the language suffered several modifications, however, the language spoken by the invaders never managed to be completely established.

    From the Germanics came the words corresponding to agriculture and war, while the Arabs who remained for seven centuries in the Iberia Peninsula, certain words related to the daily life and business were incorporated to the language.

    It was only in the XI century, when the Christians expelled the Arabs from the Peninsula, the Portuguese Galician stated to be spoken and written in Lusitanian where dialects originated by the contact of the Arabs with Latin appeared as well. The Independence of Portugal in 1185, culminated with the total differentiation of the Galician and Portuguese languages. Now a day, Galician is spoken in Galicia the northern region of Spain.

    In the period of the great sea voyages, Portugal conquered uncountable colonies and the Portuguese language was influenced by the languages spoken in these places, incorporating different terms like "jangada" (raft), of Malayan origin, and "cha" (tea), of Chinese origin. The Renaissance Period also caused a series of modifications in the language which received erudite terms, mainly those related to art.

    The Portuguese colonizers, mainly the Jesuit priests, diffused the language in Brazil. However, various indigenous words were incorporated to the Portuguese and later an, expressions used by the African slaves and immigrants were also adapted.

    The XVI century marked the end of the archaic era and the birth of the just grammar, which define the modern Portuguese. One of the marks of the new structure of the language was the master piece “Os Lusíadas”, written in 1527 by cameos which was very similar to the one found in the language that is spoken today.

    It was only in the 20^th century that the difference of the language spoken in Portugal and Brazil increased. One of the reasons was the nationalism, characteristic of the Romanic Movement that existed in that period.

    Up to today the Portuguese language is constantly influenced by other language. It is normal for new terms to denominate the new technologies of the modern world to appear, besides the technical words in English and in other languages that are applied to the medical and scientific discoveries.