Portuguese + Spanish the fastest growing western languages

Godot   Sun Feb 05, 2006 1:26 pm GMT
Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese are the fast growing world languages


Portuguese is with Spanish the fastest growing western language, and, following estimates by UNESCO it is the language with the higher potentiality of growth as an international communication language in Africa (south) and South America. The Portuguese speaking African countries are expected to have a combined population of 83 million by 2050. The language is also starting to gain popularity in Asia, mostly due to East Timor's boost in the number of speakers in the last five years, and Macau is becoming the Chinese Mecca for learning Portuguese, where in early 21st century, the language use was in decline, today it is growing as it became a language for opportunity due to Chinese strategical cooperation with the Portuguese speaking countries. [wiki]
CHINESE   Sun Feb 05, 2006 1:30 pm GMT
I'm very happy to see your post! Godot, Thanks!
greg   Sun Feb 05, 2006 2:44 pm GMT
Oui mais sur les 83 millions d'habitants en question, tous ne sont pas lusophones.
Godot   Sun Feb 05, 2006 2:49 pm GMT
Greg,

That is why Portuguese is one of the fastest GROWING languages. It means that 83 million WILL be speaking the Portuguese language by the year 2050.
greg   Sun Feb 05, 2006 2:55 pm GMT
Non, ce n'est pas ce que tu as dit. Je te traduis : « On prévoit une population de totale de 83 millions en 2050 pour les pays africains lusophones ». L'hypothèse sous-jacente est que la population entière des pays africains lusophone parle portugais. Je prétends que non et en ce sens sur les 83 millions d'habitants prévus pour 2050, tous ne seront pas lusophones. On constate exactement le même phénomène en Afrique francophone et anglophone : dans un pays d'Afrique francophone ou anglophone, tout le monde ne parle pas français ou anglais.
Godot   Sun Feb 05, 2006 3:17 pm GMT
Greg

>Je prétends que non et en ce sens sur les 83 millions d'habitants prévus pour 2050, tous ne seront pas lusophones. >

With economical growth comes education. Most likely by 2050 the majority of the 83 million will speak Portuguese, because by 2050 Portuguese will be an essential language for education, business and commerce.

Don't be bitter. People will speak French too. I speak Frenck along with Portuguese, Spanish and English. Yet, facts are facts. Portuguese is more important than French today and Portuguese will be more important than French in the future. Demographcs are demographics. There is nothing you can do about that.
Tara   Sun Feb 05, 2006 5:06 pm GMT
The Portuguese today:

Portuguese language, with 170 million native speakers, presents itself as one of the most important languages in the world. It is the second most spoken Romance language after Spanish. It is estimated that at least 150 million people live in Brazil, about 10 million in Portugal, close to 2.5 million are Galician that speak Galician-Portuguese as their native language (which is a Portuguese dialect even though it is settled in Northern Spain). Besides, there are about 4.6 million Portuguese speakers in Africa, which also use Creole. In the United States there are at least 500 000 Portuguese native speakers, and there are also Portuguese colonies in some areas of Indochina and Oceania, making it one of the few languages spoken in the five continents. The cultural and commercial presence of Portuguese is undeniable. Today it goes hand in hand with the strength that Brazil is showing in the world's economy.
Gringo   Sun Feb 05, 2006 5:09 pm GMT
Portuguese language is nowadays the second most spoken Latin language in the world. 170 million people have it as their native language), and it is, without a doubt, one of the softest and more melodic languages in existence.
greg   Sun Feb 05, 2006 6:09 pm GMT
Godot : cesse de prendre tes rêves pour des réalités et contente-toi simplement de lire ce que j'ai écrit avant de phantasmer.

Je constaste d'ailleurs que tu modères toi-même tes propos (erronés) puisqu'à présent — je te cite — « la majorité des 83 millions parlera très probablement portugais en 2050 ».

Rappel des tes propos antérieurs : « On prévoit une population de totale de 83 millions en 2050 pour les pays africains lusophones ».

Les lecteurs apprécieront la différence.
CHINESE   Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:58 am GMT
Everybody, I've got a questuon to ask about, please tell me which of Brazilian dialect is considered as the standard Brazilian portuguese?
*CarloS*   Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:08 am GMT
>>>about 51% of South America's population<<<

NOPE, BRAZIL HAS 49% OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN POPULATION.
CHINESE   Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:29 am GMT
Does Standard Brazilian Portuguese Really Exist?
Godot   Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:54 am GMT
Yes, there is standard Brazilian Portuguese and standard European Portuguese. They are main variations of the same language.

see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Portuguese
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Portuguese
Kelly   Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:56 am GMT
''Portuguese is predominantly spoken in Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, and East Timor. With more than 200 million native speakers, Portuguese is one of the few languages spoken in such widely-distributed parts of the world, and is the fifth or sixth most-spoken first language in the world. Since Brazil has about 51% of South America's population, Portuguese is the most widely spoken language in South America. ''

Spoken Brazilian Portuguese is nothing like Continental Portuguese used in Portugal and Africa. Spoken Brazilian is as distant from Continental Portuguese as it is Afrikaans from Holland's Dutch.
Chinese   Thu Feb 09, 2006 8:43 am GMT
According to an authoritative website, it displays the languages rank that USA people learn, but I was shock to know that Portuguese is NOT in the top 12 list, why did that happen, of all these foreign languages???