Is Spanish more useful than Portuguese in Latin America?
Spanish (Castilian) and Portuguese in fact both are standardized dialects of Ibero-Latin language,as Danish ,Swedish and Norwegian are dialects of Scandinavian language.
<<In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President, making Spanish language teaching mandatory in both public and private secondary schools.>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language#Latin_America
At the same time the GDP of Spain is higher than the GDP of Brazil.
True, we always tend to forget about Spain, when thinking about the biggest Hispanic country we always tend to think about Mexico
Take it easy, please!
Spanish speakers: 300 million, mother tongue. 330 million, total speakers.
If you want to add those who can utter "Hasta la vista, baby", there are 350 million. You can't include more.
Countries: it is official in 18 countries, but Castellano is a minority language in almost all of them. It is spoken by at least a educated 15% of the population in only all of them.
PD. I remember you that these data are officially published by the SIL-Ethnologue.
http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm
At the same time the GDP of Spain is higher than the GDP of Brazil.
But of course Brazil is much more important to the world than Spain. First, Brazil will exceed the Spanish GDP in 2010, second because Brazil is an Emerging Power, third because of its continental size and finally, due to its extremely rich and diverse flora and fauna!
In others, no one needs to know how much is the GDP of a countrym, to study its language!
But of course Brazil is much more important to the world than Spain. First, Brazil will exceed the Spanish GDP in 2010, second because Brazil is an Emerging Power, third because of its continental size and finally, due to its extremely rich and diverse flora and fauna!
Flora and fauna and size of a country are much less important to determine the importance of a country than GDP. Brazil has been the country of "future", the "emergin power" for decades and decades but still the reality is that most of the country is very much like Congo. Just look at Germany, a country half the territory of Spain, it is the numer 1 at exporting manufactured goods and a very influential country throught the History. Brazil is big in territory but diminute in importance.
Well, the economic power of the countries where the language is spoken is really important.
Anyway, Brazil and Spain have a similar economic power, but if you add to Spain, Mexico, Spanish Central America, Spanish Caribbean, Spanish South America and Hispanic USA the economic power of Spanish is really higher than Portuguese.
Spain is now richer than Italy and back in the 70ies, Brazil was richer than Spain. It's because....after the military government, Brazil got into decadence and general partying instead of hard work.
<Lambada>
Chorando se foi quem um dia so me fez chorar
Chorando se foi quem um dia so me fez chorar
Chorando estar
Ao lembrar de um amor
Que um dia nao soube cuidar
Chorando estara
Ao lembrar de um amor
Que um dia nao soube cuidar
A recordacao vai estar pra sempre anode eu for
A recordacao vai estar pra sempre anode eu for
Dan sol e mar
Guardarei no olhar
O amor faz perder encontrar
Lambando estrarei ao lembrar que esta amor
Por um dia um istante foi rei
A recordacao vai estar pra sempre anode eu for
A recordacao vai estar pra sempre anode eu for
Chorando estrar ao lembrar de um amor
Que um dia nao soube cuidar
Cancao, riso e dor
Melodia de amor
Um momento que fica no ar
"This song (Lambada), together with those sung by ONO LISA (小野リサ), makes me fall in love with Brazilian Portuguese. "
小野リサ是在日本很有名的歌手.我很高兴你喜欢巴西的葡萄牙语。
拜拜
Visitor wrote...
Countries: it is official in 18 countries, but Castellano is a minority language in almost all of them. It is spoken by at least a educated 15% of the population in only all of them.
¿Including spain? hehehe
I don't agree with that ...You need to travel and listen it yourself.
¿Why french/catalan speakers hate spanish or portuguese boom...? they are latin lenguages as french/catalan they will be proud of this because they can learn two 'top speaker number lenguages'easily.
Spanish is the first language, the most spoken language, of:
1. North America: Mexico and New Mexico.
2. Central America: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Belice, Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua.
3. Europe: Spain and Andorra.
4. Caribbean: Cuba, Dominican Rep. and Puerto Rico.
5. Africa: Canary islands, Ceuta, Melilla and Equatorial Guinea.
6. South America: Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.
7. Asia-Pacific: Easter Island
8. Antarctica: Chilean Antarctica and Argentinean Antarctica.
So, it is exactly the opposite. Spanish is a majority language in 30 countries or areas.
English, for instance, it is the majority language (not including little countries) of USA, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, only 8 countries.
Other languages like French are a minority language in almost all the countries where is official (Francophonie report, 2005).
If you don't consider little countries, it is spoken as at least a 51% of the population, in only 4 countries: France, Gabon, Cote d'Ivoire and Tunisia (in the last one French is not yet official and it will be soon 3).
And french declined is sad for latin derivaded lenguage speakers because we can learn more easier than other ones and use it in old north africa french colonies but i'm afraid people at old north african french colonies are moving from french to arabic because its religion and learning english as first foreign lenguage because it's more usefull than french in our global world right now.
Good news are French is very still usefull at European Union.
I guess Spanish is more important, even Portuguese Canadian Nelly Furtado is singing in Spanish: check out her new single: MANOS AL AIRE (Hand up in the air)
Rio's accent is closer to Portugal's Portuguese due the way the "mute Ss" are pronounced. Just to give an example.
Sustentava contra ele Vênus bela. = Against him spoke the lovely Venus. (not a literal translation)
This sentece can be pronounced in many ways:
Portugal's Portuguese: /suʃtẽˈtavɐ ˈkõtɾɐ ˈeɫɨ ˈvɛnuʒ ˈbɛɫɐ/
Rio de Janeiro's Portuguese: /suʃtẽtavɐ ˈkõtɾɐ ˈeli ˈvenuʒ ˈbɛlɐ/
São Paulo's Portuguese: /sustẽˈtavɐ ˈkõtɾɐ ˈeli ˈvẽnuz ˈbɛlɐ/
Mainly the use of the ʃ while pronouncing some words marks Rio's/Portugal's portuguese and makes it somehow harder to understand for Spanish speakers.
São Paulo may sound closer to Italian due the huge amount of Italian imigrants that came to brasil in the begging of the XX secule.