Juan

Which is the bigger language of South America? Many reports say Portuguese has more speakers, others have Spanish with the bigger amount of speakers. I look and look online and no one seems to have definitive answers. I think they have around the same amount of speakers in my opinion. Spanish Wikipedia has Spanish with 13 million more speakers than Portuguese whereas Portuguese Wikipedia has Portuguese with the larger amount of speakers. I think that depending on the language they both seem to give the advantage to their respective languages as far as numbers go.

Brazil seems to have just as many inhabitants as the 9 other Spanish-speaking countries that share the continent with it, so their numbers being close to equal would make sense. I want to hear your opinion on this.

I am a native Spanish speaker currently studying Brazilian Portuguese on my own for almost a year through TV, films, YouTube videos and Google translate. At this point I can understand 90% of what is said in BR Portuguese and I can speak the language at a decent conversational level with minimal accent. The other day I was with my uncle who recently came from Europe and speaks Italian in addition to Spanish and English. We were watching TV in the Brazilian network Globo for a while and he was able to understand over 80% of what Brazilians were saying on TV and would occasionally laugh. At times, he would pick up on this I wouldn't, all of this without studying Portuguese a day in his life.

I was very surprised on his ease of understanding a language that, although very similar to Spanish, most Spanish speakers have difficulty in understanding and only pick up about 40-50% of what is being said.

Is it possible his knowledge of Italian, combined with Spanish made it much easier for him to understand Portuguese from Brazil than a person who knows only Spanish? Are there words in Italian that are more similar in Portuguese than in Spanish? Anyone with any knowledge of this please let me know.

Eu sei que há muitos sotaques diferentes em Portugal, como em todos os países, mas eu estou falando do sotaque geral dos Portugueses como e ouvido na midia Portuguesa como o canal RPT e assim.

Português é minha terceira lingua é ainda eu estou estudando-lo. Eu falo espanhol e inglês tambem, mas com fluencia. Eu sou apaixonado com a língua Portuguesa. Eu, como a maioria das pessoas que aprendem Português, tenho mais facilidade de entender o sotaque geral dos Brasileiros muito melhor que o sotaque Português.

O sotaque geral dos Portugueses também tem seu encanto, mas eu acho que eles falam rápido demais e pronunciam muitas palavras bem diferente dos Brasileiros.

Qual sotaque do Brasil se aproxima mais ao Português?

Esta pregunta va para todos aquellos que tienen al Español como primer idioma Por experiencia propia y por lo que oigo de mucha gente es que el Portugues es mas facil, lo que tiene sentido porque la gramatica del Portugues es bastante parecida a la del Español, sin embargo, hay muchas personas que dicen que entienden mucho mejor el Italiano, lo que tambien tiene sentido porque el Italiano es pronunciado mas parecido al Español que el Portugues.

La mayoria de los Latinos les cuesta trabajo entender el Portugues, por sus sonidos y entonaciones muy diferentes a las del Español, y dicen que comprenden mejor el Italiano.

Algunos dicen que entienden el Frances sin haberlo estudiado pero la verdad que el Frances es el que da mas trabajo entender para todos los hablantes de lengua Romance. Yo creo que entiendo talvez menos de 10 porciento de Frances.

Que piensan ustedes. Personalmente cual entienden mejor sin haberlo estudiado? Yo tengo un 90 porciento de comprension del Portugues pero eso es porque lo he estado aprendiendo por cuenta propia. El Italiano lo comprendo mas o menos pero yo diria que entiendo un 40 o 45 porciento pero no lo he estudiado. Sin embargo, siempre encontre al Portugues mas facil de entender a pesar de tener una pronunciacion muy distinta al Español.

I know it's a fictional, made-up language, but it sounds very Slavic and like an actual language from Eastern Europe. Does any one know if this fictional language was based on Romanian or any other Slavic language being that the legend of vampires originates from Romania?

The actors, especially on Blade 2, sound very convincing speaking this fictional tongue, I almost came to believe it was a real language.

If one is a dialect of the other, then why do many Chinese say they can barely understand each other? I've heard that they compare it to a chicken talking to a duck . What could one compare it to? English and German? Spanish and Portuguese? Spanish and French?

You know it's true especially due to recent events concerning American Latino celebrities. Back in September, a whole bunch of racist rednecks were badmouthing Marc Anthony because of his rendition of the national anthem and started saying things like 'deport that Mexican' and 'the anthem should be sung by a real American' and 'why is a Mexican singing the US anthem?'

Another incident ocurred at the AMAs with more racist whites tweeting about Pitbull and Jlo not belonging at the AMERICAN music awards because they were not 'real Americans'. Pitbull, JLo and Marc Anthony were all born in the United States and are not less American than Tom Cruise or George Clooney only because they also speak Spanish. Is that it? Most Whites don't consider us American because most of us use Spanish as well? Did you know that more than half of the US belonged to Spain once and was mostly Spanish speaking? I want to hear from the non Latino Americans why do you think some Americans act this way?

I live in NYC and I frequent the area of Astoria, Queens where there is a sizeable Brazilian and Latino community (i don't really consider Brazilians Latino, just Brazilian) Anyway, I have noticed a lot of Brazilians and Hispanic folks when they talk to each other, they simply use their own native tongue and understand each other perfectly. I know the two languages are mutually intelligible to a certain degree but I just think this happens out of sheer laziness from both parts to properly learn the others language, mostly when it comes to Hispanics learning Portuguese. I do see some Brazilians who at least try and 99 percent of the time end up speaking Portunol but Hispanic people NEVER try to even speak Portuguese. Why do you think this is? I call it linguistic laziness. What do you guys think?

I am a Latino who is currently learning Portuguese, I am reasonably conversational in it and expect to become fluent in a year or so God willing.

I'm a big fan of his. I have seen many of his comedy specials and he always seems to pull out words and phrases in Spanish (usually Mexican Spanish) but that are still universally understood by all of us. However, there is no video out there of him in an actual interview with any Spanish-speaking outlet such as Univision or Telemundo or any other speaking fully in Spanish which makes me question his ability to speak the language. I heard years ago that he stated that he really does not speak the language and he received a lot of negative press about it because of it from the Latin media and they even resorted to saying such things as "he does not speak Spanish with that Indigenous face?" and things like that which usually ignorant Latinos say.

I know other Latin comedians such as Carlos Mencia and Paul Rodriguez are pretty fluent in Spanish because I have seen them speak fluent Spanish on interviews but I have never seen George in one.

If he does not speak it I won't judge him. I am not one of those types that wants every single person of Latino descent to speak Spanish because I do understand that many Latinos are in America for many generations and many lose the language so it's fine. I am just curious about it.

Personally I am fascinated by it. I know it's some type of South African accent. It's an accent you rarely hear in movies (except for phony South African accents made by American and English actors). I've heard this type of accent is very difficult to pull off if you're not a native. I have heard Sharlto Copley in interviews and his real accent is a bit different and not as thick as the one he uses in the film. Is the one in the film from a particular part of South Africa?

Now from my research, I know Norway is number 2 (66.60%) worldwide in English proficiency for a non-English speaking country losing only to Sweden (68.69%). I am watching this show called Lillyhammer where an American mobster wiseguy is relocated by the FBI to Norway, and on the show, every single Norwegian person he encounters fully understands him in English and even speak very good English themselves. How accurate is this show in relation to an American having some real-life interaction with Norwegians in English? Are they really able to understand EVERY single word in English with no difficulty as the show implies?

Eu sempre estou lendo artigos na internet acerca dos sotaques e como pessoas de uma parte do Brasil sempre estão rindo de o jeito de falar de outras pessoas de uma região distinta. O sotaque mais criticado e o Carioca ou "Carioques" por seus constantes sons de "ssh". O gaúcho, com seu "tche", baiano com seu "o meu rei" e caipira, nordestino, especialmente o dialeto cearense, que muitos Brasileiros de outras regiões não conseguem entender quase nada do que eles dizem.

Eu não sou Brasileiro, sou Equatoriano-Americano. Português não e minha língua materna, eu não tenho nem sequer amigos que falam Português, mas eu acho que as pessoas de São Paulo e Curitiba falam o Português mais neutras de todo Brasil. Eu digo por todos os vídeos que eu assisti no internet. O que vocês pensam? Por favor, preciso de sua opinião e desculpem por minha ortografia.

What is the mutual intelligibility among them? What languages can you compare them to in terms of mutual understanding? Spanish and French? English and German? English and Russian? Just curious.

I just finished seeing a South Korean film (Failan) where the female protagonist is Chinese and she emigrates to South Korea, and no one can understand a word she says and she also struggles with Korean. Are the two languages really that much different? what about Japanese and Korean? Mandarin and Japanese?

I know many of you take pride in your Taino ancestors, who were unfortunately wiped out by famine, disease and murder brought by the Spanish. My question to you is and I have always wondered this: Out of Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Dominicans, which group has the highest concentration of people with Taino features? My guess was always Puerto Ricans. To me most Cubans are White, most Dominicans are mulatto, but many Puerto Ricans I encounter have these indigenous features that I believe are Taino. I do not want to turn this question into which group is Whiter or Blacker, I just want to know which island has the highest ratio of Taino descendants if that is even possible to determine. Many of us would've loved to see what the Taino civilization and language looked and sounded like in it's pure form and with no intervention from Europeans. What did Tainos really look like? Did they look a lot like your present day brown-skinned Puerto Ricans and Dominicans? or they looked more like the indigenous people from South America?.

I remember once going to a Portuguese restaurant in Newark, NJ and having a paella which to me looked and tasted exactly like the traditional Spanish one. I thought to myself, Spain and Portugal are both in Iberia and right next to each other. It only makes sense that their cuisine seems identical to me. Are there major differences between Spanish and Portuguese dishes that look the same? Native Spaniards or Portuguese please reply. Thanks.

I wonder this because I would very much like to travel to Spain one day, whether it be Madrid, Barcelona, Pamplona or wherever. It seems like a beautiful country and it is after all, the birthplace of the language which the majority of us speak across the ocean. I am Ecuadorian-American. It is my understanding that the natives of my homeland are the immigrant majority in Spain (There are close to a million there. Although I heard a lot are moving back home due to the bad economy) and many Spaniards have this sort of xenophobia against immigrants and foreign visitors, especially those that come from South America (including Brazilians). I've heard the countless stories of racial slurs being hurled at South Americans and North Africans, deportations, physical attacks at people who looked "foreign", Spaniards giving foreigners hell in all of their airports only to send them back where they came from, their struggling economy and the Spaniards' frustration of the foreigners "taking all of their jobs". What would my experience be like if I travel to Spain? I have strong South American mestizo features so I can't definitely pass for anything else but what I am. Would Spaniards treat me as a "sudaca" and make my experience in Spain unpleasant, or can I get a free pass because I am also an American and perhaps if I pull that card out the Spaniards would give me a break? I have heard that they like American Latinos better than Latinos straight outta Latin America. Perhaps because they know we are there just to visit and not to take their precious jobs? How true is this? Any Spaniards or anyone familiar with this subject please help me.

I speak English and Spanish fluently. My first language is Spanish and I choose to speak either one or the other depending on who I am speaking to. However when I hear certain people in public speaking tat abomination called Spanglish, it irritates me. They say three or four words in English and four or five in Spanish and then English and then Spanish it's constantly back and forth it makes my head spin and the worst part is, most of these people cannot speak properly neither one! I feel like they are disrespecting both languages and people who don't speak either one. I can only imagine how English speakers must feel. It also gives some people around the speakers the perspective that they are saying something about them, thus giving Latinos the reputation of gossipers and two-faced backstabbers. I think Spanglish shouldn't exist. It makes us Latinos look ignorant and it decreases the value of our beautiful language. Who else thinks the same or different?

You see it in many countries incudling the USA. English is spoken natively by 80% of the population here and has always been the language of the colonies and later the states. Why doesn't the US just make English the official language of the US?

Same goes for other countries such as Mexico (Spanish) and other countries which large populations who exclusively use one language for business and administrative purposes, but the language remains "de-facto" status meaning it's spoken by the majority of its people and does not reach "de-jure" status meaning becoming official. Why do countries choose to do this?

I've seen several videos of native English speakers on YouTube whether they be English or American and most of the times and I always see that when they speak Spanish, they have a hard time sounding native and cannot pronounce many words like us natives do, but when it comes to Portuguese, mostly the Brazilian one, they sound very close to the way native Brazilians speak. Why is that? Is it because Portuguese has a more relaxed pronunciation just like English does whereas Spanish has a stronger pronunciation of words, like Italian and Russian for example.

I'd really appreciate any feedback that can be provided on this.

Which is the most spoken language right now in South America? Worldwide I know Spanish has twice the amount but in South America I'm not sure. Some say Spanish, some say Portuguese, some say they are equally spoken. Brazil's population estimates now are at 201 million people out of which I'm sure 99.5% speak Portuguese. I do not know the latest estimates of the 9 other Spanish-speaking countries but I think it's under 200 million combined. Does any one here know if there is an accurate number of speakers as of right now of each language in S.A.? My guess right now is Portuguese is beating Spanish by a couple of million. Just curious.