Portuguese is the official language of Brazil and the largest language in South America by number of native speakers.
Portuguese originated in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula from spoken Latin and gradually developed alongside other Romance languages. Portuguese explorers and colonists carried it to South America, Africa, Asia, and the Atlantic islands.
Brazil is the language’s largest national speech community. Brazilian Portuguese has distinctive pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar compared with European Portuguese, although the two varieties remain mutually understandable in writing and share the same standard literary tradition.
Portuguese is also an official language in countries including Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, and East Timor. The Community of Portuguese Language Countries was established in 1996 to strengthen cooperation among Portuguese-speaking nations.