Portuguese voice overs: what you need to know

Portuguese is a Western Romance language, native to more than 220 million speakers all over the world. Additionally, more than 20 million speak Portuguese as a second language.

Impressively, Portuguese is the official language in 10 countries, including Portugal, Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Cape Verde.

However, Portuguese reach doesn’t end here. Portuguese diaspora speaks the language all over the world, including France, The United States, and Switzerland.

Language History

Like all Romance languages, Portuguese roots from Vulgar Latin. However, that’s where Portuguese differs from its Romance relatives. Unlike other languages that developed solely from Latin, Portuguese was also greatly influenced by Celtic languages.

Portuguese as an independent language gradually appeared around the 14th century. Around that time, Galician-Portuguese which was spoken in the Iberian Peninsula formed two independent language varieties. The first written text in Portuguese dates back to 1214 — King Alfonso II’s will.

In the 15-16th centuries, Portuguese emerged as a lingua franca in America, Asia, and Africa. Portuguese was the main language of colonial trade, official matters, and everyday communication. As the Portuguese colonial empire expanded around the world, so did the language.

Because of Portuguese broad spread, many Portuguese-based creoles emerged in colonized territories. The majority of them are spoken to this day.

Close Relations

Portuguese has similarities to other Romance languages because of their shared Latin roots. However, Portuguese is most closely related to Spanish. Despite popular belief, Portuguese and Spanish are not completely mutually intelligible. However, the two languages share a high comprehension rate and most speakers can more or less understand each other.

Portuguese is also very similar to Galician — both languages are almost fully mutually intelligible because of their shared past.

When it comes to Portuguese vocabulary, the core words are inherited from Latin. But the Portuguese lexicon was greatly shaped by borrowings from other languages. Loanwords from Arabic, Greek, German, and Dutch are very common in Portuguese.

More recently, like many other languages Portuguese extensively borrowed from English — mostly terms related to popular culture and technology.

Accents and Voice Over Tips

Portuguese is a Pluricentric language with two standard written and spoken variants. There are two main dialect groups: European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. Both of these continental varieties are mutually intelligible. However, they have considerable pronunciation, grammar, and especially vocabulary differences.

Portuguese has a natural speaking pace of 150 words per minute. Note however that European Portuguese tends to be spoken at a faster pace, with syllables often omitted or reduced.

Both European and Brazilian Portuguese have many different regional dialects. In Portugal, for example, the standard Portuguese is based on the Southern varieties (as spoken in the capital Lisbon). The standard language variety in Brazil is quite similar to that in Europe.

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