0
Why is that Portuguese sounds like Spanish or French at times?
Wiki User
∙ 13y ago
Portuguese can sound like Spanish or French because all three are closely related, in that they all descended from Vulgar Latin, which was the everyday spoken language of the Roman Empire. After the Roman Empire fell, over time, the people living in its various former provinces who formerly spoke Latin begin to diverge in speech. Think about how people in different parts of your own country speak with different accents. If they didn't have regular communication with each other, over time, their accents would get so strong that, while they sounded somewhat similar, they may not be able to understand each other. This is more or less what happened to Latin, which resulted in the various Romance languages (Portuguese, Spanish, French, as well as Italian, Romanian, Catalan, Occitan, and many others).
In the case of Portuguese, Spanish and French - a long time ago, perhaps 1500 years ago, they were all the same language. At some point, they split into two languages: the mother of Spanish and Portuguese on one side, and the mother of French (and Occitan and Catalan) on the other. Later, Spanish and Portuguese split into two languages. This is why, grammatically, Spanish and Portuguese are more similar than French and Portuguese.
Superficially, French and Portuguese can sound similar for a few reasons - they both share the uvular R (the 'throaty' as opposed to 'rolled' R of Spanish) and they both have nasal vowels. However, both of these similarities are more or less artifacts of history - Portuguese isn't more closely related, by descent, to French than Spanish is.
Wiki User
∙ 13y ago
Add your answer:
Earn +20 pts
Is Roman language the same as Italian?
Today, yes. All Romans speak Italian today, its their national language. In ancient times the Romans spoke Latin, and modern Italian is, like all the other Romance languages, an offshoot of Latin.
What is the translation from old French to French for disette?
Times of bad harvests and famine
Did black Portuguese enslave blacks slaves?
NO. Slavery has been occurring since ancient times. No... Portuguese people had slavery in the 16th century, Egyptian people had slaves live 5000 years before that.
What was the huge war in Tudor times between England and Spain?
the spanish armada
What was the flag of the Spanish empire in the times of the conquistadors?
Answer Red and Yellow. See link
Which European countries had a successful explorations and empires in the new world?
At various times, the Spanish, the British, the Dutch, the French, and the Portuguese all had empires in the New World.
What other language has influenced spanish?
Arabic has heavily influenced Spanish vocabulary, particularly in words related to mathematics, science, and agriculture. Additionally, Latin and Greek have contributed to the Spanish lexicon, primarily in the fields of academia and medicine.
If you are a Puerto Rican with the last name Garcia could you be of Spanish or Portuguese descent since Google shows that to be a Spanish or Portuguese name?
The name Garcia originated in medieval Spain, but might date back to pre-Roman times. This means that your family must have originally come from Spain, yes. You could research your ancestors online for a small fee.
Did the Spanish and the French both held claim to the Mississippi river?
Yes each held legitimate claims at different times.
Is Roman language the same as Italian?
Today, yes. All Romans speak Italian today, its their national language. In ancient times the Romans spoke Latin, and modern Italian is, like all the other Romance languages, an offshoot of Latin.
Which of these countries uses the French franc Spanish peseta and euro as its currency?
Andorra Andorra is 2.5 times the size of Washington, DC
What is an alphabet used in the western hemisphere?
The Roman, Greek, and Cyrillic ones are. In fact, because of the mobility of human populations in modern times, any alphabet you can think of is undoubtedly used somewhere in the western hemisphere ... Arabic, Hebrew, etc.
How does the region of Latin America compare to the Continental United States?
Latin America is about 2.5 times the size of the Continental US. The population of Latin America is almost twice the size of the Continental US. Latin America is also much more religious, and the overwhelming majority is Catholic. Latin America's major languages include Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English while the Continental US's major languages include English, Spanish, French, and German. However, the Continental US is much more developed than Latin America and has a larger urban population.
What are the five widely spoken languages of Africa?
More than 2,000 different languages are spoken in Africa.The main ones being English, French, Portuguese and Spanish, from the colonial times. To that you have to add 14 other languages that are officially recoginized at national level. They are Arabic, Swahili, Chichewa, Amharic, Somali, Tigrinya, Kinyarwanda, Sango, Swazi, Malagasy, Seychellois Creole, Shona, and Afrikaans.
French capital in Roman times?
what was the french capital in roman times?
How do the French and Spanish languages trill the r sound differently?
In French, the "r" sound is typically pronounced using a uvular fricative or uvular trill, produced at the back of the throat. In Spanish, the "r" sound is often pronounced as a single trill with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, creating a more rapid and vibrant sound.
What is the mother tongue of Goa?
These days? English and Hindi. In previous times, Portuguese.
