European Portuguese
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
European Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects spoken in Portugal. Standard Portuguese (Português-padrão) is traditionally based on Estremenho dialect of Coimbra, where the single university of country existed for centuries, and, currently, also Lisbon’s, despite the pronunciation of Lisbon is still perceived by many as a dialect. Being the standard form and because most African and some Lusophone Asian politicians studied in that university, it is also the standard form in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor, and Macau, although there is a very wide variety of regional dialects. Brazil was also once influenced by the dialect of Coimbra, before it established its own universities where the country‘s elites started studying.
Brazilian Portuguese, while being distinct in vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation from the European form of the language, remains intelligible to speakers of European Portuguese, in much the same way as British English is comprehensible to speakers of other dialects of English outside the UK.
