Portuguese America

Summary

Portuguese America[1][2] (Portuguese: América Portuguesa), sometimes called América Lusófona or Lusophone America in the English language, in contrast to Anglo-America, French America, or Hispanic America, is the Portuguese-speaking community of people and their diaspora, notably those tracing back origins to Brazil and the early Portuguese colonization of the Americas.

Portugal colonized parts of South America (Brazil; Colónia do Sacramento, in Uruguay; Guanare, in Venezuela), but also made some unsuccessful attempts to colonize North America (Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia in Canada).

Brazil is the centre of the community and is the point of origin of most of Portuguese America, but it also includes communities all over the Americas and languages derived from Portuguese, notably Papiamento spoken on Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao; Saramaccan of Suriname; and Cupópia of Brazil which is nearly extinct.

Because Portuguese is a Romance language, Portuguese America (specifically Brazil) is considered part of Latin America in some sources,[3] but this term more often refers to Hispanic America, since Brazil is not culturally close enough to Hispanic America in general other than by language proximity.[4][5]

References edit

  1. ^ Maxwell, Kenneth R. (1984). "Portuguese America". The International History Review. 6 (4): 529–550. doi:10.1080/07075332.1984.9640360. JSTOR 40105420 – via JSTOR.
  2. ^ "e-journal of Portuguese History". www.brown.edu.
  3. ^ [https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/Latin-America "Latin America" definition. Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed 20 May 2022.
  4. ^ "Brazil and 'Latin America' in Historical Perspective | Wilson Center". www.wilsoncenter.org.
  5. ^ "Nossa and Nuestra América: Inter-American Dialogues | Purdue University Press". www.thepress.purdue.edu.