The World Seen in Portuguese

The article “The World Seen in Portuguese,” written by Ms. Barbara Ribeiro, Director of the Brazilian Program at the Pan American School, was published on GZH on Portuguese Language Day, May 5. In the piece, she explores the power of language to connect cultures and shape identities.

Read the full article below:

The World Seen in Portuguese

“My homeland is the Portuguese language,” said Fernando Pessoa — and there is no more touching statement for those who breathe, dream, and feel in this language so full of life. On May 5, we celebrate World Portuguese Language Day, honoring a language that is not just a means of communication, but an entire universe of meanings, melodies, stories, and emotions. It is the language of Camões, who sang of the seas; of Machado de Assis, who said so much with irony and subtlety; of Saramago, who reinvented storytelling. It is the language of the people — of many peoples.

With roots in vulgar Latin and in the Arabic languages spoken by the peoples who inhabited the Iberian Peninsula, Portuguese crossed oceans in the 16th century and took root in various continents. Today, it connects more than 265 million people across Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Timor-Leste, Brazil, and Portugal, making it the language with the widest geographic spread.

But perhaps the most beautiful aspect is realizing that although we are many, we speak a single language — which is also many at the same time. The word bergamota in the South of Brazil becomes mexerica or tangerina in other regions. Aipim is also known as macaxeira or mandioca. In Portugal, breakfast is pequeno-almoço, bus is autocarro, and it’s all Portuguese. Our language reinvents itself at every corner, in every accent, in every accompanying gesture.

These variations are not noise, but rather distinct melodies that vibrate in harmony within the same language. They are living proof that Portuguese beats, grows, adapts, and endures. Words like saudade and cafuné, for example, have no exact translation, as they carry the soul of those who speak them. And that is something only those who live the language can understand.

On World Portuguese Language Day, I invite everyone to celebrate the richness of Portuguese and, by doing so, celebrate our own stories. To celebrate our language is to recognize that we are many in one tongue. It is to understand that language is a constantly evolving heritage — and, like us, it is alive and represents emotion, identity, and connection.