The Community of Portuguese Language Countries, also known as the Lusophone Community, is an international organization and political association of Lusophone nations across five continents, where Portuguese is an official language. The CPLP operates as a privileged, multilateral forum for the mutual cooperation of the governments, economies, non-governmental organizations, and peoples of the Lusofonia. The CPLP consists of 9 member states and 33 associate observers, located in Europe, South America, Asia, Africa and Oceania, totaling 38 countries and 4 organizations.
Portuguese creoles are creole languages which have Portuguese as their substantial lexifier. The most widely-spoken creoles influenced by Portuguese are Cape Verdean Creole, Guinea-Bissau Creole and Papiamento.
Papia Kristang or Kristang is a creole language spoken by the Kristang, a community of people of mixed Portuguese and indigenous Malay ancestry, chiefly in Malaysia (Malacca), Singapore and Perth, Australia.
The Daman and Diu Portuguese Creole, Portuguese: Língua Crioula de Damãon e Dio & by its speakers as Língua da Casa meaning "home language", refers to the variety of Indo-Portuguese creole spoken in the Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, in the northern Konkan region of India. Before the Indian annexation of the territory, the creole spoken by the Damanese natives underwent a profound decreolisation in the erstwhile Portuguese Goa and Damaon colony, a phenomenon whereby the Indo-Portuguese creole reconverged with European Portuguese.
Eurasian Singaporeans are Singaporeans of mixed European and Asian descent. Their Asian ancestry trace from colonial India to other colonies while their European ancestry trace back to western Europe primarily, although Eurasian settlers to Singapore in the 19th century came largely from other European colonies. These included British Malaya and British Sarawak, part of the former British Raj India, of the former Portuguese India and Chittagong, the Dutch East Indies and French Indochina. When the European maritime powers colonised Asian countries, such as colonial India, Ceylon, Malaya, Singapore, Indonesia and Indochina, from the 16th to 20th century, they brought into being a new group of commingled ethnicities known historically as Eurasians.
Portuguese is spoken in a number of African countries and is the official language in six African countries: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe and Equatorial Guinea. There are Portuguese-speaking communities in most countries of Southern Africa, a mixture of Portuguese settlers and Angolans and Mozambicans who left their countries during the civil wars. A rough estimate has it that there are about 14 million people who use Portuguese as their sole mother tongue across Africa, but depending on the criteria applied, the number might be considerably higher, since many Africans speak Portuguese as a second language, in countries like Angola and Mozambique, where Portuguese is an official language, but also in countries like South Africa and Senegal, thanks to migrants coming from Portuguese-speaking countries. Some statistics claim that there are over 60 million Portuguese speakers in the continent.
The Kristang are a creole and indigenous ethnic group of people of primarily Portuguese and Malay descent, with substantial Dutch, British, Jewish, Chinese and Indian heritage. They are based mostly in Malaysia, Singapore and Australia, the last being due to significant emigration in the second half of the twentieth century. People of this ethnicity also have, besides Malay and Portuguese, a strong Dutch heritage due to intermarriages, which is common among the Kristang. In addition, due to persecution by the Portuguese Inquisition in the region, a lot of the Jews of Malacca assimilated into the Kristang community. The creole group arose in Malacca between the 16th and 17th centuries, when the city was a port and base of the Portuguese Empire. Today the Malaysian government classifies them as Portuguese-Eurasians; in Singapore, they are primarily known as Kristang. Today, elements of Kristang culture and identity, especially the Kristang language, which is classified as critically endangered by the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages, are currently undergoing cultural and language revitalisation in both Malaysia and Singapore. The Kabesa or leader of the community worldwide and in Singapore is the Kristang Singaporean science fiction writer and linguist Kevin Martens Wong, while the current Regedor or Headman of the Portuguese Settlement of Malacca, the original, geographical, cultural and spiritual centre of the Malacca Portuguese identity, is Oliver Lopez.
The Lusofonia Games is a multinational multi-sport event organized by the ACOLOP, which involves athletes coming from Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) countries. Most countries competing are countries that are members of the CPLP, but some are countries with significant Portuguese communities or have a history with Portugal.
ACOLOP is an Olympic-related non-profit organization officially established on 8 June 2004, in Lisbon and has been approved by International Olympic Committee. It was founded by the national Olympic committees (NOCs) of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe; it also includes Equatorial Guinea as an associate member. In April 2006, India and Sri Lanka were admitted also as associate members, based on their common historical past with Portugal.
The 2014 Lusofonia Games was the 3rd edition of the Lusofonia Games, a multi-sport event that represent athletes from Portuguese-speaking countries and territories. It was held from 18 to 29 January 2014 in the Indian state of Goa.
The corridinho is a form of Portuguese folk dance, namely in the Algarve region. The origin of the dance itself is unclear and believed older, although it gained popularity in the 1800s. The name derives from correr, to run which partly describes this type of dance. The dance was performed in a round in the open air. The oldest musical instruments recorded were small flutes or fifes (pífaro) and harmonicas, (harmónica) until the accordion was implemented and dominated ever since.
Macanese Portuguese is a Portuguese dialect spoken in Macau, where Portuguese is co-official with Cantonese. Macanese Portuguese is spoken, to some degree either natively or as a second language, by roughly 2.3% of the population of Macau. It should not be confused with Macanese language, a distinct Portuguese creole that developed in Macau during the Portuguese rule.
Angola participates in the Lusophone Games, a multi-sport event for Portuguese-speaking countries, as a member of ACOLOP. Angola participated in the 2006 games in Macau, the first edition of the Lusophone Games. Angola has sent athletes to all three editions of the Lusophone Games and won medals at all three. Angola did not win any gold medals in 2006 but has won gold medals at all Games since, with four in 2009 and five in 2014.
Luso-Asians are Eurasian people whose ethnicity is partially or wholly Portuguese and ancestrally are based in or hail primarily from Portugal, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. They historically came under the cultural and multi-ethnic sway of the Portuguese Empire in the East and retain certain aspects of the Portuguese language, Roman Catholic faith, and Latin cultural practices, including internal and external architecture, art, and cuisine that reflect this contact. The term Luso comes from the Roman empire's province of Lusitania, which roughly corresponds to modern Portugal.
The Portuguese presence in Asia was responsible for what would be the first of many contacts between European countries and the East, starting on May 20, 1498 with the trip led by Vasco da Gama to Calicut, India. Aside from being part of the European colonisation of Southeast Asia in the 16th century, Portugal's goal in the Indian Ocean was to ensure their monopoly in the spice trade, establishing several fortresses and commercial trading posts.
Joan Margaret Marbeck, a Malaysian scholar specializing in the study of Malay-Portuguese Creole language Kristang in Malaysia and other countries.
This article provides details regarding the geographical distribution of all Portuguese-speakers, a.k.a.Lusophones, regardless of legislative status. The Portuguese language is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world and is an official language of countries on four continents.
