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Portugal Regions

Notwithstanding a division of Portugal into several regions, all of them still can boast of warm and sunny climate, remarkable beaches and pleasant ocean views. On the contrary, they are different from the point of travel attractiveness and places of sightseeing. Namely, Portugal is comprised of continental territory and island areas of Azores and Madeira, but it has much more regions in real.

Algarve - One of the appreciated by tourists regions is Algarve, the most southern part of the country. Its history dates back to the ancient Greece and Phoenician settlements later replaced by Roman Empire. During its tremendous history Algarve was a point of Arabs’ residence and in the 15th century it became an important trade area on the European coast. Therefore, lots of places of historic sightseeing are guaranteed. Algarve as a tourist area was started at the beginning of the 20th century; it was much beloved by Englishmen at the time. 200 km of nice beaches and specific areas of pine and eucalyptus forests encouraged the development of various travel activities: wind-surfing, diving, attending park-shows with marine animals and parrots, hunting on sharks, yachting, and, of course, visiting the closest neighbors – Spain (Seville, particularly) and Morocco. The main resorts are Faro (central city), Lagoa, Portimão, Albufeira, etc.

Alentejo - Alentejo is a region of flat rocky plains, olive groves and plantations of cork trees. Every city is marked with an intricate history, mainly associated with Moors’ livelihood and bloody battles during Reconquista Age. A peculiar feature of the architecture in Alentejo is a construction of the towns on the hills, usually encompassed with the stone walls. One of the vivid examples is Monsaraz; its name reflects the specific location on the hill in the Guidiana River basin – “eyrie” in translation. Evora is a central city in Alentejo region, which draws an attention with its beautiful architecture, such as Roman Temple of Diana, Roman-Gothic Cathedral, creepy chapel built of monks’ bones. This city is included to the UNESCO World Heritage list as a city-museum.

Lisboa - Perhaps, Lisboa region is the most visited. The most western capital of Europe can boast of splendid beaches on the coast of Atlantic Ocean, splendid banks of Tejo River and lots of lifts and cable cars due to hilly relief. The city of Lisbon is a mix of old-fashioned churches and cathedrals and a modern architecture, avenues and cafes. It also operates one of the biggest urban parks in Europe – Monsanto (10 square km).

Norte - Norte Region is acknowledged as the most pleasing and marvelous. This region is rich in castles erected in Middle Ages and it has also the Celtic fortress (Citânia de Briteiros). Vila Real is a festival destination in Portugal. However, the heart of the region is Porto, the center of a wine-making industry and the second largest city in the country. It is much appreciated because of numerous castles and forts performed in different historic periods, which is why Porto also included into UNESCO Heritage list.

Centro - Centro Region is a set of frontier castles dated back to the 11th – 13th centuries, which have obtained a status of national monuments. In addition, there are several historic villages, like Almeida, Sortelha and Castelo Rodrigo, thanks to which Portugal preserved the most long-standing national borders in Europe.

Portuguese island archipelagos, Madeira and Azores, are two great regions as well. Madeira Islands are prestige tourists resort, much appreciated by the members of European Royal houses. Funchal is the main city and trading point in the area, which pleasantly welcomes commercial and voyage liners. Azores is more windy, but their attractive feature is a unique natural environment. It is considered the area of a virgin nature in europe, which cannot but inspire respect. Most of the tourists choose Azores Islands due to the variety of cheese prepared precisely here.

Portuguese

The Portuguese language is practically universal in Portugal. More than 10 million of people in the country speak it. Besides Portugal it is also the official language in São Tomé e Príncipe, Guiné-Bissau, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique and Brazil.

Portugal language originated from Vulgar Latin. Till the 15th century it was united with Glacian language but during the 16th century it developed greatly and was detached from Glacian. And that time it became an official language of the country of Portugal.

Portuguese language greatly resembles Spanish in terms of written pattern, grammar and vocabulary. An interesting fact is that both Spanish and Portuguese speaking people are able to understand each other due to the significant similarity of their languages.

Even though Portuguese is the one and only official language of Portugal, there is also Mirandese - a government-recognized language. More than 5 000 people speak it. There are also a lot Portuguese dialects spoken by a substantial number of people.

Northern dialects are spoken in Tras-os-Montes, Porto and Braga. And Barraquinho is spoken on the border with Spain. It is meanly influenced by the dialects of Extremadura and Andalusia in Spain. There are a lot of disputes whether it is primarily Portuguese or Spanish language and also whether it is transitional or mixed language. The speakers themselves say that they speak neither Portuguese nor Spanish but a completely different third language. The central and southern dialects are spoken in Madeira, Lisbon, Coimbra, Baixo-Beirao, the Azores, Alto-Alentejo, Algarve and Alentejo.

Indonesian and African languages as well as Tetum, Dutch and Chinese may be used by former residents, or descendants of residents, of the former colonies. Gypsy population for example uses various dialects of Romany. Latin, Hebrew, Greek and Arabic is used for worshipping by Christianity, Islam and Judaism followers.

The main difference between dialects is in certain grammatical forms and phonology as well as in lexical units depending on the local items. In general Portuguese dialects are quite understandable for Portuguese speakers but due to some phonological changes it may be a bit difficult for a speaker to understand a rapid speech.

There are two main Portuguese language regulators: the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Classe de Letras (Portugal) and the Academia Brasileira de Letras (Brazil).

Besides Portuguese, one-tenth of the population knows Spanish, one-fourth knows English and about the same amount of people speak French.

Nowadays the Portuguese language is one of the fastest growing European language with a pretty high potential of becoming an international language in the countries such as South Africa and South America.