Comparison of Portuguese and Spanish

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Portuguese and Spanish, although closely related Romance languages, differ in many aspects of their phonology, grammar, and lexicon. Both belong to a subset of the Romance languages known as West Iberian Romance, which also includes several other languages or dialects with fewer speakers, all of which are mutually intelligible to some degree. A 1949 study by Italian-American linguist Mario Pei, analyzing the degree of difference from a language's parent (Latin, in the case of Romance languages) by comparing phonology, inflection, syntax, vocabulary, and intonation, indicated the following percentages (the higher the percentage, the greater the distance from Latin):^[1] In the case of Spanish it was 20%, the third closest Romance language to Latin, only behind Sardinian (8% distance) and Italian (12% distance). Portuguese was 31%, making it the second furthest language from Latin after French (44% distance).

The most obvious differences are in pronunciation. Mutual intelligibility is greater between the written languages than between the spoken forms. Compare, for example, the following sentences—roughly equivalent to the English proverb "A word to the wise is sufficient," or, a more literal translation, "To a good listener, a few words are enough.":

Al buen entendedor pocas palabras bastan (Spanish pronunciation: [al ˈβwen entendeˈðoɾ ˈpokas paˈlaβɾas ˈβastan])

Ao bom entendedor poucas palavras bastam (European Portuguese: [aw ˈβõ ẽtẽdɨˈðoɾ ˈpokɐʃ pɐˈlavɾɐʒ ˈβaʃtɐ̃w]).

Some Brazilian dialects, however, including some found in the Brazilian Amazon, sustain more similarities with the European pronunciation than with that of the southern Brazilian region.

There are also some significant differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese as there are between British and American English or Peninsular and Latin American Spanish. This article notes these differences below only where:

• both Brazilian and European Portuguese differ not only from each other, but from Spanish as well;
• both Peninsular (i.e. European) and Latin American Spanish differ not only from each other, but also from Portuguese; or
• either Brazilian or European Portuguese differs from Spanish with syntax not possible in Spanish (while the other dialect does not).