Portuguese

Portuguese grew out of the Vulgar Latin of Roman settlers who reached western Iberia in the third century BC. After the Germanic invasions of the fifth century the speech of the northwest developed into Galician-Portuguese, famed for lyric songs such as the Cantigas de Santa Maria. Muslim rule from 711 left Arabic words in its vocabulary.

Portugal's kingdom was recognized in 1143, and the common language began to divide into Portuguese and Galician. King Diniz decreed in 1290 that Portuguese should be used in official writing, and the royal chancellery adopted it six years later.

The Cancioneiro Geral of 1516 closed the Old Portuguese period, and Fernão de Oliveira printed the first grammar in 1536. Carried abroad by the age of discovery, Portuguese became a lingua franca of trade and missionary work in Africa, Asia and Brazil.