It has a vocabulary that highlights some specific professions, such as:

bagaceiro: a workman who feeds sugar-cane husks into a furnace

catadeira: a woman who culls coffee beans by hand

bengaleiro: an umbrella maker or salesman

One of the more pleasing arrangements for linguistic fun is the palindrome, which is a word or phrase spelt the same backwards as forwards. It can create some bizarre meanings:

Socorram-me, subi no onibus em Marrocos: Help me I took a bus in Morocco

A base do teto desaba: The base of the ceiling collapses

O lobo ama o bolo: The wolf loves the cake

Portuguese speakers are called Lusophone. Portuguese is the world's sixth-largest language in terms of number of speakers. The language is spoken in Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, the Cape Verde Islands, São Tomé, Príncipe, and Macão. It emerged as a language distinct from Latin and Castilian in the ninth century and was made the official language under King Dinis (1279–1325). French was widely used by the aristocracy in the 19th century. Dialects are found only in regions near the border with Spain and are gradually disappearing.

Adam Jacot de Boinod is the author of The Meaning of Tingo and Other Extraordinary Words from around the World, published by Penguin Books.

Author

Adam Jacot de Boinod worked for Stephen Fry on the first series of the television panel game QI. After leaving I began to investigate other languages, examining 280 dictionaries and 140 websites. This led to the creation of my first book of three in 2005, The Meaning of Tingo, featuring words that have no equivalent in the English language.

I am now a regular international travel writer and luxury hotel reviewer, having written for the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, The Daily Telegraph and numerous travel print and website publications.

Adam Jacot de Boinod