ABSTRACT
Portuguese belongs to the Italic branch of the Indo-European family. It is the official language of Portugal, where it is spoken by about 9 million people, and of Brazil, where the num ber of speakers is estimated at about 125 million. In addition, it is the language of administration in Angola, M ozambique, GuineaBissau, Cape Verde, and San Tome e Principe. O ther islands of Portuguese speech are G oa, East Timor, and Macao.
