The Origins of Portuguese

​The first time I heard Portuguese was when we were having our house siding replaced in Atlanta: the crew was speaking in this language I'd never heard before. It sorta sounded Spanish, maybe French, maybe who knew what? And then there was that Slavic undertone that reminded me of Russian. Totally mystified, I asked the siding crew's chief what it was. Portuguese, he said. 

Portuguese is one of a number of Romance languages born off the influence of Latin. This podcast, and accompanying article, explains How Latin Became the Romance Languages and why eight hundred million of us are still using some form of the language in our everyday conversations.