Portuñol

This article is about the code-switching. For the language variety, see Riverense Portuñol language.

Portuñol or Portunhol ( pronunciation) is the code-switching of Portuguese and Spanish.

The word portunhol is a portmanteau of the words Portugués/Português ("Portuguese") and Español/Espanhol ("Spanish").

Portunhol is the name often given to any unsystematic mixture of Portuguese with Spanish (code-switching). This is sometimes used by speakers of the two languages to talk to each other. It is possible to conduct a moderately fluent conversation in this way because Portuguese and Spanish are closely related Romance languages.

Language contact between Spanish and Portuguese occurs in regions where the two languages coexist, like the border regions between Portugal and Spain, as well as Brazil, whose official language is Portuguese, and most of its neighboring countries, whose official language is Spanish.

See also

• Differences between Spanish and Portuguese
• Spanglish
• Svorsk