A reading campaign in East Timor. East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste (officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste) is a country in Southeast Asia.

A Lusophone (or lusophone) is someone who speaks the Portuguese language natively or by adoption. Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. As an adjective, it means "Portuguese-speaking. " The word itself is derived from the name of the ancient Roman province of Lusitania, which covered an area that is today Portugal. Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC In Ancient Rome, a province (Latin provincia, pl provinciae) was the basic and until the Tetrarchy (circa This article concerns the Roman province For the ship see RMS Lusitania. Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. The notion of "Lusophone" reaches beyond the dictionary definition of "Portuguese speaker". The term specifically refers to people whose cultural background is primarily associated with Portuguese language, regardless of ethnic and geographical differences. The Lusophone culture is the legacy of the Portuguese colonial empire. The Portuguese Empire was the earliest and longest lived of the modern European colonial empires spanning almost six centuries from the capture of Ceuta Even after the empire's collapse, the corresponding countries continue to exhibit cultural and political affinity, expressed in the existence of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, created in 1996. The Community of Portuguese Language Countries ( Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa, pron.

Lusophone countries include Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, East Timor, Macau and others in various parts of the world, as well as India's Goa state. Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique (Moçambique or República de Moçambique, ʁɛ'publikɐ d musɐ̃'bik is a country in southeastern Africa Angola, officially the Republic of Angola (República de Angola Pronounced ʁɛˈpublikɐ dɨ ɐ̃ˈgɔlɐ Repubilika ya Ngola is a country in south-central São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is an Island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial The Republic of Cape Verde ( Portuguese: Cabo Verde, 'kabu 'veɾdɨ is a Republic located on an Archipelago in the Macaronesia The Republic of Guinea-Bissau (ˈgɪni bɨˈsaʊ República da Guiné-Bissau ʁɛˈpublikɐ dɐ giˈnɛ biˈsau is a country in Western Africa, and one of the smallest The Republic of Equatorial Guinea ( República de Guinea Ecuatorial,) is a country in Central Africa. East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste (officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste) is a country in Southeast Asia. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Macau topics. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Goa ( Konkani: गोंय /ɡɔ̃j/ is India 's smallest state in terms of area and the fourth smallest in terms of population. The Community of Portuguese Language Countries is an international organization consisting of the eight independent countries where Portuguese is an official language. The Community of Portuguese Language Countries ( Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa, pron. These countries are also referred to as the "Lusosphere".

Sometimes Galicia, in Spain, where the Galician language is spoken, is also included, as Galician is similar to Portuguese and sometimes considered the same language. Galicia (occasionally Galiza) is an autonomous community in northwest Spain. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.

See also

• Anglophone
• Francophone
• Hispanic
• -phone
• Lusitanic
• Lusophone music
• Lusophobia
• Lusophilia

External links

• Words Without Borders explores Lusophone literature in translation this October
• (Portuguese) Flavours of Lusophony