Are Spanish and Portuguese ethnically the same? No, they are of two different ethnic groups. However, they are very closely related to one another in geography, language, and history.
Nuclear DNA analysis shows that Spanish and Portuguese populations are most closely related to other populations of western Europe. There is an axis of significant genetic differentiation along the east–west direction, in contrast to remarkable genetic similarity in the north–south direction.
The Portuguese people's heritage largely derives from the pre-Roman Indo-European (Lusitanians, Conii) and Celtic peoples (Gallaecians, Turduli and Celtici), who were later Romanized after the conquest of the region by the ancient Romans.
The history of Portugal is closely intertwined with the history of Spain. Both countries are part of the Iberian peninsula and thus have a common history (first occupied by the Romans, then the Visigoths and finally the Moors) until the Moorish invasion in 711 AD.
Ethnically, the Portuguese people form 95% of the total population in Portugal. The Portuguese people are mainly a combination of ancient paleolithic populations, and the proto-Celtic, Celtic and Iberian tribes, para-Celtic Lusitanians.
Despite the fact that most people in Portugal are Portuguese, the Portuguese are themselves a blend of a number of other ethnic groups that have inhabited the country over the millennia, including Roman, Celtic, and Moorish. Each of these groups added something to the Portuguese genome.
94 % of the population is Portuguese. Brazilians, Black, mixed race and other Europeans each represents about 1.2 % of the total population.
From those events, the modern states of Spain and Portugal emerged. Portugal became the earliest European state.
Portugal is the oldest nation state on the Iberian Peninsula and one of the oldest in Europe, its territory having been continuously settled, invaded and fought over since prehistoric times.
Portugal was officially an autonomous state, but in actuality, the country was in a personal union with the Spanish crown from 1580 to 1640.
Most Portuguese have typical Mediterranean features like brown eyes, brown hair, and a height of less than 6 feet.
Then, in the beginning of the first millennium BC, Celtic tribes invaded and intermarried with the local Iberians, creating what is now known as the Celtiberians. The Lusitanians, who inhabited the interior region of Portugal since the Iron Age, are considered the forefathers of the Portuguese nation.
Born and raised in Fall River, Massachusetts – a Portuguese Mecca – Brian Martins and Derrick DeMelo use their upbringing as fodder for their live comedy shows, funny musical parodies, and viral videos.
Historical origins and genetics
The Spanish people's genetic pool largely derives from the pre-Roman inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula: Pre-Indo-European and Indo-European speaking pre-Celtic groups: (Iberians, Vettones, Turdetani, Aquitani).
Mutual intelligibility is asymmetric. It is greater between the written languages than the spoken forms. Interestingly Spanish and Portuguese share about 89% lexical similarity. Meaning that 89% of words have a cognate (equivalent) in the other language.
The Iberian Peninsula is where Portuguese and Spanish were 'born' (if languages can be born) and it is also the main reason why Portuguese and Spanish are much closer to each other than to the other major Romance languages: it has allowed them to develop in relative isolation.
Spain and Portugal divided the New World by drawing a north-to-south line of demarcation in the Atlantic Ocean, about 100 leagues (555 kilometers or 345 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of northwestern Africa and then controlled by Portugal.
The name Portucale evolved into Portugale during the 7th and 8th centuries, and by the 9th century, that term was used extensively to refer to the region between the rivers Douro and Minho. By the 11th and 12th centuries, Portugale, Portugallia, Portvgallo or Portvgalliae was already referred to as Portugal.
Following Christopher Columbus' first voyage, the rulers of Portugal and Spain, by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), partitioned the non-Christian world between them by an imaginary line in the Atlantic, 370 leagues (about 1,300 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands.
While the majority of lexical differences between Spanish and Portuguese come from the influence of the Arabic language on Spanish vocabulary, most of the similarities and cognate words in the two languages have their origin in Latin, but several of these cognates differ, to a greater or lesser extent, in meaning.
A Spanish army under the Duke of Alva invaded Portugal, and after their victory at Alcantara, near Lisbon, in 1580 Philip was accepted as King of Portugal. For the next sixty years Portugal was under Spanish rule and her interests subordinated to those of Spain.
One of the most important factors that allowed Portugal to remain independent from Spain was its location. Portugal had a natural barrier of mountains and rivers that helped to protect it from invasion.
Portuguese people features include, stereotypically, wavy brown hair, olive skin, and brown eyes. But Portugal is a diverse country, so these stereotypes don't reflect all Portuguese people. Portuguese heritage comes from a mixture of different groups that have settled or traded in the region over the centuries.
With regard to Portuguese culture more broadly: Lusitano/a, or Luso/a for short, defines anyone of Portuguese descent or origin, while lusitano/a is the corresponding cultural adjective; these are equivalent to English Lusitanic.
Brazil has the largest population of Portuguese speakers in the world: 211.2 million. No other country in the Americas even comes close to that number, but there are a few places with significant Portuguese-speaking contingents. The United States is home to 693,000 Portuguese speakers and Canada has 222,000.