2.4. Archaic Portuguese

The process of differentiation between the Portuguese and Portuguese-Galician began with the Christian advance towards the south of the Iberian Peninsula, whereby the northern dialects mixed with the southern Mozarabic dialects. The split between Galician and Portuguese, which began with the independence of Portugal in 1185, grew more marked with the expulsion of the Moors in 1249 and the defeat of the Castilians who tried to annexe the country in 1385. In the fourteenth century, literary prose in Portuguese came to be produced for the first time, with the Crónica Geral de Espanha (General Chronicle of Spain) in 1344 and the Livro de Linhagens (Book of Lineages), both written by Dom Pedro, Count of Barcelos, being the most notable examples.

The establishment of Portugal's overseas empire between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries brought the Portuguese language to various regions within Asia, Africa and South America, where it incorporated many new lexical influences from its local surroundings that are still in use today, such as the Malay word jangada (raft) and the Chinese word chá (tea). The Renaissance however brought more Italian expressions and learned words of Greek derivation into Portuguese, making it more complex and malleable. The use of Archaic Portuguese and its consolidation nonetheless came to an end with the publication in 1516 of the Cancioneiro Geral de Garcia de Resende (General Songbook of Garcia de Resende).