Most spoken languages in South America

nazar.data:

While most of the region speaks Spanish — around 203 million people — it’s actually Portuguese that leads, thanks to Brazil’s 212 million speakers. 🇧🇷🇪🇸

This linguistic divide dates back to the Age of Exploration, when the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) split the continent between Spain and Portugal. Spanish conquistadors claimed most of South America, while the Portuguese took control of what became Brazil — shaping the region’s languages for centuries to come. ⚓📜

Beyond that, smaller countries still carry traces of their colonial past: English in Guyana, Dutch in Suriname, and French in French Guiana. And in places like Paraguay and Bolivia, Indigenous languages such as Guaraní and Quechua live alongside Spanish.

Collection: languages - Tags: languages, south-america - Source: instagram.com