Museum of the Portuguese Language
| Museu da Língua Portuguesa | |
 |
|
| Established | 20 March 2006 |
|---|---|
| Location |
Estação da Luz, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Coordinates | 23°32′6.12″S 46°38′11.82″W / 23.5350333°S 46.6366167°WCoordinates: 23°32′6.12″S 46°38′11.82″W / 23.5350333°S 46.6366167°W |
| Visitors | 580.000 (2006) |
| Director | Antonio Sartini |
| Curator | João Manuel Rendeiro |
| Website | museulp.org.br |
The Museum of the Portuguese Language (Portuguese: Museu da Língua Portuguesa; Brazilian Portuguese: [muˈzew dɐ ˈlĩɡwɐ puʁtuˈɡezɐ], locally [muˈzeʊ̯ da ˈɫĩɡwɐ poɾtuˈɡezɐ]) is an interactive Portuguese language—and Linguistics/Language Development in general—museum in São Paulo, Brazil. It is housed in the Estação da Luz railway station, in the urban district of the same name. Three hundred thousand passengers arrive and leave the station every day, and the choice of the building for the launching of the museum is connected to the fact that it was mainly here that thousands of non-Portuguese speaking immigrants arriving from Europe and Asia into São Paulo via the Port of Santos got acquainted with the language for the first time. The idea of a museum-monument to the language was conceived by the São Paulo Secretary of Culture in conjunction with the Roberto Marinho Foundation, at a cost of around 37 million reais.
The objective of the museum is to create a living representation of the Portuguese language, where visitors may be surprised and educated by unusual and unfamiliar aspects of their own native language. Secondly, the caretakers of the museum, as expressed on the official website, "desire that, in this museum, the public has access to new knowledge and reflection in an intense and pleasurable manner," as it notices the relationship of the language with others, as well as its proto-languages. The museum targets the Portuguese speaking population, made up of peoples from many regions and social backgrounds, but who still have not had the opportunity to gain a broader understanding of the origins, the history and the continuous evolution of the language.
The project was conceived in 2001. It is speculated by many sources that São Paulo was chosen as the site of the museum for its symbolism, as it is the largest Portuguese-speaking city and metropolitan region in the world, with 20 million inhabitants.
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