European Portuguese (an Indo-European language), or "Português Europeu," developed from the Vulgar Latin language brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans around 200 BCE. As the Roman Empire declined, the Latin spoken in the Iberian Peninsula evolved into the regional Romance languages, with Galician-Portuguese emerging as a distinct form by the 12th century. This early stage of the language was influenced by the region's history, including the Visigothic and Moorish occupations, but it was primarily shaped by the Latin roots of the population. By the 13th century, the Kingdom of Portugal began to assert itself, and Portuguese became more standardized, with the royal court adopting it in official documents and literature.

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The language continued to evolve, incorporating influences from other languages during the Age of Exploration (15th–17th centuries), as Portugal established colonies across Africa, Asia, and South America. Despite these external influences, the core structure of European Portuguese remained rooted in its Latin origins. Over time, the language continued to develop a distinctive phonology, grammar, and vocabulary. The 16th and 17th centuries saw a flourishing of literature and poetry in Portuguese, and by the 19th century, the language began to be more fully standardized with the creation of dictionaries and grammar rules. Today, European Portuguese is spoken predominantly in Portugal and is characterized by its formal structures and pronunciation, differentiating it from Brazilian Portuguese and other dialects.​