Portuguese played an important role in the rhetoric of the independence movement, being seen as a potential vehicle for the articulation of a national identity.

The lack of native speakers is due, in part, to the exodus of massive number of white Mozambicans to places such as Portugal, South Africa, and Brazil and to the fact that the country is far from the rest of the Lusosphere.

In terms of pronunciation, however, Mozambican Portuguese shows several departures, some of which are due to the influence of other languages of Mozambique:[citation needed] The above tendencies are stronger in vernacular speech and less marked in cultivated speech, thus the pronunciation of first-language speakers sound more European Portuguese and the enumerated conditions listed above except latter.

[clarification needed] The variation of sounds of Portuguese spoken in Mozambique is conditioned by the phonology of the Bantu languages.

The variety Mozambican is generally characterized by the occurrence of only the multiple vibrant liquid consonant [R] in different lexical contexts.