One Portuguese to Rule Them All...
I've read on a magazine that it seems some advancements in the Orthographic Accord of the Portuguese Language (Acordo Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa) are being made. As São Tomé e Princípe also ratified the modified protocol (which Brazil and Cabo Verde have already ratified), it may be implemented and modifications may start.
Although Portuguese is the sixth most spoken national language (after Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, English and Bengali), it's the only western language spoken by more than 100 million people with more than one official orthography (taking the entire world, there are also Hindi and Urdu, but those languages use different characters for writing). There is one adopted by Brazil, and another adopted by mostly all the others. It happened because of an orthographic reform done by Portugal after it turned into a Republic (about 1910).
So, the idea is to unify Portuguese orthography again, even if phonetics and pronunciation stay different (like it is in Spanish).
And that accord is being discussed and reviewed since 1990... the year it was conceived.
Some reasons why that unification is interesting: having to "translate" things (books, dictionaries, etc) from "Portugal Portuguese" to "Brazilian Portuguese" has an enormous economic cost. It also delays releases in Portuguese and turns down the interest in the language. The unification may also increase cooperation among Portuguese-speaking countries.
So, for that unification, both "official orthographies" had to make concessions. Brazilian Portuguese seemes to be the less modified (because of the greater number of perople who use it, I believe). Some changes in Brazilian Portuguese will be:
Anyway, I think it'll take a while more to be implemented, but some sources I've read said that it could be set in two years (optimistically). And it's interesting the thought that returning to Brazil after finishing M.Sc. in Japan I may find myself writing some words the wrong way...
Sources:
"Palavra a Palavra". Eliane Lobato, IstoE 21 de março de 2007 nº 1951 Ano 30
Acordo Ortográfico de 1990 - Wikipedia
Cabo Verde ratificou o Acordo Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa - Ministério da Educação
O Acordo Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa - Diário de Lisboa
Although Portuguese is the sixth most spoken national language (after Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, English and Bengali), it's the only western language spoken by more than 100 million people with more than one official orthography (taking the entire world, there are also Hindi and Urdu, but those languages use different characters for writing). There is one adopted by Brazil, and another adopted by mostly all the others. It happened because of an orthographic reform done by Portugal after it turned into a Republic (about 1910).
So, the idea is to unify Portuguese orthography again, even if phonetics and pronunciation stay different (like it is in Spanish).
And that accord is being discussed and reviewed since 1990... the year it was conceived.
Some reasons why that unification is interesting: having to "translate" things (books, dictionaries, etc) from "Portugal Portuguese" to "Brazilian Portuguese" has an enormous economic cost. It also delays releases in Portuguese and turns down the interest in the language. The unification may also increase cooperation among Portuguese-speaking countries.
So, for that unification, both "official orthographies" had to make concessions. Brazilian Portuguese seemes to be the less modified (because of the greater number of perople who use it, I believe). Some changes in Brazilian Portuguese will be:
- Letters 'k', 'w' and 'y' will be incorporated to the official alphabet.
- The circumflex accent will not be used anymore at the first 'o' of words like "voo" (flight) , "enjoo" (nausea) and at verbal forms like "creem" (-they- believe), "leem" (-they- read).
- Trema ('ü' is the only one that exists in Portuguese) will not be used anymore.
- Some differentiation accents will be used, such as "amamos" (-we- love) and "amámos" (-we- loved).
Anyway, I think it'll take a while more to be implemented, but some sources I've read said that it could be set in two years (optimistically). And it's interesting the thought that returning to Brazil after finishing M.Sc. in Japan I may find myself writing some words the wrong way...
Sources:
"Palavra a Palavra". Eliane Lobato, IstoE 21 de março de 2007 nº 1951 Ano 30
Acordo Ortográfico de 1990 - Wikipedia
Cabo Verde ratificou o Acordo Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa - Ministério da Educação
O Acordo Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa - Diário de Lisboa
1 comment:
Hey! No more circumflex accent at these words? God! I guess I cannot write portuguese correctly... =P
Nooo! Don´t take the Trema away! I´m using it a lot here! For example: ä, ö and ü.... And it´s cool here, because I can use "ß". My keyboard has a ß!! ßßßßß! =P
Long time without reading things here. And long texts to read... >.<
See ya
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