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The Way Portuguese Was

posted on July 30, 2013


(Portuguese from 1909, click for larger image)

With the last spelling reform a few years back, there was backlash both in Portugal and in Brazil. While the governments agreed on a more similar way of spelling, the citizens of both countries seemed to be rather bothered by having to learn new rules for a language they’ve spoken and written their whole lives. When the press moved on, the noise abated and the differences were reluctantly accepted.

What most people might not know, even those who use Portuguese as their mother tongue, is that throughout history, there have been numerous spelling reforms and agreements in the Portuguese-speaking world. All together there were 12 of them since 1911, though only a few of them have been larger in scope. Others were either country-specific (regarding smaller countries like Cape Verde) or have been more like amendments. Several of the 12 were introduced but not followed, thus leading to the amendments. In fact, Brazil has a history of not following Portugal’s lead.

The biggest reforms in the language happened in 1911, 1945, and 1990 (the 2009 reform is actually the official implementation of the 1990 agreement, 19 years later). The first time the Portuguese langauge was officially normalized was in 1911. Before that, the spelling took after Greek and Latin* meaning, for example, that “fósforo” (the current word for “match”) was spelled”phosphoro” and “estilo” (the current word for “style”) was spelled “estylo”. Below, I’ll list a good number of the word changes that occurred between the first half of the 1900s and 1990, with the latter in parentheses.

Everyday Words: Adeante (Adiante), Assucar (Açúcar), Cahir (Cair), Chimica (Química), Dansa (Dança), Deos (Deus), Egreja (Igreja), Lucta (Luta), Mez (Mês), Paiz (País), Phrase (Frase), Sciencia (Ciência).

Foreign Words: Boîte (Boate), Club (Clube), Maillot (Maiô), Soutien (Sutiã), Touriste (Turista).

States & Cities: Goyaz (Goiás), Parahyba (Paraíba), Piauhy (Piauí), Bethlehem (Belém), Feira de Sant’Anna (Feira de Santana), Nictheroy (Niterói)

In the end I think, while it’s annoying to have to learn new ways to spell, it’s best if Brazil and Portugal retain the same spelling while at the same time celebrating the differences in cultures. Currently, they share about 98% similarity which, in my book, is good enough.

 


 

* As an aside, it’s perhaps interesting to note that the Portuguese ending of “-eiro” for the term “brasileiro” (“Brazilian”) denotes a profession (a brazilwood merchant). Latin spelling, if I’m correct, would suggest a Brazilian national should be called a “brasílico” or “brasílio” yet the Brazilian constitution of 1824 (over 85 years prior to the first reform) made brasileiro a legal term for referring to Brazilians. According to Portuguese norms, however, a Brazilian national should be a “brasiliano” or “brasiliense” (a term that today is used for people from Brasília). From this point, we can say that if much of the Portuguese orthography in Brazil was Greek and Latin-based prior to 1911, not all of it was. In any event, I’m likely nitpicking here so that’s where I’ll leave it.

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About Adam Lee

Adam is a writer and a researcher who has studied Brazilian culture for over a decade and created several Brazil-themed blogs going back to 2008. Having taught himself Portuguese, he put it to practical use by spending three years doing Brazil on a budget (and living in favelas), from Rio de Janeiro to the Amazon.

He now resides in Lisbon, Portugal, developing a startup and dreaming about having a beachside B&B in the Northeast of Brazil.

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