With schools hesitating, private organizations have stepped in to offer practical lessons.
“Up to now there’s been lots of debate, but very little scientific information,” said Elisabete Rodrigues, a 52-year-old teacher who attended a recent Saturday class given by linguist Joao Malaca Casteleiro, one of the “fathers” of the standardized spelling. Many brows wrinkled when the students — 20 or so editors, translators and teachers — learned that P will disappear in the word “Egypt” but not in “Egyptian.”
The touchiness is reminiscent of debate in the late 1990s when the four main German-speaking countries revised their spelling system.
“We are trying to invent a unique language that does not exist,” Pacheco said. “In truth, as is the case for French or English, there are many variations of Portuguese depending on whether it is spoken in Brasilia, Lisbon, Maputo or Dili.”
As exceptions tend to be the rule in language, so it is with the “standardized” Portuguese. Some words will have different, or optional, spellings to take into account linguistic variations across the “Lusophere.”
“The hardest part is understanding that there will now be various ways to correctly spell some words,” Rodrigues said.
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