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Residents in Portugal Baffled About New Spelling Reform

by Rajshri on March 02, 2010 at 8:07 PM Lifestyle News

A long-delayed accord to standardise spelling in Portuguese-speaking countries is finally being adopted by Portugal. But this process is being undertaken in random fashion that has left most residents baffled about how to use their alphabet.

Residents in Portugal Baffled About New Spelling Reform

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Ironically, Portugal's press has taken the lead in using the new spelling while the government -- via the schools -- continues its hesitation waltz over a reform approved by parliament in 2008 after a 20-year debate.

"It is absurd," said Nuno Pacheco, co-director of one daily, the Publico, which has so far refused to enact "a reform full of contradictions".

"Our children read newspapers that do not use the same spelling they are taught at school," he said.

The confusion has revived an old sore point over what some saw as a David vs. Goliath battle -- only this time David lost: under the 1990 accord, spelling in the world's eight Portuguese-speaking countries moves to the more phonetic form employed by Brazil.

As opponents point out, the English and Americans co-exist as neighbours ... or neighbors, so why can't Portuguese-speaking countries do likewise.

"It is a bad spelling reform and a political instrument for the expansion of Brazil," said linguist Antonio Emiliano.

He and other critics see the reform, already in place in Brazil, as tantamount to Portugal's "cultural abdication" to the commercial power of its vast former colony -- which claims 190 million of the world's 230 million Portuguese speakers.

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Residents in Portugal Baffled About New Spelling Reform

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