In July we wrote an article about the new Orthographic Agreement for Portuguese Language. In that article we informed our valuable costumers and colleagues that a New Agreement for the Portuguese Language had been signed, however we didn't agree with the terms of this agreement and for that reason, and as professionals we would refuse to comply with it.
We also gave our reasons for this disagreement and explained why we believe the Governments of all Portuguese Speaking Countries should simply accept their language differences and discard such document.
This week we came in contact with a great article written by João Roque Dias, a translator who is also against this document and decided to enlighten people about various myths that the Governments have created about it. In his great article we can read all the lies the Portuguese people have been told to justify such loss of identity. We won't obviously be repeating his words as that would be plagiarism but Iwe will leave you the link so you can read it. We can only add to our colleague's words that it is a shame to use a language, something we consider a part of a country's identity and culture, as a political tool.
- Acordo Ortográfico, o Português nas Nações Unidas ou uma história (muito) mal contada by João Roque Dias
- João Roque Dias Official Website
There's also a Petition against the Orthographic Agreement. The Updated Words Team has already signed this document and we are now providing the link for all of our colleagues and clients who may also want to join us in this fight for our language and culture.
As we mentioned in our previous article we believe the language is a very important part of a country's identity and culture. Each country has its own development and therefore its language evolves in a very particular way. We believe the Governments of English speaking countries understood that and that's why we can have Australian English, American English and South African English without any prejudice to the British English. And even if we mention geographic areas (just as the Portuguese Governments did), we will find that Australia, the United States and South Africa are geographically bigger than England and even so each country respects each other's culture and language. As our dear colleague mentioned in his article the UN uses Oxford orthography in its documents and no one anywhere in the world creates a problem with it. Why should there be a problem for the Portuguese Language? We truly don't accept it and we are totally against this cultural assassination that this document represents for the Portuguese Language.
* This article was written by the Updated Words Team with permission from João Roque Dias
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