The Portuguese have decided to go Brazilian - at least in how they speak and write. They are going to adopt Brazilian Portuguese as their official language.They've done the math, and came to the conclusion that Portuguese from Portugal with it's 10 million speakers, just can't win in the face of Brazilian Portuguese and their 190 million speakers. So, they are going to change about 2,000 words from "Portugal Portuguese" to "Brazilian Portuguese".
Can you imagine a similar thing happening in Spain? There is no way they would adopt "South American Spanish", not that I'm saying they should. Of course there would be the problem of which brand of South American Spanish to adopt?
How about the Brits? That one is a little more clear cut. We all know they should give up on the "organise" and spell it "organize" etc., and just speak like the Yanks already (wink).
4 comments:
Priceless ...
"Can you imagine something like this happening in Spain?" Carl asks, with an almost straight face as he valiantly tries (and fails) to stifle a laugh.
Answer: Ni de coña. There's a higher chance that Spain will adopt English as a co-official language before that would happen. Perhaps when Iberian pigs fly.
I do think it is unlikely, to say the least.
Gotta hand it to the Portuguese. They are very realistic and it seems, secure.
This is somewhat great news for me, as I will not have to struggle to learn Portugal Portuguese alongside Brazilian Portuguese. I think this is a great public policy initiative for a country to undertake...very ambitious, but doable once you read that article. I'll look forward to seeing some changes the next time I travel to Portugal.
In the meantime, you're quite right bilingual blogger (Eleena, right?) that Spain would certainly rather wait for a cold day in hell before adopting any form of South American Spanish as a co-official language (let alone English).
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