Le portugais européen risque-t-il de devenir une langue périphérique?
Does the European Portuguese Risk Becoming a Peripheral Language?

Summary/Abstract: The question put in the title comes from polemics and discussions going on in Portugal on the subject of the recent Portuguese writing reform (1990). Its long legislation process has only finished in the last years. A concise history of the Portuguese language’s orthography and changes introduced by the reform, purposing an unification of the European and Brazilian Portuguese writing, are presented in the paper. Afterwards, based on Portuguese and global press extracts from 2004–2009, comes an analysis and a critique of the arguments adduced by partisans of the reform, explaining its legitimacy and advantages, as well as by its opponents, much more numerous in Portugal. The last ones prophesy a forthcoming marginalization of their version of the Portuguese language in comparison to Brazilian version’s approaching hegemony.

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