The Portuguese language, like many others, has undergone significant transformations throughout its history. During the 20th century, the Portuguese government engaged in collaborative efforts with other Portuguese-speaking countries to address spelling inconsistencies. Let’s know more about it!
Language Reform
The Orthographic Agreement of 1990, also known as the Acordo Ortográfico, is a significant linguistic accord that aimed to standardize the spelling of the Portuguese language across different Portuguese-speaking countries. Signed on December 16, 1990, by Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, and several other Portuguese-speaking nations, the agreement sought to promote unity and facilitate communication among these countries.
The primary objectives of the Orthographic Agreement of 1990 were as follows: spelling standardization, reduction of orthographic variations, simplification of spellings and linguistic cooperation.
Alphabet changes
The adoption of the 26-letter alphabet in European Portuguese is a result of linguistic reforms and standardization efforts that took place over several centuries.
During the 20th century, the Portuguese government engaged in collaborative efforts with other Portuguese-speaking countries to address spelling inconsistencies. The adoption of the 26-letter alphabet in European Portuguese was a result of the Orthographic Agreement of 1990. This agreement aimed to simplify spelling, reduce variation between Portuguese-speaking countries, and promote linguistic unity.
K, W, Y have been added to the basic letters. These letters will be used in foreign words, names and abbreviations: Examples: km (quilómetros), watt, Byron, byroniano, etc. Have you noticed that you never knew the words that start with “k” or “w” and contain the letters “y” in Portuguese?
The removed silent consonants
Silent consonants have disappeared from spelling. For example:
| Before | After |
| acção (action) | ação |
| activivade (activity) | atividade |
| actual (current) | atual |
The removal of the silent “c” in words reflected a move toward phonetic spelling, aligning more closely with pronunciation. Similar to the silent “c,” the letter “p” was often silent, too. This phenomenon affected various words, such as:
| Before | After |
| óptimo (excellent) | ótimo |
| recepção (reception) | receção |
| excepcional (exceptional) | excecional |
The elimination of the silent “p” aimed to simplify spelling and make it more intuitive for learners and speakers. This change touched even personal portuguese names. For example:
| Before | After |
| Victor | Vitor |
| Baptista | Batista |
The disappearance of umlaut
The umlaut, represented by diaeresis or two dots (¨) over a vowel, was once a feature in the orthography of European Portuguese. However, over time, linguistic reforms and standardization efforts led to the disappearance of the umlaut. In earlier forms of Portuguese, the umlaut was used to indicate a diaeresis on vowels, signifying that they were pronounced separately rather than forming a diphthong. For example:
| Before | After |
| aüla (lesson) | aula |
| ideïas (ideas) | ideias |
These words also had umlaut, but they don’t have it now. Take a look at them for the last time in your life: agüentar (to endure), conseqüência (consequence), cinqüenta (fifty), freqüência (frequency), eloqüência (eloquence), pingüim (penguim), tranqüilo (tranquil), lingüiça (sausage), etc.
Exceptions include personal names, such as, for example: Müller, Schütz, Körner, etc.
The disappearance of circumflex
The circumflex accent (ˆ) once played a role in European Portuguese to indicate a missing vowel in certain verb forms. However, linguistic changes and standardization efforts led to the disappearance of this diacritic, particularly in the verbs “deem” and “leem.” Here are examples illustrating the evolution of the circumflex accent in these verbs:
An earlier forms of Portuguese, the verb “dar” (to give) in the third person plural in present term took the circumflex accent to mark the absence of a vowel:
| Before | After |
| eles dêem (they read) | eles deem |
Similarly, the verb “ler” (to read) in the third person plural present indicative featured the circumflex accent in older Portuguese:
| Before | After |
| eles lêem (they read) | eles leem |
Can you imagine how it was for the verb “vir” (to come)? That’s right! The situation was the same!
| Before | After |
| eles vêem (they come) | eles veem |
The loss of stress and accent
The loss of stress in open diphthongs “ei” and “oi” in European Portuguese is a linguistic phenomenon that occurred gradually over time, influenced by phonological processes. Here are ten examples illustrating how these open diphthongs lost stress in certain words:
| Before | After |
| idéia (idea) | ideia |
| nóite (night) | noite |
| poéta (poet) | poeta |
| dóido (crazy) | doido |
| réi (king) | rei |
Also, the letter combination ‘oo’ has lost its accent, namely:
| Before | After |
| enjôo (sickness) | enjoo |
| vôo (flight) | voo |
| abençôo (I bless) | abençoo |
When signs that do not in any way affect the pronunciation of a word disappear, this always eliminates future errors.
The Hyphen
The hyphen disappeared from words beginning with a vowel, formed by prefixes and false prefixes. Examples:
| Before | After |
| auto-estrada (highway) | autoestrada |
| extra-escolar (extra-school) | extraescolar |
| infra-estrutura (infrastructure) | infraestrutura |
| neo-expressionista (neo-expressionist) | neoexpressionista |
| semi-aberto (semi-open) | semiaberto |
You remember that the letter “h” in Portuguese is not read or pronounced, so it sounds like there is no “h” letter at all and and two vowels are in a row. However, this hyphen-rule does not apply if the word begins with ‘h’: anti-herói (anti-hero), anti-higiénico (unhygienic), extra-humano (extra-human), semi-herbáceo (semi-herbaceous), etc.
The hyphen appeared in words formed by prefixes that end with the same letter as the root. Let’s see:
| Before | After |
| antiibérico (anti-Iberian) | anti-ibérico |
| arquiirmandade (archbrotherhood) | arqui-irmandade |
| microondas (microwave) | micro-ondas |
The reform has addressed a few more cases where the hyphen appears or disappears, but it will not go as deep. Let’s look at a few more examples of words that are often found in Portuguese, which were previously written differently.
| Before | After |
| fim-de-semana (weekend) | fim de semana |
| café-com-leite (café au lait) | café com leite |
| sala-de-jantar (dining room) | sala de jantar |
Conclusion
It’s hard to say how necessary these changes were. Some of them really make pronunciation easy and allow you to forget some of the details about the special signs above the letters. Others, those related to the placement of hyphens, are even more confusing. However, this is what we have in Portuguese grammar at the moment.