Portuguese language changes

[Mark Mandel]

Like many programs, including Microsoft Word, Hotmail's "plain text" ignores
ISO, and our antiquated listserver doesn't understand what it delivers.
Here's an ASCII version. I hope a 55-character line is short enough...

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One thing on the minds of all Brazilian publishers is the Novo Acordo -- the
new orthographic agreement for the Portuguese language. At a time when other
languages, particularly English, seem to be celebrating their linguistic
diversity, Portuguese will move towards uniformity thanks to an accord
signed by seven Portuguese-speaking countries (Brazil, Portugal, Angola,
Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe), which comes
into force January 2009.

Three letters will be dropped from the alphabet, umlauts will no longer be
used for certain words, hypens will have no place for many others, and there
will be pronunciation changes as well.

About 0.5 per cent of Portuguese words in Brazil will undergo a change,
which means that publishers will have to read and introduce the alterations
in any book they decide to reprint. "This will involve both work and money,"
one publisher grumbles.

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m a m

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