Portuguese language changes

[Joel S. Berson]

At 10/6/2009 06:16 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:

>On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 3:25 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > But no-one I think has commented on the likelihood that such an edict
> > can have any effect on a spoken language.
> >
>
>I don't think it's meant to (emphasis added):

It certainly sounds like the *Novo Acordo* is "meant to" have an
effect on spoken language: "and there
will be pronunciation changes as well."  Can these be anything other
than an attempt to standardize?

>One thing on the minds of all Brazilian publishers is the Novo Acordo -- the
> > new *orthographic *agreement for the Portuguese language.

I should have added that I'd like to hear some comments on its effect
on spoken Portuguese. And I didn't, of course, say "written", where
there certainly will be effects.  What might be the relationship with
freedom of speech rights?  Might the European Union and the European
Court of Justice have something to say (to Portugal at least)?

Joel

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