On the occasion of World Portuguese Language Day, celebrated on May 5th, José Manuel Diogo, the president of the Association Portugal Brazil 200 Years, highlighted the impact of Brazilian migration to Portugal on academic and commercial levels.
José Manuel Diogo argued for the necessity of “more public policies to better explain Portuguese culture to Brazilians before they emigrate,” noting Portugal’s concern about the growing influence of Brazilian Portuguese on the language of the youth.
However, the expert views language as a “borderless territory,” recalling its evolving nature throughout history, from Galician-Portuguese to Latin, quoting Camões: “times change, and so do wills.”
Taking an inclusive approach, the association’s president criticized barriers to other forms of speaking Portuguese, notably Brazilian, which is spoken by 220 million people.
José Manuel Diogo cited the movement in the Brazilian Academy of Letters to include indigenous voices using Portuguese to organize their languages.
He also addressed the geopolitical significance of Portuguese as an official language of the United Nations, linking hemispheres, and proposed a North-South economic axis of equal collaboration between Portugal and Brazil, asserting that “Portuguese and the Portuguese language can be central at this historical moment.”
Meanwhile, linguist Helena Figueira of Priberam emphasized the global weight of Portuguese as a “working language, a language of commerce, and a lingua franca.”
Although Figueira acknowledged Brazilian Portuguese’s influence on European Portuguese, she downplayed its extent, indicating it is less than that of English. She does not foresee a merging of the variants, given the maintenance of their distinct characteristics.
The linguist shared the perspective of mutual enrichment resulting from the contact and interplay between the variants, recalling the evolution of the Portuguese language from previous interactions.
For both José Manuel Diogo and Helena Figueira, the dynamics between the various forms of Portuguese, fueled by factors like migration and globalization, shape the future of the language, sustaining its relevance and adaptability on the global stage.
This influence in Portugal stems from the strong presence of immigrant communities from Brazil, as in the 2019-2020 school year, “about one-third of the students” were Brazilians, according to the president of the Portuguese Teachers Association, João Pedro Aido, which increasingly makes classrooms Luso-Brazilian.
Aido believes it is critical to overcome linguistic prejudices and acknowledge students’ right to speak Brazilian Portuguese, while teaching the standard Portuguese norm, legitimized by literary writing.
To achieve this, it is essential that teachers master the characteristics of both standard norms, enabling them to work with texts from both variants and correct students with scientific rigor.
The expert noted that the challenges faced in education demand a “balance between linguistic acceptance and academic rigor.” Although the Portuguese curriculum already addresses language variation, revising essential learning guidelines could make explicit the “pluricentrism of the Portuguese language.”
