What would Portuguese - speaking writers change in language?

A portuguese language is the raw material of the Lusophone writers and some of those who are gathered at a meeting in the capital of Cape Verde assume that if they could, they would change some aspects in this language spoken by 300 million people.

Alberto Oliveira Pinto, the author of the “History of Angola”, is one of the participants in the XIV Meeting of Portuguese Language Writers, which takes place since Thursday and ends today in the Cape Verdean capital.

The writer born in Luanda has no doubt that he would begin repealing the spelling agreement, compulsory in Portugal since 2015.

But not only. The writer ended the foreignisms and resumed the concepts of nouns, besides promoting a return to the grammar of his childhood.

Brazilian poet José Inácio Vieira de Melo would like to add new words, which he already does, by creating neologisms in his poetry.

“ The poetry is exactly this: you have a language and not be stuck to what the language offers ", said to Lusa, on the sidelines of the meeting promoted by the Union of Capital Cities of Portuguese Language (UCCLA) and the City Council of the Beach.

The Cape Verdean writer Mana Guta (a pseudonym of Augusta Évora) did not change anything, but if she had a wand of condão, she would invest more in teacher training, so that there is “a more affectionate methodology, closer to the students, so that learning can become something also playful”.

“ Portuguese is an official language, we like it, it's a wealth, but we're not always up to the most appropriate methodology for children ", it's gone.

This event is attended by Galician writer Maria do Rosário Bello, who defends the linguistic unity between the Galician and Portuguese.

“ If I could, I would have all Galician schools have a Portuguese teacher or teacher, so that everyone could be literate in Galician-Portuguese, which is also an international language”, he said.

Amadú Dafé represents Guinea-Bissau at this meeting and did not change in Portuguese.

“ But it changed the way it is taught in Guinea-Bissau and perhaps in some African Countries of Portuguese Official Language (PALOP), such as Angola and Mozambique, which are multilingual and sometimes the teaching of Portuguese does not adapt to this reality and is taught exactly the way it is taught in Portugal or Brazil, with people who already have the Portuguese language as a mother tongue”.

In Guinea-Bissau, he said, it is “a reality of tremendous violence. A seven-year-old goes to school and is the first time he is hearing how the Portuguese language should be and has to learn to write and read in that language, which is not the mother, and the learning process ends up being impaired”.

Hugo Pinto, a researcher dedicated to the study of Macau, did not change anything in the Portuguese language, but “the idea that it is necessary to command in the language, which must be decreed, because this does not work, does not exist”.

“ The language is done every day by everyone, it is a permanent construction, it is a story of many stories, of open doors and if I could change something it did not change in the language, but in the way you look at the language; and tried to take away this idea that it is possible to change the language of someone's own will or a policy or a decree ", he told Lusa.

Mozambican musician and writer António Costa Neto considers that “there are still too many complex accents”.

“ No need to change, just learn to accept each other. To speak well is not to have a certain accent ", defended the author of "Marrabenta".

And I would like there to be ‘a deeper debate on certain terms’. “For example, we should define whether we call someone of African origin ‘black’ or ‘black’,” he said, explaining that some words were born with the discriminatory effect and it is necessary to re-learn their use.

The Portuguese teacher and director of the Department of Romantic Literature at the Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa, Joana Matos Frias, did not change anything in the Portuguese language, but in relation to its uses defended “some reflection”.

“ Although we need rules and rules, I think there are a certain type of impositions that I would prefer not to be extrinsic to true speakers of the language, who have very different records, which vary from a geographical, social and professional point of view.”.

And he continued: “The case of the orthographic agreement is a very complex case, of something that is imposed by political decisions, economic socio-economics and causes much reflection”.

“ Why suddenly I, who have this kind of relationship with my language, am forced to change my relationship with my language, with my writing?”, he questioned.

Olinda Beja, writer of São Tomé and Príncipe, does not hesitate to state that if she could change anything in the Portuguese language, it would be to end foreignisms.

And he expressed perplexity with some words he hears, for example, on the radio.

I listen to a lot of radio and the other day I heard an ad for a roof.

“ I know what it means, but I put myself in the place of a person who does not know how to speak English, who never left his village, listening to a word that tells him nothing”, lamented the poet, novelist and storyteller.

The Portuguese language as an adaptation element in a changing world is the central theme of the XIV Meeting of Portuguese-speaking Writers, which has the participation of writers from Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Galicia, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe. Timor-Leste is represented by the Minister of State Administration, Tomás do Rosário Cabral.