Uma língua; muitas vozes: para uma política linguística pluricêntrica do Português

Abstract

The “cycle of language expansion” (Castro 2006: 74ss), which begun in the XVth century, started the process that would make Portuguese a pluricentric language (Banza 2014: 29-31). On the other hand, the peculiar circumstances in which the Portuguese language was transplanted to the different extra-European territories and developed there, in contact with other languages, produced a remarkable diversity of results that, currently, configures Lusophony as a polyphony (understood as a simultaneity of different sounds that form a harmony, that is, despite being independent, form and are perceived as a whole). In the present text, based on historical data and taking into account the current synchronic results, we analyze, in the case of Portuguese, the relationship between pluricentrism, as an option in terms of linguistic policy that seems to be consolidated in recent years, and variation, to the extent that pluricentrism does not only presuppose the recognition of diversity, but also implies the concept of norm (Mateus & Cardeira 2007) and, consequently, the discussion of how many and which norms to be recognized within the same linguistic system. In this perspective, we consider the current status and treatment of emerging standards in relation to the already consolidated standards and the role of institutions in the establishment of an effective multi-centric linguistic policy for the Portuguese language.