O Português no contexto político das grandes línguas internacionais

Abstract

In this article it is presented a critical discussion of the situation of Portuguese as an international language. It is pointed out that, in the last decade, there have been tentative efforts to create a multinational political management of the language by the revitalization of the Instituto Internacional da Língua Portuguesa. This revitalization was approved in the First CPLP Conference on the Situation of Portuguese in the Global System, which took place in Brasília in 2010. It is argued here that those efforts have been completely fruitless and have shown concretely that a multinational political management of the language is impossible. In consequence, it is suggested that those efforts should be abandoned. If the future fragmentation of Portuguese into a family of languages, which seems rather inevitable, national policies seem to be more effective. It will therefore be up to each country to take particular initiatives to promote its own variety of the language and its culture. It is pointed out that the recent creation by the Brazilian government of the Instituto Guimarães Rosa to promote Brazilian Portuguese and Brazilian culture can be seen as an important initiative in the right direction.