Breeders versus technicists

Abstract

Since its establishment in Brazil, contrary voices to the new Orthographic 
Agreement in 1990 have arisen, presenting arguments that, if carefully 
analyzed, contradict the weight and truth of its point of views, such as its 
imposition by Brazil and its rejection in Portugal, as well as its elaboration by 
technicists without consulting the “creators” or users of the language. In 
regards to the first argument it is known that Brazil did not impose the 
Agreement, nor does it lack its assimilation in Portugal, which approved it 
officially, although there are also opponents there. On the second argument, 
although the creators speak and write the language, they are not normally able to talk about the language as if they were technicists of it, so that a systematization of the orthographic norm, which is a technical subject, can reach good results only with the support of the technicists. Besides that, the scientific principles that ruled the first technical systematization of Portuguese spelling, in 1911, became the main lines of subsequent changes that have