Orthographic rules Some rules regarding the morphology of Portuguese, in Brazil before 1943, in Portugal before 1911, many similar to those of
English and
French (still in progress). : THEATRO MUNICIPAL Use of the following consonant clusters: • Doubled consonant = used where etymology justified it, as in
difficil (difficult,
Latin difficilis) and
cavallo (
horse, Latin
caballum); • CH (K sound) = used in words of
Greek origin, where the letter Χ (
chi) is used, as in
christão (
χριστιανός) and
architectura (
Αρχιτεκτονική); • MM = obeyed the original Latin spelling, as in
commercio (
commercium), where the first M represented the nasal sound before the syllabic M; • MN = a similar case to the previous one, differing only in the nasal M sound preceded by N, as in
alumno (student) and
columna (column); • PH = used in words of Greek origin, where the letter Φ (
phi) is used, as in
pharmacia (
φάρμακον) and
philosophia (
φιλοσοφία); • TH = was used in words of Greek origin, where the letter Θ (
theta) is used, as in
theatro (
θέατρον) and
thorax (
θώραξ); • XH = was commonly used in cases of
juxtaposition of the prefix
ex with the letter H, as in
exhibição (exhibition) or
exhalação (exhalation). was spelled "
Piauhy". In compliance with the rules described above, prefixes and suffixes of Greek origin were written as follows: •
Grapho (to write, to engrave) = PH was used in place of the current F, as in
caligraphia and
telegraphista; •
Hydro (water) = used Y, as in
hydrographia; •
Hyper (very) = used Y, as in
hyperbole and
hypertrophia; •
Poly (innumerable, various) = used Y, as in
polytechnica and
polygono; •
Phono (sound, voice) = PH was used, as in
telephone and
phonographo; •
Photo (light) = used PH, as in
photographia; •
Theca (collection) = T followed by H, as in
bibliotheca (Greek:
βιβλιοθήκη) and
pinacotheca (
πινακοθήκη). Specific endings: • EZ = replaced by the current ÊS, as in
mez (month) and
portuguez (Portuguese); • OS = replaced by US, as in
Deos (God) and
Ilhéos (Ilhéus); • Plural of "AL" = words like
animal (animal) and
vegetal (vegetable), which are now pluralized as
animais and
vegetais, used to be
animaes and
vegetaes, with ES instead of IS; The H between vowels: • It preceded
stressed vowels and in
hiatus, as in
Jahu (
Jaú) and
sahida (exit).
Enclisis • For example, in
amá-la (love her), the L was separated from the pronoun and joined to the word:
amal-a.
Origins This spelling, which preceded 1911 in Portugal and 1943 in Brazil, emerged around the middle of the 17th century and was developed by Portuguese linguists. One of the main reasons for the use of this spelling system, in addition to the modernization of the language, was the Portuguese language's attempt to distance itself from
Spanish. From 1580 to 1640, Portugal shared a dynastic union with Spain, a period known as the
Iberian Union. And a very common theory in Spain at the time was that Portuguese was a dialect of Spanish. Obviously, this Spanish theory was created in order to act as a "tool" for greater domination over the Portuguese. This theory is perpetuated in relation to
Galician, which is alternatively considered to be one of the dialects of the
Galician-Portuguese linguistic system, alongside Iberian Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. == References ==