Reflections on the standardization of the Mozambican Portuguese language

Abstract

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1984-8412.2017v14n2p1997

This article discusses the need of the standardization of the Portuguese language spoken in Mozambique to foster  self-esteem in  Mozambican Portuguese speakers and to ease researches on this variety. Some authors argue that the standardization must depend on the exhaustive description of the different linguistic and discursive aspects; others claim that the Mozambican variant of Portuguese already has sufficient characteristics to start prescription processes.  It is within this theoretical framework and in the light of the variationist sociolinguistics that, considering data of the Mozambican Portuguese, which reveals its characteristics in different usages of the language, we argue that it is necessary to begin a gradual standardization process  that takes into consideration  the unchanging aspects  as a result of  a  teaching and learning processes.