THE “SUBVERSION OF GOOD STANDARDS”: REVISITING PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE MISTAKES (1880-1930)

Abstract

In Brazil, at the beginning of the last century, debates around the Portuguese language appeared on the pages of several magazines and periodicals. At the center of these discussions were questions regarding linguistic purism, the role of the people in the establishment of the vernacular, the place of intellectuals and writers, the dissemination of new means of communication and the integration of immigrants. In this article, we analyze texts that were published by the Brazilian press in the last two decades of the 19th century and the first three decades of the 20th century and that raise these topics in the public debate. The press was chosen for being a catalyst locus of the debates that took place on the Portuguese language, since it traversed the intellectual life at that time.