Reprezentação à Academia Real das Ciências sobre a refórma da ortografia

In this freshly printed petition of 1878, a group of Portuguese scholars addresses the Royal Academy of Sciences, pleading for a unified, practical spelling system. They argue that the current lack of an official grammar, dictionary, and orthographic standards has left the language in a state of confusion, hindering education and official communication. The document opens with a respectful appeal, citing a recent public meeting that charged the commission with the daunting task of proposing a solution.

The commission’s report, reproduced in full, details a careful weighing of three possible approaches: delegating the decision to the academy, imposing a simplified system for schools, or presenting a concrete orthographic proposal themselves. After rejecting the first two as either too passive or impractically complex, they conclude that a mixed system—balancing etymology and phonetics—must be refined, though they acknowledge the immense difficulty of codifying every rule. Readers gain insight into the 19th‑century debates that shaped modern Portuguese spelling, making the text a vivid snapshot of linguistic reform in action.