Augusto Soares da Silva, a lecturer at the Portuguese Catholic University - Braga, gave an interview to the Antena 2 - RTP programme Páginas de Português, reflecting on the challenges and opportunities of pluricentric standardisation of the Portuguese language in the 21st century.
Following the 11th International Conference on Pluricentric Languages and their Non-Dominant Varieties, held on 22-24 May 2025 at ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, where he presented the paper "Towards a pluricentric standardisation for Portuguese: opportunities and challenges", Augusto Soares da Silva was invited by the Antena 2 programme dedicated to the Portuguese language to talk about the pluricentrism of Portuguese, the standardisation of Brazilian Portuguese, the nativisation of African and Timorese varieties, linguistic, political and educational issues of the standardisation of Portuguese and the models of pluricentric and pan-Lusophone standardisation. It defended the suitability and necessity of a pluricentric standardisation model for Portuguese that respects non-dominant national varieties and promotes multilateral language policies between the different Lusophone states.
The International Working Group on Non-Dominant Varieties of Pluricentric Languages, which has organised eleven conferences on pluricentric languages under the leadership of Austrian linguist Rudolf Muhr, was created at Católica Braga in September 2010, during the International Conference on Pluricentric Languages: Language Variation and Sociocognitive Dimensions, organised by the Centre for Philosophical and Humanistic Studies.
