The change was enormously controversial because it was seen as a matter of national pride by the former colonial power. But the seven other Portuguese-speaking countries in the world - Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, East Timor, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and Sao Tome and Principe – had already standardized to Brazilian spelling years ago.

It was understandably a hard reality for Portuguese to face – adopting the ‘bastardized’ language of their former colonial possession. But the stark reality is this: there are about 230 million Portuguese speakers globally. Brazil accounts for about 190 million of them (83 percent). Portugal has just 10.6 million of them (4.6 percent).

The debate about the changes brings back memories of the tumultuous decolonisation debate that took place in the early 70’s after the death of the dictator Salazar. A petition against the changes has been signed by about 33,000 people in Portugal. But, there’s really no going back now.

Living in the UK and constantly observing the many differences between American English and British English, the concept is a fascinating one to me. Considering that Portugal was the earliest colonial power, could it also be just the earliest to accept the language dominance of its former colony? Spain and France also have sharp differences between their language and the language spoken in their former realms. But considering the regional language differences even within Spain, it’s doubtful the Spanish government would ever be able to get the whole country to agree on any one standardization. And I’ll eat my hat the day I see France start speaking West African French.

But what about the UK? The country’s media is already dominated by American cultural influence. Seventy percent of films shown in UK theatres are American. When you take cable stations into account, 60 percent of television programming in the UK is American.

The result of this is that, though they don’t speak it, all British people know American English. When I first came here I had a hell of a time learning all of the different words, spelling, expressions and cadences that are used here. I actually had to get an American to British translation book to help me out, and this web site was also quite helpful. But what I found rather unfair is that although I was hearing all of the British words and expressions for the first time, they all already knew the American counterparts of their words. So when I would use the wrong word for something they would laugh, but they would still know what I meant. In fact, the only instances when I’ve not been understood because I’m using an American word (like sneakers, elevator, trunk, band aid, wrench, etc) is when I’m speaking to a foreign person, particularly Eastern Europeans, who have only learned British English here. So culturally, British people are already hearing American English constantly, if not speaking it.

Now let’s look at the numbers. There are roughly 350 million people worldwide who speak English as their first language. 233 million of them are in the US and Canada, where American English is spoken. 84 million of them are in the UK, Ireland, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, the largest countries in which British English is spoken. That means that there are nearly three times as many American English speakers as there are British English speakers. That may look like nothing compared to the wide margin between Brazilian Portuguese and Portuguese Portuguese speakers, but it’s still significant. Can you imagine the UK standardizing its English to the American version?

The short answer is of course no. Though the number of first language speakers may be small, many people globally learn British English as their second language, particularly in India where it is the language of business and government. That gives British English a whole lot of people to back it up! (Although, it should be pointed out, China is learning American English, not British).

Still, it must be darn annoying for manufacturers advertisers and publishers to have to constantly make two different versions of everything so that there aren’t spelling and word discrepancies. I’m often amused when I see a commercial on TV here I know is American but has been dubbed over into British English so it’s using the correct words. One imagines it would save a lot of money and energy harmonizing the two languages.