acreano

acreano (feminine acreana, masculine plural acreanos, feminine plural acreanas, not comparable)

1. pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1945 in Portugal) of acriano; now proscribed

acreano m (plural acreanos, feminine acreana, feminine plural acreanas)

1. pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1945 in Portugal) of acriano; now proscribed

• This spelling, like açoreano, was widely utilized prior to the first spelling reforms of Portuguese and stems from a misinterpretation of the word as being suffixed with -ano instead of -iano. The former suffix is found in words such as coreano, which preserve a stressed e; meanwhile, words with an unstressed, final e take -iano, which replaces the e with an i: compare saussuriano, machadiano, sofocoliano.^[1][2]
• The Orthographic Agreement of 1990, an international treaty that regulates Portuguese orthography, explicitly mentions the spelling acriano as correct, as does the Brazilian Academy of Letters’s Orthographic Vocabulary, which reflects the Agreement and is the de facto orthographic authority in Brazil.^[3] With the Agreement’s implementation in Brazil, misinformation arose that it would change the word’s spelling from earlier acreano; in reality, the spelling acriano had been official (albeit not widely utilized) since 1943, as listed in that year’s Orthographic Vocabulary.^[4] Controversy ensued regarding the purported change and, after a 2016 public consultation among Acre residents,^[5] the government of Acre passed a local law deeming acreano to be the state’s official demonym.^[6] A large number of commentators^[1][7] and style guides^[8] prescribe the spelling acriano, in conformity with the Orthographic Agreement of 1990; nevertheless, many dictionaries include acreano as an alternative,^[9][10][11] and it is preferred by many Acre natives.^[4]