Add Portuguese International (pt) language to l.d.o

Please add the Portuguese International (pt) language to localize.drupal.org (I did check at http://bit.ly/9xdtL that there is no existing issue for this language).

Right now, there are two different variants of Portuguese being used in Drupal: pt-pt (the Portuguese in use in Portugal) and pt-br (the Portuguese in use in Brasil). An international treaty has meanwhile been signed by the majority of the countries that have the Portuguese as official language, treaty that enforces the 1990 spelling reform (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Language_Orthographic_Agreement_...). In Portugal the change was passed into law on May 16, 2008 and the law has been made effective in 2009. The Portuguese government has declared a transitional period lasting until 2014.

We view the creation of a new effort of translation as important to accelerate the transition to the reformed spelling and the unification of efforts among the different groups. We also think that it will contribute to motivate the participation of other Portuguese speakers in nations like Angola, Mozambique, S. Tomé e Príncipe, Cabo Verde, Timor Leste e Guiné Bissau, as well as many others disseminated throughout the world. This is, after all, one of the main motivations of the treaty itself.

At the Wikipedia, for example, it never existed any distinction between Portuguese variants. All were integrated from the beginning at http://pt.wikipedia.org and, since then, there has been work in putting together some orientations in order to implement the spelling reform: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ortografia/Tentativa_de_consenso_...

The current Drupal Portuguese translation teams do not want to converge and view as necessary the maintenance of the current groups as a way to single out and continue to express the cultural differences between the two nations, Brasil and Portugal. In fact, the leader (Miguel Duarte) of the Pt-pt team was among those that suggested the creation of a new "pt-only" effort (http://groups.google.com/group/drupal-portugal/msg/8391c8f9aae8f53c?hl=p...). This seems the best solution at this moment to guarantee a peaceful transition along the next few years or, at least, for the creation of a usable international alternative.

I am one of the listed contributors to the pt-pt project: http://localize.drupal.org/translate/languages/pt-pt.
I am also a Portuguese immigrant in Canada, so the development of the international version of the Portuguese language is a project that I hold dear and necessary by my own personal experience.

Your recommendations meet entirely my thoughts about the project. I believe this represents a truly exciting opportunity to reflect upon and contribute to the consolidation of a "neutral Portuguese", as you put it, that might better resonate next to the Portuguese international community.

Thank you very much, mcduarte2000 (Miguel Duarte): your support means a lot.

I've already asked for their feed-back. Wundo has been busy but he said he will be commenting here soon.

I asked the Brazilian team lead for feed-back for a total of, at least, five times now. I don't know if you would like to contact him yourselves or if you need any other information from my part? I would like to get started on this project, with my team, as soon as possible.

I've spoked again with Wundo on IRC. He explained to me that he's involved in a very demanding project and said that he would be leaving his input after May 29th.

As soon as the Localize platform webmasters see fit and if there's no other procedure or information required, I would very much appreciate the indication of approval of the project so it can move forward. Thanks.