The Documentation of the Amazonian ‘Língua Geral’ (Tupi-Guarani) in Three Dictionaries from the Mid-18th Century

Abstract

‘Língua geral’ (‘general language’) is the term that describes the language that has developed on the Brazilian coast in early colonial times from the Tupinambá (Tupi-Guarani) spoken by indigenous women and the children they had with their Portuguese husbands. The ‘língua geral paulista’ came into existence in the São Paulo region in the second half of the 17th century, and the ‘língua geral amazônica’ followed a century later in the North of Brazil, starting from Maranhão and Pará and spreading to the Amazonian Basin in the 18th century, when it became a common language of settlers, indigenous people and missionaries. The ‘língua geral amazônica’ is documented by two catechisms and seven dictionaries. Three of them, anonymous undated manuscripts, are analyzed here for the first time. They are identified with regard to their possible authorship, in this case by three German-speaking Jesuits, as well as by as the time and region of their compilation. Two of them are bilingual Portuguese – ‘Língua geral’ dictionaries, a third one, now published, has a second, reverse part (‘Língua geral amazônica’ – Portuguese). Comparing the three dictionaries enables their interrogation for probable historical interdependence. Furthermore, the dictionaries document the evolution of ‘língua geral amazônica’ between Tupinambá and today’s Neengatú of the Upper Rio Negro region in the middle of the 18th century.