Nheengatu language
Nheengatu, also known as Modern Tupi and Amazonic Tupi, is a Tupi–Guarani language. It is spoken throughout the Rio Negro region among the Baniwa, Baré, and Warekena peoples, mainly in the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira and the state of Amazonas, Brazil.
Since 2002, it has been one of Amazonas's official languages, along with Apurinã, Baniwa, Dessana, Kanamari, Marúbo, Matis, Matsés, Mawé, Mura, Tariana, Tikuna, Tukano, Waiwai, Waimiri, Yanomami, and Portuguese. Outside of the Rio Negro region, the Nheengatu language has more dispersed speakers in the Baixo Amazonas region among the Sateré-Mawé, Maraguá, and Mura people. In the Baixo Tapajós and the state of Pará, it is being revitalized by the people of the region, such as the Borari and the Tupinambá, and also among the riverside dwellers themselves.
A 2005 study cited by Ethnologue—not available on its website—estimated the number of Nheengatu speakers at around 19,600, though this figure is subject to debate. a professor at the University of São Paulo, Thomas Finbow, estimated that there were between 5,000 and 7,000 speakers in Brazil, and fewer than 10,000 globally, including communities in Venezuela and Colombia. Nheengatu is considered significant for the study of language change as one of the few Indigenous languages with a long documented history. It is considered the most historically significant among the minority languages still spoken in Brazil.
Glottonym
The language name derives from the words nhẽẽga and katu. Nheengatu is referred to by a wide variety of names in literature, including Nhengatu, Tupi Costeiro, Geral, Yeral, Tupi Moderno, Nyengato, Nyengatú, Waengatu, Neegatú, Is'engatu, Língua Brasílica, Tupi Amazônico', Ñe'engatú, Nhangatu, Inhangatu, Nenhengatu,' Yẽgatú, Nyenngatú, Tupi, and Lingua Geral. It is also commonly referred to as the Língua Geral Amazônica in Brazil.Classification
Nheengatu is descended from the extinct Tupinambá language and belongs to the Tupi–Guarani branch of the Tupi language family. The Tupi–Guarani language family is a large and diverse group of languages, including, for example, Xeta, Siriono, Arawete, Kaapor, Kamayura, Guaja, and Tapirape. Many of these languages differed years before the invasion of Portuguese colonizers to the territory now known as Brazil. Over time, the term "Tupinamba" was used to describe groups that were "linguistically and culturally related".Taking personal pronouns as an example, here is a comparison between Brazilian Portuguese, Old Tupi, and Nheengatu:
Eduardo de Almeida Navarro, a Brazilian philologist specialized in Nheengatu, argues that with its current characteristics, Nheengatu would only have emerged in the 19th century as a natural evolution of the Northern General Language (NGL).
Comparisons between Tupi, Portuguese, and Nheengatu variants:
| English | Portuguese | Ancient Tupi | Yẽgatu | Traditional Nheengatu | Tapajoawaran Nheengatu |
| bird | pássaro | gûyrá | wira | wirá | wirá |
| man | homem | abá | apiawawa | apigá | apigá |
| woman | mulher | kunhã | kuyã | kunhã | kunhã |
| happiness | alegria | toryba | surisa | çuriçawa | surisawa |
| city | cidade | tabusu | tawasu | mairí | tawasú |
| hammock | rede | iny | makira | makira, gapõna | makina |
| water | água | 'y | ii | yy | i |
History
Belonging to the Tupi–Guarani linguistic family, Nheengatu emerged in the 18th century, descending from the now-extinct Amazonian Tupinambá, a regional Tupi variant that originated in the Odisseia Tupínambá. The exodus of that nation, fleeing from Portuguese invaders on the Bahia coast, entered the Amazon and settled first in Maranhão, and from there to the Guajará Bay, the mouth of the Tapajós river, to the Tupinambarana island, between the borders of Pará and Amazonas. The language of the Tupinambás then, as it belongs to a feared and conquering people, became a lingua franca, which in contact with the conquered languages gained its differentiation, hence why the Arawak peoples of the Parintins region came to be called Tupinambaranas, among them, the Maraguazes, the Sapupés, the Curiatós, the Parintins, and the Sateré-Mawés themselves.With the Amazon already conquered by the Portuguese and having established a colony at the beginning of the 17th century, the so-called state of Grão-Pará and Maranhão, whose capital Belém was named Cidade dos Tupinambás or Tupinãbá marií, Franciscan and Jesuit priests, aiming at catechism using that language, elaborated the grammar and their orthography, which resulted in the Northern General Language, or Amazonian General Language, whose development took place parallel to that of São Paulo general language. Since then, Nheengatu has spread throughout the Amazon as an instrument of colonization, Portuguese domain and linguistic standardization, where many peoples started to adopt it as their main language at the expense of their own, such as peoples like the Hanera, better known as Baré, who became Nheengatu speakers, which led to the extinction of their native language. The Maraguá people, themselves historical speakers of Nheengatu, recently sought to revitalize their own language; today they learn Maraguá alongside Nheengatu in local schools.
The number of speakers of other languages vastly outnumbered the Portuguese settlers in the Amazon, so much so that the Portuguese themselves adapted to the native language. "To speak or converse in the colony of Grão Pará, I had to use Nheengatu; if not, I would be talking to myself, since no one used Portuguese, except in the government palace in Belém and among the Portuguese themselves."
The General Language was established as the official language from 1689 to 1727 in Grão Pará and Maranhão, but with the aim of deculturating the Amazon people, the Portuguese language was promoted, but without success. In the mid-18th century, the Amazonian General Language was used throughout the colony. At this point, Tupinambá remained intact, but as a "liturgical language". The languages used in everyday life evolved drastically over the century due to contact with the language, with Tupinambá as the "language of rituals, and Amazonian General Language, the language of popular communication and therefore of religious instruction." Moore notes that by the mid-18th century, the Amazon and Tupinambá General Languages were already distinct. Until then, the original Tupinambá community was facing a decline, but other speaking communities were still required by Portuguese missionaries to learn the Tupinambá language.
Nheengatu continued to evolve as it expanded into the Alto Rio Negro region. There was contact with other languages such as Marawá, Baníwa, Warekana, Tucano, and Dâw.
The General Language evolved into two branches, the Northern General Language and the Southern General Language, which at its height became the dominant language of the vast Brazilian territory.
An anonymous manuscript from the 18th century is emblematically titled Dictionary of the general language of Brazil, spoken in all the towns, places, and villages of this vast State, written in the city of Pará, year 1771.
If Nheengatu was the major obstacle for the cultural and linguistic domination of Portuguese in the region, the colonizers saw that it was necessary to take it away from the people and impose the Portuguese language, which at first was not successful since the general language was very well rooted both among indigenous people and in the speech of blacks and whites themselves. The language was banned by Pombal's government, who intended to impose the Portuguese language in Brazil. Hence, many places had their names changed from the Northern General language to names of places and cities in Portugal, such as Santarém, Aveiro, Barcelos, Belém, Óbidos, Faro, Alenquer, and Moz.
A regional ban on the Northern General language came right after the Cabanagem, after the rebels were defeated, the regencial Brazilian government imposed a harsh persecution on the speakers of Nheengatu. Half of the male population of Grão-Pará was murdered and anyone who was caught speaking in Nheengatu was punished. The imposition of the Portuguese language this time had an effect and with the advent of Portuguese schools, the population was shepherded to the new language.
Also in the 20th century, economic and political events like the Amazon Rubber Boom, which brought huge waves of government encouraged settlers from the Northeast to the Amazon, led to an increased Portuguese presence. This again forced indigenous peoples to move or be subjected to forced labor. The language was again influenced by the increased presence of Portuguese speakers.
Nheengatu remained mainly among the most distant inhabitants of the urban centers, in the families descended from the cabanos and among unconquered peoples. Furthermore, "tapuios" kept their accent and part of their speech tied to their language. Until 1920 it was common for Nheengatu to be used in traditional commercial centers in Manaus, Santarém, Parintins, and Belém.
Current use
Nheengatu is spoken in the Alto Rio Negro region, in the state of Amazonas, in the Brazilian Amazon and in neighboring parts of Colombia and Venezuela. There are potentially as many as 19,000 Nheengatu speakers worldwide, according to Ethnologue, although some journalists have reported as many as 30,000. Currently, it is still spoken by around 73.31% of the 29,900 inhabitants of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, around 3,000 people in Colombia, and around 2,000 people in Venezuela, especially in the Rio Negro river basin. Furthermore, it is the native language of the rural caboclo population of the area and is a common language of communication between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, or between Indigenous peoples of different languages. It is also an instrument of ethnic affirmation of Amazonian indigenous peoples who have lost their native languages, such as Barés, Arapaços, Baniuas, Uarequenas, and others.Ethnologue rates Nheengatu as "changing" with a rating of 7 on the Gradual Intergenerational Interruption Scale . According to this scale, this classification suggests that "the population of children may use the language among themselves, but it is not being transmitted to children". According to the UNESCO Atlas of Endangered Languages of the World, Nheengatu is classified as "severely endangered". The language has recently regained some recognition and prominence after being suppressed for many years.
In December 2002, Nheengatu gained official language status alongside Portuguese in the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira in accordance with local law 145/2002. Now Nheengatu is one of the four official languages of the municipality.
In 1998, University of São Paulo professor Eduardo de Almeida Navarro founded the Tupi Aqui organization dedicated to promoting the teaching of historical Tupi and Nheengatu in high schools in São Paulo and elsewhere in Brazil. Professor Navarro wrote a textbook for teaching Nheengatu that Tupi Aqui makes available, along with other teaching materials, on a website hosted by the University of São Paulo.
Revitalization efforts
In 2007, USP established the first Brazilian university chair dedicated to the study of Nheengatu. In 2012, the language was incorporated into the graduate program in translation studies. Consequently, in 2016 Graciliano Ramos's A terra dos meninos pelados was translated into Nheengatu. Translations contribute to lexical revitalization; this translation of Ramos's work included linguistic and lexical research on Nheengatu, allowing for the use of obsolete words remembered only by the elders or already completely forgotten and replaced by borrowings from Portuguese, although borrowings adopted more than a century ago—now fully integrated into the language's tradition—were also employed. In 2017, The Little Prince was also translated as part of a master's dissertation supervised by USP professor Eduardo de Almeida Navarro. Likewise, in many instances the translation employed equivalent terms, adaptations, neologisms, and the revival of archaic words; for example, the tiger was replaced with and wheat with, and the very title revived an old expression which served "to connect a word that had fallen out of use with the naming of a character in the book who was mysterious and little known".In 2021, "Nheengatu App" was launched, becoming the first application for teaching an Indigenous language in Brazil. It teaches the Tapajoara variant of the language. Its release was supported by the and the Secretariat of Culture of Pará. According to its creator Suellen Tobler, the app was used in Indigenous schools in the Lower Tapajós region, and by September 2023 approximately 2,200 users had registered. In March 2024, the project was presented at Campus Party Brasília. Other Brazilian Indigenous groups showed interest in the initiative, and Tobler went on to co-author two other apps for teaching native Brazilian languages.
In 2023, the Brazilian Constitution was translated into Nheengatu, marking the first time it was rendered into an Indigenous language—until then, it had been translated only into Spanish and English. The translation was carried out by 15 bilingual Indigenous individuals from the Upper Negro River and Middle Tapajós regions, through a project sponsored by the Supreme Federal Court and the National Council of Justice, within the framework of the United Nations's International Decade of Indigenous Languages. They worked for at least three hours a day over the course of three months; project curator and then National Library president Marco Lucchesi stated the work was intense with specialists available around the clock to answer any questions. Then STF president Rosa Weber attended the launch event in São Gabriel da Cachoeira and stated Nheengatu was chosen because of its significance to the Amazon region. Later, Weber presented a copy to Lucchesi at the National Library, the first time in 100 years that a head of the judiciary had visited it.
Existing literature
Over the course of its evolution since its beginnings as Tupinambá, extensive research has been done on Nheengatu. There have been studies done at each phase of its evolution, but much has been focused on how aspects of Nheengatu, such as its grammar or phonology, have changed upon contact over the years..As mentioned earlier, the first documents that were produced were by Jesuit missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries, such as Arte da Grammatica da Lingoa mais usada na costa do Brasil by Father José de Anchieta and Arte da Língua Brasilíca by Luis Figueira. These were detailed grammars that served their religious purposes. Multiple dictionaries have also been written over the years. More recently, Stradelli also published a Portuguese-Nheengatu dictionary.
There have also been several linguistic studies of Nheengatu more recently, such as Borges ’s thesis on Nheengatu phonology and Cruz ’s detailed paper on the phonology and grammar of Nheengatu. She also studied the rise of number agreement in modern Nheengatu by analyzing how grammaticalization occurred over the course of its evolution from Tupinambá. Cruz also studies reduplication in Nheengatu in detail, as well as morphological fission in bitransitive constructions. A proper textbook for the conducting of Nheengatu classes has also been written. Lima and Sirvana provides a sociolinguistic study of Nheengatu in the Pisasu Sarusawa community of the Baré people, in Manaus, Amazonas.
In 2023, the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil promulgated in 1988, was translated into Nheengatu for the first time.
Language documentation projects
Language documentation agencies are currently not engaged in any language documentation project for Nheengatu. However, research on Nheengatu by Moore was supported by Museu Goeldi and the Brazilian National Research Council, and funded by the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas and the Inter-American Foundation. In this study, Moore focused on the effects of language contact and how Nheengatu evolved over the years with the help of a Nheengatu-speaking informant. Moore urges for the "location and documentation of modern dialects of Nheengatu", due to their risk of becoming extinct.Ethnography
Anthropological research has been done on the changing cultural landscapes along the Amazon, as well as life of the Tupinambá people and their interactions with the Jesuits. Floyd describes how populations navigate between their "traditional" and "acculturated" spheres. Other studies have focused on the impact of urbanization on Indigenous populations in the Amazon.Phonology
Consonants
Parentheses mark marginal phonemes occurring only in few words, or with otherwise unclear status.Morphology
There are eight word classes in Nheengatu: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, postpositions, pronouns, demonstratives, and particles. These eight word classes are also reflected in Cruz ’s Fonologia e Gramática do Nheengatú. In her books, Cruz includes 5 chapters in the Morphology section that describes lexical classes, nominal, and verbal lexicogenesis, the structure of the noun phrase, and grammatical structures. In the section on lexical classes, Cruz discusses personal pronominal prefixes, nouns, and their subclasses, verbs and their subclasses, and adverbial expressions. The subsequent chapter on nominal lexicogenesis discusses endocentric derivation, nominalization, and nominal composition. Under verbal lexicogenesis in Chapter 7, Cruz covers valency, reduplication, and the borrowing of loanwords from Portuguese. The following chapter then discusses the distinction between particles and clitics, including examples and properties of each grammatical structure.Pronouns
There are two types of pronouns in Nheengatu: personal or interrogative. Nheengatu follows the same pattern as Tupinambá, in that the same set of personal pronouns is adopted for the subject and object of a verb.| Singular | Sg Prefix | Plural | Pl Prefix | |
| 1 | isé | se- | yãndé | yane- |
| 2 | ĩndé | ne- | pẽỹẽ | pe- |
| 3 | aʔé | i- s- | aẽtá | ta- |
Examples of Personal Pronouns in use:
As observed in Table 3, in Nheengatu, personal pronouns can also take the form of prefixes. These prefixes are necessary in the usage of verbs as well as postpositions. In the latter case, free forms of the pronouns are not permitted. Moore illustrates this with the following:
The free form of the first person singular pronoun cannot be combined with the postposition word for 'with'.
The second set of pronouns are interrogative, and are used in question words.
Verbal affixes
According to Moore, throughout the evolution of Nheengatu, processes such as compounding were greatly reduced. Moore cites a summary by Rodrigues, stating that Nheegatu lost Tupinambá's system of five moods, converging into a single indicative mood. Despite such changes alongside influences from Portuguese, however, derivational and inflectional affixation was still intact from Tupinambá. A select number of modern affixes arose via grammaticization of what used to be lexical items. For example, Moore provides the example of the former lexical item etá 'many'. Over time and grammaticization, this word became to plural suffix -itá.Apart from the pronominal prefixes shown in Table, there are also verbal prefixes. Verbs in Nheengatu fall into three mutually exclusive categories: intransitive, transitive, and stative. By attaching verbal prefixes to these verbs, a sentence can be considered well-formed.
| Singular | Plural | |
| 1 | a- | ya- |
| 2 | re- | pe- |
| 3 | u- | aẽtá-ú |
Examples of verbal prefixes:
In these examples from Moore, the verbal first person singular prefix a- is added to the intransitive verb for 'work' and transitive verb for 'make' respective. Only when prefixed with this verbal clitic, can they be considered well-formed sentences.
Reduplication
Another interesting morphological feature of Nheengatu is reduplication, which Cruz explains in her grammar to employed differently based on the community of Nheengatu speakers. This is a morphological process that was originally present in Tupinambá, and it tends to be used to indicate a repeated action.In this example, the reduplicated segment is tuka, which is the Nheengatu verb for 'knock'. This surfaces as a fully reduplicated segment. However, partial reduplication also occurs in this language. In the following example elicited by Cruz, the speaker reduplicates the first two syllables of the stem word.
Another point to note from the above example is the usage of the plural word ita. Cruz highlights that there is a distinction in the usage of reduplication between communities. The speakers of Içana and the upper region of the Rio Negro use Nheengatu as their main language, and reduplication occurs in the stative verbs, expressing intensity of a property, and the plural word ita doesn't necessarily need to be used. On the other hand, in Santa Isabel do Rio Negro and the more urban area of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, speakers tend to be bilingual, with Portuguese used as the main language. In this context, these speakers also employ reduplication to indicate the intensity of a property, but the plural ita must be used if the subject is plural.
Sample texts
; Pedro Luiz Sympson; Pe. Afonso Casanovas
; Eduardo de Almeida Navarro
; Aline da Cruz
; Sample from book Yasú Yapurũgitá Yẽgatú
; Roger Manuel López Yusuino