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.
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

In addition to the previously mentioned general language of São Paulo, now extinct, Nheengatu is closely related to ancient Tupi, an extinct language, and to Guarani of Paraguay, which, far from being extinct, is the most spoken language in the country and one of its official languages. According to some sources, ancient Nheengatu and Guarani were mutually intelligible.

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.