Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

A lingua geral como identidade construida

1996; UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO; Volume: 39; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.11606/2179-0892.ra.1996.111629

1678-9857

Maria Cândida Drumond Mendes Barros, Luiz Carlos Borges, Márcio Meira,

Linguistics and Language Studies

Língua Geral, or Nheengatu, or Tupian origin, is analyzed as a Brazilian cultural trait, which was historically developed and generated hy different social and ethnic groups for purposes of communicating their interests. During the Brazilian colonial period, emphasis is placed on the Jesuit influence, whereby the Língua Geral was imposed upon the Indians as the "language o f the whites"; during the 19th century , Lingua Geral became known as a "Brazilian language" , hoth during the Cabanagem conflict in addition to being embraced hy the Brazilian intellectual Romanticist movement. Today lhe indigenous peoples or the Rio Negro region maintain Lígua Geral as a means of preserving their cultural identity.