Elaboração de um Dicionário Karo-Português (2ª parte)

Abstract

Spoken by the Arara Indians of Rondônia, the Karo language is the only representative language of the Ramarama linguistic family (GABAS, 2001), a Tupi trunk (RODRIGUES, 1964). The Karo language is threatened with extinction by the fact that it is spoken by a small number of indigenous people, about 150 individuals. The present research subproject aims to continue the process of elaborating a Karo-Portuguese Dictionary, which began in 2004. Through this dictionary, we intend to give back to the Arara community, in a practical way, the results of the research carried out with the Karo language, and to fulfill a demand of the Arara community itself, by providing written access to the language in their own language. In this second stage of execution of the subproject, the work was basically focused on the continuation of the inclusion of lexical items in the database, through the Toolbox software; redefinition of some input fields that were problematic; inclusion of contextual examples (sentences) for each of the entries catalogued in the dictionary; and the continuation of the inclusion of scientific names of animals, plants and fruits in the database, inserted in the first stage of execution of this subproject. Although not foreseen in the initial project, images of body parts, birds, mammals, and plants were typed in order to be inserted in the dictionary later on. This way, the Karo-Portuguese Dictionary will have an illustrative character, a relevant fact as one of its practical purposes is to be used as a literacy tool for the Arara Indians and for learning the spelling of the Karo language. Scientifically, the Karo-Portuguese Dictionary will represent an advance for the little that is known about indigenous languages. From a scientific point of view, it can be used by linguists as a tool for comparative historical studies, and from a practical point of view, as a written repository (or register) of the language, which can help the Indians in the education process.