Os empréstimos do português em um dicionário tupi de 1771: reflexões sobre a política lingüística pombalina

Abstract

The Directory of Indians (1757) instituted a language policy designed to spread Portuguese in the Amazonian settlements. Although local authorities endorsed this policy, little is known about its results. The present paper aims to elucidate this question by analyzing the Portuguese borrowings in a Tupi dictionary of the Pombaline period (Diccionario da língua geral do Brasil que se falia em todas as villas, lugares e aldeas deste vastissimo Estado. Written in the city of Pará. Year 1771). From a linguistic point of view, this analysis aims to verify: a) the lexical field with the largest number of borrowings; b) the most productive phonological changes; c) the semantic processes involved. From the historical point of view, the question to be answered is whether there was an increase in borrowing after the creation of the Pombaline language policy. In this case, it will be necessary to compare the 1771 dictionary with similar works from the Jesuit period.