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|
| Nheengatu | |
|---|---|
| Modern Tupi, Amazonic Tupi | |
| Native to | Brazil,Colombia,Venezuela |
Native speakers | <10,000 (2025)[1] |
Tupian
| |
Early form | |
| Latin | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | São Gabriel da Cachoeira andMonsenhor Tabosa |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:yrl – Nhengatu [sic]kgm – Karipúna (retired) |
| Glottolog | nhen1239 |
| ELP | Nheengatú |
 | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Nheengatu, also known asModern Tupi[2] andAmazonic Tupi,[3] is aTupi–Guarani language. It is spoken throughout theRio Negro region among theBaniwa,Baré andWarekena peoples, mainly in the municipality ofSão Gabriel da Cachoeira and the state ofAmazonas,Brazil.
Since 2002, it has been one ofAmazonas's official languages,[4] along withApurinã,Baniwa,Dessana,Kanamari,Marubo,Matis,Matses,Mawe,Mura,Tariana,Tikuna,Tukano,Waiwai,Waimiri,Yanomami, andPortuguese.[5] Outside of the Rio Negro region, the Nheengatu language has more dispersed speakers in the Baixo Amazonas region (in the state of Amazonas) among theSateré-Mawé, Maraguá andMura people. In theBaixo Tapajós and the state ofPará, it is being revitalized by the people of the region, such as the Borari and theTupinambá,[6] and also among the riverside dwellers themselves.
According toEthnologue, a 2005 study—not available on its website—estimated the number of Nheengatu speakers at around 19,600, though this figure is subject to debate. In 2025,[update]University of São Paulo (USP) professor Thomas Finbow estimated between 5,000 and 7,000 speakers inBrazil, and fewer than 10,000 globally including communities inVenezuela andColombia.[1] Nheengatu is considered significant for the study oflanguage change as one of the few Indigenous languages with a long documented history.[1] It is considered the most historically significant among the minority languages still spoken in Brazil.[7]
The language name derives from the wordsnhẽẽga (meaning "language" or "word") andkatu (meaning "good").[3][8] Nheengatu is referred to by a wide variety of names in literature, includingNhengatu, Tupi Costeiro, Geral, Yeral (in Venezuela),Tupi Moderno,[9]: 13 Nyengato, Nyengatú, Waengatu, Neegatú, Is'engatu, Língua Brasílica, Tupi Amazônico[3], Ñe'engatú, Nhangatu, Inhangatu, Nenhengatu,[8] Yẽgatú, Nyenngatú, Tupi, and Lingua Geral. It is also commonly referred to as theLíngua Geral Amazônica (LGA) in Brazil.
Nheengatu developed from the extinct Tupinamba language and belongs to the Tupi–Guarani branch of the Tupi language family.[10] The Tupi–Guarani language family is a large and diverse group of languages, including, for example,Xeta,Siriono,Arawete,Kaapor,Kamayura,Guaja, andTapirape. 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.”
Takingpersonal pronouns as an example, see a comparison betweenBrazilian Portuguese,Old Tupi, and Nheengatu:
| Portuguese | Ancient Tupi | Yẽgatu (Nheengatu from Rio Negro) | Traditional Nheengatu | Tapajoawaran Nheengatu | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | singular | eu | xe, ixé | se, ixé | çe, ixé | se, ixé | |
| plural | exclusive | nós | oré | ||||
| inclusive | îandé | yãné, yãdé | yãné, yãdé | yãné, yãdé | |||
| 2nd person | singular | tu | ne/nde, endé | ne, ῖdé | ne, ῖdé | ne, ῖdé | |
| plural | vós | pe, peẽ | pe, pẽye | pe, pẽnhé | pe, penhẽ | ||
| 3rd person | singular | ele, ela | i, a'e | i, ae | i, aé | i, aé | |
| plural | eles, elas | i, a'e | i/ta, aῖta | aῖtá | i/ta, aῖta | ||
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 theNorthern General Language (NGL).
Comparisons between Tupi, Portuguese, and Nheengatu variants:
| English | Portuguese | Ancient Tupi | Yẽgatu (Nheengatu from Rio Negro) | 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 mentionedgeneral language of São Paulo, now extinct, Nheengatu is closely related toancient Tupi, an extinct language, and toGuarani ofParaguay, which, far from being extinct, is the most spoken language in the country and one of its official languages. According to some sources,[which?] ancient Nheengatu and Guarani weremutually intelligible.[citation needed]
Belonging to the Tupi-Guarani linguistic family, Nheengatu emerged in the 18th century, descending from the now-extinct Amazonian Tupinambá, a regionalTupi 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 bay of Guajará (Belém), the mouth of the Tapajós river, to theTupinambarana island (Parintins), between the borders ofPará andAmazonas. The language of the Tupinambás then, as it belongs to a feared and conquering people, became alingua 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 çapupés, the curiatós, the Parintins and the Sateré-Mawé themselves.
Already with the Amazon conquered by the Portuguese, a fact that occurred from 1600, 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, although Latinized, which resulted in the Northern General Language, or General Amazonian Language, (a name still used today), whose development took place parallel to that of São Paulo general language (extinct). Since then, Nheengatu has spread throughout the Amazon as an instrument of colonization, Portuguese domain and linguistic standardization, where many peoples started to have it as their main language at the expense of their own, as well 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."[11][4]
The General Language was established as the official language from 1689 to 1727 in theAmazon (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 Amazon General Language (distinct from theSão Paulo General Language, a similar variety used further south) 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 (2014) 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. Efforts to communicate between communities resulted in the "corruption" of the Tupinambá language, hence the distinction between Tupinambá and the Amazonian general 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 (Cabalzar; Ricardo 2006 in Cruz 2015).
The General Language evolved into two branches, theNorthern General Language (Amazonian) and theSouthern General Language (Paulista), 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 had its first ban on the part of the Portuguese government, during the administration of theMarquis of Pombal, who intended to impose the Portuguese language in the Amazon and make the names of places Portuguese. Hence, many places have their names changed from nheengatu to names of places and cities in Portugal, thus appearing names that today make up Amazonian municipalities such as Santarém, Aveiro, Barcelos, Belém, Óbidos, Faro, Alenquer, and Moz.
With the independence of Brazil in 1822, even though Grão-Pará (Amazon) is a separate Portuguese colony, its local rulers decided to integrate into the new country, which greatly displeased the inhabitants of indigenous origin, who were the majority of the people in general, This later led the Amazon to an independence revolution that lasted for 10 years.
The second ban on the language came right after this revolution, better known as Cabanagem or War of the Cabanos, and when the rebels were defeated (1860), the Brazilian government imposed a harsh persecution of the speakers of Nheengatu. Half of the male population of Grão-Pará (Amazon) was murdered and anyone who was caught speaking in Nheengatu was punished and if they were not contacted indigenous, they were baptized by priests and received their surnames on certificates, since the priests themselves were their godparents, this resulted in people of indigenous origin with Portuguese surnames without even being heirs to colonists. 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 theAmazon 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" (ribeirinhos) 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.
Nheengatu is spoken in theAlto Rio Negro region, in the state ofAmazonas, in the BrazilianAmazon and in neighboring parts ofColombia andVenezuela. There are potentially as many as 19,000 Nheengatu speakers worldwide, according toEthnologue (2005),[12] although some journalists have reported as many as 30,000.[13][14] Currently, it is still spoken by around 73.31% of the 29,900 inhabitants ofSão Gabriel da Cachoeira (IBGE 2000 Census), around 3,000 people in Colombia, and around 2,000 people in Venezuela, especially inRio Negro river basin (Uaupés andIçana rivers).[12] Furthermore, it is thenative language of the ruralcaboclo population of the area and is a common language of communication betweenIndigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, or between Indigenous peoples of different languages. It is also an instrument ofethnic affirmation ofAmazonian indigenous peoples who have lost their native languages, such asBarés, Arapaços,Baniuas, Uarequenas, and others.
Ethnologue rates Nheengatu as "changing" with a rating of 7 on the Gradual Intergenerational Interruption Scale (GIDS) (Simons and Fennig 2017). 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 theUNESCO Atlas of Endangered Languages of the World, Nheengatu is classified as "severely endangered".[15] 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.[3] Now Nheengatu is one of the fourofficial languages of the municipality.[16]
In 1998,University of São Paulo professorEduardo de Almeida Navarro founded theTupi Aqui organization dedicated to promoting the teaching of historical Tupi and Nheengatu in high schools in São Paulo and elsewhere in Brazil.[3] 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.[17]
In 2007, USP established the first Brazilian university chair dedicated to the study of Nheengatu. In 2012, the language was incorporated into thegraduate program intranslation studies. Consequently, in 2016Graciliano Ramos'sA terra dos meninos pelados was translated into Nheengatu.[18] Translations contribute to lexical revitalization; this translation of Ramos's work included linguistic and lexical research on Nheengatu, allowing for the use ofobsolete words remembered only by the elders or already completely forgotten and replaced byborrowings from Portuguese,[19] although borrowings adopted more than a century ago—now fully integrated into the language's tradition—were also employed.[20] In 2017,The Little Prince was also translated as part of amaster's dissertation supervised by USP professorEduardo de Almeida Navarro. Likewise, in many instances the translation employed equivalent terms, adaptations,neologisms, and the revival of archaic words; for example, thetiger was replaced withyawareté-pinima (jaguar) andwheat withawatí (corn), 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".[21]
In 2021, "Nheengatu App" was launched, becoming the firstapplication for teaching an Indigenous language in Brazil. It teaches the Tapajoara variant of the language.[22] Its release was supported by theAldir Blanc Law [pt] and the Secretariat of Culture ofPará.[22][23][24] According to its creator Suellen Tobler, the app was used in Indigenous schools in the LowerTapajós region, and by September 2023 approximately 2,200 users had registered.[22] In March 2024, the project was presented atCampus Party Brasília.[22][24] Other Brazilian Indigenous groups showed interest in the initiative, and Tobler went on to co-author two other apps for teaching nativeBrazilian languages.[24]
In 2023, theBrazilian Constitution was translated into Nheengatu, marking the first time it was rendered into anIndigenous language—until then, it had been translated only intoSpanish andEnglish.[25][26][27] The translation was carried out by 15 bilingual Indigenous individuals from the UpperNegro River and Middle Tapajós regions,[a] through a project sponsored by theSupreme Federal Court (STF) and theNational Council of Justice, within the framework of theUnited Nations'sInternational Decade of Indigenous Languages.[25][27] They worked for at least three hours a day over the course of three months; project curator and thenNational Library presidentMarco Lucchesi stated the work was intense with specialists availablearound the clock to answer any questions.[28] Then STF presidentRosa Weber attended the launch event inSão Gabriel da Cachoeira[b] and stated Nheengatu was chosen because of its significance to theAmazon region.[27] Later, Weber presented a copy to Lucchesi at the National Library, the first time in 100 years that a head of thejudiciary had visited it.[26][29]
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. (Facundes et al. 1994 and Rodrigues 1958, 1986).
As mentioned earlier, the first documents that were produced were by Jesuit missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries, such asArte da Grammatica da Lingoa mais usada na costa do Brasil by Father José de Anchieta (1595) andArte da Língua Brasilíca by Luis Figueira (1621). These were detailed grammars that served their religious purposes. Multiple dictionaries have also been written over the years (Mello 1967, Grenand and Epaminondas 1989, Barbosa 1951). More recently, Stradelli (2014) also published a Portuguese-Nheengatu dictionary.
There have also been several linguistic studies of Nheengatu more recently, such as Borges (1991)’s thesis on Nheengatu phonology and Cruz (2011)’s detailed paper on the phonology and grammar of Nheengatu. She also studied the rise ofnumber agreement in modern Nheengatu, by analyzing how grammaticalization occurred over the course of its evolution from Tupinambá (Cruz 2015). Cruz (2014) 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.[17] Lima and Sirvana (2017) 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 (Brazilian Constitution) promulgated in 1988, was translated into Nheengatu for the first time.[30]
Language documentation agencies (such asSOAS,Museu do Índio,Museu Goeldi andDobes) are currently not engaged in any language documentation project for Nheengatu. However, research on Nheengatu by Moore (1994) was supported by Museu Goeldi and theBrazilian National Research Council (CNPq), and funded by theSociety for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA) and theInter-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 (2014) urges for the "location and documentation of modern dialects of Nheengatu", due to their risk of becoming extinct.[10]
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.[31] Floyd (2007) describes how populations navigate between their "traditional" and "acculturated" spheres.[32] Other studies have focused on the impact of urbanization on Indigenous populations in the Amazon (de Oliveira 2001).
Parentheses mark marginal phonemes occurring only in few words, or with otherwise unclear status.[10]
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | ||||||||
| Plosive | plain | p | t | (tʃ) | k | kʷ | (ʔ) | ||
| voiced | (b) | (ɡ) | |||||||
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ||||||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | |||||||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||||
| Trill | r | ||||||||
| Approximant | w | j | j̃ | ||||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | iĩ | uũ | |
| Mid | eẽ | oõ | |
| Open | aã |
There are eight word classes in Nheengatu:nouns,verbs,adjectives,adverbs,postpositions,pronouns,demonstratives, and particles.[10] These eight word classes are also reflected in Cruz (2011)’sFonologia 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 (including personal, anaphoric, and demonstrative pronouns as well as relative nouns), verbs and their subclasses (such as stative, transitive, and intransitive verbs), 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.
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.[10]
| 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:
inde
re-kuntai
2sgA-speak
amu
other.entity
nheenga
language
inde re-kuntai amu nheenga
2SG 2sgA-speak other.entity language
"You speak another language."
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.[10] Moore illustrates this with the following:
i)
ii)
i) se-irũ ii) *isé-irũ
{} 1SG(prefix)-with {} 1SG-with
{} {‘with me’} {} {‘with me’}
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.
| mãʔã | 'what, who, whom' | ||
| awá | 'who, whom' |
According to Moore (2014), throughout the evolution of Nheengatu, processes such as compounding were greatly reduced. Moore cites a summary by Rodrigues (1986), stating that Nheegatu lost Tupinambá's system of five moods (indicative, imperative, gerund, circumstantial, and subjunctive), 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 (2014) provides the example of the former lexical itemetá 'many'. Over time and grammaticization, this word became to plural suffix-itá.[10]
Apart from the pronominal prefixes shown in Table (3), there are also verbal prefixes.[10] 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:
i)
ii)
i) a-puraki ii) a-mũỹã
{} 1sg-work {} 1sg-make
{} {‘I work.’} {} {I make (an object).’}
In these examples from Moore (2014), the verbal first person singular prefixa- 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.[10]
Another interesting morphological feature of Nheengatu is reduplication, which Cruz (2011) 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.[10]
u-tuka~tuka
ukena
door
u-tuka~tuka ukena
3SG-REDUP~knock door
"He is knocking on the door (repeatedly)."
In this example, the reduplicated segment istuka, 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 (a CVCV sequence) of the stem word.
Another point to note from the above example is the usage of the plural wordita. Cruz (2011) 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 wordita 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 pluralita must be used if the subject is plural.
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