Empréstimos lingüísticos do português em Xerente Akwé
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Data
2009-05-28
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Universidade Federal de Goiás
Resumo
Many languages, spoken by minority populations coming in contact with majority ones
are losing vitality. Additionally, several other languages have become extinct, and this
phenomenon is related to a cultural complexity involving a unique way to reflect on
reality and to become a part of it. The reasons for this are many, and in each case, they
act in different ways. Identifying these reasons can help to clarify the situation of a
given language, and, consequently, provide subsidies for (re)vitalization projects, given
that the understanding of the sociolinguistic situation may reveal what is behind the
many facets resulting from the predominantly asymmetric relationships among
unequally assigned political, economic and cultural powers among the involved
populations. In this sense, variations and changes in those languages are directly related
to changes that have taken place in the social and cultural medium and in the ecosystem
where those peoples live. Thus, both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors act on those
changes. According to several authors (Albó, 1988; Braggio, 1997; Godenzzi, 2000;
Nettle & Romaine, 2000; Romaine, 1995 among others), borrowings made by minority
languages which come in contact with dominant languages, are seen as signs that the
lexicon of that particular language is losing vitality, in view of the speed with which
those borrowings are incorporated. Thus, there is no time for the community to adapt
the terms by creating them their own language or to filter the new terms, adjusting
them to the structure of the native language. As stated earlier, the whole social, cultural,
political and economic structure of those peoples is being threatened. The Xerente
people are among those minorities whose language is being threatened. In this view, we
intend to give our contribution to Linguistics, to the study of indigenous languages and
to the Xerente Akwe people, by bringing to light the sociolinguistic situation in which
they find themselves, by studying the linguistic borrowings made from Portuguese to
their language. Currently, they are 3,100 individuals and their language is part of the Jê
family, Macro Jê language stock (RODRIGUES, 1986). They occupy an area in the
State of Tocantins, approximately 80 km from Palmas, the State capital. They are
distributed among 56 villages, and part of the population (approximately 10%) lives in
Tocantínia, the city which is closest to them. Therefore, the main goals of this
dissertation are: a) describing and analyzing the borrowings from Portuguese to Xerente
Akwe, in their linguistic and extra-linguistic aspects; b) making a contribution to the area of sociolinguistics, with the study of the borrowings, in a situation of close
linguistic and socio-cultural contact and c) thinking, along with the Xerente people,
about the phenomenon that is the object of this study and attempt to contribute to their
school education and to the vitalization of their language in the aspects that are being
most affected (Braggio, 2008). To attain these goals, we are using the method which
consists of applying words lists with visual aids divided into semantic fields (such as
transportation, tools and utensils, school, food etc., representing the new elements that
are being introduced in the indigenous culture), for the purpose of determining up to
what point these borrowings are being made on a regular basis, among languages that
come in contact with each other as changes that are unique to each language, as a
lexicon-expanding tool or if they are taking place in a disorderly fashion, thereby
contributing to the dislocation of the Xerente language, or both. Regarding linguistic
aspects, we have identified four types of borrowings: i) borrowings by creation; ii)
loanblends; iii) phonetic/phonological adjustments and iv) direct borrowings, each with
different degrees of structural complexity. The last ones are used exactly like they are
used in Portuguese, and thereby represent a prevalent force of the Portuguese language
as used by the speakers, in their effort to adapt them to the indigenous language. This
type of borrowing marks the real beginning of a language obsolescence, since it is
related to the speed with which the borrowings make their appearance. Additionally,
one can not separate borrowings from attitudes, since they are very important for the
linguistic policies that the Xerente people have been adopting. Results from the analysis
of extra-linguistic aspects have shown that some borrowings have become
aportuguesados , that is, they show Portuguese-like characteristics, which are closer or
identical to the forms used in Portuguese. They are more commonly found among the
children and the younger Xerente who live in the city and have more schooling. The
forms created with elements of the native language are more easily found among the
older population, living in the indigenous community with little or no schooling.
Generally speaking, the social reality of the Xerente, consisting of migration, internal
dispersion and schooling in the Portuguese language, as Braggio (idem) states, can be
considered as being one of the factors that can potentialize an intrusion of Portuguese
into the Xerente Akwe language. We believe that this study fills a gap by dealing with a
specific aspect of the sociolinguistic reality of the Xerente people, thereby providing
subsidies for future studies.
Descrição
Citação
MESQUITA, Rodrigo. LINGUISTIC OPERATIONS IN THE PORTUGUESE XERENTE Akwe. 2009. 146 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Lingüística, Letras e Artes) - Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, 2009.