African and indigenous languages in Brazil: articulating socio-history and linguistic policies

Abstract:

This research project intends to describe and analyze the political procedures of discursivizing indigenous and African linguistic-discursive practices in the colonial context and the emergence and consolidation of the Brazilian National State. Based on a theoretical-methodological articulation between linguistic policies, socio-history of the language and colonial linguistics, we seek to explore the different ways in which indigenous, African and Afro-Brazilian languages ​​were historically and politically apprehended by official bodies (Kingdom, Church , State and Science), considering both institutional and official initiatives, as well as local resistance to these initiatives. The research corpus comprises a relatively heterogeneous set of discursive genres linked to the religious (catechisms, sermons, grammars, dictionaries, religious songs), legal (laws, decrees and treaties), state (official pronouncements and policies) and scientific (knowledge about languages). Such heterogeneity is considered relevant for a comparative look that seeks resonances and singularities of the ways in which indigenous and African linguistic-discursive practices were politically apprehended. It proposes an approximation between the policies of indigenous and African languages ​​in search of a broader look at the historical path of discursivization of such languages ​​from different epistemologies and purposes. The concept of language adopted articulates structure and discourse, in search of a look that considers discursive motivations (including the role of discursive genres) in the configuration of processes of linguistic variability.

---

Como citar este material (EN):

SEVERO, Cristine Gorski ; MULLER, N. ; DOMINGOS, M. ; NSIMBA, J. . Seminário Internacional - Línguas africanas e seus deslocamentos: Diálogos entre Brasil, Angola e Moçambique. 2015. (Outro).

Direitos autorais (EN):

Creative Commons