Different histories, different results: the origin and development of two Amazonian languages

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Tupinambá, a member of branch III of the Tupi- Guarani linguistic family of the Tupi linguistic stock (Rodrigues 1984/ 1985) is – in so far as it is known – the only Brazilian indigenous language that has had an important role in the development of two Amazonian languages, namely Kokáma/ Omágua and Amazonian Língua Geral or Nheengatú. These are two languages that originated in contact situations and, even though having Tupinambá in common as a source language, have become typologically different in several aspects due to the peculiarities of the social histories of their speakers. With regard to Kokáma/Omágua, there are three concurring hypotheses on its origin: (a) it is simply another language of the Tupi-Guarani genetic family, (b) it is a descendant of the Amazonian Língua Geral, or (c) it developed from contact between speakers of Tupinambá and speakers of other languages, including an Arawakan one, and is not the continuity of any particular language. With regard to the Amazonian Língua Geral, some scholars treat it as a creole language, but to others it is a continuation of Tupinambá spoken outside the indigenous villages, subjected to external influences over the course of time. In this paper I present arguments in favor of the different development possibilities of both Kokáma/Omágua and Amazonian Língua Geral, taking into account aspects of the social history of the respective speakers, as well as lexical and grammatical features of each of the two languages.

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