[情報] Language Born of Colonialism Thrives Again in Amazon
NEW YORK TIMES
August 28, 2005
Language Born of Colonialism Thrives Again in Amazon
By LARRY ROHTER
SA~O GABRIEL DA CACHOEIRA, Brazil, Aug. 23 - When the Portuguese arrived in
Brazil five centuries ago, they encountered a fundamental problem: the
indigenous peoples they conquered spoke more than 700 languages. Rising to the
challenge, the Jesuit priests accompanying them concocted a mixture of Indian,
Portuguese and African words they called "li'ngua geral," or the "general
language," and imposed it on their colonial subjects.
Elsewhere in Brazil, li'ngua geral as a living, spoken tongue died off long
ago. But in this remote and neglected corner of the Amazon where Brazil,
Colombia and Venezuela meet, the language has not only managed to survive,
it has made a remarkable comeback in recent years.
"Linguists talk of moribund languages that are going to die, but this is one
that is being revitalized by new blood," said Jose' Ribamar Bessa Freire,
author of "River of Babel: A Linguistic History of the Amazon" and a native of
the region. "Though it was originally brought to the Amazon to make the
colonial process viable, tribes that have lost their own mother tongue are now
taking refuge in li'ngua geral and making it an element of their identity," he
said.
Two years ago, in fact, Nheengatu', as the 30,000 or so speakers of li'ngua
geral call their language, reached a milestone. By vote of the local
council, Sa~o Gabriel da Cachoeira became the only municipality in Brazil to
recognize a language other than Portuguese as official, conferring that status
on li'ngua geral and two local Indian tongues.
As a result, Nheengatu', which is pronounced neen-gah-TOO and means "good
talk," is now a language that is permitted to be taught in local schools,
spoken in courts and used in government documents. People who can speak li'
ngua geral have seen their value on the job market rise and are now being
hired as interpreters, teachers and public health aides.
In its colonial heyday, li'ngua geral was spoken not just throughout the
Amazon but as far south as the Parana' River basin, more than 2,000 miles from
here. The priests played by Jeremy Irons and Robert de Niro in the movie "
The Mission," for example, would have communicated with their Indian
parishioners in a version of the language.
But in the mid-18th century, the Portuguese government ordered the Jesuits out
of Brazil, and the language began its long decline. It lingered in the
Amazon after Brazil achieved independence in 1822, but was weakened by decades
of migration of peasants from northeast Brazil to work on rubber and jute
plantations and other commercial enterprises.
The survival of Nheengatu' here has been aided by the profusion of tongues
in the region, which complicates communication among tribes; it is a long-held
custom of some tribes to require members to marry outside their own language
group. By the count of linguists, 23 languages, belonging to six families, are
spoken here in the Upper Rio Negro.
"This is the most plurilingual region in all of the Americas," said Gilvan
Muller de Oliveira, director of the Institute for the Investigation and
Development of Linguistic Policy, a private, nonprofit group that has an
office here. "Not even Oaxaca in Mexico can offer such diversity."
But the persistence and evolution of Nheengatu' is marked by contradictions.
For one thing, none of the indigenous groups that account for more than 90
percent of the local population belong to the Tupi group that supplied li'ngua
geral with most of its original vocabulary and grammar.
"Nheengatu' came to us as the language of the conqueror," explained Renato
da Silva Matos, a leader of the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of
the Rio Negro. "It made the original languages die out" because priests and
government officials punished those who spoke any language other than
Portuguese or Nheengatu'.
But in modern times, the language acquired a very different significance. As
the dominion of Portuguese advanced and those who originally imposed the
language instead sought its extinction, Nheengatu' became "a mechanism of
ethnic, cultural and linguistic resistance," said Persida Miki, a professor of
education at the Federal University of Amazonas.
Even young speakers of li'ngua geral can recall efforts in their childhood
to wipe out the language. Until the late 1980's, Indian parents who wanted
an education for their children often sent them away to boarding schools run
by the Salesian order of priests and nuns, who were particularly harsh with
pupils who showed signs of clinging to their native tongue.
"Our parents were allowed to visit us once a month, and if we didn't speak
to them in Portuguese, we'd be punished by being denied lunch or sent to sit
in a corner," said Edilson Kadawawari Martins, 36, a Baniwa Indian leader
who spent eight years as a boarder. "In the classroom it was the same thing:
if you spoke Nheengatu', they would hit your palms with a brazilwood paddle or
order you to get on your knees and face the class for 15 minutes."
Celina Menezes da Cruz, a 48-year-old Bare' Indian, has similar memories.
But for the past two years, she has been teaching Nheengatu' to pupils from
half a dozen tribes at the Dom Miguel Alagna elementary school here.
"I feel good doing this, especially when I think of what I had to go through
when I was the age of my students," she said. "It is important not to let
the language of our fathers die."
To help relieve a shortage of qualified li'ngua geral teachers, a training
course for 54 instructors began last month. Unicef is providing money to
discuss other ways to carry out the law making the language official, and
advocates hope to open an Indigenous University here soon, with courses in
Nheengatu'.
And though li'ngua geral was created by Roman Catholic priests, modern
evangelical Protestant denominations have been quick to embrace it as a
means to propagate their faith. At a service at an Assembly of God church here
on a steamy Sunday night this month, indigenous people from half a dozen
tribes sang and prayed and preached in li'ngua geral as their pastor, who
spoke only Portuguese, looked on approvingly and called out "Hallelujah!"
But a few here have not been pleased to see the resurgence of li'ngua geral.
After a local radio station began broadcasting programs in the language,
some officers in the local military garrison, responsible for policing
hundreds of miles of permeable frontier, objected on the ground that Brazilian
law forbade transmissions in "foreign" languages.
"The military, with their outdated notion of national security, have tended to
see li'ngua geral as a threat to national security," Mr. Muller de Oliveira
said. "Li'ngua geral may be a language in retreat, but the idea that it
somehow menaces the dominance of Portuguese and thus the unity of the nation
still persists and has respectability among some segments of the armed
forces."
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