Nheengatu
| Nheengatu (Ñe'engatú) | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Brazil , Colombia , Venezuela | |
| speaker | 8,000 to 30,000 | |
| Linguistic classification |
|
|
| Official status | ||
| Official language in | the indigenous-ruled community of São Gabriel da Cachoeira ( Brazil ) | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
sai (collective language code for "other Indian languages of South America" ) |
|
| ISO 639-3 |
yrl |
|
Nheengatu (also Nhengatu ) is an indigenous language spoken in the Brazilian part of Amazonia on the upper reaches of the Río Negro and in some neighboring areas of Colombia and Venezuela .
The Nheengatu has its origins in the "General Amazonian Language" (Língua geral da Amazônia or Língua geral amazônica), which in turn goes back to the Tupi dialect of the Tupinambá and was the lingua franca of the European settlers in the Portuguese colonial times . It has been superseded by Portuguese since the 18th century, but still persists in the region of the Upper Río Negro in the Brazilian state of Amazonas and neighboring areas of Colombia and Venezuela.
Nheengatu is one of the Tupi languages within the group of Tupí-Guaraní languages . It is said to have 30,000 speakers today (8,000 according to other sources), including children. In addition to indigenous people , it is also dominated by some people of European origin, and it serves as a means of communication between linguistically different ethnic groups in the region. More recently, it has served as a means of proudly displaying indigenous identity, including indigenous peoples who have replaced their original language with Nheengatu, e.g. B. the barés and arapaços. Since 2003 it has had official status alongside Portuguese in the predominantly indigenous community of São Gabriel da Cachoeira .
