Page:Artificial Indigenous Place Names in Brazil.pdf/1



Eduardo de Almeida Navarro

Full professor in the Departament of Classical and Vernacular Languages and Literatures of the Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences of São Paulo University, Brazil.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8001-8766

Received: May, 03th, 2020. Approved: May, 13th, 2020.

How to cite this article: NAVARRO, Eduardo de Almeida. Artificial Indigenous Place Names in Brazil: a Classification of Tupi Origin Names Created in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Revista Letras Raras. Campina Grande, v. 9, n. 2, p. 252-267, jun. 2020.

ABSTRACT On Brazilian territory there are place names of indigenous origin with over five hundred years of existence, given by Indians themselves in the past, perhaps even before the Discovery of Brazil, together with artificial indigenous names having few decades of existence. Such names appeared since the second half of the 19th century and they became very common until the 1950s. These artificial toponyms are often confused with spontaneous place names of indigenous origin, deriving from ancient Tupi and the general languages originated from it, i.e. the southern general language, the general Amazonian language and Nheengatu. The historical reasons for the occurrence of such phenomenon were the strengthening of political nationalisms in the last century, with reflections in Brazil, the advent of Modernism, with profound effects on Western culture in general and on Brazilian culture in particular. This paper analyzes such artificial place names, making an attempt to classify them.

KEYWORDS: Artificial Place Names; Old Tupi; General Languages.

RESUMO ''No território brasileiro encontram-se topônimos de origem indígena de mais de quinhentos anos de existência, atribuídos pelos próprios índios do passado, talvez até antes do Descobrimento do Brasil, ao lado de nomes indígenas artificiais que têm poucas décadas de existência. Tais nomes surgiram a partir da segunda metade do século XIX e sua criação tornou-se muito comum até os anos 50 do século XX. Esses topônimos artificiais são, muitas vezes, confundidos com os topônimos espontâneos de origem indígena, que são principalmente provenientes do tupi antigo e das línguas gerais dele originadas, ou seja, a língua geral meridional (ou paulista), a língua geral amazônica e o nheengatu. As razões históricas para a ocorrência de tal fenômeno foram o fortalecimento dos nacionalismos políticos no século passado, com reflexos no Brasil, o advento do Modernismo,'' DOI logo.svg http://dx.doi.org/10.35572/rlr.v9i2.1700 252