The historical linguistics of the Indigenous languages of Brazil, by Aryon Dall'Igna Rodrigues: perspectives, theoretical models and findings

Abstract

The present study highlights, from the production of the linguist Aryon Dall’Igna Rodrigues, one of the topics which have marked his main contribution to the scientifi c study of Brazilian Indigenous languages, the pre-history of Tupian language. We shall deal with some analytic problems for which Rodrigues developed solutions, and we will also focus on the reconstructions of part of linguistic subsystems of individual languages and group of languages, emphasizing Rodrigues ‘contribution to the development of historical analytic models consolidating the functionality of theories and methods, such as the comparative method.