The concept of Brazilian “Língua Geral” in the light of the existing Língua Geral dictionaries

Abstract

“Língua Geral” (‘General Language’) was a language of indigenous origin (Tupinambá) spoken by mestizos on the coast of Brazil. Rodrigues’ defi nition of the term and his distinction of Southern and Amazonian “Língua Geral” are discussed in the light of recent linguistic publications and of existing and newly discovered dictionary manuscripts of Amazonian “Língua Geral”. The result of the analysis of three of those manuscripts is that Anselm Eckart is the author of one of them and Anton Meisterburg probably the author of another one. Both have a third one (Prosodia de Língua) as one of their main sources. The study is completed by the description of diachronic change in Amazonian “Lingua Geral”, as well as by the discussion of some characteristics of the scarcely documented Southern “Língua Geral”.