Tupi-Guarani

Tupi-Guarani, one of the most widespread families of South American Indian languages. It encompasses more than fifty languages spoken in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, French Guiana, Venezuela, and Colombia. According to the classification of Aryon D. Rodrigues, the Tupi-Guarani family is made up of the following languages: Amanaye, Anambe, Apiaka, Arawete, Asurini do Tocantins (Akwáwa), Asurini do Xingu, Ava (Canoeiro), Chiriguano, Emerillon, Guaja, Guajajára, Guarani Antigo, Guarani Paraguaio, Guarawo (Guarayu), Guayaki (Arhe), Hora (Jora), Izoceño (Chane), Kaiwa (Kayova, Pãi), Kamayura, Kayabi, Kokáma, Kokamiga (Cocamilla), Lingua Geral Amazônica (Nheengatu), Lingua Geral Paulista (Tupi Austral), Mbia (Guarani), Nandeva (Txiripa), Omágua, Parakanã, Parintintin, Siriono, Surui (Mujetire), Takunyape, Tapiete, Tapirape, Tembe, Tupi-Kawahib (Tupi do Machado, Pawate, Wiraféd), Tupinamba, Turiwára, Uruba, Wayami, Wayampipuku, and Xeta (Serra dos Dourados).

The most widely spoken Tupi-Guarani language is Paraguayan Tupi, with 3 million speakers, followed by Chiriguano, Ava, and Bolivian Guarani, which is spoken by 50,000 people in Bolivia. Guarani in Paraguay is something of an anomaly, as it is, along with Spanish, an official language of the Paraguayan nation; it is spoken by nearly the entire population of Paraguay. No other indigenous language of the American continents has more nonindigenous speakers than does Guarani. Twenty-one Tupi-Guarani languages are spoken in Brazil by 33,000 Indians. The most popular of them, numbering 7,000 each, are the Tenetehára (Guajajára and Tembe) in the states of Maranhão and Pará, and the Kaiwa in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Kaiwa is also spoken by 8,000 people in Paraguay, where it is known as Pãi or Pãi-Tavyterã.

The great geographical diffusion of the Tupi-Guarani languages is proof of earlier migrations, which continued after the beginning of European colonization in Brazil and Spanish America. The Guarani-Mbia continued to migrate, having moved from southwestern Brazil, through northeastern Argentina and eastern Paraguay, until they reached the Atlantic coast. For almost five centuries they migrated up the coast to Brazil's Northeast. They occupied most of the eastern coast of Brazil when the Portuguese colonizers met them in the early sixteenth century. The migrations probably had religious and mythical motivation; according to Guarani-Mbia mythology, the "land without evil" was supposed to be across the big sea. As a consequence of the migrations, Guarani-Mbia is the most geographically widespread of the languages and is spoken in Paraguay, Argentina, and in Brazil from Espiritú Santo to Rio Grande do Sul. In colonial South America two of the languages were extensively documented. Father José de Anchieta made the first grammatical description of Tupinamba, published in 1595, and also produced a number of poems and plays in the language. Around 1625 the missionaries Alonso de Aragona and Antonio Ruiz da Montoya prepared two grammars of Guarani. The latter also published a catechism and two dictionaries.

See alsoGuarani Indians; Indian Policy, Brazil; Indigenous Peoples; Tupi.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Additional Bibliography

Ruiz de Montoya, Antonio. Gramática y diccionarios (arte, vocabulario y tesoro) de la lengua Tupi ó Guarani (1640). Vienna, Faesy y Frick; Paris: Maisonneuve, 1876.

                                 Charlotte Emmerich