Entre índios e verbetes: a política linguística na Amazônia portuguesa e a produção de dicionários em língua geral por jesuítas centro-europeus (1720-1759)

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the linguistic policy of the Society of Jesus and the Portuguese government for the State of Grão-Pará and Maranhão and to relate it to the production process of three dictionaries in “General Language” written by Jesuits of Central European origin who worked in the Amazon Region in the context of the Pombal reforms in the 1750s. Firstly, it sought to understand the guidelines of Society of Jesus for a choice and standardization of an Indian language in Brazil for the catechization of the indians and positioning of the jesuits and Portuguese State in relation to “General Language” in Amazonia. Secondly, it was reconstituted the trajectory of a group of european center jesuits in Portuguese Amazonia in the mid eighteenth century,whose members probably wrote three dictionaries in “General Language”. Finally, using the concept of cultural mediation, the dictionaries are understood as products of a process of negotiation of meanings, constituting both translation and classification texts, as well as instruments for learning the “General Language”. Apart from the merely technical or practical aspect, the vocabularies are analyzed as texts continuously updated by the Jesuit authors based on their experiences acquired in the complex living together with the Indians inside the missions.