3 The history of linguistic contact underlying Brazilian Portuguese
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Dante Lucchesi
Abstract
The current chapter provides a historical overview of how the contact between languages shaped the development of varieties of the Portuguese language in Brazil. Prior to sketching details of the historical linguistic contacts, an outline of the controversy surrounding this view is presented, showing how research of recent decades rejects the hypothesis of secular drift as a source of the massive variation inherent in Popular Brazilian Portuguese. The chapter then presents a brief historical overview of the contact between languages in Brazil, covering the major phases of language contact in the colonial period that yielded the sociolinguistic divide that typifies Brazilian society today. Subsequently, the concept of irregular linguistic transmission is introduced to account for how Brazil’s historical situations of language contact altered the grammatical structure of Popular Brazilian Portuguese. The final sections of the chapter describe the morpho-syntactic characteristics of Brazilian Portuguese that stem from changes caused by language contact, while drawing parallels with the structuring processes that formed the Portuguese-lexified creole languages of Africa.
Abstract
The current chapter provides a historical overview of how the contact between languages shaped the development of varieties of the Portuguese language in Brazil. Prior to sketching details of the historical linguistic contacts, an outline of the controversy surrounding this view is presented, showing how research of recent decades rejects the hypothesis of secular drift as a source of the massive variation inherent in Popular Brazilian Portuguese. The chapter then presents a brief historical overview of the contact between languages in Brazil, covering the major phases of language contact in the colonial period that yielded the sociolinguistic divide that typifies Brazilian society today. Subsequently, the concept of irregular linguistic transmission is introduced to account for how Brazil’s historical situations of language contact altered the grammatical structure of Popular Brazilian Portuguese. The final sections of the chapter describe the morpho-syntactic characteristics of Brazilian Portuguese that stem from changes caused by language contact, while drawing parallels with the structuring processes that formed the Portuguese-lexified creole languages of Africa.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Manuals of Romance Linguistics V
- Acknowledgements VII
- Table of Contents IX
- 0 Introduction: the state of the art in Brazilian Portuguese linguistics 1
- 1 Brazilian Portuguese linguistics: an overview 23
- 2 The social history of Brazilian Portuguese 53
- 3 The history of linguistic contact underlying Brazilian Portuguese 85
- 4 Historical phonetics and phonology 113
- 5 Historical morphology 133
- 6 Historical syntax 155
- 7 The history of the lexicon 193
- 8 The debate on Brazilian and European Portuguese 219
- 9 Dialectology and linguistic geography 251
- 10 Sociolinguistics 283
- 11 Brazilian Portuguese: contemporary language contacts 309
- 12 Sound-related aspects of Brazilian Portuguese 337
- 13 Morphology 369
- 14 Syntax 401
- 15 Lexicon 435
- 16 On the history of semantic studies in Brazil 459
- 17 Spoken vs. written language 487
- 18 Onomastics and toponomastics 513
- 19 Linguistic policy and the orthographic agreement 553
- 20 Psycholinguistic studies: language acquisition and processing 579
- Index 615
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Manuals of Romance Linguistics V
- Acknowledgements VII
- Table of Contents IX
- 0 Introduction: the state of the art in Brazilian Portuguese linguistics 1
- 1 Brazilian Portuguese linguistics: an overview 23
- 2 The social history of Brazilian Portuguese 53
- 3 The history of linguistic contact underlying Brazilian Portuguese 85
- 4 Historical phonetics and phonology 113
- 5 Historical morphology 133
- 6 Historical syntax 155
- 7 The history of the lexicon 193
- 8 The debate on Brazilian and European Portuguese 219
- 9 Dialectology and linguistic geography 251
- 10 Sociolinguistics 283
- 11 Brazilian Portuguese: contemporary language contacts 309
- 12 Sound-related aspects of Brazilian Portuguese 337
- 13 Morphology 369
- 14 Syntax 401
- 15 Lexicon 435
- 16 On the history of semantic studies in Brazil 459
- 17 Spoken vs. written language 487
- 18 Onomastics and toponomastics 513
- 19 Linguistic policy and the orthographic agreement 553
- 20 Psycholinguistic studies: language acquisition and processing 579
- Index 615