Nheengatu

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Nheengatu, Modern Tupi
ñe'engatú
Spoken in: Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela
Total speakers: 3,000 (Brazil, 1998), 30,000 (Colombia), 2,000 (Venezuela)
Language family: Tupian
 Tupí-Guarani
  Subgroup III
   Nheengatu, Modern Tupi 
Writing system: Latin alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: tup
ISO 639-3: yrl – Nhengatu
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Nheengatu language, often spelled Nhengatu, is also known by the Portuguese names língua geral da Amazônia and língua geral amazônica, both meaning "Amazonian General Language," or even by the Latin lingua brasilica (Brazilian Language). It is an Amerindian language of the Tupi-Guarani sub-family presently spoken by about 30,000 people in the Upper Rio Negro region of Amazonas state, in the Brazilian Amazon, and in neighboring portions of Colombia and Venezuela. It is the native language of the area's rural population, and it is also used as a common language of communication between Indians and non-Indians, and between Indians from different tribes. Its use is also a way for some of the native peoples who have lost their original languages to affirm their ethnic identity, as in the case of the Barés, the Arapaços, and others. In 2003, it gained the status of official language alongside Portuguese in the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, which is larger than several U.S. states, though sparsely populated.

Nheengatu originated in northern Brazil in the 17th century as a lingua franca standardized by Jesuits from the vocabulary and pronunciation of the tupinambá dialect, which were adapted into a grammatical framework based on Portuguese. Many borrowings were made from that language and from Spanish for the many objects and concepts alien to the tupinambá. The Jesuits called their creation ie’engatu, which means "good language", but scholars today call it Old Tupi.

At its height in the 18th century, it was the dominant spoken language throughout Brazil's vast territory, alongside its closely related southern counterpart, the língua geral paulista, as it was used not only by Indians and missionaries but also as an everyday language by settlers of European ancestry. Its decline soon began, however, as immigration from Portugal increased, and it suffered a severe blow when it was banned by the Marquis of Pombal by virtue of its association with the Jesuits, whom he expelled from all Portuguese territories.

The very survival of Nheengatu, even in a much diminished state, is surprising, and provides evidence of the language's inherent strength, since it suffered centuries of repression, and also because the people of the Upper Rio Negro originally spoke languages not related to it.

Aside from the aforementioned língua geral paulista, now extinct, Nheengatu is also closely related to Paraguayan Guarani, which far from being extinct is the most widely spoken language in that country and one of its official languages. According to some sources, Nheengatu and Guarani are mutually intelligible.

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