ABSTRACT
The first consistent attempt at learning and systematizing the Indigenous languages in Brazil came only with the arrival of the Jesuits in 1549. Perceiving that effective evangelization must be carried out in the native language, the Jesuits soon began an intense campaign of learning Tupi and translating the catechism. Indigenous languages were alternately neglected, used, or misused by the Portuguese during the early colonization of Brazil. The linguistic work carried out by the first Jesuit missions led to the creation of what became known as “Língua Geral” (General Language), an amalgam of myriad interrelated spoken Tupi dialects recorded into one standardized written form. Organized into grammars, vocabularies, and translated doctrines, the language established by the Jesuits for conversion had the paradoxical result of recording Indigenous dialects—just as their speakers were being pushed to extinction—while also determining their suppression. Seen as both a firsting and a lasting of Tupi, this linguistic project elicits complex cultural encounters and barriers, particularly evident in the presence of “untranslatable— concepts. It also replicates the broader missionary strategy of subjecting a perceived changeability of Indigenous language, beliefs, and habits to the strictness of mission life.
