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LINGUIST List 17.612

Fri Feb 24 2006

Diss: Historical Ling: Byrd: 'Calunga, an Afro-Brazi...'

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        1.    Steven Byrd, Calunga, an Afro-Brazilian Speech of the Triângulo Mineiro: Its grammar and history
Message 1: Calunga, an Afro-Brazilian Speech of the Triângulo Mineiro: Its grammar and history
Date: 23-Feb-2006
From: Steven Byrd <byrdmail.utexas.edu>
Subject: Calunga, an Afro-Brazilian Speech of the Triângulo Mineiro: Its grammar and history


Institution: University of Texas at Austin
Program: Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2005

Author: Steven Byrd

Dissertation Title: Calunga, an Afro-Brazilian Speech of the Triângulo Mineiro:
Its grammar and history

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics

Subject Language(s): Portuguese (por)


Dissertation Director(s):
Fritz Hensey
Orlando Kelm
Armin Schwegler
Carlos Solé

Dissertation Abstract:

Calunga is an Afro-Brazilian "secret language" spoken mainly in and around
Patrocínio, a rural city located in the region of the Triângulo Mineiro in the
Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Labeled linguistically as a falar africano
('Afro-Brazilian speech'), the sociolinguistic origins of Calunga are not clear,
not even to its speakers, though some theories trace the speech to the 18th
century quilombos ('maroon slave communities') of the Triângulo Mineiro or to
the Afro-Brazilian tropeiros ('cowboys') of the sertão mineiro ('outback of
Minas Gerais'). Today, this speech community exists in a moribund state with
generally older speakers that number in the hundreds, located mostly in or
around the city of Patrocínio, though the language has been reported to exist
elsewhere in and around the region. Even though its origins and evolution is
unclear, Calunga speech has shifted grammatically in the direction of the
regional variety of Brazilian Portuguese Vernacular - popularly termed caipira
('bumpkin') Portuguese - demonstrating a stage toward language change, language
attrition, or even language death. Its current lexicon, however, points to three
possible Bantu languages from the Congo/Angola region of West Africa: Kimbundu,
Umbundu, and Kikongo.

The purpose of this dissertation, therefore, is to discuss the linguistic
origins of Calunga; to describe its linguistic patterns; and finally to analyze
its linguistic relation to the local contemporary variety of Brazilian
Portuguese Vernacular in search of any possible African linguistic influences on
the regional Portuguese.

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