Brazil: not one, but many and multiple languages

n0ml-2025-12-31_14_04_00-franchetto-revista-abralin.pdf

Brazil: not one, but many and multiple languages

ABSTRACT: The world, the Americas, and Brazil are made up of many languages. Bilingualism and multilingualism are a capital, a heritage, not only of the individual but also of collectives and of all humanity. This wealth is in crisis and decline; the symptoms of loss are clear. Monolingualism impoverishes and destroys the foundations of individual, collective, and plural knowledge. On the other hand, signs of resilience, revival, and the awakening of languages are also before us. In its first section, this article offers an overview of the vitality of Indigenous languages in Brazil and the efforts to document them, a prerequisite for their preservation or revitalization. The second section contains a critical reflection on the role of the linguist in a scenario of growing mobilizations for decolonial science and other epistemologies, especially on the part of Indigenous activism and its leading role. In this context, experiences of emergency documentation and the revival of languages previously labeled as extinct are briefly reported. On the map of original languages, the gaps left by colonizing oppression are beginning to be filled by new languages and surprising resilience.

RESUMO: O mundo, as Américas e o Brasil são de por muitas línguas. O bilinguismo e o multilinguismo são um capital, um patrimônio, não apenas do indivíduo, mas também de coletivos e de toda a humanidade. Essa riqueza está em crise e declínio; os sintomas da perda são claros. O monolinguismo empobrece e destrói os fundamentos do conhecimento individual, coletivo e plural. Por outro lado, sinais de resiliência, renascimento e despertar das línguas também estão diante de nós. Em sua primeira seção, este artigo oferece um panorama da vitalidade das línguas indígenas no Brasil e dos esforços para documentá-las, um pré-requisito para sua preservação ou revitalização. A segunda seção contém uma reflexão crítica sobre o papel do linguista em um cenário de crescentes mobilizações para uma ciência decolonial e outras epistemologias, especialmente por parte do ativismo indígena e seu protagonismo. Nesse contexto, são brevemente relatadas experiências de documentação emergencial e de renascimento de línguas antes rotuladas como extintas. No mapa das línguas originais, as lacunas deixadas pela opressão colonizadora começam a ser preenchidas por novas línguas e uma resiliência surpreendente.

RESUMEN: El mundo, las Américas y Brasil son ricos en lenguas. El bilingüismo y el multilingüismo son un capital, un patrimonio, no solo del individuo, sino también de los colectivos y de toda la humanidad. Esta riqueza está en crisis y declive; los síntomas de pérdida son evidentes. El monolingüismo empobrece y destruye los cimientos del conocimiento individual, colectivo y plural. Por otro lado, también se vislumbran signos de resiliencia, renacimiento y despertar de las lenguas. En su primera sección, este artículo ofrece un panorama de la vitalidad de las lenguas indígenas en Brasil y los esfuerzos por documentarlas, un prerrequisito para su preservación o revitalización. La segunda sección contiene una reflexión crítica sobre el papel del lingüista en un escenario de crecientes movilizaciones por la ciencia decolonial y otras epistemologías, especialmente por parte del activismo indígena y su protagonismo. En este contexto, se describen brevemente experiencias de documentación de emergencia y el resurgimiento de lenguas previamente etiquetadas como extintas. En el mapa de las lenguas originarias, los vacíos dejados por la opresión colonizadora comienzan a ser llenados por nuevas lenguas y una resiliencia sorprendente.

Introduction

Brazil is a land of linguistic resistance and diversity, where around one hundred seventy original languages still survive, according to surveys by reliable linguists. This number is small compared to the landscape five hundred years ago: during colonial times, at least eighty percent of the languages of native peoples were erased. One hundred seventy languages are survivors with varying degrees of vitality, distributed across twenty-eight linguistic families, in addition to at least a dozen isolate languages and a creole one.

Different estimates of the number of languages come from surveys carried out by Brazilian linguists and from the last official Census carried out in twenty ten, which registered the existence, by self-declaration, of more than two hundred seventy languages. We are now waiting for the final results of the Census carried out in twenty twenty-two, which should be released by the end of twenty twenty-five and which will certainly show a greater number of languages (and ethnic groups). Numbers are not self-evident, but they must be interpreted. Behind the numbers set by the Census, there are other factors, which go beyond the objective calculations of scientists. Among these factors are political demands, assertions of identity and representations around what constitutes a language. I will return to this in the last part of the article.

This impressive linguistic diversity continues to be silenced, with varied strategies, by the State, by missions, by the media and in the so-called 'educational system'. The sovereignty of a single language (Portuguese) has been maintained at any cost by the conquerors who formed the 'nation' called 'Brazil'. Furthermore, all the original languages that exist today are threatened in their survival and many of them are in decline, spoken by only a few elderly people, whose children and grandchildren no longer speak the language of their ancestors. The next generation will certainly be monolingual in the dominant language.

However, while on the one hand we mourn the losses, on the other we celebrate the resilience of those who endured the pain of five centuries of colonization to get here. We celebrate the emergence of new languages, the revival of those that are waking up from their slumber, those that are emerging from their secrets, those that appropriiated the colonial Portuguese to give rise to varieties now claimed as Indigenous languages, those that are increasingly occupying the media, music, protest, art, and literature.