Tupian languages
Tupi is the name of a
language family that was spoken along the
Brazilian coast at the time of its
discovery. The
Portuguese, when landing in Brazil, found out that wherever they went along the vast coast of this newly discovered land, natives spoke a similar language which was then named "
língua geral" (general language). It was systematized by the
Jesuits and spoken until the nineteenth century in that region. It is still used today by Indians around the
Rio Negro region, where it is called
Nheengatu [ñe-engatOO], or "fine language".
The
Tupi language subgroup consists of 6 languages in the
Tupi-Guarani language family:
Tupi Antigo,
Nhengatu,
Tupinkin,
Potiguara,
Omagua, and
Cocoma.
The Tupi-Guarani language family is part of a larger Tupian stock, which may be related to the
Gê and
Carib families in a
Je-Tupi-Carib grouping.
*
Tupí-Guaraní languages*
Old Tupi*
Lingua Geral*
List of Spanish words of Indigenous American Indian origin*
Ethnologue classification for Tupi
