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45-1 | 2015
Langues indiennes et empire dans l'Amérique du Sud coloniale

Lenguas indígenas e imperio en la América del Sur colonial
Indian lenguages and empire in colonial South America
Edited by Juan Carlos Estenssoro and César Itier

«Language has ever been the companion of empire», wrote Antonio de Nebrija, the first Spanish grammarian, in the same year that America was discovered. And yet this was not true of the Iberian colonies in the New World, where colonisation propagated several great Indian languages such as Nahuatl, Quechua, Aymara, Guarani or Tupi. This collection of articles examines the formation and usage of the chief notions designating the linguistic dynamics of the Portuguese and Spanish empires: lingua franca — with the antonyms mother tongue and special tongue —, universal tongue, Tapuia — which designated speakers of languages other than the língua geral in Portuguese Amazonia —, the glotonyms Quechua, Tupi, Guarani and the expressions Cuzco tongue, Inca tongue, língua brasilica, etc. These articles combine intellectual, cultural and social history to identify what the different indigenous tongues meant to Indians and Europeans.
 

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