The Nature and Emergence of the Língua Geral Amazônica according to Mufwene’s Language Ecology Model

Abstract

This paper addresses two aspects of the Língua Geral Amazônica (LGA). First, we propose that Língua Geral as a technical term in Portuguese was inspired by administrative practices in Spain’s American colonies and that, given contemporary usage, the term should be understood functionally as any Tupi-Guarani variety broadly mutually comprehensible with the colonial Old Tupi, rather than as a structurally modified variety or the speech of a particular ethnic or social group, as has been claimed. We then briefly analyse two recent hypotheses that treat the emergence of LGA as creolisation (VIEIRA; ZANOLI; MÓDOLO, 2019; NOBRE, 2019). Next, we apply key notions of the Language Ecology creolisation model (MUFWENE, 2003, 2008) to the formation of LGA and suggest a periodization.