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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 160

Thematic Session (Papers belonging to this Thematic Session)

Languages in contact in Brazil: Maintenance, loss and representation in the scope of Sociolinguistic Studies

Authors: Savedra, Mônica Maria Guimarães; Salgado, Ana Claudia Peters; Pereira, Telma Cristina de Almeida; Hoehmann, Beate
Submitted by: Savedra, Mônica Maria Guimarães (Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil)

This session presents some studies that are being developed in different situations of languages in contact in Brazil, as the result of the immigration/colonization (allochthonous languages); the contact between the Brazilian Portuguese and the indigenous languages (autochthonous languages) and also the result of the contact among linguistic groups situated alongside the borderline of Brazil. The researches that are being carried on are based on the theories and methods of sociolinguistic studies for analyzing the linguistic maintenance or loss and how they are related to the different functional uses of these languages in different communicative environments: family, society, school, work.

Some selected situations to be presented: 1) Germany colonization in Juiz de Fora/MG:  This research aims at tracing back the Germanic languages and dialects which arrived in a city in Brazil which was a Germanic colony founded in 1857 and why these languages/dialects and related cultures disappeared with the years, once the influence of this colonization was quite strong economically speaking; 2) Italian immigration in Juiz de Fora/ MG:  This research aims at tracing back the Italian language/dialects and related cultures maintenance/loss in different communicative environments in Juiz de for a/MG; 3) Germans and Germanic dialects in the South of Brazil  and their maintenance related to its functional use in the church; 4) The spoken german dialect in Espírito Santo, its maintenance and language and education policies; 5) The francophone border of Brazil and its multilingual context: portuguese, french, french creole and indigenous languages.

Also, it will be discussed here some relevant aspects involved with actions related to linguistic politics such as: quantitative, juridical, functional and symbolic aspects. These latter ones imply representations, which is a complex notion rooted in social psychology and are with strong interaction with linguistic practice. The study of linguistic representation allows us to comprehend the relation established by the speakers between them and their own language, which may suggests a new perspective towards languages in contact, language teaching and linguistic politics.