CONVERSING IN COLONY: THE BRASÍLICA AND THE VULGAR IN PORTUGUESE AMERICA, 1500-1759

This dissertation casts light on a topic hitherto unstudied, of the colony-wide lingua francas of Portuguese America, the Brasílica and the Vulgar. It examines the first two hundred and fifty years of colonial history in the two administrative provinces of Portuguese America: the State of Brazil (Brazil) and the State of Maranhão and Pará (Amazônia). In early phases of contact and trade, communication between native American Indians and Europeans took place in the Tupi-Guarani languages which had already been prevalent along the Atlantic coast since the start of colonization (1500). This language continued as an interlanguage that bridged communications between Indians, Europeans and Africans during the beginning of permanent settlement (1530s) in Brazil. By the 1550s, the Brasílica, based on the Tupi-Guarani coastal languages, gained a standard format, a written, alphabetic form and a Christian register through language translation projects spearheaded by Jesuit missionaries. It was taught in schools and catechesis an