# About Tupi Antigo
Tupi Antigo is a language of the Tupi-Guaraní branch family, under the Tupian language family. As of the writing of this article, there are no native speakers of Tupi Antigo.
Image source: https://doi.org/10.1590/1981-81222015000200004 (opens new window)
The Tupian family consists of some 70 different South American languages, not all mutually intelligible. Many academic sources will refer to Tupi Antigo as Tupinambá. We will not use this name as it can also pertain to one specific people group within the larger Tupi Antigo speaking community, and therefore does not represent the language which we are attempting to describe.
It is a common misconception that the name of the language which was most widely spoken on the coast of Brazil is Tupi-Guaraní:
Tupi-Guaraní is the name of the sub-family which contains Tupi Antigo, among other languages. Paraguayan Guaraní is the most widely spoken language from the Tupi-Guaraní sub-family, with ~7 million native speakers.
TIP
Guaraní is the most widely spoken indigenous language in all of the Americas!
# Anchieta
Almost all of the texts we have today about Tupi Antigo were recorded by Jesuits, primariliy Father José de Anchieta (opens new window). Father Anchieta noted that the languages spoken by the peoples along the coast of Brazil were all very similar. He resolved to compile a standardized version of this language which we called Língua Brasílica.
This language which he described is what we today call Tupi Antigo. He used this grammar to write catechisms and theatres in Tupi Antigo. The goal of these works was to evangelize the indigenous peoples of Brazil, or convert them to Christianity.
# General Languages
Over time as European men began to have children with Indigenous women, the dialects which contributed to what we know as Tupi Antigo began to evolve due to European (and to a lesser extent African) influence. Historically, we refer to these languages as General Languages.
The two main varieties of General Language spoken in what we now call Brazil were:
- Amazonian General Language (North)
- Paulistan General Language (South)
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Closer to the south of Brazil and Paraguay, Father Montoya (opens new window) was doing a parallel work with Old Guaraní, creating a grammar and evangilizing the peoples of the area. In those regions, there existed General Languages based more heavily on Guaraní than Tupi Antigo. While parallel to what we are discussing, those languages are not descendents of Tupi Antigo
The Marques do Pombal (opens new window) made a decree to outlaw the official use of any indigenous languages in Brazil. Portuguese became number one. While this event did not single-handedly cause the downfall of Tupi Antigo as a língua franca in Brazil, it set the stage for it's inevitable demise.
With the onset of mass immigration to Brazil from Europe, the Portuguese language slowly but surely replaced the General Languages and Tupi Antigo as the língua franca in most of the country.
By the start of the 19th century, the Paulistan General Language was already forgotten by the populace.
# Nheengatu
The Amazonian General Language, however, did not completely die out. It continued to spread deep inland into the country. In these remote parts, European immigration was much less common.
Today, a living descendent of the Amazonian General Language known as Nheengatu (good language) is still spoken by around 20,000 people. It's worth noting that this language has replaced the "original" language of it's speakers. As Brazilian colonization continued into the interior, the General Languages were taught to and used to communicate with the non-tupian speaking peoples of the interior.
As the Amazonian General Language was the lingua franca of the region, it ended up supplanting many local indigenous languages. This is how we have today Nheengatu; a language originally from the coast of Brazil which only survives far away, in the forests being spoken by non-tupian peoples.