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INSTITX7TE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 1 2 



(c) The particle se, employed in passive con- 

 structions, is sometimes omitted, thereby altering 

 the meaning of a sentence ; for example, £ um brejo 

 que nao ve o fim (It is a marsh which sees no end) 

 for La e um brejo de que nao se ve o fim (It is a 

 marsh of which one cannot see the end) . 



(d) Adjectives modifying nouns of feminine 

 gender are often given the masculine ending ; for 

 example, 



a gente t& resfriado 



ela Bed ali tudo encolhido, muito envergonhado 



a crina t& tudo emaranhado 



(e) Prepositions are sometimes omitted and 

 sometimes added; for example, Num posso dize 

 certeza proque num sei {Nao posso dizer com cer- 

 teza porque nao sei) ; and i de a cavcdo instead of 

 ir a cavalo. 



The influence of the school upon the dialect is 

 quite limited, as also is the more erudite speech of 

 the padre and of a few other persons from the out- 

 side world. Apparently, the principal effect of 

 the school in this respect is to produce in the child 

 a new vocabulary, one which shows up only in 

 writing. A young man in the village said : 



I talk caipira just like everyone else here. I say 

 hamo and ndis. Ever since I was a baby, I've beard people 

 speaking that way and I've got used to doing it too. But 

 I know how to write those words ; they should be vamos 

 and nds. All of us who've gone to school know that. But 

 the teacher shows you bow to write, never how to talk. 

 She doesn't say anything when you speak as you shouldn't ; 

 but if you write a word wrong, she corrects you. 



A considerable number of words of Indian ori- 

 gin are commonly employed in the speech of the 

 community. Most of these are either place names 

 or refer to animals, birds, fish, or plants common 

 to the region. An occasional term refers to ar- 

 ticles in daily use. Words of presumably un- 

 doubted Guarani origin, since they are listed by 

 Ruiz de Montoya ( 1639) in his seventeenth century 

 manuscript on the Guarani language, include : 



anti, species of bird (42).^" 

 arac&, a wild fruit (65). 

 araticum, a wild fruit (66). 



boicara, coral snake; from mhoi (215) and the Portu- 

 guese word, coral. 

 cara,, a tuber (89). 



catetd, wild pig; from taitetA (353). 



cip6, wild vine (94);"^ employed more especially to 



refer to certain vines used to tie objects together, 

 cupim, termites (lOS) ; also the "ant hill" formed by 



termites, 

 giiassu, suffix meaning large (128). 

 Igfl, female sauva ant used for food (172). 

 nhambO, species of bird; from Fno»n6ii (175). 

 ita, rock (178) ; used as prefix in place names, 

 jaca, large basket, made of taquara; from iaqua (165). 

 jacare, crocodile (185). 

 Jncfi, species of bird (185). 

 mandf, species of fish (205). 

 mirim, suffix, meaning small (222).'" 

 parnambf, butterfly; from pandmM (261). 

 pialote, from pia (288), affectionate term for a son or 

 daughter, and the Portuguese diminutive, ote. 

 piqulra, species of fish (378)."^° 

 pira, a prefix; from pird, fish (297). 

 sabi.1, species of bird; from hadbia (136). 

 tamandufl, ant eater (353). 



taquara, native species of bamboo; from taqud (355). 

 tatii, armadillo (358). 

 tucano, species of bird; from tucA (400). 

 tucuma, species of palm, Astrocaryum vulgare (400) ; 



also tucum, fiber from this palm, 

 uru, species of bird (406). 



Additional terms used in the community which 

 other authors ^" have considered to be derived 

 either from Guarani or the related Tupi, include : 



arapuca, a trap made of taquara, used for catching game 



birds and small animals."" 

 cambarA, a variety of wood, 

 coivara, partially burnt brush and small saplings left 



after a piece of land has been burnt over, 

 coati, species of animal, 

 cotia, species of animal, 

 curiango, species of bird. 

 encoe, double; used to refer to two bananas (or other 



fruit) enclosed in a single skin; from mocoy, two, 



twice.'^' 

 giboia, python, 

 jararaca, species of snake. 



maracuja, a variety of wild fruit (passion flower), 

 passoca, a food made by mixing crushed peanuts with 



maize meal, 

 picuman, soot, mixed with grease, 

 sap^, a coarse grass used for thatching, 

 sururuca, large sieve, made of taquara. 

 tap4ra, abandoned dwelling which is falling into decay, 

 tiguera, a field after a crop has been harvested, fuU 



of weeds and other natural vegetation. 



'" Numbers given In parentLeses refer to the page in Montoya 

 1639, unless otherwise indicated. The moaning given is the 

 present meaning in the community. For further identification 

 of several terms, see Wildlife, p. 17. 



=" Ruiz de Montoya, 1878-80. 

 »» Ruiz de Montoya, 1876. 

 ''" Ruiz de Montoya, 1878-80. 



2=' Anchieta, 1595 ; Beaurepaire-Rohan, 1889 ; Ayrosa, 1938 ; 

 Figueiredo, 1939 ; Luccock, 1880, 1881. 



~~ See The Arapuca (p. 85) and plate 20, a, B. 

 "=' Anchieta, 1595, pp. 9-10. 



