REDUCTIONS AND LANGUAGES

NOTES ON THE FORMATION OF PARAGUAYAN GUARANI

Abstract

This text is dedicated to discussing issues surrounding the process of grammarization of the Guarani language in Paraguay, taking as a starting point (not in the original sense) the colonial period, and then proposing a reading on the status of the Guarani language in situation of plurilingualism at that historic moment. To this end, we seek, from the theoretical assumptions of Discourse Analysis (MARIANI, 2004, 2007; ORLANDI, 2008 [1990]), in their intertwining with the discussions proposed by Auroux (2009 [1992]) in the field of studies of the History of Linguistic Ideas, to mobilize some notions about the place of indigenous languages, especially the Guarani language, and of indigenous people in their relationship with catechesis and with other agents of this historical process, the Catholic friars, from the teaching of religion and the production of grammars of American languages in the colonial period. From this perspective, we will shed light on Melià's discussions on the Guarani language grammars of Alonso de Aragona and Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. With this analysis, we seek to understand how the conditions of grammarization of the Guarani language took place within the scope of the reductions in Paraguay beyond the formal issues of the language, focusing our gesture of interpretation on the meanings produced from the historicity of this process.