nheengatú

• nheẽgatu, nheengatu, nyenngatú, yẽgatú

Inherited from Língua Geral Amazônica nhe'engatu, from Old Tupi nhe'eng + katu. First attested in 1853. Doublet of nheenga-katú.

• IPA^(key): /ɲeẽɡaˈtu/
  • (Rio Negro) IPA^(key): [ɲe.ʔẽ.ɡaˈtu]
  • (São Gabriel da Cachoeira, some speakers) IPA^(key): [ɲẽ.ɡaˈtu]
• Rhymes: -u

nheengatú (plural nheengatú-itá)

1. (uncountable) Nheengatu

   Synonyms: nheenga-katú, tapuya-nheenga

   Ixé apurungitá nheengatú

   I speak Nheengatu

   • 1853, Manoel Justiniano de Seixas, “Nhêenga”, in Vocabulario da lingua indigena geral para o uso do Seminario Episcopal do Pará (overall work in Portuguese), Pará: Typ. de Mattos e Comp.ª, page 37:

     […] nhêengatû intio uassú purunguetá.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1876, chapter X, in José Vieira Couto de Magalhães, compiler, O Selvagem [The Wild], Rio de Janeiro: Typ. da Reforma, page 109:

     I̙uaçú rẹtẹ́ será míra oiúmuhẽ nhehengatú?

     Is learning Nheengatu too difficult?

   • 2015, Maria Sílvia Cintra Martins, editor, Leetra Indígena, volume 1, number 17, São Carlos: UFSCar, →ISSN, page 19; text written in São Gabriel da Cachoeira:

     Kuxima taseruka kua nheegatú “kariwa yenga”, taukuntai resewara kua nheenga “apekatú wara tairumu”.

     In the past they called Nheengatu “white language”, because they spoke this language with “the ones from far away”.

2. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:) Nheengatu speaker

• → Portuguese: nheengatu, nhengatu
  • → English: Nheengatu

• Marcel Twardowsky Avila (2021) “nheengatú”, in Proposta de dicionário nheengatu-português [Nheengatu–Portuguese dictionary proposal] (in Portuguese), São Paulo: USP, →DOI, page 569