THE SITUATION OF INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES IN THE AMAZON

Abstract

This study aims to show the sociolinguistic situation of indigenous languages ​​and their speakers in the Amazon region, based on texts and accounts from Western navigators of the colonial Amazon period and authors who deal with research on indigenous languages ​​in the current context of the Brazilian Amazon. The approach used was bibliographic research, understood as a literature review based on the historical-linguistic context of indigenous Amazonia, such as the texts of Carvajal (1541), Acunã (1637), Fritz (1686), La Condamine (1745), and Heriarte (1874). The study showed that of the 718 existing indigenous languages, only 26 languages ​​are still spoken by groups of more than 4,000 people, and that hundreds of these languages ​​have become extinct and dozens of others are in a weakened state (UNESCO, 2020). This means that, if nothing is done, in a few decades more languages ​​may disappear from Amazonian linguistic communities.