Language Policies for Indigenous Languages in Brazil

Between Resistance(s) and Recovery(ies) in the Post-Redemocratization

Abstract

In this paper, I present, through three waves, an overview of language policies for Indigenous peoples after the 1988 Federal Constitution, which recognized the right to lands and cultural differences of those peoples in Brazil. The first wave in the 1990s, focused on language teaching and learning, was marked by the creation of Indigenous schools and the teaching careers for Indigenous peoples. The second wave, in the 2000s, focused on language policies, was marked by the co-officialization of Indigenous languages at the municipal level and the institutionalization of the National Inventory of Linguistic Diversity of IPHAN. The third wave, inclined to language corpus policies, in the 2010s, was marked by the intensification of language documentation and the creation of Indigenous Intercultural Degree courses at universities throughout the country. These waves, generated by the strength of the indigenous movement(s), have recently been driving processes of maintenance and recovery of Indigenous languages.