The names of the language: setting and developments of the debate on the Brazilian language in the XIXth century

Abstract

In the XIXth century, the resolution on the degree of authonomy of the Portuguese language modality used in Brazil was the subject of vigorous and recurrent discussions. Intellectuals coming from different emerging fields gathered this subject and contributed to keep it on the agenda, at least, the four first decades of the XXth century. In this paper, mainly based on the works of Rubim 1853, Beaurepaire-Rohan 1888 and Macedo Soares 1875/1889 and 1874/1891 - dedicated to the compilation and description of the specific lexicon of Brazilian Portuguese -, we follow this debate, in the attempt of evaluating implications that the privilege of the lexical dimension of the language brought to the discussion and to certain linguistic practices which started in the country in the 1800s.