Tupi languages
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The Tupi languages are a language family of 70 languages which are spoken by Indian tribesmen in South America.
The most important subfamily of the Tupi languages is Tupi-Guarani. It includes the best-known languages of the family, such as Guarani and Tupi Antigo.
External link
- Ethnologue classification for Tupi (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90616)
mergered info from Tupi article
Tupi is the name of a language family that was spoken along the Brazilian coast at the time of its discovery. The Portuguese, when landing in Brazil, found out that wherever they went along the vast coast of this newly discovered land, natives spoke a similar language which was then named "língua geral" (general language). It was systematized by the Jesuits and spoken until the nineteenth century in that region. It is still used today by Indians around the Rio Negro region, where it is called Nheengatu [ñe-engatOO], or "fine language".
The Tupi-Guarani language family is part of a larger Tupian stock, which may be related to the Gê (Je) and Carib families in a Je-Tupi-Carib grouping.de:Tupi