Attitudes toward Portuguese in Uruguay in the nineteenth century
The Uruguay-Brazil border has been a porous geographical area since colonial times, giving rise to intense contact between Portuguese and Spanish, further fostered by a shared economic and demographic foundation. Here we analyze attitudes toward border Portuguese and that language in general in the Uruguayan territory during the Luso-Brazilian military occupation (1816–1828) and later in the century and identify two parallel realities: a predominant neutral attitude toward Portuguese, as the language was not an object of evaluation; and the existence of negative attitudes toward Portuguese promoted by the authorities in Montevideo. In absence of diachronic attitude studies, we developed an ad hoc methodology to document and describe this dual reality, drawing on legislative documents, government archives, press, and literary pieces.
Article outline
- Presentation
- Historical and political conditions
- Studies on language attitudes in Uruguay
- Methodology
- Legislative documents
- Documents found in judicial or government archives
- Pieces published in the press
- Literary writings
- Attitudes toward Portuguese at the time of the Luso-Brazilian occupation
- Attitudes toward Border Portuguese in Nineteenth Century Uruguay
- Neutral attitudes
- Negative attitudes
- Discussion
- Synthesis
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Notes
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References