On the settling of Brazilian portuguese

Abstract

Nowadays, the debate on Brazilian Portuguese (PB) formation is divided between two hypotheses that it can be defined as externalist hypothesis (creolist) and internalist hypothesis (drift). The externalist hypothesis suggests that the distinctive aspects of PB result from a process of creolization motivated by the massive contact with African languages in the slavery period. The internalist hypothesis, though it doesn’t ignore the languages contact in the formation of PB, states that such contact wasn’t determinant to develop its distinctive features and suggests that these features refer to structural possibilities inscribed in its drift. This essay presents a brief analysis of the linguistic facts usually invoked by externalist hypothesis and presents a new argument to the internalist hypothesis from the concept of settling, proposed by Seuren (2013). This new argument points to the consequences of the general language formed in the early colonization of Brazil, from the merger of different dialects spoken by Portuguese immigrants, and binds this general language to the fact that PB is at the same time highly conservative and innovative.