The Sociolinguistic configuration of Southern Bahia in a transnational perspective (1746-1820)

Abstract

: The text in question seeks to outline the sociolinguistic scenario of the southern region of Bahia, which would have been characterized by multilingualism, a consequence of the region's economic stagnation, a fact that would have generated less conflicts between Portuguese and Indians, preserving the speakers of local languages. The change in this scenario would occur from the 1820s onwards, with the growth of the cocoa plantation, which began in the region in 1746. In parallel with this scenario, we have another different one: the foundation of three Swiss-German colonies, which would have presented a context of irregular linguistic transmission of L2 Portuguese from Germans and Swiss to enslaved Africans. And, running through the entire text, we argue that the understanding of these differentiated sociolinguistic situations in the same region was possible because we adopted a broad view that considered the transnational historical relations within which the south of Bahia was immersed, because, without this, it would not be possible to understand how these sociolinguistic situations were triggered.