Documentação de narrativas de anciãos fulni-ô

Abstract

This dissertation presents the result of a documentation project of a Brazilian indigenous language, Yaathe. It is organized in the following way: in its first section, it presents a brief history of the Fulni-ô indigenous people, who are in contact with non-indigenous people since the 17th century: from the beginning of the colonization and the confinement in the villages of Panema and Lagoa da Serra do Comunati, where the ancient Carnijó (now known as Fulni-ô) were settled on religious missions. It also highlights the resistance of the Fulni-ô and the survival of their Yaathe language in the midst of escapades for their secret rituals, positioning the elderly as disseminators of the Fulni-ô culture, fulfilling thus a significant social role within the group. In section 2, we presente the theoretical bases of linguistic documentation, listing its objectives and supporting the importance of documenting minority languages. Following several scholars (Drude, 2006; Everett & Sakel, 2010; Moore, Gabas Jr. and Galúcio, 2007; Himmelmann 2006, among others) we emphasize the importance of indigenous languages for the understanding of several linguistic phenomena and present in this section the procedures to engage members of indigenous communities in documentation work, with the purpose of conducting a more appropriate documentation. In section 3, we briefly describe some methodological procedures associated to the research in the area of language documentation, including the use of technological apparatus. By doing so, we also describe the methods we use to record the data in audio and video for the presente dissertation; In section 4, we present a list of the files that were collected for the presente documentation work, with samples of the annotation that were done in Praat. We also present the analysis of some of these data (stories told by the Fulni-ô elderly), illustrating some important cultural aspects that they carry, is special those related to oral transmission and transfer of knowledge; In section 5, we list some linguistic phenomena observed in the narratives of the elders and comment on them, pointing to the importance of subsequent linguistic studies on specific areas of Yaathe. Finally, we conclude that this work aimed to highlight the importance of the revitalization of the oral tradition of my people, with the help of the technology that has been used in the field of language of documentation, seeking the maintenance, revitalization and preservation of the Yaathe language.