Rajsinhasan Diglot Newbie Joined 4698 days ago 24 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English*, Creole (English) Studies: Portuguese
| Message 1 of 13 13 March 2013 at 11:47pm | IP Logged |
Hi. I just wanted to inquire if anyone on the forums here perhaps knew of resources of
Paraguayan Guarani available in the Portuguese language. From my searches online, there
seems to be a dearth of materials for Guarani even in Spanish. Although I have come
across a Guarani grammar on Wikispaces, it's in Spanish. Interestingly on a side note, I
have stumbled across a Nheengatu textbook in Portuguese on Wikispaces but there's not
that many speakers of this related language. Any Guarani textbooks in Portuguese?
Also, is Guarani so interlinked with Spanish in Paraguay that studying Guarani without
Spanish be ineffective for communication purposes? Thanks.
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renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4358 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew
| Message 2 of 13 14 March 2013 at 8:45am | IP Logged |
I found these online, but I don't know if they help.
Vocabulário e gramática tupi-guarani
Arte y bocabulario de la lengua guarani
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Rajsinhasan Diglot Newbie Joined 4698 days ago 24 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English*, Creole (English) Studies: Portuguese
| Message 3 of 13 14 March 2013 at 10:27pm | IP Logged |
I appreciate the links. That link you provided specifically for Guarani, the book seems
to come from a completely different era; from the time of the Jesuit priests'
conversions from that part of the world. Even the Spanish used seems to be an older
form.
I might just give Nheengatu a go when I'm satisfied with Portuguese. I was just more
interested in Guarani because it's at least present in media and I started to like
Guarania music. I wonder if Nheengatu and Guarani's mutual intelligibility is
comparable to Spanish and Portuguese.
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renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4358 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew
| Message 4 of 13 15 March 2013 at 7:11am | IP Logged |
Yes, these are old books free online. I don't know much about this language, except of course hearing about it in "The Mission". You live in America, I presume. What an exciting part of the world.
How much has the Guarani language changed since then? If it hasn't changed much the book might help you.
As for old books, I like them as sources but sometimes you have to ignore the purpose they were written, or overlook some details. I found a wonderful book about Danish, written in 1943 for the american soldiers, as well as war french for the american soldiers (again) of WWI. Odd for today, but eventually helpful because their purpose was fast and practical use of the language, which is something I am after.
Good luck with Guarani and the magnificent Portugese, and may I say how jealous I am you speak Creole.
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nicozerpa Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 4326 days ago 182 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Portuguese, English Studies: Italian, German
| Message 5 of 13 31 March 2013 at 8:08pm | IP Logged |
Rajsinhasan wrote:
Also, is Guarani so interlinked with Spanish in Paraguay that studying
Guarani without Spanish be ineffective for communication purposes? |
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Although Guaraní has a few Spanish loan words, there should be no need to speak Spanish in
order to learn Guaraní. Most learning materials are written in Spanish because it is the
other official language of Paraguay.
I suppose there must be textbooks for learning Guaraní from Portuguese, since there are some
Guaraní-speaking communities in Brazil. However, they may speak a different dialect that the
one spoken in Paraguay.
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Rajsinhasan Diglot Newbie Joined 4698 days ago 24 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English*, Creole (English) Studies: Portuguese
| Message 6 of 13 08 April 2013 at 8:35am | IP Logged |
Thanks for the input nicozerpa. Although I'd still be more interested in Paraguayan
Guarani, I'd love to get my hands on one of the textbooks covering one of the other
Guarani dialects of Brazil for comparison and overview purposes. I read that the
Paraguayan variety is also spoken in pockets of Brazil so I was thinking that a course
would have been available in Portuguese as well. Anyway, I'd learn Spanish too if I had
to in order to access more materials which I don't mind but was just afraid I might mix
it up with Portuguese but that's another story.
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karaipyhare Tetraglot Groupie Paraguay Joined 5585 days ago 74 posts - 150 votes Speaks: Portuguese, Spanish*, English, Guarani Studies: German, Italian, French, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 7 of 13 13 April 2013 at 11:09pm | IP Logged |
As a Paraguayan myself, I should say there aren't many materials for learning Guarani as a second language
even in Spanish, let alone Portuguese. The few resources in Spanish are not online and can only be found in
some bookstores in Paraguay.
But the good news is that Spanish and Portuguese aren't so dissimilar, I think you could be able to
understand Spanish.
These are some things I found:
A great blog in English with easy-to-understand lessons
http://letstalkguaranime.blogspot.com/
Lots of links in Spanish and Guarani
http://paraguaiteete.wordpress.com/guarani/
A video clip of a rap band from Dourados, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Sung in Guarani and subtitled in Portuguese.
Very close to Paraguay so the Guarani they speak is almost the same as the Paraguayan Guarani
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLbhGYfDmQg
May I ask about the reason for your interest in Guarani? Not many people even know about its existence!
If you have any more questions about it I would be glad to help.
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karaipyhare Tetraglot Groupie Paraguay Joined 5585 days ago 74 posts - 150 votes Speaks: Portuguese, Spanish*, English, Guarani Studies: German, Italian, French, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 8 of 13 13 April 2013 at 11:35pm | IP Logged |
About your last question about the Spanish/Guarani intermingling,... yes. At least in Paraguayan Guarani
there are so many Spanish loan words that not knowing them would make communication difficult.
I could even say most Paraguayans aren't able to talk in a pure Guarani, they speak what is called "Jopara",
a mixture between the two languages.
The Spanish/Guarani situation is more like a diglossic continuum, where speakers choose to use more
Spanish or Guarani words and structures depending on the register, situation, social class, urbanity, and so
on. In Paraguay, there's no Guarani dialog that doesn't have at least some Spanish words thrown here and
there; and you could hardly hear a Spanish sentence with no Guarani particles, structure or "flavor" to it.
Although pure Guarani is what is taught at schools it is seldom used. There is also a large corpus of pure
Guarani in literature, songs and poetry but it's difficult to understand even for the common Paraguayan. On
the other extreme, Spanish is the prestige language and the preferred means of communication in media,
business and legal matters.
Nonetheless, Paraguayans take great pride in using the Guarani language. People say one is no true
Paraguayan unless they speak Guarani. But it is hard situation that we're facing as the Guarani vocabulary is
not as large as to encompass all the needs of modern communication. That, I think, is the main threat to the
survival of Guarani as a global language.
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