Processos de formação de palavras novas (neologismo) na língua Laklãnõ Xokleng

Abstract

This dissertation presents the results of processes of new word formation in the Laklãnõ language. The Laklãnõ people are found exclusively in the state of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil, within the only Indigenous territory in the country designated for this people. Their land is better known as the Laklãnõ Indigenous Land (Terra Indígena Laklãnõ), and its area encompasses portions of the municipalities of José Boiteux, Victor Meireles, Itaiópolis, and Doutor Pedrinho. The Laklãnõ language belongs to the Ge family of the Macro-Ge linguistic stock. This dissertation allowed us to identify processes of cultural creation involved in the naming of elements within the context of Laklãnõ spaces and lived experiences. The proposal of this work was not to record the language through markings or grammatical aspects as an authorial strategy. Rather, the central focus of this study was to describe the words created by speakers of the language, without mischaracterizing the culture, thereby preserving the Laklãnõ language. During the data collection process, we also discussed the relevance of expanding this practice of creating new words in the teaching of the mother tongue, as it could serve as a tool for the preservation of the Laklãnõ language. In light of this research, we observed that the greatest likelihood of initiating or continuing the process of learning to speak the language lies in these classroom strategies: creating new words through songs, games, sentence production, among other methods.