A Grammatica Portugueza para uso da Escola Portugueza de Trangambar e o contraste entre línguas

Abstract

In Trangambar (Tranquebar), on the coast of Coromandel (India), between 1725 and 1731, a Grammatica Portugueza came to light. Published in the Danish mission of that locality, this work has four parts, each focused to different aspects of the Portuguese language. Its author, Nikolaus Dal (1690-1747), was a German born in Denmark, who learned Portuguese in India, a language in which he wrote several works. The existence of a Portuguese school in Tranquebar, which was never a Portuguese possession, shows the importance of Portuguese language in that region, where it functioned as a "lingua franca", and justifies the printing of a grammar. The purpose of this study is to contextualize Dal's grammar in the so-called "missionary linguistics" and in Portuguese grammaticography. The following subjects exposed in the four parts of the grammar are examined, among others: the comparison of the pronunciation of Portuguese with other European languages and with the local language (Tamil), and some aspects of the lexicon.