History
Nheengatu was based on tupinambá, the language of the Tupi along the northern Brazilian coast in Maranhão and Pará. It was standardized by Jesuits from the vocabulary and pronunciation of the tupinambá dialect, which were adapted into a grammatical framework based on Portuguese. At its height in the 18th century, it was the dominant spoken language throughout Brazil's vast territory, alongside its closely related southern counterpart, the língua geral paulista, as it was used not only by Indians and missionaries but also as an everyday language by settlers of European ancestry. Nheengatu was carried into the interior and spread across the Amazon region in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its use later declined, partially as a result of the imposition of the Portuguese language by the Marquis of Pombal (1758) and of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Brazil (1759), as well as because of immigration from Portugal.
Aside from the aforementioned língua geral paulista, now extinct, Nheengatu is also closely related to Paraguayan Guarani, which, far from being extinct, is the most widely spoken language in that country and one of its official languages. According to some sources, Nheengatu and Guarani are mutually intelligible.
Read more about this topic: Nheengatu Language
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