A Língua Geral de Mina (1731/1741), de António da Costa Peixoto
Keywords:
Mina, Allada, African languages, Minas Gerais, Bight of Benin, António da Costa PeixotoAbstract
This paper outlines two manuscript vocabularies written by Antonio da Costa Peixoto (fl. 1731/1741), a Portuguese layman, who, in the first half of the eighteenth century, described the Mina language, an African language spoken in Minas Gerais by African slaves from St George’s Castle, in the current town of Elmina, Ghana. Furthermore, the Mina shall be compared to the Allada, a language spoken in the kingdom of Allada (Ardra), which now belongs to the Republic of Benin, by comparison to a catechism published (Madrid 1658) by the Spanish Capuchins from the province of Andalucia, led by José de Nájera (1621-1684). We shall also proceed to discover whether they belonged to the same language family and to explore the words that were “censored” in Peixoto’s manuscripts and his pioneering use of vernacular (or, even, slang) words belonging to the semantic field of sexual activities.
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