SOS UMBUNDU: FROM L1 TO L0

As Teresa Costa (2013: 27) observes, the "remoteness" of the Bantu languages from the political-administrative context makes the Portuguese language perform, with relative exclusivity, the most important linguistic functions. With a careful look at the glophagic rhythm of the Portuguese over the African languages, the researcher Hermenegildo Pinto, author of several works (marked by their stylistic versatility) from which stands out O Psicólogo Ambulante: um romance pedagógico, shows himself now concerned with the survival of the Umbundu language in Kuito, the city where he has been living for almost two decades, which, naturally, gives him, along with his academic training, a vast experience to address in depth the subject he proposed. In this work, the author demonstrates the decline in the number of speakers of Umbundu, especially among the younger population, who are using Portuguese as their only effective language of communication; he presents us with the linguistic and extralinguistic factors that underlie this phenomenon and, as a defender and promoter of African languages, he shows us some clues for the preservation and dissemination of Umbundu, at least as a second language.

Autorentext

Hermenegildo Pinto é natural de Kwanza - Norte, casado com Cristina Pinto, pai de três filhos (Edenilda, Elionei e Poliana). É formado em Linguística pela Universidade de Évora - Portugal e docente Universitário na ESPB.Escreveu os livros: Picantes saborosos ao âmago, Cultura e clima organizacional, Missões e você e o Psicólogo Ambulante.

Klappentext

As Teresa Costa (2013: 27) observes, the "remoteness" of the Bantu languages from the political-administrative context makes the Portuguese language perform, with relative exclusivity, the most important linguistic functions. With a careful look at the glophagic rhythm of the Portuguese over the African languages, the researcher Hermenegildo Pinto, author of several works (marked by their stylistic versatility) from which stands out O Psicólogo Ambulante: um romance pedagógico, shows himself now concerned with the survival of the Umbundu language in Kuito, the city where he has been living for almost two decades, which, naturally, gives him, along with his academic training, a vast experience to address in depth the subject he proposed. In this work, the author demonstrates the decline in the number of speakers of Umbundu, especially among the younger population, who are using Portuguese as their only effective language of communication; he presents us with the linguistic and extralinguistic factors that underlie this phenomenon and, as a defender and promoter of African languages, he shows us some clues for the preservation and dissemination of Umbundu, at least as a second language.