Caminho do boi, caminho do homem: O léxico de Águas Vermelhas - Norte de Minas

Abstract

This research shows the lexicon of the North part of Minas Gerais State, especially Águas Vermelhas (Red Waters) its location placed between two routes that discovered the Minas Gerais territory. The routes are: 1st) the route of one the oldest flags that uncovered the State of Minas Gerais (16th century), as mentioned by Vasconcelos (1944); 2nd) the oxen route a route used to provide supplies to Minas Gerais from the 18th century. The objective was to perform a linguistic historical and cultural study, focusing on the semantic area of this rural area, through oral interviews. On these transcripts, we followed the methodology used on other projects performed by members of Through the Walkways of Minas Project: the flags and language of the Gerais (FALE-UFMG) a detailed lexical study, grouped in two kinds of vocabulary: lexical field and historical and cultural context. As for theoretical support we relied on Sociolinguistics (LABOV, 1972 and MILROY, 1992), on Anthropological Linguistics (DURANTI, 2000 and HYMES, 1964), on the concept of cultural region (DIÉGUES JR., 1960); on historical studies of the region (MAGALHÃES, 1935, ZEMELLA, 1990 e ABREU, 1963 e 1982); on the lexical field theory (BIDERMAN, 1978, 1998 e 2001, COSERIU, 1977). After analyzing the data, this study revealed retention linguistic cases of variation and linguistic modification through the years; a regional vocabulary and cases of lexical influence from the northeast region of Brazil specially Bahia. On this vocabulary study, we could bring back certain historical, social and cultural aspects of the region and also highlight the importance of the countrymen and cattle breeding in Águas Vermelhas (Red Waters) town, by proving the importance of a linguistic study with a lexical focus in order to describe the contemporary Portuguese language in Brazil.