Bandeirantes spoke Tupi: indigenous history of São Paulo

“This was the language of São Paulo until the 18th century”, says professor Wilmar D'Angelis, from the Department of Linguistics at IEL – Unicamp. “The São Paulo Tupi existed because the Portuguese exiles joined the Tupi, married Indian women, had children with a Portuguese father, but the mother and the community were Tupi. They learned their mother tongue, and when they entered the interior they lost contact with their European origins. These names from Brazilian toponymy, Jundiaí, Piracicaba, Cuiabá, were not given by local Indians, but by bandeirantes in the language they spoke”.