Um olhar sobre o léxico utilizado por falantes de comunidades ciganas Calon em três estados do nordeste do Brasil: um diálogo entre língua e cultura

Abstract

This doctoral thesis aimed to describe forms and the collet the names of associated lexical items associated with pastoral activities, and clothing and accessories that emerged from the language; it also aimed to reflect on specific issues to the ethnic identity of the Gypsy people revealed through the lexicon. It is assumed that participating in common activities, recognizing oneself through language, sharing history and, therefore, building a collective memory in this experience is to be part of a tradition. The tradition that is revealed and shared in different ways. To observe these reflections, we focused on some aspects of the description: (i) objects of nomadic life; (ii) clothing and accessories; and (iii) lexical variation observed in the results obtained after applying a questionnaire in Gypsy groups linked to the locations of the searched network of points – Jacobina-BA; Tabira-PE and Condado-PB –, as well as to the diatopic variation mapped and the ethnic identity evidenced in the researched thematic area. The methodological framework of the proposal was based on Geolinguistics (CARDOSO, 2010), and followed the guidelines of the Linguistic Atlas of Brazil Project – ALiB (CARDOSO et al., 2014a) with regard to the stratification of informants by gender – male/female – and by age group – adapted for three groups, namely: group I (18 to 28 years old), group II (33 to 52 years old) and group III (58 to 72 years old) –, distributed with regularity. The research was theoretically based on Dialectology, Sociolinguistics, Lexicology, Gypsyology and Linguistic Anthropology. The last two helped in the description of the specific lexicon and in understanding the use of elements typical of Gypsy culture. The research instrument (questionnaire) has 141 questions including the application of some questions taken from the ALiB Semantic-Lexical Questionnaire and others formulated specifically to reach cultural aspects of the ethnicity. The data collection instrument was expanded (with the addition of new questions about clothing and the use of images of Gypsy clothes) to carry out new interviews/surveys at the time of the contact with the Calins – self-identification of Gypsy women from the Calon ethnic group. The sample consisted of six informants in each of the survey points located in the States of Bahia, Pernambuco and Paraíba. The analyzes and results point to lexical denominations that are usually common to non-Gypsies living in the geographical area in which the researched Gypsy groups are sedentary, and sometimes show specific uses of ethnicity. In the set of data analyzed, we identified, with prominence, the diatopia and an identity mark as favoring the lexical variation, constituting a sociocultural repository representative of these speech communities.