LINGUISTIC TENSIONS ON THE BRAZIL-PARAGUAY BORDER:

THE COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GUARANI, SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE.

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the ideological dimension of representations about Portuguese, Spanish and Guarani in Paraguay based on the prohibition of the use of Guarani on a Brazilian-owned farm. The analysis focused on the prohibition itself, interviews, statements by government authorities and comments posted by YouTube users. The main objective is to identify linguistic ideologies in this context; as a secondary objective, to consider the practical use of the three languages ​​in the analyzed material. As a theoretical basis, the concepts of linguistic ideology (Del Valle and Meirinho Guede, 2016; Del Valle and Arnoux, 2016) are adopted. Furthermore, the theoretical-methodological perspective of Glottopolitics (Guespin and Marcellesi, 1986; Arnoux, 2000; Arnoux and Nothstein, 2014) is used, an approach that broadly understands the relations between language and politics. The results demonstrate that the linguistic ideologies identified focus mainly on the Paraguayan identity based on Guarani, although the comments, for the most part, use Spanish as a writing instrument; in addition to a view of Brazilians as invaders who, by communicating in Portuguese, constitute a threat to the country's sovereignty.