Early Descriptors and Descriptions of South Asian Languages from the 16th Century Onwards

Abstract

An introduction to the special collection “Early Descriptors and Descriptions of South Asian Languages from the 16th Century Onwards” that develops the main ideas on which the contributions in this special edition of the Journal of Portuguese Linguistics focus. The Introduction is not only a premise to the individual papers included in the volume and which are presented in the last paragraph. Emphasising the role played both by Portuguese individuals and by the Portuguese language as a metalanguage, it examines how the diffusion of Christianity in India led to the description of South Asian languages and how the grammaticisation of South Indian languages came about.

Keywords

• Tamil language
• Missionary Linguistics
• Latin Extended Grammars
• History of the Language Sciences
• Portuguese language
• Historical Linguistics