Toponymy in Brazilian Sign language.

Abstract

This article presents the results of a research on toponyms of cities in the state of Tocantins, Brazil, in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). Signs were collected from observation and interviews with deaf people. The state of Tocantins consists of 139 municipalities and, so far, we have surveyed 61 toponyms. Signs were categorized into (1) native, (2) initialized and (3) fingerspelled (exclusive categories). Regarding motivation, toponyms categorized as iconic motivation, covering (1) material and (2) cultural and Portuguese language motivation, covering (3) calque and (4) writing. The spelling motivation is the most prevalent in the toponyms of the cities of Tocantins, also combining with other types of motivation, such as (5) material and spelling, (6) cultural and writing, and (7) calque and spelling. We bring further considerations on these categories and suggest forearm as a productive point of articulation for toponymic signs in the context of Tocantins.