abanheenga

Portuguese

Alternative forms

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Old Tupi abá (“human, or Indigenous person”) +‎ nhe'enga (“language”), literally “human language, or an Indigenous one”. There is no record of an Old Tupi term to refer to the language itself, so this composition is, ultimately, a calque of Paraguayan Guarani avañe'ẽ.

Pronunciation

 

  • Rhymes: -ẽɡɐ
  • Hyphenation: a‧ba‧nhe‧en‧ga

Noun

abanheenga m (uncountable)

  1. Old Tupi (Tupian language spoken as a lingua franca in colonial Brazil)
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:tupi

Further reading

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