Guarani

Jesuits wrote down the first grammars

According to Silvetti and Silvestri, Guarani became a written language only after the Jesuits arrived. Joseph de Anchieta wrote the first grammar in 1595. Antonio Ruiz de Montoya produced a dictionary, the Tesoro de la Lengua Guaraní, in 1639 and the Arte de la lengua Guaraní in 1640, the reference point for later grammars. Alonso de Aragona finished a teaching grammar in 1629 that was not printed until 1979.

The mission Guarani avoided Spanish loans and built new words out of Guarani parts, so communion became Tupârahava. When the Jesuits were expelled in the 18th century, people from the missions moved towards Asunción and took up the Guarani spoken there, which borrowed freely. Modern Paraguayan Guarani says komuño.

Why Paraguay kept its language

Guarani was the main language of colonial Paraguay inside and outside the missions. After independence governments repressed it, and it was barred from state schools for over 100 years. The 1992 constitution, adopted with democracy, set it equal to Spanish. Jopara, a mixture of the two, is spoken by an estimated 90% of Paraguayans; business and official matters lean to Spanish, art and daily life to Guarani.

Monolingual Guarani speakers fell from 28% of Paraguayans in 2002 to 12% in 2022, while Spanish monolingualism did not rise. UNESCO rates the language vulnerable, since children speak it but mostly at home.

Where else does Guarani hold status

In Bolivia it is one of the indigenous languages the 2009 constitution made official, and the national anthem has been translated into it. The Argentine province of Corrientes made it a second official language in 2004 and the Brazilian city of Tacuru in 2010. It is also one of the three official languages of Mercosur, with Spanish and Portuguese.