Translation in language reclamation: agents, practices, and spaces of circulation of Potiguara Tupi

Abstract

This article analyzes the role of translation in the production and circulation of knowledge in the contemporary process of reclaiming Potiguara Tupi on the northern coast of Paraíba, Brazil. The study is part of a research agenda developed within the project “Contexts of Translation and Literary Translation Studies in Brazil: Agents, Practices, and Style” and is articulated with the extension project “Translation Knowledge with Potiguara Knowledge”, carried out in Potiguara territory in the municipality of Marcação, Paraíba. The study is documentary, exploratory, and descriptive-interpretive, combining documentary research and a historiographical perspective on translation. The survey focuses on translations produced within the contemporary process of language reclamation and organizes the data around three dimensions: translation demands and contexts; agents and forms of collaboration; and linguistic and educational resources produced. The initial results show that translation contributes to expanding the spaces in which Tupi circulates, encompassing teaching materials, literary and academic texts, songs, community documents, territorial signage, and digital content. Although the corpus identified in the study contains records dating from 2018 onward, there are accounts of translation practices dating back to the beginning of the reclamation process, around the 2000s. Although these early productions have not yet been incorporated into the corpus, they were important in creating conditions for subsequent productions. The findings also indicate that translations are mainly produced collaboratively and respond to educational, cultural, and community demands, contributing to the training of agents, the development of new linguistic resources, and the expansion of contemporary uses of Tupi.