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Glite Dictionary
🧑‍🌾 A native person 🗣️ A native language 🗣️ Related to languages
Tupian

Tupian

1 9.9
A person who speaks a language from a family of native South American languages
  • noun
: tupiano
  • Europeans claimed the Tupians were cannibals, but this often-made charge was often later disproved.

Examples

  • As a native Tupian, she shared stories in her language with the younger generation.

  • Many Tupians value the preservation of their linguistic heritage in today's modern society.

  • The two Botocudo guides, normally chattering nonstop to each other in Tupian, shut up immediately.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • The Tupian spoke proudly of their cultural traditions during the festival.

Synonyms

Tupi
vsTupian
1 9.9

A person from a native group in Brazil and Paraguay

refers more broadly to speakers of a family of related languages

Surface Forms

Tupian singular
Tupians plural

Morphology

Tupian = Tupi (transparent) = Tupi + an

The formation of an ethnic/person label from the proper name with '-an' (e.g., 'a Tupian' = a person who speaks a Tupi language) is a regular, transparent derivation.

Etymology

Tupian for a person comes from the name Tupi, the indigenous group, so a Tupian is 'someone of the Tupi people' or a speaker of a Tupian language. The word shows who the person belongs to and which language they speak.