Estudo dos nomes de estabelecimentos comerciais de origem indígena em Porto Nacional (TO)

Abstract

The following work aims to describe and analyze indigenous commercial toponymy in Porto Nacional (Tocantins, Brazil) according to toponymic studies – a subarea of onomastics which studies names. It is also highlighted our specific goals: a) to identify commercial names used in Porto Nacional with indigenous origins, b) To know the indigenous linguistic origins of these names, c) to discuss their influence on commercial toponyms in Porto Nacional; and d) to create lexicographical-toponymic records of the identified toponyms. To achieve these goals a corpus based on files lent by Porto Nacional‘s mayoral office was used. Authors who wrote about Lexical Sciences, onomastics, toponymy and onionimy were compiled for theoretical analysis; them being Neves (1971); Guérios (1973); Sampaio (1987); Dick (1980); Biderman (1998, 2001); Seabra (2006); Andrade (2010); Cunha (2010) and others. The results led us to see a strong influence of tupi language on the data but no toponyms from indigenous people who live in Tocantins – from Macro-Jê branch – were seen. It can be inferred that this influence occurred by the tupi‘s expansion during the 18th and 19th century. During our research we also identified that most of the toponyms mention Tocantins‘ cities, lining off a sentiment of belonging regarding where a person lives.